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Test Those Breasts ™️
This podcast by Jamie Vaughn is a deep-dive discussion on a myriad of breast cancer topics, such as early detection, the initial shock of diagnosis, testing/scans, treatment, loss of hair, caregiving, surgery, emotional support, and advocacy.
These episodes will include breast cancer survivors, thrivers, caregivers, surgeons, oncologists, therapists, and other specialists who can speak to many different topics.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and not all information in this podcast comes from qualified health care providers, therefore does not constitute medical advice. For personalized medical advice, you should reach out to one of the qualified healthcare providers interviewed on this podcast and/or seek medical advice from your own providers.
Test Those Breasts ™️
Episode 86: (Part 1) Amy Banocy & Jamie Vaughn's Lessons from 2024, Embracing Fearlessness & Growth
A heartfelt conversation unfolds as Jamie Vaughn and Amy Banocy discuss their lessons learned in 2024. The conversation connects to the complexities of breast cancer survivorship, focusing on fear, authenticity, and the importance of community. Their insights offer inspiration and connection for listeners, highlighting their journeys and shared lessons learned throughout the year.
• Addressing fear as a part of the survivor experience
• Importance of community support in healing journeys
• The role of storytelling in reclaiming power
• Finding authenticity after facing adversity
• Embracing vulnerability to promote healing
• Insights on the spiritual connection to personal growth
• The significance of grounding and safety in the healing process
• Shared lessons learned from their respective journeys
• Impact of positive focus in a turbulent world
• Building connections and lifting each other up in difficult times
amy.banocy@yahoo.com
IG: Amy's Personal Instagram and Instagram: Baringitalltogether (community and resources)
FB: Amy's Facebook
Web: Amy Banocy
BARING IT ALL on Amazon: BARING IT ALL on Amazon
Download a free chapter: FREE Chapter
Media: Media
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I am not a doctor and not all information in this podcast comes from qualified healthcare providers, therefore may not constitute medical advice. For personalized medical advice, you should reach out to one of the qualified healthcare providers interviewed on this podcast and/or seek medical advice from your own providers .
Hello friends, welcome back to the Test those Breasts podcast. I am your host, jamie Vaughn. I'm a retired teacher of 20 years and a breast cancer thriver turned staunch, unapologetic, loud supporter and advocate for others, bringing education and awareness through a myriad of medical experts, therapists, caregivers and other survivors. A breast cancer diagnosis is incredibly overwhelming, with the mounds of information out there, and other survivors A breast cancer diagnosis is incredibly overwhelming, with the mounds of information out there, especially on Dr Google. I get it. I'm not a doctor and I know how important it is to uncover accurate information, which is my ongoing mission through my nonprofit. The podcast includes personal stories and opinions from breast cancer survivors and professional physicians, providing the most up-to-date information. At the time of recording Evidence, research and practices are always changing, so please check the date of the recording and always refer to your medical professionals for the most up-to-date information. I hope you find this podcast a source of inspiration and support from my guests. Their contact information is in the show notes, so please feel free to reach out to them. We have an enormous breast cancer community ready to support you in so many ways. Now let's listen to the next episode of Test those Breasts. Well, hello, friends, Welcome back to this last episode of 2024 of Test those Breasts. I am your host, jamie Vaughn, and today I am super excited and honored to have my breasty friend, amy Bonosi, on my show. For those of you who have listened to all of my episodes, you may recognize the name.
Speaker 1:I have interviewed Amy before, maybe about a year to a year and a half ago, but since childhood Amy has dreamed of a world that lives in peace, and John Lennon's Imagine is her life's theme song. Today she is doing her part to create this beautiful dream through her work as a women's mindset and spirituality coach. Amy is also a thriving breast cancer survivor advocate and breast cancer coach. As a coach, amy is also a thriving breast cancer survivor advocate and breast cancer coach. As a coach, amy serves as a guiding light for women as they navigate life's many challenges, breast cancer and otherwise. Her superpower lies in creating safe and sacred spaces for women to honor the truth of their experiences, break through limiting beliefs and reclaim their power and joy in life. Her work is rooted in helping women deepen their spirituality and connect with their intuition. She believes that when a woman can reconnect with her truest version of herself, it creates a ripple effect of greatness and peace within her family, community and the world. Amy is also a best-selling author of Bearing it All Reflections of my Breast Cancer Fuckery and dynamic speaker who lights up a room and emanates vibrant energy.
Speaker 1:Amy and her husband, derek, have three sons, andrew, jacob and Zachary, and one sweet pup, tess. She loves the beach and can often be found enjoying a cup of coffee or a glass of bubbly. Amy considers herself a recovering serial optimist, using meditation, walking and writing to calm and express her emotions. Well hello, amy, welcome back. There's just so much about you that it's hard to capture it all in a little intro like that. You are a spectacular human being that I have chosen to continue having in my own breast cancer community just because of who you are. How are you doing today?
