A colleague of mine recently asked if he could submit a guest post to my blog related to a cause he is involved with: Living with Cancer. As some of you may already know, my father passed away from cancer at the young age of 46 (which is close to my current age). I know too many people personally who have been affected by this terrible disease, and I was more than happy to post this short message on my blog.

My father had passed away from a rare form of cancer called Mesothelioma and fought it bravely, although I sometimes wish we were more knowledgeable about the different ways of coping with this illness at the time. If cancer affects you or someone you love, I hope you find this post helpful in some way, and I encourage to click on the links included if you are looking for more information on this subject.

Finding out you have cancer is devastating. You may feel like there’s no reason to get out of bed in the morning. You may feel as though your life has really given you a raw deal. It can leave you depressed.

There’s hope for you though. You can feel better about your life and your diagnosis. You could have many years left to live and there’s no point in living it miserably.

Instead, you can start to exercise more. You may think, “What’s the point? I’m going to die anyway.” Exercising doesn’t only help you physically, it also helps you mentally. It can give you a positive outlook on a very negative situation.

When you exercise your adrenaline starts pumping. This is a natural energy for your body. It helps you do more during exercising and it gives you a natural high after you’re done.

While this high won’t last for a long time, it does produce a positive mental health effect that lasts much longer. The adrenaline switches on a button in your mind. It helps you see what is good in life. It helps you see that the glass is half full rather than half empty.

The ability to see this, even if it’s for a short while will end up staying with you. So when the high is over, you still have those feelings and thoughts with you. That is what will help you feel better as you go on with your day.

The only catch is that you have to continue to exercise because if you don’t, negative thoughts and feelings will start to overshadow the positive ones. If you continue to exercise though, that positivity will be reinforced. Every time you complete your workout you will be able to see those pluses in your life, which will outweigh the negative.

So now that you know all of the benefits of exercise when you have cancer, such as mesothelioma, you can go out and start moving. The more you move, the better you will feel afterwards. Make it a daily thing and you’ll start to laugh at this cancer that has tried to take over your body and mind. You can fight back and tell it that it’s not going to ruin the time you have left on earth.

You are strong, you are powerful and you will beat it.