Mindset Matters

As you navigate life with cancer one of the most important beliefs that you can adopt is that mindset matters.

Your life is filled with situations that elicit a response. Sometimes the response will be a good feeling and other times it will be one of stress or overwhelm or fear. How you navigate this can make a huge difference in your day to day life. What is important is to understand that you can change how you view situations to protect yourself and to lift yourself up.

Your life is also a series of stories. Things that have come and gone, things you are experiencing, and things that are yet to come. These stories can be a beautiful part of your life. But they can also be limiting if you let them control you.

Living in the past, holding onto narratives, and recycling stories that are painful can keep you stuck. They hold you in a version of what was that no longer is. These thoughts prevent you from being fully present in the here and now, which is really important when you have cancer. Your thoughts want to go to how it used to be ‘before’, to your life before cancer.

Living in the future can be the gateway to creating self belief and hope. This is what you want. But in the crazy world of cancer, your brain will feed you sneaky thoughts that cause you to fear the future and at the same time steal your joy of the now. Being able to recognize the sneaky thoughts and having tools to manage them makes a big difference in your day to day life.

Living in the past, uncertainty around the future, and sneaky thoughts can hold you back.  The truth is you cannot change what was and you cannot predict what will be. But you can learn how to use those stories to create your best version of you and life right now.

Three Mindset Concepts You Need to Know

Mindset matters. How you choose to see your life matters. How you release the past and envision the future matters. You can decide how you want to think and feel and start to create a more positive mindset for yourself. It all starts with one thought – I can do this.

Your body hears everything you tell it. Your body holds into the stories in your life - good and bad. Telling yourself good stories of how you can do this, of joy filled moments, of self-love and self-belief will send good energy to your body. This can support your mental health and your perception of your physical health. On the flip side, when you speak negatively you lower your energetic vibration and that can make you feel sluggish, stuck, and unmotivated. Imagine someone you love is unwell; how would you speak to them? Angry and judgmentally or lovingly? Now transfer this concept to yourself. How you speak to yourself matters.

Healing starts when you can release the stories. Negativity creates more negativity. It gets you into a thought loop that brings down your joy, suppresses your immune system, and creates more negative thoughts. You need to get out of the thought loop that is keeping you stuck where you are.

I talk about mindset in my book, Living to Thrive: a holistic guide to living with cancer. Changing your mindset is the difference between staying stuck and afraid or living with joy and self-belief. Every little piece that you do to support yourself can empower you to take action in your life.

There is a lot to navigate when you are living with cancer. Learning how to manage your mind is an important part of the healing process. When you can learn how to get out of thought loops and shift your thoughts to self-love and self-belief, you start to reclaim your life and choose to learn how to live with cancer. Cancer does not get to control your life, you do. 

Kathryn White is a Certified Holistic Cancer Coach who supports women to turn their cancer diagnosis into a thriving story one woman at a time.