October 26, 2025 • 18 mins
Bershan Shaw wasn‘t born a warrior—she became one. In 2009, after being diagnosed with stage 4 breast cancer and given a death sentence, Bershan decided to change her life. She shares some affirmations and tips. Also she has her URAWarrior App available now.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back to the Doctor Wendywall Show on KFI AM
six point forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Well,
my next guest is motivating and shaping and helping and
prodding a lot of people in America, and she's doing
it with a smile on her face and so much optimism,
(00:21):
despite the fact that she became a coach and motivational
speaker because a trauma that happened to her. I would
like to welcome Bershon Shaw. How are you, Bershon?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Oh? Yes, good, how are you?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Thank you? Thank you for having me.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
So you.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Really came into this world of sharing your light with
other people because of a threat that your light was
going to be dimmed. So let's take us to the beginning.
What happened in two thousand and nine.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
So in the beginning, right, I got diagnosed with stage
four breast cancer. But it started in two thousand and seven, right,
So in two thousand and seven I got diagnosed. I
didn't do chemo, I did radiation, and then two years
later it came back and it was stage four.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Okay, we want to remind everybody there's no such thing
as stage five cancer.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Okay, No four exaetyes.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Right, So let's talk about emotionally what you went through
when you first heard that news.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
You know, I was devastated. Young thirty years old. You
don't think that the doctors are going to tell you
it's terminal breast cancer. Because I had a bad back
and my back was hurting, and so everything I tried
to do exercises, go to chiropractice, go to all these doctors,
(01:53):
and no one could figure it out until the doctor said,
let's do an MRI. And I remember to this day
I was going to get the results, but I just
thought it was a slip disc. And you know, they
were going to give me some painkillers and the doctor
told me to sit down. Oh and you know no
one wants to hear sit down, And he said, you know,
(02:14):
this is different than we thought. This isn't a slip disc.
This is terminal breast cancer. It spread throughout your body.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
WHOA, so it already metastasized.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
It metastasized.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Wow. Okay, So you're a young woman getting this news,
and I'm sure it's emotionally devastating. Spoiler alert to anybody listening.
This is back in two thousand and nine. I don't
know if you checked your calendar, this is twenty twenty five.
This is not on tape. She's here, she's.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Here with us.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Yes, I'm here, you dog.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
So what did you do? What were your treatments? How
did you figure this out? And how did this inspire
you to help others?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
You know? Oh, God, this is a journey.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
So I remember to this day. I went out into
the hallway. I just said, give me a minute. Because
I didn't, I.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Was so stunned.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I went into the hallway, I got on my knees
and I just prayed, and I said, God, I know
this is not my journey and my time. If you
keep me alive, I will motivate people all around the world.
If this is my calling, I know I'm not supposed
to go.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
I know I have a.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Bigger calling, and here I am. And like literally I
changed my mindset because at first I was depressed, mad, angry,
just like why me? But then something clip and it's
like as days went by, I wasn't getting sick, I
didn't die. They gave me three months. They said, you know,
(03:46):
your best chances are probably ninety days.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Wow, ninety days went one hundred and twenty days went
two hundred days and I was still there, and I said,
change your mindset, get busy living, not dying.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
You every day count brishan. I heard an interesting sentence
today that I loved from a medical doctor and he said,
you know, every cell in your body is eavesdropping on
your thoughts.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
M yep, I love that.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
And so what did you change in your thoughts that
you attribute to your miraculous healing.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I told myself I am healthy, I am powerful, I
am worthy, and I deserve to live literally those four
things every day, seven to ten times a day.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
And we don't want to mislead people. You also sought
medical treatment.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, yeah no. I didn't
just do affirmations and medical yeah. I mean I did chemo,
I did radiation, but I changed my diet right so
I would eat meat, beef, and lamb.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
I took all of that out. I went vegan.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I went vegan. I started exercising. I started doing manifestations
every day, positivity meditation, like literally I did it three
sixty wow.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
And so when did you start to feel like, okay,
this is going to work. I'm starting to beat this.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
You know, probably year two and this is funny because
I did a clinical trial with Johns Hopkins and the
doctor said she wanted me to be a keynote speaker.
