Are you a pang-wangler?
I really hope you are.
If you aren’t then I really think you should consider it.
Pang-wangle is a vintage American phrase meaning “to go along cheerfully, despite minor misfortunes.”
When you’re pang-wangling, you find the silver lining so that when the world hands you lemons, you wangle some pangs and make sensational tasting lemonade.
I’m going to extend that definition to “despite major and minor misfortunes and everything in between”.
To pang-wangle is to be cheerful no matter what the adversity. It’s about keeping your chin up and moving forward despite the obstacles you encounter.
Remaining upbeat despite setbacks or problems is pretty essential for staying in sunshine mode. We can’t let a bit of mist fog the issue.
Certain situations can get the better of us if we let them.
Sometimes it can be the smallest thing that winds us up and despite telling ourselves “it’s not worth it”, we still get hot under the collar and bomb about the place in a tizz.
But a pang-wangler doesn’t let this happen. They stay positive and press on in a stalwart and stoic fashion. They are bullish, buoyant and bright.
This sounds like a great strategy for bigger problems and major setbacks too.
What about if you have been told you have cancer? That’s not a minor setback. That’s Major with a capital M.
Staying upbeat in these circumstances almost feels like the impossible…but it isn’t.
My cancer is, I am told, incurable, and yet I choose to pang-wangle in the hope that my treatment continues to keep things at bay.
By choosing to be chirpy, cheery, and jaunty helps my state of mind to face seemingly overwhelming odds.
I’m a firm believer that your attitude affects your cancer experience.
‘Being positive’ isn’t wishful thinking as it isn’t likely to change the course of your disease but what it can do is help you lead a better quality of life. It means you are better able to cope and manage the disease and treatment.
Adopting a positive pang-wangling narrative helps us articulate a role for hope, courage and resilience and helps us grow psychologically rather than cave-in and crumble.
Your time and energy have to be spent carefully when you have cancer and so for me it makes sense to invest in hope, optimism and have a good old hee-haw when I can. I’m not going to whiffle-whaffle my time away!
Having cancer doesn’t stop us from still enjoying positive experiences and enjoying life.
We aren’t dying of cancer, we are living with cancer and positive thinking can help bolster the will to live.
Pang-wangling through the week is far better for our immune systems than trudging through pessimism.
Do you have to be a blithe spirit all the time?
Every pang-wangler will tell you that this isn’t possible to be a giggle-mug, chortle monger and chuckle bucket all the time.
You are allowed to sip from the half-empty glass now and again, although not for long.
I choose to fill the glass up, keep whistling and put a skip or two in my step.
I know this isn’t for everyone. The bottom line is that people do what is comfortable for them and adopting an aggressively positive attitude is not going to do it for many folks – we have to respect that.
But it is a choice and if you want to be a pang-wangler extraordinaire, then you go for it, life is a tad easier to cope with when you are chipper.
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