Struggling with your emotional health and well-being while physically fighting cancer is one of the most unifying and common experiences for cancer patients and this is why actively looking for ways and means to boost your mental health to strengthen your body is so important.
With that being said, continue reading for a guide to balancing the mind and body during cancer treatment.
Coping with Focus, Attention & Memory Problems
There are a number of possible causes why, when you’re battling cancer and undergoing radiation and/or chemotherapy, you could be experiencing issues with your memory and generally finding it harder to focus and concentrate.
Such reasons include:
- A change in your role within your family network
- Problems with sleeping
- Fatigue and tiredness
- Anemia
- Dehydration
- Depression, stress, or anxiety
Combatting this experience centers around taking care of your body, which will serve to strengthen your mental state, so make sure that you engage in both physical and mental exercises whenever you can, avoid multitasking, make useof a daily schedule or planner, and of course, get as much rest as your body needs.
This is why the medical professionals at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa always combine a focus on positivity and mental strength when talking through their patients’ journey to cancer survival and approach every single patient with their own treatment schedule.
Art & Music Therapy
Two popular and enjoyable mind-body therapies that can not only provide a welcome and creative distraction for those battling cancer or indeedother more serious illnesses, are art and music therapy, which can either be undertaken separately or else as a combination.
Both music and art therapy can help to align your mental state with your physical state by:
- Reducing feelings of anxiety
- Improving your self-worth, self-confidence, and self-esteem
- Expressing yourself and providing yourself with an emotional outlet
- Exploring your emotions and helping to promote a more positive outlook moving forward
Often, qualified art therapists are also very often trained psychotherapists, too, and as a result, are more than adept at helping you to express how you’re feeling, both physically and emotionally, either in a group setting or, if you’d prefer, on a one-to-one basis.
In addition, many studies into the effectiveness of the tools and techniques provided by music therapy have shown that it can even help to reduce pain from cancer treatment and also alleviate pain for cancer survivors as they recover from their surgery.
Mindfulness Meditation
Often, meditation is confused with a spiritual connection to a particular faith or belief, but mindfulness meditation is an entirely non-spiritual form of managing chronic pain.
There are basically two separate types of mindfulness meditation:MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) and MBCT (Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy).
It may well be the case that either MBSR or MBCT has already been suggested to you by your hospital or cancer clinic, but if not, you should contact your local cancer support charity and find out more about how mindfulness meditation can help to align your mind and body.
Thanks for the well-organized and comprehensive post!