Breast Cancer Reimagined

Counter the Balance

• Shannon • Season 1 • Episode 2

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Shannon, a two-time breast cancer survivor, shares insights on how the narratives we create around our health journeys can significantly impact our experiences. She emphasizes the power of shifting focus from negative thoughts to activating personal strengths for resilience and empowerment. 
• The importance of narrative in shaping cancer experiences 
• Explanation of negativity bias and its impact 
• Overview of character strengths and their relevance 
• Categorization of strengths: wisdom, courage, humanity, justice, temperance, and transcendence 
• Personal anecdotes illustrating the use of strengths during adversity 
• Introduction to the VIA Survey for identifying unique strengths 
• Encouragement to engage with one's journey and apply learnings

List of 24 Character Strengths

VIA Survey

Please let us know how we can support you by completing the Breast Cancer Reimagined - Listener Survey

Speaker 1:

The story you tell yourself about your breast cancer journey shapes your entire experience, whether you've been recently diagnosed or are in the midst of treatment. Breast Cancer Reimagined is your podcast for writing this new chapter of your life. Hi, I'm Shannon, your host, and I'm so glad you're here. As a proud two-time breast cancer survivor, I'm on a mission to help women like you reimagine how you navigate your breast cancer journey by helping you shift your mindset, activate your strengths and uncover deeper meaning in your journey. I'm creating future episodes to address your unique challenges, but I need your input. What are your biggest questions or struggles when it comes to your journey? Share them with me by completing the Google form that's linked in the show notes. Your voice matters and together we can create something truly powerful. I can't wait to hear from you. Create something truly powerful. I can't wait to hear from you.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Breast Cancer Reimagined Podcast. Hi, I'm Shannon, your host. Thanks for joining. I'm a proud two-time breast cancer survivor and I'm on a mission to help women shift their mindset, activate their strengths and uncover deeper meaning in their breast cancer journey. This is episode number two and we're diving into the concept of countering the balance. It's about shifting your focus from what's wrong to what's strong.

Speaker 1:

Let's start with a quick story. In October of 2017, I was diagnosed with grade two invasive ductal carcinoma of the right breast. After my lumpectomy in November of 2017, my doctor told me that my scans looked great and there was no signs of cancer. I was officially cancer free Woohoo. And towards the end of the visit, he mentioned that there's a slight chance of recurrence, which is typical for most patients Recurrence why does our mind fixate on that one word?

Speaker 1:

Why does it replay over and over, stirring up anxiety and fear, even when the positive outcomes greatly outweigh the risks, even when the positive outcomes greatly outweigh the risks? Why does that single mention of recurrence overshadow all of the uplifting news, even with an excellent prognosis? Why is it so easy to leave feeling worried rather than hopeful? I'll give you two reasons. The first reason is the negativity bias. I'll give you two reasons. The first reason is the negativity bias. Now, this refers to our brain's natural tendency to pay more attention to, to remember and be influenced by negative experiences over positive ones. The brain is naturally wired to prioritize potential threats. It's a survival mechanism. The second reason bad is stronger than good. This means that negative information sticks with us longer and it's harder to shake off. Negative experiences and emotions have a more powerful effect on your thoughts, feelings and behaviors than equally intense positive ones. So what does this mean? This means that a single bad event can carry more weight and shaping your perceptions than several good events combined. Now, this negativity bias is a natural part of our survival mechanism and we can't eliminate it. So what now? Well, we can counter the balance, and you counter the balance by shifting your focus from what's wrong to what's strong. You shift your focus to your character strengths.

Speaker 1:

Character strengths are the positive traits that make you you. They're universal qualities like bravery, gratitude and creativity that help you to navigate life's ups and downs. Now, these aren't skills you need to learn. They're already inside of you, waiting to be activated, and research shows that when you focus on your strengths, you feel more energized, resilient and connected to your sense of purpose. Now imagine feeling more energized, resilient and connected to your sense of purpose on your breast cancer journey. In the show notes there's a link so you can download a list of all 24 character strengths and read a brief description about each one, but for now, I'll share with you a high-level overview of all of the 24 character strengths, we'll start with wisdom strengths. Wisdom strengths enable you to approach breast cancer with thoughtful exploration and informed decision making. These strengths include creativity, curiosity, judgment, love of learning and perspective.

