Words I needed to hear when I was struggling with diabetes

Empowerment has been my key to overcoming a lot of the obstacles that have appeared since my diabetes diagnosis. Most of the empowering quotes I have found throughout my journey have made me think and reflect a lot, but there are three quotes that have really stuck with me.

For each of these quotes, I will explain how they made me feel during my journey as well as what they mean for my empowerment.

“You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide to not be reduced by them” – Maya Angelou

This quote spoke a lot to me when I was first diagnosed. I was so frustrated with myself that I blamed myself for causing diabetes. I had taken a long time to even come to grips that I was diabetic and to accept it. I had a lot of thoughts, emotions and even dwelled on my past to see if I was the cause. Once I had accepted the fact I was diabetic, I knew right then that this was my wake up call to make a change in my life, and to not let it control me or to be reduced to a statistic. I was going to use this diagnosis to change for the better and grow from the ball of anger to a person that was using this as a way to make changes I needed in my life.

“We all make mistakes, have struggles and even regret things in our past. But you are not your mistakes, you are not your struggles, and you are here now with the power to shape your day and your future.” – Steve Maraboli

This quote is something I still reflect on daily in my life when I have a bad day or when I feel like I could have done better (especially when I look at my trends with my sugars). I try to make sure that if I am having a horrible day with my choices of food and it reflects in my numbers, I know not to dwell on it and to instead use it to shape the next day and my future days. I try to take every chance I can as a learning opportunity for how things affect my numbers and how much insulin is needed to stay in control.

“The way I see it, if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain!” – Dolly Parton

This quote is very true for the daily struggles. If you want to have the end goal of being in constant range,  you need to put up with the rough days where you have high or low levels.  It is up to you to determine if you are going to let it hold you back or if you are going to push through and stay on track with making adjustments.  I use the this quote to remind myself that on my rough days, I will defeat them and move closer to the rainbow of being in range. Who knows, maybe even get to be able to let my routine of medication and calculations become second nature to me.

I know these quotes may not mean anything to anyone but I have used them and will continue to use them in my daily life on this journey as a Type 2 Diabetic. I am grateful to look at each quote and reflect on them - to realise I need to not always feel defeated or dwell on what I could have changed.