Breast Cancer and Quality of Life

Breast cancer was not in my family tree when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was devastated when I first found out that I had breast cancer.

Breast cancer is scary enough for any woman. It is even scarier when I lost a breast to mastectomy. Loosing a breast for a woman is like taking her femininity away from her. It is very hard thing to swallow.

There were two options available to me to feel a Victim of breast cancer or turn it to Victory by improving my quality of life.

It is not so much what happens to each of us that determines our quality of life, but rather our reaction to what happens. Though we may have no choice in unexpected events that happen to us, we most certainly have choice in how we interpret what happens, and in what we choose to do about it. These choices make all the difference in how we experience our world and very much determine our quality of life.

It is what we do with what we have to deal with that affects our level of satisfaction and joy in life.

Every moment something is happening in our lives. Every moment we make interpretations or judgments about what happens. By choosing to become more conscious of how we react to what happens, we can shift towards what we really want in our lives. Rather than following habitual, reactive patterns that lead to more of the same, we can recognize and transform our old habits to move powerfully in the direction of creating the life we really want. Yet to do this, we must first find the courage to look at some of the disempowering, often unconscious patterns that get in the way and do not serve to increase our quality of life.

I choose to transform myself from Victim of breast cancer to Creator. I published a book entitled “Making the Breast of It” with a subtitle “Overcoming Fear of Intimacy After Mastectomy”. The book is about empowering, inspiring and giving tools and exercises to women how to overcome this crippling fear and feeling like a whole women again.

With all my love,

Lea Yekutiel