Jill's Journey

"To this day, I honestly can’t tell you exactly why I am still living on planet earth since my breast cancer diagnosis two years ago. What I can tell you is that it has completely changed my life. I did almost every medical/conventional option that was offered to me along the way, and I embraced more holistic/complementary therapies and options than any other person I have talked to thus far. It was far from an easy path and the decisions I had to make were often times…. daunting. I have learned that my choices were vastly different from those of many others!

So, why am I still here? Was it the chemotherapy? The radiation? The surgery? The holistic remedies and treatments I embraced and am still taking to this day? Was it the diet change and taking even more responsibility for my body and health? Was it the meditation? Praying? Visualization? Affirmations? Was it my mindset and brutal determination to stay alive as long as I can in this world? Or was it a combination of all of them? This is something I may never know.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if I could travel back in a time machine, like in the movie “Back to the Future”, and try taking away or changing my choices to see if the outcome would be the same or different? Unfortunately, this is not an option.

What I have realized is there is a common thread that goes through what I call “My Journey” which will be shared with you. Whether you have been recently diagnosed with cancer, whether you have other health issues, or you just want to be “healthier”, the answers for getting better may be in these pages. The answers, and this may sound strange to you right now, are within yourself. It comes down to choices!

When you or someone you love is diagnosed with cancer, you can be inundated with hundreds of opinions…opinions from people who are expressing it out of concern and love; people who are handling the news in their own personal way; people that just want to help and give their experiences.

If you choose to go the “online” route, be prepared to see literally thousands of options from medical/conventional, to holistic/complementary, or to spiritual -including limitless different beliefs. It’s all out there. It’s all available for you at the click of a button, to read and question “is this going to help me and who should I trust?” It can be overwhelming to say the very least.

I hope that by sharing my experience, this book will benefit, comfort and strengthen anyone who may be going through a difficult prognosis or time in their life. The book is written to share my journey, but more importantly, to help you find your way through your own journey. Your journey doesn’t necessarily have to be one that includes cancer. It is intended to help you regardless of what health issues or conditions you may have. I have written it in a way that will hopefully help on all levels: physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually.

My hope, as well, is that this book will illustrate that there are options out there…many options indeed. It is with passion that whatever it is that has put this book in your hands, it will help you and give you hope and energy to move forward to make your life better! Hope is a very powerful word and sometimes that’s all a person needs to move forward in their life whether that means recovering from illness or finding a healthier life.

What you will find through reading this book is that one of the most important things you can do is trust yourself in the choices you make. There is no right or wrong in any decision you make in your life. You can gather the information and then see what resonates with you. You will be getting many opinions from different people who have either been through a similar journey themselves, or know somebody who has been through it. There will be people who care about you so much that they just want to help you because they love you so much and because they are literally desperate to keep you on the planet.

The bottom line is that whatever you choose is your choice and nobody else's. I want to point out that regardless of whether we live for another day or until we're 101, we actually live each and every moment of our days with ourselves. We obviously will spend moments with family, friends, co-workers, total strangers and the like, but the bottom line is that, in the end, every moment always includes ourselves. It’s very important to be at peace with the decisions that you make.

I hope you are able to enjoy the ride to self discovery. Perhaps enjoy finding the answers to questions you may have about what to do next. Most of all, enjoy your moments day-to-day and trust yourself to do what is best….for you.

Please join me on “My Journey” and may it help and inspire you on yours - whatever that may be or wherever it may lead you."