#139 Supporting Your Healing and Your Life with Abundant Thinking

Imagine always anticipating good things coming your way.

Breast cancer can understandably shake our world, instilling fear and upending our expectations. Yet, if we don't confront and transform these fears, they can imprison us.

While reminiscing about the 'better days' before cancer is natural, it can prevent us from recognizing and cherishing new moments of beauty and potential.

In this episode, we delve into the journey from a mindset of scarcity to one where we embrace and anticipate abundance. Join us in reshaping your expectations for a brighter tomorrow.

Referred to in This Episode:
Learn to Love Yourself After Breast Cancer Workshop

Read full transcript below:

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This is Laura Lummer, the breast cancer recovery coach. I'm a healthy lifestyle coach, a clinical Ayurveda specialist, a personal trainer, and I'm also a breast cancer survivor. In this podcast, we talk about healthy thinking and mindfulness practices, eating well, moving your body for health and longevity. And we'll also hear from other breast cancer survivors who have reengaged with life, and have incredible stories to share. This podcast is your go to resource for getting back to life after breast cancer.

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Hello, friends, welcome to another episode of the breast cancer recovery coach podcast. I am your host, Laura Lummer. I am thrilled to be here with you today, as always, every day is a gift. And every time I get to put out a new podcast is so meaningful to me, I love doing it. I want to start off this show by saying thank you so much to racket gal, you left an awesome rating and review for the breast cancer recovery coach podcast. And I just want you to know that that means the world to me. And I don't know how you found me either. But I also thank God that you did, it just makes I can't even tell you what it means to me to know that the podcast helps you. So thank you for taking the time to leave that review, I really, really appreciate it. And if you also are a regular listener or a new listener and you enjoy listening to the show, it would mean the world if you would take the time to leave a rating review, you should be able to just scroll down to the bottom of wherever you listen to this podcast and hit some stars or type in a review. And I much appreciate it. And remember also I talked about it in the last show, you can now just if you are an Amazon Alexa user, just say hey, Alexa, play the breast cancer recovery coach podcast. And it just makes it that much easier to find the show. So I hope you try that. So I'm very excited to jump into today's show. I have been working all month with my Empower members on creating abundance in your life. And now I know when you think of abundance, the first thing that pops into your head is money. And this is not about money. We're not Dave Ramsey, it's not I'm not a financial guru. It'd be cool if I was but I'm not. And in working doing this work on abundance with my members, I've seen so many amazing shifts in their life. I've just seen their thought process, change and more openness start to happen in their lives, more belief that amazing things can happen. And it makes it causes me to think about the way that we are programmed so much through our life. And we're conditioned to the way we think to keep us safe. And rightfully so I know I taught my kids to be safe, do the safe things. And yet we translate that safety and that fear into everything that we do, to the extent that that does our first go to, right. So instead of looking at healing, looking at treatment, looking at life, looking at the future, from a place of abundance, especially after we've had cancer, we look at it from a place of fear and loss. And so I want to talk about that today. Because I know that making this shift in your awareness. And even just bringing this to your awareness, this way of thinking can help so much to support your healthy life, your fulfilling life and support your healing, you know, coming from a place of expecting good things to happen. And that doesn't mean live in denial. It doesn't mean don't acknowledge what's happening now. And only think positive things, we have to experience our full range of emotions. And we go through things that are difficult, and it's important for us to process that. But in the bigger picture, when that foundational thought is coming from a place of abundance rather than a place of scarcity, it can make all the difference in the way you experience even going through a difficult process. So let's talk a little more about that. Now, there are probably countless ways that we can approach this, but I want to simplify it. And I'm going to focus just on two areas that are really common for all of us. I think that will resonate with most of us and look at how we can be shifting our thinking to be coming from a place of abundance and these areas. One of them is scan xiety And the second is going back to normal or the expectation of going back to normal. So let's start with skin xiety. Now if you've never heard the term skin xiety It is a term used with survivors to describe the anxiety we feel when we come up on a

