How many times have you heard someone ask, “Why did I get breast cancer? I don’t understand. We don’t have a history of breast cancer in my family. I am the only one in my family that I know who has breast cancer. What did I do wrong? I must not have done everything that I needed to do in order to keep from getting breast cancer. Maybe God is punishing me for something that I have done. Such thoughts go on and on and you are just so overwhelmed that there seems to be nothing that anyone can do or say to make a difference or help you to understand that a person does not get breast cancer because you are a bad person or because this is a karmic payback.
We just have to start being kinder and gentler to ourselves in order to live the healthiest lives possible whether it be before, during or after breast cancer.Barbara Jacoby
It is most important to understand that if we knew or understood why and how a person gets breast cancer, we would be able to come up with a cure. Even better, we would have already found a vaccine to keep us from getting breast cancer in the first place. If it was because of your diet, you could just change it and everything would be fine. If it was because you don’t get enough exercise, then you could just add more time to working out and you could be healed. If it was because you were not religious enough then you would see that every person that you know who is religious would never have gotten breast cancer and we know that such is not the case. Let’s be honest about this. We all know people who seem to lead a perfectly healthy lifestyle, who faithfully exercise, who have no history of breast cancer in their families and yet they still end up getting the disease. So while we know that we may need to consider these factors in perhaps giving us the best chance to not get breast cancer, we need to understand that there is so much more that we don’t understand so that we don’t buy into every new story we hear on a daily basis.
Bottom line is we don’t know why we get breast cancer. Just as we hear one week that coffee is bad for us and then the next week we hear that there was a new study that indicates that coffee is good for us, these are the same things that we hear that apply to breast cancer. We hear that all sorts of exercise programs are really great after breast cancer, or to help in preventing it in the first place, but most of the time we are hearing that from someone who is trying to market their program to us so that they can make a lot of money. Many don’t care if what they claim is true because if they do it right, they will have sold enough programs or equipment or whatever to make a fortune before anyone can prove that what they are saying isn’t really valid.
It is time for each of us to start thinking for ourselves. We must stop letting the marketers run our lives. If we have concerns that things that we are doing in our lives are not healthy then we should discuss that with the real experts and that is those who are a part of our medical team. But we must remember that no person, not even the very best in the medical field, has all of the answers. However, you can bet that what is suggested to you by a qualified medical person who knows you and all of the specific facts about your personal health situation is in a better position to help you make any changes that may be warranted. Even then, learning how to enjoy your life each day in all arenas is the only way that you can truly become healthier. If you can appreciate that it takes a balance of everything around you, and you can stop abusing yourself in mental or physical ways, then you will understand that nothing else matters. We just have to start being kinder and gentler to ourselves in order to live the healthiest lives possible whether it be before, during or after breast cancer.
Barbara Jacoby is an award winning blogger that has contributed her writings to multiple online publications that have touched readers worldwide.