The New Normal
You have been diagnosed with cancer. You have been treated for cancer. Now what? What is next? What is the new normal? How do you come to terms with all that transpired? How do you move forward?
During a crisis, such as a cancer diagnosis, our bodies are amazing in their ability take on the challenge. When the dust settles, however, our minds catch up and realize the implications of all that has transpired. The emotional impact can be intense. Cancer patients often struggle with how to process their journey and return to some sense of normalcy. In this section of Caring for Cancer, I examine all aspects of the “New Normal” phase.
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I recently discovered Dax Shepherd’s podcast called Armchair Expert. The first two episodes I listened to were the episodes where he interviews his wife, Kristen Bell (KB). She’s clearly an evolved human. Meaning, she’s done self-work to get to a place where she isn’t reacting. Instead, she comes across as introspective and thoughtful. She’s purposefully living, or so it appears. There’s a portion of the podcast where she and Dax are discussing their differences in responding to situations around them. KB states that, unlike her husband who wants to essentially flick off someone who cuts him off in traffic, she asks herself what might be happening to or going on for that person to cause him to be a jerk and cut her off. She postulates that perhaps his mother died the previous day, perhaps he is rushing to the hospital to not miss the birth of a child. Her point being, we never know what is going on in someone else's life so why not give them the benefit of the doubt. This seems so simple and rides the “let’s just all be kind to each other” kind-of wave. But this notion that something deeper or more complicated might be going on to cause someone to act in a-not-so-nice way really caused me to pause.