Empowering People: Wendy Rahn
Germ Warfare
It’s a magnificent May morning and I’m driving to White Bear Lake to open the doors of Survivors’ Studio for another day of health and healing for some special women in my life. The windows are down and the radio is blaring and I’m so happy I could cry. The next song starts to play, one that I haven’t heard in ages, by a one-hit wonder band, the New Radicals. And its lyrics are so perfect that I swear they were written just for me. Finally, I have a name for what is afflicting me these days. It’s called The Dreamer’s Disease.
Eighteen months ago, just after turning 45, I was diagnosed with another disease, a life-threatening one: CANCER. Also known as the Big C, cancer upended my world and I’m still dizzy with the aftershocks. To combat my fear, I studied my disease with the single-mindedness with which I approached my dissertation. I went to Cancer College and graduated with a Ph.D. I learned that the single best thing I could do for myself was exercise. Exercise would help me manage the depression, the pain, and the fatigue of cancer treatment. Even better—no, make that stupendously, astoundingly better—regular exercise would appreciably lower my chance of the cancer coming back and reduce my chance of dying by up to HALF. And guess what? Exercise wouldn’t make my hair fall out, make me throw up, or get stupid. Talk about side effects you can live with. Literally.
Why had none of my healthcare providers, all smart, conscientious, well-intentioned people, given me this simple piece of advice? How many other women weren’t getting it? As I pondered these questions, the universe began to speak to me. It gently at first, and then with more vigor, told me that it was my responsibility to deliver this life-saving information to others. If not you, then who? it asked. And when I accepted the call, the universe responded by putting people in my path that I needed (and, once in awhile, a few people that I didn’t. The universe doesn’t guarantee that the road will be free of potholes).
Thanks to the New Radicals, I have a handy metaphor for my life’s arc. I’ve been infected and my new disease, unlike the Big C, is highly contagious. Be prepared: There’s an outbreak about to happen, an epidemic of empowered enthusiasm. You see, people with Dreamer’s Disease can’t be quarantined, and despite all the efforts and lots of money of a few bad actors, there is no known cure. Go ahead, expose yourself. A good place to get sick is at our event on June 7, Yogapalooza. The Empoword gals (deathly ill, the two of them) will be there, and you will meet many more incredibly unwell people. Don’t take two aspirin, don’t call your doctor, they will be of no avail. As the New Radicals song also goes, “can’t forget you only get what you give.” Be a germ!
Wendy Rahn was diagnosed with breast cancer in November 2006 and underwent a bilateral mastectomy. In July 2007, she founded Survivors’ Training, a non-profit organization with the mission to raise awareness of the importance of exercise for cancer survivorship and to promote regular physical activity as an essential therapy for those diagnosed with cancer. In January 2008, Survivors’ Training opened the doors of its own fitness Studio in White Bear Lake, MN, exclusively for women living with a cancer diagnosis. To learn more about Survivors’ Training and the Studio, visit the website: www.survivorstraining.org.
