Turning Fear in to Strength: Thoughts from a cancer survivor during the COVID 19 outbreak
When things first started to get real here in regards to the severity of this novel virus so many thoughts started swimming in my head. The biggest ones were fear and uncertainty. As I was laying down to try to fall asleep, which has been more of a challenge lately, it hit me. This is exactly how I felt when I was diagnosed with cancer ins 1996. Those words YOU HAVE CANCER came out of the Doctors mouth and then its like I went to another space in my head. Panic and fear turned in to anger and sadness. Then those thoughts, am I going to live? HOW did this happen? How many years is this going to take off of my life. When can I see my friends. When can I go back to school and be normal? So many questions that I did not have answers to. I bet many of us are feeling the same right now. Plans cancelled. Schools cancelled. Travel plans cancelled or on hold. Our normal lives are turned upside down.
The one thing I know is that worrying doesn’t help anything. Most of what we worry about won’t actually happen so its important to focus on what we can do right now vs what we can’t do. We probably won’t have answers to many of our questions right now. We don’t know what the outcome of this virus will be right now.
Having cancer made me feel like I had lost all control of my life. My body messed up and got cancer. I had to put poison in my body to get well? Would it work, would I have side effects, will I get sick, what happens after? In order to get through that time I had to make some plans that I could still do. What can we focus on right now that we do have control over. We can choose to enjoy our family time. We can choose to focus on taking care of ourselves. We can focus on quality sleep. We can focus on being active, maybe learning a new skill, doing something we didn’t have time to do when our calendars were full of activities. Sometimes it is good and ok to slow down.
When we are faced with something like this novel virus, or a cancer diagnosis we have to think about our life and our own mortality. This does not have to be a bad thing. How we react in these times will change us. Things may never be the exact same as before but I think that is ok. Once I gave up my fear mentality and focused on what I could do I became stronger, more positive, and knew I would be ok. My fear turned it to lets kick this cancers ass! I know for me after cancer I definitely appreciated life and the small things better. I focused on what really mattered. This will teach us the same. We will become more resilient. We will become closer as a family. We will become closer as a community. We will take better care of our health. We will become better, stronger, happier, and spend time on what really matters.
I encourage you during this time to journal, be grateful, breathe, exercise, cook, laugh, get outside, read a book, start something you have put off because you didn’t have time, phone friends, have virtual dinners, virtual exercise partners, and think about how you truly want to live your life going forward. I am choosing to turn my fear in to strength, and remembering that having cancer was scary and a bump in the road but made me a better person with a purpose. I know the same can happen for all of us as well.
“With the new day comes new strength and new thoughts”
Alison is a functional medicine health consultant who helps people live a healthier happier life by focusing on the root cause of illness and assisting with lifestyle changes that will stick for long term health. She is virtual and sees clients one on one to be able to personalize an approach specific to their needs. Complimentary consults are available to make sure we are a good fit for each other.
