In this episode, I have a wonderful conversation with a fellow breast cancer Thriver, Jen. Jen is a stage four breast cancer Thriver, and if you really want to be inspired, you must listen to this episode! Even if you’re not a breast cancer Warrior or Thriver, I promise that you will become inspired listening to this episode! I start the episode by learning more about her as a human being and as a woman because it is so important that breast cancer doesn’t overshadow all the other wonderful aspects of our personal identity. At about 17 minutes into the podcast we start to discuss her journey through breast cancer. We talk about living in liminal space as a stage 4 Thriver, hope through struggle, beauty, shame, finding your voice, advocating for yourself, embarrassing moments, breast cancer and sex, emotional growth, spiritual growth, freedom, and savoring life. There are so many great questions we discuss! Here a just a few. What helps you feel worthy of love and celebration? How did you learn to re-open your heart to allow for romantic love and connection? How have people’s expectations of you shaped your feminine identity and perceptions of beauty throughout your life? What are practices that help you mirror your beauty back to yourself so that you can be both flawed and fully loved and liked? How has your breast cancer journey helped you to shed the boxes we put ourselves in? How has it helped you to see yourself more clearly and to love yourself more? How did you learn to let go of your old ideals of beauty and welcome in your new beautiful self? How has breast cancer impacted your relationship romantically and with your friends? What freedoms have you gained through breast cancer and how has it helped you to savor life?

In this episode I talk with a colleague of mine who is an expert on resilience, Dr. Tom Becker.

We discuss his recent research with veterans, Effects of Resiliency on Perceptions of Adversity, Health, and Health-Related Goals, and how it can apply for breast cancer sister warriors and thrivers. In their study, they explain how the ability to adapt to adversity is a requirement of human survival and well-being. An example is the environment of warriors: separation from family and friends, resocialization away from principles such as the sanctity of life, and the ordeals of battle. In their study, they propose that resiliency influences physical health through perceptions of past adversity, and indirectly affects the commitment to future health goals. Their hypotheses were supported and, in fact, resiliency played a larger role in veterans’ post-military adjustment than they anticipated.

We also discuss some of our personal experiences with the arts and explore the relationship to our own resiliency. Some of the topics discussed in this episode include the important of language and labels on resiliency; holding both grief and gratitude; importance of perspective on developing resiliency; trust, cooperation, risk, resiliency; the role of the arts in resiliency; engaging in the creative design process and personal empowerment; and important considerations to remember when one attempts to measure resiliency.

Dr. Tom Becker is a well-loved and highly cited professor of management in the Muma College of Business at the University of South Florida Sarasota Manatee campus. With degrees in industrial and organizational psychology, he has conducted many studies examining resilience and his research has been cited more than 11.000 times. He has also received many teaching and research excellence awards. He has worked with prominent organizations to improve individual and organizational effectiveness, including Blue Cross Blue Shield, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, McDonald’s, Newport News Shipbuilding, Procter & Gamble, the US Army, and other healthcare, manufacturing and service organizations. He is also a fellow of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology and the Association for Psychological Science.

For more information on his research you can find him at https://www.sarasotamanatee.usf.edu/academics/faculty-listing/dr-thomas-becker.aspx

Please join me on July 24th for my first live virtual retreat for breast cancer warriors and thrivers. The Sister Warrior Art Project (SWAP). We will engage our minds, hearts, and bodies through creative movement, journaling, and small group sharing. You can see a flyer on my personal Facebook page (Helene Robinson) or on my Instagram at hugsfromheaven4. It is free but limited to 30 participants so please email my assistant for more information and to register: [email protected].

This episode is dedicated to all the sister warriors we have lost to triple negative breast cancer. Since triple negative breast cancer is such an aggressive breast cancer, it is crucial that we share lessons learned to pay it forward for others. In this episode, I share my top two lessons learned from my journey to help detect aggressive triple negative breast cancer earlier and make more informed treatment decisions. I also discuss the importance of developing critical thinking, creating our own beauty, and connecting with Breast Cancer Prevention Partners and with the Breast Cancer Action Network for information and advocacy efforts in the prevention of Breast Cancer.

In this episode, I am honored to have a conversation with Dr. Russell Jaffe. Dr. Jaffe’s practical contributions to clinical medicine and to healthcare policy focus on functional, predictive tests and procedures designed to improve the precision of both diagnosis and of treatment outcomes; he has authored nearly 100 articles on the subject.

