Strength for the Journey Six Virtual Cancer Retreats with Dr Sharon May
Strength for the Journey is a six-part virtual retreat series for people facing cancer at any stage. Each gathering follows one of the six Become Your Best themes while speaking directly to the emotional, spiritual, relational, and practical realities of cancer.
These retreats are not about pretending to be fearless. They are about finding strength that is honest, rooted, compassionate, and real. Through guided reflection, research-informed coping tools, meaningful conversation, journaling prompts, and gentle spiritual encouragement, participants are invited to remember: Cancer may be part of your story, but it is not all of who you are. You are still becoming. You are still loved. You are still you.
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July 6, 2026 – Stay Rooted When Life Feels Uprooted
Strength for the Journey Theme: Stay Rooted in Your Faith and What Grounds You
Cancer can make life feel suddenly unstable. Appointments, scans, treatments, side effects, uncertainty, and changing plans can leave women feeling as though the ground beneath them has shifted. This retreat creates a gentle space to return to what still holds: faith, breath, prayer, scripture, values, trusted relationships, memories of strength, and the quiet presence of God.
This retreats helps participants identify what they can return to when they feel afraid, overwhelmed, tired, or alone.
Coaching Questions:
“What grounds me when I do not have answers?”
“What truth can I return to today?”
“What helps me feel held, even when I do not feel strong?”
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August 17, 2026 – My Story Is Still Mine
Strength for the Journey Theme: Examine Your Life Story & Inner Life
Cancer often becomes a major chapter in a person’s life story, but it is not the whole story. This retreat invites participants to gently examine the inner life of cancer: the fear, grief, anger, courage, tenderness, and questions that may not always have room to be spoken.
Through guided reflection and optional journaling, attendees will explore the difference between having cancer and being defined by cancer. The retreat helps participants honor what has been interrupted while also remembering what remains true about who they are. It gives space for honest emotions without forcing positivity or rushing toward acceptance.
Coaching Questions:
“What has cancer interrupted?”
“What has cancer revealed?”
“What part of me is still here, still mine, still untouched?”
“What do I wish people understood about my experience?”
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September 10, 2026 – Still Me: Choosing Who I Want to Be in This Season
Strength for the Journey Theme: Become Your Best Self Through Intentional Living
This retreat centers on one of the most powerful questions a person facing cancer can ask: Who do I want to be while I am in this?
Cancer can take away plans, routines, energy, independence, confidence, and a sense of control. But it cannot take away the deeper freedom Viktor Frankl described: the freedom to choose one’s attitude and one’s way of meeting life. This retreat explores values-based living — acting from what matters most, even when life feels hard and the body feels unreliable.
Coaching Questions:
“What do I most want to be known for — by myself and by the people I love — in this season?”
“What word feels most like the truest version of me?”
“What is one small way I can live toward that word this week?”
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October 5, 2026 – Letting Love Meet Me Here
Strength for the Journey Theme: Love Wholeheartedly
Cancer affects relationships. Some people show up beautifully. Some disappear. Some say the wrong thing. Some try to help but do not know how. Many people find themselves trying to protect everyone else emotionally while also carrying their own fear, pain, and exhaustion.
This retreat explores what it means to love and be loved in the middle of vulnerability. Participants will reflect on receiving help, asking for what they need, setting boundaries, having honest conversations, and allowing love to become simpler, more practical, and more present.
Coaching Questions:
“What kind of support actually helps me?”
“What am I tired of pretending is okay?”
“What conversation might bring more honesty, closeness, or relief?”
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November 2, 2026 – Wisdom for the Hard Days
Strength for the Journey Theme: Live Wisely & Resiliently
Some days require courage. Other days require wisdom. This retreat focuses on emotional steadiness, self-compassion, energy management, scanxiety, uncertainty, and practical resilience for the hard days of cancer.
Rather than defining resilience as “staying strong,” this retreat reframes resilience as learning how to return to yourself again and again. Participants will explore the difference between what is theirs to carry and what is not, how to respond to fear without being ruled by it, and how to make wise choices when energy is limited.
Coaching Questions:
“What does my body need from me today?”
“What helps me come back to myself when fear rises?”
“What is one kind thing I can do for myself this week?”
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December 7, 2026 – Meaning, Hope, and the Life Still in Front of You
Strength for the Journey Theme: Live with Purpose
Cancer often brings people face-to-face with the deepest questions: What matters now? What am I living for? What does hope mean when life feels uncertain? What legacy am I already leaving through the way I love?
This retreat is tender, honest, and meaning-centered. It does not define purpose as productivity. It does not define hope only as cure. Instead, it invites people to discover purpose in presence, love, courage, faith, beauty, gratitude, advocacy, relationships, and small acts of meaning.
Coaching Questions:
“What makes today meaningful, even if it is hard?”
“What kind of hope is still available to me?”
“What do I want to pass on — through my words, my presence, my faith, my courage, my tenderness?”
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Location: Online, Zoom link provided upon registration.
Cost: Free of charge
Limited Spots Available- Reserve Your Spot Today for Loving Well in Cancer
