Free The Day!
How we show up today brings what we see tomorrow
FREE the day! As someone who has battled cancer twice, fear and worry can team up and suffocate the joy and possibility out of any given day. Fear can hold a day CAPTIVE worrying about our health, the health of a loved one, safety, aging parents, BEING the aging parents, an upcoming health scan, paying bills, COVID, remission, losing weight and the list can go on and on. What doesn’t go on and on? Time. So release this day from the chains of worry that numb us to our most precious gift. The time of THIS day is here now and it can serve us if we recognize what it really is … a day to BE alive and connect to the world around us.
Free the day! I started saying this to myself every day for a month before my last annual checkup and scan. I realized that by hanging on to the fear of cancer returning or of something bad happening to someone I love, I was robbing each day of any shred of joy and weakening my immune system from the stress. I could spend my day tormented with worry or I could embrace each sunrise and simply FREE the day to be the best version of itself. I could take in the energy of hope, love and laughter and have THOSE feelings be my body’s experience that day. Living in hope and happiness BRINGS better health through the mind / body connection. The day at hand is actually time BEING you in this moment in the story of your life.
Setting down your fear is never easy. You almost feel like you are abandoning your watchtower and leaving yourself vulnerable. But, it is the stress of worry that creates a weak spot in the fabric of your life. You are here in this day today and you can choose how to spend this time. This day will not circle back around and give you a do-over when things look better or you finally get the answer you are fretting over … nope, this day is here right now. YOU are here right now.
But, Janet, what if I set down my fear and then 8 days later something bad happens? Well, your body, mind and spirit drank in 7 uplifting days to love your life, friends and family. You had a week of adding strength to your immune system and your potential outcome was boosted by less stress. If you had spent that same time worried about all the fearful possibilities, it would still not have prevented it, you would just be facing it now weakened by the struggle of anxiety and may have even contributed to it’s very path.
Be present. You deserve to trust your journey, honor your scars, live every day daring to dream again and expect good things to come into your life after cancer. Soak in the value of the current day, it is so much more than the in between gap of the mistakes of our past and the dreams of our future. We have fought for our ability to continue down our road, so let’s embrace the journey and free the day at hand.
Life does not hand out guarantees that cancer will never return. No one gets that guarantee, but we can still walk with the warriors among us and trust that our path has purpose.