Setting Pain Management and Wellness Goals Overview
You feel like you have the knowledge and tools to make your life living with chronic pain easier and more enjoyable. But do you inspire yourself to commit to integrating them into your everyday life? Setting pain management and wellness goals with a creative vision board may be just what you need!
Some of the most successful public personalities have praised vision boards, including Ellen DeGeneres and Oprah Winfrey. You too can use a vision board to help you achieve your goals, including your pain management and wellness goals.
In this guide, we’ve got a step-by-step look at how to begin creating one today.
Pain Management and Wellness Goals – What is a vision board?
Vision boards are tools that help you see your set goals and inspire you to actualize them. They typically have images and phrases that help you hone in on your aspirations.
You can use your vision board to help you:
- clarify your vision for what you want to do, be, have or achieve
- reinforce ideas or affirmations so you are able to achieve your vision
- remember your intentions daily
What is a pain management and wellness vision board?
Vision boards can be focused on anything you want to achieve. Pain management and wellness vision boards can be useful for people who live with chronic pain or chronic illness and believe that there is a way to live a full, healthy life. They are driven by the belief that you can achieve your goals directly related to pain management.
But there’s more to it than that. They can also help you actualize the goals that chronic pain may make difficult for you to achieve.
How and why do vision boards work?
If you are a bit of a cynic, you might wonder if spending your time working on a vision board is worth it. Does it really help you reach your goals? Karson McGinley, a life coach for the Chopra Center, refers to the law of attraction as the powerful center of the vision board. The law of attraction is based on the idea that you will bring into your life whatever you focus your energy and attention on.
In fact, the use of vision boards has been so effective that counselors and educators have proposed it as a therapeutic method for allowing patients and clients to help set and visualize their goals.
In other words, the process of articulating your vision also allows people to understand what it is they want out of life, regardless of their current circumstances. Once you own your vision and develop a passion for it, you will work relentlessly to achieving it.
In the world of wellness, especially when you are suffering from chronic pain, passion is often driven by the desire to live a pain-free life. Days where your condition no longer impedes you from spending time with children or grandchildren, going outside or pursuing your dream career are often primary goals.
Envisioning that living the life you choose to live is a possibility is often the most difficult part. Once you come to believe in the possibility and are armed with the knowledge and tools to get there, you can take steps towards making it a reality.
5 steps to setting pain management and wellness goals with a vision board
Now that you know how a vision board can help to make your pain management and wellness goals a reality, let’s get to it!
What you’ll need:
- A large cork board, pinboard or foam board
- Pins or tape
- Magazines, images or access to a computer and a printer
*Note: Some people use digital vision boards, but in general these are more limited. They aren’t visible all of the time. Even if you print one out, it’s more difficult to add and take away things than if you construct one and place it in a visible space.
Step 1: Get in the right mindset
Pick a time where you are able to think freely and calmly. Go to a space that you find calming and inspiring. This could be on your back porch, in your studio or at a local coffee shop.
Try to turn off distractions like computers and phones that might get you out of the mood. Set aside at least 1-2 hours to focus solely on your wellness vision board.
Step 2: Find inspiration
Build a clear idea of the life that you envision. What is chronic pain preventing you from achieving? How do you want to feel? What do you want and need out of life?
If you feel stuck, think about people in your support groups or people you have read about. How were they able to manage their pain through lifestyle changes and live a healthy life?
If you feel like you have too many goals, start to prioritize them. Which one is most important to you?
You may want to journal your answers to some of these questions and track your process. In the end, write out the goals you want to express through your vision board.
Step 3: Gather images and phrases that inspire you
Look through magazines or the internet for images and phrases that will remind you of your goals. These can be images that reflect the end-goal as well as images that remind you of how to achieve them.
Some of the images and phrases may include those that reflect:
- how you want to see yourself
- family members who keep you inspired
- places you want to visit
- changes in your diet and physical activity regimens you want to follow (for pain management, these should be research-based)
- physical therapy exercises
Step 4: Create personalized affirmations
Affirmations are positive phrases that affect the conscious and subconscious mind. They help you believe what you can achieve. They activate what is called the Reticular Activating System (RAS), which regulates brain waves and consciousness and mediates behavior.
Some pain management affirmations you can use or modify include:
- “Each day I am finding it easier and easier to manage my pain.”
- “I have the power to make choices that help me live a healthy life.”
- “I deserve to live a full life.”
- “My body is powerful and has the power to help heal itself.”
- “I am motivated to make good choices for my health.”
- “My pain level will go down.”
- “I will experience pain relief when I work towards my goals daily.”
Write or print out these affirmations to include in your vision board.
Step 5: Put it all together
Now that you are in the right mindset and have printed out your visual tools, you are ready to move beyond setting pain management and wellness goals. Now you’re ready to make these goals happen! Pin or paste up the images and phrases in a way that is visually appealing to you.
The bottom line on pain management and wellness goals
In these 5 steps, you have created your vision board. The process may seem simple, but the effect can be truly transformational.
You may read dozens of blogs on how to achieve pain management and achieve wellness, but you may still have a hard time putting it all into practice. Creating your board helps you get in and stay in the right mindset to make daily choices that help you get on the road to being pain-free.
What images will you include on your vision board?
Tell us about them in the comments!
What topics related to pain management would you like to see us explore?
Email us at info@painresource.com with your ideas.
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