Regardless of our abilities and strengths, we should never hold ourselves back from honoring what we know for sure is our truth. Allowing ourselves to “settle” is not living our best lives. It’s boring. It’s cheating ourselves out of what life has waiting for us.

Take that strong conviction you had as a child. Take those beliefs that you so strongly held on to and bring them into your life right now. Believe with all your heart and soul that you are well. That you can be well. That you have the free will to choose wellness.

At the time when I wasn't well, I was certainly in survival mode, but what about those who did their damnedest to survive their journey? Those who struggled, won, and struggled some more only to lose? Weren't they surviving each day they made it through?

I watched my body bounce right back to life just as quickly as it atrophied. The body is such an amazing machine. It can be brought right to the edge of lifelessness, giving you just enough to hang on, and then pop right back to where you were before your diagnosis.

Because I have more recently become very good at filling up my gas tank, remember it’s a practice, I want to share with you what I have in place for my self-care. It’s my hope that my plan will spark a little something in you to make you think about how you can make the same SHIFT in your schedule.

Sadly, 75% of what the average person tells him or herself is negative. And what's even sadder is that many people in our lives have scripted our self-talk, but the good news is we can rescript it. By selecting and feeding our minds positive affirmations the programming in our minds can and will change.

I know from first-hand experience that when confronted with the news of a friend or loved one’s illness, there is a certain uncomfortableness that surrounds the issue when addressing the person for the first time after learning of the news. You’re flooded with uncertainties: What do I do? What do I say? How should I act? Is it ok to smile? Is it too crass to crack a joke? Does this mean that I always have to be sad and serious? I hate being sad and serious.

If I knew then what I know now about how to take control and be mentally still and relax my body, my agonizingly sleepless nights would have been so much more bearable, relaxed, and filled with restful sleep. When I couldn't sleep, I wish I knew...

The single most important piece of healing after an illness is to accept that nothing is the same. Realizing there is no going back to the life you once lived can prove challenging at times.

More than one million people in America get cancer each year and for more than sixty-five years, the American Cancer Society has been finding answers that save lives- from changes in lifestyle to new approaches in therapies to improving cancer patient’s quality-of-life (cancer.org). What we know now and what I’ve been told by my doctors many times over is, that it’s all about the attitude.