The sky's the limit.
The Cielem’el Survival and Growth Journal evolved out of two web logs I have maintained over time.
Begun in 2009 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 32, The Cielem’el Cancer Journal documented my trials, tribulations, and spiritual growth during breast cancer treatment, with information on the diagnoses, surgeries, chemotherapy treatments, radiation, and hormone therapy treatments, as well as all the personal and professional life stuff that still goes on throughout living a life with cancer. As a breast cancer survivor, I endeavor to inspire other young women like myself to fully engage and manage their cancer and treatments, and know that there are many women out there who are experiencing a similarly challenging emotional journey. Life doesn’t stop because you have cancer, it just gets more challenging.
About a year after finishing radiation, while still posting to The Cielem’el Cancer Journal, I started posting The Cielem’el Personal & Spiritual Growth Blog, which focused more clearly on areas of personal growth, self-development, and spiritual growth. My life journey and growth as a person neither began nor ended with cancer, and the Personal Growth blog was more of a continual journal of life experiences and learnings along my ongoing life journey beyond cancer. The journey honestly began when I was a newborn, shuffled and abused in multiple foster homes before being adopted by absolutely wonderful parents, and my life journey, consciously and continuously seeking personal growth, self development, and spiritual growth continues to evolve.
Over time it became clear that these two subjects cannot be divorced and maintained separately, because it is everything together that makes my web log what it is, meaning, an online journal of life experiences, survival, and growth from the perspective of someone who has survived multiple severe life trials and nurtured a conscious approach to personal and spiritual growth and self development. Hence, The Cielem’el Survival & Growth Journal. :)
Why are radio ads and television commercials so much louder in volume than the program they are interrupting? As if I didn’t despise advertising in the middle of a program or music set to begin with, now I get downright mad because the ad volume is so wicked louder than whatever I was listening to, like they assumed I went […]
Continue reading »I recently did a piece on Music Therapy for the personal growth blog, but I wanted to go more deeply into some of the clinically proven uses of music therapy for cancer patients in particular. The Benefits In general, the realized benefit of musical therapy is to promote healing and improve overall quality of life. AS I mentioned in the […]
Continue reading »I suddenly realized yesterday that I always put on New Age music when I write for Cielem’el, but never for my day job (I still do supply chain management consulting to pay the bills). I’ve never been in the habit of having background noise while I’m working, and it just doesn’t occur to me to turn on any music or […]
Continue reading »My First Hate Mail While it may be true that “you haven’t made it on the web until you’ve got hate mail,” it still bothered me when I got my first non-fan hate-mail. It ruffled my feathers a bit. Why would people take the time to read or listen to your stuff if they think it’s crap? Nonetheless, apparently some […]
Continue reading »The Aroma of Thanksgiving Day Ahhhhh. The whole house smelled amazing. My mom is a fantastic cook, and the preparation she does is intense but sooooooo worth the effort because our appreciation is boundless. 🙂 So it’s day 25 of my 30-day vegetarian trial, and it’s Thanksgiving, one of only two days a year my family has turkey (though it’s […]
Continue reading »I was pretty excited last Monday. I heard back from the Breast Cancer Network of Strength about applying for their peer counseling program and they wanted to schedule a phone interview. I was totally excited when I got that e-mail, I think it was pretty amusing to my parents to see me so excited about becoming a counselor. It felt […]
Continue reading »I was pretty excited last Monday. I heard back from the Breast Cancer Network of Strength about applying for their peer counseling program and they wanted to schedule a phone interview. I was totally excited when I got that e-mail, I think it was pretty amusing to my parents to see me so excited about becoming a counselor. It felt […]
Continue reading »I’m still a vegetarian! So after five days at Mom and Dad’s, I’m still eating a vegetarian diet. I did have some difficulties this week though. On my drive from Las Vegas to Yankton (South Dakota, where my parents live) I didn’t eat well. I finished off what fruit I had, but I also ate some junk food, chips or […]
Continue reading »I confused reality again this morning. My alarm had gone off (4:20AM) and I haven’t adjusted well to the time zone difference . . . 4:20AM here still feels like the 2:20AM it is at home in California. You know, I love my parents and I love spending time with them, but the more time I spend in southeastern South […]
Continue reading »Wow, so much had gone on in life that the past two weeks feel like six. I’ve stayed on the vegetarian diet, though I generally don’t remember that I’m on it, it’s just that I don’t have any meat around so all I’m eating is fruit, some veggies, and some cheese. The first few days were especially hard, not because […]
Continue reading »Kevin was right, you DO have amazing energy on the raw diet. And I also believe it works well as a three-day trial instead of longer. It was just enough time to realize the benefits. If you’re going to try a raw diet, I recommend giving it a little more prep than I did, and going ahead and trying it […]
Continue reading »OK, So! The vegetarian thing went to a raw thing yesterday, though today I want something more substantial than fruit so I suspect I’m going to go back to just vegetarian. I haven’t eaten yet today though, so who knows. BUT! Yes, yesterday morning and this morning I’ve been so energized I’m bouncing off the walls like I’ve had eight […]
Continue reading »Oh yeah, and I’m pretty much sold on trying a very limited *raw* diet trial, 3 days. Kevin’s idea, because he tried it and was totally energized by it. Whaddya think? I’m still on the vegetarian thing, and really was put to the test of that because we went in a steakhouse for a drink at their bar last night. […]
Continue reading »I hung out with one of the CGW guys Sunday afternoon, Kevin. He had been with the group of people I went out with Sunday and Monday nights, and also Thursday night when I got back from Atlanta. There were just a few of us left in Vegas on Thursday I had just landed from Atlanta and he text-invited me […]
Continue reading »A whole bunch of people replied to me in the Pavlina forums about the vegetarian diet mentoring thing. Almost all of them had practical advice to share. One person really got to the crux of it. What was my diet like before? Did I eat meat every day? Yes, I ate meat pretty much every day, so this is quitting […]
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