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Follow up scan every time a follow up, scan comes up. There's this anticipation, anxiety scan xiety. And we experienced that scans it from two different aspects. One is because we're telling us, it's telling ourselves a story of something horrible, that's going to happen, that hasn't happened, right. And the second is because we're thinking from a place of fear. Now, it makes sense, because we had a scan at one point, a mammogram or a scan or something like that, that revealed that you had cancer. And so there's this fear, this fear based thinking of now all these future scans are going to show me something that I don't want to know about, they're going to show me bad news, instead of retraining your mind to come from this place of expecting good news, right. And I say that because if you can start to shift, that thought process and that foundational thinking, to, oh, I'm going to have good results on this upcoming scan, I have a scan in three months from now or in six months from now, I'm going to have good results. What it does is it actually helps you to be a little more focused on doing things to support your health, to lead towards better outcomes. Whereas if you stay in this place of scarce thinking of fear based thinking, and thinking that the worst things are going to happen, then we have a tendency of turning to things that actually undermine our health. Right? So when you're in fear, when you think of scarcity, when you're thinking there's not an abundance of health, right? There's not an abundance of good news, the news that's going to come to me is going to be negative and bad. Why would you be doing healthy, great things for your body, when you expect a negative outcome? You just don't. But if you can say, okay, great, you know, I got through this. And I am now recovering from breast cancer. And I'm connecting to my body, and I'm doing all the things I know I can to support it. And I'm going to go into this scan, thinking from that place and expecting good outcome without being attached to that outcome. Because let's take my case, as an example, I got a phone call that had a negative outcome. But because I wasn't stuck in a place of fear, I wasn't expecting the worst, it didn't really exacerbate my fear, right? I got an outcome I didn't want to hear. And then I was able to look at that and say, Okay, I have to deal with this. But how do I deal with this and still live a joyful, happy life. Because even when we're working on coming up to scans, and you're spending that time in scans it and you're letting your mind go to this place where it's telling you all of the terrible things that are going to happen and to expect the worst. And you see people who've had the worst, you're missing out. And taking away from that quality of life that you're living, even just waiting for the scan before you even get close enough to start having the scan xiety around it. A few weeks ago, in my Empower membership, one of the members on a call, she shared her insights, as she was heading for a scan. And it was, it was so powerful, honestly, that there was this beat of silence amongst us on the call because it was so true and so powerful. And what she said, as you know, she had to park a few streets away from where she was going. And that she just decided that she was going to appreciate everything in that moment, she was going to take in everything on the walk from where her car was to where the doctor was, and stay in that moment and tell herself that there's no evidence as anything is wrong with her at this point in time. And if a scan should come back delivering some different news will then she'll deal with that at that time. But she wasn't going to allow herself to come out of that moment. And to take joy away from that part of her life, that she was just appreciating all of the amazing things that were already in and around her in her life. And then going and doing the scan was part of it. Now, you may be thinking, yeah, that is easier said than done. And you're right. It absolutely is easier said than done. I don't because I've had to do it. And I'm saying it. And that's because it's a practice. It's a practice of training yourself in the way that you're thinking so that you can feel and the way that you want to feel in life. I know I'm pretty sure no one listening to this podcast, wants to feel anxious, wants to spend two weeks before scan is coming up feeling sick to their stomach.

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or then do a scan and wait for another week feeling sick to your stomach while you're waiting to hear. So it is easier said than done, because we're not conditioned to think that way. And that's what this is all about. We're conditioned to come from this place of scarcity, but recognizing that recognizing that the thoughts are coming from a place of fear, and scarcity gives you the chance to say how can I look at this differently.

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And oftentimes, it's helpful to recall another situation in your life where you had a good outcome. Because if you can look back throughout life, and it doesn't necessarily have to be a scan, but anything else where you had a good outcome, then you're giving your brain this evidence that say, Hey, brain, everything doesn't happen for the worst look at these good outcomes that I've had in my life. And so it does take this practice, it takes this effort. And as I work with my members, they'll say, you know, this is a process, like it really takes time, and it takes training, and it does. So I know I've said this before, it's just like training the physical body, you don't go to the gym for a week, and then suddenly, you're entering a fitness model, bikini contest, it's a process. And it's the same way with our minds, we don't come from 3545 5565, we're more years of thinking one way, and then decide, it's going to be a different way. And that's it and it sticks. So it's this process of awareness, noticing, when you're coming from this place, noticing what your brain is offering you offering back evidence that that is not true, and deciding on the thought that's going to help you feel better about the situation. Okay, so let's talk about coming from a place of abundance, when we're in this place of wanting to go back to normal, which I have talked about so many times, you may be sick of hearing me talk about it. But it's just such a powerful place, and it creates so much suffering for us. And here's what I want to offer you.

