How I benefited from focusing on the positives in life – By Lisa Weber The gentle sound of wind chimes filled the house. Then the short melody repeated itself. And again. Every time the tune played, I heard my daughter mumble, “Alexa, stop.” She was never an easy child to wake up.

Lying in bed, I listened to her become increasingly angry at her virtual assistant. Over and over she repeated her command until she was full-on screaming at the little black box: “ALEXA, STOP!” But the wind chime music played on, unfazed — because it wasn’t coming from Alexa, but rather the alarm on her phone.

While I had a good chuckle listening to this teenage meltdown, it also reminded me of an important lesson I’ve only recently learned. I used to spend a lot of time “yelling” at the changes scleroderma has inflicted on my body. From my hands not fully opening to the disappearing act of my lips, I was constantly screaming inside.

The annoying alarm of my disease was ringing out reminders all day, every day. And no matter how hard I tried to command it to stop, nothing changed.
It was like I was screaming at Alexa to turn off my symptoms. I was focusing all my energy on things I couldn’t control and making myself more frustrated, sad, and angry. And the worst part was that I couldn’t blame scleroderma for those feelings.

Changing my perspective with mental workouts. It took me about six years to realize I needed to shift my focus to what I could control. And it took another year to break the habit of… Continue reading here