Speaker 2:Thank you so much. Well, first of all, I'm truly honored that, when you were going to while I'm truly honored that, when you were going to do this 24 for 24, that you thought of me and I am doing well, today I really am doing great Good.
Speaker 1:It sounds like it's a little chilly where you are.
Speaker 2:Well, it was beautiful earlier. Inside it's a little chilly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's nice and rainy here today, which is what we need. But I, you know, I want to let my audience know that I did read your book, you know, early on, when it first came out, and I was one of the ones who literally could not put it down. People who feel the need to kind of keep their emotions in and, you know, they kind of question why they're feeling certain things and then they don't say you know what's really truly on their mind because they're afraid of what other people might think about them or maybe it's just coming across as being a whiny bitch or something like that. But honestly, when it comes to breast cancer and other kinds of cancers also, you know I have friends who've had colorectal cancer, colon cancer, uterine cancer.
Speaker 1:Just, you know, being sick with cancer is really, really hard and I think that most people don't understand. Obviously because if they haven't had cancer, but you know, people don't understand. Obviously because if they haven't had cancer, but you know people don't understand that in your survivorship we really do struggle and I am one that will stand here right here today that I have struggled so much in my survivorship. At the same time I have also had a fabulous life traveling, you know, with my husband, and I have a wonderful family and all of that. So I just think that I would like to share what we've both learned in 2024, because it was a new year a year ago. Now we're going into 2025 and I'm just excited that you're here to do that with me.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you so much. And yes, it is such a challenging. It's a challenging, it's an and right. It's one of those dualities being a breast cancer survivor that there is still a lot of challenge with it, and there's also, for me at least, it opened up this entire new world that I think we all have inside of us. We all have the space that we're probably meant to be in in the world, and something like breast cancer sets everything else aside and just it puts it front and center for you.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:I know, before we were going to record, I had asked you, um, I was going to do an Oracle card pull. I had done a meditation before we came on here to record and I was going to pull a card and I just kept hearing no, Jamie needs to do it. Jamie needs to do it. So when I mentioned that to you, you said, well, let's do it on the podcast. Yeah, why not? Right?
Speaker 2:Oracle cards are a tool that I use just to help in my own guidance, um, down life's path, and you know as well as like for writing prompts and things like that. So we will see if it reveals something to us that maybe has to do with the topic we're talking about today, or maybe it's just something that one of your many beautiful listeners needs to hear today. So something that one of your many beautiful listeners needs to hear today. So I'm going to shuffle the cards and, as I do that, just when you feel intuitively called to tell me to stop, then I will stop and the card that is there will be our card for today.
Speaker 1:Okay, perfect Okay.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, stop, it is Creator Earth, creator Earth. And we'll see. For those that are watching, there's the card. And we'll see. For those that are watching, there's the card. And we'll see what that means for us today and for those that are not able to see. I just have a little book here that talks about each one. Oh it, it's the last card. Okay, it says Earth energy is grounded and rooted and it is connected to our safety and our stability. It is the realm of our finances and generosity and it is the realm of family and connection. It is the material essence of the world. Comfort and nourishment are this element's gifts. How safe do you feel in your material world? What could you do to feel more nourished by it? Do you have the possessions you need to survive? Does your safety net include a network of people whom you love? How grounded are you in the day-to-day Earth? Energy gives us the security of peaceful surroundings, the vitality and strength found in nutritious meal and the cheerful laughter found in community. Are you tapping into all of its power?
Speaker 1:Very interesting, given what we talked to you about before we started recording.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah, I feel like part of that I have tapped into and part of it I haven't quite gotten there yet. Like, as far as safety goes, I um, I have gone through kind of some time, um these last few months, of feeling unsafe in a lot of different parts of my life and I've been doing a lot of research and just trying to come to why that is. And you know, doing my own therapy, um, you know, and talking a lot about that, and I I have found that a lot of breast cancer survivors have actually felt that as well, like not feeling safe or feeling fearful, Like that's one of the emotions that I have heard is kind of normal, I guess. You know you don't want to stay there. Obviously you want to be able to work on that and get out of that, but it really has been driving me crazy.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean directly, right.
Speaker 2:I mean that circles right back to the themes of my book, right?
Speaker 2:And as a serial optimist, I found it really hard to sit in those spaces of fear and so-called air quotes, negativity and so-called air quotes negativity and I think that you hit the nail on the head, that we need to go there sometimes and we need to know how to move ourselves out from that space is really the important thing that I've learned through cancer and beyond really is to be able to find ways to shift how I'm feeling and shift that perspective and how I'm looking at things. But yeah, I think there is a deep-rooted fear I mean, tomorrow actually marks four years since I was diagnosed, which, on the one hand, feels like holy shit, that was four years ago, it feels like yesterday, and then, on the other hand, I'm like, oh my gosh, it's been four years, you know, but there's always this, you know, there's this fear that lives there because we've lost a lot of our innocence and our ability to be naive to the it can't happen to me. And I think that that it can't happen to me spreads in our brains far beyond cancer.
