As a breast cancer surgeon, you meet a variety of personalities in your patients and colleagues around the hospital, but few have left such a mark as Anusha Wijeyakumar. We met by chance at a charity event hosted by the hospital where we work and had an instant connection. We found many things in common, including our South Asian heritage, and became fast friends.
After attending a meditation led by Anusha, I realized her work and practice could have a huge impact on the psychosocial well-being of the breast cancer patients I treat.
As the program director of Integrative Breast Oncology at Hoag Hospital, I lead the breast cancer survivorship program that helps women affected by breast cancer live their healthiest life and move past their active cancer diagnosis into thrivorship. Anxiety, PTSD, and depression are just some of the psychosocial issues that impact our patients after going through aggressive surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy treatments. I wondered if mindfulness and meditation could help some of these women move past the stress that may have contributed to their diagnosis in the first place.
I asked Anusha to lead meditations and speak at various survivorship events and immediately received wonderful feedback from patients. Anusha quickly became an integral part of our program and her five-minute quick and easy techniques for mindfulness and meditation have become a hit for breast cancer patients and survivors alike. She has made it easy and fun for our patients to begin a meditation practice, and I am confident this book will help the readers in the same way with her accessible wisdom and simple exercises. I hate to sound cliché, but five minutes a day of meditation and mindfulness is just what the doctor ordered.
Dr. Sadia Khan, FACS
Breast Surgical Oncologist
Director of Integrative Breast Oncology
Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian
Assistant Clinical Professor of Surgery
Keck School of Medicine
The University of Southern California