Thriving With Celiac Disease Using Optimism and Positive Affirmations Ep. 145

Discover the silver lining of a gluten-free life as we navigate the emotional side that often accompanies celiac disease and non-celiac gluten sensitivity. This episode is designed to support you in moving through the initial grief of forgoing gluten to empowerment and joy. 

I draw upon the profound teachings of the Dalai Lama, as featured in "The Art of Happiness," to demonstrate the influence our perspectives hold over our well-being. Learn to celebrate the positives and embrace the personal growth and health benefits that a gluten-free diet can provide. 

In this episode, I share the strategy of positive affirmations that can support the lives of those touched by celiac disease. I reveal how the consistent practice of positive self-talk can rewire our belief systems and fuel an optimistic life approach. For anyone seeking more in-depth support, Ultimate Celiac System provides the tools to flourish despite dietary limitations. 

We're not just discussing dietary changes; we're redefining what it means to live fully and vibrantly. Join us next week as we continue to unlock the secrets to a fulfilling gluten-free existence, proving that life's limitations are merely stepping stones to greater joy.

Previous Episodes Mentioned:
Ep. 70 Grieving Gluten

Learn more about Ultimate Celiac System here
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Music Credit bensound.com 

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

Now back on episode 70 of the show. I spoke about grieving gluten and the feelings and the emotions that we go through once we have to start eating gluten free. So, whether that's from a celiac disease diagnosis or you might have non-celiac gluten sensitivity and you find out that you have to eat gluten free and you go through this process of grieving gluten. And then what happens? Once you go through these emotions, you come out the other end. Some people this takes a long time, but some people it happens quite quickly and they feel much better about living with celiac disease and having to eat gluten free. But some people what I notice is they feel like the world is just out for them. They feel like having to eat gluten free is the worst thing that could possibly happen to them. And what I want to talk about in today's episode is the fact that we need to look at this in a different way, because what I like to teach people is it's a blessing that we get to eat gluten free, and I know that probably sounds ridiculous, but bear with me. Hang in there. This might ruffle a few feathers, but I want to help you see that it can be a really positive thing to have to eat gluten free and how we can look at our own lives and look at it in a positive attitude, because when we start to do that, we do start to feel better about every aspect of our lives, because when we're in a negative state of mind, it affects everything. It affects the way that we feel, it affects the way that we show up in the world, it affects our choices, whether that's getting out of bed in the morning or going to bed early at night and getting enough sleep. You know, eating well, exercising, the way that we talk to people, our energy that we portray to others, it makes a massive difference.

Speaker 1: 2:33

And over the past few weeks I've been reading a book called the Art of Happiness, a handbook for living, and it's written by Howard Cutler and it's a lot of interviews with the Dalai Lama and it's got a lot of his insights and his thoughts. And I have taken so much from this book and it's been incredible. So I wanted to read some of the paragraphs out of this book and kind of expand on this today and help you see how we can focus on our gluten free lifestyle in a much more positive way. So in the very beginning of the book he says, moment to moment, happiness is largely determined by our outlook. In fact, whether we are feeling happy or unhappy at any given moment often has very little to do with our absolute conditions, but rather it is a function of how we perceive our situation, how satisfied we are with what we have, and I think this speaks massive volumes. And it's so true. It's our perception, isn't it? So how can we have one person with celiac disease who's so positive, who makes a difference in the world, who goes out there and maybe starts up a brand to do with gluten free food products or opens a restaurant or something like that? But how can one person be so positive with celiac disease? And then the other is the type of person you see in Facebook group saying I hate my life, this is miserable, I just want to eat gluten, and this is years on in their journey. This is not just a new thing. I'd get it if it's a new thing, but when people have been living with it for years, this is not a great way to look at life. So I want to help you, if this is you, get to that point of feeling more positive and enjoying living with celiac disease. Now another paragraph.

Speaker 1: 4:42

But we can use this same principle in a positive way. We can increase our feeling of life satisfaction by comparing ourselves to those who are less fortunate than us and by reflecting on all the things we have. And you might have heard that phrase where people go, you know, there's always someone worse off than you. And some people say that this is a terrible, terrible way to speak. But I've always thought that it's true, like when someone has a situation, they can take that positive view. So, for example, you know someone that perhaps has been in a car accident and maybe they lost a limb and they'll come out of it and they are so much better than they were before because they go. At least I'm not dead, at least I've got my other leg or whatever something along those lines where they're looking at it from a positive perspective.

Speaker 1: 5:45

And this is what I like to do with celiac disease and I focus on at least I just have to eat gluten free. And I know a lot of people say it's not just eating gluten free, which it's not. There's so much more to it, don't get me wrong. But we don't have to take medication. All right, we don't have to take any prescribed medication living with celiac disease. For celiac disease, we can eat a gluten free diet. We can focus on health supplements. We can focus on adding goodness into our diet so that our body can thrive. We can look at all the different factors to heal our gut so that we absorb the nutrients that our body needs. We don't need to be on pharmaceuticals. We don't need to be paying money for those drugs as such. So we are very, very lucky in that way and I've always looked at it In my 15 years of living with celiac disease.

Speaker 1: 6:39

I've always looked at that as a massive positive because there's so many side effects of pharmaceutical drugs that we don't have to worry about that. We seriously don't have to be concerned that if we're taking a pharmaceutical that in 20 years time that pharmaceutical company is going to turn around and go, oops, sorry, it caused this problem, or you have short term side effects. We don't have that concern. So, as far as looking at it on the positive, that's one of the positives that I certainly look at and I help my clients look at as well.

