Hello there. It's Gabby here from Confidence After Cancer, and this podcast is all about positive mental attitude. Is positive thinking enough to get you through a cancer diagnosis and through the treatment afterwards. And also, I'm gonna consider, is it possible to be positive when you feel so bad?

When you've had that diagnosis that tells you that you've had cancer and quite possibly you may be going to die, how can you be really positive about that? And my thoughts are actually, it's more than positive mental attitude is gonna get you through this. The sad fact is we're all going to die sooner or later.

Now for those of us with a cancer diagnosis, that realization has been brought into sharp. As soon as we get that diagnosis, there are lots of questions about how long have I got, what will my life be like? How can I stay positive when I've had this terrible thing that I've gone through? And you may be feeling devastated in so many ways, emotionally, physically, financially, so many ways devastated from the cancer treatment that you've had.

So how would he stay? Looking on the bright side, what is there to be positive? . And it also raises the thought to me, well, what about the people who don't survive cancer? Is that because they're not positive enough? And I hear sometimes some of the language around cancer is quite, um, strong. It's about she or a brave battle.

And I struggle with that a little bit because I think, well, what about the people that don't survive? Were they not brave enough? Did they not shy hard enough? And I don't really believe. . I think we all want to thrive when treatment ends, don't we? But what is the best thing to do? There's so many things that you can start doing when, when you end your treatment, but what is the thing that's gonna help you?

What's the thing that's gonna save you? Is it changing your diet? Is it taking supplements, avoiding certain foods, eliminating sugar, dairy, meat? What should you do? Should you abstain from alcohol? Should you lose? Now, while some of those things may on, may not be appropriate for you, they're not the biggest thing that you need to do.

In my opinion, if you are a cancer survivor, you will know that cancer equals fear. So really the the most important thing you can do is to let go of that fear. Working on your mindset is the most important thing you can do for your recovery, in my opinion. You see, cancer is all about fear. That's all it is.

It's everywhere you look. Cancer equals fear. But you weren't meant to live in a state of fear that is not a space where you thrive. I talked before about stress and the bad effects that that can have on your body, and it's exactly the same with fear. That constant dread that you feel is not enabling you to live your best life.

And I'm not saying it's always easy, but as a cancer survivor, you're no different. You don't want to live in. That's not life is it? That's not living. And in order for you to completely recover and to stay well and stay healed, stay in remission, you need to step outside of this fear. You cannot allow it to take over your mind.

And I get that. That's sometimes easier said than done. There's a lot of fear about recurrence or anxiety or the poor me, why me that some cancer survivors get sucked. But it's all about how you break free. It's all about mindset. You can control your mind. It's not always easy, but you can do it, and that fit is just as important as the physical recovery of cancer Mindset.

Recovery is just as important. Okay? You can work on your mindset, and as I said, it might not be easy. You may need to do some things that you've never done before. Explore some new avenues. Isn't it worth. I'm gonna be giving you some of those avenues in this podcast, but what I can tell you is a negative attitude won't get you into full wellness, and I don't think it will get you into enjoying life again.

So why don't we choose to be positive and let's make this journey more pleasurable? Life isn't fair. I understand that more than anybody. You know, bad things happen to good people. It's really not fair sometimes. And what do they say? You can't always choose the cards that you get dealt, but you can choose how you play them.

A bit cheesy, but it's so true. So yes, let's choose happiness. And one of the things that you can do to help cultivate an attitude of positivity is to focus on gratitude for what you do have. And that's really difficult sometimes when you're thinking, well, this is really not fair, and I'm not in a good place, but I have worked to create a habit of g.

I've cultivated this habit because at one time I was in a cycle of absolute despair, and this really, really helped me is a practice called thinking and Thinking. And so I started off having to make a conscious effort, but it's almost become subconscious now. And so every morning before I get out of bed, before I put my feet on the ground, I think about 10 things that I can be thankful.

It could be really small things, it could be big things. It doesn't matter. But just listing off 10 things. I'm really grateful. I'm thankful for my family. I'm thankful I've got a roof over my head, whatever it is. I'm thankful I've got food in the fridge. I'm thankful that I've got some clothes to put on whatever it is.

You could say, I'm thankful for my job. You might not like your job, but if, if you've got a job, you can say, I'm thankful for whatever it is you've got around you. But you know, to me, if you start looking for things to be grateful for, Focuses your mind and it, you cannot think about fear and you cannot think about gratitude exactly the same time.

So which one are you gonna choose? And I'm really not saying that I think you should count yourself lucky. What I'm saying is by focusing on what's going right in your life and relaxing into that, you let your brain in your subconscious mind let go of that fear. You are not living in fear. You are living in gratitude for your recovery.

You are living in gratitude for all the great things you've got in your life. and you are ready for more good things. So thinking and thanking is a great way to start the day, but it's also a great way to end the day. And I kind of think this is a little bit like when I was small, I was made to say my prayers, which was always a bit of a chore.

But it's a lovely way to end the day by thinking and thanking everything you are grateful for, whether you believe in God or not, or the universe, or you just wanna thank your family or your friends. Thank your. Or thank your medical team, whoever you want to thank, thinking and thanking for all the nice things that you've got in your life, everything that happened to you that day.

Again, could be small, small things, but try and get yourself into that space when before you're almost asleep, you're not quite awake, and you're not quite asleep, and I think they call it theater brain waves. If you can go to bed with a smile on your face in that space, thinking and thanking, hopefully you might have a nice night's.

and hopefully your body while you're in that deep, beautiful sleep will start repairing itself one little cellar at a time. And the other top tip I would give you is just to focus on one day at a time. So let's just focus on making today a good day. This is good. If you're feeling overwhelmed, just one day at a time, and do it the same again tomorrow And again, the day after.

Before you know it, you've had a good. . And if you keep on doing that one baby step in front of the other, before you know it, you've had a good month. So let's work on that one step at a time. And so in summary, I really want to say positive thinking is not the cure for cancer, unfortunately, but we're all on a journey and none of us know the twists and turns that these journeys are gonna take.

So why not choose to live in great gratitude? Why not choose to be grateful for what you've got? And as always, please reach out to me if you need help with. Because I'm gonna go now and do my thinking and thanking. Thank you for today. And one of the things that I'm grateful for is the power of the internet and the fact that I can speak to you now and I can connect with people.

And so I've got a lovely community now of like-minded people. When I finished cancer treatment, I thought there was something wrong with me because I didn't feel good. I felt alone. I felt lonely. I was depressed. And actually now I've connected with other people who I realize felt the. And between us, I've learned some great strategies and some great tips and techniques for climbing out of that dark hole that I was in, and I'm now building a life that I love, a life that is full of joy and happiness.

It's not perfect because nobody's life is perfect, but actually, I'm so grateful for everything I've got in my life and I'm truly grateful for you for listening to this. Thank you so much, Mylo. Let's speak soon. Take care. Stay safe. Stay. Goodbye. Thank you.