I'm Natalie Lou and you're listening to the baggage reclaim sessions, a podcast about building,

growing and sustaining healthy and intimate relationships with yourself and those around you

by reclaiming yourself from your emotional baggage. Since 2005, I've been writing one of the

longest running self-help blogs in the world,

baggage reclaim.

I'm a dating and relationship coach, and I'm also author of five books, including

Mr. Unavailable on the Foreback Girl and the Joy of Saying No.

Everything I share on the podcast will help you break the cycle by healing the past through

increasing emotional availability,

cutting back on people pleasing, creating healthier boundaries and ultimately owning who you are.

You don't have to settle for crumbs from yourself or others and you can give and receive love,

care, trust and respect. Okay, let's do this. Hello, hello, hello. How are you doing?

Today, I want to tell you about what I have been navigating over this last couple of months.

I have been in and out of a dark and anxious place, and I now feel ready to talk about it.

A key reason for sharing what I am today is really that thing I've banged on and on and on about over the years, which is the

criticalness of listening to and trusting yourself. So I'm not going to bury the lead.

I'm going to be up front about what's happened and then I'll tell you a little bit of backstory.

So you might recall that I had a big surgery at the start of this year.

So that's January 2025 in case you happen to be listening in the future.

That surgery was a full hysterectomy and this was due to my having fibroids and an enlarged uterus.

At the routine four-week follow-up appointment in early February, I was diagnosed with a rare

form of cancer that had been found post-surgery. So it was in the

...