Storyteller, author and motivational speaker Briony Benjamin was thriving in her career when some big health news upended her life. At age 31 and just before Christmas in 2017, Benjamin was diagnosed with stage 4 Hodgkin lymphoma.
It was the kind of out-of-nowhere news that saw Benjamin have to leave her new apartment and her job to begin treatment.
Deciding to document her blood cancer journey, she created a short video called You Only Get One Life, which quickly went viral and led to a publishing deal. Her book and journal, Life is Tough But So Are You, is all about how to rise to the challenge when things get hard.
Benjamin is a proud ambassador for the National Leukaemia Foundation where she brings awareness to the signs and symptoms of blood cancer.
She’s also recently had her first baby, post cancer and fertility treatment and has plenty of valuable advice for managing health and wellbeing among the chaos.
Benjamin is the latest to feature in our How I Manage My Health series, examining how dynamic women from different career backgrounds manage their physical and mental health.
Read Briony Benjamins full “How I Manage My Health” profile below, and see other women profiled in this series here.
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What’s one key thing you’re working on right now that you’re really excited about?
I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, four months ago. So as they would say in Barbieland, right now my job is just baby. As a result, I’ve decided that ‘presence’ is my word of the year to remind me to be as present as possible with this beautiful little human and let everything else go on pause for now. Of course I can’t help myself. I’m getting involved in my local community independent campaign on the Gold Coast, and I have dreams of writing a 3rd book this year, but all of these things are secondary to being present with this divine little man.
I’m currently focused on being present with my four-month-old baby boy, which is my top priority.
What does your morning routine typically look like?
With a new baby my morning routine is very different to what it was. I’m woken normally between 5:00-6:00 am to baby babbling sounds. If you’re going to wake someone up that early a very good strategy is make the cutest smiles and giggles possible, which he does – what a genius! I then breastfeed him in bed and try to get him back down. If that fails we begin our day. I change his nappy, then we do some singing, read some stories, giggle a lot and just stare into each other’s eyes. It’s my favourite time of day. Then his beautiful dad takes him for a walk and I try to get another hour or two of sleep!
Do you have any top tips for staying focused on key tasks?
Don’t have a baby! Haha. But seriously one of the best pieces of advice given to me from a girlfriend before I gave birth was – “during this time don’t strive”. It’s actually been the most helpful phrase. This stage in my life is not about ticking every box, kicking goals and having an immaculate house, it’s really about surrendering to the experience and just enjoying each day. I’m an ideas girl so there are new ideas bubbling up in my mind all the time, for now I just write them down in a note on my phone and realise that everything will just need to wait for now.
Can you share a time when your work really tested or even harmed your health and well-being?
My first job in the film and television industry had a huge negative impact on my physical wellbeing and health. I loved the job but the hours were insane, my boss was a workaholic and there was an expectation that I’d work to the wee hours of the nights and weekends basically all of the time. It was the beginning of my decline into chronic fatigue and general exhaustion, and a few years later I was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I’m not saying the job caused it – but my body was so run down and never had a chance to recover. I now realise no job is worth your health. It doesn’t matter how interesting, fun, well-paid or what a great opportunity it is. You are the only one that can prioritise your health and wellbeing. There is no job in the world that is worth compromising your health.
How do you stay active, anything you can share on your ideal weekly schedule for doing so?
As they say what gets scheduled gets done. This year I’ve just made sure I’m booked into 2 pilates classes a week minimum so I know if everything else goes out the window I’ve at least done that. When I set my goals every year, the first one is now always health. (It used to be a long way down the list.) But I know nothing else can be achieved if I’m rundown, exhausted or sick. When I was recovering from chemotherapy and chronic fatigue and exercise was the last thing I felt like doing. I had two questions written up on my door, I used to ask which were. ‘How am I strengthening my body today? And ‘How am I calming my mind today?’ So long as I did some small positive action to answer those two questions that was success.
How do you manage your health when working remotely or from home?
A proper office setup is a must! I’ve learned the hard way that even an hour on a laptop without a comfy setup becomes a literal pain in the neck, unleashing headaches and stiffness. So investing in a proper work station is critical as one of the pillars to good health when working remotely!
As a cancer survivor yourself, what advice would you give to other women who have just received big and unexpected health news from their doctors?
Big unexpected health news can rock you to the core and make you question everything. In those early days some great advice I was given by a friend was to remember that ‘not all things have to be understood, but accepted’. It’s so easy to waste so much energy wondering why me and railing about how unfair it all is. That doesn’t help you face the task ahead. So give yourself some time to grieve and feel sad, it is so valid, but then if you can find a way to accept what is happening, you will be much better placed. Know that not everything has to be solved right now, just focus on the next three steps and tackle those. Little steps, big breaths.
What do you want more women to know about their health?
I want women to trust their intuition more. We have amazing intuition but so often we don’t listen to it. Women are far more likely to have poor health or even cancer misdiagnosed for a mental health condition. I was misdiagnosed for over 18 months and had 3 different doctors tell me I was fine, before my condition was taken seriously by a doctor at the insistence of my parents. My body was sending me all the warning signs. But I didn’t yet know how to listen. That’s why I am passionate about spreading awareness of the signs and symptoms of blood cancer and have become an ambassador with the Leukaemia Foundation. Your body and your good health is the greatest gift you will ever be given and yet so many of us take it for granted or worse feel ashamed or despair at our bodies. Find a way to love your body for what it allows you to do and do all you can to treat it like the precious gift it is.
Australians living with blood cancer need the support of the Leukaemia Foundation more than ever. We urge the Australian community to sign up to shave, cut or colour their hair for World’s Greatest Shave by visiting www.worldsgreatestshave.com.