{"id":884,"date":"2013-10-22T20:28:56","date_gmt":"2013-10-22T20:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=884"},"modified":"2013-10-19T20:47:08","modified_gmt":"2013-10-19T20:47:08","slug":"rooting-for-team-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2013\/10\/rooting-for-team-you.html","title":{"rendered":"Rooting for Team You!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo courtesy of koratmember\/FreeDigitalPhotos.net<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is a sports-centric time of year. College and professional football, the baseball World Series, end-of-season tennis tournaments and, soon, college and pro basketball. We could go hoarse cheering on our favorites!<\/p>\n

Of course, as with any socially-prominent trend, I have to wonder if it has common ground with our lives with chronic pain & illness. And, in this case, I wonder, if we spent the same amount of time and energy rooting for good health, strong spirits, and positive action as we do for the teams of our choice, how different life might be!<\/p>\n

Instead of blues-ing it through painful days, we might be more inclined to give ourselves pep talks.<\/p>\n

Rather than procrastinate about those positive things we might do to improve even a little of our quality of life, we might have more of a sense of urgency (just as we do when time is ticking away and the score is tight).<\/p>\n

Encouragement for ourselves and others could be all the spark we and they need to make a healthful change and, thus, support better overall response to the pain and illness that burden.<\/p>\n

Putting on colors and styles that reflect strong personal team spirit can show the world that, no matter how strong the struggle, we are not beaten down.<\/p>\n

Repeating, “there’s always next time…” when a defeat is particularly difficult can minimize hopelessness and, thus, help us persevere – like the glass-half-full Cubs fan that I am!<\/p>\n

Yes, I think that turning the cheering squad loose on our lives can be a tremendously powerful catalyst for good days ahead.<\/p>\n

Go! Go! Go!<\/p>\n

Blessings for the day,<\/p>\n

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

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Of course, as with any socially-prominent trend, I have to wonder if it has common ground with our lives with chronic pain &…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,43,4,383],"tags":[771,768,29,52,51,770,769,457],"class_list":["post-884","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronic-pain-and-illness","category-encouragement-in-life","category-words-of-encouragemnent-and-info-for-all","category-heart-health","tag-burdens","tag-cheering-on","tag-chronic-illness","tag-encouragement","tag-inspiration","tag-living-with-chronic-pain","tag-positive-spirit","tag-strength"],"yoast_head":"\nRooting for Team You! - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2013\/10\/rooting-for-team-you.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rooting for Team You! - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is a sports-centric time of year. 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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\/884","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=884"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":886,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884\/revisions\/886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}