Even through the challenge of beating cancer, it’s important to care for yourself. In fact, many believe that self-care ultimately becomes that “beacon of hope and light,” if you will. From Unbound Northwest, we hope this guide provides some personal touchstones to guide you along the way. Each step you take will be an act of resilience, helping you to heal while also nurturing the spirit you will need to conquer your experience.
Manage Your Health Documents Digitally
Organizing health records is essentially about systematizing them in a way that makes sense to you. For example, saving as PDF files will not only preserve the original layout and look of your documents but will also increase their portability to most devices. Look for a free online service that can change scanned content into editable documentswith a simple drag and drop of what you need to convert. You’ll see how much easier your health record management will become.
Empowerment Through Knowledge
Stay engaged and well-informed about the treatment options available to you, and delve deeply into the details in order to be as prepared as one can be for what lies ahead. Ask the questions you want and ask to have things explained. Make sure your doctors are clear about everything. Move disease to the periphery, and you, yourself, to the center of your plan of care.
Nourishment for Healing
Balancing your blood sugars and feeding your body with the right foods turns your diet into an ally. Nourishing calories increases your physical energy and vitality, as well as your emotional and spiritual strength. This is an act of self-care, a respect for the body and its cries for energy, as you state the needs of your body with food that revitalizes. You are committing to the return of your health, as each meal is an opportunity for you to strengthen your innate power of recovery.
Intuitive Self-Care
Being attentive to your body is a skillful intervention you can use to take care of yourself — and to care for yourself well. It is an act of self-compassion and knowing, of getting comfortable with stopping and giving yourself a break, getting in touch with your needs and your body’s feeling state, and then moving forward from the alert and responsive home base of the embodied mind. In learning to stay mindful of your body’s limits, you support a compassionate relationship to your body that is built on awareness and reverence.
Strategies for Comfort
Experimenting with self-care’s pain-relieving techniques is immensely important for improving your quality of life. Pain management in this way becomes an expression of your resilience and self-empowerment. It is about finding what works for your body, a way to not let the pain dominate your spirit. It is how you can observe it and feel it, but not let it take over you. It’s how you can give yourself space and rest. It’s a way of caring for yourself and feeling better.
Self-Expression and Assurance
Choosing to wear a wig or some type of head covering can provide the comfort and increase the confidence level you need. This is still you asserting your identity in the way you want to deal with (and look good doing it) the changes that are taking place. You can still feel like yourself. That is what all forms of self-care should be about.
Willingly adopting these self-care rituals is a profoundly loving act of self-compassion for your whole cancer journey. For the body and soul, it is as important to grow as it is to heal; it is important to step on the right path for the higher progression of the path. Your journey is yours and no one else’s to walk, but you do not walk it alone. By adopting a self-care routine, you make an act of loving compassion with your body and your soul.
Troy is a Freelance writer, editor, and author who lives, works, and plays in Boise, Idaho where he hikes, cycles, skis, and basically enjoys the outdoor lifestyle of the Northwest. Troy writes about business, sports, GIS, Education, and more. He is most passionate about writing suspense thrillers, and his work can be found at https://www.amazon.com/Troy-Lambert/e/B005LL1QEC/