And this was like now, fifteen years ago. I wasn't
a speaker. I knew nothing about this, but I had
written this speech and it took me all day to
(05:44):
write it, and then when I got in front of
the people, I tore the speech up. I said, I
wanted to be authentic and real. And I remember saying this,
I'm not a statistic, and ither are you. Every day
count don't be a statistic and you're not dead until
the day you are really dead. And I think something
(06:04):
just clicked and I was like, I'm living.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
You certainly are now tell me about you know what.
I'm a professor of health psychology, and one of the
things that there's a lot of research to support is
that the more friends and yes, of course romantic relationships
are important, but the more social support in general that
we have, the better our health. What did you have
in terms of social support?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
You know, You're exactly right, community.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Friends, family, people coming to visit me, you know, friends
going out to watch comedy shows. Like I said, I'm
going to get busy living so I would go to exercise,
I would go walking with friends and laughing and talking.
And that's the thing we are now. We're lonely.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
You know, we've gotten away from community.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Oh have we ever?
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Have we ever? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
And many people don't have the tools to just reach out. Like,
for instance, this week, I went through a little EBB
and flow happened. You know, I just felt a little
down for a couple of days, and rather than I
noticed myself not getting through my to do list, laying
around just feeling kind alone. And I started just calling
and texting girlfriends. It's like I scared up a circle
(07:20):
of friends and we're planning a retreat in January. Now
we're busy, right, But love that. Love that, But you know,
you have to recognize it in yourself when those moments happen,
to know, oh I need some social support. I shouldn't
be alone right now.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I need Yes, I can't be alone. And so that's
what we have to get back to human connection, calling someone,
going over to see a friend, going for a walk,
going to the gym, going out to eat, like get
don't do it alone because it doesn't work. You spiral
in your thoughts.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So when we come back. We have to go for
a break now. I want to talk. I know that
you coach people. You're a motivational speaker and specifically to women,
but also all humans on the planet. When we come back,
will you share some of your wisdom with us, like
one of the five things you tell everything everybody they
need to do in their list. Okay, hang on. My
(08:14):
guest is Bershon Shaw. You can find her on Instagram.
She's actually all over the internet, a motivational speaker, business coach,
women's advocate, and author who overcame stage four breast cancer
and is healthy and vibrant today. Bshon Shaw you can
find her on Instagram. She's a motivational speaker, a business coach,
(08:35):
women's advocate. But I wanted to have her on because
I wanted to hear, as you just heard about her
journey having been diagnosed with terminal stage four breast cancer
that had metastasized, to get to a place of health
and vibrancy and share it with us all. Breshon, are
you completely cancer free now?
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Well?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah, I mean they say once you're stage four because
it metastasized, there's no such thing. My doctor believes that
cancer free is not the word. I am in remission.
She believes that, like you know, you're in remission. Everyone's
in remission once you have cancer. So yes, I am.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
You know, I often teach my students that we all
have cancer cells in our body at all times. We do,
but we also many people are very lucky enough to
have really good cancer fighting genes or strong immune systems
to be fighting it off as we go along. So
it's like, in a way, we're all we all have cancer.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah, because it's just cells that need tate, right, So
exactly all in our body.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yep. And so I'm considered no evidence of disease.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Wonderful. That's the best news I heard today. Okay, so
let's get to it. What are some of the things.
First of all, what are the things people most often
present to you as sort of you know, life problems
that they're looking for your advice on.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
You know, the biggest thing is probably depression. Depression and loneliness.
Those are the two. And let me tell you what
I didn't tell you, doctor Wendy is from all of this,
I started an app, a mental health app called You
Are a Warrior.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
And how does the app work? What does it do?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
So you spell it the letter. You are a W A.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
R R IO R. It's a community.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
It's people sharing their warrior stories because we all have
a story, whether it's substance abuse, depression, anxiety, loneliness. People
get on and share. We have live coaches, we have
AI warrior coaches, and we have daily motivation. All the
things that healed me and all the things that I
needed to get better.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
So we are suffering from an epidemic of isolation, an
epidemic of isolation, and especially with gen Z. I saw
a statistic recently that gen Z spends less than one
thousand hours a year actually talking to another human. All right,
(11:08):
and oh wow, So the young people we really need
to reach out to more than anything. If you could
give us some thoughts, some of your wisdom on the
best ways we can treat whether we're somebody experiencing isolation
or where somebody who has some social support around us
that needs to pull more people into the tribe. What's
some advice you have?
