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Breast Cancer Stopped My Life—Music and Meditation Helped Me Breathe Again: How Music and Meditation Support Healing During Breast Cancer Treatment

A breast cancer diagnosis can abruptly stop life in its tracks—canceling plans, disrupting careers, and forcing an unfamiliar stillness. In this deeply moving episode of Breast Cancer Conversations, host Laura Carfang, Ed.D. sits down with Elizabeth Borowsky, a professional pianist and composer, and Jesika Harmon, a meditation coach and wellness guide, to explore how music and meditation became powerful tools for healing during cancer treatment.

Together, they tell the story of an unexpected reconnection that led to a creative collaboration: Sanisa Meditation—a unique fusion of live piano music and guided meditation designed to help people move through illness, grief, and life’s hardest moments with greater clarity and compassion.

This conversation is a reminder that healing is not only physical—it’s emotional, spiritual, and creative. Whether you’re living with breast cancer, supporting someone you love, or navigating another season of uncertainty, this episode offers permission to slow down, listen inward, and discover new ways to heal beyond medicine.

Resources:

Elizabeth Borowsky and Jesika Harmon co-created Inner Harmony, a meditation album combining live piano composition with guided mindfulness practices. Their work introduces Sanisa Meditation—from sonus (sound) and niseion (experience through trial)—a new approach to healing through sound and stillness.

📍 Available on:

• Spotify
• Apple Music
• YouTube

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Cancer related fatigue is one of the most persistent and frustrating symptoms. In this deeply validating and informative episode of Breast Cancer Conversations, host Laura Carfang, Ed.D., sits down with Dr. Jessa Landmann, naturopathic doctor and integrative oncology specialist, to unpack why fatigue, brain fog, weight gain, joint pain, and sleep disruption linger long after chemotherapy, radiation, or hormone therapy.

Too often, those diagnosed with breast cancer are told to “give it time,” “exercise more,” or “push through.” This conversation reframes fatigue as a treatable, understandable consequence of cancer and its therapies—and offers compassionate, practical strategies to reclaim quality of life.

Whether you’re newly diagnosed, in active treatment, living with metastatic disease, or years into survivorship, this episode reminds you: you’re not broken—and you don’t have to live exhausted.

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Latest News:

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In this powerful episode of Breast Cancer Conversations, host Laura Carfang, Ed.D. sits down with philanthropist Sheri Biller of the Sheri and Les Biller Family Foundation to explore the often overlooked—but absolutely essential—role of supportive cancer care.

After losing her two closest friends to breast cancer over 35 years ago, Sheri made a promise: if she ever had the resources, she would dedicate her life to improving the emotional, psychological, and practical support available to everyone facing cancer. That promise became the Biller Family Foundation and later the national coalition Together for Supportive Cancer Care.

This episode dives deep into:

• Why the words supportive care matter—and how they differ from palliative and hospice care
• How siloed hospital systems leave millions without access to emotional and psychosocial support
• Why cancer is becoming an elitist disease—and how technology and policy can fix it
• Caregiver burnout and why Sheri believes we need a “Teach for America” for caregivers
• The shocking lack of trust, education, and information in underserved and rural communities
• Why supportive care should be a standard of care for all life-threatening illnesses

If you’re a patient, caregiver, clinician, or advocate for equity in cancer care, this conversation is a must-listen.

Topics We Cover

✔️ Sheri’s personal story and the loss that inspired her life's work
✔️ Early challenges in cancer language, communication, and stigma
✔️ Why patients “shut down” the moment they hear the word cancer
✔️ Supportive care vs palliative care—what’s the difference?
✔️ Breaking barriers for rural, underserved, and Spanish-speaking communities
✔️ Why caregivers are the next major crisis in healthcare
✔️ The need for culturally competent engagement in faith communities
✔️ Financial toxicity and the real-world burdens families face
✔️ AI and the future of early diagnosis and survivorship support
✔️ How hospitals, pharma, policy, and nonprofits are finally working together

Why This Matters

Supportive care is more than comfort—it’s critical to surviving and living with cancer. From mental health to financial navigation to caregiver support, Sheri explains how integrating supportive care into every diagnosis could transform outcomes for millions.

Resources:

The Biller Family Foundation:

https://billerfamilyfoundation.org/

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Latest News:

• Become a Breast Cancer Conversations+ Member! Sign Up Now.
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• Enjoying our content? Please consider supporting our work.