I was told that during chemotherapy, I was going to feel really tired and nauseous.
I was told to do what I could but the underlining tone was – you probably are not going to be able to do much.
After an emergency surgery to remove a Stage 3 Bowel Cancer from my colon, I needed to face 12 sessions of chemotherapy.
As I began to heal from the emergency surgery and embarked on what it was one of the most challenging things in my life
I decided I wasn’t going to be that person described by the doctors.
I decided that I was going to create a new body, mind and soul in that process.
As my first chemotherapy hit my body, I realised I had a very steep mountain to climb.
I was burnout. I had been dragging my health physically, mentally and emotionally to they ground for years and I needed to make some drastic changes.
I knew I needed to change everything in my life, all the habits I had been practicing that were harming my health.
This is how I started tackling each part of my health as I truly believe cancer is not only a disease of the body, but also a disease of the mind and soul.
Physical Habits
I started changing my physical habits; my eating habits, introducing exercise slowly, prioritising my sleep etc.
Little by little my body started to get stronger. I started spending less days in bed and more days filled with energy despite going through chemotherapy.
Cancer had me on my knees and all I could focus was on very little steps. What amazed me was how much impact that was having in my body and mind. I was getting stronger daily physically and mentally.
Mental Habits
As I started changing my physical habits, I realised I had been stressed for many years. I couldn’t deal with stress very well and as a result of it, my body had been on fight and flight for many years.
This was something that I really needed to address as I also knew that life wasn’t going to stop throwing challenges at me.
I needed to understand how to react to these challenges in a different way instead of avoiding them or suppressing them as I had been doing.
Recognising that I needed to rewire my brain when it came to dealing with stress was a major part of my healing and I use tools like meditation, breathing exercises etc to keep on top of my stress levels daily.
Little by little I started reacting to stressful situations in a different way.
I started creating a new baseline for my stress levels within my body and I could feel myself more grounded and calmer even though I was still going through chemotherapy.
Emotional Habits
When my body and mind were strengthening and I could feel changes in how I felt in my body and mind, it was time to address some deep root issues that I had been carrying my whole life.
It was quite apparent to me that just eating a healthy diet, exercising daily, sleeping well, meditating etc whilst not dealing with the core of my emotional wounds wasn’t going to be sufficient to fully heal myself.
Cancer is a serious disease and cancer recurrence is a real thing> I have helped many clients that experienced cancer recurrence because they didn’t heal the core of their issues.
I had been angry for so many years and I held on to a lot of resentment. No wonder why the cancer was in the exact organ where you let go of s*** because clearly I hadn’t been letting go of mine.
I started working through the anger addiction and pattern I had created which stemmed from the deep resentment I had held on too.
This was a pivotal point in my healing journey. Letting go of what it didn’t serve me as well as letting go of the underlining victim mentality I had been cultivating throughout the years despite having a very successful life was key to my healing.
When you are diagnosed with cancer, the world around you can be very negative and you can feel very lost, hopeless and helpless but I am here to tell you there is a lot you can do daily to change the curse of your destiny (even after a cancer diagnosis).
My book Radical Ownership – Take Your Power Back Through Habits in Body & Mind is about how to take charge of everything you do daily despite going through a health crisis.
My book is a story of empowerment (and I wish I had read this right at the beginning of my own journey) as I truly believe anyone can empower themselves once they open their hearts to changing what it doesn’t serve them anymore.
I was able to finish 12 sessions of chemotherapy feeling stronger physically and mentally than when I started.
I had (have) 0 side effects and I take 0 medication.
5 years on, I feel the healthiest and happiest I have ever been at 44 years old.
This is not unique to me. I believe we have so much power within ourselves to change our circumstances. It is only a matter of tapping into our own power daily through what we do, how we feel, how we see things – our habits.
Everything we do is a habit whether it is physical, mental or emotional. When you change your habits, you change your life.
Don’t let anyone tell you what it is possible to create in your own life. You are the creator of your life. Take Radical Ownership and experience the magic happening.