Speaker 2 (11:29):
I would say, you know what, go and have real
fun with people. I know it's hard to put the
phone down. I know that is just, but go and
do some activities. Go bike riding together, go bowling together,
gen Z's, go to a walk, go to a dance party.
Stop just being on your phone looking on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook,
(11:52):
like Snapchat, like really, get to know someone, go eat
pizza together. Like that's advice because people are really suffering
in silence, and in order to get over this, we
have to do the work, we really do.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
It has to be on us. But I do want
to say to people who do have your regular group
of friends and your family and your neighbors, look around you.
There are people at your work, there are people in
your exercise classes, there are people at your church. There
are people who don't have anybody, and it's your job
to bring them back to the dinner table. You know,
(12:31):
when I was a kid, we grew up military in
my household, and so we were always on navy basis.
And my mom, you know, it's like being a single
mom when you're a military wife because the guys are
all gone. And she had to get social support. So
one place, when we moved to a new place, she
joined and adopt a grandmother program, which was adorable. We
(12:52):
had this little lady over every Sunday for dinner and
my mom would take her out a couple times a week.
She came to our school place, and you know, she
did have any family in town. And I thought, why
don't we have stuff like this anymore?
Speaker 3 (13:04):
You know, I love that. I love that is the
great what we need.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
We need to adopt a graand Bear.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Let's put that on your app.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
If you're over seventy five and you want some young
people around you, join her app. We'll connect to you, right,
and let's talk a little bit about wellness. You know
it is Breast cancer Awareness month. You are a miracle story,
both a medical miracle story and a mental health story.
What advice would you give people women specifically during Breast
(13:34):
cancer Awareness Month?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Check your boobies. Yeah, go and get mammograms.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Don't be afraid.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Right, chancer is in a death sentence.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Unless you want to ignore things.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Don't do it. Go and check your breast, but also
understand your breast yourself. Just know your body. Check it monthly.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
I do it.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
I raise my arm in the shower and I checked
myself monthly.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
They say do it on your the day of the month,
that's your birthday, so you won't forget. So I'm April thirtieth,
so I do it on the thirtieth of every month,
and that reminds me. I like that.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Oh okay, I like that, Okay, okay, I'm going to
do it on a twenty second.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
I like that. Yeah, so you'll forget your breath and
know yourself. That's so important.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
And there are certain populations. As a health psychology professor,
the research shows that certain populations African American women, Latino
women are less likely to go. Partly this is because
of economics and not having health insurance that will cover it.
But if people reach out, there is a free mammogram everywhere,
(14:46):
and is.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Everywhere yes, please repeat that, yes, yes, yes, And.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I want to remind you that there is a cure
for cancer. It's called early detection.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
If you know, you're a miracle story Sean. But if
if breast cancer is detected at stage one, it's got
like a ninety nine percent recovery rate, So.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
It really does.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah, we've made such advances, So it's really up to
the public to women to get out there and not
be afraid of this kind of information. And let's dispel
some myths. Mammograms don't give you radiation, they don't give
you breast cancer. Okay, you're not right.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
They don't.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
You know, some people are afraid of the tests themselves.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Right, Yeah, you like it, get sick, you won't, you won't.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
You also changed your diet enormously. What was your diet
like before you had were diagnosed with cancer?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Well, you know, when you're young, you eat everything pizza, burgers, fries,
and you just think that you're invisible and nothing happens.
But you know, I got to tell you, eating eating
healthy just makes me feel great. I eat berries, blueberries, blackberries,
raspberries every day. I juice, I eat veggies, salads. I mean,
(16:06):
it just really makes you feel good. And I don't
really drink. I don't drink anymore.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, I don't like I started to get nasty headaches
and I drank delicious wine my whole life. HiT's so sot, I.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Know, But as you get older, you're like, my house
comes first, So I don't really drink and I feel
good every day.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Oh, we're so happy for you, Brashan. I think it's
wonderful news. Can you give us information about where people
can find you and find out more about the app?
