Our Work
Going Beyond
Imagine if we operated by our moral compass first…
The moral compass is defined as someone’s perception and judgment between right and wrong, which defines their actions. Our founder’s moral compass led her to bringing the Cancer Confidence movement to life.
She thought that we could go beyond the norms of cancer–beyond hate, labels, and war–as we contribute to the greater good. She created a movement that could surpass the limits of our thinking to reach a place we’ve never been before.
Beyond Cancer Trauma
Recover from cancer hate, toxic positivity, and the cancer war
The chaos and drama means you only have energy to do the bare minimum.
At some stage the charged ‘survivor’ in you, will fall away. The ‘fighter’ needs to put their feet up, and the ‘thriver’ needs to make a cup of tea and watch netflix. There is a lot of energy going into fighting and thriving–a lot of energy and chaos. So much ‘fixing’ and only you know when you are ready to retire from these archetypes.
And one day … you will be done. And when you are, we’re here to co-create something better.
Beyond Surviving
Get rid of hate, fear, and mending
Cancer is more than hate and fear. You have nothing to fix, but together, we will discover and connect with a version of yourself you didn’t know existed.
It’s time to free yourself from the notion that
- Cancer is ***ked
- F**k cancer
- I hate cancer
- Cancer can f**k itself
- Life is shit because of cancer
- Everything is cancers fault
We’re going beyond that.
Beyond Thriving
The goal isn’t to thrive,
but to live
Toxic positivity is the obsession with positive thinking and the belief that people should only have a positive attitude towards all their experiences–even the ones that are considered tragic.
It can sound like “Chin up, other people have it worse,” “Failure is not an option,” or even “You’ll be alright.”
Suppressed negative emotions cause the patients to ignore reality.
If we evade expressing authentic negative emotions such as fear, disappointment, and anger, we don’t let the emotions run their course and we end up with more unpleasant feelings (Swift, 2021).
While optimism is important to believe that hopeful moments exist, toxic positivity is likely to have significant impacts on mental health (Wang, et al., 2020) in people experiencing cancer.
Together we can co-create the feeling of consciousness. Unearth a process that’s more than coping, hoping, and thriving. It’s not a trophy you have to win or an award you have to earn.
Beyond Fighting
Ending cancer war
here and now
War and fighting
As soon as you get diagnosed, dialogues start to sound like this: Beating the fight, losing and winning the battle, she fought to the end, or he’s a warrior.
The war metaphor is synonymous with cancer and when used, focuses attention on the ‘fight’ after all, there is no greater emergency than when someone yells ‘war.’
War calls for urgency and unity. Leaders using the war metaphor expect a goal-driven focus from their followers that no other situation can command–to win the war.
David Hauser, a University of Michigan Doctoral Student in Psychology, found in three studies that exposure to metaphoric language relating cancer to an enemy lessens the extent to which people consider cancer-preventing behaviour.
A RECAP ON WHY THE CANCER WAR IS CREATING TRAUMA
IT INHIBITS NORMAL BRAIN FUNCTION
Negative words, like militaristic and war language, increase the activity in our brain’s fear centre. This causes stress-producing hormones, interrupts logic and inhibits normal functioning. (Newberg, A. B., & Waldman, M. R. 2013)
IT’S A WAR THAT HAS NEVER ENDED
Fred Appelbaum said ‘the ultimate impact has been extraordinary, but perhaps war was the wrong metaphor’. Because scientists knew it was an unrealistic goal.
(F. Appelbaum. 2016)
IT DOESN’T ENCOURAGE PREVENTIVE BEHAVIOURS
Enemy metaphors in cancer information reduce some prevention intentions without increasing others, making their use potentially harmful for public health.
(Hauser, D. J., & Schwartz, N. 2014)
