You know how sometimes you're just doing your thing, and BOOM! A light bulb goes off in your head? 💡

That happened to me, and I just had to share it with you on this episode.

 First off, I talk about how much I admire Navy SEALs. No, no, not because they're tough guys in movies, but because they're the real deal when it comes to mental strength and pushing through discomfort. 🏋️‍♀️

And guess what?

We're kinda like Navy SEALs too! Yup, you heard me right. We face discomfort every day, whether it's side effects from treatments or just the emotional rollercoaster we're on. But we don't let that stop us. We keep spinning the wheels of our life, just like I do in my spin class, even when my hands and feet hurt from chemo. 🚴‍♀️

The second big thing is about taking responsibility. We make hard choices, really hard ones, but we own them. We're the bosses of our own bodies, and we decide how to move forward, just like a Navy SEAL in training. 🌟

Lastly, I talk about the power of support and love. Navy SEALs have each other's backs, and so do we. When you meet another breast cancer survivor, it's like meeting a long-lost friend. We get each other, and that's magical. 🤗

So, if you want to feel like the Navy SEAL of breast cancer survival, you've got to tune in. We're diving deep, but we're doing it together, and I promise you'll come out feeling stronger and more inspired. 🌈

Catch you on the podcast! 💖🎙️

Referred to in this episode:

Creating Time for You Workshop

Better Than Before Breast Cancer Life Coaching Membership

Jocko Willink

Read the full transcript below:

Laura Lummer  00:00

You're listening to the breast cancer recovery coach podcast. I'm your host, Laura Lummer. I'm a Certified Life health and nutrition coach, and I'm also a breast cancer thriver. If you're trying to figure out how to move past the trauma and the emotional toll of breast cancer, you've come to the right place. In this podcast, I will give you the tools and the insights to create a life that's even better than before breast cancer. Well, let's get started. Hey, friends, welcome to episode 280. I'm better than before breast cancer with me, Laura Lummer, the breast cancer recovery coach, thank you so much for joining me in the show today. I'm literally dying to talk about this show today. But before I do, I just want to ask something of you. If you are a repeat listener, and you enjoy the show, you get something from this podcast. Or if you're a new listener, and you actually like what you hear here today, it would mean so much to me, if you could take a moment to leave a rating or review for the show. Especially because at the time of this recording, this show will come out in late September, and coming up on October, which is breast cancer awareness month. It's so important for me to reach as many survivors and thrivers as I possibly can. Because I know and you know that when we're on this side of that pink ribbon, that Breast Cancer Awareness Month has a whole new meaning. And I really believe that those of us who've been through the treatment who are living with managing cancer, need extra support during that month. You know, we need someone to maybe shine a light and inspire us and give us hope. Instead of listening to a lot of stories, which are all said for good reason I get it, I get the whole marketing, I get the pink campaign, I support a lot of that. But it also comes with a lot of really tragic stories. And I think sadly, we sometimes motivate people through fear. And last thing we all need, ladies is fear, right? We don't need more fear, we got enough of that shit. So if you could take the time to leave a rating review, it makes it easier for people who may need to hear what is talked about in this podcast to find the show. So if you could do that, all you got to do is scroll down to right where you're listening to this podcast, tap on some stars. And if you have an extra moment, type or even dictate in a review what you thought maybe what your favorite episode is anything, anything that inspires you. And if you can just tap on a couple stars. Well, let's hope it's not a couple. Let's try to give five stars, maybe a tap on five stars. That would be amazing. All right. Well, I want to get into this. So sometimes, have you ever had this experience, where you just doing something, and suddenly, it's like you have a moment of clarity, right? Suddenly, things just kind of sink in fall into place. And it's like, I can't wait to tell somebody this, I can't wait to talk about this. And this kind of happened? Well, not kind of it did happen to me the other day. So let me give you a little bit of background. I have always loved physical challenges. I loved playing sports way more than watching sports. I love playing sports. I love weightlifting, weight training, challenging myself physically. Part of that is I love the feeling of being physically strong. And another part of that is the mental fortitude, how