Carr - Crazy Sexy Cancer Survivor

Kris Carr is an award-winning actress, photographer, filmmaker, writer, and cancer survivor, whose documentary and bestselling book Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips debuted in August 2007. She is the founder of the online wellness site and forum crazysexylife.com, a hub of information on health, lifestyle topics, spirituality, and compassionate living strategies. Carr frequently speaks at conferences and fundraisers for various cancer and wellness organizations. She received her certification in Holistic Health Education from the prestigious Hippocrates Health Institute and is currently a faculty member at several top retreat centers in the United States. Carr has been featured on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, The Early Show, Today Show, and The Oprah Winfrey Show.

If you havent already, now is the time to give yourself authorization to define your own journey. Put yourself in a can-do space. In my mind, you are a survivor the day you are diagnosed. As women and men with cancer we live every day with a suffocating weight on our throats. What if? Will I see my next birthday? Can I get married? If so, can I have children? Perhaps youve already fashioned your nest, yet in less grounded moments you find yourself paralyzed with angst, imagining yourself gone and your kids being raised by a stripper. CanSer (or any adversity) puts us on the rim and while we are on the rim we have an opportunity to appreciate and express fear simultaneously. We multitask dying with living while managing our chores in order to keep it together and stay out of prison. So why not celebrate all that weve managed to accomplish already? Sometimes just keeping it together is surviving.

Dont be timid or feel like you are jinxing yourself. Stand up straight and yodel the S word! Survivors come in many shapes and sizes. The best part about being a survivor is the appreciation we feel for the little things (even when theyre painful): the sheer joy of peeing in the ocean; of crying so hard that you burst into giggle madness; the agony of suffering over a lost love or a perished dream. Survivors squeeze every drop of delicious juice from this extraordinary life.

From diagnosis to discovery, survivor is an attitude. You, my friend, are a survivor no matter what. I am a survivor. We dont wait til the icy patch thaws before celebrating life. We see freedom, create it, become it. When I put cancer behind me and started smiling again, the disease lost its grip on me. Isnt that what the cure is all about?

Write it here ... I am a SURVIVOR, a Crazy Sexy Survivor and thriver! Now twirl!

Fear can be more dangerous than any disease. It swipes our joy and tramples our hope. Days, weeks, even years can slip through your fingers. If left unchecked, fear will strangle every breath from our lives. I am constantly amazed by the many paradoxes in this gorgeous life. Why is it that were so scared to live and yet so afraid to die? We thirst for change and yet we choose to remain stuck. Trippy, right? How many of us dwell in that self-imposed purgatory? I know Ive spent a good portion of my young life loping around and marking time, treating life as if it were a dress rehearsal and I was the understudy.

The first step in taking charge of your situation is to acknowledge the fear. Let it have its fifteen minutes (or more) of fame. What are you afraid of? Many of our fears are totally justified and need to be heard before they can be soothed. Those are healthy fears. Unhealthy fears are the ones that are purely negative and spread like an itchy VD. Those are the ones that need some TLC and a dab of cream!

Do a reality scan and have a come-to-JBEE (Jesus, Buddha, Elvis, Etc.) moment with yourself. Feel your body, hear your breath, ground yourself in the right now. Ask yourself if your fears are manageable or if they determine your every thought, word, and action. Allow the honest answer to come forward. If the response is a booming, Yes, they rule my life, then inner chaos is bound to clog you up. Few things are worse than soul constipation. It hurts and makes you feel cranky and fat.

The peace and calm of a collected mind can be yours, but it takes time and work. The doctor cant prescribe a pill to make the terror go away, and Suzanne Somers wont sell you serenity on QVC. Dial it down a notch and breathe. Throughout the day, stop yourself every time you get that belly surgeyou know, the one that surfs your lunch back up on a wave of panic. Count to ten. On the inhale count one; on the exhale count one. Inhale two, exhale two, and so on.

Breathing and Visualization

Attaching a visual to your breathing increases your ability to regain control. Heres an image that works for me: As I inhale I visualize golden sunlight warming and filling my body. The light is divine, it illuminates my corners and releases stored tension. As I exhale I imagine the darkness pouring out of my body like dirty water. This exercise is cleansing for me, a rebirth. My grime is absorbed into the ground as my body is rejuvenated by the healing God energy of the sun. What resonates with you? When we practice visualization on a regular basis we strengthen our ability to manage fear and pain.

Panic jump-starts those little party hats that sit on top of your kidneys known as adrenals. Back in the day when we were chased by lions, our adrenals encouraged us to run! Now they short-circuit dozens of times per day thanks to our stressful modern world. Add cancer to the stew, and your nerves are shot. Fight-or-flight hormones course through your system at dangerous levels on a regular basis. I dont have to be a doctor to tell you its unhealthy to live in that space. How do you stop, drop, and roll? My posse gal Terri Cole uses an interesting technique. Check this out...

As a life coach and psychotherapist, a big part of my job is to help people make changes in their lives. I have found a very effective tool for stopping self-sabotaging behavior, whether it be weight loss, drug or alcohol addiction, or compulsive thoughts. I call it the rubber band trick. You place a loose rubber band around your wrist, and as soon as you are aware of a negative thoughta plan to eat the doughnut, drink the booze, meet up with X dealer, or arrange your funeralyou snap the rubber band and think stop. In therapeutic circles it is known as aversion therapy, and its a variation on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).