Cancer as Ally
"Cancer was a forge. It encouraged me to bring about the refining necessary to begin living a new rich and fulfilling life. It was a burning off of the dross if you will, so I could become clearer about how I wanted to live my life.
"The cancer offered me the opportunity to physically, mentally and emotionally reset my priorities. It offered me the chance to look at unexamined, previously set-in-stone life patterns so I could take the necessary steps to change them. It offered the circumstances to change my life’s direction in ways that better served me. I did my best to embrace and love the cancer in order to create the new ways in which I wanted to live."[1]
We all have major life experiences. Births, marriages, deaths, illnesses, addictions, and relationship challenges to name a few. How we deal with them reveals how we grow our lives. I saw I had two choices when faced with the cancer situation:
Am I resilient? Am I capable of being in charge of as much of the situation as possible?
Do I feel like a victim? Is the situation taking charge of my life when I choose to react to what presents itself in my life instead of responding to it?
As I went through surgery and chemo, I did my best to be in charge of my life circumstances instead of the circumstances dictating how I would live my life.
There are many ways to incorporate healthy and supportive coping mechanisms into our life when faced with challenges. In Chapter 22 of My Ticket to Ride: From Cancer to Flourishing, I listed 33 modalities I used to support me in becoming well again. Some were: acupuncture, various ways to honor what was taking place in my life (more about this in my next blog), the importance of embracing situations as they arose instead of raging against them and using forgiveness to relinquish old stories no longer in support of who I wanted to be.
How have you dealt with major life challenges? What has worked for you when faced with them? How did your coping mechanisms impact your life? What changes came about because of your use of them? Did they support you in expanding your life? Share please, so we can learn from one another.
©2019 Cristina Whitehawk
[1] My Ticket to Ride: From Cancer to Flourish, pg.87