Michelle Burleigh

Cured

So, here I am, days away from my five-year cancerversary and I’ve just started unpacking my feelings related to my cancer experience. That it was gruelling but not in the traditional sense (according to others). That I didn’t really get kicked in the teeth the way many do but it was horrific all the same. That I avoided infections and my heart didn’t stop but I will never be discharged from care because I will always be considered at risk…not to mention my immune system is permanently damaged which will always put me at risk. What I went through was hell. Utter hell, and it deserved to be acknowledged as such, processed as such, fully in my intellectual and emotional being.

Yet, while I find myself working through the reality of my experience. I also feel a significant amount of gratitude. It’s nearly overwhelming at times. My life has changed in ways I could never have imagined. Celebrate my five-year cancerversary and a look back at what the last five years has been like!

The Road to Courageous Living – Official Launch

It’s here! It’s here! Today is an exciting day. My very first non-fiction book, The Road to Courageous Living: Learning Audacious Self-Love and the Skills to Harness Personal Success, has officially launched on Amazon and Kindle!!! I have spent significant time in reflection over the last few weeks as I prepared for this awesome day,Continue reading “The Road to Courageous Living – Official Launch”

The Road to Courageous Living

Sitting in that hospital bed, being checked over and over again for signs of bleeding in my brain, I thought about how unhappy I was. I had spent my life believing that achieving success meant following a specific formula. It was something like, work as hard as you can to make lots of money so you can have lots of expensive things and then you’ll be happy. At times, the knowing that the life I was living was not meant for me would bubble up but I would push it back down because I had worked so hard to become that version of myself-the version I thought I was supposed to be. Yet, at that moment, when the likelihood of my continued existence was bleak, I could no longer deny what I had always known. That everything I believed would make me feel happy and fulfilled was total bullshit.

To the nurse standing by my bed, I proclaimed, “I’ve lived my entire life doing the things I believed I needed to do to be successful and I realize now it was all a lie. When we’re done here, I’m going to write a book and tell the whole world. They need to know that they don’t have to live by anyone’s standards but their own.”

Nearly five years later, that’s exactly what I did. Introducing, The Road to Courageous Living: Learning Audacious Self-Love and the Skills to Harness Personal Success, available for pre-order on Amazon and Kindle on October 18th!

The Relationship Killer: At Least

Once I came to a place in my life where I realized and accepted that the crap things life threw at me was not a me thing, I began feeling self-pity less frequently. Rather than wade through shit cursing under my breath that I was the only one, I waded through the shit cursing under my breath knowing others were wading through it too. I thought such a revelation would help me feel differently; better but it did not. So why was I still so perturbed?

Talking Shit and How to Fix it

I did not know much about cancer, or the side effects of treatment before I myself was diagnosed. I expected I would feel sick often, my hair would fall out and I would likely not be able to taste properly or at all. What I did not consider, until the very moment it became my reality is that chemotherapy would wreak havoc on my gastrointestinal system. If we stop to think about it, it makes perfect sense. All of that toxic liquid is being pumped into our veins and like anything else, it’s gotta come out one way or the other!
Join me for more on my cancer recovery and why it is so important to self-advocate.

Gambling with Human Chips in the Covid Era

Imagine a lone potential criminal debating murder openly – and it’s an acceptable open debate. A random, innocent person who did nothing to inflame someone enough to elicit such a contemplation who has to listen to their potential attacker debate whether they should go through with their heinous, unthinkable act. Whether the attempt was made or not, the fact is that the potential victim is already aware that someone wants to do them harm. Such an experience could lead to a lifetime of looking over ones shoulder, waiting for them to change their mind. It could be the end of their feeling of safety in the world.
I spent days incredulous, trying to make sense of the senseless. I knew that even sympathizers could not truly understand what I was feeling. I had to do something about it.

Ambivalence: Friend or Foe?

I felt guilty for doing what was natural to me all too often; sharing. I heard it often enough that it became part of my internal dialogue. I started scolding myself for sharing, questioning everything I said to my friends, and at times even felt shame for sharing. At some point over the years, I decided to give myself grace and settled into the type of comfort only people who genuinely know and love themselves can understand. After my diagnosis, I began noticing how people reacted to my honesty. It is no surprise that people are uncomfortable with talking about ‘the big C’. I am acutely aware of this, as I used to be one of those people. I also recognized that people just do not like the feeling of experiencing someone else’s negative feelings. It’s never pleasant and many people default to fixers. Still, I had this driving need to honor myself, to speak my truth, and, maybe most importantly in this case, to raise awareness of an illness I never even knew existed until I was sitting in front of a doctor telling me I had it.

Post Treatment Jitters: Back to Work

At the point, during my cancer treatment, that we were confident I would not imminently die, I began to feel that my diagnosis had been my personal wake up call. The God that I had spent the better part of my life rejecting, had put a serious smackdown on me as if to say, ‘You can’t live like this anymore. Get your shit together or you are done for’. I did not take this message lightly. In fact, I spent the following two and a half years working hard at living a healthier life. Getting on track looks different for everyone. The reality is, I had managed to succeed in some areas of my life. I had a great job and was well respected in my industry but I had not honored my body or my mental health over the years. Read more to find out how the hard work of the last few years has paid off as I returned to work after cancer treatment.

Overcoming the Whispers of Self-Doubt

On December 8th 2020, I published an article called Three Years Later. It was an unplanned release motived by the realization that the next day would be the three year anniversary of my cancer diagnosis; my cancerversary. It was 9:30pm on Monday December 7th and I was trying to will myself to sleep so IContinue reading “Overcoming the Whispers of Self-Doubt”

(In)Coherent Ramblings and Renewed Focus

Happy New Year! Yes, I realize it’s twenty four days into the new year but do you think good wishes for the new year will ever get old this year? I think not. We have weathered the worse storm my generation, the one after me and before me will every experience. While there were aContinue reading “(In)Coherent Ramblings and Renewed Focus”