An Attitude of Gratitude means “Great Attitude“
The year 2020 changed people’s lives worldwide due to Covid-19 pandemic and therefore resulted in a renewed focus on health.
At the start of the pandemic, I had Covid-19 for which I am very grateful!
I know it sounds crazy but, in my case, I had it for a few days only and when I got over it, I discovered that what I thought were side effects from the exposure to the virus, which was an ongoing pain in my stomach was actually something else completely. When I went to my general practitioner and got a CT (Computerized Tomography) scan, it was revealed that I had a few growths on my colon and a colonoscopy confirmed I had cancer on my colon.
When Dr. Allan Wolovitz, who is an amazing human being, told me what to expect from the operation which was quite complex (5 hour and 45 min operation and 40 cm cut from below my chest to just below my stomach), I answered nervously with a question; “Do you mean I will become a semi colon; ?” ;-) … it eased the tension for both of us and we had a good laugh which started this difficult journey in a positive and light note.
Because I am special, I had a special gift from the Universe and we, later on, discovered three types of cancer were present at the same time (two different types on the colon & a small growth on the kidney which was also malignant)
Coming from a family line of cancer I guess I carried trauma from my childhood. My mom died from cancer within 18 months of the first discovery and it spread all over. I was 12 years old at the time. My grandfather who had colon cancer for 30 years and managed to contain it with a positive attitude died 10 months later as it must be the most difficult event to lose your child.
My Uncle also had colon cancer a few years later and died within 10 months, and my father died from cancer in 2003 within 6 months among other members of the family who have been struggling with cancer.
I was determined to change the narrative – even against the innate fear.
The key is to surrender to FEAR which means “False Experience Appearing Real".
“The only way to ease our fear and be truly happy is to acknowledge our fear and look deeply at its source. Instead of trying to escape from our fear, we can invite it up to our awareness and look at it clearly and deeply.”
― Thích Nhất Hạnh, Fear: Essential Wisdom for Getting Through the Storm
Letting go of my fear, led me to be part of the solution rather than being focused on the illness, so I did some re-search; I read a few books and watched some documentaries about cancer and decided to change every aspect of my life and take a holistic approach from mental, spiritual and physical aspects preparing myself to transform this “ breakdown“ (Cancer is a collapse of the immune system ) to a “breakthrough” which gave me hope and renewed strength.
I decided to deal with it swiftly and had my first operation a week post learning about it on the 1st of April. (“April Fool's Day" ) which I thought was appropriate and quite 'foolish' 😉
"Stay hungry. Stay foolish. Never let go of your appetite to go after new ideas, new experiences, and new adventures." ― Steve Jobs.
I was committed to treating myself naturally without doing any chemotherapy.
I cut out sugar completely from my diet because consuming sugar while having cancer is like throwing ‘oil into a fire’.
Cancer cells multiply with Sugar. I did a 36-hour ‘wet fast ‘every weekend from Friday night at 6 PM to Sunday morning at 6 AM because you produce new body cells when you fast at a faster pace as you maintain a longer fasting period. I wanted to help my body reset and be able to fight, so by starving cancer and increasing my healthy cell body count I managed to do that.
I changed to a clean, plant-based diet and made sure I am consistent with exercise, and most importantly changed my attitude towards everything and focused on gratitude for every moment that I am alive.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), eating food and drinks high in added sugar can lead to an increase of your risk for obesity, which are major risk factor for developing lifestyle diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain cancers amongst other dreadful effects.
This decision led to the creation of a delicious, sugar-free ice-cream brand called, “Chilled “because of my new attitude and because it is ice cream without the drama! (more about being Chilled in future editions)
Most dis-ease is caused by stress so being Chilled is #DoingSomethingGreat and essential.
Cancer is not something you'd like to typically broadcast to the world, especially while you're in recovery, and at the time, some of the people I worked with didn't even know what I was going through. I managed to work through it without any major disruption to my life which was great, and I am very grateful. Every morning I would start with the affirmation ‘every day in every way I am getting better and better ‘before my morning meditation.
Unfortunately, despite much effort and discipline we could not reverse cancer in my kidney so had to remove my right kidney on September 30th, 2021, and now you could say that I'm a semi-colon; single kidney ;-)
I am immensely grateful to have worked with a fantastic Urologist, Dr. James Urry who was obviously born to do this work with his surname ;-)
The key takeaway from my journey is that a positive mindset is critical and using food as real medicine by being selective and only eating nutrients is critical to health. Before I put anything in my mouth it has to pass the following test “Is it going to add value to my body, or it isn’t?”.
Being committed to your well-being is fundamental for you to do great in other areas of your life.
#DoingSomethingGreat starts with caring for YOU because ‘you can't pour from an empty cup’.
To hear me go into more detail about my journey, you can listen to this recent podcast:
Spotify: https://lnkd.in/dRqNeGP2
Apple Podcasts: https://lnkd.in/eXNdX_ej