Dr. Jenn (Jenn Simmons, MD) draws an analogy between the Jewish high holiday Rosh Hashanah — specifically the shofar's role as a wake-up call — and receiving a breast cancer diagnosis. She argues that diagnoses often arrive after years of ignored signals and urges listeners to reframe cancer from a punishment to an opportunity for spiritual, mental, and physical growth and greater purpose.
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As a Jewish woman, at this time of the year, when we're celebrating the high holidays, Rosh Hashanah, leading into Yom Kippur, and, you know, we walk around saying Happy New Year to one another, and people think that, you know, that's what it's about and we'll make some New Year's resolutions. But I can't help thinking how much the meaning, the true meaning of Rosh Hashanah and a breast cancer diagnosis have in common. So Rosh Hashanah, you know, we think about that time of the year with Jafar's, that the rams horns that we blow, and this sound of a shofar has a very specific meaning. It's meant to wake us up, to wake us up from our spiritual slumber so that we can come to terms with who we have been in this past year and who we can be in our next year. So it's. It's really. The sound is meant to wake us up. Now, when people get a breast cancer diagnosis, of course they go through various stages. But oftentimes, when you first get a breast cancer diagnosis, in the early stages of a breast cancer diagnosis, you can't see it as anything more than a punishment. But the truth is, by the time you get a breast cancer diagnosis, that process has been in place for many, many years. Many, many years. With very rare exception, a breast cancer has been in development for years. And our body sends us signals. We get signals that they start off as whispers, and as we ignore them, as we continue that to slumber through them, and we do this with our health across the board, as we continue to make excuses to say, oh, that's just this, or, oh, that's just that, or, you know, maybe it'll go away. And as we continue to not listen, the sounds get louder and louder until the loudest sound of all, which is your breast cancer diagnosis. When you get a breast cancer diagnosis, your body is telling you something. It is telling you that what you're doing is not working. It is telling you that you're off course. I don't know if you're off physical course, spiritual course, mental course, but I know that your diagnosis is trying to tell you something. There is a message there. Please, please hear it. Instead of seeing your diagnosis as a punishment and as something that you have to endure. And I am not saying that it's easy. It's hard. And I'm not saying that it's not something that you're going to have to endure. You are. But if you can reframe it if you can reframe it to something that you have to endure to a punishment into opportunity, opportunity to be healthier. For some people it's the opportunity to be the healthiest they've been their entire life. If you can see it as an opportunity to be more spiritually connected, to be healthier, to live your life in a purpose driven way that you weren't doing before. Because so many of us walk around in a slumber, we are not awake, we are not aware and sometimes it takes really big things to get our attention and breast cancer can be one of them. But if you can frame it from punishment to opportunity, the world is out there with enormous potential for you to reach and to live a life that is even better than the life that you had before. So I hope that this was helpful. Please give me a like, give me a comment and I will see you next week. It's Dr. Jen. Bye for now.
