Cancer In One Word: Grief

Let's face it, when you are faced with a cancer diagnosis, you learn a lot of new words - and old words take on a whole new meaning. In a new series of guest blog posts from cancer coach Tambre, she will be exploring many of these words that we all can associate with. Read more to find out what she says about the word "grief."

It's not news that our modern culture still has not integrated strong tools or processes for grieving. We often don't know what to say or do when someone is grieving. We hope they'll get over it quickly and mostly the concept of grief is related to losing someone we care for.

But grief is also often experienced with times of change as well - graduating from school, moving to a new home, starting a new job, etc. Even "good" changes typically mean leaving something behind. It's not uncommon for cancer survivors to experience grief over the losses that occur as part of the experience. Some areas where you may experience loss include:

• Finances
• Relationship
• Physical abilities
• Mental abilities
• Career
• Future plans including having a family
• Parts of your body
• Energy to engage in life

Being aware that feelings of grief are normal and identifying areas where you feel cancer has cost you something is an important step in the healing process. It's normal to feel angry, let down or sad about your losses. But long term anger or sadness that goes unaddressed ultimately has a negative impact on the mind and body.

One of the gifts of grief is the opportunity to get present to those feelings and then choose how you want to approach healing those losses.

Another gift of grief is that we can use this energy to invite others to show us some care and give us some support. When we come from a place of "I got this", there is less room for others to participate. When we open up and share our feelings of loss, others get to ask "how can I help you" and in those moments we create community and connection. Grief is the opportunity to not feel like you have to go it alone.