by Hope Zvara | May 11, 2022 | Inspirational
While there are many things you can do to reduce your chances of getting cancer, unfortunately, it is still the reality for millions of people around the globe. Receiving a cancer diagnosis can be overwhelming and upsetting, and come with a whirlwind of different thoughts. You must seek support after your diagnosis, so you can learn how to manage your new journey, and continue to live your life. If you are not sure where to begin, here are some top tips to help you seek the right support.
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Get a professional opinion
A professional opinion is the best thing to do when you receive your initial diagnosis, or you are worried that you are showing signs of cancer. A professional opinion will make sure you get the correct diagnosis and advice that is tailored to your situation. When you know what type of cancer you have, you can find a specialist who will be able to support you through your journey and provide you with the best treatment available. Always do some research to find the best doctors for your cancer diagnosis, as this will give you a better outcome. They will have extensive knowledge of the type of cancer that you have been diagnosed with, what stage you are at, and create a treatment plan that is best suited to your circumstances. They will advise you of the best treatments available, and the side effects, and help you make better-informed decisions about your care, and how to manage your symptoms.
Be honest
You must remain open and honest about what’s going on, with your loved ones and medical professionals and keep the lines of communication open. You will feel much better and people will be able to support you in the right way, if you don’t try to put on a strong front or hide bad news from people. It can be difficult at first, but facing your reality will get you closer to getting better.
Maintain a healthy lifestyle
A healthy lifestyle, whether you had one before your diagnosis or not, is going to be vital to how you feel moving forward. Eating a healthy diet filled with essential vitamins and nutrients will significantly help your mood, energy levels, and sleeping patterns, which will help you manage your diagnosis and treatment much better. These are all important factors that can significantly impact the way that you feel every day and can cope with stress. If you feel up to it, and your medical professional has approved it, you may decide to participate in regular exercise. This is a great way to keep your body healthy, make you feel better and stronger, and help you to live longer. A healthy lifestyle is an important way that you can maintain control of this new journey you are embarking on, and help increase your chances of recovery. It can also serve as a great escape and a way to deal with the stress and emotions you are inevitably going to experience.
Go to support groups
While you should keep your friends and family members close and confide in them, it can be especially helpful to seek out a support group in your local area. A support group is filled with people who are in the same boat as you and are going through the same things. This can be a great way to come to terms with your new diagnosis, learn about others’ experiences with their diagnosis to help you, share your feelings and experiences that might be too difficult to share with friends, and feel comfortable and supported in an environment filled with like-minded people who understand what you are going through. This can help combat loneliness and poor mental health, and reduce stress.
Try to live your life as normal
You must try to live your life as normal as possible. You should balance this with making adjustments where necessary, that are going to make your life easier and more accessible. But for the most part, you should take it a day at a time, and stick to your habits and routines. This will help you cope better and stay strong during stressful times. If you drop your normal lifestyle, this can lead to feelings of stress and uncertainty, as humans are creatures of habit. Your normal habits can help you feel in control, and reduce overwhelm.
The key to supporting yourself when receiving a diagnosis, is honesty, support and lifestyle choices. If you can make positive choices, you are going to significantly improve the way you cope with your new diagnosis.
by hope | Oct 15, 2021 | Lifestyle
Every decision you make in life is essential. Sometimes they are easy decisions, like what to eat for dinner tonight. Other times they are more complex decisions, such as whether or not you should take the leap of faith and quit your job to start your own company. This blog post will discuss strategies for making the right decision to be happy with the outcome no matter which choice you make.
Ensure You Consult With the Experts
If you want to ensure that your decision-making process is perfect, make sure you ask for help. There are plenty of people who will be willing to offer their insight and expertise when making the right choice in life.
For example, consulting with a personal injury firm is crucial when you get into an accident at work or on the street. This will save you a lot of headaches and help you navigate the justice system to get the compensation you deserve. Ultimately, becoming a sound decision.
Be Confident
Decisions can be hard to make, even in the smallest of matters. In life, though, some much bigger decisions need to take place, which may have a significant impact on your future and career path.
You can’t always be right, but it is crucial to give yourself the best chance of being correct. Don’t second guess yourself or get caught off guard by life’s twists and turns. Instead, be confident in your decision-making abilities, so you are ready for anything that comes along.
Never doubt how much power you have within you; only rely on yourself when making choices in life. If you are confident, other people will notice and respect your decisions.
Carefully Research and Analyze
To make the right decision in life, one must carefully analyze and research the problem at hand. When planning for a new venture, make sure to do thorough due diligence by performing all necessary steps to come up with a sound business plan that will hopefully lead you down the right path.
If making a potentially life-altering decision such as deciding which college or university would be best to attend, it is crucial to look at the numbers and rankings of that institution and what you would be getting yourself into. Do your research on campus life and student activities to determine if this will match your expectations.
Always Have an Emergency Plan
In this day and age, you never know what is going to happen. It could be a natural disaster or an unexpected illness that requires medical attention. Therefore, you should always have an emergency plan in place just in case something happens unexpectedly.
