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This site is set up by Ann Fry as a place to post information, resources, articles... anything of interest to people following up to Ann's Thriving After Cancer speaking engagements. Keep on coming back.

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This is an excerpt from an article featured on After Fifty Living.
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NOT JUST SURVIVING...BUT...THRIVING!

Ann Fry

Thriving as you age or after a circumstance beyond your present status is a result of reinvention or to play on the Star Trek theme: "Going where you have never gone before".

Allow me to elaborate. Life's hiccups or changes have a way of showing up in unexpected ways. One day, you're 30 and you wake up and you're 50, and then 60 and on and on. OR, one day you wake up and you have a life-changing situation. I like to refer to them as "landmines". People are just bopping through life not expecting any particular event and then wham - something life altering happens. It wasn't much of a blip on the screen before or even if it was, we thought we could deal with it or even stop it from happening. Wrong!

How do we deal with these landmines or points of explosive, unexpected circumstance? AND, how do we not only deal with the initial shock, but also continue far beyond the aftermath? How do we deal with the resulting circumstance? Another way of looking at it is how do we force ourselves beyond just SURVIVING to THRIVING?

Survival in itself can be a very difficult task In a person's lifetime, he or she may be called upon to survive many types of losses, painful events, both physical and emotional but I suggest you should push hard and go well beyond being just a survivor  to a place I call THRIVING.

While it's a blessing to survive, it implies getting past a "bad" thing - e.g. the holocaust, an accident, a devastating illness, a divorce, the death of a loved one, a job loss, a bankruptcy, to name only a few.

We were/are a "victim" of something beyond our control, something awful. We probably receive sympathy from friends and family and no doubt the kindness of others is  appreciated. We didn't ask for nor do we feel we deserve or expect it. No one wants bad things to happen but in reality they do. We cry, and ask "why me." But we do survive and we eventually do get better. Our body and mind heal leaving us with a scar or two. We cannot remain exactly as we were before. Even our heart heals, but  we may be leery of ever taking the risk of opening to love again and having our heart broken again. Our bank account improves but as a result we might needlessly start  hoarding our money as a protection.

The one big lingering question is: Do we or can we then THRIVE... after a life changing event? To THRIVE simply means to prosper, flourish, and grow vigorously.

Do we move past and beyond? Will we enjoy an improved, possibly unimagined and better life AFTER? Do we take a chance and go beyond where we have never been before? Will we become a stronger person - ? Do we THRIVE after?

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If you want to contact Ann, you can email her at: ann@annfry.