cancer recovery hypnosis

Too Much of Online Cancer Research May Hurt Your Recovery

The internet has given us the freedom to access information that was previously more difficult to find. This is, in many cases, a good thing, for example it’s now easier than ever to research different medical facilities, doctors, services or any valuable topic without the need to travel all the way to the book store or library.

Healing CancerHowever, free access to the jungle of information out there isn’t always a good thing – especially in relation to our health and, specifically, when it comes to finding information about cancer, statistics, procedures etc.

The main problem with internet research is that there is just SO much information, so many different opinions, ideas and theories to take on board. It is easy for a person, who already may not be feeling well to become overwhelmed by the sheer amount of available information. And, perhaps more importantly, it can be difficult to validate the information you read on the internet; the internet is not regulated so just about anybody can write just about anything they want to and when it comes to our health, this can be extremely stressful, draining and taxing.

If you have ever tried to research a subject thoroughly using the internet, you will be only too aware of how this ‘information overload’ can become overwhelming. And when we feel overwhelmed by information, we may end up giving up on it all, as it all seems too complicated, confusing and contrasting to absorb. This can lead to feelings of frustration, anger, helplessness and hopelessness – emotions that are counterproductive when trying to heal as they can have a detrimental effect on the body’s immune system.

Furthermore, reading extensively on the subject of cancer can bread more fear, and fear is debilitating. In the grip of fear, we may become paralyzed by it and unable to take action.

It is also important to bear in mind that much of what you read online is anecdotal. If you associate too closely with someone else’s experience you may prevent your ‘own’ experience from unfolding. We are all unique, and you cannot compare your physical and emotional health with the health of another person – your experiences are not their experiences.

Perhaps the most convincing and compelling reason is, we become what we think about. The more you read about illness the more you think about it. The more you think about it the more you associate with it. The more you associate with it the more you identify with it. The more you identify with it the more it take roots in your experience. First in Mind, then in Body.

The above statement is only my opinion and you may feel differently. Even so, be cautious, limit the amount of internet research you do and limit the amount of thoughts you give the matter. Remedy your mind with thoughts of health… formulate a concept of yourself healthy and project it onto the screen of your mind’s eye as often as you can. This will work along the same path as before i.e. you will first formulate health in your Mind, then in your Body.

cancer wellness

Emotions that Kill, Emotions that Heal

cancer wellnessAs human beings we feel a wide diversity of emotions, some are pleasant and some are not. Nevertheless it is my sincere belief that all of our emotions are good in the sense they serve a purpose.

Our emotions help us and guide us so that we can better care for ourselves; and our ability to feel the full spectrum of our emotions reflects our state of mental and psychological health.

Emotions only become toxic and begin to affect our physical well-being when we bottle them up inside. Picture a volcano, the pressure on the Earth, on the caldera as the magma chamber swells with liquid rock… eventually it will explode. This is what we do to ourselves when we bottle harmful emotions, eventually we won’t be able to contain this volatile sea of molten feelings and like the volcano they will erupt i.e. a state of dis-ease.

The actual eruption is not the only issue we will face if we choose to continuously repress our emotions. Like the volcano, as pressure builds, cracks will begin to appear at the surface long before we explode. The negative impact of bottled emotions includes immune system suppression thus making us more prone to illness.

The amount of energy we invest in keeping this pressure locked inside result in states of mind such as stress, fear and anxiety. These negative states of mind cause our brains to produce chemicals which are poor in quality. Dispersed through the blood stream; these chemicals make for poor cellular building blocks.

In the context of healing from illness, any illness, this insight brings much good news. Now we can finally begin to intervene and turn the tide of illness by taking responsibility for what we hold in our minds and hearts. If you hear yourself saying “this is easier said than done” you are probably right, nevertheless, taking responsibility this way beats undergoing treatment in every way.

Too often when people are given the option to participate in their own healing process such as in the case of Immersive Healing, they hesitate and even refuse to do so. One reason people choose to keep bottling up their emotions is their lack of self-worth, or rather the belief they are not “really” worthy of healing. This conclusion is the result of past conditioning, the way we were taught to view ourselves, the world we live in and how this world is with us in it.

