If you are dealing with a breast cancer diagnosis, you will know that anxiety can be a pervasive thing. Like someone or something is sitting on your chest and you can’t move it. Feelings of panic, without knowing why. It’s horrible. Today’s post will provide you with some help for dealing with those anxious feelings.

Anxiety isn’t just about the worry over the cancer itself being in your body, right? It can also be the result of certain chemotherapy drugs – over 50 percent of cancer patients reported feelings of anxiety and depression while undergoing certain chemotherapy drugs. All those chemicals are hard on your nervous system!

It’s also about the scans (I call it scan-xiety) – worrying what they will turn up, is it gone or is it back or has it grown?

What will your family and friends make of all this?

Will you make it through all of this or not?

There are SO MANY reasons for anxiety – things you never used to have to worry about.

Fortunately, there are many things you can do to help yourself calm down. I took advantage of most of these at one time or another during my breast cancer journey in 2004 and they really did assist me with the anxiety I felt. I’ve also learned quite a bit more since then in my role as a breast cancer coach. Here they are – my best tips for easing anxiety right on out the door.

11 Anxiety Busters for Breast Cancer Patients

1. Creating Healthier Beliefs – A cancer diagnosis can be so scary. The problem with the word “cancer” is that all kinds of beliefs are attached to it. Those beliefs can unconsciously drive our decisions, feelings, coping abilities, attitudes, life choices, and more. I’m here to tell you that cancer does not mean a death sentence. Mostly, it’s a wake-up call that you are living your life out of balance. Many people are able to live and thrive after a cancer diagnosis. I am one of them. For me, cancer was actually a gift – it forced me to create a healthier, happier lifestyle, to deal with stress better than I had been and go forward into a life I really wanted and chose for myself. When you really get introspective and look within, you just kind of know what brought cancer into your life in the first place – most people do – and when you do this, you can begin to create some healthier beliefs for yourself, and this helps to ease anxiety quite a bit.

2. Empower Yourself With Information – Breast cancer is only scary if you let it be. What I mean by that is that the more you know and understand what you are dealing with – how the cancer process actually works, and how easily defeated it can be – the better equipped you will feel, and that effectively puts anxiety to rest. If you aren’t receiving my free newsletters which will teach you so much about surviving breast cancer, you can sign up for them here. If you are newly diagnosed, please avail yourself of these articles and resources: Newly Diagnosed with Breast Cancer? Start Here.  I also have an entire course with 15 modules of information that shares the nutrition, supplements, lifestyle “tweaks” and things you can do to assist yourself to thrive after a breast cancer diagnosis: Toxic Free Me Course

 3. Destress – We now know that the basis for most disease has its roots in some sort of stress the patient is going through, and anxiety is often the result of mismanaged stress. Stress can come from many different directions, but that isn’t the important part – it’s how you deal with the stress that makes the difference. Please don’t just try and ignore it, hoping it will go away. We have loads of wonderful techniques for helping to effectively deal with stress:
Breathwork
Meditation – I have an online course teaching you how to make meditation part of your life – Change Your Life Meditation Course
Tapping (Emotional Freedom Technique) – check out Brad Yates on YouTube
Biofrequency Device – for more information on this and how it can help, see my video What is a Biofrequency Device?
Creative Imagery – learn to visualize your anxiety leaving your body (and you can also use this to boost your immune system!)

4. Nutrition – It’s true that you are what you eat.  If you choose pre-packaged foods or low energy fast foods for your nutrition, this creates havoc in your body and you will feel the effects of that. Anxiety definitely eases when you are eating better. Clean up your nutrition – choose organic fruits and vegetables, organic meats, take the time to prepare yourself juices and smoothies and see how much better you can feel.

5. Join a Support Group – Join a cancer support group if they are available in your area. This can be hard if you’re not a joiner, but oh-so-wonderful if you can get past that. They say that a problem shared is a problem halved, and it’s so true. You will be supported by wonderful people who will help you deal with all of the emotions that come with a cancer diagnosis. There’s another good reason to join a support group – research shows that women who join support groups have a longer life expectancy.

6. Essential Oils – Regular diffusing of or breathing in calming essential oils changes your mental state almost immediately. Try breathing in calming oils like lavender, valerian, jasmine, basil, chamomile, rose – or you can put a drop or two on your pillow at night before sleep – to help you relax and relieve anxious feelings. Just make sure to use a high quality essential oil that only has the oil of the plant in the bottle and nothing else. Also, essential oils have some pretty great properties that you’ll find interesting – see my article about essential oils.

7. Get More and Better Sleep – A deep and restful sleep helps to calm anxiety and restore balance. Healthy adults need 7-8 hours of quality sleep per night, so if you’re healing you might need even more than that. If you have trouble sleeping, try diffusing lavender essential oil in the bedroom before you go to bed. Or get yourself a massage to help calm down your nervous system. Or get yourself a biofrequency device, which may be able to assist you to get a better quality of sleep. More tips on sleep here: Want to Sleep Better?

8. Get Some Bodywork – Massage, Reiki, Therapeutic Touch – Bodywork is fantastic for destressing, detoxifying, boosting your immune system and relieving anxiety. Find yourself a good therapist and avail yourself of these amazing techniques to say goodbye to anxiety.

9. Exercise and Movement – Daily exercise and movement practices reduce anxiety and provide many other health benefits to body, mind, and spirit. Yoga is especially supportive if you’re too tired to walk or go to the gym. On some days while I was undergoing chemotherapy I really had to force myself to roll out my mat and start my practice, but once I did, I felt so much better. Research also shows us that breast cancer survivors who exercise at least five times per week reduce their risk of recurrence by as much as 68 percent.

10. Detox Your Body – Traditional Chinese Medicine and Western herbal medicine both have some wonderful herbs to help you detoxify while you’re undergoing your cancer treatments. If your body is toxic from all of the therapies, this can certainly lead to feelings of anxiety and depression. Herbal medicine can also help with some of the associated chemo-related constipation. After you’re done with chemotherapy, that’s a wonderful time to get a series of colonics to further detoxify your body. I have an online course which shows you exactly how to go about detoxing your body after the treatments are finished – and it can all be done with a few key products right in the comfort of your own home. More info here: Chemo Cleanse System 

11. Biofrequency Device – I’ve mentioned this above, however, I wanted to give this a little paragraph of its own because I’ve found my biofrequency device that I’m using on a daily basis to be an absolutely excellent assistant for good mental health. It delivers the right frequencies (and we are all energy – everything is energy) to your body or your energy field (some call it the aura or Information Field) so that you can work on a number of things every day. For instance, you can run a program for mental balance, one for sleep, one for the harmony of the immune system, or a program for your bones, or muscles – so many options! Have a look at the video in paragraph 3 above for more information.

I hope this helps, and if you have any favorite tips for anxiety-busting, be sure to leave a comment below.