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Yes, thank you so on Instagram, LinkedIn everywhere you spell
my name b E R s h A N. That's
the first name, last name Shaw Shaw and the app
it's in the app store, Google Store. But you got
to write it all together. The letter you, the letter are,
the letter A Warrior W A R R IO R
(16:59):
and it's everywhere right. It's a community of support because
we all have a warrior story. I want a place
where we can normalize mental health and we can share
and talk and get and just get support. And that's
what we're doing. We're starting a You Are a Warrior movement.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
It's wonderful. And you know what I tell my students
is that if you have this idea, the stigma around
bad mental health, you might have a believe in a
mythology that you're either quote unquote crazy or not, when
actually mental health is a lot like physical health. You
can get a cold, it can last a few days.
We call that situational depression, right you can. I mean
(17:36):
it's not like literally, at any given time, probably twenty
five percent of the American public is experiencing some kind
of mental health issue. But it's not lifelong. It's not
always a personality disorder that you know, characterizes them forever.
It's just something you get and then you get better.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Then you get better exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I love how you put it.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yes, I love that you get better.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Well.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Thanks you for to support and get the yes.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Thank you so much for joining us, ber Shan Shaw,
and that brings the Doctor Wendy Walsh Show to a close.
If you miss any part of it, remember you can
log onto the iHeartRadio app at any time download all
the past shows. They're all there. Thanks for being with
me every Sunday evening. You're listening to the Doctor Wendy
wallsh Show on KFI AM six point forty live everywhere
(18:22):
on the iHeartRadio App.
Welcome back to the Doctor Wendywall Show on KFI AM
six point forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Well,
my next guest is motivating and shaping and helping and
prodding a lot of people in America, and she's doing
it with a smile on her face and so much optimism,
(00:21):
despite the fact that she became a coach and motivational
speaker because a trauma that happened to her. I would
like to welcome Bershon Shaw. How are you, Bershon?
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Oh? Yes, good, how are you?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Thank you? Thank you for having me.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
So you.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
Really came into this world of sharing your light with
other people because of a threat that your light was
going to be dimmed. So let's take us to the beginning.
What happened in two thousand and nine.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
So in the beginning, right, I got diagnosed with stage
four breast cancer. But it started in two thousand and seven, right,
So in two thousand and seven I got diagnosed. I
didn't do chemo, I did radiation, and then two years
later it came back and it was stage four.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Okay, we want to remind everybody there's no such thing
as stage five cancer.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Okay, No four exaetyes.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Right, So let's talk about emotionally what you went through
when you first heard that news.
Speaker 2 (01:33):
You know, I was devastated. Young thirty years old. You
don't think that the doctors are going to tell you
it's terminal breast cancer. Because I had a bad back
and my back was hurting, and so everything I tried
to do exercises, go to chiropractice, go to all these doctors,
(01:53):
and no one could figure it out until the doctor said,
let's do an MRI. And I remember to this day
I was going to get the results, but I just
thought it was a slip disc. And you know, they
were going to give me some painkillers and the doctor
told me to sit down. Oh and you know no
one wants to hear sit down, And he said, you know,
(02:14):
this is different than we thought. This isn't a slip disc.
This is terminal breast cancer. It spread throughout your body.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
WHOA, so it already metastasized.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
It metastasized.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
Wow. Okay, So you're a young woman getting this news,
and I'm sure it's emotionally devastating. Spoiler alert to anybody listening.
This is back in two thousand and nine. I don't
know if you checked your calendar, this is twenty twenty five.
This is not on tape. She's here, she's.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
Here with us.
Speaker 3 (02:45):
Yes, I'm here, you dog.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
So what did you do? What were your treatments? How
did you figure this out? And how did this inspire
you to help others?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
You know? Oh, God, this is a journey.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
So I remember to this day. I went out into
the hallway. I just said, give me a minute. Because
I didn't, I.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Was so stunned.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
I went into the hallway, I got on my knees
and I just prayed, and I said, God, I know
this is not my journey and my time. If you
keep me alive, I will motivate people all around the world.