Don’t take my word for it, ask yourself this question “am I worthy of being healed?” and if the answer is resounding yes, revisit your actions i.e. what you have done and are still doing to bring upon this healing? In other words, check to see if your beliefs and actions match or not.

Many people feel they are not worthy of expressing emotions, that they betray loved ones by telling them the truth (their truth). Unfortunately, holding on to negative emotions only serves to reinforce already existing negative perception.

The best way to create a positive change in our lives is by first admitting that we are worthy of feeling good and worthy of healing. By keeping our toxic emotions inside we only reinforce the lack of self worth and continue to weaken our body’s defenses.

Once expressed (in a healthy way), our emotions can no longer hurt us, as the saying goes “the truth will set you free”. Emotions then will only be emotions and no longer toxic that is.

Where did we learn that by hurting ourselves we love someone more? When did we come to believe that we are not worthy of health and well-being?

If you know please share with us, your truth may light the way for others.

beliefs and illness

Warning: Your Beliefs Can Make You Sick

We are born into this world with an empty mind, waiting to be filled with knowledge, experience, and awareness. As we grow up, we acquire this knowledge and awareness from those around us. Through day to day interaction, feedback, statements and suggestions they shape our view of self, the world and how it function with us in it.

Complementary Medicine for cancer BostonThose statements (which are basically suggestion) which we hear over and over again form our perception. Our perceptions (positive or negative) compounded over time become our beliefs, what we believe about ourselves and the world around. Our beliefs then shape our outlook and attitude and ultimately our behavior.

Often enough, as kids, we were compared to other kids and were measured in a way that hinted or suggested to us that “we not good enough.” This is an innocent mistake which is hard for parents to avoid, and yet the result can be devastating.

Children who grow up with the mantra “you’re not good enough,” become adults who live by that belief. This belief has the power to either spawn a negative outlook on life or support an already existing negative outlook on life which creates toxic emotions such as shame and guilt.

Worse still a person who goes through life with a negative outlook will be less likely to take risks, and participate in new activities.

A negative outlook can do far more than inhibit a person socially and emotionally; it can also cause poor health. Negative beliefs lead to a negative outlook which translates to negative states of mind such as stress, hopelessness and fear. These states of mind allow the brain to produce chemicals that correspond to their quality, in this case negative and poor.The chemicals released by the brain are dispersed throughout the body via the bloodstream and are eventually absorbed into the cells.

In my book The New Cancer Paradigm I dedicated a whole segment to beliefs, thoughts vibrations and their effect on the physical body but this post focus on the biological process. Essentially, the chemicals released by the brain are the food that sustains the body’s cells. The chemicals created by a brain with a negative outlook and stressful state of mind are like feeding your cells a steady stream of junk food, poor in quality.

Many of us have seen the effects of a poor diet on our bodies; we gain weight, tire easily, and tend to be less resilient when we become ill. The same thing happens to our cells when they are fed the poor diet of chemicals produced by a stressful state of mind; they become weak and less resilient which in turn leads to greater instances of disease and mutation.

Tracing a negative state of mind to its root i.e. the beliefs that formed it, offers us a unique opportunity to care for ourselves. By identifying, reviewing and eliminating our negative belief system we can better manage our mind and mood and therefore our health and well-being.

If you could point out one belief (or more) that may have allowed or promoted your illness, what would it be?

strategy for healing cancer

A Practical Strategy for coping with Fear of Cancer

The notion of a life threatening illness is debilitating. Tough we all have different personalities and coping mechanism, fear seems to color every aspect of our lives with gloom.  Recently a client said she felt that her field of vision narrowed from wide and bright, to narrow and dark when she found out she had cancer. It’s felt like “walking in a corridor with different doors, each door lead to another piece of her life” she said.

Strategy for Facing Cancer

Strategy for Facing Cancer

This client is not alone.  Her vivid description shed light on the common effects of fear and the need for a practical, realistic and effective way to deal with it.

She asked me to share her experience with the hope it will be of use to others as they come face to face with it and so I do.

