For some of us, the end of a calendar year can bring challenging feelings connected to the different cycles of life and how we feel connected to them and the people in our lives. Even so, it can offer a time of self-reflection because the winter months encourage a natural going-inward in response to nature’s...
The holiday season can be stressful, isolating and an emotional time under the best of circumstances. Living with a cancer diagnosis during the holidays may heighten the intensity of emotions and can trigger strong feelings or memories about previous losses such as the absence of family members who have passed away. It’s important to advocate...
It is easy to underestimate how far a dollar can go––or $450 for that matter. When you add up monthly costs in a typical American household, the list can seem endless. Enter a cancer diagnosis and suddenly the costs climb and, more often than not, become insurmountable. Cancer expenses in the US exceed $80 billion...
When you’re wide awake at 3:00 in the morning after spending too much time googling your diagnosis and treatment options, your anxiety is dialed up to eleven, and there’s no one to talk to, pull out your journal – or even just a piece of paper and a pen. Adding a cancer diagnosis on top...
Have you ever started laughing and found you couldn’t stop? Perhaps it started with a giggle and then gradually broke out into full-blown laughter that was giddy and out of control. Do you remember how you felt afterwards – happier, more exhilarated, and maybe even a little delirious? There’s no question that laughter is a...
A cancer diagnosis can often make you sit up and notice all the less than ideal health habits you’ve acquired over the years. Fortunately, Cancer Lifeline offers many classes and programs that are aimed to help you on your path to a healthier lifestyle including gentle exercise, nutritional, artistic expression, improving sleep, and practicing mindfulness...
What is it about being in nature that makes us feel better? Looking at a vibrant blue sky, hearing birds chirp, and smelling flowers or salt water undeniably improves our mood. Research now tells us that the environment we are in not only impacts our mood, but our nervous, endocrine, and immune systems. “The stress...
Cancer Lifeline Volunteer Nancy Werner (center) cuts the cake with former staffer, Mary Ellen Shands and Cancer Lifeline Community Program Manager, Basha Brownstein when the gang was finally reunited at the Dorothy O’Brien Center in April 2022. When I was diagnosed with cancer, I had never been healthier, more fit, or happier in my career....
Most people have an innate desire to be helpful and supportive, especially when someone we love and care about is having a difficult time. When a friend or family member has cancer, we instinctively want to do whatever we can to help. However, few people have caregiving experience and, despite our best intentions, helping someone...
Whether in the beginning stages of a diagnosis, during treatment, or after treatment, many people living with cancer experience higher levels of stress and anxiety in the days or weeks leading up to or after a scan, MRI, or x-ray appointment. This experience has been termed ‘scanxiety.’ This is no surprise, given that scans are...
