4 Tips To Maintain Emotional Wellbeing While Seeking Justice

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Your physical health depends on maintaining a balanced attitude regardless of your circumstances. If you’ve been wronged in some way, is it possible to pursue the issue without getting lost in a sea of negativity? Absolutely.

First, let go of the idea that pursuing justice is the antithesis of maintaining your emotional wellbeing. Yes, it’s hard work, takes time and often money, but you don’t have to get caught up in negative emotions. You are always in charge of what you think and feel.

You can pursue matters of justice with an even temper and a “just the facts” attitude. It’s not about making someone wrong or being a victim. It’s about being the cause for necessary changes that will improve other people’s lives – even if it has to be judicially imposed.

Here are four tips to help you navigate the process of pursuing justice without sacrificing your emotional health:

  1. Separate your experience from the facts

There’s no doubt the emotional or physical pain you’ve experienced is real. However, consistently sitting inside of your pain is not going to be helpful for pursuing your situation. This includes telling your story emotionally.

Whether you’re pursuing a case in court, appealing to a school board, or taking your issue to higher ups in a corporation, your voice needs to be clear.

With all emotional experiences, the mind naturally develops a narrative about what happened. The story is not what happened.

A mild example of this is experiencing a car changing lanes closely in front of you. The facts are simple: a car changed lanes closely in front of your vehicle. Your mind, however, convinces you that the driver is careless, reckless, rude, and selfish. That story quickly snowballs into a narrative that assumes the driver doesn’t know how to drive and probably got their license out of a crackerjack box. See where I’m going with this?

Emotional stories about your experience will get in the way of your ability to communicate the facts to people who weren’t there to see what happened. Your ability to win your fight for justice depends on your ability to clearly communicate what happened to people who weren’t there.

  1. Acknowledge that you’re worth it

Pursuing justice when you’ve been wronged often carries the question of, “Do I really deserve compensation?” The answer is yes.

Don’t be afraid to pursue issues against larger entities like large corporations and hospitals. Many large entities count on individuals giving up from feeling intimidated. The medical industry especially counts on patients not pursuing claims because they know most people don’t understand what falls under medical malpractice. Hospitals get away with malpractice daily because it’s not seen as such.

Medical malpractice isn’t limited to major mistakes. As defined by a lawyer in the industry, “In any case where a doctor, nurse, dentist, psychiatrist, chiropractor, hospital, podiatrist or other medical provider does something that falls below the reasonable standard of care, then that professional could be considered negligent. Negligence can lead to a medical malpractice claim if it was the direct cause of harm.”

Don’t allow yourself to be intimidated. If you’ve been wronged, you deserve compensation. It’s your right to pursue the issue, and don’t allow your mind to convince you otherwise.

  1. Don’t take anything personally

It sounds like a cliché to say, “Don’t take it personally,” but it’s true. No matter what your circumstances are, don’t allow them to define anything about who you are or how you feel about yourself.

Understand that whatever situation you’re facing is not the first time it’s happened, and you’re not the first person to experience it. You’re probably the first person to stand up and make a change, however.

Taking things personally will keep you feeling like a helpless victim and will severely cripple your ability to pursue your claim righteously.

  1. Keep your focus on other people

Yes, the situation is about you and the injustice you’ve experienced, but when you’re pursuing it, don’t make it about you. Make it about all the people who have suffered before you, and all the people you’re saving in the future. By focusing your attention on others, you’ll be less emotional about the details and more passionate about getting the problem resolved long-term.

When your fight is really a fight for other people, that’s when you’ll make the biggest difference for yourself and for others.

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Melissa Thompson

Melissa is a mother of 2, lives in Utah, and writes for a multitude of sites. She is currently the EIC of HarcourtHealth.com and writes about health, wellness, and business topics.