programs & settings to a new PC!
Your personal journey through cancer will not look like anyone
else's. Yes, there will be some similarities... but this journey will be
uniquely yours. Your response to treatment, potential changes in skin
tone, level of energy, tolerance to certain foods, and many other "bunny
trails" will make your journey exactly that: YOUR journey!
What is important to know - and act on, is how important your emotional reaction to this journey you are embarking on is. Having worked with many women journeying through cancer over the years, I have found that there are only three emotional life choices that come from going through a great trial in one's life, like cancer.
For a moment let me backtrack and review the five steps of grief.
They are:
1. denial
2. anger
3. bargaining
4. depression and
5. acceptance
It is imperative to remember is that these are the five steps - one follows the other. It is a tragedy when you choose to stay on one step and not move up to the next...you never get to acceptance. You may not have chosen to take this journey but you can choose to move up from denial, to anger and so on.
There is no reason to feel guilty when you feel angry or that you want to bargain with God. In fact, it is healthy to feel these things. It is very important to be real with your feelings. The problem comes when you stay there. Taking on a cancer journey means movement. Many move through the physical part of the journey but forget, or choose not to move emotionally.
As I said before, there are only three emotional life choices one can make as they move through their grief. I am using the term "life choices" to disseminate between daily emotional choices. There may be days when I feel depressed but if I have made a choice to accept this journey I will respond differently to my depression than someone who has not. Does that make sense? Simply put: be real with your day-to-day, moment-to-moment emotions while making healthy emotional life choices.
The first of the three emotional life choices is to deny that life has taken you down a path you did not choose. Yes, it is important to keep a semblance of ordinary life during the journey, but be honest...life has changed! You do yourself a great disservice if you do not recognize and accept this fact because you cannot move on from something you have never acknowledged.
The second emotional life choice is to be angry and bitter because life has taken you down this road. This approach to the journey will not allow you to heal emotionally when your journey ends. It may also cause other health issues that you will have to address.
The third is to respond with acceptance and expectation when directed down an unexpected path. Each day of our lives is a gift from our creator. As long as we are here on planet earth, we have the opportunity to grow, change and touch lives around us. The journey that you have embarked on will stretch you in ways you never would have wished for or believe you were capable to handle. Yet when the journey is completed, you will be able to touch people's lives in ways you could not have, had you not taken this journey.
I am convinced that each of you are uniquely gifted and equipped to take your cancer journey. It you allow it, this journey will reveal your gifted endowment. Through pain and suffering, sickness, loss and - I pray, eventual healing, you can touch others to show them the importance of choosing acceptance as their life emotion. This is truly the only way to celebrate LIFE!
What is important to know - and act on, is how important your emotional reaction to this journey you are embarking on is. Having worked with many women journeying through cancer over the years, I have found that there are only three emotional life choices that come from going through a great trial in one's life, like cancer.
For a moment let me backtrack and review the five steps of grief.
They are:
1. denial
2. anger
3. bargaining
4. depression and
5. acceptance
It is imperative to remember is that these are the five steps - one follows the other. It is a tragedy when you choose to stay on one step and not move up to the next...you never get to acceptance. You may not have chosen to take this journey but you can choose to move up from denial, to anger and so on.
There is no reason to feel guilty when you feel angry or that you want to bargain with God. In fact, it is healthy to feel these things. It is very important to be real with your feelings. The problem comes when you stay there. Taking on a cancer journey means movement. Many move through the physical part of the journey but forget, or choose not to move emotionally.
As I said before, there are only three emotional life choices one can make as they move through their grief. I am using the term "life choices" to disseminate between daily emotional choices. There may be days when I feel depressed but if I have made a choice to accept this journey I will respond differently to my depression than someone who has not. Does that make sense? Simply put: be real with your day-to-day, moment-to-moment emotions while making healthy emotional life choices.
The first of the three emotional life choices is to deny that life has taken you down a path you did not choose. Yes, it is important to keep a semblance of ordinary life during the journey, but be honest...life has changed! You do yourself a great disservice if you do not recognize and accept this fact because you cannot move on from something you have never acknowledged.
The second emotional life choice is to be angry and bitter because life has taken you down this road. This approach to the journey will not allow you to heal emotionally when your journey ends. It may also cause other health issues that you will have to address.
The third is to respond with acceptance and expectation when directed down an unexpected path. Each day of our lives is a gift from our creator. As long as we are here on planet earth, we have the opportunity to grow, change and touch lives around us. The journey that you have embarked on will stretch you in ways you never would have wished for or believe you were capable to handle. Yet when the journey is completed, you will be able to touch people's lives in ways you could not have, had you not taken this journey.
I am convinced that each of you are uniquely gifted and equipped to take your cancer journey. It you allow it, this journey will reveal your gifted endowment. Through pain and suffering, sickness, loss and - I pray, eventual healing, you can touch others to show them the importance of choosing acceptance as their life emotion. This is truly the only way to celebrate LIFE!
Carin Hansen was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 40. After a
long battle she emerged victorious and began a one-on-one wardrobe and
beauty consulting business for other women journeying through cancer.
She has been a model, actress, talent agency owner, benefit founder,
certified acting/modeling instructor, writer, speaker and passionate
cancer advocate. Please visit Carin's website at http://www.bridges2beauty.net
for information and encouragement that is helpful and hopeFULL. You can
purchase a hard copy of her book "A Woman's Cancer Journey Primer" or
upload a free PDF on the website also. It is important to remember that
Carin is not a physician and does not subscribe to or recommend any
particular medical procedure or alternative treatment. She strongly
urges you to consult with your Primary Physician, Oncologist and/or
Surgeon before implementing any of her suggestions found in her
articles, newsletter, blogs and books.
Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Carin_Hansen
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