If this is my calling, I know I'm not supposed
to go.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
I know I have a.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Bigger calling, and here I am. And like literally I
changed my mindset because at first I was depressed, mad, angry,
just like why me? But then something clip and it's
like as days went by, I wasn't getting sick, I
didn't die. They gave me three months. They said, you know,
(03:46):
your best chances are probably ninety days.
Speaker 4 (03:48):
Wow, ninety days went one hundred and twenty days went
two hundred days and I was still there, and I said,
change your mindset, get busy living, not dying.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
You every day count brishan. I heard an interesting sentence
today that I loved from a medical doctor and he said,
you know, every cell in your body is eavesdropping on
your thoughts.
Speaker 3 (04:17):
M yep, I love that.
Speaker 1 (04:19):
And so what did you change in your thoughts that
you attribute to your miraculous healing.
Speaker 2 (04:26):
I told myself I am healthy, I am powerful, I
am worthy, and I deserve to live literally those four
things every day, seven to ten times a day.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
And we don't want to mislead people. You also sought
medical treatment.
Speaker 2 (04:45):
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no, yeah no. I didn't
just do affirmations and medical yeah. I mean I did chemo,
I did radiation, but I changed my diet right so
I would eat meat, beef, and lamb.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
I took all of that out. I went vegan.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
I went vegan. I started exercising. I started doing manifestations
every day, positivity meditation, like literally I did it three
sixty wow.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
And so when did you start to feel like, okay,
this is going to work. I'm starting to beat this.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
You know, probably year two and this is funny because
I did a clinical trial with Johns Hopkins and the
doctor said she wanted me to be a keynote speaker.
And this was like now, fifteen years ago. I wasn't
a speaker. I knew nothing about this, but I had
written this speech and it took me all day to
(05:44):
write it, and then when I got in front of
the people, I tore the speech up. I said, I
wanted to be authentic and real. And I remember saying this,
I'm not a statistic, and ither are you. Every day
count don't be a statistic and you're not dead until
the day you are really dead. And I think something
(06:04):
just clicked and I was like, I'm living.
Speaker 1 (06:08):
You certainly are now tell me about you know what.
I'm a professor of health psychology, and one of the
things that there's a lot of research to support is
that the more friends and yes, of course romantic relationships
are important, but the more social support in general that
we have, the better our health. What did you have
in terms of social support?
Speaker 3 (06:29):
You know, You're exactly right, community.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
Friends, family, people coming to visit me, you know, friends
going out to watch comedy shows. Like I said, I'm
going to get busy living so I would go to exercise,
I would go walking with friends and laughing and talking.
And that's the thing we are now. We're lonely.
Speaker 3 (06:55):
You know, we've gotten away from community.
Speaker 1 (06:57):
Oh have we ever?
Speaker 3 (06:59):
Have we ever? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (07:00):
And many people don't have the tools to just reach out. Like,
for instance, this week, I went through a little EBB
and flow happened. You know, I just felt a little
down for a couple of days, and rather than I
noticed myself not getting through my to do list, laying
around just feeling kind alone. And I started just calling
and texting girlfriends. It's like I scared up a circle
(07:20):
of friends and we're planning a retreat in January. Now
we're busy, right, But love that. Love that, But you know,
you have to recognize it in yourself when those moments happen,
to know, oh I need some social support. I shouldn't
be alone right now.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
I need Yes, I can't be alone. And so that's
what we have to get back to human connection, calling someone,
going over to see a friend, going for a walk,
going to the gym, going out to eat, like get
don't do it alone because it doesn't work. You spiral
in your thoughts.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So when we come back. We have to go for
a break now. I want to talk. I know that
you coach people. You're a motivational speaker and specifically to women,
but also all humans on the planet. When we come back,
will you share some of your wisdom with us, like
one of the five things you tell everything everybody they
need to do in their list. Okay, hang on. My
(08:14):
guest is Bershon Shaw. You can find her on Instagram.
