The mindset shift that saved my life

A very important mindset shift that I made a few years ago completely changed my life.

2 min read

June 20, 2021

At one point or another (or at several points) of our lives, we will all be faced with difficult situations and hardships. Challenges will inevitably arise... In the moment, these situations feel impossible to get out of and we are left wondering whether it will ever get better. But these situations also show us what we are truly made of. They show us exactly who we are and what we are capable of.

Believe it or not, my positive mindset started when I was at the lowest point in my life. After everything was finally coming together for me, it suddenly fell apart within a matter of a few weeks when I found out I had cancer.

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At first, I was hopeless. I didn’t know how on earth I would get myself out of this, let alone how I would live a good life after this battle. Being so young at the time of my diagnosis, I felt like I had barely lived and now I had to fight this scary battle.

I let myself be sad… I was sad for a while. But once all the tears were out of my system, something in my mindset shifted. I had no choice but to fight this monster head-on, so why not do it with a positive mindset?

There is no guide book or instruction manual for how to deal with the hard stuff that life throws at you. There are so many things that we simply cannot control, but one thing that we can control is our mindset.

This is not an easy shift to make and it’s impossible to be a positive person all day every day, but making this shift saved my life.

The key is to make the conscious decision to slowly see life in a more positive way.

Rather than focusing on the major negatives in my life, I began to consciously notice all of the blessings. Whether they were related to my diagnosis or not, I found joy in the little things that were wonderful in my life. Suddenly a sunny day or a workout without any pain made me a lot happier.

Life is never going to be a straight path. There will be potholes, stormy patches, darkness, but there will also be lots of sunshine, rainbows and beautiful times ahead.

I choose to focus my energy on the good things in life. Once you do that, the little things have more of an impact than the bigger things do.

This is something that takes time and work.

This does not mean that you ignore the hard and negative things in life.

This does not mean that you aren’t allowed to be upset or cry.

This means that when given the chance to see a glass half empty or half full, you choose to see it half full.

I’ve been living in this mindset for over two years now and it has completely changed my life. I find myself being less affected by negativity, especially if it is negativity that I have no control over. I have taken what my cancer journey taught me and have been applying those lessons to every area of my life.