Seeds of Healing

After cancer treatments, there are days when it seems that “you are free of cancer” and other days when it seems that “cancer isn’t free of you”.  It can be a confusing and conflicting emotional time.

There may be many conversations about “the curing” but not enough about “the healing”.  Some are looking for the on-ramp to healing and it’s not easy to find.

A phrase to describe this uncertainty is “the worried well”. An uncertainty that hovers after illness about what’s next and what to do.  Survivors are left wondering how to get closure on their experience.

Healing can be compared to planting a garden. You plan out the garden, scatter seeds, tend carefully to them and patiently from those tiny seeds grow mighty flowers and sustaining vegetables.

Space needs to be set aside for planning a garden and learning about what seeds are best. Next comes the growth stage. The waiting for the garden to transform. This transition for someone recovering from an illness is often the biggest place of recovery and repair. It’s also often the hardest. Be a patient gardener.

Many have to wade slowly into the garden of healing and connect thoughts together around how to emerge from the experience. Healing and growing takes patience and trusting in possibility.

It’s unlikely that anyone experiences a cancer journey and doesn’t change in some way.

Consider these questions about healing and how you’ve changed:

·       Who am I after this experience?

·       What do I want to carry forward?

·       What do I want to leave behind?

Someone may want to carry forward their resiliency and strength. They may want to leave behind self-criticism and blame over what did or didn’t happen prior to cancer.

When we consider what to carry with us after illness, and maybe more importantly, what we need to leave behind, we tend mindfully to the garden of healing.

Resources and practice take us from conceptualizing healing to planting seeds and slowly witnessing the conversion of seeds into a thriving garden.

Create space to reflect, renew and move beyond the experience. Develop practices to build mental and physical strength. Try journaling, making art, time in nature, yoga, meditation and therapy. These ground us and make the path ahead less bumpy.

A bookshelf is always a good place to gather information. Dr. Wayne Jonas in “How Healing Works: Get Well and Stay Well Using Your Hidden Power to Heal” describes his healing-oriented practice.

He evaluated patients by asking questions related to inner, interpersonal, behavioral, and external areas and believes this captures a better evaluation of people’s lives. His questions consider focusing beyond the body.

How would you answer these questions?

Why do you seek healing?

What is your purpose in life?

What are your social connections?

How do you relax, reflect and recreate?

What are home & work environments like?

What contact do you have with nature?

What makes you happy?

The on-ramp to flourishing after cancer can begin with simply asking a few questions.

Consider where you are and how you plan to design your garden. Then plant seeds for where you’d like to head.

Where flowers bloom, so does hope.