Life Can Be Like That

Today I spent most of my day at the Wesley Breast Clinic having my annual mammogram and ultrasound.   Every year I go along and every year I feel the same range of emotions.  So far, fingers crossed, I have been given the all clear and sent home, but that doesn’t stop me getting anxious.  

I start off feeling ok and actually looking forward to a morning of reading my book - forced reading I call it and I love it!   But as the day wears on these emotions change to worry and anxiety, followed by relief when I can go home and all is ok. 

I walk into the waiting room and I cannot believe how many women are sitting there - fifty at least.  I quickly scan the room for a familiar face, don’t find one, so I sit and start reading. 

• First call, into the doctor, easy quick chat and back to the waiting room.  
• Second call, in for the mammogram - what an antiquated ordeal that is.  Boobs squashed flat between a piece of perspex and some xray thingy.  I don’t think boobs were made to be squashed like pancakes! 
  Back to the waiting room - still feeling good - no anxiety or worry. 
• Third call, in for the ultrasound scan - now here is where I start to worry.  Each time I have the same thoughts, what if the lump is bigger?  What if there is another one?   I didn’t finish off the dishes at home?   Who will pick up the dog?   It feels like the scans take ages and each time she hovers around one particular spot I worry that it is a lump.  
  Back to the waiting room - feeling a bit worried now and unable to focus on my book.   Start looking around wondering which of the ladies has had cancer, which has been sent here because of a lump or which ones are just here for their check up?  It’s hard to start though because everyone is thinking the same thing. 
• Fourth call, back into the doctors office - stomach churning.  Get the good news, delivered in a couple of short sentences.   We will see you in 12 months time.    I leave feeling like I have just been given a new life. 

I leave feeling releived, but also feeling sad for the women who didn’t get good news like I did.  For a brief time I got to imagine what it would be like if I was to have cancer and what I would do … whilst I played out a scenario in my head I know that it wouldn’t be anything like the reality.

I am grateful for my health and for every day I wake up feeling good.   If you have good health, you have everything.   We only have one body and it is so important that we take very good care of it.   Be kind to your body … it is everything - without it we are nothing.

What kind thing did you do for your body today?

Life may not be the party we had hoped for, but while we are here we might as well dance

and

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.

I just love these two quotes because they really sum up my attitude to life.   Things aren’t always going to go to plan, but how we handle these hiccups is truly the difference between a good day and a bad day, a mediocre life and a spectacular life.

More dancing, less stressing!  Everybody dance now …

• Sunny Autumn weather
• Hot cup of tea (made with love)
• Smell of a baby
• My cocker spaniel’s eyes looking at me
• A hot shower
• Wearing purfume
• The one I love getting home each day
• A hug from my teenage boys
• Reading a book under a blanket on the couch

Things go wrong, plans get spoiled - life can be like that - but you can have a great day regardless, especially if you start your day off breathing.  if you aren’t, my guess is you don’t need this column!

1. Believe in Fate.  Whatever happens today is meant to happen.  So what if you didn’t get to drive to the beach because you had a flat tyre this morning - don’t worry about it.  You weren’t meant to go to the beach today.  You probably would have gotten a bad case of sunburn and sand in your crotch!
2. Improvise.  If it is raining when you wake and your romantic picnic plans are now spoiled - don’t be sad.  Stop, smell the rain, think of all the plants getting watered and pull the blanket up around you and be grateful that you have a comfortable bed and a dry home.  There are plenty who don’t!   You can always have a “naked” indoor picnic with your loved one!
3. Take a moment.  You are at work and you are trying to beat a deadline but your telephone doesn’t stop ringing, your colleague keeps asking questions and you are missing the final piece of information you need to finish.  Stop, take a deep breath, get up and go for a walk outside for 5 minutes.  Think about how lucky you are to have a job and how different your life would be if you were unable to work.  You will return with a fresh attitude.
4. Look through someone else’s eyes.  You have an important function to attend at the weekend and you don’t have enough money to buy a new outfit.  Don’t be depressed - I bet you have a cupboard full of clothes you can wear, you just don’t see it.   Invite your favourite and most stylish friend over and ask her to be your stylist for the occasion.  My guess is you will be amazed at what someone else can do with your wardrobe.
5. When one door closes another always opens.  That special someone you have had your eye on for some months has just started dating your work colleague … bummer!  Don’t be glum - it wasn’t meant to be.  What it means is your eyes can now be opened to that person you couldn’t previously see. 
6. Enjoy the moment.   Your team just lost the footy final - well if you are a guy - this may not quite work for you, but you could give it a try.  Ok they lost -  well unfortunately shit happens.  Someone always has to lose and if it is not you crying in your beer it will be someone else.  Why bother - game’s over, life goes on.   Go out and still have a bloody good time - there is always next year and what counts is right now - who knows where you will be next year.
7. Forgiving really is easier.  Your sister borrowed your favourite dress without asking and ruined it.  You haven’t spoken to her for 2 weeks now.   You are miserable and every spare moment you are seething about what she has done whilst she appears to not care, and that is bothering you more than the dress.  Reality is she’s not doing anything to you - you are doing it to yourself.  She has apologised and offered to pay for a new one but you can’t let it go and it’s eating you up.   Why?  Accept her apology and move on - you will feel 100 times better.  It is so easy to do - you take responsibility for how you feel and stop giving that power to others.  
8. Be grateful.  No matter what is going on in your life there is always someone in the world who is going through something worse.  When you feel like your life is caving in and it can’t get worse - spare a thought for people living in third world countries, victims of rape and abuse, the terminally ill and those people who are totally alone forgotten by families and friends.  I guarantee you will feel grateful for what you have.
    

Of course things happen and we do feel sad and we do have bad days, but all it often takes is just looking at something from a different perspective.   Try it sometime - you have nothing to lose but a bad day!

Take care x