Everything is different after leukemia. Mainly, my attitude toward things that are usually perceived as bad, like hardship and cancer. While I was sick, I decided to embrace my health problems as teachers and really listen to the life lessons they could share. I found myself thinking about the difference between living and dying and discovered one of the main differences is movement.
If in death I would be completely still, I realized, then that must mean movement is life! So, I started incorporating that lesson into everyday, even on the days when I felt my worst. I began waking up and moving at whatever capacity was available to me that day. Often, especially when the California fires paired with chemo to make standing up unbearable, moving meant simply arriving on my yoga mat. The more I showed up, though, the more I space I found in my mindset to do hard things and, before I knew it, I was celebrating an elevated heart rate and tiny beads of sweat on the regs. The moral started to set in that moving through an obstacle (instead of around it) is, more often than not, the way toward success and I started honing my personal power to get comfortable with discomfort. Daily exercise empowered me and, when my husband busted his ACL and meniscus and had to undergo surgery, I was there to encourage him to lean into the hard stuff too.
Together, we utilize exercise as a technique to improve our mindset, physique, and outlook toward each day. We are happier and healthier than we've ever been despite our seemly insurmountable hinderances, and it makes me want to share our process.
So, here's my personal prescription for all things challenging: start by challenging your body first. After that, everything has a funny way of falling into place. I've found that working out in my living room is the best way to get the job done and if you're interested in trying what works for me, here's the ticket..