Immune System Health

Emotional Lessons From A Health Challenge

Working as a Nutritional Therapist I’ve supported many clients who’ve been diagnosed with cancer or other life changing, health conditions. Their strength and positivity never fails to inspire me, they also discuss emotions and observations that change their outlook and priorities going forward. I wanted to share a few of them with you.

The main emotion is fear, born from a realisation that time is finite and at some point, beyond our control, we will all say one final goodbye. Despite sounding like a negative response this isn’t necessarily the case because fear becomes a catalyst for change. It acts as a reminder to prioritise habits that serve you and get cracking with those experiences still to be had. Fear fuels courage that helps many step out of the comfort zone and head off to do all the awesome things they always wanted to do.

Another common emotion is regret, particularly about time and how it’s been devoted to other things, things that that don’t seem all that important now. Precious energy, attention and hours have been wasted worrying about stuff that never happened, what others thought, said or did and so many things that appear irrelevant now.

There is also a sadness about how the passage of time was rushed, chasing the end of the day or the end week now seems so daft.  Slowing down, day dreaming, snoozing and just staying present in the moment take on a new significance.

Their reflections and wise words often serve as a reminder to me. It’s easy for the days, months and years to pass by with a lot of stressing about insignificant things and yet lacking in significant experiences.

Plenty of work gets done and the To Do’s ticked off but it means nothing if you’re not collecting precious moments, truly living life along the way and working through that bucket list if you have one. These are the memories that will mean the most to you in future, these are the ones you’ll download time and time again to relive those feelings.

So I hope this post reminds you to do the same, because life is short but you won’t worry about leaving the party if you had a brilliant time