She's actually all over the internet, a motivational speaker, business coach,
women's advocate, and author who overcame stage four breast cancer
and is healthy and vibrant today. Bshon Shaw you can
find her on Instagram. She's a motivational speaker, a business coach,
(08:35):
women's advocate. But I wanted to have her on because
I wanted to hear, as you just heard about her
journey having been diagnosed with terminal stage four breast cancer
that had metastasized, to get to a place of health
and vibrancy and share it with us all. Breshon, are
you completely cancer free now?
Speaker 3 (08:57):
Well?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah, I mean they say once you're stage four because
it metastasized, there's no such thing. My doctor believes that
cancer free is not the word. I am in remission.
She believes that, like you know, you're in remission. Everyone's
in remission once you have cancer. So yes, I am.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
You know, I often teach my students that we all
have cancer cells in our body at all times. We do,
but we also many people are very lucky enough to
have really good cancer fighting genes or strong immune systems
to be fighting it off as we go along. So
it's like, in a way, we're all we all have cancer.
Speaker 2 (09:33):
Yeah, because it's just cells that need tate, right, So
exactly all in our body.
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yep. And so I'm considered no evidence of disease.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
Wonderful. That's the best news I heard today. Okay, so
let's get to it. What are some of the things.
First of all, what are the things people most often
present to you as sort of you know, life problems
that they're looking for your advice on.
Speaker 2 (09:57):
You know, the biggest thing is probably depression. Depression and loneliness.
Those are the two. And let me tell you what
I didn't tell you, doctor Wendy is from all of this,
I started an app, a mental health app called You
Are a Warrior.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
And how does the app work? What does it do?
Speaker 2 (10:20):
So you spell it the letter. You are a W A.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
R R IO R. It's a community.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
It's people sharing their warrior stories because we all have
a story, whether it's substance abuse, depression, anxiety, loneliness. People
get on and share. We have live coaches, we have
AI warrior coaches, and we have daily motivation. All the
things that healed me and all the things that I
needed to get better.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
So we are suffering from an epidemic of isolation, an
epidemic of isolation, and especially with gen Z. I saw
a statistic recently that gen Z spends less than one
thousand hours a year actually talking to another human. All right,
(11:08):
and oh wow, So the young people we really need
to reach out to more than anything. If you could
give us some thoughts, some of your wisdom on the
best ways we can treat whether we're somebody experiencing isolation
or where somebody who has some social support around us
that needs to pull more people into the tribe. What's
some advice you have?
Speaker 2 (11:29):
I would say, you know what, go and have real
fun with people. I know it's hard to put the
phone down. I know that is just, but go and
do some activities. Go bike riding together, go bowling together,
gen Z's, go to a walk, go to a dance party.
Stop just being on your phone looking on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook,
(11:52):
like Snapchat, like really, get to know someone, go eat
pizza together. Like that's advice because people are really suffering
in silence, and in order to get over this, we
have to do the work, we really do.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
It has to be on us. But I do want
to say to people who do have your regular group
of friends and your family and your neighbors, look around you.
There are people at your work, there are people in
your exercise classes, there are people at your church. There
are people who don't have anybody, and it's your job
to bring them back to the dinner table. You know,
(12:31):
when I was a kid, we grew up military in
my household, and so we were always on navy basis.
And my mom, you know, it's like being a single
mom when you're a military wife because the guys are
all gone. And she had to get social support. So
one place, when we moved to a new place, she
joined and adopt a grandmother program, which was adorable. We
(12:52):
had this little lady over every Sunday for dinner and
my mom would take her out a couple times a week.
She came to our school place, and you know, she
did have any family in town. And I thought, why
don't we have stuff like this anymore?
Speaker 3 (13:04):
You know, I love that. I love that is the
great what we need.
Speaker 1 (13:08):
We need to adopt a graand Bear.
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Let's put that on your app.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
If you're over seventy five and you want some young
people around you, join her app. We'll connect to you, right,
and let's talk a little bit about wellness. You know
it is Breast cancer Awareness month. You are a miracle story,
both a medical miracle story and a mental health story.
What advice would you give people women specifically during Breast
(13:34):
cancer Awareness Month?
Speaker 2 (13:38):
Check your boobies. Yeah, go and get mammograms.
Speaker 3 (13:42):
Don't be afraid.