Speaker 1: 7:16

So focusing on what you can do rather than what you can't do and at the end of the day, so many people do share that once they do go gluten-free, they do start to feel better, they start to eat better and, because we're reading labels on food packaging, you become a bit more aware of what is in your food other than just gluten. You're looking for gluten. Obviously. You want to make sure that your products are gluten-free that you're buying, but you're also, hopefully, becoming more aware of all the different ingredients that are in your food and food-like products. I like to call them as well, because a lot of things that are packaged are not really food. They've got no nutritional value. So I hope that that's something that you might start to look at as well. That it's more of a let's focus on the positives of what having celiac disease for you has done so moving forward. What can you do to be able to get to this point?

Speaker 1: 8:19

So a lady reached out to me recently on Instagram and her daughter, I think, has been living with celiac disease for two years and she's young and she's been really struggling and she's been really down on herself and feeling very much so while with me, and this is not fair and I hate my life and I want to be normal like everyone else, which is very understandable. I totally get it and my son is almost seven. He's been gluten-free since he was four and he feels so much better. He's got non-celiac gluten sensitivity. But he knows the ramifications of if he does eat gluten that he will feel like rubbish. He was miserable before he started eating gluten-free. He would literally get home from kidney and lay on the couch and he was just exhausted. He was always lethargic, he was always tired, complaining of sore tummies. His bowel movements were absolutely vile and he says now that he would not eat gluten because he doesn't want to feel that way. So the positive for him is he knows he feels better, so he focuses on feeling better. So back to this lady. I recommended to her that she help her daughter with some affirmations and I believe I've spoken about this previously on.

Speaker 1: 9:47

Another episode is when we tell ourselves something enough, we do start to believe it. So some kids they grow up in a horrible household and they are told nasty things by their parents You're a loser, you're in the way, you're no good, you're this, you're that, all these horrible things. That child grows up and believes that. And then there's the opposite. A child can grow up in a positive, loving, nurturing environment and be told you're so clever, you're amazing, you're so sporty, you're so like, whatever it is, you're so clever at maths it can be anything. But if you tell someone something enough, they start to believe it. So you can do the same thing for yourself or your child. So I told this lady to get her daughter to start doing some affirmations. So, whether she reads the affirmations herself or she just says them over and over in her head, a really good time to do affirmations is when you're brushing your teeth. You can stick something on the mirror or you can just learn them off my heart and tell yourself them.

Speaker 1: 10:58

And what an affirmation is? Usually it starts with I am. So if you tell yourself I am, that is two of the most powerful words, rather that you can tell yourself Okay. So if you say I am fat, I am ugly, you will believe it because you are telling yourself this over and over again, whereas if you say I am amazing, I am doing the best that I can for my body by eating gluten free. I am nourishing my body by choosing to eat gluten free, and it's a choice. At the end of the day, it is a choice. You have to eat gluten free to thrive with celiac disease, but you can still go eat gluten if you wanted to. No one's going to stop you. So remember, you are choosing to do this for your health and your future. So if you can say, I am before any positive statement about yourself, about your health, and do it over and over again, you might need to do it twice a day, you might need to only do it once a day, but I promise you, the more you do this, the more you will start to feel better about yourself and more positive about living with celiac disease.

Speaker 1: 12:14

And you don't have to just stop there. You can tell yourself anything at all and you will start to believe it. I am confident. I am able to go out and order gluten free food. I am positive about this situation. I am fit, I am beautiful. You can tell yourself anything, absolutely anything that you want to tell yourself and, like I said, you can write it down, you can stick it on the mirror.

Speaker 1: 12:47

Some people use post-it notes, so you might want to have some post-it notes somewhere that you see them, whether you put them in your diary, where, whenever you open your diary, you move that post-it note to the next day, so that you see that when you open your diary. You might want to have it on your fridge. You might want to have it on your steering wheel in your car next to your desk. If you work in an office, there's so many ways that you can have these affirmations in front of you. I personally have mine on my phone and I look at them in the morning and at night. So I go through my affirmations on my phone, I use an app and I look at them and it's just reinforcing those positive thoughts about myself. So give it a go.

Speaker 1: 13:29

It might sound ridiculous and I know that some people really struggle with doing this initially. If you are kind of in a negative headspace, if you are normally in this negative headspace, it might sound really silly to start with. It might seem really ridiculous to you. So start small, start with maybe three different affirmations and just do them, and then the next day do them again and build upon it. And a kid you're not. The more you say it, the more you will start to believe it and the more it will become true for you. So give it a go.

Speaker 1: 14:05

Write some down and start to say them, start to repeat them and before you know it, they will become part of who you are. You will believe them and you won't even need to read them off of a piece of paper. They will be in your brain and it will just become a way of life for you and you will go out and you will be more positive. And, of course, if you need more help with this or you want more help from me how to live with celiac disease, then that's what I'm here for. Make sure you go and check out Ultimate Celiac System, which is my signature program to thrive with celiac disease, and yeah, I will talk with you again next week on the show. But I hope this has helped. If you or someone in your family or friends that are quite negative about living with celiac disease, I hope that this helps. So, like I said, give it a go and I will talk with you again next week on the show. Have a great week and I'll talk to you then. Thanks a lot, bye.