When many women are diagnosed with breast cancer they devote so much time and energy, after the initial shock, on the treatments offered and just getting through them to survive. It is always a sort of anti-climatic shock when the treatments are over; they have been successful in eradicating, even if only temporarily the cancer cells and now it is time to get back to life and living. The attention and close support of family and friends seems to slip away even though they are so relieved that you are going to be okay. They are just glad to get back to their normal routines and the life that some of them put on hold waiting to ensure you were okay. The truth is, like war heroes returning from war, your triumphant return with you courageous battle with cancer has truly changed you.

You may still look exactly the same on the outside but because of your proximity to death but on the inside you have become a new and different person. You now value how precious life is when you come so close to losing it. The breast cancer survivor often looks around and asks the question: “How shall I spend the rest of my life?” The truth is most women after surviving breast cancer have a tendency to look at the lives thoughtfully and often even introspectively. Some patients after recovery will take a course of action that may turn their world upside down, while others will look around and come to a happy realization that they love their lives completely. They may even look at some areas and offer to help with things like volunteer groups to reach out and help of those less fortunate. Surviving breast cancer also gives the patient the ability to reflect on their lives such as what was good, what was bad, what could use improvement. So when we look at a diagnosis of cancer we must do or accept certain guidelines such as: raising questions about life and relationships, ending a specific period of one’s life, give a patient a chance to learn why we are here and what or who really matter in our lives, it can serve as a wake up call and may even give the survivors a feeling of permission to shift resources and priorities to what they feel more appropriate.

Once the breast cancer survivor opens his mind to all these new questions or ideas that may bring dramatic and hopefully welcome life changes; they must then ask how I make these changes happen. The first thing that a survivor needs to do is to have an honest look at your satisfaction level in life. In order to figure out what it is you do want out of life it helps to figure out what you don’t want.

Life coaches use a tool they refer to as a wheel of life which you can created by dividing a circle into eight pie-shaped segments. Label each segment with a category such as: friends and family, significant other, fun and recreation, health, money, personal growth, physical environment and lastly career. Now, taking the time to think about each for a few moments, rate them on a scale of 1-10 in satisfaction. This is your snapshot of your life satisfaction so you can wave a realistic magic wand and mark down in each pie segment where you would like to be and what you can do to get there. Write down lots of details and ideas no matter how trivial they may seem.

The next step on what to do after surviving breast cancer is to write down all the major stressors in your world whether it is work, finance related, relationship problems, or even your own self. Once we list them it is the first step in understanding them and probably reducing the amount of stress they create. It may be as simple as being truthful with people about how you feel or as complicated as a letting go of control.

Time is also a factor you should consider in your new life. How do you use it to best advantage? How do you waste it? Setting schedules and priorities for your time will free up available time for things you really need or want to do.

These may all seem like simple changes but in reality will help you on the way to creating a new and better life, one that suits you better for you now know just how precious life is.

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