Finding the Best Self-Care Techniques for You
These basic techniques illustrate the biggest difference between passive and active self-care. Passive self-care is eating whatever is easy and available. Active self-care is choosing healthy foods and drinks that fuel your body in its battle against cancer.
Active self-care techniques are more complicated but much more rewarding.
The self-care tips related to diet, exercise, and sleep are examples of improving your physical health. Other options include:
- Pay attention to your liver cancer symptoms and track them for your doctors.
- Attend all of your appointments and treatments.
- Communicate your symptoms clearly and effectively to your treatment team.
Since cancer affects more than just your physical health, you need self-care techniques that target the other parts of your life. Consider these options for mental health:
- Acknowledge the impact of cancer on your mental health. Before any progress can be done, you must note the changes that came from the condition like sadness, worry, or anger.
- Think about your condition. Some people with cancer or other health conditions try to ignore their state as they hope the symptoms will simply disappear.
- Change your thoughts. Since hope is a centerpiece of self-care, prompt yourself to think more positive and hopeful things. It may feel uncomfortable or seem untrue at first, but in time, changing your thoughts will change your feelings.
- Start therapy. There is perhaps no better way to practice mental health self-care than talking to a therapist. She can help you learn new types of self-care and perfect the ones you already use.
Social self-care:
- Communicate your needs clearly to your family members.
- Engage friends in new activities and events when possible.
- For days when you aren’t feeling well, employ social media to stay connected.
- Experiment with support groups for people with cancer or other medical conditions.
Spiritual self-care:
- Return to church; a medical diagnosis has a way of making people think about religion.
- Seek religious guidance from an informed support or religious official.
- If organized religion isn’t for you, explore aspects of your unique spirituality you have not thought about previously.
You are a multifaceted, multidimensional person, and cancer will attack every part of you. By practicing self-care, you can do well to prevent and limit the harms that cancer causes.
Use passive self-care sparingly as your symptoms dictate. When feeling better, do all you can to care for yourself. Self-care equals hope, and hope equals self-care.