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The thinking that you have to go back to normal, the frustration that you live in and experience when you don't get the physical results you are hoping for, or the expectation you've laid out for yourself after cancer treatment. And you're comparing yourself to the person you used to be that emotional pain is coming from a place of scarce thinking. And here's what I mean by that.

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If you're thinking the way I was, was better, the way I was is what I want to go back to, then you really limiting yourself, right? You're saying I want to go backwards in my life, I want to go to this limited place where that's that's the person I want to be, instead of staying now and saying, Okay, I understand that everything has changed. I understand that I've been through a traumatic experience, my poor, amazing body who needs some serious loving right now has just been beaten and poisoned and abused and cut and all the things that it's been through. It needs some serious love. And now, I'm going to sit here with this body. And I'm going to come from this place of abundant thinking and imagine who can I be now? What am I capable of becoming now?

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And that opens up so much more hope, and so much more opportunity, then going into your head and saying, Nope, I have to go backwards to what I used to be.

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That in itself is scarcity and fear, right? You're going back into this hidey hole, right? This hidey hole those like, okay, that's where I want to be that was good. And by doing that, we discount not only the present moment that we're living in, and the amazing, worthy, valuable person that you are right now in this moment. But you're discounting your incredible future.

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You know, I've said this 100 times before, you didn't go through all of this, just to live in misery. You didn't go through breast cancer treatment.

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Because you don't care about life. You did it because you love life. And you can love life ahead of you. And you can still love the life that was behind you. And you can say, You know what, I had a great life. And because I love my life, I worked really hard just by breast cancer. And this body worked really hard to survive breast cancer. And now I'm on the other side here. And I'm just going to be open to the opportunity and the amazing abundance that's in this world and in my life. And in all the choices I have to create what I want for this life. And I'm going to just allow myself to entertain those ideas. I'm going to look at myself and say

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Damn, I'm 3040 pounds heavier than I was, before I went through chemotherapy when a bunch of steroids went on hormone medications was thrown into menopause overnight. Oh, my God, I suck, I'm worthless. No, I'm going to look at myself and say, Well,

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this is not what I was expecting. This is a very different physical body than what I was expecting. But hey, you know, this is a body that went through a lot of trauma. And here it is. So now from this point, what are the possibilities? What is the potential in my life. And if you can shift that thinking,

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from this fear based from this, I want to go back, I want to go back, I'm afraid of what is ahead of me, or I don't like what is in this moment. And you can recognize that and you can move past it, you can say, wow, it is literally like going in having a cute little cottage, this great little house that you really loved and you lived in this house. And because I live in California, I'll use an earthquake as an example. And the earthquake knocks his house down. And you're like, oh, no, I loved my little house. Yeah, that's true. And it's sad, and you grieve it. But you can also say, Wow, now I can make anything. You know what I remember, I didn't like that part of that plumbing in that little house. So now I can make it better. You know what I kind of wish that the kitchen window had been over here instead of over there. So it was cool. But now I can make it even better. And you can do that with yourself and your life. If you allow yourself to let go of that thinking that the past is better. Which is scarce thinking because that says to me, I don't believe there's more in the future. I don't believe there's the possibility for better in my future. And I want to share you friend there is there is but you have to let go of the desire to go backwards, and train your mind to start thinking about all of the opportunities and the beauty. That is the head of you. And it's so interesting, because we say ahead of you. And we talk about this all the time. How we talk about our body as if it's a separate thing, right, my body did this to me or my body, let me down in my body betrayed me, our body is a part of us. And we need to connect to it. And we need to bring it along. And we need to say, You know, Bobby went along for the ride and then went through some hard stuff. And Emotionally, I went through some hard stuff. But now I've got to reconnect to this. And here we are now with the opportunity to rebuild in any way that we want with what we have now. Okay, so not to rebuild to be exactly like it used to be, wouldn't it be kind of weird, if you had a home, and you decided I'm going to remodel because my home is kind of outdated, and you demoed your home and then you rebuilt exactly the same home, that'd be a little weird. So your body has gone through a demolition girl that's been demoed a little bit in so now you get to sit with it and heal it. And change that thought process from judging it. And abusing it with the way you talk to it. And coming from a place of fear of what is to come. So you try to force yourself to go back and just be in this place where you can acknowledge the physical limitations that have happened because of that demo we've been through. But also open yourself to what are the new opportunities that this body and this mind and this heart and this life can have. So you know, I used to love to run, I don't know if I've shared that before, I think I did. I used to just love to go out for a run. And after my first treatment, my first diagnosis and going through chemotherapy, I couldn't run anymore, it was too hard on my joints. And so I would walk. And then after my second diagnosis, when I was told I had too much cancer in my hip and my spine and I couldn't even walk. Suddenly the ability to walk became a lot sweeter sounding right. And now, every day that I go for a walk as I'm doing it, I think I am so grateful for the ability to walk. I don't even think about running anymore. I don't even miss running anymore. I just embrace the fact that I can walk every day.

