Getting injured in any circumstance is a challenge. Any injury can have a major impact on your life depending on how severe it is. It can take you out for your sports season or just for a few weeks. The most important part about an injury is recovery, but you can’t have the best recovery without a good mindset and hope. 

Life can seem to freeze when something like this happens to you. You may start to feel like everything is ruined or have a hard time seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I for one understand this completely and know how hard it can be to have hope. I do several things to help encourage me and put me back on my feet.

Talk to a loved one.

Talking with people you love will help you express how you are feeling so that they can give you encouragement. It’s so easy to get in your head and feel trapped, but you are far greater than you know and the people that love you know this. It’s also good to ask people how they are doing and focusing on others. While it’s important to focus on recovery, you shouldn’t shut yourself out from the people around you. It will help you take your mind off your injury and also grow your relationships. 

Have a positive playlist.

Listening to sad songs can be good for a much needed cry session, but it’s not good to fill your mind with these sad words all the time. Have a playlist filled with songs that make you smile, laugh, and songs that just give you pure joy. When you feel like you’re crumbling down, lift yourself up through music. If no one is around to try and cheer you up, cheer yourself up through positive and encouraging songs. 

Have a journal.

Keep a journal to write down your thoughts and feelings during the injury. It’s so cool to look back on and see yourself at your lowest and then another page of a good day where you overcame so much. It will help you get everything crowding your mind out and will ultimately give you peace. 

I started my journal right when I got injured. Looking back, I see how much I’ve grown. I am still recovering from the surgery I had on my knee, but having a journal to refocus my mind on hope truly helps me get better. 

Celebrate the little victories. 

Celebrating the little victories is my absolute favorite thing. For example, I wasn’t able to lift up my leg for the first week and a half after surgery. My mind had to retrain my muscles to do what they used to do. I would freak out because I would be so scared at the fact that I couldn’t lift it. One day, I was just practicing my little exercises and all of a sudden I was able to lift my leg. I screamed for my dad to come and see and when I showed him I bursted out in tears of joy. I finally saw a victory after feeling like there were none. 

With that being said, celebrate yourself when you see progress, even if it’s just a little thing. It helps train your mind to want to get better. Recovery is more mental than it is physical. Once you start seeing improvement, you won’t want to stop. 

Watch a silly movie. 

Comedy movies always make things better for me. They just cheer me up right away and keep me laughing! It’s so important to try and remain as positive as you can and on days you can’t seem to have hope, a funny movie can truly lighten your mood. 

Here are a few of my favorites: “Hot Rod”, “Dumb and Dumber”, “Nacho Liebre”, “Step Brothers”, “Tommy Boy”, “Billy Madison”, “Talladega Nights”, “Napoleon Dynamite” and so many more. 

Read an encouraging book.

There are so many books to help process an injury or just a life crisis in general. Right now, I’m reading a book called “Live” by Sadie Robertson. It has been so helpful to help me find hope and find purpose in life through my trials and tribulations. I highly recommend this book!

Find someone going through the same injury or already has.

You may not personally know someone that is going through or has gone through what you’re going through. There are countless YouTube videos on people who have been through what you’re going through or something similar and they give advice and encouragement and also show that it is possible to recover. It’s so helpful to see someone who felt similar emotions of loss that injury brings and how they overcame it and became a much stronger person. 

Recovery isn’t completely about physical therapy but it is mainly a mental journey that will truly make you so much stronger. Your injury could be life changing, but your mindset will determine how much you grow as a person.