The year 2006 started perfectly well for me. I felt so happy and privileged. I married my soulmate in a dream wedding, and we were planning on starting a family.
I loved my job (I was excelling as CEO of a successful radio station in Europe) and loved the people I worked with. I felt on top of the world.
But three weeks after coming back from my honeymoon, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was 32 years old.
When the doctor gave me the news, I felt the world was spinning around me. But almost instantly, my survival instincts kicked in. Every cell in my body screamed, “You are strong, you will get through this!”
From one day to the next I had to adapt my life and priorities. It was a scary and painful journey with multiple surgeries, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormone therapy… Yet, it was also eye-opening on so many levels. My experience gave me a new perspective on life and opened me up to completely new horizons.
Every day I feel grateful to be alive. And that’s incredibly powerful. I decided to use my journey to help others.
In becoming a Cancer Coach, I found my passion, my purpose, my calling.
MY MOTIVATION
At first, my motivation was to heal myself and stay healthy, but then. I became determined to turn my personal experience into something constructive and positive.
I wanted to help others who were going through a similar experience, support them emotionally and share my knowledge and experience. I knew that I wanted to turn my passion into my profession.
In my quest to heal, I had to answer a few key questions. How do you achieve health? And what does it take to stay healthy and thrive?
Soon I realized that, in addition to medical treatments, there are many other aspects of your life that need to be addressed in order to truly heal.
I firmly believe that you need to work on overall physical, mental and emotional health. Healing is a process that involves the body, mind and soul.
After graduating as a Health Coach and Yoga Instructor, I continued educating myself about nutrition, stress management, healthy sleep habits and physical exercise. I learned about the mind-body connection and dove into meditation, breathing techniques, visualisation and Reiki.
My biggest inspiration comes from my everyday interactions with cancer patients and their loved ones. I teach them and they teach me, it’s a never-ending cycle of learning. I am humbled by their stories, drive and motivation.Every person is unique and together we work on achieving health, quality of life and emotional and physical well being.
My mission is to provide empathy and knowledge to support, educate and guide cancer patients and their loved ones on their healing journeys.
Isabel Galiano is a certified nutrition and health coach, yoga instructor and reiki practitioner.
This article was first published in the print edition of Yoga Journal Singapore, which is now Yogahood Online.
