Mindset · 3 min read

Focusing on my mental well being

While I couldn't really underplay the gravity of the situation, I knew I couldn't live in fear of the prognosis. I had to remain singularly focused on living in the present and equipping myself with tools that would help me in this journey. Most importantly, I had to control my stress levels which I'd always struggled with, and my tendency to overthink every situation. That was clearly one part of me that I no longer wanted in my new life.

While I found meditation challenging to start with, I decided to start doing regular breathing exercises that would help reduce my anxiety and calm my mind. There were exercises that would immediately bring down my stress, some that would calm my anxious state of mind in a matter of a few minutes, and some that helped me fall asleep. I started to practice these at different points in the day, multiple times. What kept me going was that I saw the tangible, positive results it had on my sleep quality and how I would feel and react in different situations.

There were several challenging days of course, but gradually, over a two year period of practice, I saw significant improvement. I was even able to meditate for a couple of minutes. My husband was able to see a marked difference as well, I was much calmer, and would not spiral like I used to about small things. It took a significant amount of effort to get to even this point, possibly the hardest part - and I still have a long way to go.