If there’s one thing that a cancer diagnosis brings about and that’s metanoia.
Metanoia means to change your mind and have a new perspective on the world and/or yourself.
Cancer is an extraordinary turning point that invariably brings about a profound transformation in the way you approach life. For some, that might even bring about a spiritual conversion and ‘born again’ type experience not necessarily tied to a particular religion either.
And that’s no big surprise either. They don’t call it the big C for nothing. It’s huge and it’s the biggest soul world your ever likely to get.
A cancer metanoia can ignite a transformative change of heart and a fundamental change in character. It can change your life in every way going physically, mentally, socially, emotionally and financially. It changes the direction of your travel and paves the way for some pretty radical shifts.
That’s not to say that cancer always leads to metanoia. Some people carry on seemingly ‘as they were’.
But for me and many others, the change is very real.
Cancer does bring a new mindset and a transformation in lifestyle and perspective. It cultivates a new vision and also provides the opportunity for us to to define survivorship on our own terms.
Cancer changes you for sure but not always in an obviously dramatic or profound way. Sometimes the changes can be more subtle and hidden from the world but they are there.
It might be something along the lines of just letting go of control and being more open to new experiences. It could be the willingness to confront and challenge your beliefs and ideas or learning how to keep your past from ruling your present.
A cancer metanoia can be more in your face and determined. It might turn you, the mouse, into you, the lion. It is soul-making.
A cancer metanoia can make you a stronger person, more resilient, more optimistic, more hopeful and more positive. And that just sounds counterintuitive but that’s the transformative effect a life-changing diagnosis can have.
Cancer presents an opportunity for self-transformation. It can be a positive experience despite all the toxicity and it can lead to new personal understandings and even healing.
Cancer is a call to metanoia and to adopt it as a way of life. It entails a new relation to one’s self and the world providing us with a new platform to confront and manage our fragile mortality with hope.