Meditation and Cancer Advice ‘” Training the mind to Heal
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How can you compliment the treatments your doctor offers so that you can keep your mind steady, your spirit up and at the same time get in touch with your body’s natural healing ability?
* I have worked for many years with people, like yourselves, who are facing a life threatening cancer diagnosis.
You may be thinking, “I could never sit still for hours at a time… I don’t have the discipline for something like meditation!”
Well, I’m not so sure! With a little help, most people can manage a few minutes to sit quietly and just watch what’s going on. It’s as easy as that! Or one can practice some helpful techniques when lying in bed, sitting in the garden or going for a walk.
In my eBook “Threatened by Cancer? Meditation DOES Help!” I have combined my experience with the stories of six people (yes, six ordinary people) who took part in my research study into the use of meditation as a healing strategy for cancer.
Lorna, Bernadette, David, Sylvia, Dee, Lillian and I spent many weeks together sharing their journeys and their experience of using meditation as a major part of their healing strategy.
They are just ordinary people like you and I ‘” wives, mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, husbands, brothers, sisters ‘” all facing this unexpected turn in their lives. What they have in common is a strong desire to explore meditation and how it might help with their cancer diagnosis.
Bernadette was diagnosed with bowel cancer and after initial treatment was told there was no need to do anything special. When, a couple of years later, she got secondaries in the liver and spine she realized she had to make some changes and it was then, among other complementary therapies, that she turned to meditation.
Dee has had cancer three times ‘” first in her thirties. Initially in the cervix, then later secondaries in the lymph nodes and lung. Dee felt that she might have avoided getting secondaries if she had commenced serious meditation and improved her diet immediately after her initial diagnosis and treatment. The doctors expected her to die but she believes she’s alive because of these changes.
Sylvia was in her forties when diagnosed with breast cancer. Initially she attended a support group and thought meditation looked “pretty weird”. Curiosity got the better of her and it was only after she realized her own mortality that she really got into the practice of meditation. Six years later and officially a “survivor”, she’s hooked!
David had recently commenced meditation practice to reduce stress from his high powered job prior to his diagnosis. When diagnosed with a brain tumor, he determined to get into the meditation more seriously and to experience it at a deeper level and, at the same time, reduce the stress of his work and illness.
Lorna was diagnosed with breast cancer in her late thirties She decided to rely entirely on meditation and holistic healing ideas of working with her mind, immune system and spirituality, rather than have surgery and chemotherapy.
Lillian had been a regular meditator but unhappy in her marriage. Since her diagnosis with ovarian, bowel and lung cancer, she recognized that she needed to slow down and express her emotions more. She feared that she had previously used meditation as a method of “opting out of reality” (escaping her unhappiness) rather than making necessary changes.
Jacqui says ‘” “I am the only member of the group not to have experienced a cancer diagnosis or other life threatening illness. However, both meditation and psychotherapy were critical in healing serious skin conditions associated with the trauma of early childhood sexual abuse that had been covered up as ‘too extreme to be remembered’ until I was forty years old.”
So … I have now been able to spend the hours of time needed to present my research and meditation experience in a form that is easy to read.
You can now share the journeys of these six people and go with them through their highs and lows, their difficulties and experiences and get a close up picture of how meditation can help if you have received a diagnosis of cancer.
Well, I’ve counselled many, many people with cancer and introduced them to meditation. I’ve seen how, time and again, they have softened and become brighter after experiencing loving kindness meditations and discovering their essential goodness and love.
You, too, can use this illness to make changes that heal relationships and uncover deeply hidden hurts and emotions that threaten your wellbeing and health.
For eight years I spent all my time working exclusively in the world of cancer. I counselled cancer patients and their families. I led support groups that always began with meditation and I taught meditation. At the same time I was researching the experience of hundreds of cancer patients for my doctoral research. And at the personal level, three of my best friends had cancer and used meditation as their central healing practice and support.
This message from a cancer survivor… Six years ago I was told I had inflammatory, invasive breast cancer and was likely to have only six months left to live!
I had been a Buddhist meditator for some years and so my first reaction was to retreat to that familiar place of stillness. It really helped! I attempted to gather together the shattered pieces of myself in shock. Aware of my deep fear, I determined to engage as much as possible with my mind until I had organised and constructed a complete ‘gestalt’ programme of healing. I both committed to successful healing, but detached from any particular result. I designed a comprehensive program of research, nutrition, exercise, yoga, toning and Buddhist healing practice. Read more…
