D-Blog Week Day 4: Mantras and More

Yesterday we opened up about how diabetes can bring us down. Today let’s share what gets us through a hard day.  Or more specifically, a hard diabetes day.  Is there something positive you tell yourself?  Are there mantras that you fall back on to get you through?  Is there something specific you do when your mood needs a boost?  Maybe we've done that and we can help others do it too?

I would not necessarily say that I have a diabetes specific mantra.  I do have two sayings that come to mind when I am facing anything difficult or challenging.

My favorite one is "Suck it Up Princess".  I have a road ID tag for my running shoe and this is the saying I have on it. I find that saying this to myself or having someone say it to me gives me the push I need to overcome a hurdle. It reminds me that I can get through tough things and that I am strong.  During each marathon and triathlon when I have wanted to stop and lay on the sidewalk I tell myself this over and over.  It works a charm :)  I have also been known to say this to others when I know they need it.  It also applies to dealing with being a Type 1 diabetic. I use this to remind myself that there are others that have much harder things to deal with.

Another thing I often say to myself, and this is in tune with a diabetes inspired project of the same name, is "You Can Do This".  I have been saying this to myself for as long as I can remember.  Before standing in front of my grade 4 class to read my short story for the oratorical contest, before performing on stage in a play for the first time, before every basketball, baseball, badminton or track event for the school teams, before getting on an airplane alone and traveling across the world to live and travel, before my first job interview, before and many times during each road race, trail race or triathlon I have participated in.  I said it to myself over and over again after being diagnosed Type 1 diabetic.  Before injecting myself for the first time, before checking my blood sugar for the first time, while suffering my first low and high blood sugars, before my cataract surgeries, before my first insulin pump site insertion, while suffering so badly with the pain in my nerves, when going for my first run post-diagnosis and I was terrified, before undergoing a gastroscopy for my celiac diagnosis.  I think you get the picture.

I think my new combined mantra is going to be "Suck it Up Princess, You Can Do This"!