Breast cancer – not just for grannies any more

Or mothers for that matter. Breast cancer is becoming more and more common in women of all ages.

Ever stopped to wonder why?

Maybe it is because we are living longer. 80% of breast cancer is diagnosed in women over the age of 50.

But what about the rest of us who are diagnosed and who are under 50? We are active, working, multi-tasking, doing our best to look after everyone (which is what most of our mothers told us is our ultimate reason for existing!), we exercise most of the time, eat reasonably well most of the time but still…

Having been there and done that and got the t-shirt myself, here is some information I offer to you.

Whether you have experienced that mind-numbing ‘why me’ moment when your doctor gives you the news, or you are stressing out because your mom and/or gran have been given that news and maybe you are next, take a deep breath right now and read on!

Who comes first in your life?

I ask it again – who comes first in your life?

I would put money on your answer being certainly not me.

We go through our lives being dutiful daughters, then dutiful wives, dutiful mothers; we look after the children, the husband or partner, the boss, the pets, the parents, the plants. Small wonder there isn’t much if any time left over for us (oh no… not me… that would be selfish to think of me!)

Right. If you managed to take five minutes of your busy day and write down what YOU want from life, will you be frowning over a blank page after said five minutes?

Oh yes… you want XXX for your husband, YYY for your children, ZZZ for the pets etc. But where exactly do you fit in to this equation?

Try this. Say out loud to yourself (looking in a mirror if possible):

I deserve to put myself first.

Then write down all the reasons why this is not possible. I bet ‘It is selfish to put oneself above others’ is on your list.

OK… how about saying I deserve to put myself equal first – there’s a novel thought.

If you cannot easily (and without any little voices in your head chirping away at you) that you deserve to be equal first in all your relationships, you are headed for trouble. It might not be the C word but how on earth do you expect anyone else to value you if you don’t value yourself as much as anyone else?

Women nurture outwards so often and don’t nurture inwards that it is no wonder they get stressed out, get MS, breast or other cancers, CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) and other serious diseases.

You can take a little pill or three to help with the stress but until you decide to find out why you are feeling the way you are and why you can’t put yourself equal first, it’s never going to go away on a permanent basis.

If you are interested in a drug-free way to relieve all this stress and see what has been holding you back from realising what a wonderful human being you really are, try some tapping. Even if you currently feel there is nothing you can do in your life to change things, try some tapping.

The only person you can ever change is you. But wonderful things happen when you do make changes – people have to relate to you in a different way because YOU are different now.

It’s that time of year again when some of us decide that the New Year is going to bring new habits and experiences. How about deciding that 2016 is going to be the year you sort yourself out and give yourself the present of freedom from all the baggage you have been carrying around for years.

Resolve to put yourself equal first – and experience life as it is meant to be!