HEALING LIFESTYLE

What the heck does “Healing Lifestyle” actually mean?

It means choosing to live a lifestyle that will support your health and healing during and after treatment for cancer or if you're living with a chronic illness or auto-immune disorder. Diet and alternative therapies play important roles, but there’s so much more you can and should do. Finding ways to support a positive attitude is key to getting through this more easily.

Here are some good practices to note:

After my cancer diagnosis I set about to rid my home of toxic products. I threw out lots of cleaning solutions and replaced them with non-toxic products. Even cat litter or dryer sheets can be suspect.

I also went through and read the labels of anything I use on my body: lotions, soaps, sunscreens, cosmetics. Anything with toxic ingredients such as parabens, aluminum, artificial colorings or fragrances got tossed. There’s an excellent database on skindeep for cosmetic products if you want to find out how toxic your products are.

I got a HEPA filter/ionizer to reduce dust, molds and off-gassing in my bedroom, where I spend a lot of my convalescing time.

Regular exercise is crucial. Many studies show that cancer patients who exercise regularly have overall better rates of survival and experience fewer side effects from treatments. With that said, my energy is low and I can’t do vigorous aerobic exercise. I try to take walks with friends at the beach or in my neighborhood to get my body moving. Riding my bicycle is also a great and fun way to get some exercise, even if my rides are very short.

Stress management is also important. Stress can affect the immune system and potentially increase growth of cancer cell so it must be avoided! I realize that’s easier said than done, but in my case I had to really examine my lifestyle and structure it in a way to avoid stress. I stopped watching or reading gripping, depressing dramas. I disassociated from toxic people who caused me to stress. I took up guided meditations and increased my yoga to 4-5 times a week to reduce stress.

Step up your self care. For me that can manifest as advance meal planning to make sure I have delicious foods ready to go in the refrigerator, dressing up in bright colors (think pink!), wearing anti-cancer swag (like my pink “F#CK CANCER” Tshirt,) and remembering to love yourself.

Continue to have a social life because it nourishes and staves off isolation which can lead to depression and anxiety.

Having a good attitude is invaluable. To truly manifest a positive mindset I find it by aligning with positive people and doing the things that make me happy. This helps everything flow better.

Surround yourself with a great support group.

Accept help from others graciously and do not feel apologetic or guilty— remember others feel good in being able to help you so why deny them that?

Practice gratitude and kindness every day — this usually leads to happiness!

Most importantly, surrender to the cancer journey. Much of this is out of your hands and it doesn’t help to stress about it. You’ll find everything flows more easily when you’re not fighting it. Yoga and meditation and visiting your happy place all help with this.