Define yourself!
I was introduced to a trainee doctor in my oncology office as – "This is our patient he has colon cancer."
I reached out my hand and said
– Hi I am Paul… Doc looked up and then back down at his computer. This was 10 years ago and it still bugs me!
That is when I discovered I had lost my identity! I
was now a cancer patient or someone fighting cancer… Who I was no longer
mattered I was now just a disease label!
That is when I said thought NO! I was going to get
my identity back, but how?
We live in a labeling world! By illness, by race, by
gender, by profession, by location, by sports team, by car type and least we
forget college of graduation! We live
wrapped in labels!
I have conversations (not in therapy) with people and within minutes I hear things like I have depression or anxiety or
allergies or nerve damage or blah blah blah…..
People just use their sickness/disability label to self-identify to everyone around them that what they have or are dealing with is who they are!
I never tell people in conversation that I had cancer unless they ask or
it is appropriate to do so and most of the time it is NOT! I don’t avoid the conversation but I am more than a
sickness I had!
I am grateful to have lived! I am willing to
encourage others with the story of survival BUT and that is a BIG, BIG BUT!!!!
I am not what I had or what I am dealing with and
NEITHER ARE YOU!
THAT’S is the point to this blog!
My sister in law is a world class deaf interrupter, she
has three awesome kids and she is a kind hearted person! She has had to deal with a lot of illnesses
and now breast cancer… But not one of those illnesses are more important than
who SHE IS!
We get lost in labels – sometimes we forget who we
are and become that label we have been given to the point we forget we are
anything else. This trapped mindset can make you sicker, slow recovery and
worst of all keep you from achieving awesome things!
I am bi-polar, I am fighting cancer, I am disabled,
I am _______ - Put your label in the blank!
THEN STOP!
YOU ARE NOT!
We read about people that overcome difficulties and achieve
things like the man that had not legs and ran the Boston Marathon, the child
with no arms winning swimming competitions, the mom and dad that spent her last
day watching Disney movies with their child before dying… and we say WOW they are strong, They are
amazing… YES THEY ARE… but only because they did not become the struggle they
had! THEY CHOOSE WHO THEY ARE!
WHO ARE YOU?
A Mom, dad, aunt bother, sister, friend, son, daughter,
golfer, doctor, mechanic, student, singer, preacher, baker, bus driver???? See you get to choose your identities!
If you have illness ok… so what! – You can admit that but
don’t become that! If you are sick or dealing with a disability I understand some
days are HARD!
Yet I promise you if you define yourself as who you are and
not what you have you will be better!
Let me show you
how----
I had cancer,
I had asthma,
I have aches and pains,
I have
fears and anxiety….
BUT
I AM - a good dad,
good husband, good friend, good therapist, bad golfer, kind person, and I am
alive and I choose to live happy as much as I can! THIS IS WHO I AM!
WHO ARE YOU? If you
can’t say who you right now - then write it DOWN and repeat it to yourself
several times a day until you don’t have to!
When people ask oh you have???? Say yeah BUT I focus on being me!
You are not
cancer, you are not sickness, you are not a disability!!!!!!
YOU ARE AMAZING AND THE WORLD NEEDS YOU AND ME TO BE US!
WHO ARE
YOU?????
I dare you
to write it out in the comments and then share it to the world!
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