The last couple of days have felt a bit tough for me as feeling some (relatively mild, I would assume) impact from chemotherapy tablets. I’m on day 6 of my first 14-day cycle and feeling a little “washed out” yesterday and today, though feels good to note that today feels about the same as yesterday, no worse and possibly a little better. The drugs certainly feel like they are going to work on me, with the result that my inside feels a little more fragile and I feel a little fatigued.
At times this feels tough, so I am reminded of the power of having an anchor, something to come back to as a focal point.
On 23rd April I restarted daily posts after a hiatus with the post: “Responding to misfortune with gratitude“. Gratitude remains a core anchor for me, I do feel most grateful for so much on this journey, most recently the wonderful nurses on the oncology care line, one of whom called this morning to check in on me.
That said, at the moment I feel I need another anchor, so here is where serendipity went to work for me. This morning I messaged a friend and noted the thought: “I have eight cycles of 14 days of tablets then 7 days rest, so that goes through late October. All in all, it is c6 months overall that will set me up for the next few decades.“. They replied later, noting that they felt that thought process was useful, noting the phrase “this too shall pass“.
“This too shall pass” is, then, a second anchor for me at the moment. Analytical as I can be, it is far more useful to go day by day and simply remember that this will pass soon enough and that I committed to the chemotherapy treatment with that thought process. I can and will go through a few months of this as it will set me up for the rest of my life, and once this is done, over time it will simply be a memory that fades.
So, writing this today at an early point on the journey and feeling an element of struggle, I am reminding myself to anchor both on gratitude and also “this too shall pass”.
By the way, this phrase is one I have blogged about multiple times, as you can see with this search results link. Why? As it can be a powerful anchor in many ways for ourselves personally, as well as in our role as leaders.