believe
Professionally, I had been dreaming about reaching a wider audience with my cancer rehab practice, but dreaming was as far as I had gotten to date. “Believe” seemed to capture the reminder I needed to ground my ideas.
What drove some of these dreams was my sadness in hearing clients say “I wish I’d known about you [or cancer rehab] sooner.” 12 years into working in a successful cancer rehab physiotherapy practice and I was dismayed that many men and women still didn’t know that cancer rehab could help… or that it even existed!
I believed that everyone affected by cancer should be informed about how cancer rehab could help. I believed that cancer rehab should be accessible to everyone. I believed that even just one appointment with a cancer rehab physio could have a positive impact on someone’s recovery.
I knew it was time to do more and now I needed to believe that one person could have an impact and that this could start with me.
This “believing” thing was actually working!
the covid-19 speed bump
With the shutdown brought on by COVID-19 in March, my in-person cancer rehab practice took a pause. After taking some time to let this reality sink in, I was committed to finding a way to continue supporting my clients. After weeks of learning, planning, building and practicing, I launched my Telerehab platform (i.e. “virtual physiotherapy”). This has been a wonderful new way to support my cancer rehab clients from a distance.
social media pressures
As the weeks went on, however, the deluge of COVID-19 content from online forums was mounting. I felt bombarded with all these messages and I had created unrealistic expectations for myself. These expectations led me to start several projects but left me unable to finish any of them. I felt completely overwhelmed.
getting back to my mission: believe
A recent online retreat reminded me of my core mission for 2020: to spread the word that cancer rehab can help. To do that, I had to get back to my one-word intention: believe. Moving forward, anything I planned to do during this ongoing COVID-19 crisis needed to be in line with my message. I can’t believe how helpful it was to just remind myself of this!
#2020Believe: Spreading the Word
So here I now sit, writing this blog post. Though I may not be able to speak with you in person right now, or talk to a group face-to-face, I am still able to communicate my message in other ways. What’s even more exciting, is that if you know someone else who could benefit from reading this, you can share this post with them.
If one person reads this and shares it with someone else, then bit by bit, I am achieving my mission in spreading the word that cancer rehabilitation can help. And that makes it all worth the effort.
and so #2020believe was born!
“Believing” that I could have an impact came with the nerve-wracking reality of putting myself out there. Once I took the leap, I was amazed at the doors that began to open. In February I had the incredible opportunity to spread my message in a local newspaper article. Shortly after that, I was approached by a cancer rehab physiotherapist in the states to be a guest speaker about Pelvic Health after Cancer on her podcast. In addition to a few other exciting projects I had been working on, I had also been building an online presence (technology does not come to me naturally) and was making great connections worldwide.