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Right, chancer is in a death sentence.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
Unless you want to ignore things.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
Don't do it. Go and check your breast, but also
understand your breast yourself. Just know your body. Check it monthly.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
I do it.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
I raise my arm in the shower and I checked
myself monthly.
Speaker 3 (14:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
They say do it on your the day of the month,
that's your birthday, so you won't forget. So I'm April thirtieth,
so I do it on the thirtieth of every month,
and that reminds me. I like that.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Oh okay, I like that, Okay, okay, I'm going to
do it on a twenty second.
Speaker 3 (14:18):
I like that. Yeah, so you'll forget your breath and
know yourself. That's so important.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
And there are certain populations. As a health psychology professor,
the research shows that certain populations African American women, Latino
women are less likely to go. Partly this is because
of economics and not having health insurance that will cover it.
But if people reach out, there is a free mammogram everywhere,
(14:46):
and is.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
Everywhere yes, please repeat that, yes, yes, yes, And.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
I want to remind you that there is a cure
for cancer. It's called early detection.
Speaker 3 (14:57):
Mm hmm.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
If you know, you're a miracle story Sean. But if
if breast cancer is detected at stage one, it's got
like a ninety nine percent recovery rate, So.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
It really does.
Speaker 1 (15:10):
Yeah, we've made such advances, So it's really up to
the public to women to get out there and not
be afraid of this kind of information. And let's dispel
some myths. Mammograms don't give you radiation, they don't give
you breast cancer. Okay, you're not right.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
They don't.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
You know, some people are afraid of the tests themselves.
Speaker 3 (15:30):
Right, Yeah, you like it, get sick, you won't, you won't.
Speaker 1 (15:35):
You also changed your diet enormously. What was your diet
like before you had were diagnosed with cancer?
Speaker 2 (15:42):
Well, you know, when you're young, you eat everything pizza, burgers, fries,
and you just think that you're invisible and nothing happens.
But you know, I got to tell you, eating eating
healthy just makes me feel great. I eat berries, blueberries, blackberries,
raspberries every day. I juice, I eat veggies, salads. I mean,
(16:06):
it just really makes you feel good. And I don't
really drink. I don't drink anymore.
Speaker 1 (16:11):
Yeah, I don't like I started to get nasty headaches
and I drank delicious wine my whole life. HiT's so sot, I.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
Know, But as you get older, you're like, my house
comes first, So I don't really drink and I feel
good every day.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
Oh, we're so happy for you, Brashan. I think it's
wonderful news. Can you give us information about where people
can find you and find out more about the app?
Speaker 2 (16:36):
Yes, thank you so on Instagram, LinkedIn everywhere you spell
my name b E R s h A N. That's
the first name, last name Shaw Shaw and the app
it's in the app store, Google Store. But you got
to write it all together. The letter you, the letter are,
the letter A Warrior W A R R IO R
(16:59):
and it's everywhere right. It's a community of support because
we all have a warrior story. I want a place
where we can normalize mental health and we can share
and talk and get and just get support. And that's
what we're doing. We're starting a You Are a Warrior movement.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
It's wonderful. And you know what I tell my students
is that if you have this idea, the stigma around
bad mental health, you might have a believe in a
mythology that you're either quote unquote crazy or not, when
actually mental health is a lot like physical health. You
can get a cold, it can last a few days.
We call that situational depression, right you can. I mean
(17:36):
it's not like literally, at any given time, probably twenty
five percent of the American public is experiencing some kind
of mental health issue. But it's not lifelong. It's not
always a personality disorder that you know, characterizes them forever.
It's just something you get and then you get better.
Speaker 2 (17:53):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Then you get better exactly.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
I love how you put it.
Speaker 1 (17:57):
Yes, I love that you get better.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
Well.
Speaker 2 (17:58):
Thanks you for to support and get the yes.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Thank you so much for joining us, ber Shan Shaw,
and that brings the Doctor Wendy Walsh Show to a close.
If you miss any part of it, remember you can
log onto the iHeartRadio app at any time download all
the past shows. They're all there. Thanks for being with
me every Sunday evening. You're listening to the Doctor Wendy
wallsh Show on KFI AM six point forty live everywhere
(18:22):
on the iHeartRadio App.
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