As a volunteer and patient in my local lupus association, I have spoken frequently to patients and family members about their experiences as patients and caregiver. Last Saturday, a fellow para-counsellor raised a question that some caregivers had a bit of challenge to answer.. even I stumbled when I answered it!
The question was: What do you feel grateful about yourself?
I had a long list of people that I felt grateful towards, and I cited them out feeling thankful of all the loving people around me. However after I finished my answer, the para-counsellor said: Yes you are grateful to everyone else who lent a helping hand, but what about yourself? Is there anything to feel grateful about?
I gave it a good thought, and then I said: yes, I am grateful that I am able to live like a normal person, before I got lupus!
Then the next person was the husband of a new patient who had a hard time to think of something that he felt grateful of. At first he said that he was grateful that his wife’s condition is stable, and that there is a support group to listen out to their woes. When the para-counsellor reminded him the question was about whether he felt grateful towards himself, he paused for a while, and he asked “Being grateful means something that you are happy about right?” The husband was going through some emotions and I thought he was going to flip and say “What the heck can I be grateful about having a wife who’s got lupus?”
I actually was wondering if there is any point in pushing that question further, because I think it is very hard for new patients and their caregiver to feel grateful about anything. They need time. I still remember the time when I will cry whenever someone asks “How are you?”. Would I be able to give an answer if someone insist that I say that I am grateful with myself?
But thinking about it with hindsight now, I realised that I have so many things to be grateful with myself back then. I would not be able to see it then when I was sick. I am grateful that I worked hard and had a job that was able to finance my sickness even if my personal insurance did not cover it. I am grateful that my lupus decided that I could still do sports, once it stabilises. I am grateful that I do not have photosensitivity, at least not the type where I must wear long sleeves wherever I go. I am grateful that I myself have built good relationships around me that I get the support I need when I am ill. I take credit for these good things that happen to me.
I find this exercise to think about the good things that we take for granted in our lives and be thankful extremely important. Sometimes we get so much frustrations in life that we felt that as if nothing is working according to plan. We forgot about very important things that we are blessed with, and felt that life owed us more. It’s good to take a step back and see the forest for the trees. It probably is difficult especially if you have not done that before. It takes some practicing to start to takes thing into perspective and see what good luck you are blessed with. The para-counsellor suggested one thing that we should at least feel grateful for: that we are alive. I think that is a good starting point.
So what are you grateful with yourself?
LUPUS 500 DAYS 