“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.”
–Winston Churchill

Each New Year brings new opportunities to change and improve how we choose to live our lives.

Aside from the standard resolutions many of us make (and often break) such as “I’m going to eat better, exercise more, quit smoking, etc.” what’s helped me is to focus more on changing the way I think and cope when dealing with what life has thrown at me, as in my case, dealing with cancer.

For 2017, I plan on not letting negative thoughts and fears overtake me. I’m not going to let myself worry more than I have to.

Something I’ve found myself grappling with over the past few years is the fear of recurrence. This started after a loved one completed treatment and received news that the cancer was in remission. Initially, this gave me strong feelings of relief and gratitude.

However, not long after the good news arrived, feelings of anxiety and fear started to creep in. I kept constantly thinking to myself “what if it comes back” and “what if they didn’t find it all”. I eventually started to dreadfully anticipate hearing the words “the cancer is back”, even though everything was going great.

In a lot of ways, this fear negated the positivity and hope I worked to achieve throughout the treatment process.

So basically this New Year, I’m going to let go of my fears of the things that haven’t happened yet.

Life isn’t predictable and doesn’t come with any guarantees. I’m a firm believer of rolling with the punches, and when a real challenge arrives, that’s when I’ll fight back.

I’m going to keep reminding myself that fear really doesn’t help in the fight against cancer. Instead, I’ll let my strength guide me and get me through it. I’d rather focus on what I still have, versus thinking about what may be lost.

This year I also plan to connect with other survivors of cancer. Hopefully I can do this with this blog. If you would like to share your own experiences, thoughts or have questions, I encourage you to leave a comment or send me a message.