While you may think of leadership more as something that takes place at work, when it comes to your health, you are the owner and CEO. You may value the input of others, but you are the ultimate decision-maker for all new ventures and investments. When you’re deciding on a daily basis what to consume, when you’re going to exercise, and take time to rest, you may feel more comfortable with this. However, when you’re faced with a life-threatening diagnosis, there may be more of a tendency to hand over the decisions of your health and life to the “experts” if you don’t feel well-equipped to make these decisions on your own. Rather than taking the time to make an informed decision, you may be allowing your concerns of not knowing enough, or feelings of overwhelm, to get in the way of taking the time to become educated on your condition, and exploring how changes in your diet and lifestyle may affect your health. So, instead of taking the time to make a good decision, you may, unfortunately, find yourself proceeding with the first recommendation that you hear as a course of action.
However, before making life-altering decisions, first must understand that you have the power to chart your own course. Second, each doctor, or other health expert that you consult can only operate from their education and training, which is often limited to certain specialties. That is the reason why it’s so important to take the time to adequately consult with as many doctors and health practitioners as you need. This is very much akin to building a team of experts around you, focused on one thing: How to get you well again.
Ultimately, you are the person who has to live in your body and deal with the consequences of your decisions, so you should be the one who makes the decisions about how your health is handled because there may be life-long consequences. When I attended the Living Foods Institute in Atlanta, GA, I spoke to its Founder, Brenda Cobb, who had been diagnosed with cancer. As she sat in her doctor’s office, he began to explain to his course of action for treating her, going as far as picking up the phone to schedule her for surgery. However, Brenda decided that she would rather choose an alternate path for herself. This did not sit well with her doctor as she was only given a few months to live.
However, after that life-changing visit, Brenda began to educate herself on healing from cancer holistically and made the changes to her diet and lifestyle to lead a healthier life. She created an educational program to help others heal holistically and has since written a book about her journey, Living Foods Lifestyle®which includes a Foreword from the same doctor who had diagnosed her.
At times, you may not only need to take personal leadership over your treatment, you may also have to take the initiative to get an initial diagnosis before you can even begin treatment. I have a friend who had experienced excruciating monthly pain. Her mother advised her to investigate the possibility that she might have endometriosis, which her mother had previously experienced. However, when she asked her doctor to investigate it, he told her that it wasn’t possible, explaining that her symptoms did not fit the “textbook” definition of endometriosis. Because of previous issues with her reproductive health, she essentially forced her doctor to surgically make a determination (at that time, this was the only method to truly diagnose this condition) rather than basing his decision on his opinion or a textbook. After the procedure, he concluded that her pain was indeed due to endometriosis. My friend could then decide on her treatment plan, which included finding another doctor.
To determine your path of healing, there are six key steps that you’ll want to take to in order to take personal leadership over your diagnosis and your treatment: handle your fear, educate yourself, process the information gathered, make your decision, commit to your decision, and assess your decision.
1) Acknowledge and handle your fears
We may often go through our days on auto-pilot. We have a set time to wake up. We have our morning routine. We go to work, and accomplishing daily tasks. We come home and have dinner. Then, we prepare for the next day, and go to bed. Occasionally, we may add something to our day to break up the monotony. Rarely, do we even think about our own mortality. It’s not until something forces us to face it that we realize just how fragile our lives really are. This is typically when fear sets in. We fear what will happen to us. We fear how our eventual outcome may affect our loved ones. These fears often lead to hasty decision-making because we may find it difficult to land on a single thought.
When new, frightening information is presented to you, that’s not the time to begin the decision-making process. This is because the fears that normally accompany receiving a serious diagnosis or prognosis affects parts of your brain, like the amygdala and the hippocampus, which stimulates the release of stress hormones and upregulates your sympathetic nervous system. At this point, your judgment may be hindered as your body is preparing for danger.
During my own personal journey of healing from ovarian cancer, I had the opportunity to work with Janet Hranicky, PhD, Founder and President of the American Health Institute in Los Angeles, California. She has been a leading pioneer in the field of PsychoNeuroImmunology and Cancer and an associate of the late renowned Radiation Oncologist, O. Carl Simonton, MD (1979 – 2009). In the book, Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide, she explains that “Not only can one fight or flee in response to stress, one can also detach as a way of neutralizing danger.”1 This detachment may shield you from feeling fear, but also will numb your emotions in general and prevents the normal feedback signals that you would normally receive. Therefore, it’s important to first acknowledge your fears and not repress or suppress them.
One way that helps is to have a regular prayer or meditation practice so that you can quiet down the chatter from your mind and tap into a deeper source of peace. Spending time doing deep breathing exercises, will allow your mind to clear itself from any racing, or panic-driven thoughts, which will give you more space to think soundly.
Another way is to seek out others who have been diagnosed with the same condition as you who has successfully recovered. This is especially important if you seeking to heal using alternative or complementary methods. Not only will this allow you to learn of the first-hand experience from people who have lived through this, but knowing that it’s possible to recover and survive will go a long way in calming your fears and providing inspiration for you.
