| Fighting cancer is not the best way to heal. Think | | | | response is to fight, or flee. Fleeing wasn't going to |
| about it: if you've got a broken ankle do you try to | | | | make it any better, so fighting seemed like a |
| force it to mend? If you've got a cold, do you fight | | | | reasonable option. |
| it into submission? If you've got diarrhea to you | | | | Except that I was exhausted. The cancer was |
| challenge it to a duel? | | | | aggressive, my immune system was a pathetic |
| Healing occurs in a restful, peaceful state. 'Fighting' | | | | wreck, and fighting seemed overwhelming. |
| isn't so peaceful. | | | | I turned inward instead. I focused on peace and |
| Fighting is resisting. And you all know that what we | | | | tranquility. I cut out all stressors in my life - resigned |
| resist, persists. | | | | from various volunteer roles for the coaching |
| Like that annoying zit you keep picking at, and it | | | | industry, put my business on hold, and focused on |
| keeps coming back. Like the neighbour's barking dog | | | | being well. I took it one day at a time. I rented funny |
| that drives me batty, and kept driving me batty, until | | | | movies and read a lot of historical romantic dramas. I |
| I decided to bless it instead of curse it. Like the | | | | looked out the window at the sunshine in the yard. I |
| cranky teenager that digs his heels in with your | | | | ate croissants and cookies as well as vitamins and |
| repeated attacks on their unsociable behaviour. | | | | fresh fruit juices. |
| Resist = persist. | | | | In short, I relaxed. I went for ease. I embraced the |
| So if you're given a cancer diagnosis, what are you | | | | moment. I forgave myself for innumerable crappy |
| supposed to do if you don't 'fight' it? Do you just | | | | thoughts and past woes. I welcomed life each day, |
| give up and give in? | | | | instead of fearing the lack of them to come. |
| Nope, not at all. | | | | I think it's the loved ones who want to see you |
| Not fighting doesn't mean surrendering to the disease. | | | | 'fight' the disease. I know my family and friends felt |
| Not fighting means surrendering to peace, | | | | completely helpless watching me be cut open, and |
| surrendering to healing, surrendering to positivity, | | | | then poisoned with chemotherapy. If they felt like I |
| surrendering to faith, surrendering to a new focus on | | | | was fighting it, they could rally behind me - it would |
| health and wellness. | | | | give them a sense of purpose. |
| When you are calm, positive, and peaceful then your | | | | I told them to focus one seeing me healthy and well, |
| body's cells are given the best chance at returning to | | | | rather than struggling. I told them not to 'pray for' |
| their natural state of vitality. | | | | me, but to see me healthy and whole - to focus on |
| If you're strung out on adrenaline and stress, the | | | | the wellness, not the sickness. This really helped a lot |
| body is busy managing all those 'fight' hormones, | | | | - I was living into their (and my) vision of me in |
| trying to replenish the adrenals, and the immune | | | | perfect health. And I felt pulled along by this strong |
| system is put under enormous strain. It moves in to | | | | positive vision. |
| survival mode. And there is little energy and | | | | So I won't be joining any fight against cancer - I'll join |
| resources left over to heal, cleanse, and move back | | | | the campaign for health and vitality instead. Likewise I |
| in to balance. | | | | won't walk against war, or poverty, or child abuse; I'll |
| Your true ticket to abundant health and wellness | | | | walk for peace, prosperity, and happy kids. I'd rather |
| begins with a shift away from what you don't want | | | | invest my money in research for perpetual and |
| (cancer), to focus on what you do want (health and | | | | abundant health than in dissecting yet more disease. |
| vitality). | | | | I used to call myself a cancer survivor. I didn't survive |
| I didn't say this was easy. A cancer diagnosis comes | | | | cancer; I embraced it. Cancer taught me what was |
| with a lot of crappy stuff: a medical profession that | | | | most important: to live fully each day, to seek and |
| only knows how to cut, burn, and poison the disease; | | | | embody peace, to have fun, to dance more, to wear |
| an entire cultural hysteria around the very word | | | | silly wigs, to laugh at myself, and most importantly - |
| 'cancer'; and your own very poignant, very acute | | | | to live in faith, not fear. Even if I transitioned through |
| physical sensations and emotional responses. | | | | death, the sweetness of really learning peace and joy |
| 'Fighting' seems like a reasonable response to the | | | | and love would have been worth it. |
| terrifying proclamation: "You have cancer." When my | | | | Coach's Challenge: Whether you are living through |
| doctor rang me with the test results, I don't | | | | cancer or not, find ways to feel peace, to rest, to |
| remember a single word she said after that first | | | | relax. A life is made up of moments, make yours |
| three word message. With sheer terror, the natural | | | | good ones. |