The Body Relationship You Had Before Cancer
From the Sunday Self-Care Chronicles | 5/3/26
Hey sweet friend.
How often do you think about your body?
What it looks like?
What you wish it looked like?
What you like?
What you'd change?
What works?
What doesn't?
My guess is that for many of you this question stirs up some challenge or issue related to your breast cancer diagnosis.
AND, I'd also put money down that cancer is not the first time you felt at odds with your body.
I know this because I'm a woman and across nearly every culture we almost all have complicated relationships with our bodies – with or without cancer.
Last week I shared a poll asking which of three concerns was top of mind for you among issues related to your mind-body connection (how you think and feel about your body), your scars and scar tissue, and lymphedema risk and symptoms, and the winner was…..
How you think and feel about your body.
This does not surprise me at all.
Even though the majority of my hands-on massage and manual lymphatic drainage clients seek me out because of pain or tightness related to surgery or radiation, and/or issues with cording and swelling, the constant echo throughout every session is:
How do I heal this body? How do I trust this body? How do I live in this body?
It's why, despite my professional education and training being rooted in hands-on body work techniques, it's often the human connection that keeps people coming back.
Because the work we do not only loosens tightness, reduces pain, and lessens swelling, it also opens a doorway to reconnecting with your body.
It allows you to have a brief period of time in your day where being in your body doesn't ask anything of you.
You get to feel held, cared for, and possibly even good for a little while.
And this is why I have spent the last week building out part one of my new signature program As You Are Now: A Breast Cancer Self-Care Program for Real Life, focused on the mind-body connection.
Because learning to live in a post-cancer diagnosis body isn't just about the cancer.
It's about acknowledging and exploring the relationship you already had with your body prior to breast cancer.
And I can fully admit that mine has always been complicated.
When we arrived in Italy four weeks ago today (where does the time go?!?!), our first week was at a beautiful spa resort in a Tuscan valley.
And I spent that first week more conscious of my body – my weight specifically – than I can remember in the longest time.
Maybe it's turning 50.
Maybe it's just that with every year some things just sit a little differently.
Maybe it's the fact that the way my brain sees myself in my head hasn't caught up to what's actually being reflected in the mirror.
But whatever it was, for the first time it wasn't showing my scars in the sauna or steam room that had me feeling self-conscious: it was simply walking around in a bathing suit or wearing a sleeveless top.
Working through the modules and lessons in the first part of this program this week was like a hand reaching out and taking mine at the moment I needed it most.
Because as much as I've taught these same things over the years, I found myself receiving it this time as well.
And my hope is that when the time comes, those of you who named mind-body connection as your top concern in last week's poll will be curious and open to receiving it too when As You Are Now opens this summer.
You can stay on the “first to know” list by clicking here.
I leave tomorrow for an unexpectedly (but also rather excitingly) solo week in Paris where I will be continuing to build out the program.
I'm eager to see what comes up for me in Part 2: Scars, Scar Tissue, and Self-Care as I not only use the self-massage techniques I'll be teaching but as I also continue to explore my own relationship with my body and specifically my scars.
I mean it when I say, I'm always in this with you.
Until next week, Ciao!
Love, Amy
PS: If you're new here and looking for a place to start, The Survivorship Starting Point is a free resource I created just for you.