In a sudden accident where your family needs money immediately for hospitalization, make sure you prepare beforehand. Then, if something happens, you can quickly pull out the money to take care of your family needs without dealing with loans from the bank. Having an emergency plan is a great strategy to help you make the right decision.
Conclusion
It is vital to make good decisions in life because they can affect your happiness. You do not always have to be rational about every choice that you make – if something feels right for you, it is probably the best option. To help you choose the right path, there are many strategies that you can use; this article has discussed some of them.
by hope | Jun 3, 2020 | Mental Health, Motivation Monday
Do you know those things that make you sweat? The things that make you feel anxious? The ones that make you want to apologize when you didn’t even do anything wrong? Well, that is how I feel when it comes to verbal communication.
Communication has never been a strength of mine. Well, let me rephrase that–verbally communicating how I feel and what I need has never been easy for me. My brain was wired to devalue my feelings and needs and overvalue another. It was a learned behavior that I needed to learn how to harness.
Courage to Communicate
I remember distinctly the first time I verbally voiced what I needed to my husband.
My husband and I were sitting on the couch one night after he had gotten home from work. I knew that walking, yoga and physical activity helped me manage my anxiety and could feel my anxiety slowly creeping up. I wanted to go for a walk by myself to breathe, take a time out from the kids, and relax. However, with two small kids at home and a husband that was working a very physical job, I felt that his happiness and relaxation were more important than mine. Asking for a “break” made me feel guilty.
However, at that moment, I knew exactly what I needed and I needed it so badly I had no choice. I swallowed my fear and verbally communicated to my husband that I needed to go for a walk. I paused. And waited. Brian, my husband, said, “Go, hun. I’m good” without flinching. I felt an immediate sense of relief at that moment.
This may not seem like a big deal to some but for me, it was a milestone. That moment where I voiced my needs and wants set a solid foundation for my future. Today, I am able to voice bigger things like my views on parenting, life, and business. It’s also led me to now be able to agree to disagree, be okay with someone not liking what I have to say, and setting time for myself and not feel like I have to ask for permission.
Learning How to Listen
About ten years into recovery, I discovered that I didn’t know how to effectively communicate. I also learned that how well you listen has a major impact on the quality of your relationships with others.
I didn’t know how to listen. I was continually projecting what I thought others were thinking and saying before they even finished talking. With that, I was actually preparing for a rebuttal and would instantly shut down or bark back the moment I would receive a response that I didn’t like.
I had to relearn how to listen.
Even though listening may ‘sound’ easy, listening well is a gift that not everyone has. Improving your ability to listen well will enable you to assess situations with more clarity and gain insight into other people, their opinions and the overall circumstances of an event. Listening well can prevent you from misreading a situation and making mistakes –like I was doing.
Make Your Voice Heard
I decided somewhere along my journey, with the help of the yoga I know, meditation, and fully embracing the love of those around me to press on. To keep voicing up. To keep asking those uncomfortable questions. To say what I need to say.
Speak up, friend. You deserve to speak. You have something valuable to say and your voice matters.
And each time it will only get better. Each time you voice up and choose to communicate instead of hold it in, you will get better at it. Each time you ask that uncomfortable question it feels less uncomfortable. Each time you will get more precise at what you need to say and how you need to say it.
Work in Progress
I have learned time and time again in life and business that it is MY responsibility to ask questions, inquire, and do research if needed. This practice, in a sense, is putting myself first, and at the same time putting the other person first as well, because now communication is open. My advice, start with safe people. Start in safe environments and with small less scary things to communicate. For me, it was wanting to go for a walk. For you it may be voicing that you want Mexican food tonight instead of just saying “I don’t care”.
Full disclosure, doing these things is super hard for me. Still, I’ve discovered that time and time again; I am continually putting others’ well-being, happiness, comfort, and satisfaction above mine. And I am so grateful I have developed an ever-growing toolbox to help me build up these muscles in my life and business.
Let me help you get rid of stress so you can press on to the next phase of your life.
Check out my blog: 3 Yoga Poses to Banish Stress Instantly
by Hope Zvara | Feb 28, 2020 | Simplify Your Life, Working With Hope
Have you ever said to yourself, “My life is a mess and I have no idea how to fix it”? Well, you are certainly not alone. We all have mental clutter and distracting thoughts that take our focus off of our priorities.
I think we all have had a feeling of hopelessness at one time or another in our lives. The truth is, life gets messy sometimes.
Sometimes you might feel like your life is such a mess that you don’t even know how you got there. You don’t think you are going to be able to handle it any longer and the thought of trying to dig yourself out is too overwhelming to even consider.
Mental Clutter
For fifteen years, my life was messy. It was a constant tornado of highs and lows. I was living a secret life.
Mental clutter pulls us out of the present moment– anything that keeps you from thinking straight. All that mental clutter takes up so much space that we hardly have any room left for what we’re meant to do.
Having spent my fair share living at rock bottom, I know firsthand that there is hope. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. However, YOU have to be willing to step up, show up, and get uncomfortable in order to make change happen.
So, if your knee-deep in a messy life or you feel like you might not have anywhere to go, I welcome you to join me in clearing the mental clutter once and for all.
