Living In The Moment While Battling Cancer

A cancer diagnosis can be a blessing in disguise

In her years of experience working as an oncologist, Dr. Shyamali Singhal had the opportunity to learn that, as scary as cancer is, cancer patients are not powerless.  Some cancer survivors say that while coping with their illness they have had what they identify as a highly beneficial, personal, life-transforming change. Cancer patients often experience reconnecting with their loved ones, friends, and family. Cancer patients discover their own ways of coping with a cancer diagnosis, knowing how very uncertain the future is. Learning to cope is a gradual, ongoing process, but it also can prove to be very personally rewarding.

Choices To Make

Whatever the kind of treatment cancer patient and their doctors choose for specific cancer, there are many choices to be made that lie solely on the patient. A newly diagnosed cancer patient could continue to worry about all the things they cannot control and be depressed about the unfortunate fact of cancer or choose to make each new day a good day. Cancer patient alone has the power to determine where to invest emotional energy and how.

Rather than torture themselves with what-ifs, cancer patients focus on their loved ones and completely distract themselves with love. Rather than fret about the chemo and all of its side effects, they can view it as a challenge.

Bouncing Back

In the course of coping with a cancer diagnosis, patients can encounter challenges too great to entirely self-manage. Overwhelming challenges associated with newly diagnosed cancer sometimes result in the loss of valued abilities to engage satisfyingly in personal life. Patients often feel detached from their close ones. This is one definition of being functionally “wounded”. When a patient partially or fully gains restoration of valued abilities to function as they once used to, this significant outcome can be defined as functional “healing” in palliative care. Functional healing can occur through multiple pathways, from secular resilience to spiritual support.

Children Always Live In A Moment, Learn From Them

An important part of growing up is learning how to focus on the future. This means being an adult. Planning for tomorrow. Thinking ahead. Preparing for the rainy day. But if patients focus on the storm, their today could be ignored and washed away. Who knows how long any one of us has? In the case of cancer, most patients assume that now they know what is going to be the cause of their death. Does that make it different? Being around small children forces patients to stay in the present moment. The runny noses and sore tummies are so grounded in reality and immediacy that there is little room left for worry about the future.

The Science Of Healing

Some cancer care practitioners are quite effective at promoting functional healing among cancer patients despite an incomplete scientific basis for some of their methods. Their effectiveness indicates that the mechanisms of the functional healing process could be natural phenomena that are quite suitable for scientific study but are not yet generally understood and measurable in scientific terms. The functional healing methods of these effective palliative care practitioners are often labeled as involving “spirituality.” Unfortunately, this is a term that is generally associated with personal beliefs and not with the mechanisms of phenomena of nature that are the domain of science.

A Chance To Bond With Family Members

As cliche as it sounds, living in the moment, or being more present, is crucial for the successful recovery of cancer patients. Sometimes, making the proverbial lemonade out of life's handed lemons is the only reasonable option. Life is a learning experience and Dr. Singhal believes that every experience in life can teach us something. Even something like cancer. After a patient goes through all known stages to acceptance, they may discover cancer to be a true blessing in disguise. Many patients say it brought them closer with their loved ones and enabled them to bond more firmly than perhaps ever before with their family members.

Importance Of Self- Care

It's so easy for a cancer patient to fall into a trap of wishing away time, not enjoying each day despite cancer. Many cancer patients struggle to be in the moment because of the promises of the future used to seem more appealing. With cancer, the future now represents the unknown and the unknown is terrifying. The present today­ is more manageable, and by focusing on today, they can be happier. Dr. Singhal has witnessed this in her work with cancer survivals, which is why she used her expertise in hand selecting Hope & Beauty self- care products.