How Writing Helped Me Survive Breast Cancer

I am a three-time cancer survivor. Cancer is not an identity that I wear on my sleeve, but I am proud to report how much writing has helped me survive my journeys. Back in 2001 when I received my first breast cancer diagnosis, in addition to having a supportive family and healthcare team, writing proved to be a great source of strength and became an enormous component of my healing journey. I experienced a rollercoaster of emotions including shock, anger and sadness, and finally acceptance. During each stage, I tried to turn to writing as a healthy alternative to bottling up emotions or reaching for psychotropic medications. Writer Virginia Woolf confessed that she wrote in her diary “to bring order to the chaos in her life.” And that’s just what my journal did for me. Writing is also a way to make sense of our experiences.

As those of us who have been stricken with cancer are well-aware, there are no magic wands to obliterate all that accompanies the diagnosis. Self-care practices such as meditation, walking, training, reiki, massage, creative expression such as writing, journaling, drawing, painting, or sculpting, can help us navigate each chapter of the experience. It’s good to figure out what brings you joy and lifts up your spirits. If writing is your calling, then you understand how the mere act of putting your words on the page is a grounding way to give voice to your feelings. If you decide to share your words and emotional truth publicly, as I have done for more than five decades, then you know how this can empower us and those who read our words.

In the early days of the diagnosis and treatment, it’s sometimes difficult to find the words to express what you’re feeling so I’d just jot down a few key words in my journal which would possibly evolve into a poem or essay. Patience helps in allowing the words to emerge.

My journal passion began at the age of ten when my mother gave me a Khalil Gibran journal to help me cope with the loss of my grandmother, who was my primary caretaker. It was then that I realized the healing power of writing. Thus, it was no surprise that the first thing I did when returning home after my first abnormal mammogram was to pull out my journal. From then on, I made a habit of writing every morning, when my thoughts were clearest. There were times when I felt so…