Beating The Odds Against Breast Cancer: A Journey to Wholeness!!
If you’ve been diagnosed with Breast Cancer and your healthcare provider isn’t asking about the rest of your life, you need a new provider. Your breast is attached to an entire body of systems - physical/physiological, mental, emotional, social and spiritual. And, they all interact with one another 24/7/365. It is vitally important to realize that as you navigate your care and to surround yourself with practitioners who are looking at you as the whole person that you are.
When I started my journey I was a working wife and mother, navigating Atlanta traffic every day, busy in my church, overweight, suffering with migraines, grieving the loss of a student, struggling in my marriage, dealing with a lot of hormone/gynecologic issues, facing the possible death of my father (cancer) and brother (AIDS). And, in the middle of all of that, I now had to make decisions about breast cancer treatment!!! Oh. My. Goodness.
Are you kidding me?
Does anybody care about how any of this will impact my cancer journey? Should I be concerned about that? Are there things I can do to improve my cancer and impact the other things I am facing? Have any of the things I am facing impacted my breast cancer or vice versa?
As I started searching for whole person/lifestyle medicine information to help me, I was coming up empty. Then I remembered my training at the Loma Linda University SPH. It was there that I learned the principles of whole person health/care. I had taught those principles professionally and now was the time to put my money where my mouth was.
I sought out whole person providers. I participated in a residential Healthy Lifestyle Program. I got busy making significant changes and practicing self care. And, I faced the fact that I could die. But, I would live intentionally until I did. As I journeyed, I experienced so many positive changes in my overall health and the proof was in my medicaL records.
I don’t know where you are on your journey, but I do know you can do more than beat breast cancer. You can make healthier lifestyle decisions and be on the journey to being made whole. There’s a lot more information available now about how our choices and things that happened to us impact our health outcomes. Do a Google search. You will be amazed.
And, then decide how you will make those better health choices!!
-Are you willing to honestly assess the things that are going on in your life and how they are affecting you? Do you want to also see improvement in those areas? Do you want your immune system to be strengthened to protect you?
-Will you stop overcommitting? It’s harder for your body to keep you well, when it doesn’t get enough rest? Are you waking up from sleep feeling restored?
-Will you find your spiritual space? Having faith outside of yourself, helps with facing life’s challenges and assists in your recovery. For me it’s my relationship with God and my community of believers. Are you practicing behaviors that restore your spirit?
-Will you eliminate unhealthy substances? Alcohol, caffeine, tobacco, and illicit drugs only bring temporary “escapes” from reality. Develop a plan to remove any/and all of those things from your life. Get to the bottom of why you depend on them.
-Would you be wiling to speak to a therapist and get counseling? A lot of what drives poor choices and health outcomes is the trauma we’ve experienced that we try to self sooth. Therapy has been the BEST thing my husband and I have ever done. It’s relieving and sobering and uncomfortable and affirming and freeing and worth every visit. There are some amazing physiological changes that occur from engaging in the process. And as your body regulates, the health challenges you face, also improve.
-Would you be willing to forgive? Forgiveness is a process that can take some time. And, while we would love for the perpetrator to own up……often they don’t. Look at forgiveness as freeing you and restoring balance in YOUR body. And, if you need to forgive yourself…..do it!! Greg Anderson’s story about cancer and forgiveness is worth a read.
-Would you be willing to commit to an exercise regimen? The data is clear on how it benefits all body systems. 20-30 minutes a day can be life changing and health promoting and healing!! The immune boosting benefits of exercising outdoors are exponential to the body!!
-Would you be willing to eat more plant foods. The regimen prescribed for breast cancer is great for killing what it sees. But, it does not help immunity and overall health. Research now provides the immune boosting/disease preventing properties of phytochemicals found only in plant foods. If you are not ready to go fully plant based, would you consider ramping up the amount of plant foods you consume….for better health?
-Would you be willing to find a medical team that treats you as a whole person? It’s like shopping for shoes. I never buy the first pair I try on. I look and compare until I find the one that fits me perfectly. You deserve to be confident and feel safe with your medical team.
-Are you ready to have the conversation about death? This part is never easy. Never!!!! First thing my lifestyle physician said to me was that I might die……but we were gonna ask God to heal me. And, while death is a horrible enemy to life…….people of faith believe that when a loved one does die that they are finally healed and will be reunited with us again one day.
I think a lot about the story in the Bible when Jesus came to the pool of Bethesda where sick and maim were gathered waiting for the water to be troubled so they could get in and get well. When Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be made whole, the man answered that he had no one to put him in the water when it was troubled. Jesus told him to rise, take up his bed and walk. Then, seeing him later in the temple He said, Behold you are made whole, go and sin no more, less a worse thing come unto thee.
That story shook me. Some of us have lived in pain/discomfort/illness for so long that it’s hard to visualize being made whole!! I decided that I didn’t just want to Beat The Odds Against Cancer. I wanted to be made whole and to live in a way that supported wholeness. I celebrated God’s grace in this webinar. Take a look at it!! Life changing!!
What do you want?
What are you ready to do?
Let’s Beat the Odds Against Breast Cancer!! Let’s Be Made Whole!! Happy Breast Cancer Awareness Month!! It’s First Thursday Yawl!!
I’m Still Shoutin’ Ova Here!!
Donna
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