Welsh Backs

This is a technique that you can use when you find yourself thinking very negative and destructive thoughts. People with long term health conditions such as severe back pain can often find themselves thinking things like:

"There's no point in me trying to do the gardening, it is just too painful to bend down"

Or

"I can't do the things I used to do, my life will never be the same again"

There are two ways of thinking more positively.

The first is a direct translation of the negative thought into something more positive. So for the two examples above, you could change them to:

"I can still do some things in the garden, I will get some window boxes so that I wont have to bend down and will take my pain relief medication before I start".

"I can still do lots of things, my life isn't over, it's just different".

The second way is by using positive affirmations. These are ready made sayings that you can use to challenge your negative thoughts, for example:

"onwards and upwards"

"find the good in every day"

"because I'm worth it"