Staying Postive After Your Diagnosis

Breast cancer changes you. There is no getting around that fact. It changes you physically and emotionally. But there are ways to keep your life from revolving strictly around cancer.

What Can I Do?

Stay positive. Studies have shown that those who look to the brighter side of things tend to live healthier and recover faster from illness. While your cancer isn't going to disappear overnight, staying positive can make each day brighter. This also means you need to surround yourself with positive people. You definitely don't want "downers" around you at this point in your life.

Meditate. Meditation has long been praised for its emotional healing capabilities. Not only does it lower your stress levels, it also makes you set aside time each day to tell yourself how strong you are and that you can overcome whatever you set your mind to. If you would like a crash course in meditation, BreastCancer.org has a wonderful article that might help you out.

Talk about it. I know that after being diagnosed, the last thing that you want to talk about is breast cancer. The trick is finding the right person to talk to. Find a support group and talk to people who know what you're going through. Your spouse, your parents, your children etc... of course they love you and they want to help. But knowing that they are hurting for you and are probably just as scared as you are, isn't going to make for productive chat. Find someone who has cancer or who has survived cancer to talk to. They can help you in ways that no one else can. They understand. The internet is crawling with support groups and forums, use them. A quick google search turns up many viable possibilities. All you have to do is decide if you want a local group where you can meet members face to face, or if you'd prefer to keep it all online. The choice is yours.

No matter what you do, just remember that staying positive is key to enjoying life, with or without cancer. We might not be able to get yesterday back, but we can make it a yesterday to remember.