What does good cancer citizenship look like?
For me, this all about serving others and self-improvement, a bit like good citizenship but with a specific focus.
It is an active acceptance of my situation, being positive and pro-active and leading a meaningful and full life. It is still trying my utmost, being mentally alive, being physically active and carving out relevancy.
Rather than be limited by my cancer and its side-effects, I ask what it is I can still do within these limits and enrich my life in the process by helping others and enriching lives.
I take as my lead the work of Dr. Jinroh Itami, a Japanese oncologist and ‘living well with illness’.
He is the founder of Ikigai Ryoho or Meaningful Life Therapy and says we can still live meaningful, joyful, and active lives while co-existing with illness. As Trudy Boyle says in her podcast,
Ikigai is the sum of small joys in everyday life, a reason to get up in the morning, and things that lift people’s spirits and bring a smile to their faces.
Ikigai (ee-kee-guy) is a combination of the Japanese words ‘iki’ (to live) and ‘gai’ (reason), which together signify “a reason to live.”
It is associated with favourable physical health outcomes, reduced psychological distress and improved subjective wellbeing. Ikigai is therefore a promising positive psychological asset.
Good cancer citizenship is saying to ourselves that despite the chaos and uncertainty cancer can bring, we can still live a life with meaning, a life with purpose and it can still be populated with lots of happy moments.
We still have a reason to give and live and there are lots of little joys that we can capture and enjoy. It is a balance between self-preservation and self-development.
Dr Itami encapsulates this by saying, “Even though I am ill, I will not live as a sick person.”
He identified 5 guidelines as follows:
- Be active in the treatment of your illness and the recovery of your health. Be a co-catalyst in your disease management.
- Set short-term and meaningful purposes and take daily steps to work with what you love and what is important to you.
- Do something positive for the benefit of others and contribute to other’s well-being. Help yourself by helping others (not at the expense of your health).
- Learn to co-exist with uncertainty and to cope effectively with anxiety and fear, including the fear of death.
- Acknowledge death as a natural event for all of us, and prepare for one’s death as practically as possible.
These guidelines embody what good cancer citizenship is about.
I would also add to these 5 more elements:
- Be a positive role model for others managing their own cancers so they can be inspired and motivated to live well.
- Raise awareness of your cancer type and seek ways to help and educate others.
- Find reasons to laugh – cancer is a serious business but it can be diluted through humour. It improves your mental health and immune function.
- Stay hopeful – hope is one of the essential elements of life hope. It helps us to find meaning in struggle and maintain a positive will to endure.
- Plan for the future – you still have one! Plan things to look forward to as it will keep you motivated and happy. This helps us indulge in enjoyable recollection of past events.
Together, these elements bind together to help support our psychosocial well-being, foster soulful healing so that we jump out of bed excited to face the day.
They give us a reason for being, fuel our living, power our sense of purpose and strengthen our resilience.
Being a good cancer citizen is doing what you can to lead a good, productive and purposeful life, not being a passenger or a passive patient and not being defined by your illness. It is self-helping with a laser-like focus on being grateful for what you still have.