#488 Breast Cancer and Intuition - Is It a Sign or Just an Impulse?#488 Breast Cancer and Intuition - Is It a Sign or Just an Impulse?
The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach
Laura Lummer reflects on the difference between intuition and impulse, sharing how FOMO and emotional buffering can drive spending on programmes and supplements. She offers practical tools to help protect time, money and energy while honouring what truly matters after breast cancer.
28:56•13 Nov 2026
Breast Cancer, Intuition and Impulse: Is It Really a Sign or Just FOMO?
Episode Overview
- Pause for at least 48 hours before making significant commitments of time, money or energy.
- Ask the “shelf question”: what happened to the last similar book, programme or supplement you bought.
- Notice whether you’re buying genuine change or buying the feeling of being your future self.
- Use the WHOOP framework (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan) to spot inner obstacles rather than chasing external fixes.
- Recognise that strong urgency and scarcity may signal impulse or marketing pressure, not a true sign meant for you.
“Our time, our energy, our money, they are precious. And they deserve choices made from love, not fear, and not from a countdown clock.”
In this eye-opening episode, you'll learn about the tug-of-war between intuition and impulse, especially for women rebuilding life after breast cancer. The Breast Cancer Recovery Coach, Laura Lummer, talks honestly about being an "impulsive buyer" and someone who deeply believes in signs, and how those two traits can collide in tricky ways. She shares a candid story of investing in two big business programmes that truly matched her goals, then feeling a powerful pull toward a third one.
That familiar rush of urgency, FOMO and "this was made for me" thinking will feel very recognisable to anyone who's ever filled a cupboard with supplements or bought courses they never finished. As Laura puts it, a lot of those purchases can be buffers: "anything we use to avoid feeling something we don't want to feel," whether that's fear, sadness, boredom or doubt.
You’ll hear her break down the brain science behind wanting versus liking, why anticipation feels so good, and how retail therapy can create a false sense of control after hard news or a difficult day. She contrasts the loud, urgent buzz of impulse with the quieter, deeper feeling of a genuine sign, and reminds you that "a sign is not always an instruction" – it might simply be pointing towards a desire you’ve been ignoring.
Laura offers three practical questions to help you pause before you spend: give it 48 hours, ask what happened to the last similar thing you bought, and ask what emotion you'd be facing if you didn’t buy it. She also shares the WHOOP framework (Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan) as a way to check whether you’re investing in genuine change or just buying the feeling of being your future self.
This conversation is especially helpful if you're living with the fragility of life after cancer and want to protect your precious time, money and energy. Could your next step be using what you already have instead of chasing something new?
Do you want to link to this podcast?
Get the buttons here!
More From This Show
The latest episodes from the same podcast.