When the circumstances we encounter are completely out of our control, our choices reside in how we handle the situations life has given us.
Author, podcast host, speaker, and surrender coach, Jayka Duncan is a Stage 4 Cancer survivor who overcame all odds by following her intuition and surrendering into loving all aspects of her life.
Despite great adversity, her journey to self-love became the conduit for her spiritual and physical healing.
Read more about her journey below and be inspired to surrender to your process.
What do you see when you look in the mirror?
When I look in the mirror, I see an empowered woman who chose to look at her adversity as an opportunity to grow and evolve. I’m so proud of her and feel an incredible tenderness for her. I see beauty that goes well beyond the skin and scars. I now see her from the perspective of love. I no longer judge her, if there is a moment where an old program resurfaces for her, I tell her that it’s okay, I love her and I embrace her tenderly.
What do you do for a living?
I am an author, surrender coach, motivational speaker, podcaster, and blogger. (I’m also the mother of two amazing adult kids, and I have a beautiful husband).
How do you think self-love plays a role in success?
The role of self-love plays an incredible role in success, the most important one as a matter of fact. When we love ourselves unconditionally, we don’t have the need to prove ourselves, we live a heart based life. When our actions come from a place of love, they are inspired acts and there is nothing more powerful than that! When we love ourselves unconditionally, we are then also able to love others unconditionally. Instead of reacting from the ego, we are more grounded and at peace. Others will feel this and be drawn to you.
How do you think we, as women, can work together to lift each other?
When we are living our lives from our heart and act from love, there is no competition. Instead, there is a community. The collective feminine has been wounded for centuries, and it’s up to us to heal ourselves from the inside out. I know first hand that doing this can be very messy and challenging, so having a community of loving women (and loving men) there to help, to celebrate, to encourage, to lift up, and to see each and every woman as worthy, is crucial! We are worthy simply because we were born…period. It is my mission to help women across the world know this without a shadow of a doubt.
Have you had any adversities that you’ve had to overcome to achieve the success you have now?
I was raised by a father who was a bully, narcissistic, and chauvinistic. As a result, I had very low self-esteem, didn’t love myself, became a people pleaser, never rocked the boat, struggled with an eating disorder for decades, and stuffed down all emotions rather than speak up for myself. The undercurrent of my existence was fear, fear of rejection was the most common. I was diagnosed with cancer twice in my life, the second time I got to the root cause and surrendered. This practice of surrendering allowed me to let go of all my limiting beliefs. As a result, I was able to tap into my essence, love. I started to feel a tenderness and gentleness for myself that I can only describe as something that you’d feel for a newborn. I realized that my father wasn’t the issue, cancer wasn’t the issue. The issue was that I didn’t love myself. Once I reconnected with my essence, I raised my vibration and healed of stage 4 cancer.
What has been your greatest accomplishment to date?
I am most proud of healing my body of stage 4 metastatic cancer without surgery or western treatments, and writing my book, Healed by Cancer, A Journey From Fear to Freedom.
What inspires you to keep growing and going?
The fact that I healed myself of stage 4 cancer is amazing however that’s not the biggest gift. The greatest gift of my journey is that I reconnected with ME! The love, the joy, the inner peace, the tenderness that I feel is amazing. I want to share with the world how this is possible for all of us. Surrendering to love raises your vibration and creates a freedom that is so amazing, there are no words to describe it. I now coach women, whether they have cancer or not, and help them let go of their limiting beliefs so they can also reconnect with the truth of who they are and feel the unconditional love and tenderness for themselves.
