Resilience- Stretching and Bouncing Back

Resilience is something that many people believe you either "have" or you "don't". We have a lot of admiration for those we think are resilient. In fact, we aren't born with it! It can be developed over time. It takes intention and purpose, but we can all become more resilient. It isn't a linear process. We have to stretch ourselves to handle difficult situations. Sometimes we stretch and move ourselves further along in our process and sometimes we bounce back to where we were and need to begin again.

When I was diagnosed with cancer, I had no idea what my experience was going to be and it was a lot tougher than I had figured it would be!! I knew that I would need to line myself up inside in order to cope with it.

Here are some of the ways I worked to become more resilient:

• I tried to take care of my body through my diet, whatever exercise I could handle, massage and acupuncture.

• i stayed away from people in my life who were negative or toxic to me. I had no room for people who were going to hold me down in any way.

• I sought out help when I needed it. This included talking with family and friends and finding a good therapist when I needed to share thoughts and feelings I was struggling to understand.

• I found purpose in shifting the scope of my practice to work with other cancer survivors.I wanted to help people have the best treatment and survivorship experience they could. This has helped me give back to the cancer community and pay forward the kindness that I received.