Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1. Understand What Cancer is -- 2. Understand How Cancer is Treated -- 3. Understand the Difference Between Grief and Mourning -- 4. Allow for Numbness -- 5. Help Your Friend Focus on First Things First -- 6. Don't Say this -- 7. Do Say this -- 8. Develop the Art of Empathy -- 9. Understand the Six Needs of Mourning -- Need #1: Acknowledge the Reality of Your Friend's Diagnosis and Prognosis -- 10. Understand the Six Needs of Mourning -- Need #2: Embrace the Pain of Your Losses -- 11. Understand the Six Needs of Mourning -- Need #3: Remember Your past -- 12. Understand the Six Needs of Mourning -- Need #4: Incorporate Cancer into Your Life Story -- 13. Understand the Six Needs of Mourning -- Need #5: Search for Meaning -- 14. Understand the Six Needs of Mourning -- Need #6: Receive Ongoing Support From Others -- 15. Help Her Learn to Accept Help -- 16. Show up -- 17. Be a Great Listener -- 18. Be Present -- 19. Practice Patience -- 20. Offer Practical Help -- 21. Give Your Friend a Journal -- 22. Help with Appetite Issues -- 23. Be Careful about Sharing Others' Cancer Stories or Offering Advice -- 24. Come Bearing Joy -- 25. Be Her Secretary (or Find Someone Who Can Be) -- 26. Accept All Thoughts and Emotions with Equanimity -- 27. Expect Mood Swings -- 28. Take Care of Yourself -- 29. Live Your Own Life Fully and on Purpose -- 30. Commune with Nature -- 31. Honor and Express Your Own Thoughts and Feelings -- 32. Make Something with Your Own Two Hands -- 33. Make Him a Mixtape -- 34. Don't Allow Your Help to Be Compromised by Cancer Myths -- 35. Act Normal -- 36. Help Her Work on Her Bucket List -- 37. Leave Him Alone -- 38. Check in -- 39. Don't Expect Your Friend to Think, Feel, or Act in a Certain Way -- 40. If You Screw up, Try, Try Again.

41. Respect Confidentiality -- 42. Take It One Step Further -- 43. Get Familiar with Online Resources -- 44. If You Feel Helpless, Talk about It…then Take Action -- 45. If You Feel Guilty, Talk to Someone about It -- 46. If You Feel Scared, Talk to Someone about It -- 47. If You Feel Angry, Talk to Someone about It -- 48. Give to the Cause -- 49. Become a Bone Marrow Donor -- 50. Live in the Now -- 51. Pack a Chemo Care Kit -- 52. Foster Hope -- 53. Express Your Spirituality -- 54. …but Don't Proselytize about Your Own Religion -- 55. Make Time for Memories -- 56. Pray -- 57. Reach out and Touch -- 58. Find Activities to Do Together -- 59. Offer Cognitive Coping Tips and Fun -- 60. Schedule Something That Gives You Pleasure Each and Every Day -- 61. Be His Jester -- 62. Cry…and Accept Crying -- 63. Help Take Care of Your Friend's Family -- 64. Make Fitness a Priority -- 65. Be a Sounding Board and Punching Bag -- 66. Help Your Friend Wrangle Worry -- 67. Learn to Meditate -- 68. Start a Care Calendar -- 69. Beware the Nocebo Effect -- 70. Get Involved -- 71. Listen to Her Story…as Often as She Feels the Need to Tell It -- 72. Throw a Party -- 73. Hold a Fundraiser -- 74. Shave Your Own Head -- 75. Don't Be Afraid to "Bother" Him… -- 76. .But Don't Overstay Your Welcome, Either -- 77. Pay Attention to Synchronicities -- 78. Sleep Well -- 79. Move -- 80. Know the Signs of Clinical Depression -- 81. Recognize That the Way down May Be the Way up -- 82. Practice Breathing in and out -- 83. Be Mindful of Anniversaries -- 84. Offer a Change of Scenery -- 85. Help Set up or Organize a Home Office -- 86. Don't Be Alarmed by "Griefbursts" -- 87. Connect with Animals -- 88. Plan a Sleepover -- 89. Give More Than You Take -- 90. Take Your Friend to "Thin Places" -- 91. Brighten up Your Friend's Environment -- 92. Take Care of Your Own Preventive Health.

93. Help Simplify Your Friend's Life -- 94. Tell Your Friend How Important He is to You -- 95. Remember Your Friend on Holidays -- 96. Take Your Friend on a Pilgrimage -- 97. Turn to the Power of Rituals -- 98. Live with Gratitude and Count Your Blessings -- 99. Believe in Your Capacity to Heal and Grow through Grief -- 100. Give Yourself a Hand -- Our Prayer for You -- A Self-companionship Manifesto for Cancer Companions.