much I would see like it's so much in our head, what we can achieve what we can break through our own barriers, what we can challenge ourselves to do. And I think for that reason, you know, some girls are attracted to bad boys. And I'm always attracted to badass and boys, right? And I think the most badass boys and now people think God in the world are Navy SEALs, Navy SEALs are badass in if that was something that was available for women, when I was young and growing up and not crunchy and still eligible to do things that were extremely physically mentally challenging. I totally would have gone through or tried to go through Navy SEAL training. I think it's incredible. And when I see shows about it, or there was a reality show some time ago, I don't even remember what it was called. But it showed people going through special ops training. Wow. And I'm just so impressed by that. One because of the physical strength that they have, and the endurance and their just ability to just challenge their bodies and make them stronger and stronger. And but even more than that, is the mental fortitude. You know, to be able to be uncomfortable and adopt a mindset that lets you get through somehow continue to push push through, to accept and embrace discomfort, and still not only come through it, not only challenge yourself, but challenge yourself to what is considered like one of the most ultimate physical challenges, right physical accomplishments to get through Navy SEAL training to be a Navy Seal and who knows the things they have to do. So, with all that being said, My husband is a huge YouTube fan. He's forever watching different videos on YouTube. And the other day he was watching this and this guy, I was listening to him and I thought he's cool. Who is this guy? And his name is Jocko willing, and he's a retired Navy SEAL. He's a leadership speaker, motivational speaker, just a bad ass guy. And what was really cool is it was some I don't even know what it was was YouTube channel. And people were showing him or movies like Apocalypse Now and Saving Private Private Ryan. And he was just giving insights on whether or not they were realistic or not, it was really fascinating to listen to him. So I have this on my mind. And I see this guy, and I think I just love this guy. And so I keep telling my husband find more stuff that he talks about. And he's got, you know, these really motivational leadership speeches. And he just talks about being that person to really be responsible for yourself, for the people around you, to accept responsibility to step into responsibility to step up to responsibility. And I just love that. I love that. So this is I'm not even close to a Navy SEAL. People don't think that I'm comparing myself to like actually being a Navy Seal, I can maybe do five honest push ups, maybe. But the other morning, I'm in spin class. And I'm going to tell you this not for sympathy sake, but just to kind of bring the story full circle, I take a chemotherapy and oral chemotherapy called Xeloda. And it is working fantastically well for me, I have very, very few side effects. And really the only side effect that I have from it is what's called a hand and foot syndrome. And so it causes this discoloration like a hyperpigmentation, brown spots and dark colors on the palms of my hands and the soles of my feet. But it also causes them to hurt. They get super, super dry, and they crack and I'm constantly putting on coconut oil and moisturizers and anything I can get I'll wipe my hands and butter if it comes to it, but I have to constantly be taking care of them. And even when I do, they just kind of feel blistered, you know, they feel uncomfortable. They're just uncomfortable, pretty much all the time. So I'm in spin class, and I'm having a great class. I love my spin studio. It's so fun. I love that we're in this dark room that they've got black lights going on that the music is amazing. The instructors are motivational. I have to wear my earplugs because it's so loud in there, but I don't care. I love it. I love feeling the beat of that music like literally going through my body while I'm doing spin. And I'm there and I'm spinning. And I feel my hands and my feet, I noticed that I notice how they feel. And Jaco comes to mind. Navy SEAL training comes to mind. And I think you know what? We breast cancer survivors. We're like Navy SEALs, and not in the sense that we're these warriors are fighting this battle. You know, that's not the mentality I subscribe to. Because we live with a lot of discomfort. We have to overcome a lot of discomfort. And we have to make conscious, intentional decisions to live the kind of life we want to live. Even with that discomfort. Right. So this came to my head and I'm like spinning I'm thinking can my feet hurt? And yeah, my hands hurt, but I'm not gonna stop doing the things I enjoy. It's just discomfort. It's not pain. I'm not injuring myself. I'm not harming myself. I

