This Mind-Body Connection workbook will help you to create goals when chronic pain, pelvic pain and gut disorders get in the way of your best intentions.
 
The difficulty with goal setting, when impacted by unpredictable and complicated chronic pain symptoms, is that they can be sabotaged by flare ups and unexpected life stresses. This is demotivating and makes you feel you have no control.
 
Progress and process goals
 
This is why it is so important to differentiate between progress and process goals. Progress goals are the big outcomes you are working towards. Monitoring them regularly can be disenfranchising as you're like "wow I'm nowhere near" and it can also lead to symptom monitoring. 
 
That is why creating process goals - goals that you have influence over and you know get you closer to the outcomes - are so important to keep you on track.  
 
For example if you want to lose weight, your outcome goal might be fitting into a certain size. This can feel far off. If you have a set of process goals that will help you get there; portion control, giving yourself non-food related comfort, enjoying movement related activities, you can feel reinforced along the journey and also have a tangible marker of progress. If you are doing more of all of the above, you are definitely moving towards that outcome. 
 
This works the same for symptom related goals. Reducing pain for example may be a progress goal. It is unclear and there are lots of different factors to guarantee what that looks like. Constantly monitoring "is my pain better or worse" makes pain worse often times. If we know that our process goals are good proxy measures, we can feel reassured and empowered. 
 
Looking for more support?
 
Read more about Pelvic Health
Find Real People - If you need more support, there is a warm community, an extensive hub of further information and practices, ready and waiting for you over at Body Mind Connect. Join here https://bodymindconnect.club/home
 
This is a workbook from the Body Mind Connect membership.