Kay Blackburn

WOW! Is it really November 17 already? These last 8 weeks have been filled with celebrating Brandon’s Presidential award ( and getting to wear a little black dress!), trying new plant-based recipes and posting them on Instagram, volunteering with Addison at a school yard clean up through church, fall break in Idaho, camping in Yellowstone, going to a “Light the Night” Leukemia and Lymphoma walk, and a trip to Boston last weekend for a wedding. Whew!!! It’s been busy busy, so I apologize for not posting an update sooner.

Life feels a little like

My energy has been great and I had my 2 year anniversary of being diagnosed on Halloween… (praise God… I am still here!! It is truly a miracle!) I celebrated by playing golf on Ladies opening day and dressing up as a deer and going around the neighborhood with the moms while we followed the kids as they trick-or-treated. It was awesome!!

I realized that as my energy has come back, I have jumped right back into a life that strongly resembles my pre-cancer life. One that is go go go… all the time.

And on top of that, I have filled my life with listening to podcasts, reading books, and feeding myself a constant stream of information on “how to beat cancer” that I finally realized that I was obsessing about it. It seems I was overloading on cancer stuff that all I thought about anymore is how to beat this disease. I had come to a place where I felt exhausted, anxious, and overwhelmed. Wasn’t I doing myself a favor by keeping a steady flow of cancer tips going into my brain? Wasn’t I validating this new lifestyle while being inspired by new tidbits of information? You could easily find me on any given day walking the dog and listening to a podcast, folding laundry and watching an interview, or waiting in the car and reading a cancer book. But the majority of what I was ingesting was stuff I already knew so I decided to put on the brakes.

Last week I challenged myself to, rest, refocus, and unplug from everything. Instead, I focused on 3 areas of my healing journey that have nothing to do with nutrition: 1) Resting 2) Saying No, and 3) Having Fun.

1: REST

I never have been very good at resting, but I made an acupuncture appointment which helped me “schedule” time to lay down and get poked with needles… (okay, I know that doesn’t SOUND very relaxing, but it actually is). Acupuncture stimulates energy flow and can be used as a treatment for a multitude of issues. I asked my acupuncturist Tony to help me with anxiety, so he inserted needles in various places in my feet, my legs, my hands and my ears. I also signed up for a 21-day free meditation program and incorporated meditation into my week, so that I would stop and just have 15 minutes a day to quiet my mind.

After one week, I am definitely in a better frame of mind and while I wasn’t perfect in carving out “meditation” time everyday, I was celebrating the days that I did. My goal is to actually to schedule a “rest” time every day (even 10 minutes) to close my eyes and try to clear my head.

This may not look like much, but this is kind of epic for me. I had an hour to kill between picking up Addison and her friend and Trinity, so instead of running to the grocery store, I let the girls play on the playground while I did this:

You’d think that I would be so proud of myself for making a gourmet meal or crafting the perfect birthday cake, but today I celebrate “doing nothing.” Believe it or not… this was really hard for me. Is anyone else wired like this?

2: Saying No

Over the last few weeks I had so much enthusiasm about my energy level being almost what it used to be, that I would cram my schedule full of tasks only to find myself disappointed for the unfinished “to do” list at the end of the day because I was trying to accomplish too many things. In typical female fashion I would find myself juicing, cooking, and trying to help Addison with homework all at the same time… only to find that I wasn’t getting any of these things done very quickly or very well. ‘Saying NO’ is generally a practice in saying “no” to requests made by other people, but in my case, I often have to learn to say NO to myself. Asking the important question, “Does this really need to be done today?” and trying to be better organized with my weekly routine.

3: Having Fun

I remember back in the day when I worked (outside the home), I was kind of a workaholic. My Frito-Lay days started at 4am (sometimes earlier) and I would work til 6 and then work some more at night.

Now that I have taken on healing myself as my full time job, I need to remember that having fun is part of my therapy. So this week I played with my friend Bev Wellen in the member-member golf tournament and guess what… it was way fun! And we won our flight so that was just icing on the cake!! Thanks Bev!!!

In an interview during Kris Carr’s World Healing Cancer summit a few weeks ago, and a woman who healed naturally from Stage 4 Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma said that nutrition would be her 4th priority behind other lifestyle changes that she recommended.

I was in shock.

I thought to myself… “What??? Well, that’s been my primary focus for almost a year.” Apparently, I have been a little out of balance and I am now trying to reprioritize!

I have realized that I have more to learn about this healing process that involves way more than what I put in my body and shifting my focus to what I am putting in my mind, or rather managing what goes into my mind. ☺️

“Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Matthew 11:28

Thank you for praying for me… I continue to be grateful that I have been given more time on this beautiful planet.

Onward and Upward,

Kay