MONDAY MOTIVATION - In Your Own Words

This week, at our support meeting, we will be learning to journal our cancer stories - through writing and art. It's a good idea to start thinking about what you'll want to include in your cancer story. Here's a list of some of the things I've written about...

Finding Out I Have Cancer
A Bi-Lateral Mastectomy Surgery
Chemotherapy
Side Effects
Tests
Losing Hair
Scars
The Color Pink
Expanders
Reconstructive Surgery
My Port

If you will be attending our support group, please take a few minutes to think about what you would like to write about. Here is a page from my cancer story...



Nadine Gordimer said: “Writing is making sense of life." I really do believe that. Writing to me is therapeutic. I've found that if I can just write about what happened to me - the good and the bad - that it will leave the place it occupies in my head, and not bother me as much anymore. I waited for 1 year before I could even write about having my bi-lateral mastectomy. It was too difficult to write about at first, and then I started to forget. But, once I started writing, it all came back.

I've also found that if I can't write about something, I can probably express myself in other ways - art journaling, for instance. What colors and images come to mind when you think about your cancer journey? This week, I'm going to try to take a blank sheet of paper and create my feelings about my cancer journey. Here are a few beautiful pages that illustrate what art journaling is:




Please join us this Thursday for a wonderful, create, purging night.
-Kara