shapeyourreality

Finding out you have breast cancer is a trial in itself, as you’re faced with surgeries, chemo, radiation treatments and you’re not sure what else. As a breast cancer survivor, I would like to share some of the things which helped me get through it all. I received the news on my 51st birthday, while I was on the martial arts floor teaching a childrens class. I had no time to break down into tears and self-pity–not with 20 kids on the floor waiting for me.

First of all, forget the pity party. It is a useless waste of energy you can do without. Instead, forcus your attentions on positive things you can do to annihilate this killer. As a martial artist, I decided to treat breast cnacer as I would any other attacker. Since this was a kill or be killed situation, I used everything I could as a weapon. This included a warrior attitude, meditation to aid with healing and mind set and visualization to let my body know what I wanted it to do.

Warrior attitude: No holds barred mind set to keep me from the self-pity blues everyone told me was inevitable. There’s no point asking “why me?” because, in a lot of cases, nobody knows. Instead ask “how do I fight?” and plan your strategy. Talk to your doctor, do online research and talk to others who have been through what you are now facing. They all have something to share.

Meditation: It has been proven that meditation can aid in healing. If nothing else, if gives you relaxation time to rest, which is something you really need. Use this time to focus on healing, on overcoming depression, finding a new outlook on the situation. Humor is a good thing, but it can be hard to come by. Change the way you look at the process and find something to laugh about, no mater how small, even if your doctor thinks you’re crazy.

Visualization: This is a way to communicate your healing desires to your body and help mobilize it to fight. Everybody has their own way to do this, so whatever you come up with will probably work. If you don’t know how, there are groups in nearly every city who will be happy to help you. My own visualization was to imagine the cancer cells as little black bugs, very, very, tiny little bugs. Then I imagined the commando cells I wanted to kill the bugs. These were sort of a weird cross between PacMan and the Michelin guy in a space environment suit–white, sort of roundish, with helmets. These guys carried weapons which fired intense green lasers at the cancer cells. And of course their aim was impeccable! After I created them, I sent them out with the orders to seek and destroy all cancer cells in the body.

Visualization also helped me through surgery, as I visualized white healing light shining on and through the incisions. Visualizing energy coming into my body from the universe at large helped me when I ran out of “oomph” and absolutely had to get back into the house, or back to my bed.

Attitude, meditation and visualization gave me what I needed to get through the whole surgery, chem and radiation ordeal and come out with a great attitude, new friends and appreciation for what I have. Was it easy? NO! But I made it, with the help of my family and friends who wouldn’t let me go back on my resolve to fight.

Don’t know how to meditate? There are several good programs out there to help you get started.
One of my favorites is Burt Goldman’s Daisy Pond meditation. It takes you on a fabulous little trip to a relaxing place to just hang out and rejuvenate.

For other meditation guides, checkout my favorites page.

Wishing you well until later,
Meleigh