Mindfulness and Meditation
A breast cancer diagnosis can be a frightening experience that brings out many emotions like fear, anger, hopelessness, and more. Learning how to cope with these feelings along with the additional stresses of treatments, appointments, finances, etc. is a big challenge. Anxiety and depression can be common among breast cancer patients and survivors especially with some treatments as they can be side effects of them. That is why researchers have been exploring the benefits of mindfulness/meditation and how it can be used as a helpful tool for stress reduction in cancer care.
Practicing Gratitude
Finding and practicing gratitude may be difficult when we are dealing with a breast cancer diagnosis. Life isn’t always positive, and happiness is not a choice so we shouldn’t be forced into a positive mindset when time is needed to heal our wounds and mourn our losses. The first step to practicing gratitude is to validate the emotions that we are feeling by practicing acceptance.