Why I Believe in The Power of Positive Thinking
- Lisa Edwards
- Jun 4
- 5 min read
Updated: Jul 27
(The night I discovered the power of positive thinking without realising it.)
Have you ever had a moment, a split second where your life changed? I’d like to tell you about mine and why I believe in the Life Changing Power of Positive Thinking.
29 years ago, I was 30 ½ weeks pregnant with my first child, I woke up in the early hours of Friday morning with an indescribable pain in my chest, and within minutes I was vomiting uncontrollably. When there was nothing left in my stomach it turned to blood. My then husband grabbed me some clothes and put me in the car. On the way to the hospital, he pulled over twice for me to vomit.
At the hospital, the nurses (who were all absolutely amazing) ran around doing tests on me, the protein in my water was literally off their scale and I was now writhing in unimaginable pain, clutching my chest with one hand and my head with the other, It felt like either one could burst any moment.
This thought went through my head, ‘if it bursts I’m gonna…’ I couldn’t finish the sentence, even in my thoughts. I honestly felt that if I added the word ‘die’ to that sentence, it would be over for both me and my baby.
That’s the moment it all changed. I went into some sort of auto pilot and began reciting over and over “me and my baby are gonna be ok” “me and my baby are gonna be ok” “me and my baby are gonna be ok” “me and my baby are gonna be ok” over and over until they injected me with a large dose of pethidine, and I drifted into oblivion.
The next thing I remember was hazy, out-of-focus faces telling me I had a baby daughter and that she was doing ok.
I had suffered from Severe Pre-Eclampsia. They told us afterwards that if we had got to the hospital an hour later both the baby and I would have died. My blood vessels had swollen so much that they were indeed in danger of bursting.
To stop me from going into eclamptic fits I had to remain on an electronic drip until Sunday, my baby girl was two floors down in the hospital on a ventilator, and there was no chance of us meeting until I was well enough to go down to see her.
On the Saturday the nurses brought me a slice of toast when I said I was hungry, I asked if I could have the dinner they were serving to others, ‘oh no you are far too unwell, the toast will get your strength up’. But I was hungry and I knew I needed sustenance to get me strong enough to get down to my baby and start taking care of her. I sent my Mum down to Marks and Spencer to get me a chicken and salad sandwich. I ate it like I hadn’t been fed for a week and felt so much better after. The nurses were a little shocked, but they let me have the same meals as everyone else after that.
I gave my husband a list of things I needed from home and things we needed from the shops. I stayed practical, pragmatic and above all positive.
On Sunday… Oh on Sunday I finally got to meet my tiny bundle of joy, she was just 3lb 1oz and was wired up to a myriad of machines, but that didn’t matter, she was gonna be ok.
My baby girl in hospital.
I spent as many hours at her cotside as my own recovery and the hospital would allow. They told me to not expect my baby girl to come home until her due date – that would mean 9-10 weeks in the hospital for her.
There were good days and there were bad days, more good than bad I’m pleased to say, but there was still health stuff to deal with, it wasn’t all plain sailing. Without really trying I remained practical, pragmatic and above all positive, dealing with just one day at a time, one hurdle at a time.
Staying positive doesn’t mean not feeling scared, and anxious and pretending everything is ok – it’s dealing with reality – and focusing on the best outcome possible.
On Christmas day, 10 days after she had come into the world, I got my first ‘kangaroo cuddle’ They let me hold my baby for the first time, they told me to lay back in the chair and they laid my baby girl on my chest. They said the skin-to-skin contact was healing to the baby, I can say without a doubt, it was healing for me too.
I watched as she grew a little stronger and grew a little bigger each day. Until one day they told me that she was strong and healthy enough to come home, it was the 15th of January a whole month before her due date of Valentine's Day.
I still don’t know where it came from, it was as though some positive force had taken me over, whatever it was and wherever it came from I am so grateful for it to this day, and I swear that my baby girl ‘caught’ my positive thinking as she was well enough to come home after just 5 weeks.
My baby girl has grown into a beautiful 29-year-old woman that has travelled, had adventures, has friends all over the world, and gained a university degree….and we owe it all to positive thinking.
I would love to say that I became a positive thinker from that day onwards, but alas, I did not. Well not with my everyday life, just with anything concerning my children (I went on to have a little boy 2 years later).
Life kept throwing the lessons at me, but I didn’t learn. Until 17 years ago when I moved my family 14,500 km away to live in Australia and two people told me to read ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne. As I read the book, that night 29 years ago began to make sense, and so started my journey of Positive Thinking.
Positive thinking changes lives and in our case, I believe it saved them. I think we all have it in us to turn a situation around, to change our lives, and the road we are on, we just don’t know that we know how to do it.
Have faith, believe in yourself, and believe in your ability to achieve anything and everything you set your mind to.
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