Tag: Cancer Journey
How Cancer Etiquette Can Help You Connect Better With Cancer Patients
Don’t ignore them
Personal support from friends and family members is necessary for cancer survivors. Therefore, visitors to the home of a cancer patient could bring flowers to cheer up the mood of a patient. Casual conversations, social discussions about friends, movies, organizing visits to the theater, arranging for new social events, etc. can help drive a conversation with patients. Regular visits to a patient also help them regain their confidence and reintegrate themselves back into society.
Visitors must be good listeners
Every visitor must make a conscious effort to re-establish connections with a patient. This can take the form of listening to the words and narratives from a patient, lending helping hand in house chores, add words of comfort or encouragement to a conversation, promise to organize a trip with friends, watching television shows together, and so on. However, listening must be an active pursuit because this act directly engages with a patient and allows him or her to vent their fears, joys, and hopes for the future.
Don’t be intrusive or judgmental
Words and acts that signal care and comfort should flow freely in conversations with patients in any setting. Right words of encouragement help a patient to cope up with their journey and speed up the recovery process. Friends and visitors must avoid asking medical questions such as tumor markers, chemotherapy, cancer treatment, and other personal questions as it would disrupt the mental peace of a patient.
Don’t minimize their experience
Avoid saying words and sentences that might make them feel sorry for themselves. Try saying “I hope it will be okay or “I’m really sorry,” instead of Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. Also, do not refer to any cancer as good cancer; these statements downplay what they are going through actually.
Encourage stories
Long chats in the right direction tend to relieve the mental pressures that prey on cancer patients. A family friend, for instance, could narrate stories that relate outstanding recoveries in cancer patients. In this context, cancer patients can also join communities of survivors that share their recovery experiences. A large group of survivors could form a social club that meets regularly; members could read books and periodicals and attend a shared dinner event. These actions boost their self-esteem and create positive energies in their minds and hearts. Interested members of society can choose to join such groups and lead members in a positive direction.
Conclusion
Balanced etiquette and a sensitive approach to dealing with patients and survivors of cancer can make a world of difference among recoverees. Members of the society, friends, relatives, and fellow survivors can co-operate to create wonderful instances for a complete recovery, thereby elevating the quality of life for patients. These examples can form the bedrock of social attitudes that prevail in modern society and become a shining beacon of hope and encouragement for those who have cancer.
How Reading & Yoga Can Benefit Cancer Patients
A proper recovery can extend the lifespan of patients recovering from various forms of cancer. Health professionals state that cancer patients might find spiritual healing and emotional pleasure from books and journals. This expands the idea that a healthy mind can speed up the recovery process for a cancer patient. In this context, a different genre of books such as mythology, self-help, contemporary, travel, romance, mystery, horror, memoir, art, historical fiction, poetry, science-fiction, classics, business, etc. can help in the recovery process. Similarly, certain forms of light and moderate exercise can aid the recovery process. Yoga remains one of the best kinds of physical activity that allows recovering patients to find solace and come to terms with the medical condition, thus speeding up the recovery process.
USING BOOKS AS A THERAPY
Reading books in this context is also termed as bibliotherapy; such actions can help patients raise their levels of self-awareness, elevate the levels of empathy for others undergoing cancer treatment, reduce the occurrence of negative thoughts, raise levels of hope, and attain certain positive feelings and thoughts. The act of reading books also allows patients to rise above their current condition, which allows for faster recovery from trauma and chronic feelings of illness. Therefore, family members of cancer patients and professional caregivers must encourage the book reading habit in the daily lives of patients undergoing treatment for cancer.
Many types of reading, such as spiritual reading, classic novels, and science fiction, can introduce new thoughts and energies in patients undergoing treatment for cancer. A patient can explore the world of modern literature while setting the mind free from the many worries imposed by cancer treatment. As a family member, you can extend support to this strategy by presenting new sets of books to a recovering patient; this act can strengthen family bonds and improve the mood of patients undergoing recovery. This will help the patients to return to a normal lifestyle.
YOGA – EXCELLENT AS COMPLEMENTARY THERAPY
Yoga, as a physical exercise regimen, helps in improving the physical and mental well-being of cancer patients. Research studies indicate the emphatic benefits of yoga in terms of improved mood states, symptom reduction, stress reduction, and improved quality of life. Further, several meta-analysis and reviews reveal unequivocal benefits for yoga with respect to expectations, benefits, and state of mind in recovering cancer patients. Therefore, patients must be encouraged to join yoga communities and undertake these exercises to reinstate themselves in the mainstream of society.
Yoga teachers can help cancer patients relax and cope with stress, anxiety, and depression through natural treatment methods. Healthcare professionals state that yoga can help to uplift the mood. Some people with cancer say that yoga helps calm their minds so that they can cope better with cancer and its modern forms of treatment. Others say it helps to deal with pain, tiredness, sleep problems, and mental depression.
The cancer journey can be tiring and tedious; minor changes in lifestyle along with inculcating some good habits like reading books and practicing yoga may benefit cancer patients.