Okay I admit it I am a poor woman’s Sharon Osborne or Lisa Vanderpump. I have expensive taste in dogs. Except I didn’t buy them they were the gift from a lady called Emma D’arcy (thank you Emma) who ran the legendary Bell, Book and Candle store in Brighton. First she gave me Yogi (a pomeranian) because she couldn’t look after him and he needed a family and then we were given the fantastic Fifi (a Chihuahua).
Genuinely if they could prescribe dogs for mental well being I think they would find that many depressed and isolated people would do a whole lot better. There is science behind this too actually. Dr David Servan-Schreiber dedicates a whole segment of his book The Anti Cancer Diet to the benefits of dog ownership for cancer patients. The calming affect on you is huge, which is brilliant for your immune system, they are also the most incredible snuggle companions.
I have yet to meet a cancer patient who at some point has not been a classic ‘worry wort” as the saying goes. I know I knocked seven shades of sheet (deliberate spelling mistake alert) out of my self just trying to stay on top running my music industry and pr consultancy. As I lived outside London and had to do a lot of commuting it would mean getting up at 5am sometimes, to get my daughter to the childminder, so I could make an early meeting. I also worried about everything in a way that I would never dream of doing now. I learnt to let go through being ill and not to sweat the small stuff but prior to my diagnosis I wasted a lot of energy just obsessing over things on a work front that didn’t actually make a difference to my clients or the quality of my work.
If you are having a crappy day as a working Mum a pet can just take you out of the horror zone into a more graceful space. The music industry is always a bit dramatic and everything is always so IMPORTANT. Except it isn’t really, I learnt some perspective from my dogs and my illness. I spent so much time trying to justify myself and defend the fact that I was a good worker and a single mother. I look back at that now as genuinely wasted time and damaging to my well being. All of which must have impacted my health and ultimately the fact that I got so ill in the first place.
The Haven really does emphasise creating a better connection with yourself by becoming more aware of how happy you are and understanding the pressures you are under and most specifically the ones you heap on yourself. Alternative treatments really do connect you with how you are living your life and help you to make global changes. I have yet to meet a breast cancer patient or any cancer patient who was not battling ridiculous levels of stress just prior to getting ill. That is an anecdote but it is also the fact of my experience. Organisations like The Haven help women address their need for a better balance in life so that they nourish the terrain of wellness.
My dogs were a big part of my healing. I only have Fifi now as yogi died a few years ago but they injected an never ending level of laughter into our lives at a time when we really needed it as a family. They got me outside when I was trying to stand straight and move again, modelled how to chill in style and provided us as a family with so many hilarious memories and truly embarrassing moments.
Yogi bless him was a star. He nearly choked on a sausage at my nieces Birthday Party bringing proceedings to a rather abrupt halt. He pee’d on our feet at a particularly terrifying moment in The Deathly Hallows. He shot nuclear pooh over an unsuspecting couples romantic picnic next to the lake in Arundel. Apologies were not enough on that one, he’d clearly killed the moment. Fifi as a very small puppy launched herself off the end of the sofa in a kamikaze attack on a very large Birthday Pizza, missing and sliding off the edge of the table in a move worthy of a Tom and Jerry cartoon. She spent her first year under my chin growling at everyone and developed a mating fixation with a piece of Harry Potter merchandise. For us having fluffy loves at one of the hardest and testing times, lifted our spirits and kept us focussed on the day we were living rather than getting stressed by what might happen tomorrow.
*This blog is written to support #Breast Cancer Awareness Month 2018 and the Breast Cancer Haven who helped me beat beast cancer in 2008 and in 2011 – along with the incredible team on Worthing Hospital’s Breast Cancer Ward, UK. I am SO blessed to be well today.
Donate to the Breast Cancer Haven Here
Eugenie Arrowsmith 