Edna Castillo
Founder, RealityDreams Life Coaching
What happens when a cancer diagnosis turns your world upside down, and your own thoughts start adding even more fear to an already overwhelming situation?
In this episode of Business by the Bay, Ajay Saini sits down with Edna Castillo, certified life coach, speaker, bestselling author of Living Your Intuitive Genius, and creator of the CALM the Chaos of Cancer method.
Edna’s work is deeply personal. After being diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer, she went through 16 rounds of chemotherapy, 30 radiation sessions, surgeries, and nearly 10 months of intensive treatment. During that journey, she began using the same life-coaching tools she had learned professionally: breathing, visualization, awareness of her thoughts, and techniques for calming the nervous system.
That experience ultimately changed the direction of her work.
Today, Edna helps people facing cancer navigate something that doesn’t always get enough attention: the emotional and mental chaos that can accompany a serious diagnosis. Her Calm the Chaos of Cancer approach focuses on helping people move from fear and overwhelm toward greater calm, acceptance, resilience, and a sense of control.
One of the most interesting parts of our conversation is Edna’s distinction between a “positive mindset” and a “healing mindset.”
We’ve all heard someone say, “Just stay positive.”
It sounds encouraging, but Edna explains why that advice can sometimes create even more pressure. When someone is struggling and things aren’t going well, being told to simply think positively can leave them wondering whether they’re somehow failing at positivity, too.
A healing mindset, she says, is different.
It starts by noticing what you are thinking, recognizing how those thoughts are affecting your emotions and body, and then consciously finding a healthier way to move through the situation.
In this conversation, we discuss:
- Why fear can send us into fight, flight, or freeze mode
- How to recognize when your thoughts are pulling you down a “rabbit hole”
- Why simply telling someone with cancer to “stay positive” may not actually help
- The importance of calming the nervous system during stressful situations
- How breathing and visualization can help interrupt patterns of anxiety
- Why changing your relationship with treatment can change your experience of it
- How cancer and serious illness can affect relationships with spouses and family
- Why personal experience can matter when choosing a coach or support professional
- How can these techniques be applied to everyday stress, not just cancer
- What a life-threatening experience can teach us about gratitude, relationships, and what really matters
One example that stayed with me was Edna’s perspective on chemotherapy. Instead of viewing treatment only as something frightening or harmful, she learned to reframe it as something working on her behalf, a tool intended to eliminate unhealthy cells and give her a better chance at life.
That doesn’t mean ignoring fear or pretending everything will be okay.
It means recognizing the fear, understanding what your mind and body are doing, and finding ways to move through the experience with less resistance and more calm.
And while this episode focuses heavily on cancer, the conversation becomes much broader.
Stress shows up everywhere: a health diagnosis, a relationship problem, a business crisis, or even lying awake the night before an important exam. The circumstances may be completely different, but our minds can respond in remarkably similar ways. Edna explains how awareness, breathing, and visualizing a desired outcome can help us respond more intentionally rather than react.
Toward the end of our conversation, we also talked about success.
Edna’s definition has little to do with money or titles. For her, success begins with being happy with who you are and recognizing the uniqueness and value you bring to the world.
Her closing thought may be the most important takeaway from the entire episode:
Make today count.
Every day gives us another opportunity to have the conversations that matter, tell people we love them, appreciate the life we have, and leave a positive imprint on someone else’s heart.
If you or someone you love is navigating cancer, serious illness, fear, anxiety, or simply a difficult chapter in life, this is a thoughtful conversation about finding calm when life feels anything but calm.