Honored as an International Scientist of 2003 by the IBC, Oxford, England, UK for his lifetime contributions to clinical medicine, biochemistry, immunology, methodology, and integrative health policy, Dr. Jaffe is appreciative of the recognition of his peers. He has served on the American Board of Clinical Metal Toxicology and coordinated its certification training program. America’s Top Physicians 2005, Who’s Who in America; Who’s Who in Medicine and Science; Who’s Who in Business and Engineering all have included him in recognition of his contributions to science and community.

Dr. Jaffe is the recipient of the Merck, Sharp & Dohm Excellence in Research Award, the J.D. Lane Award, and the U.S.P.H.S. Meritorious Service Award. He teaches and lectures widely on nutritional immunology and treatment guidelines for chronic autoimmune and immune dysfunction syndromes and has helped elucidate the causes and consequences of immune defense and repair functions in health and disease. He is also founder and chairman of ELISA/ACT Biotechnologies, and MAGique BioTherapeutics. We discuss the silicone hypersensitivity cell culture delayed allergy test that he developed and the immune system “black box“ of inflammation and autoimmunity to accurately detect why the immune system is not working.  We also discuss why many clinicians are unaware of the newer tests, the financial and quality of life consequences of not identifying the cause of chronic inflammation and autoimmunity, solutions to improve our medical system, and resources to help guide you in what you should eat, think, and do based on 4 self-assessments, 8 predictive biomarkers, including the delayed hypersensitivity tests.  

Resources:  elisa/act.com, perque.com, betterlabtestsnow.com, healthstudiescollegium.org

In this episode, I interviewed my wonderful therapist, Catherine Quiring, to introduce the enneagram and how it can be so helpful throughout our transformational life journey, especially as sister warriors and thrivers. I have broken it down into segments so you can easily refer back, and also included a list of resources that my therapist recommends below: 1) Defining the Enneagram (3:10-5:22); 2) Overview and Power of Enneagram (5:24-7:27); 3) My Discovery of the Enneagram (7:28-8:56); 4) Overview of Enneagram Types (8:57-25:43); 5) Our Enneagram “Resource Points” as another way we find balance (14:02-14:52); 6) EMDR Therapy and the Enneagram (17:50-19:40); 7). Body, Heart, Head Triads and Relationship to Types and Resource Points (20:07-22:38); 8) Relationship of Wings to Type and The Three Triads (22:39-23:18); 9) Understanding the Three Subtypes and How They Influence the Different Ways We React in Our Journey (25:44-32:26); 10) Examples of how as a one to one, enneagram type 7, with a dominant 8 wing this showed up in my breast cancer journey (32:27-37:42). Resources: Catherine Quiring, MA, LMHC

https://cqcounseling.com/

https://cqcounseling.com/2020/01/16/enneagram-magic-getting-out-of-the-box-youre-stuck-in/

There are lots of great resources out there about the Enneagram. One of my favorite books to start the journey is The Road Back to You by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile. I think this is a great place to start to figure out your type and learn more about it. My next favorite book is The Honest Enneagram by Sarajane Case, which fosters self-reflection and self-compassion. Some of the information I shared on the podcast today came from The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Riso and Hudson, which feels somewhat like a textbook on the Enneagram. On Instagram, check out Enneagram and Coffee with Sarajane Case and Enneagramashton with Ashton Whitmoyer-Ober. For Enneagram podcasts, try Typology with Ian Morgan Cron, The Enneagram Journey with Suzanne Stabile, or The Art of Growth which is hosted by an Enneagram coaching group.

