{"id":1973,"date":"2016-02-17T21:20:34","date_gmt":"2016-02-17T21:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=1973"},"modified":"2016-02-14T21:21:09","modified_gmt":"2016-02-14T21:21:09","slug":"chronic-illness-why-not-panic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2016\/02\/chronic-illness-why-not-panic.html","title":{"rendered":"Chronic Illness: Why Not Panic?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Smaller<\/a>I am very excited about the launch of my upcoming book,\u00a0Don’t Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough<\/em>\u00a0(available for pre-order now on Amazon.com)! It’s my hope and prayer that the book will help many people, offering ways to develop stronger, more resilient inner spirits and outer stress-relieving techniques so that, when the inevitable crisis occurs, there can be greater calm and much less (or no) panic in the face of them.<\/p>\n

And, oh, how this relates to life with chronic illness! Especially when with wave upon wave of symptoms, and flare upon flare of the underlying disease, we might become utterly frustrated and throw up our hands.<\/p>\n

Why not panic? is a thought that can take firm hold at that time. And it might even make its way from thought to action, giving us less of a firm foundation upon which to tackle our latest problems.<\/p>\n

But, as I detail in\u00a0Don’t Panic!…,\u00a0<\/em>as tempting or easy as it might seem to give into the feeling of utter hopelessness, we are indeed made of stronger stuff than that. And it is this strength that we need to use to lift our lives in turmoil up to God, to seek good strength from Our Lord at times when we believe we ourselves don’t have enough of it.<\/p>\n

Yes, we might think, in our humanness, “Why not panic?”<\/p>\n

But we’re more than “mere” humans. We are children of God. And as children, beloved and cherished, we can – we\u00a0must –\u00a0<\/em>turn to our Father – and strength will flow into us like a torrent and make it more easy to flow through any crisis.<\/p>\n

Joy and peace,<\/p>\n

Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I am very excited about the launch of my upcoming book,\u00a0Don’t Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough\u00a0(available for pre-order now on Amazon.com)! It’s my hope and prayer that the book will help many people, offering ways to develop stronger, more resilient inner spirits and outer stress-relieving techniques so that, when the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,43,1242,1047,379,1420,1245,1236,1247,1246],"tags":[2046,2001,2041,2044,2045,2002,2042,2043],"class_list":["post-1973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronic-pain-and-illness","category-encouragement-in-life","category-food-for-thought","category-good","category-lupus-2","category-pain-2","category-positive","category-prayer-2","category-rising-above-tragedy","category-uplifting","tag-chronic-illness-and-panic","tag-dont-panic","tag-god-and-crises","tag-how-to-not-panic","tag-maureen-pratt","tag-new-book-by-maureen-pratt","tag-us-in-a-crisis","tag-why-we-need-not-panic"],"yoast_head":"\nChronic Illness: Why Not Panic? 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She expected to be writing scripts. God had other plans. A few years after her graduation, Maureen was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of organ-involved lupus. Her life turned upside down as she grappled with the effects of the illness and other health conditions that ensued. She was no stranger to serious health challenges; even as a child, Maureen had survived numerous bouts of pneumonia, flu, and other infections. But lupus made her take a fresh look at her life goals - and took herlifelong, strong Catholic Christian faith and writing in a direction she'd never imagined. Today, Maureen writes and speaks about walking with the Lord while living with chronic pain and illness. Her most recent book is \"Don't Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough (Franciscan Media). She is also the author of, \"Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain & Illness\" (Image Books\/Randomhouse), \"Beyond Pain: Job, Jesus, and Joy\" (Twenty-Third Publications), \"The First Year: Hypothyroidism, Second Edition\" (Perseus) and \"Taking Charge of Lupus: How to Manage the Disease and Make the Most of Your LIfe.\" She writes the syndicated column, \"Living Well,\" for Catholic News Service, and has also written for Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine, Journey for Women Magazine, The Upper Room Magazine, LupusNow, and Arthritis Today. Maureen's health continues to be a challenge, however she feels honored to be able to bring her perspective, from experience and knowledge, to others. \"Good Days...Bad Days with Maureen Pratt\" is a new way for Maureen to reach people who carry the burden of illness and pain in their lives, or who care for someone who does. Through the blog, she hopes to bring issues of health, wellness, and spirit into focus and, especially, inspire others that, no matter what health challenges, illness, or hardships they endure, each person can find a good way to realize the wonderful potential God has placed within each heart and soul.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/author\/mpratt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1973"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1974,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1973\/revisions\/1974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}