5 Things I Learned from Having Cancer

Always focus on the silver lining

The most important skill I gained from being sick is the ability to see the silver lining in everything. All bad things will pass — eventually. If you look hard enough, you can pull a longer-lasting lesson, appreciation, or some sort of value from every bad thing that’s happened to you. The trick is to focus on that lesson instead of the hurt, and try to see the bad thing that happened as valuable, because of it. I promise, it makes life a lot easier. Positive thinking changes your reality and  health.

‘The real voyage of discovery consists not only in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes.’
-Marcel Proust

Meditating helps me to see everything in perspective

Good friends will be there for you in hard times

Having cancer helped teach me who my real friends are — and it surprised me. I got to see who checked in to see how I was doing, and who didn’t. It wasn’t always who I expected.

Love is invaluable

After listening to an audiobook called Radical Remission, and hearing cancer survivor’s stories, I learned that the people who survived had one thing in common: the support of close friends. I would add pets and family to that. Basically — love. In fact, the more true friends they saw regularly, the better off they were health-wise. Love fills life with meaning. It gives us a subconscious reason to live. So I’ve learned to spend less time working and more time talking to my family and hanging with friends. Yes, even if it’s raining or cold outside.