3 things worth sharing this week
1. There is a reality…
There is a reality that never judged you and never hesitated to rush in and help you. This reality is in your biology and in the society surrounding you constantly demonstrating this truth. Look for it. – OB1
2. NASA Comes to Pennsylvania
I feel like I am in that count down phase of a rocket ship about to escape from the gravity of the world of chemotherapy.
Fourteen days ago was my 15th round of chemo. It is time to move on to a New World of sustainable recovery. A life focused on others instead of only pills and me.
My previous launch attempts were not total failures but were also not total wins. The main rocket fuel of chemo is the same. To reach the New World requires changes in the cockpit and trajectory, which is up to the ‘brains of the operation’ – my brain, my attitude, my diet, my everything…
Life is short. They alone live, who live for others.
3. The Uselessly Good Club
Years ago, I wrote about the uselessly good club. A membership I continually wish to avoid. It’s the clubhouse for those who do not want to be bothered, nor get involved – it’s a land of inertia for the overly kind.
Living peacefully. Talking or writing about peace, ignoring any rage or righteousness that might be hiding in the nooks and crannies of their unconscious mind. They thought fasting to promote peace would work. (It makes me smile.)
Now the topic is cancer (my cancer), not war and social strife.
How do I apply my holistic lifestyle and positive mindset to enhance the healing of chemo?
How do I overcome my own tiny subtle (possibly unconscious) tendencies of self-hatred, jealousy, fear, greed, and doubt… and overpower their inertia?
What action items must I take today that are more powerful than just trying to look good, behave nicely, be accepted, be wanted and stay alive?
What is useful and what is useless?
I need new methodologies to overcome the inertia of my kind-hearted appearances and confront my deeper-rooted tendencies of dis-ease.
Today, this is what makes sense to me
• Maintaining a clean vegetarian diet – a 40+ year habit can always be tidier.
• Movement as medicine – walking, stretching and strengthening. This one is my biggest challenge. Breaking free from the recliner chair has not been easy.
• Sleep, rest and relaxation – my fatigue of the last many days has been very hard for me to ‘give in’ to. I hate ‘lazy’ but yesterday I finally accepted that I really do need to sleep and nap more to get this chemo out of my system. Very humbling for me.
• Breathing Big and Small – chemo has caused interstitial lung disease. Big breaths are not so easy anymore. I will do more big breathing. The smooth, quiet, continuous breaths of meditation where I exhale twice as long as I inhale removes tension from brain, blood and nerves. I will do this small breathing more often and more consistently.
Correcting one single pause in my breath can change my life!
Maintaining this trajectory to the New World now sounds easier. Doable. Join me!
Love, Terri and Blair
Fear is selfish.
Courage is selfless