Introduction to the ‘New’ Normal”
When you hear the words, “You have cancer.” you immediately know that your life has forever been changed. You do not quite know what this means right away – it takes time for this to sink in and as it does, it ripples throughout every.area.of.your.life. I speak from experience as someone who was diagnosed with stage 3A breast cancer at 39 years old without a lump, family history or genetic component.
For many of us diagnosed, we realize that priorities need to be made and promises need to be kept. We recognize that we are MORTAL in all senses of the word when before, it might not have been a pressing thought. We examine our lives and think about how to be happy. Some of us lose our jobs, some of us lose our relationships we thought were built to survive anything – we all, though, lose our sense of “normal”.
At a certain point, most of us are told in some way shape or form to get back to “normal” and the fact is that someone MOVED normal because it is way too hard to get back to how we were before and there are somethings we learned through this terrible experience that include how important it is to take care of ourselves and to be “happy” or “content” in our lives.
This could mean making a change to our careers, or incorporating joy and balance into our lives in different but meaningful ways. These blog posts will talk more about the different ways we can find and embrace the balance of our lives after a cancer diagnosis.
Lisa Vento Nielsen is an author, speaker and cancer survivor. She is the founder of the nonprofit Balance After Cancer.