An Essential Reminder for the Cancer Community: ‘Your Present Situation is Not Your Final Destination,’ Says Journalist Maria Shriver

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“Your story isn't over yet, this is just a chapter in your book. You have the ability to change your story,” Shriver, author of I’ve Been Thinking … continues in the inspirational caption. “You have the power to deviate from the path you are on if the current path does not fill you with joy. We only have one life, so let's make the most of it.”

The former Mrs. Arnold Schwarzenegger (and niece of the late president John F. Kennedy) adds to tag a friend and “remind them that the best is yet to come. Let's live inspired!”

 

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In life, obviously nothing is promised or certain, but for the most part, staying positive that you can and will get through your present journey can change the outcome of your life. The word “cancer” has such a bad connotation; The disease has taken countless lives. But cancer often doesn’t mean a death sentence, and there are more and more survivors coming out on the good end and living a full life without looking back.

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Survivor Vera Trifunovich had a really traumatic experience with breast cancer decades before she was even diagnosed. Her mother had an aggressive form of the disease, and lost her life to it quickly. Like a lot of people, Vera had a preconceived notion of what cancer was, and what it did to everyone it touched.  It wasn't until after her own diagnosis that Vera began to change the way she thought about cancer. She stopped thinking of it as a death sentence, and started thinking of it as something she could tackle.

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"It's not easy, it's not great news, but it's not necessarily a death sentence," Vera says. "That for me was the flip-side, because I'd had that horrible experience of losing my mother. I'd conceptualized breast cancer as a death sentence, but it's not. There's so much hope."

It's Not a Death Sentence Changing the Way We Think About Cancer

Dr. Zuri Murrell, a colorectal surgeon at Cedars-Sinai, told SurvivorNet in a previous interview how he sees the positive effect that a good mindset can have on those battling cancer.

"My patients who thrive, even with stage four cancer, from the time that they, about a month after they're diagnosed, I kind of am pretty good at seeing who is going to be OK," Dr. Murrell said. "Now doesn't that mean I'm good at saying that the cancer won't grow. But I'm pretty good at telling what kind of patient are going to still have this attitude and probably going to live the longest, even with bad, bad disease. And those are patients who, they have gratitude in life."

Stay Positive, It MattersSays Leading Expert

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