Now that you have accepted Lupus as a condition that is part of you, and you know yourself and your symptoms a little better, you know what emotions, thoughts and activities trigger attacks, you are ready for step 3.  This step involves being proactive, not only reactive to the condition.  First you have to think of yourself as a whole being, not just a body.  You are also your mind-emotions and your spirit.  I do not mean the spirit in any religious sense, but as the life force that animates you, that part of you where imagination resides, where you have free will, that part which makes you human.  There are many spiritual paths, some of them are religions, others involve spiritual practices as meditation or mind control, even energy healing can be a spiritual path.  In this perspective it matters little what path you choose, as long as it works for you and gives you inner peace and balance, something that keeps you centered.  

   Being proactive means catching the flares at the start, nipping them at the bud, and learning every time to know yourself a little better, getting better faster and maintaining yourself on the remission side of the condition longer.  The more you do this, the better you know yourself and the more adept you get at managing your condition with as little discomfort and flares as possible, living every day a little better than the last.  When you start feeling better it is very important, and part of your new therapeutic way of life, to do something that is meaningful to you, something that gives your life purpose

How to do this?  

1. Stop or at least diminish those activities that you have identified as triggers.  For example, if you have identified, as many of us do, that physical exhaustion is a trigger, you need to reorganize your activities so you get periods of rest interpersed throughout your daily activities, and you need to prioritize.  If you have identified a certain kind of food as a trigger, eliminate it from your diet, etc.
2. With thoughts and emotions you need to work harder.  Thoughts become patterns of thought, which create emotions.  When you think along negative lines continually, you are creating negative emotions in your life.  If you don’t express these emotions, they get trapped in your body and make you have reactions which become flares.  I will post later ways to express and unblock emotions.
3. Find things that help your whole system: the physical, the mental-emotional and the spiritual.  I recommend some alternative healing techniques that work alongside your regular medicines and start healing you hollistically, in your whole self, in my book with the same title: Befriending the Wolf: A Guide to Living and Thriving with Lupus.  In the mean time, I will upload techniques through my posts.
4. Find your purpose in life, set small goals to achieve it and start working towards them.  It can be anything, as long as it’s meanngful to you.  Simple examples are: having an organic vegetable garden and living toxin free; cultivating roses to contemplate the beauty in life; embroider the best seat cushion for your living room; rescue animals in danger; help other sick people have hope in life; wite a book, play the piano; it doesn’t matter, and you don’t have to become Mother Theresa, just find something that fills you with joy and makes you want to get out of bed.

I will write in more detail about these steps in further blogs.