Getting a cancer diagnosis forced me to prioritise myself for the first time

I was bolt upright with my eyes closed and trying to focus on what was being said to me.

‘Become aware of the clock ticking… imagine a feather floating down….’, but at the same time I was aware of the nurses chatting and laughing outside in the corridor; I could hear the clanking of the trollies carrying the chemotherapy drugs and the swoosh of the fire doors as they swung back and forth.

This was my first hypnotherapy session provided to me by my hospital trust to aid my treatment for breast cancer.

Little did I know it was about to change my life – for good!

For as long as I can remember, I was always one of those people who was constantly busy. 

I always had something on, be it with work or family.

For more than 20 years, I’d been a social worker, working in child protection. Often I’d be working late into the night and weekend, spending weeks away from my husband and two children.

Work took priority; there was never any time left for anything else.

Looking back, the scales were certainly tipped in the wrong direction and this contributed to the breakdown of my marriage. 

To deal with the stress, I was smoking and drinking heavily – probably self-medicating, wrongly thinking it was relaxing me.

When I look back now, I can see that, for years, there wasn’t much fun in my life.

Source of data and images: metro