Have you ever asked yourself what it was you did to get cancer?
Well you’re not alone. Many cancer survivors want to get to the bottom of this question.
And today I’m going help you answer this question in a way that doesn’t make you feel burdened with guilt about what you may have done in the past.
You can approach this question with sensitivity, understanding and most importantly curiosity so that you can finally find the answers to that burning question – What caused my cancer?
Because when you’re clear on the answer, it allows you to put the brakes on cancer development and to transform your health.
Stop Focusing on the Past
A word of caution.
Do not go down the rabbit hole and ask yourself the “WHAT IFS”
What if I didn’t drink?
What if I didn’t eat that food?
What if I didn’t put my phone in my pocket. Would I have gotten cancer in the first place?
Trust me, the “WHAT IFS” are going to drive you crazy.
If you focus on the past, you’re going to feel so much guilt and so much suffering.
So if you notice yourself wondering on the what ifs then stop right now.
There’s no upside whatsoever in judging yourself for your past actions. We as humans are not perfect. We don’t know everything there is to know about health and honestly we are all living the best way we can.
So instead of focusing on the things we can’t change - which is the past, I want you to focus on what you can change. Focus on the now and the future.
A Magic Bullet?
I get it. We want answers and we want to get roots of the problem but the majority of cancer survivors approach the question of cause in the wrong way.
They fall into the trap of “THE ONE THING” mentality.
What do I mean by that? Well they think there’s one thing that must have caused their cancer, and is searching and trying to rack their brain, and look for that one single thing.
· Was it my deodorant?
· Was it because I colored my hair?
· Was it something I ate?
· Or drank?
· Was it stress?
You see most cancers, especially cancer types like breast cancer are multifactorial.
Because the things that caused my cancer, is going to be different to the things that caused your cancer, even if we had the exact same pathology results.
Therefore, the one thing mentality is flawed thinking and most often creates more confusion for the cancer survivor especially if they see “evidence” that refutes that one thing.
For example, if a woman with breast cancer thinks it’s her genetics and gets tested for the presence of breast cancer genes, and the results came back negative, they’re first of all relieved to get a negative result but their hypothesis that it was genetic was disproved by the test. So their question of what caused their cancer remains unanswered and confusion sets in, and many people stop enquiring way too early because they feel overwhelmed to figure it out.
Is Cancer Due to Bad Luck?
Have you noticed how cancer doctors rarely ask about your lifestyle? The fact of the matter is, cancer is complicated and the factors that drive its growth is multifaceted and interconnected.
So what do oncologists say to their patients? They tell their patients that it was bad luck.
What the oncologist really means is that he doesn’t know what caused your cancer and he doesn’t have any straight answers for you. You have to also understand the practicalities of it all. A standard oncology consult already lasts for an hour, he has barely have enough time to explain to you the treatment plan and the side-effects associated with it, let alone have time to go through your whole life history.
Instead, your doctor reassures you that there’s nothing you did that caused it and that cancer doesn’t discriminate. Which is pretty sweet in a way, but can also misleading and disempowering for the woman. Because if we don’t know what caused our cancer, then how are we suppose to stop it from coming back?
Can you imagine if you were diagnosed with heart disease, type II diabetes and the doc said it was bad luck? It sounds ludicrous, no doctor would say that to you.
If cancer was bad luck, then the cancer researchers out there that’s researching the causes of cancer should stop what they’re doing because you simply can’t study bad luck.
Understanding the Terrain
We want to think about the causes of our cancer as our own unique risk factors. Like a fingerprint, no one else in the whole world have the same risk factors as yours. Because our physiology, the way we live, our experiences we go through, the environment, our genetics all play a part in cancer development.
And instead of looking for individual factors that pinpoint cause, a more useful way of looking at cancer development is to understand The Terrain.
You see, everyone has microscopic cancer cells in their body (due to the fact that we are a multicellular organism). But not everyone develops a tumour. Think about microscopic cancer cells as the seed and the terrain as the soil. If the soil is unfavourable, then nothing will grow. So, if you’re serious about preventing a relapse, then not only will you have to get rid of the cancer (by undergoing treatment), you also have to fix the terrain as well.
