Smiling in the face of cancer

How I stayed positive while battling cancer treatment.

It has been proven that having a positive mindset can lead to success in school, work and can even have a positive impact on your health and well-being. During your hardest times it is more difficult to stay positive yet that is when you need it most. It takes real courage to stay positive when the world is falling apart around you but it’ll make the ride a lot smoother if you can trick your brain into a positive mindset. Here is what I did to try and stay positive throughout my treatment. Here is how I battled cancer with a smile on my face:

Support

Previously, I have spoken about the importance of having a support network while you are under going treatment and for me personally it was my network that dragged me through it all. My strength throughout my treatment came from the immense support that I had from my family and friends. There was no way I could have got through any of it without their help. Your support network helped me keep positive because I feed off social interactions.

My main support and carer was my mother. She went through every step of the way with me and was there anytime I needed a shoulder to cry on. She is the most charismatic and loving lunatic in the world and she made me laugh even when I was in my darkest moments. She has put me before her own needs and even tackled the American highway to get me to treatment. I will be forever grateful for her. She herself is very positive and this really helped me to stay positive and look on the bright side everyday. Leaning on a carer is only to be expected although there will be difficult times when you can’t bear each other they are the ones who get you through it and bring you snacks at chemo. So don’t shut anyone out or feel too proud to accept help.

Having friends and family around you that make you laugh and smile is massively going to keep you positive. Psychologists have found that even if you’re in bad mood, you can instantly lift your spirits by simulating (not fake, but choose to engage in)  a genuine smile.

Positive mindset

Firstly, if you are a cup half full kind of person you will find difficult times easier than others I promise. Positivity is a gift that can be encouraged within your own mind but I’ll talk more about that later.

Secondly, worry is the most pointless emotion in the whole world. No one knows what the future holds, you can only deal with what you have today. If you constantly thought ‘what if’ then you might as well worry about Jabba the Hut knocking at your door forcing a lap dance on you. My point is that anything could happen and worrying about something you can’t control (because you can’t control random cell mutations any further than not smoking or not burning in the sun) is pointless. Whilst I completely understand that not worrying about something is easier said than done there are a few things that I picked up along the way to minimise my worrying and to keep a positive mindset:

1. Yoga and mindfulness

2. Not indulging in the ‘what if‘ thoughts and pushing them away mentally while breathing out

3. Get enough sleep

4. Exercise

5. Don’t even think about your body image.

6. Talking to yourself positively

With social media it is so so easy to get in a negative mindset about everything. When I was first undergoing treatment my mates would post pictures of them at uni having a great time and it just made me feel so shit. Then I’d scroll onto the next picture and it would be of a girl in a bikini in a body much better than mine. Cancer drags you out of your life and you have to think that it hasn’t stopped your life it’s just put you on a different track for a while. After this past year, I am a strong believer in everything happens for a reason and once I realised that my cancer was in some ways a gift because of the people I’d met and the lessons I had learnt it really helped me be more positive about it all. You may not be the kind of person that believes that everything happens for a reason but you can’t deny that you don’t learn from every life experience and I promise you that you will learn so so much and become a better person after it. Once you get your head around that it is much easier to focus on the brighter side of your situation.

If you are having chemo then every single cell in your body is being attacked. Surely that’s going to have an affect on your appearance. For the first time in my life I stopped worrying about what I looked like because quite frankly I had bigger fish to fry. I always used to be extremely conscious of my body image and in the end I had to tell my self to just give it a rest because that’s exactly what your body needs: rest and fuel. You are already going through a mental minefield in your head why add extra pressure on yourself to look good too. As soon as I stopped caring about how the chemo made me look podgy in the face or how the hunger rage from steroids made me bloat like a puffa fish I felt so much better and stopped saying negative things to myself about my body. I wasn’t chipping myself down everyday and this massively helped my positive attitude.

Talking to yourself positively actually encourages a positive mental attitude. When I switched from A ABVD to BEACOPP I had the worst nausea and I didn’t think I would be able to make it into chemo the next day but I just repeatedly said to myself “I can do this”, “come on sophia”. It actually took a weight off my shoulder and encouraged me to go on. Be your own cheerleader.

Also back to smiling, when you smile to yourself it releases endorphins which will instantly make you feel more positive and help you get through a difficult day.

Exercise and hobbies

It’s the magic key. In another previous blog I have ranted about how amazing exercise is to do alongside treatment and after. Exercising helped me keep positive during my treatment because it is SO good for your mental health. There is science behind it too. Like smiling, When you exercise it releases those beautiful endorphins and I personally found that it cleared my head from any worries or doubts. Towards the end of my treatment I found it hard to continue running but I really enjoyed getting outside regularly for a brisk walk. It has also be proven that being in nature has a positive impact on your mental health.

I found that nausea and constipation had a huge effect on my positivity/ general mood and exercising really helped to soften these symptoms.

Exercising also made me feel like I had accomplished something even if I went on a walk I was proud that I could do that while my body was going through so much. When you’re undergoing chemo and out of uni or work you often feel like you have lost your purpose and exercising and producing headscarves gave me something to work on which kept me positive.

I also tried to stay away from sugar not because people have claimed that it “feeds cancer” but because it would make me more nauseous and effect my energy and mood levels. When I cut refined sugar out of my diet I noticed a difference in just a week:

My energy levels were more consistent and level

I felt less nauseous after chemo

I felt less sluggish

My skin cleared up

Doing things that you enjoy will obviously make you happier and therefore more positive generally. Also hanging out with animals releases endorphins too.

Humour

If you don’t laugh you’ll probably cry. I kept things light always. When I first got my head shaved off with Frankie we went into a shop and I walked up to the cashier with hair clips and a hair brush. Even though she was very confused I found it hilarious. Whilst I can admit that some of my cancer jokes could be a bit raw for others they made me laugh and I didn’t want people to pity me or feel as though I was some tragic case I was still me. Here are some ways to keep things light and have a giggle:

Buy as many tacky wigs as u can and wear them to every party

Paint your head green and become a human tennis ball

Copy Georgie Swallow and go to chemo in a unicorn onesie

Self belief and comfort

The last 2 things that helped me stay positive were believing in my body and just giving myself a break. You are not going to go through cancer and not have bad days in fact the shittiest bit about is that you’ll have more than your used to but you will get through it. So my answer to this was sometimes when I felt like shit I let myself feel like shit. I didn’t bathe in it but I just took it easy, watched Netflix and ate whatever I felt like. I’d always try to get out on a walk because it instantly made me feel better but some days even that wasn’t possible. You have to be kind to yourself and eat the foods your body wants. Don’t push yourself to do anything that doesn’t feel comfortable. Also when it came to the ‘rules‘ like ‘Don’t eat high risk infection foods’ or ‘Don‘t go to crowded places like parties’ or ‘Don’t drink alcohol’ by the end I generally loosened them abit because whilst your physical health is SO important your mental health is too. That being said, I’m not encouraging you to be a badass because infections are not fun and sometimes it’s not worth the risk.

A large part of staying positive is believing in yourself and your body’s recovery. Whenever I had scan results coming up I would just tell myself “they’re going to be positive, it’ll be fine” and if they weren’t I would look for something positive to focus on and keep repeating that to myself out loud. Always look for milestones and congratulate yourself even for just walking up the stairs.

So thank you for getting this far if you have ahaha. would love to hear what you guys did to stay positive.

All my love

Sophia x x x