We can make our best decisions about how to live our most fulfilled life with arthritis when we balance our emotions with rational thinking. Stop and think for a minute about how you behave when you're really angry. It's likely that you've said and done some things that you regretted later. But what is more, you will also feel more pain and fatigue because of these negative ways of handling your life.

However, making choices based on rational thinking alone also doesn't make for good decisions either. We are human beings and not robots. Therefore, our hearts and our heads need to work together to in order for arthritis sufferers to become more emotionally resilient.

Each of us has some difficulty controlling our thoughts, emotions and behaviors from time to time. This is especially the case if we are in pain all the time. However, the more often we take steps to control them, the more emotionally resilient we will become.