PMA - Positive Mental Attitude

This morning I woke up like any other with my alarm blaring out at 06:30. After a reasonable nights sleep I felt aware and coherent. So I started my morning routine and got on my way to work. Work was, well work. But as far as it goes pretty stress free, and almost enjoyable! After finishing work I started to reflect on my day past. On my daily walk back to the train station I realised that my pain levels were not too bad today. This surprised me somewhat for two reasons. 1) This is the first time I’d consciously thought about my pain that I could recall today! 2) The past 4-5 days I had elevated pain levels, especially in my neck. Don’t get me wrong I’m far from pain free, as I sit here hunched over the trains poor excuse for a table, which feels so far away from my body I might as well be using the persons head in front of me to stabilise my pen strokes (yes I write on paper before posting on-line). Now I’m not sure exactly why my pain wasn’t at the forefront of my mind today, but predictably I have a theory. PMA – Positive Mental Attitude!

Today (for me at least) I’ve been in a pretty good mood, feeling positive and happy. This could be because I slept reasonably well. It could be because I had a good day at work. Equally it could be that the sun is out, on one of the rare occasions it decides to great us here in England. Anyone of these is a reason for positivity, but the combination of all three can’t be a bad thing. My positive attitude was reinforced by my nice walk to the station in the sun, but I was also inspired .

Every morning I walk by the RNIB (Royal National Institute for Blind people) building. As you would expect I pass a lot of blind people, as well as people with other disabilities as I work in a hospital. My first thought today (and I’m not ashamed) was ‘I would hate to be blind’. Personally that is one of the worst things I could imagine to happen to me. All disabilities are life changing, and the majority of people regardless of their disability want to be treated equally. Something I pride myself on is my natural character to treat everyone equally, with the respect they deserve. I’m pretty sure if my mother is reading this that she will take the credit for that. Regardless of your approach to life we are all still human, and as a human you will always at times think, “I’m glad that’s not me”. Nothing makes the saying “it could be worse” mean more.

PMA certainly helped me today. Pain is bearable enough to not be at the forefront of my mind. Maybe most of the contributing factors were out of my control? Maybe the days events are just luck? But that would be the cynics view, which is definitely not a positive attitude to take. “I could be worse” is a motto that has been with me for longer than I can remember, and not just inspired by today’s events. So I leave you today, happy, comfortable, thankful but not least positive. If you aren’t already feeling the same, I wish you all the same positivity tomorrow.