Okay, let's talk about mornings. Not those picture-perfect Instagram mornings with the perfect smoothie bowl and the "up at 5am for yoga" aesthetic. Real mornings. The kind where you're trying to figure out how to start your day when your body feels completely different than it used to.
I remember during my own journey how mornings went from being something I took completely for granted to becoming these strange, unpredictable things. Some days I'd wake up feeling almost like my old self, and other days... well, let's just say getting from the bed to the couch felt like running a marathon.
What I've learned from my own experience and from talking with so many survivors in our community is that having some kind of morning routine can be incredibly grounding. But—and this is a big but—it has to be the right kind of routine. One that works with where you are right now, not where Instagram thinks you should be.
So I wanted to share some real-world morning approaches that have helped folks in various stages of the cancer journey. Nothing fancy or complicated. Just practical ideas that might make your mornings a little more manageable and maybe even enjoyable.
Let's start with what might be the toughest mornings of all—treatment days. I know so many of us have experienced that pit-in-your-stomach feeling when you wake up knowing what the day holds.
What I've found helps (and what I've heard from others too) is having a completely different routine for treatment days. Not trying to pretend it's a normal day, but actually leaning into the difference.
For me, this looked like:
I've seen folks use the "Beyond the Battle" planner to create a treatment day checklist in the notes section, so they don't have to remember everything when their brain is foggy with anxiety. Having that preset list can take some of the mental load off when you're already dealing with enough.
Then there are the mornings—whether during treatment or in recovery—when your body is just saying "absolutely not" to anything ambitious. I call these my "minimum viable morning" days.
I actually got this idea from another survivor who told me, "I stopped trying to do all the things and just picked the three things that make me feel most human."
For her, it was:
That's it. On her worst days, if she did those three things, she counted the morning as a success. And you know what? She was right.
Your minimum three might be completely different. Maybe it's taking your medications with food, texting a support person, and changing into fresh clothes. Whatever makes you feel like you're caring for yourself in some small way.
In the Beyond the Battle planner, there's a section for tracking daily habits. Instead of filling it with aspirational things, try using it for your non-negotiable minimum. Track those basics, and celebrate when you hit them all. Seriously—actual celebration, not just a mental checkbox.
As you start feeling a bit stronger—whether that's between treatments or after you've finished active treatment—you might be ready to build a bit more structure. But it's so easy to fall into the trap of trying to sprint back to "normal." Trust me, I've been there, tried that, and fell flat on my face (almost literally).
A survivor in our community shared how she used what she called the "plus one" approach:
So it might look like:
The weekly layout in the Beyond the Battle planner works perfectly for this. You can use the habit tracker to monitor how your new addition is going, and the notes section to jot down how it made you feel. Did it energize you? Deplete you? This kind of tracking helps you build a morning routine that's actually supportive rather than draining.
Sometimes our mornings are defined by specific side effects that persist even after treatment. Fatigue, joint pain, neuropathy, brain fog—these unwelcome souvenirs can require some special morning strategies.
I've been amazed by how creative survivors get with this. One woman who deals with terrible morning joint stiffness completely rearranged her morning:
Another survivor who struggles with lingering fatigue breaks her morning into 15-minute segments with 5-minute rest periods between each activity. She said, "I used to push through and then crash by noon. Now I rest before I'm tired, and I can actually function all day."
The monthly wellness focus sections in the Beyond the Battle planner are perfect for experimenting with these targeted approaches. When the planner focuses on physical wellness, you can try different morning movement routines. During the nutrition focus month, you can experiment with different breakfasts to see what gives you sustainable energy.
And then there's what comes after. When treatments are behind you, when you're trying to figure out who you are now. This is when your morning routine can become something more than just functional—it can help you rediscover and rebuild your sense of self.
This isn't about pressure to become some productivity guru. It's about finding small ways to connect with who you are now and what matters to you after everything you've been through.
A long-term survivor told me her morning routine became a kind of daily statement: "This is who I am now." For her, that included:
She said, "For so long, every morning started with being a patient. Now my mornings are about being a person again."
I love how the reflection pages at the beginning and end of each month in the Beyond the Battle planner give space for this kind of identity work. You can look back and see how your relationship with mornings—and yourself—is evolving.
Here's the thing I want to emphasize: there is no single right morning routine for cancer survivors. What works during active treatment might feel all wrong during recovery. What helps with side effects might change as those side effects evolve.
The most important thing is tuning into what YOUR body and spirit need right now.
I've watched survivors beat themselves up for not being able to maintain the routines they had before diagnosis. Or feeling frustrated that they can't do the wellness routines they see others posting about online. But comparing your morning routine to anyone else's—including your pre-cancer self—is just not fair to where you are in your journey.
The Beyond the Battle planner was actually born from this realization. I wanted something that would help people track our unique patterns and build routines that honored our current reality, not some external standard.
So maybe start by just noticing what your mornings are like right now. What's the hardest part? What's one small thing that makes them better? Write it down in your planner or just on a sticky note. Build from there.
And on the days when your morning routine falls apart completely (we all have them!), remember that tomorrow is another chance to begin again. That's the thing about mornings—they keep coming around, offering us fresh starts over and over.
I'd love to hear what works for your mornings, if you feel like sharing. Comment below or send me a message. Your morning wisdom might be exactly what someone else in our community needs to hear today.
Until next time,
Stephanie
Next Page Wellness offers tools designed specifically for the cancer survivor's journey, including our signature "Beyond the Battle" planner. For more conversations about life after cancer, check out our podcast What Comes Next where we dive deeper into these topics.
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