One of the biggest hurdles that people with an upcoming surgery seemed to face across all the communities and platforms that I joined were focused around their mental wellbeing and their ability to mentally prepare for the surgery and recovery ahead.
I was lucky, and I know other people facing breast cancer are in a completely different headspace than I was when preparing for surgery. But I decided to focus on 3 pillars of preparation: Mind, Body & Spirit. Here I’ll talk about the steps I took to look after myself mentally, when things felt tough, overwhelming and confusing. Here’s a quick list of the things on my ‘Mind’ preparation:
- Join Breast Cancer Support Community like The Breasties
- Meditation and Affirmations
- Therapy
- Group Coaching
As I mentioned above, the first thing I did when thinking about my mental state, was to try and find like-minded people or people who were going through the same or similar journey as me. I found The Breasties community, which had within it a ‘Previvors’ group. This group had hundreds of answered questions, shared stories and support from people all over the world. I found this group welcoming and it gave me the opportunity to speak to ladies going through exactly the same as me, which gave me comfort and also provided that sense of not being alone. Helping each other prepare, hearing success stories and being there throughout recovery was also priceless – thank you to The Breasties community and the individual ladies who took time to respond to me and share their stories.
Another thing which I have always tried to engage in is Meditation. Now, I would say this is both for the Mind and the Spirit, but when it comes to preparing, I found so many guided meditations on Insight Timer which were aimed at patients preparing for a successful surgery. Visualising a positive outcome, sending gratitude to my medical team and repeating powerful affirmations was a practice I committed to. I did 25 hours of meditation during November, immediately before and after my surgery and felt this was something I could rely on to focus my mind.
My favourite affirmation was “My body knows exactly what to do to heal” and I repeated this daily.
Therapy was also on my list of things to ensure I had access to during this time. So I started a few months ahead of my scheduled Mastectomy. I acknowledge how privileged I am that I could access mental health services through my work and this provided me with 10 counselling sessions which I have had before my surgery, during recovery and post-recovery. If this is available to you, this is a safe space to talk about your feelings about your surgery or diagnosis, to gain practical tools to address any worries and put into practice your coping mechanisms.
Finally I joined a lovely programme ran by Mind and Wellness expert Gemma Merna. This was a 12 week programme named ‘Becoming the Best Version of You’. It focused on vulnerability, surrender, manifesting and much more. This was an amazing way to really connect into myself and back myself with the decisions I had made around preventative surgery. Also, the opportunity to meet such a supportive group of women was priceless – they even dropped off flowers and a balloon to my house during my recovery after only knowing them for a month!
I found splitting things into Mind, Body and Spirit worked for me as it allowed me to ensure I was caring for myself all round, which really helped feel prepared and positive about my double mastectomy.
Danni xx
I am not associated with any of the above companies or charities and do not receive payment or compensation for mentioning them.
My Mastectomy 