Speaker 1:Right, and you had your diagnosis during COVID. So that, just like right, that layers like a whole nother piece of fear. I mean, we were all like dumbfounded and a lot of us were fearful of what was going to happen and you know, and are we going to die? Am I going to be able to get treatment? I and I've interviewed quite a few people who had their diagnosis during, during COVID.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've listened to some of those and, yeah, I mean I was lucky that mine was a little bit later, you know in the year of 2020. And so later, you know in the year of 2020. And so you know, I wasn't. I didn't have to go through all of it alone. I was able to have my husband there at times. Good so, good.
Speaker 1:So what we're going to do today is we are going to talk about at least the 24 things that we've learned. I mean, we've learned so many things. It wasn't really hard for me to come up with as many, you know, because we were going to kind of split it in half, and I know that some of this stuff is going to overlap with each other. So with that, I do want to say that one of my very first lessons of 2024, even though it kind of came a little bit later in the year is all about fear, and that fear is a process, and I'm trying to intellectually understand that this doesn't define me.
Speaker 1:I don't want it to define me and I want to be able to overcome it and, at the same time, understand that it's okay to feel afraid, being alone, fear of the state of the world, fear of the state of my community, the fear of the state of my relationship with my family and whether or not people are going to think I'm crazy. That's one of the biggest things that I have a hard time with is I can feel myself, you know, just saying things or doing things that might seem off for them, and think to themselves Jamie is crazy or Jamie is reacting in a way that she shouldn't react in things like that. I'm working on trying to be authentic to myself and to stand in my truth, speak my truth and not be afraid about what other people are going to think. And also that fear goes into trying not to be afraid of something that hasn't even happened yet. Is that I'm?
Speaker 2:hoping that makes sense. Okay, so, jamie, I didn't even have this on my list, but I have actually learned that all those things you're thinking are likely true, like they are going to happen. When you say and I had a coach this year who I worked with, who was very instrumental in opening up a lot of things for me and the when you said, I want to be authentic to myself and I fear people might say X, y, z, at one point that was something we were talking about and she said, well, somebody probably is going to say those things. And I thought, holy shit, you're right.
Speaker 2:And so why am I sitting here? A why am I wasting my energy, limited energy source, worrying about what they're going to think? And is it somebody that I even value or respect their opinion? And is it something that I still want to stand on, you know, want to stand my ground for? And in answering those questions, I realized that most of the time and you know I think a lot of it is we live as a, as a spiritual human. How I feel is that everybody has their own experience here on earth and those experiences create our own realities, and so whatever someone says about you they believe to be the truth, and I have learned that it is not my job to convince them otherwise. They believe in their. Neither is right or wrong. They're probably both right in some regard, and I've also really learned to zoom out on that judgment lens and decide whether it's something that's worth caring about.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Well, you know, I actually have a therapist friend who said that same thing, that it's not my job to convince them otherwise. But and some of these people I care about more than other people, so I have to kind of decide on that too, and I, but I I don't feel like I was ever so much that way before cancer or before my mom died. So my mom died five years ago and then I got cancer, Then I lost both of my father-in-laws, Then just lots of different things have happened, and so I feel like that part of me has come out and I have to say that it's probably due to trauma of some sort. That it's probably due to trauma of some sort, you know, like this and and just this weird fear, and I don't, I don't like that about me and um, so I'm working on that, but I have learned, though, that it is a process and that it's not going to define me, and that it is okay to feel fear, but also deciding how far that's going to affect my life.
Speaker 1:So I know that I know this much intellectually, emotionally, I'm working on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know what I think, that what you just said about it is a process. That's where the future lessons come in right. Those are the gifts that you're going to learn from this. And fear is a human emotion, just like anything else, and you know, I think a lot of times it gets a really bad rap it does, it does.
Speaker 1:Because you don't get out of it as quickly as you say Exactly, yeah, yeah, and something yeah, so what is, what is one of the lessons that you've learned?
Speaker 2:Oh, um, you know, actually I think maybe this will piggyback on a little bit of what you were saying is I think there has been. Look, I think, like the state of the world, the universe is in a lot of turmoil. There's no denying that. I believe that it's turmoil that needs to almost purge in order to get to a better space. And one of the things that I have realized and I think I knew this before, but it really became evident this year in my own personal practice is that while it seems that there is so much hatred and negativity in the world, that there's actually also a lot of love and beauty in the world, and that what we focus on creates that reality for us. And I personally chose to stay informed, not through the news. So, you know, I I still consider myself knowledgeable to what I need to know, um, but I choose to focus my energy on things that show me and remind me that there is love and peace and joy in the world.
