Protect Your Pineapples – Breast Cancer Awareness Month

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Whatever size fruit you have in your basket – Remember to perform a self-exam once a month.

October is breast cancer awareness month, that doesn’t just mean turning half your wardrobe pink, changing your company logo (oh the irony) and proudly pinning a pink ribbon to every outfit.

Breast cancer awareness is about remembering to give yourself a self-exam once a month, it means supporting women affected by it and it means being grateful for your own health.

Each year 1.4 million women are diagnosed with breast cancer, which includes 1 in every 8 women in the USA. But early detection can make a huge difference in beating breast cancer and we think that’s something worth raising awareness about!

So whether your mammaries are like melons or your chesticles are more like cherries we would like to help you get to know your breasts and detect if there is a possible problem.

To show your support and raise awareness we would like to ask you to join our competition. After your self-exam, take a photograph of yourself, covering your credentials with your choice of fruit and post it on social media. Remembering to tag @PineappleYSW #ProtectYourPineapples and link back to this blog to ensure as many women as possible join us and protect their pineapples.

Breast cancer is not always detectable by a lump or hard mass, sometimes the symptoms are visual.

Some changes in your breasts are perfectly normal, but if you are worried, it is always best to visit your doctor.

What is it that you are feeling for?

When feeling for a lump, check from your armpit to your collarbone, down to the bottom of your rib cage. A cancerous lump feels different from a normal breast lump, it often feels hard and immovable and can be any shape or size.

Getting to know your breasts is really important and the best time to give yourself a self-exam is just after your period when things are most normal.

Remember, when breast cancer is found early, survival rates are incredibly high.

Be proactive in caring for our health, self-exam once a month, eat well, exercise regularly and help raise awareness #ProtectYourPineapples

Surrender – A Poem

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To surrender
Is to dance
In the waves
Not knowing
When you might get knocked
Over
But trusting
That you’ll always
Be swept back up.
Trusting
That you will be swept
Onto warm soft sandy shores
When the time
Is right.
Written by Liza Belle

The Centre – A Poem

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Locate the calm within the storm.
Beneath the tumult of the waves
Breath face mind, still
As you pause
Count to ten
Allow the storm to pass
Find a moment of peace
And stillness
To return to your centre
To come back to yourself.
Written by Liza Belle

Moving Through It -A Poem

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We’re standing in a sea.
Everyday
Asked
To swim.
Through the trials
Of the tidal swell
That washes
Along the passage
Of our lives.
Heaved
And pulled
Sucked under
Flung above.
Over
And over.
We try
Not to struggle.
But when we’re in the thick of it
Breath
Snatched
From chest
Tossed
From one wave
To the next
Limbs
Exhausted
From arduous
Exertion,
It’s hard to see
A way out
A way
To stop struggling.
Written by Liza Belle

Putting the picture together – A Poem

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There’s no method
To the madness
When you’re flung
Headfirst
Into this thing
Called life.
I try in vain
To piece the puzzle
Patch
The picture
Of me
Together.
But I simply
Don’t know
Where to start.
Written by Liza Belle

Away – A Poem

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I leave
Because it’s easier
Than to stay
I run
Because it’s more bearable
Than to feel
I shut everyone out
Because it is less painful
Than to let them in
I close + push away
Because it is less agonising
Than to love
To stay
Is to bear witness
To stay
Is to let people in
To stay
Is to expose my heart
And put it on the line
To be shattered
Written by Liza Belle

Gaslit Warwounds – A Poem

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Those things that cut you up
And spat you out
Those things that had you crying and screaming
On the bathroom floor
That had you talking motherfuckingshit
To your family
Taking for granted your friends
Those things that made you a hurricane
In a quiet living space
Those things that blew shit up
Ruffled feathers
Burnt bridges
Those things
That you believe
Made you a bad person
Actually made you brave
Actually made you courageous
Actually made you face who you are
And deal with your shit
Those things actually made you fearless
Fiery
A pioneer
Those things made you you
Don’t bad mouth those things.
Written By Liza Belle

Abuse – A poem

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Sometimes
We compensate so damn hard for people doing awful things
Being awful
Because we can see their pain
We can see the suffering
That warped them
Twisted them
De-humanised them
So we stay.
We watch.
We tolerate
And accept.
But we shouldn’t.
We shouldn’t tolerate abuse.
It’s fucked up.

Written by Liza Belle

A Shadow Imprint – A Poem

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“This anger is not mine…”
I finally understood.
It was the imprint of a shadow
On my soul
All that was left to honour the pain
Endured.
Spontaneous eruptions
Harming innocent bystanders,
Were rooted in the shadow
Cast over me from that time
In that place.
And now the shadow gathered and swarmed
Trapping me in a self-imposed prison;
A wall of smoke and mirrors
Surrounding me.
What was real?
I could not know.
Warped perception of reality, I ploughed forth into the world.
Wreaking havoc with my scars;
With my view-distorting Shadow Lenses.
I saw what it wanted me to see.
In my nightmares
In my dreams
In my life.
Detached.
Floating.
No sense of reality.
“No hold on real life.”
An out-of-body experience.
For years
It felt as if I were a bystander,
Watching an automation
Live my life.
To the point where I didn’t know my reflection.
Body and face, wracked with the shadow
The shadow poisoned me:
Poisoned my responses;
Poisoned my actions;
My reactions.
Self-hate and self-loathing poisoned my judgement
My judgement of myself.
It wasn’t me.
Surely it couldn’t be me
Acting like such a lunatic?!
But there was nothing I could do.
The shadow had taken my power.
The shadow was in control.
Until all that was left of me
Was a corpse.
Curled on the floor of the shower.
Empty.
Drowning.
Water, burning
Trying to feel something,
Anything.
So many forms of self-harm
To try and feel something.
To try to penetrate this numbness
This lack of ability to feel anything remotely deeply.
–
–
–
And still today it haunts me.
The shadow of my past.
But I’m learning to move through it.
To face the pain, at last.
I know it won’t be easy,
Lord knows it will be hard.
But I’ve adorned my strongest armour
And into battle, I will charge.
I will meet the shadows in combat
With love and with compassion
I will fight with all my might to heal
I will not turn away again.
Written by Liza Bella

The Gift Of Fear – A Poem

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The gift of Fear
Is protection
What lies beneath Fear
Masked below Fear
Is deep, powerful Wisdom.
That is what comes
When we meet Fear
Without Fear.
Written by Liza Belle