You’re damn right I’m brave. And so are you.
From the Sunday Self-Care Chronicles | 5/24/26
Hey beautiful.
I've never really embraced the word “brave” when it comes to my cancer diagnosis and treatment experience.
In fact I have written recently about my distaste for the word and other pieces of “battle language” that we are often assigned when cancer comes knocking.
And I've heard so many of you say the same thing:
“I don't feel brave. I'm actually terrified. But I don't think I really had a choice. I had to show up and do it to live."
But the truth is? That is bravery. And maybe it's time we actually own it.
It was brave of me to choose a double mastectomy and partial hysterectomy with a small stage 1 tumor because it meant getting ahead of the chance of more cancer in the future as BRCA1+.
It was brave of me to say yes to chemo when they told me that despite the tiny size of my tumor, and the fact that there was no lymph node involvement, it was still in my best interest because of my age and the aggressive nature of that tiny tumor.
It is brave of me to continue taking year after year of the aromatase inhibitor that hopefully keeps cancer at bay in my postmenopausal state. And it will be brave of me when the time comes to stop that medicine and cross my fingers that it did its job long enough.
I AM brave because I chose to do what I needed to do to keep living the life I desperately want to live.
And so are you.
You are brave if you felt you had options and chose to keep your healthy breast and treat the side with the cancer, OR if you chose to remove both for your peace of mind.
You are brave if you felt you didn't have options and you said yes to the treatments that kept coming – surgeries, chemotherapies, radiation, immunotherapies, medications – and faced the aftermath that comes with each.
You are brave if your body didn't respond well to certain treatments or medications and you chose to stop them in order to have a better quality of life day to day.
And you are brave if you took the time to decide what was right for you in a system that sometimes forgets we are individuals and pushes us into protocols and plans without asking how we feel about each step.
You are fucking brave if you showed up and did what you needed to do get through.
And the thing is, being brave in this life with a cancer experience doesn't end with the diagnosis and treatments and medications.
It continues in how you choose to live your life in the aftermath of it all.
We are brave when we ask for help for the aches and pains that plague us.
We are brave when we stop pretending to be fine and admit that nothing feels normal.
We are brave when we face our scars for the first time – looking at them, touching them, allowing them to be seen and touched by someone else.
We are brave when we push for more information and more answers beyond “call us if you have a problem.”
I have long recognized that my clients are very brave people.
They are brave when they come to see me in my office and expose their breasts, their chests, their scars, their pain, their fears, and their hopes, while allowing me to put my hands on their bodies.
They are brave when they book a consultation online and they share their grief, their frustrations, their needs, and their goals, and let me offer guidance, resources, and recommendations.
They are brave when they buy one of my online products, believing in themselves to learn to understand, connect with, and care for their own bodies in practical and relevant ways when it comes to pain, scars, and swelling.
And because of this, a couple of weeks ago in Paris, I decided to be brave in return by showing up fully as myself inside my new program As You Are Now.
If you know me well or have been following along here for a while you may know that I am pretty comfortable with nudity and my body in general. However, one thing I have never done is exposed my reconstructed breasts in the cancer space.
I'll happily go skinny dipping or get naked in a sauna, but I've never taken my top off at a cancer retreat or for a photo online. It just never felt right or necessary until now.
I was working on the scars and scar tissue modules and decided that if I was going to ask you to face and work with your own scars, that maybe I should be brave and share mine.
So in one lesson I went off script, removed my teaching hat, and allowed myself to be seen – literally.
I recorded a video where I take my top off and go through an inventory of my scars – cancer related and not – so that you can see my version of implant reconstruction, mastectomy scars, and more.
At this point in my career I have seen so many bodies impacted by breast cancer.
Hundreds – maybe even thousands at this point – of women with everything from tiny little lumpectomy scars that are barely perceptible to fully flat chests with long winding ribbons of scar tissue wrapping around to their backs.
But I know for most of you maybe you've only ever seen your own, or maybe you've been too afraid to even look yet.
I hope that in this program, showing you mine, as I ask you to reflect on your own, will be a step towards making peace with your scars for those of you who need it.
And for those of you who are already comfortable in your skin, including your scars, I hope that it will be one more point of connection between us as you dig into the more practical lessons of self-massage and safe skincare.
Just as every person is unique, so are your scars and how you relate to them, and that is the point of As You Are Now.
To help you learn to live with more comfort, confidence, and bravery in your body, day to day, just as you are now.
I'm currently in Sardinia and working on the final piece of the program – Lymphatic Literacy – and am so grateful to all of you for supporting me during my time away and encouraging me as I create what I hope will be a truly important program for many in our community.
For now I leave you with this passage from Brianna Wiest's book The Pivot Year:
“Nobody is brave at the beginning. Bravery is dug out of the deepest part of us, often by necessity. It is when you allow your love for something to grow a little larger than your fear about it. It is when you make the voice of possibility a little louder than the one of doubt. It is when you feel that familiar sense of hesitation come over you and choose to act anyway, when you decide to keep moving in the right direction even if you have to do it one step at a time. It is that moment of clarity when you realize that nobody – not one of us – gets to the end of this life with our hearts entirely unscarred, because that would mean they were also untouched. You become brave when you realize that wholeness allows for the nuances of who you are. You become brave when you realize that you do not have to always feel calm and certain, but be able to find the strength to keep showing up regardless.”
Thank you for allowing me to brave by showing up in your inbox every Sunday.
And know that I am cheering you on as you show up bravely, every day, for yourself.
Until next week, I am always in this with you!
Love, Amy
PS: As You Are Now: A Breast Cancer Self-Care Program for Real Life will be launching this summer with limited availability and a special offer exclusively for my email subscribers. If you'd like to be among the first to receive details, join now.