So Grateful For My Life – Surviving Cancer – Whew! Close One! – Thank You For Every Day I Get To Take Another Breath via /r/gratitude

Thank you for my LIFE! Thank you for a second chance to be alive on Earth!

We never know how fragile life is until we have a brush with death. Last year in Feb 2024 I had no idea I had cancer, but was diagnosed stage 4 Lymphoma. What??? I didn't even feel sick! I was tired all the time, but that was nothing new as I'd been running 2 businesses pedal to the metal with no days off, ever. So being tired was nothing new. I had gotten used to being tired for a decade. No one would have ever known, really, because I could pull rabbits of energy out of hat somehow, no matter how tired I was. To everyone else I looked tireless.

I just thought it was from working too much. Maybe it was. I was helping a lot of people with my work, so I thought living my life purpose was worth the workaholic energy, but now I'm realizing how important balance between work and play is, even if the work is for a good cause. All you workaholics out there… take care! Use my story as a warning. You're not invincible, and life is waiting for you to enjoy it, like it was waiting for me to enjoy it.

However, I found there was still lots to heal from the past that I thought I already healed. I found much deeper layers I didn't know were there. Now that I've done deeper healing around those things, the "incredible lightness of being" is within my grasp and coming in fast! I have more energy now than I ever had. I think that's what has helped me the most, healing the past. There were still things I had to let go of, stop wishing they didn't happen, and simply make peace with the past. It was what it was. Today is different.

So what a gift and opportunity the cancer has been. It put me on a path of deeper healing than I ever thought possible at all levels, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. It also showed me I had to stop immediately my workaholic ways, even if it was for a good cause. We can't help others if we're dead!

I still have treatments to do, and may for a long time, but immune therapy isn't nearly as bad as the chemo has been (almost done with that!). It's the kind of cancer that never fully gives up on coming back, so prevention from now on is the name of the game. It will be constant maintenance with good diet, exercise, happy thoughts and immune therapy for years to keep it away.

The good thing is that it is almost gone, I'm past the danger point, and I will live for more several more years, possibly even a couple more decades (I'm 60 now) if I do everything right with diet, exercise and happy thoughts! I'm still very strong and healthy in all other ways and I still look young for my age too, extra bonus!

So I am feeling extremely grateful for my life and that I get to stay in this world. Every day that I'm breathing I am grateful, even on the hard days. I'm grateful to even be here to have a hard day now and then! Right now I would be gone if the treatments didn't work, so thank you for my life!

Time for less work and more play, finding balance, and no more running two businesses pedal to the metal. Learning to delegate. And if any stone from the past is left unhealed, I just get to work now and heal it quick! Basically it's an act of making peace with it, letting it go, and then looking for whatever resulting subconscious programming I got from that and change it with affirmations and holding positive frequencies instead. I do believe that's what's healed me more than anything.

Traveling, something I've wanted to do for a long time, so here goes! Enjoying our lives is so important. What good is a life if it isn't enjoyed? Make sure to make time for things that really matter. Dare to love again, we'll survive even if our heart breaks again and again. It heals if we let it. We can't get the goodies in life unless we risk having pain, though, so here goes!

Make time for your loved ones, cuddle with your pets, play with your kids, take time to smell flowers, and stay in your peace even as the world gets crazier than the day before. We are the love everyone's looking for, so let's be it! I'm so glad I get to stay and practice getting better and better at that than I ever was. I'm so glad to be here, even if this world is crazy town! It's definitely interesting, that's for sure!

And thank you for YOUR life and the presence you are. Thank you for reading my gratitude post. This is the most inspiring subreddit I've ever found on reddit! Hugs to all of you and thank you for all the gratitude reminders and inspiration you have all given me!

Blessings to all!