Your Mind Matters Too

Chapter 52 · Vihang Rahul Vasa

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”

William Bruce Cameron, Informal Sociology (1963)

The last chapter was about protecting your routine from stress. This one is about the other direction: what you can do for your mind, so that stress has less to work with. None of this is soft advice. For a person with diabetes, looking after the mind is as essential as taking your medicine, and these are the habits that have worked for me.

• Try to live happily.

• Stop brooding over what happened yesterday. Yesterday cannot be corrected: it can only be learnt from.

• Stop worrying about tomorrow. You must plan for tomorrow, but planning and worrying are not the same thing: one prepares you, the other only tires you.

• Try to remove the irritation factors from your work life. If you cannot remove them, change how you respond to them.

• Take adequate rest. Sleep well. And most importantly, spend time for yourself: doing things that bring you peace and joy.

• It is very important that any change you wish to implement comes from your heart and not due to any external force: only then will the change become a permanent change.

• Try to listen to and read positive stories of people living well with diabetes. Do not focus on negative news of others’ failed journeys: remember, you are not them, and you absolutely can make a change.

• Most importantly, it is essential to think positive and nurture positive thoughts of getting better and living a normal, joyful life. Positive thinking is not just a feel-good phrase: it is a genuine force that helps you absorb the shocks of the bumpy road that life may throw at you. When your mind believes you will be fine, your body follows. Listen to positivity, read positivity, experience positivity, and live positivity: let it become the air you breathe every single day.

And one honest word: if low mood, worry, or exhaustion stays with you for weeks and does not lift, speak to your doctor: help exists, and asking for it is strength, not weakness.

Illustration: Chapter 52 illustrated summary. The mind matters too.

Chapter 52 The mind matters too. Stress affects plasma glucose; rest, restful sleep, peace and joy, supportive stories and company, and change at one's own pace are illustrated. Persistent low mood or worry calls for doctor support.

Chapter at a glance: an AI-generated illustration to be read with the chapter, not instead of it. The people shown are not real.