At the beginning of the year, I mentioned the Australian fashion designer Camilla Franks as one of my role models who was going to mentor me (in my imagination).
Camilla and I are very different – she lives the colorful and glamorous life of a socialite / traveler, and she is an entrepreneur who always looks gorgeous and effortlessly confident. Oh, and she appeared in the TV series “The White Lotus” and spent time with Oprah Winfrey (see them together on Camilla’s Instagram post “reminding women everywhere to own their magic”).
[Image source: Camilla Franks.jpg – Wikimedia Commons]
But we do have a couple of things in common – we were both born in Sydney, Australia in the 1970s, both of our fathers were architects and we’re both inspired by Frida Kahlo. Oh, and we’ve both faced down an illness that stole our sense of self and humbled us completely (for me it was several years of relentless chronic migraine, for Camilla it was breast cancer).
I recently came across a letter that Camilla wrote a few months after she had given birth to her daughter Luna Gypsy and undergone chemotherapy and a double mastectomy. Camilla wrote a letter to her future 2030 self: Camilla Franks opens up about her breast cancer in a love letter to herself.
(I’m a big fan of this approach to healing and have written twice about the technique: “write a love letter to yourself” and “a letter from my future self“).
[Image source: article]
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I found the whole letter VERY inspirational, and well worth a full read, but this is the section that really made my heart leap with understanding and admiration:
“Cancer became a full-time job. // You sought answers, opinions and advice and more often than not – each opinion conflicting the last. You knew that in stillness you would find the answers right for this body and together, with your medical team you drew up the battle lines and launched heavy artillery of science and medicine to save your body, your temple. // You took back control. You became the CEO of your body. And baby, you’re here to tell the story.”
Fck-yeah! Go Camilla!
Go all of us ‘sickos’…!
Taking back control of your health-life is SO important… honestly, I can’t endorse this sentiment enough.
A huge step forward in my healing journey came a couple of years ago when I asked myself “what would (the pre-sick) Linda do?” – it made me stop playing the victim, stop waiting for help to arrive from elsewhere, and start recognizing that sometimes we need to save ourselves – it was time for me to step up and get back into the driver’s seat of my life.
I started to research everything I could about chronic migraine, I set goals, wrote a program (you can download), set aside time every day to start my mindfulness practice and self-healing journey, and started to approach my medical visits a little more assertively.
Channeling a bit of #girlboss made all the difference… and the more you do it, the easier it gets… and the more empowered you feel.
Becoming the CEO of your own body is a great way to put it.
So what can you do?
+ Be proactive: make TODAY the day you step up into your new role.
+ Be focused: decide what your priorities are (more rest, more joy, age better, etc) and then research approaches with decisive steps that will help you reach your goals.
+ Be a leader: assemble a team of people around you (family, friends, healthcare professionals) who can assist you in your mission and cheer you on, as well as a separate team of reliable people who are OK with you delegating tasks to them when you’re unwell.
+ Be efficient: manage your resources wisely (time, energy, and skills as well as money and friendships) so that you don’t risk burnout but still find ways to join in with life on your good days.
+ Be realistic: risk assessment is important but stop catastrophizing and start strategizing; where there is a will, there is (more often than not) a way.
+ Be enthusiastic: celebrate your progress and your inch-stones (the milestones take care of themselves) and remember to thank those who are helping you on your journey.
+ Be Number One: take advice from doctors – sure, of course – but remember it’s YOUR body, your health, your life, so YOU make the ultimate decision about how best to proceed.
Come on Bosses – we got this!
Take care taking care of yourself, Linda x
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