Written By: Nelson Lee
According to the National Breast Cancer Foundation, 1 in 8 women will receive a breast cancer diagnosis at some point. The weight of a breast cancer diagnosis can be exceptionally heavy, especially as the uncertainty, grief, fear, and body and life changes that come with this diagnosis become a reality.
One of the core supports that can help you or a loved one navigate this challenging diagnosis is learning how to maintain a sense of self-worth while battling breast cancer. Below are some tips to help you do just that.
Feel and Embrace Your Emotions
A life-altering diagnosis like breast cancer often comes with a significant emotional toll. The loss that comes with the diagnosis may require working through the grief process. Through this it’s important to allow yourself to feel. Let yourself feel the grief, the anger, the sadness and everything else beyond and in between. Allowing yourself to experience your emotions without suppressing or avoiding them keeps you connected to yourself, which is a foundational piece of self-worth while battling breast cancer.
A tip to doing this when you’re feeling the weight of emotions is to check in with your body by slowly scanning from your head to your feet and simply noticing the emotional and physical sensations that are present (ex: a pit in your stomach, tightness in your chest, trembling hands, and more).
Educate Yourself but Set Limits
As you work through the medical process associated with the diagnosis, it will likely be helpful to educate yourself on your body and the breast cancer diagnosis. The National Breast Cancer Foundation is an amazing resource for this. Doing so will increase your confidence and sense of self-worth while battling breast cancer as you interact with doctors and the treatment process. Additionally, this education will give you an idea of what to expect as you navigate the future.
One thing to consider is that this diagnosis can trigger immense anxiety, and it may be tempting to try to remedy that anxiety through education. While the education can help you navigate the process, it may be exceptionally valuable to set limits for yourself. Spending excessive time researching and trying to control the uncertainty ahead can backfire and create more anxiety in the long run. Help yourself out by deciding ahead of time how much time you want to spend on education and then stick to it. Boundaries with yourself in this process will likely go a long way.
Practice Self-Compassion
Going through the treatment process may have severely negative impacts on your body and energy levels. According to the Mayo Clinic, these can include hair loss, loss of energy, nausea, and much more. Through these side effects it will be immensely important to meet yourself with self-compassion. This might look like continuing to allow yourself to experience challenging emotions with a sense of love and acceptance for yourself, being kind to yourself, helping your internal critic relax into becoming a more loving voice, and taking good care of yourself.
With the energy you have, do good things for yourself. Make time for the things you love that you can still engage with in your limitations. Reach out for support from friends, family, and loved ones. Another option could be exploring if there is a local support group in your area to attend where you can connect with people going through a similar journey.
Choose where Your Energy Goes: Control what You can Control
As you allow your emotions to move through with loving acceptance, the next step will be directing where your time, energy, and attention goes. This is what will help you stay out of negative thought cycles and the unhelpful stories that our brains sometimes bring to us. This is an ongoing practice of directing your attention to what’s good for you and will nourish you.
Keep it simple. Sometimes this is as simple as taking a moment to notice the sunshine coming through the window or the sound of birds outside. When you’re hurting this might be exceptionally difficult, but practicing it can help your mind and body recognize there are other things to focus on rather than the difficulty you’re currently facing. An amazing benefit of a practice like this is that it can allow your body to relax and perform the healing abilities it’s capable of. Being able to direct your attention this way also increases self-worth while battling breast cancer, as it allows you to stop being defined by your diagnosis.
Some major supports for creating enough mental flexibility to use this tip are learning how to practice mindfulness and meditation, which can be invaluable when it comes to accepting what is and pivoting where our mental energy is going.
The path ahead may be challenging, but there are ways to support yourself and maintain your sense of self-worth while battling breast cancer. It is my hope that this article provided some help and support for you on your journey.
Meet with one of our expert therapists in Draper who could help make the journey to better self-worth when battling breast cancer by clicking here.
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