Medsblog. About health and medicine
AFTER CANCER: MORE HANDLES HELPING TO GET NEW LIFE
Posted under Cancer by adminCancer victims and cancer survivors are people in the same situation with a different frame of mind.
Focus on what you still have and what you have gained, not on what you have lost. Focus on what you can do, not on what you cannot do. Two people in the same situation can experience their lives completely differently, depending on how they focus. How you experience your life depends on your state of mind.
Control is an illusion.
Having cancer and undergoing cancer treatment make you painfully aware of how little control you have over important things in your life. Checkups, posttreatment medical problems, and social problems can be unwelcome reminders of your vulnerability. Remember that complete control is an illusion. Your” cancer did not create a loss of control; it revealed the lack of control. If anything, the tools and strengths that you can gain through your cancer experience will allow you to exercise more control over your life after cancer.
Pursue things that help; avoid things that do not.
You can shape your environment by choosing the tools you use to cope. The more tools you have, the more flexibility you will have for coping well with different situations. Support groups, helping others, reading, long discussions, private time, and exercise will be helpful or harmful depending on the circumstances and your feelings at the moment. Be willing to try varied activities and approaches over and over in order to find what works best for you at the time.
Learn to control your reaction to bad thoughts or feelings.
Isolated thoughts do not cause cancer recurrence. Everyone has unpleasant or pessimistic thoughts. Recognize these thoughts, accept them as normal phenomena, and then shift to more constructive, optimistic thoughts. You cannot always stop bad thoughts, but you can control your reaction to them. If you are troubled by frequent, persistent negative thoughts, counseling will help you sort out the source of these thoughts, find healthy ways to react, and thus gain control over them.
Grieve your new losses.
Many people feel that there is nothing left to lose after treatment. However, because of priorities during treatment, many things were nonissues until treatment was completed. Ongoing or new problems can cause raw losses. The human response to loss is grief, and there is no way to bypass the painful grieving process. Only after you have adequately grieved all the big and little losses will you feel more comfortable and content in your new normal condition.
Laugh every day.
Genuine laughter offers physical and psychological benefits in a most pleasurable way. It gives you a brief break from problems and seriousness, relieves tension between you and others, and lightens otherwise oppressive situations. Practice looking for humor all around you. Develop a ready set of quips for crises.
Set realistic goals and nourish inspiring dreams.
Working toward goals and dreams gives direction, meaning, fuel, and dignity to your present, no matter how great or mundane the goal or how lofty the dream. Accomplishing your goals will do much to heal insecurity born of physical and emotional losses and changes. Set short-term goals for the hour or day, as well as longer-term, bigger goals. Revise your goals if they are frustratingly out of reach or not challenging enough.
Nourish dreams that comfort and energize you. Remember, dreams are the stuff of life.
*182/32/5*
Add A Comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.