2) Educate yourself
Once you have given yourself this breathing space, and feel less driven by fear, take the time to begin researching your diagnosis. Before you can make an informed decision about your treatment, it’s important that you first understand your condition. What could have caused it? If your habits are potential causes, can you change them to reverse it? It is within your rights as a patient to obtain as many second opinions as you need to feel comfortable that you have a good grasp on the conventional recommendations for treatment. Do not hesitate to move beyond this if your intuition is pointing you to consider what else may be out there. Are there any holistic, alternative, or complementary treatments that may be able to treat your condition?
3) Process the information
Once you have compiled your information, ensure that you understand your condition and the recommendations that you have gathered. If you still have questions, be sure to ask your doctor, along with other experts that you trust. You may also want to be careful in considering the information that you receive from friends and family. Although loved ones are well-intentioned, if they are not well-informed about the subject matter, gently inform them that your decision needs to be based on facts, and not necessarily their well-wishes and opinions.
Meditate and pray on the information you have gathered in your research. What recommendations resonate with you? What can you commit to? Do you prefer conventional medicine, holistic treatments, or a combination of both? Take into consideration the side effects of each treatment option. Even though the possibility exists that you may not experience these side effects, you want to be aware of them to make an informed decision. Remember that whatever you decide is ultimately about your health and wellbeing. In most cases, realize that if you’re dealing with something like cancer, it took 10 to 20 years in the making to become detectable, so there’s usually time to think about all your options.
4) Decide
You know yourself and your body better than anyone else. After conducting your research, and processing the information, it’s time to make the decision on the path you will take. Be prepared for the fact that you may not receive overwhelming support for your decisions. If this occurs, know that you may need to distance yourself from those who are unsupportive of you and your decision for a time because regaining your health in a way that you truly believe in needs to be your top priority. Your decision ultimately should be based on what you feel comfortable with and what brings you the greatest sense of peace. This is how you know that you’re on the right track. If you’re still feeling fear, that could be a sign that perhaps you have not done enough of your own homework to truly understand your condition and the full range of options available to help bring you back to a state of good health. You can look for that sense of peace as your guidance that the decision you’re making is the best, based on your consultations with the experts, your own research, and taking time to meditate and pray and your decision.
5) Commit to your decision
Based on your decision, develop the way ahead by writing it down. This is important because simply leaving these thoughts in your mind can easily lead to confusion or overwhelm. Writing down your thoughts helps to organize them so you can clearly see what needs to be done. What will your days now look like? If you need to change your diet, take time to plan out your meals and go shopping for the ingredients to be sure that you are well-stocked in your kitchen. Does your treatment involve supplements or medication? Add daily reminders in your phone or calendar for your treatment times. Schedule all doctor or therapy appointments in your calendar with reminders. Keep a daily journal to track your food, medications/supplements, so that you know exactly which medication or supplement may be leading to certain effects and how you may feel.
Know that your treatment protocol may not be easy because you may experience unwanted reactions. There have been times that I have worked with clients diagnosed with cancer who made an initial decision to heal holistically. However, when they encountered initial difficulties from the diet change or detoxification effects, they promptly changed their mind and opted instead for harmful conventional treatments which they fully acknowledged went against their beliefs and what they desired. Why did this happen? Understand that any decisions that you make must not only be based on an intellectual decision, but it must also be done in conjunction with what you really believe in your heart and your soul. Decisions that are coherent in this manner throughout your being will tend to be decisions that you will be able to honor and keep.
6) Assess your decision
Give yourself periodic check-ups along your course. Is it working for you? Are you seeing any progress in your doctor visits? Are you feeling any better, knowing that sometimes you may feel worse before you start to improve? If you feel that you are not making any progress, or if you feel your situation is getting worse, it’s okay to revise and adjust your plan. With all the information that you’ve gathered, you can and should frequently revisit this. What adjustments can you make to your current plan? Perhaps a supplement or medication isn’t working for you. Maybe you need to revise your diet. Or, perhaps there’s something else that you need to incorporate into your regimen. Don’t be hard on yourself if your initial decision isn’t working for you. Simply revise your plan, commit to your changes, and re-assess your progress at a later date.
You have many options when it comes to your health. While gathering information from experts at the point of diagnosis is important, keep in context that these treatment options are simply that, and not necessarily the final conclusion of what you’ll end up doing to regain your health. Accept the information and continue to seek out more. You are the one that has to live in your body and deal with the consequences of your decisions. To lead a happy and healthy life, you must be comfortable with what is ultimately your decisions. Are you ready to take personal leadership over your health and create your own path towards the life and health you’ve dreamed of?
Ready to make your health a priority? Contact me here to schedule your consultation.
References:
Various. (2013). Alternative Medicine: The Definitive Guide. 2nd Edition, Celestial Arts Publishing.
Cobb, Brenda. (2002). Living Foods Lifestyle. 1st Ed. Living Foods Publications
