I spell cancer with a lower case 'c'
Parul Banka
Helping mid-senior leaders bounce back, rebuild successful careers & happy lives when life happens. Leadership & Career Coach. Facilitator. Storyteller. EDI advocate. Trauma Informed. A career break=pause, not full stop.
4th February is World Cancer Day.
An important part of my personal story is surviving cancer and thriving beyond it.
Cancer was the event that set me on a deep personal transformation journey.
There are very clear pre and post-cancer versions of my life.
Pre: A life on autopilot (not a bad thing but a missed opportunity to live fully).
Post: A conscious life where I am doing what I love, I am being who I love being.
Now, I live my life with more meaning and joy. Through finding meaning and joy and embracing them in my own life, I spill them into the lives of others.
We can only give to the world what we have within ourselves.
I want to remind myself and everyone who has been touched by cancer that we can choose our response to this brutal disease.
Yes, there are times when we feel afraid and vulnerable. We worry about 'how the future might be'.
I feel this fear every year when I go for my annual checkups. I feel it when I get investigated to 'rule out the possibility of it lurking somewhere in my body'. I feel it when my doctors say 'let's just make sure....'.
Occasionally, I see a flicker of this fear in the eyes of the man who wants to grow old with me and who I want to grow old with. At times, the memories flood the eyes of my parents who, at the time of my aggressive cancer diagnosis, were mortified at the thought that they may outlive their youngest child.
The fear is natural. Being afraid is being human.
But I pause to consider 'What is guaranteed in life anyway?' Not a moment.
What is guaranteed, however, is the decision to make a life-affirming choice! During every uncertainty. Every moment of fear. Every episode of vulnerability.
The choice is to remember that I can choose love over fear every single time.
The choice is to remember that I am loved.
The choice is to remember that I am love.
P.S: I partnered with ZenOnco.io on this cancer video. Check it out and share it with anyone who needs to make that choice today. The link is in the comments below.
This is beautiful! My aunt died of cancer a few years back and it made a massive impact in our lives. But you are right, let's not cancer defeat us and define us :)
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3 年Yes! My heart sinks a little when I hear people say "My (enter ailment name here). Parul Banka, Story Coach, ACC
Founder of Leading with C.L.A.R.I.T.Y for Corporate Well-being & Leadership Development | Coaching High-Achieving Women Leaders to Eliminate Overwhelm & Create Balance | Transformational Coach & Speaker
3 年Thank you for sharing Parul
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3 年I love the choices you are focusing on making. Quite right too! This is such a powerful and moving post Parul. Thanks for sharing.
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3 年Very moving to read, Parul Banka, Story Coach, ACC. What a blessing the cancer was, what you would have missed in life if you hadn't had it.