In this episode, I interview Dr. Craigie, from the Center For Natural Breast Reconstruction, on many topics related to muscle sparing, autologous flap reconstruction. For those who may be interested in certain topics over others, I have listed below where in the podcast you can find discussions on the specific topics: 1) Intro to knowing your options (00:00-10:59); 2) History of the development of muscle sparing autologous flap techniques (10:59-17:10); 3) Review of different types of autologous muscle sparing flap techniques, and why one might be used over the other (17:10-29:26); 4) Important questions a woman should ask before selecting a plastic surgeon (32:17-40:42); 5) Comparing pain and complications from breast implant reconstruction and muscle sparing autologous flap reconstruction (40:42-43:14); 6) Breast implant illness after implant reconstruction, the recent FDA recommended checklist, and the ELISA delayed allergy silicone test (43:14-57:33); 7) Indicators a woman may need to choose a different Plastic Surgeon, and reasons why women often aren’t referred out when they don’t want implant breast reconstruction and want a muscle sparing flap reconstruction option (57:33-1:07:43); 8) Resensation clinical trial....what it is, how it works and when it can be done (1:07:43-1:23:35); 9) My process and criteria for selecting a plastic surgeon for my SGAP flap reconstruction (1:23:35-1:29:38). Information about the Center For Natural Breast Reconstruction can be found at https://naturalbreastreconstruction.com/. Information about the ELISA delayed allergy test https://www.elisaact.com/why-eab/our-unique-testing-method/ and information specifically on the silicone test https://www.betterlabtestsnow.com/product/lra-silicone-hypersensitivity-19-panel/

Sir Roger Scrunton said, “Beauty can be consoling, disturbing, sacred, profane; it can be exhilarating, appealing, inspiring, chilling. It can affect us in an unlimited variety of ways. Yet it is never viewed with indifference: beauty demands to be noticed; it speaks to us directly like the voice of an intimate friend. If there are people who are indifferent to beauty, then it is surely because they do not perceive it.” In this episode, my sister friend and I have an honest conversation about women’s struggle with beauty, the impact of our culture, the difference between pretty and beautiful, and explore how great philosophers and poets have defined beauty. I also talk about my own experiences during my breast cancer journey that made me feel I was being stripped of my feminine identity, how I pushed my feelings deep down to survive, and the safe space that is developed from a true sister friendship. I open up and share specific details from three key experiences, how I handled them, and how that impacted my journey in reclaiming my feminine identity and embracing my beauty. Embracing our beauty is a way to honor our body for how hard it’s been fighting for us to provide a safe home for our soul. And whenever you start to feel really vulnerable, when you are courageous and reveal your beautiful body with an intimate partner, repeat this sister warrior mantra as you breathe through the emotions: “My scars are like texture in art. Texture in art makes us want to touch it and draws us to the art. If my romantic partner doesn’t want to do the same to my body, then they certainly haven’t evolved enough to appreciate fine art.” (Robinson, 2020). This mantra may help you to hold others loosely until you can determine if they can truly perceive your beauty. Because once you embrace your own beauty, you won’t want anyone else who is unable to perceive yours.

In this episode, my dear sister friend joins me as we explore how we can develop compassionate curiosity, so that we can dare greatly, and live our best lives as breast cancer sister warriors. As a behavioral scientist with 20+ years in studying stress, she explains how stress impacts our brain and methods we can use to help us breathe through our fear so that we can lean into our curiosity. I share my story of how by developing compassionate curiosity with my body, it empowered me to “dare greatly” and find answers that saved my life and develop a true sister friendship. My sister friend shares her perspective of who I was before and after my implants from breast reconstruction were removed. She reveals some conversations and experiences we had that illustrates how much my body was trying to warn me, and the relationship to the significant struggles I was experiencing with my sense of feminine identity.

In this episode, I share the story of my journey into the world of dating after breast cancer and the messiness that entailed. With the help of a guy I dated, who is now one of my dearest friends, we share a story about the events that happened the night we met. The story reveals how the night was a transformational moment in my journey. I talk about how it empowered me to begin to let go of practices that were keeping me from developing radical self love, so that I could show up confident and comfortable in my new body to let my true beauty shine through. We share the funny, embarrassing, and awkward details of the story and dive deep into the raw emotions experienced from the challenges faced entering the dating world. We end the podcast by reflecting on our story, sharing themes that emerged, and discussing ways we can make intentional shifts to let go of practices that are causing barriers in our attempts to create true connection and find love after breast cancer. I encourage you to call in and leave any questions or comments. You can find the “Send in a voice message“ option in the trailer for this podcast on any podcast platform. At the end of each podcast I tell you about future podcasts coming up, so you can call in and leave your questions or comments for my future guests or myself to discuss. Remember, shame can’t survive when it is spoken, so let’s break the silence and have real conversations to empower us living our best lives now as beautiful sister warriors!