Dance like no one is watching

I had the honor of hosting a wonderful group of people on my program HEALTH LINK on WMHT the other evening .. 3 of the guests have battled or are battling cancer. We booked the show after Elizabeth Edwards went public after her breast cancer recurred. The aim was to explore living with cancer - how it affects your life - how you get beyond the diagnosis.

The trio on HEALTH LINK: clear eyed pragmatists. If ever you wanted to understand how to live in the day, you needed to hear from them. It's not about the should have beens or the maybe's .. it's about do it and do it now. There's no outward anger - in fact, the oncologist who was also on the panel said he talks with his patients about 'why not them'.

There was another lesson learned from this amazing group and we hear it often; don't sweat the small stuff. My footnote to that - don't get so wrapped up in doing everything right.

And there's more .. a theme I often refer to and it's a lesson most of us need a refresher course in - stop and smell the flowers - don't be so strict with yourself or your loved ones - carve out time to laugh in the day. As we focus on the latest research about how to eat, drink and what supplements to take or avoid, we often forget the LIVING part.

Oh, one more thing. If a loved one gets a diagnosis of cancer . .be there to support them. And if you can't fill that role, really step up and tell them it's not something you're cut out for. It's worse, they'll tell you and research will back it up, to offer your support and then withdraw it.