🌱 Wednesday Wellness: Some Feelings Don't Need Fixing 💗

One of the hardest parts of a breast cancer experience that yourself and your loved ones learn to navigate is the emotional load that shows up with each appointment, each medical update, each sleepless night and sometimes, each day in general.

It's almost like the world expects the emotional side of it to fit into a neat little story. You're diagnosed. You have treatment. They call you brave. You stay strong.💪

Sometimes there's pressure, from ourselves or others, to be positive. To focus on the good news. To be grateful. To move on. But the reality is that breast cancer comes with a complicated mix of emotions. You might feel relieved treatment is over, while also feeling anxious about the future. You might be grateful for your support network, while grieving the changes to your body. You might feel hopeful one moment and completely overwhelmed the next.

None of those feelings are wrong. 🌸🌿

Emotions aren't a test we're supposed to pass. There is no gold star for being positive all the time. Sometimes breast cancer leaves us carrying emotions that don't make sense together. Relief and fear. Gratitude and grief. Hope and sadness. We can be genuinely thankful for our treatment, our doctors, our support networks... while at the very same time feeling angry about what we've lost.

Often, the feelings we try hardest to push away are the ones that keep tapping us on the shoulder asking to be noticed. Sometimes what we need isn't to fix an emotion, judge it, or talk ourselves out of it. Sometimes we simply need to acknowledge it.

"Today I'm feeling frustrated and angry at everything."

"Today I'm feeling scared and want to run away from it all."

"Today I'm feeling sick and tired of all of this."

And then allowing that feeling to exist without adding guilt on top.

💜 Feeling angry doesn't make you ungrateful.

💜 Feeling anxious doesn't mean you're not coping.

💜 Feeling sad doesn't mean you're weak.

💜 Feeling okay doesn't mean you've forgotten what you've been through.

Whatever you're carrying today, there's room for it here.

If you're finding emotions difficult to navigate, these resources may offer some additional support:

📚 Beyond Blue Resource Library
Practical information, tools and resources to support mental health and wellbeing.
https://www.beyondblue.org.au/mental-health/resource-library 

💻 Black Dog Institute Online Clinic
A free, confidential online mental health assessment with personalised feedback and guidance. https://onlineclinic.blackdoginstitute.org.au/ 

📞 As always our Helpline is only one phone call away on 1800 500 258, Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm AEDT.

💕 We'd love to hear from you. Has there been an emotion you've been trying to make space for lately, rather than push away? Sometimes simply naming it can be the first step toward being a little gentler with ourselves.