Laura Lummer  09:16

know this. There's a big difference between discomfort and pain. So I'm not saying push through pain ever ever. But there are things that are side effects for us right when I was taking versin you Holy Moly if you've ever been on for synyo I don't know how to fill you in on the side effect that happens with the distress it causes to your gut. And there are other I've been on Tamoxifen and I've been on letrozole some I had very little side effects, but I'm sure you all know some you get really challenging joint pain. Some you get a lot of fatigue and it depends on the person right? So we people we humans, we share like 99.9% the same genome, but our gut is our bacteria or microbiome are 80 to 90%, different from one person to another. So we experience things differently because everything has to interact with our gut. So that discomfort is going to be different for everyone, we might have some similar side effects, but depends on the intensity that we're going to experience them based on our own biodiversity, our own uniqueness. And yet, no matter what level that discomfort comes to, you are the one who's got to do the hard work, right, we've got two choices. When we go, we get a diagnosis of breast cancer, well, we can sit there and cry, which we kind of do for the first few days, if not a little longer. But then we've got to make some really tough decisions. Really tough. It's not like we have choices between the good thing and the bad thing, we've got choices between the hard thing and the hardware thing. And we have to support ourselves, and our mental and emotional wellness, and be able to make those decisions in an informed way. And be able to live with making super tough choices, to have results that ultimately we believe are going to extend our life. But even though that may be the case, the results aren't always wonderful, right? We don't love them. They're tough decisions. And we have to step in and take responsibility for our body. We have to step in and take responsibility for our health, for wellness, we have to step in and get the team we need right and Navy SEALs, you know what, they've got each other's back, and don't we as breast cancer survivors, you know, when you meet another breast cancer survivor, there's an instant connection isn't there? It's like, I know you, I know what you've been through, I get you. And I know you're gonna get me like this story I'm sharing with you. You're the first people in sharing it with like, I didn't come home and say this to my husband, because I think he might have looked at me like, okay, that's kind of okay, whatever, right? But you get it, because you understand that stepping in and taking responsibility for yourself is hard. And it takes effort. And it takes energy. And these bodies, they're our support system. They're like, our buddies, right? They're the, in the bunker with us. That's these bodies. And we've got to step in and take responsibility. Because if we don't, we're never going to pass SEAL training. Okay? If we sit back here, and we allow what we don't like in our life to be blamed on something or someone else, like the big C word, if we say cancer happen, therefore, these things in my life, I don't like them really not stepping in and saying, I don't like these things. But this is still the way I'm going to choose to move forward and create the life I want. And that takes a lot. I know that takes a lot. I coach women every day who are putting in a tremendous amount of effort, and a tremendous amount of intention to have their own backs. And we're not taught that way. Right. So here's another similarity like SEAL training, special ops training like that is elite training. And it's way above what regular people normies are taught the level of discipline, the level of commitment. It's just staggering, right? It's elite. But so is what we go through. Right, what we have to overcome is not something someone taught us, it's not something that's talked about when we're growing up. It's not something that people say, hey, when you go through trauma, here's what you're going to have to do. People don't say to us, hey, one day, you're going to find your body in this situation, and things are going to be hurting and things won't work, right. And you won't feel the way you want to feel. But you're going to have to learn to just be there, you're gonna have to learn to just take that on. And then step in to being responsible for what you want to do with that going forward. And that takes a lot of intention and support and motivation, and mental discipline, and love. You probably don't think about love when you think about a Navy SEAL. But think about the loyalty and the care they have for each other the need they have for each other when they go into an assignment or an operation. And that's the kind of loyalty and that's the kind of devotion we have to have towards self. We have to develop that devotion. We've got to train ourselves to be devoted in that way. So that no matter what life throws at us and what's happening to us, we love ourselves enough to have our own back. We don't just leave ourselves behind. We don't just leave that body laying in the dust, right? No One Left Behind. We're going to pick up and we're going to move forward, even when it's hard, even when it Scary, even when it's unknown, we're going to make hard decisions. And anyone who tells you different is bullshit, we have to really dig deep and find courage in within ourselves, we've got to overcome a tremendous amount of fear. And that's not just to get through breast cancer, it's not just to manage it, it's not just to live with it if you're someone living with metastatic disease, but it's about creating the life you want after that diagnosis, because we can't get well in the same soil and in the same life in the same terrain that we got sick in. And so we've got to step up and not only be there for ourselves, and only find that support in our other people who have our back, or other champions, or other survivors who understand and have that connection to us, and the people around us who love us, who will be willing to be in that bunker with us, we reach out to them and we strengthen those connections. And then we've got to decide to do scary things. To change our life. We've got to work hard to train our brains to adopt different ways of thinking. We've got to stop looking at some of the things that we used to call treats, and be honest with ourselves about what they do to this body, because our body now needs special care, special attention. And it requires this elite level of devotion to ourselves. So as I'm on this bike, and I'm spinning like crazy, and I'm thinking that's right, and I'm the story is building in my head, and all these connections are, are clicking and all of this electricity is going off in my brain and Tears are coming down my face. I'm thinking yes, yes, this is so powerful. This is so great. This is so bad as this is something to be proud of, not the bite, but the ability to train ourselves, to be present with ourselves, to support ourselves, and to have our own back in everything we go through to be elite in the sense of the amount of grace and compassion and care and intention that we give to ourselves. To create the life we really want to live. Once we've looked mortality in the eye, because we have, we've had a life threatening illness or we live with a life threatening illness. And every day, we have to make a choice to support this body and help it get through and how become out on the other side the way that we want it to. And when that veil is lifted, and we look that mortality in the eye, it's time to make some tough choices. And mainly, I think the consistent tough choice is to show up for yourself over and over and over again, is to decide that no matter how hard it is, you're going to show up for yourself. No matter how long it takes, that you are elite in the level of compassion and care you will extend to yourself. Now you see how my brain works when I'm on a spin bike. I mean that's why I like exercise so much honestly when I exercise these kinds of things have been like gives me moments of clarity. But I just wanted to say kudos to you, you know my sisters out there and give those kudos to yourself and know that when the training gets hard there's support available for you know, navy seal goes through training alone, no navy seal goes through a special ops along in there's no reason why you need to go through breast cancer or building a life that you dream about alone. So make sure that you get the support that you need. And if you're not even sure what that is, but you know that you might need a little support and getting through the toughest times. Come and find me and join me in the better than before breast cancer life coaching membership

Laura Lummer  19:04

where you get all the support all the skills and all the tools you need to practice that elite self compassion and show up for yourself over and over again. All right, my friend, I'll talk to you soon. Be good to yourself until then, take care.