5 Steps to Clear Mental Clutter
1. Put Down the Instant Gratification Devices.
Growing up with technology has made us dependent on the idea of always being connected. Information, entertainment, and communication are only a click away all day, every day. I recently read that an addiction to social media and the “likes” (so to speak) you get on these social media sites give you the same endorphin boost as someone who is suffering from an addiction to drugs, alcohol, etc. So, put down your devices so that you can truly experience life around you rather than just document it.
2. Enjoy Nature.
When is the last time you stepped outside and just took in a big breath of fresh air? The blue skies, the singing birds, the refreshing breeze–all of these things help to restore your mental clarity. Stepping away from life’s distractions gives us the opportunity to enjoy what is in front of us more fully. Goodbye mental clutter!
3. Meditate.
Don’t think of meditation as some big and scary monster. It’s actually the opposite. Meditation changes brain function and helps to improve focus. Meditation is simply a matter of you stopping for a few minutes and breathing, unplugging and reducing yourself to nothing more than every inhale and exhale. Even if it just for a few minutes. Step into a mini oasis with me for just three minutes a day with my 3 Minute Meditation. Clear your mind, focus your thoughts, and open yourself to a fresh new perspective.
4. Join A Community.
My FREE online Facebook community, Daily Dose of Hope, is dedicated to helping others purposefully excel through the messiness of real-life, both on and off the mat. This group is about reclaiming the health and well-being of all its members, inspiring each member to see they are worth it and assisting in the cultivation of each person becoming the best version of themselves!
5. Clear Your Mind.
When your mind is in overdrive, sometimes you just need to hit the reset button. My 3-Week Clearing Mental Clutter Mini-Course shows you how to banish your mental roadblocks by recognizing what they are and how to do something about them. Weekly affirmations help to keep you on track, short mindful movement sequences to help you step into your body fully, and a private accountability group helps to support you in clearing the mental clutter and creating monumental clarity. What are you waiting for?
Your journey awaits. What are you waiting for? After all, you are well worth it.
by hope | Apr 2, 2019 | Inspirational
5 Ways to boost self-confidence.
On April 6th I get to celebrate 35 years of life, love and walking down this path we call life!
Why be shy about it?
Why hide it?
Why down play this celebration of life?
Why not shine like the bright star you are?
This was not always my style of thinking. I use to be uncomfortable with the thought of shining too bright. I use to worry others would notice me and because I would be noticed, others would judge me.
That people would criticize me, and because they didn’t know my whole story…get the wrong idea that yes, I am a recovering addict. But I am successfully in recovery (well always working on myself). Except, even though I clawed my way into recovery, I still lacked the self-confidence to let my light shine bright.
In 35 years I have learned a lot.
In 35 years I have slowly come to a place were I am OK with who I am.
And more importantly, I am less concerned with what others think.
Let me explain.
My entire life I have been WAY TO FOCUSED on what others think of me, my choices and life, and as a result my self-confidence was zilch.
I would run myself into the ground trying to please others and often time end up depleted, frustrated, and rundown.
It wasn’t until a few years ago that I truly began to understand this is no way to live and no way to get ahead in life and as only killing my self-confidence at every pass. And it was around that time which I realized this entire approach to life was a learned behavior that I could in fact… unlearn.
To say that the process of breaking such a habit would be as easy, would be a lie.
Slowly, taking one situation at a time I have grown to a place where I am more confident, where my self-confidence shines more each day. I care about others, respect others, but no longer am willing to sacrifice my happiness and or my desire to walk the path my Creator has set for me simply on the fear others may not be happy.
I struggled with this because I would get wrapped up in my thoughts thinking that this was selfish, rude, and un-yogic like.
But it was yoga which taught me caring for myself and living my life in the best light I can, the way I feel I am called to do is how you can best care for others.
Here are five things that come to mind when I reflect on my own self-confidence and what helped me cultivate it.
5 Ways to Boost Self-Confidence:
- Learn to be Uncomfortable. First on the yoga mat with poses, then in life with people. Just sitting with emotions, breathing, and letting things pass.
- Use Your Voice. First through teaching, sharing my point of view with the understanding that others may not agree. Then in life, at first little things, and when someone would disagree, letting that conversation be, and not recanting myself to appease the other person.
- Began to Ask Yourself What Feels Good to Me. Not one thing is going to be 100% right for everyone. No diet, no exercise, not even yoga. And knowing that is OK, there is no need to convince someone of your practice or lifestyle.
- Get Quiet to Get Loud. Not yelling, but to use my voice with confidence I first needed to get real quiet and listen, feel, and process. As someone who would often shoot from the hip in life. This has served me well.
- Realize and Fully Understand That Not Everyone in Life Will like You, and That is OK. I know some of you will feel the need to email me and tell me “I like you”. And I appreciate that, but it’s not necessary. I have found great strength in others not liking me, not agreeing with me, or flat out rejecting me. It has been one of my best muscle builders to help my light shine bright.
So today, let your light shine bright. Let it beam with self-confidence. Don’t worry a thing about whose eyes may not like it. Shine baby, shine and let your self confidence burn bright!
From my heart to yours,
Hope
