It’s a new year, and try as we might, it’s almost impossible to avoid talk of diets, exercise, and life-changing resolutions. But here at Live Better With, we like to keep things more realistic.
Living better with cancer should mean being kinder to yourself – whether that’s a healthy new dinner recipe, a walk round the park, or a pack of cookies and a long Netflix session. It’s all about what makes you feel good in yourself.
So to kick off 2018, we put together a Live Better With Blogger Community Roundup on the theme of Self Confidence. Happy new year, and happy same old wonderful you!
Taking Tips From A 12 Year Old – And Some Unmissable Chemo Advice
Sarah’s 2017 started out fantastically – she got engaged, she was working her dream job as a fifth grade teacher, and she’d just celebrated her 26th birthday. Two months later, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and had to go through six months of chemotherapy. Her blog is full of great insights into life as a twenty-something going through cancer, and her list of Chemo Tips and Tricks is super helpful ( you’ll never forget your peppermints again).
However, perhaps the most confidence-inspiring post on her blog is one she wrote in December about a little girl in her class called Lola. We’re not ashamed to say that it got us a little teary-eyed – find out why in Sarah’s touching letter, Dear Lola.
Slaying Cancer With Style – And Sharing With Thousands
Next up in our line-up of confident cancer-havers is another awesome Sarah – or as we know her on YouTube, SGoodz. Sarah’s videos start right at the beginning, before the lump on her neck was diagnosed as Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Through her diagnosis and treatment, Sarah shares her story through her bedroom laptop, with advice on dealing with PICC lines, the best head accessories to go with her (incredible) bald look, and even sharing the days when cancer just sucks.
Sarah is now cancer-free (go Sarah!), but still plans to make more videos about her experience. We highly, highly recommend getting to know her over on her YouTube channel – even on her hardest days, her confidence and personality shine through (and judging by the comments under her videos, she’s passing on her confidence to hundreds of other people going through cancer, too).
Could You Coach Your Way To Confidence?
Some of our regular readers might have noticed we’ve been working with the lovely Lucy Baker, professional confidence coach and makeup artist extraordinaire. We’re super proud of the Chemo-Friendly Makeup Tutorials we’ve created together, featuring the frankly awesome Michaela as our model. Michaela has been through breast cancer, chemo, radiotherapy AND mastectomy, but as you’ll see in the videos, she’s still brimming with confidence.
While Lucy was helping us all learn how to put our lippy on, we also asked her for her top tips on staying confident. Her ideas were so common sense and practical, we just had to share them with our readers – and though they’re really helpful for people dealing with cancer, we think they’d apply to anyone going through a hard time. Check out the first in the series below!
New Year – A Time To Look Back, And A Time To Move Forwards
Last, but by no means least, you might have read some of Heather’s wisdom in our last round-up post, all about going through cancer at Christmas. This month, she shared some of her thoughts on the passing of another year as a cancer survivor – what’s gone right, what she’s still looking for, what she’s achieved, and the lessons she’s learned along the way. And as a perfect counterpoint to the end of the year, she’s also written a beautiful post about the beginning of this new one: The Blank Page Of A New Year. Heather writes about setting concrete goals, and celebrating the ones you’ve already achieved along the way – a simple, but crucial part of maintaining your confidence as you handle life’s challenges.
That’s it for this monthly round-up! Big thanks to everyone who sent us something to publish, and stay tuned for next month’s topic – relationships and cancer.