Speaker 1:I love that, I love that. That's kind of a little bit. One of my lessons is that people are your greatest support. So I believe that community the community that you choose is where you need to focus your time. So I have a wonderful grassroots community here in my state, in Reno, that I tend to spend a lot of time with. I communicate with them a lot. We're very like-minded, they're very supportive of me as far as what I went through, and then vice versa, I'm supportive of them and then vice versa, I'm supportive of them, and I feel like that mutual support with this group has helped with my own healing, actually, and I think it's helped with theirs as well. But yeah, focusing on where your energy is going, to show you where the love is, that it's still there, that people still are good, and then just kind of put the other part aside, don't focus on that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it doesn't mean we don't have to do what we feel we need to do in the world, you know and advocate for what we need to advocate for. You can still have very strong feelings and I love I mean, I see all the work that you do and it's incredible. And, yeah, it's also a reminder. Going back to what you were talking about, about the fear, and saying, like I am, I am not fear, it's not me, it's a feeling, and I believe one of the strongest ways to shift from that is to put your focus towards something that you feel passionate about. Right, use that energy for good about Right.
Speaker 1:Use that energy for good. Yes, I like that because, um, that is exactly what I've been trying to do. Like I think to myself okay, I need to make sure that I continue. I want to keep putting podcast episodes out every week. I don't want to skip a beat, and I haven't skipped a beat. I do whatever I can to focus on getting a great episode out there. So that has kept me grounded, because I get to talk to people like you, and which is very helpful, and so this morning I had a wonderful conversation with a gal from Germany who is going to interview with me this next week, and I get to talk to people from Germany. I get to talk to people from wherever that have this desire to give back to the breast cancer community back to the breast cancer community, and whether it has to do with helping people through treatments or helping people understand their scans, or helping people understand how to heal, and so, yeah, I, I and you are like in that space, right.
Speaker 2:You are a gift and you are providing such value for other people.
Speaker 1:Thank you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Amy. I feel the same way about you. You're like my sister from another mister.
Speaker 2:So I think another one that I really learned this year was how freaking powerful we are.
Speaker 2:And we are way more powerful, and I'm not even just talking women with breast cancer, just women, we humans.
Speaker 2:But women specifically, we've been so conditioned and stripped of so much and conditioned to believe certain things about ourselves and we get to this place in life and I think some of it's age, some of it's being a breast cancer survivor and having trauma, and some of it is this deep spiritual connection that I have that I know we're so powerful just innately and that our stories are important and that when we can tell our stories is when we can find our own truths and our own power and they help us heal and they help other people heal, which I think is one of the gifts that you give with this podcast.
Speaker 2:Right, think about, I think about the first time you asked me to come on and, yes, it was about my book, but in that I got to share me and I got to share my story and every time that I share any of that, it heals a little piece of what was there and it's a reminder of the strength that I have and just the light that is inside me and how powerful I truly am to make anything happen.
Speaker 1:Right, and every time I get to talk to someone like you, that same thing happens to me. I feel a little more connected, a little more powerful, a little more excited at the fact that you and I right now are probably helping someone else who is listening to this thinking to themselves oh shit, I thought I was, it was just me. I thought I was just a, you know, a freak or something like like you know people are, you know, think I'm, you know should be over it. Or like you should have moved on now. You should have been healed by now. And and we know that this just isn't always something that happens right away, and sometimes it's a lifelong thing until we die, right, and that actually, I'm so glad you said that because that really brings something up for me.
Speaker 2:that, again, also isn't on my list, but it probably is something I learned this year, which is that this life is really not about us. It is, in a way, but I think about how you were talking about fear, and I think a lot of times when we feel fear, it's usually because we're stepping into a space that is very uncomfortable and it's probably where we're meant to be and what we're supposed to stand for. And I think about how this year, so many times within my own business whether it's an idea that I had or a nervousness about something I was going to be doing it all boils down to my purpose of helping other people in making this a more peaceful and loving world. And that's really not about me. Shit if I didn't face the fear and go do the thing.
Speaker 2:it's leaving out and leaving behind that person that could have been helped, like if you didn't record the podcast. You know what is that ripple effect versus when you do.
Speaker 1:Hey friends, thank you so much for listening to this first half of episode 86 with Amy Benosi. The next half will release next Tuesday, january 7th. See you then, friends. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Test those Breasts. I hope you got some great much needed information that will help you with your journey. As always, I am open to guests to add value to my show and I'm also open to being a guest on other podcasts where I can add value. So please reach out if you'd like to collaborate. My contact information is in the show notes and, as a reminder, rating, reviewing and sharing this podcast will truly help build a bigger audience all over the world. I thank you for your efforts. I look forward to sharing my next episode of Test those Breasts.