Finding Greater Awareness of Your Life
“Awareness is all about restoring your freedom to choose what you want instead of what your past imposes on you.”
-Deepak Chopra
If we really want to start taking control of health and our recovery, we need to have the courage to take inventory of our own life. The first step in transforming our health is to have awareness. And believe me, you have to do some inner work to create awareness. It’s not that easy to put a mirror up to your life, in fact it can feel quite confronting and you can easily judge yourself too harshly. And that’s not going to serve you.
So I want you to go easy on yourself. Let your curiosity guide you. Start by imagining yourself as a scientist, just observing your daily life. Most of the time we are on gogogo mode. We live our lives on autopilot and rarely stop to think about the things that are out of balance.
For example, when our body gives us signals that something is breaking down we often ignore it, because the problem isn’t big enough and it’s easier to sweep it aside, take a pill, suppress the symptoms than to address head on.
And we all know that little niggles in our body when left unnoticed can sooner or later lead to full blown disease.
Remember that disease starts with a feeling of dis-ease in your body.
Transformation is Just as Important as Information
Deep down, we know what the key healthy habits are. We need to eat fruits and vegetables, get regular exercise, get enough sleep, don’t stress and avoid processed foods and toxins.
Intellectually we know that a lifestyle change is probably the smartest thing to do to prevent cancer from recurring again, but many of us struggle to change and feel emotionally conflicted.
A big reason why lifestyle change is so hard, because there’s lack of awareness of what’s driving our behaviour. You see, there’s usually a big mental and emotional component that’s not addressed and therefore preventing us from making those changes in our lifestyle.
Dis-ease isn’t just felt in your body, it’s also felt in the mind.
Think about our “bad” habits. Over eating, over drinking, siting around on the couch and not exercising are the ways in which a lot of people cope with life.
It’s the way we comfort and soothe ourselves because life is hard and yet we have to be a big girl, carry on and keep going.
Its no wonder we feel uncomfortable and conflicted when we think about changing our lifestyle because, it means we have to let go of the ways in which we cope with life itself.
So what do we do?
We talk ourselves out by remembering what our oncologist told us that it’s all down to bad luck, cancer doesn’t discriminate and it’s not within our control.
And I think if you believe that then you’re just giving your power and responsibility away. You’ll feel hopeless about the future because you feel helpless against a cancer recurrence.
I feel that education is important.
We need to do our research about the types of food to eat, the vitamins to take, and all the different strategies to prevent cancer. But when you’re always looking at the external world about what to do, you’ll always be chasing for that next thing.
You’ll feel that you’re never doing enough prevention and you’ll end up living a life chasing for the “cure”.
So it’s equally important to look inwards for the answers. You need those “aha” moments, you need those personal breakthroughs and realisations. When you yourself start noticing the things in your life that are out of balance, that aren’t serving you. Those are going to be the most powerful drivers of your transformation. Not what people think you should do.
Instead of feeling like life is going to be restricted you’ll feel like you want to change and have the motivation to change. Because when you have those breakthroughs, you’re going to feel differently and therefore you’ll act differently.
The question is, do you have the courage to look at your life at a deeper level?
If you really believe that you have the power to prevent a recurrence, and that change is needed in your life, I have a resource to help you just that.
To get you started in noticing dis-ease in your life, I’ve created a free tool for you called the Dis-ease life inventory exercise. This exercise helps you observe 4 key areas of your life.
It’s free for you to download for a limited time only so go ahead, grab the free worksheet, fill it out, it won’t take you long and start creating that level of awareness. You’ll be surprised by how many things in your life that you’ve stopped taking notice of.
By creating that awareness, you’re then one step closer to what nourishes you, strengthens you and protects you.
Don’t wait for permission to make yourself a priority.
Once you’ve finished the exercise, make sure you leave a comment down below and tell me what aha moments you’ve made about your life.
Everything in life is all about perspective. You can view a cancer diagnosis as a death sentence, or you can view it as your wake up call to take greater notice of your life and be the healthiest version of yourself.
Don’t forget to leave me a comment down below after you’ve done the DIS-EASE Life Inventory Exercise and tell me your biggest A-HA moment.
