My life has always been about health. For nearly forty years, I have practiced deep meditation, exercised, eaten the “right” foods, and gotten eight hours of sleep. Therefore, it was quite a shock for me and my doctor when I was diagnosed with breast cancer one week before my sixtieth birthday.

For the next several days, I lived with the paralyzing fear that often follows such a diagnosis. And then, somehow “coincidentally,” I saw a newspaper article about The Secret. I sent for the audio CDs and listened – in the car, going to bed, while walking the dog. I realized that working all the time and not enjoying life, as my husband and I had been doing, was not something to be proud of, so we sat down and reprioritized our lives to create more balance.

The next thing I did was to return all the books on cancer that well-meaning friends had given me, and to stop searching on Med.com. I needed to stop identifying with breast cancer patients. Instead, on my daily walks, I started saying out loud, “I am filled with radiant health! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” In the shower, I imagined all my cells in perfect harmony, all systems integrated, all tissue healthy. I gave thanks for everything, all day – from the time I woke until I went to bed, repeating over and over how healthy I was.

I knew I needed about six weeks for this to work, and the hospital had said they would call to schedule my surgery in a few days, so I also used The Secret to create more time for healing. I repeated, “I have all the time I need to heal,” and the Universe listened! No one called, and after five and a half weeks, I finally called the hospital myself. Would you believe, someone had lost my paperwork!

But by that time, I could hardly feel any lump!

After my surgery, the doctor told my husband that it had been difficult for her because she couldn’t find the tumor and kept sending additional tissue to pathology to make sure she had the right spot! No one could explain why the tumor had shrunk so much. But I can!

I now live life enjoying every minute, and though I wouldn’t want to go through any of this again, I am so much happier for having learned the power of thoughts and the wonderful choices we get to make about our lives.