Coping with Lung Health
First Step: Acceptance
Acknowledging and accepting your lung health diagnosis can be the first step to managing it well and living a full life. This will help you focus on the things you can control—like your diet, exercise, sleep, stress management, and other lifestyle habits—and learn to let go of the things you can’t.
In this Article
Addressing Your Emotions
Living with a chronic illness can be challenging. You may experience emotions more intensely at times, as well as mood changes from day to day. Sometimes you may feel accepting of your diagnosis and embrace lifestyle changes-- or sad, angry, or not motivated to engage at other times.
Emotions are completely normal! What’s important is that you can acknowledge how you feel, honor your feelings, and address them appropriately.
It’s important to get help when you need it. If you are struggling with depression, severe anxiety, or other mental health issues, talk to a mental health provider about counseling, medication, or other treatment options.
Your Wellinks care team is also here to support you on your journey. We will help you learn and practice coping mechanisms and provide you with additional resources.
Practice Coping Strategies
There are several strategies that can help you work through negative emotions and feel empowered to manage lung disease.
- Practice pursed lip and diaphragmatic breathing. These breathing techniques help you fully expand your lungs. They also trigger the part of your nervous system that helps you calm down when you feel anxious or stressed.
- Talk to a friend or loved one. Confiding in someone you trust and spending quality time with them can help you feel connected and supported. Voicing your fears or anxieties can also make them feel more manageable.
- Listen to music. Music stimulates our brains and triggers the release of chemicals that make us feel happy. You can also try music therapy, which may help you explore how music and breathing impact your lung disease.
- Physical activity. Exercise is good not only for your physical health, but it also releases endorphins and other chemicals that help improve your mood and mental health.
- Eat a healthy diet. Food can affect our mood in many ways; some foods cause our blood sugar to spike and then crash. Other foods can be hard to digest, making us feel sick and anxious. Consuming plenty of fruits and vegetables and eating regularly, for example, can help you feel energized and balanced.
- Try mindfulness exercises. They can help you practice healthy mental habits, like acknowledging and letting go of distracting or unhelpful thoughts.
- Try a new activity or pick up an old one you haven’t done in a while. Taking time for the things you enjoy is an important part of leading a full, happy life!
Feel free to get creative! If you find another strategy that works well for you, incorporate it into your daily routine.
Transforming Your Strategies into Habits
Like any healthy lifestyle change, these strategies work best when you’re able to make them into habits.
A habit forms when you practice an activity regularly and consistently over a period of time. For example, if you wanted to make pursed lip breathing a habit, you might decide that for two weeks, you will practice pursed lip breathing for ten minutes when you wake up in the morning. After a little while, you’ll probably find that it feels like a natural part of your morning routine, and you’ll be able to continue without thinking about it very much.
During your coaching sessions, your Wellinks care team will help you practice coping strategies regularly and transform them into healthy lifestyle habits. These habits will help you live a full life and manage your lung health well.
What You Can Do Today
As a first step toward building good coping habits, pick one of the strategies listed above and give it a try today. Write down how you feel before and after, to help evaluate whether the strategy works well for you.
You can also talk about your experience with your Wellinks care team. It just might become a part of your daily routine!