Maya Amoils
Benefitting Beauty Bus Foundation
Maya Amoils had a very romantic mid-20's experience living and working abroad, running half-marathons and building the career of her dreams. That all changed after receiving a phone call that altered the course of her life. At 28, she was diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer. The day before Maya came to do this interview, she completed her 15th round of chemo. She is fighting for her life and throughout her twisted and beautiful journey has discovered a lot about what matters most during our time here on earth. In this raw, vulnerable and beautiful conversation, Maya shares the ways we can show up for people when they need it the most, find compassion for ourselves during times of change, and create more moments of awe and wonder every chance we get.
The latest from Maya:
From Cancer to Corona: What to do when your world breaks
Maya shares lessons she's learned confronting her own diagnosis that she is re-learning again in today’s climate.
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Wise Words
“I felt like I just wanted to learn from people who had sat in the unknown and who had learned to live with it. That’s been my philosophy for getting through it.”
“I think the worst thing you can do is ask someone, ‘How can I help?’ and you put the onus back on the person you’re trying to help, instead of just recognizing what’s missing and doing it for them. And then just showing up when it matters, chemo appointments, coming over to hang at my house without any agenda, just being there to listen, I think those are the most important elements.”
“I feel like that’s how I’ve managed to cope, is just truly surrendering to things when they happen and not grasping to resist them. Sometimes that means you’re not doing anything that you thought you wanted to do, but you can find a lot of beauty in the detour that you take.”
“I think nurses are the angels that walk the earth.”
“I’ve really come to think of cancer as the ocean, that you always have to have respect for. Every time I feel like I’ve tried to close the chapter on it, so to speak, it throws me for a loop, so I never like to say... This is never going to be over for me. This is a long-distance race.”
“I think before, I was much more focused on getting somewhere or living up to an image of what people thought of me, and now I’m much more focused on being a person that I want to be, regardless or not if I get credit for it.”
Links
Maya’s Instagram: @mayaamoils
Charity: Beauty Bus Foundation
Beauty Bus Instagram: @beautybusfoundation
Beauty Bus Facebook: @beautybus
Beauty Bus Twitter: @beautybus
Special shout out to Shannon Soller (@beautybeyondla) for connecting us with Maya!