Breast Cancer Meets Mindfulness by Cheryl Wilfong

When writer, gardener, and Buddhist practitioner Cheryl Wilfong was diagnosed with breast cancer, she wouldn’t “fight” her illness, as so many urged her to do. She would experience it, “not wishing for anything different than what Life was delivering.” This is the inspiring message in her unique and poignant health guide, Breast Cancer Meets Mindfulness: Surrendering to Life.

Wilfong’s chronicle moves gently through her thought processes as she deals with the diagnosis. A dedicated Buddhist and meditation teacher, she believes that death, disease, and dying are messengers alerting us to find ourselves. After a successful surgery and radiation, and still needing to take medication, she developed small defensive activities and investigated alternative treatments. But she also began to examine her lengthy to-do list and pare it down to essentials.

A skilled and organized writer, Wilfong includes advice to readers about requisites like a living will and insurance. Each new disclosure about her condition, each appointment and treatment, is detailed with sufficient medical information to provide a practical guide to others facing the same prospects. Along the way, she principally highlights the way that mindfulness, a key tenet of her inner guidance, can play a role in dealing with cancer.

A guide that’s at once pragmatic and spiritually uplifting, Breast Cancer Meets Mindfulness is recommended for those facing a terminal illness, as well as family members.