I love Riva Greenberg. We are all so fortunate that she is able to devote herself to helping people with diabetes. She has much wisdom and many gifts to share with us.
She wrote a post recently (A Valentine’s Gift of Health and Happiness) about her experience with Divabetics (another group I’d like to write more about – Max is awesome), and there was a section that jumped out at me.
Many healthcare providers unknowingly try to motivate diabetes patients to manage their condition through fear — specifically, fear of diabetes complications, which indeed are scary. But fear motivates behavior temporarily — you jump to protect yourself from harm. Fear does not motivate sustainable behavior change because you do not want to stay focused on your fears.
You jump to protect yourself from harm.
Fear motivates behavior temporarily.
Fear does not motivate sustainable behavior change because you do not want to stay focused on your fears.
Wow.
Riva goes on to recommend “focusing instead on what you want, and enlisting your positive emotions, which creates an energy within you that is vibrant, viable, and more enduring as it is tinged with excitement, hope, purpose and pleasure.”
I love this.
Thank you Riva!