Healing your body when you are trying to overcome any major illness can be a full-time job, as well as being one you never asked for. Juicing, meditation, doctor’s visits, finding time to exercise, making sure you have the right supplements on hand. Then there’s the family duties, cooking, and possibly even squeezing in a few hours of work – all of this can lead to a major case of overwhelm.

What To Do With A Case Of “The Overwhelms”

How on earth is one supposed to manage it all without completely losing it or making yourself sicker than you already are?

When I was healing up from my breast cancer surgery, I was extremely fortunate that I had a good network of friends who helped me a little with cooking and cleaning so that my husband could go out and work and keep the household afloat. Once I was healed, however, and everyone went back to their normal lives I did go through a case of overwhelming “HOW DO I DO ALL OF THIS?”. I did eventually find a balance, and in this article I hope to share with you 6 key things that may help you to honor the healing process without having it consume or define your life. Here are they are.

1. Know that self-care is your most important job right now. This might not be where you want to be in your life at this moment, however, you are here. Please put yourself at the top of your priority list. That can be hard for some – most women put everyone else in their lives before them, and you cannot afford to do that right now. This is your life we’re talking about. Make sure you have a healing plan (and if you don’t have one, contact me – I can help you with that) and that you are following it as closely as you can. Self-care and self-love must be front and center of everything you do. At least for a little while.

2. Begin slowly. While you might be tempted to try all of the healing methods you are interested in all at once, I don’t advise that. For one thing, you won’t know which one is working the best! Instead, start with the thing that you know in your heart will help you the most. Build on that – adding one or two things each week or even each month. Baby steps for now is just fine.

3. Plan ahead and don’t be afraid to ask for help. Now that your healing tasks are on your to-do list, feel great about that! But don’t be surprised if you still feel overwhelmed. Now you need to break down the tasks, plan them out and ask for help when you need it. For instance, if you want to make a green juice every morning but there isn’t time for that, on a Sunday afternoon you and your family or a friend could clean and cut and prepare all of the produce for the week. Put enough for a day in each of seven separate bags. Each morning, grab a bag, juice the contents and get going with the rest of your day.

4. You can make healing fun. It was summer when I went through chemotherapy. The thought of wearing a wig was abhorrent so I bought some beautiful scarves and learned to make beautiful dangly earrings, and had a bit of fun with my new look. You could also go for some form of treatment that you haven’t had before – like a Thai massage or a new hot yoga class. Instead of going to the gym, stay at home and do some Bollywood dancing in your underwear. Be creative – making it fun makes things a lot easier – and when you’re having fun, you are ramping up the healing power that it has.

5. Create sacred therapy time. When you’re doing something you aren’t crazy about, like sitting through a session of chemotherapy or radiation or yet another scan, make those moments sacred. Take a deep breath or two. Center and ground yourself. Listen to some beautiful, slow music. Breathe in some healing essential oils. Do a little meditation and get your nervous system calmed down. Using visualization is great too – as you’re going through those treatments, imagine it to be a golden light moving through your body and going directly to the source of your illness and completely eradicating it. Not only does this take the dread out of these tasks, you also incorporate the power of guided imagery, which can boost the effects of the treatment and helps you participate in your own healing.

6. Be nice to yourself. Be aware that on any given week or day, you might not have time to do something you’d intended to do. You might be too tired to take that walk. You might completely forget that afternoon’s supplements. No worries! Don’t beat yourself up about it (that’s actually more detrimental than the thing you forgot or didn’t have time for). In fact, expect it to happen, because it will. Don’t worry about it – just pick it up again the next day. I will, however, offer a word of caution. It is really important to create boundaries around the things you consider to be the most important – the ones that will set your healing back big time if you can’t do them. Do your best to make sure the important things happen and don’t worry over the things you couldn’t do – just get back on your regimen the next day.

I found these 6 things helped me so much and in fact I still do many of the things I considered to be the most healing. I hope this helps you too. May your healing journey be amazing.