Speaker 1:

Now the second bucket of strengths are called courage strengths. Courage strengths help you face fears and uncertainty with resilience and positivity. These strengths include bravery, perseverance, honesty and zest. The third bucket of strengths are humanity strengths. Now, humanity strengths help you foster connection and emotional support throughout your journey. They include love, kindness and social intelligence. The fourth bucket of strengths are justice strengths. Now, justice strengths. They help you to advocate for yourself and build supportive networks. They include teamwork, fairness and leadership. The fifth bucket of strengths are temperance strengths. Now, temperance strengths. They support emotional resilience and balance in the face of challenges, and they include forgiveness, humility, prudence and self-regulation. And the last bucket of strengths are transcendence strengths Transcendence strengths they help to bring deeper meaning and joy to your breast cancer journey, and they include appreciation of beauty and excellence, gratitude, hope, humor and spirituality.

Speaker 1:

So now that we've walked through the 24 character strengths, let's go back to the story I shared earlier. Remember? I'm at a follow-up appointment. My doctor tells me that my scans look great, then mentions there's a slight chance of recurrence. That was an opportunity for me to counteract the negativity bias by shifting the focus to my character strengths. So this is what I did. I called on my strength of hope and by focusing on my hope, I reminded myself of the positive aspects and the overall success of my treatment. I also called on my strength of gratitude. Gratitude helped me to appreciate the positive news about the scans and the support I had all around me. Gratitude also helped me to recognize the progress I had made in my treatment.

Speaker 1:

Now, fast forward four years to October 2021, I had a recurrence of breast cancer. It was the same type of cancer grade two invasive ductal carcinoma of the right breast. That slight chance of recurrence was now a reality. But instead of getting swept up in the negativity bias, I realized that I had an opportunity to counteract the negativity bias by shifting, realized that I had an opportunity to counteract the negativity bias by shifting my focus to my character strengths. I was still scared, but I also knew that I was strong. So these are some of the strengths that I called on. I called on my gratitude. I was so grateful that I found the lump during a routine breast self-exam.

Speaker 1:

Now. Finding the lump was kind of scary, but I also felt really empowered because I found it. I was grateful also because I had a routine mammogram scheduled so I could tell the technologist about the lump at the appointment. Love I called on my strength of love, because to me, doing a breast self-exam is an act of self-love, and that helped me to find the lump. I found it early. I called on my hope. Now, the type of cancer I had was very common and treatable and my doctor had a comprehensive treatment plan. I felt optimistic and I knew I had my medical dream team working with me. I knew I was in good hands. I called on my perspective.

Speaker 1:

Now, the first time I was diagnosed I decided that breast cancer was happening for me. It was happening for me to learn and to grow, and so when I was diagnosed again, I said to myself I guess there's more for me to learn. I also called on my honesty and with this one I told myself. I said, shannon, you asked for this. Now, don't get me wrong, I didn't ask for breast cancer, but I was asking for opportunities to build my resilience. And breast cancer is what showed up and I knew that I can't build resilience without going through adversity. So in that moment, I knew that breast cancer was happening for me to build my resilience, for me to build my resilience, and actually this gave me a sense of peace because I felt like I knew why I got breast cancer again. And, lastly, I called on my bravery and perseverance. It is really scary to get the phone call and find out that you have breast cancer, but I reminded myself that I had been through this before and, although the journey will be different, I can do it again and I will come out stronger because of this.

Speaker 1:

Whether you've been recently diagnosed or in the midst of treatment, your strengths are always with you, and I created this podcast to help you activate them. Imagine how empowering it would be to know exactly what your strongest traits are and how to use them to thrive in this journey. Now, the first step is becoming aware of your strengths, and the good news is that there's an amazing survey that helps you identify your unique strengths in just minutes. It's called the VIA survey. It's a free, scientifically validated assessment that provides you with a personalized character strengths profile. The profile ranks your strengths from one to 24, helping you to become aware of and recognize the unique qualities that define you Now.

Speaker 1:

This survey was created by the VIA Institute on Character, a nonprofit organization that's dedicated to bringing the science of character strengths to the world. There's a link to the VIA survey in the show notes. Now it's time for you to reimagine your breast cancer story. As we close out this episode, be sure to number one, take the VIA survey to get your personalized character strengths profile. And, number two, tune into episode three, where I'll walk you through how to interpret your profile so you can activate your strengths. I'll talk with you in the next episode. Thank you for joining.