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And I share that with you because when you can shift your thinking to what you are capable of, versus what you have lost. It will change your world and it will bring you so much more happiness. Now again, it's really important to grieve that loss to acknowledge that loss. And to go through that process of letting go is my first pillar of breast cancer recovery release. Letting Go letting go

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Have this scarce thinking of having to go back because there's not something even more amazing ahead.

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So if you leave the show today with just that thought in your mind was just that thought that you know what? What is head in my life could be even more amazing than everything that has been behind me. And hang on to that. Write it down every day, tell it to yourself every day. And that doesn't mean ignore things again, you know me will have to know that doesn't mean ignore challenges that come up, process everything, feel everything, but know, and have this foundation in your heart and in your mind that says, What ahead, what lies ahead of me can be miraculous, and amazing. And when your brain offers you Whoa, whoa, whoa, what is ahead of you is some scary shit like, oh my god, you better you better be worried about what is coming. You better be worried about what that what that bloodwork says You better be worried about what that scan says then you can say to it, you know what? What if it says something wonderful? What if every time I go in for a scan, nothing is ever detected again. Because that's just as real a possibility. Right? People will say, Oh, sure. It's thinking rainbows and unicorns. But it's a story either way. If it's something about your future, then it's your story. And you get to choose, do you want to make it a story of scarcity and fear? Or do you want it to be a story of abundance, because either way, it hasn't happened yet. So you get to kind of projected and I just want to offer to you to bring that awareness to the way that you're thinking and shifted a little bit to expecting abundance and miracles. Because wonderful things happen in this life. And hard things happen in this life. So you've been through a really hard thing, you may be going through a really hard thing, but know that that's just a part of the bigger picture of a very full life. Okay.

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I hope that helps you in some way. And you know, when this podcast comes out, it will be Friday, May 21. And that will be day one of the Learn to love yourself after breast cancer workshop, you can attend that totally free, and go and sign up for it at the breast cancer recovery. coach.com forward slash self love, because even if you miss the first day live, you can attend the next two. And if you missed all of them, you can listen to the recordings and there's powerful, powerful stuff in these coachings. And in these workshops, and I they're so inspiring and so amazing that I just want for you to have that experience. So go to the breast cancer recovery coach.com forward slash self love, there's a couple options, you can sign up. And if you choose the free option, you'll be able to watch those recordings for a full week after so from Sunday the 23rd for seven days after that. And I think that it will really help with that shift. And that witnessing that when we are not practicing self compassion, when we are being hard on herself, that we really are coming from a place of fear and when we can shift that to coming from a place of abundance than we give ourselves permission to be kind to ourselves, to be good to ourselves and to expect good things from our lives. Alright, I hope to see you there. I hope you at least check it out. I will talk to you again next week and until then please be good to yourself and expect other people to be good to you as well.

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You've heard your courage to the test laid all your doubts

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your mind is clearer than before your hardest form wanting more your futures

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Give it all you

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know

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you've been waiting on