Does cancer and the corona pandemic have anything in common? No. Not really. But there is one common denominator and that is our mind our psyche. How we think about a crisis. How we feel. 🌿

Learn from Lars M. Fogtmann's personal story of how to deal with the psychological stress around cancer in this episode of Suksesspillen. ☀️

What really happened to the 47-year-old Danish leadership coach and trainer Lars Myndal Fogtmann 3 years ago? 

Host Aja Humm in conversation with Lars Myndal Fogtmann. 

Learn more about Aja here: Norwegian site https://tuneinlabs.com  English: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ajahumm-businessconsultant/

Lars: https://myndalfogtmann.dk/om-os/

Lars is the father of 5 kids that he has together with his beautiful wife and business partner Dorthe. 

Lars and his wife came over a new understanding of how the mind works for us about 7 years ago and that helped them tremendously when Lars was diagnosed with cancer. 

It started with a lump in my neck. 

Lars shares his story. How he communicated with his wife and 5 children. He shares openly what thoughts went through his head in the initial days and also in the process of healing. 

Listen to what happened to Lars on the way home from the hospital. What went through his head. 

He could see:

The cancer was physical in his body

The thinking was psycologically in his mind

He did not have to mix those two anymore, so his mind cleared up. 

“It was only my “thinking” about cancer” that caused my troubled feelings. 

The kids could see that the parents were calm about cancer and they also stayed calm and confident. We were very honest with the kidds about the process and what was going on. 

We were not emotionally charged about it, so the kids were not either. 

If we are in a good state of mind when we talk about things, then everything is easier.

Also with the corona crisis. 

Friends and family said, “just think positive”. But then I had to create an illusion that was not mine. For me, it was much easier to just sit down and just see the floating thoughts, the thoughts that goes through me. 

“Oh, there was a new thought, and there is one other new thought”. 

A thought is there a split second, and there is another new thought and a new thought and a new thought….

Help for overcoming overwhelm: 

Just see it for what it is, a thought in the moment. 

For example, I may think: “I may be dying”…that is not happening now, that is something that is going on in the future that I really don’t know.

Every worries or fear I have for the future is not real, it is not happening now. 

…the only thing that connects the past to right now is my thinking in the moment…. 

…don't believe your thoughts…

…if I have to control my thoughts it is a lot of hard work…

…it’s easier just to lean back and see that it “just” is thinking going on right now, nothing more…

…there is so much more ease and lightness if you see it is thinking, you can react to it, but you don’t have to…

…when you are under stress, you only see part of the puzzle, you just see one piece…

What do I have to do to find calm again?

You don’t have to do anything. Because we come from calm, ease. 

Go for a walk in the forest, have a coffe, take a shower.

It’s not a “doing” thing, it’s a being thing.

We are not human “doings” we are human “beings”. 

It’s so much easier to just be in what is!

For me, with cancer, my body could use its energy to heal, not to fix my worried thinking. 

We coud see what was right for us in the family. 

It was for us the same to talk about cancer than it was to talk about coffee with my wife and that really helped me a lot. 

My wife knows that life has our backs always and will have a way for us. 

Lars’ last tips to you and your life:

Go live your lives and be present. Take a pause sometimes and go for a walk and see what floats in you.