Outdoors Helps Me Manage My Cancer Diagnosis, Naturally

I am not a very outdoorsy person, yet I can use nature to calm my cancer worry brain.

BY Barbara Tako

PUBLISHED February 23, 2018

Barbara Tako is a breast cancer survivor (2010), melanoma survivor (2014) and author of Cancer Survivorship Coping Tools–We'll Get You Through This. She is a cancer coping advocate, speaker and published writer for television, radio and other venues across the country. She lives, survives, and thrives in Minnesota with her husband, children and dog. See more at www.cancersurvivorshipcopingtools.com or www.clutterclearingchoices.com.

I like and appreciate the outdoors more since becoming a cancer survivor. Even when it is too cold or hot or humid or buggy, looking outside or being outside helps calm me and give me perspective. Some days, I basically force myself (or a kinder way to say it is "remind" myself) to either look or to get outside. I guess that sounds a little harsh. Still, I make myself stick with it for at least five minutes, preferably 10. I take a few calming breaths while looking at the outside. Truly, this helps with the cancer worry brain.

Being a cancer survivor is all about actively figuring out what helps you cope on a daily basis after diagnosis, through treatment and then beyond. Getting outdoors is a mindfulness meditation that helps me. My therapist taught me this. It is the "pick a sense and focus on it in the outdoors" for a few minutes meditation. Being a very literal person, I make a mental list of what I am seeing or hearing outside. When my mind wanders, I bring it back to working on my list. I am always amazed at how long the list gets when I really observe and focus!

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