F.E.A.R stands for False Evidence Appear Real.

See the big picture – Though many of us think of cancer as an incurable disease, this is not necessarily the case anymore. With the advancement of medicine, treatment and technology more and more people these days survive their cancer.

Remember the Truth of Statistics – Statistics are just numbers.  I am not making light of medical data, but at the end of the day we are all unique. We have different DNA, different resilience levels and different belief systems and therefore cope with treatment differently. If we were all alike in every sense, there would be just one treatment or cure for cancer and it would work for everyone every time.

It may be tempting to see yourself as part of this study or that body of data but if you are doing so, you must consider all those who survived and lived much longer than expected or predicted. In light of this view, the fragile nature of this form of evaluation comes to light.

Search for the lesson – Being diagnosed with cancer does not mean you are helpless or hopeless. There are many things you can do take back control of your life, your body and your mind. From a holistic perspective a state of illness is a state where your body serves as a messenger from your inner self, that spiritual part of you that is at the core of your being. This part forever communicates with us and there is always a lesson to be learned. Figuring out what it is we need to hear or learn brings not only peace of mind and comfort but it also permits the body to utilize its healing potential. It dissolve the inhibiting factors which lessen the effectiveness of medicine or the body’s ability to embrace it.

It is worth noting that Immersive Healing which is the practice I could offer this client, may not be right for you. There are different ways to reach the top of the mountain and hypnosis for cancer is not the only one or the only effective one.

How do you cope your fearful moments?  Can you give others some advice?

 

subconscious Mind and Illness

Mary’s Time to Look Inside

facing cancer from within

Facing Cancer from Within

A client of mine, let’s call her Mary, was diagnosed with a very aggressive stage four anal cancer. This was not her first battle with the disease as she has already survived breast cancer. Knowing what lies ahead of her, she felt her back was to the wall and that she must take  ownership and responsibility in someway for what she is going through. She decided it was time to do what she feared the most, to look inside.

Mary has served a wonderful reminder to me why so many of us decide to not look inside, into our own mind, thoughts, feelings and beliefs. Looking inside is frightening.  In fact it was so frightening to her that when she was given the option to have a colostomy, which is a life altering surgery with significant consequences, she still chose to shy away from healing her pain. To treat not only her physical part but also the part of her that does not feel she is worthy of healing.

It was hard for me to understand why despite of what’s at stake, she was hesitant to do the work.  Mary was a client of mine working on issues not directly related to her cancer, which put me in a unique position to witness her journey and finally accepting the daunting task of looking inward.

Further discussion revealed why Mary would have preferred to have altered her body and pay such high cost to her quality of life.  She was afraid. Afraid of looking at that part of her she kept locked deep within, that part she believed to be broken, lack of worth, distorted… a part which later she found wasn’t based on her truth but rather on other people’s view.

This was completely natural.  It is natural of course for us to fear any serious medical condition or procedure.  But what I could not understand at that time was that her fear of her upcoming medical treatments was less frightening than the “non-evasive” work of healing her mind.

Anthony Robbins once said that as people “we tend to move away from pain toward pleasure.” There are no lengthy recoveries; no pain medications, no physical hardships involved in Immersive Healing and Hypnosis for Cancer, yet the pain inside is scarier than the pain of surgery.

Mary’s cancer spread beyond the anus and surgery was no longer a viable option as it will not serve to isolate the tumor.  She had little options available from a medical perspective and that is when her courage kicked in. She interpret this dire news as a call to action, a call for her to heal from the inside out. She felt ready to face what she feared the most, herself.

Would you have chosen surgery before healing as well?

the courage to heal cancer

Finding the Courage to Heal

The word Illness means different things to different people. We have all been ill before, the Flue, Chickenpox etc, and in those times formed our view of illness and it’s likely that your personal experience was different than mine. This means that our attitudes towards it are different, we hold different beliefs about its nature and its purpose and we may even find it hard to agree on the role medicine and medical doctors.

facing cancer

Summon the courage to face cancer

On one hand we are very fortunate to live in a time where medical advancements are abundant. A person alive today, even with illness such as cancer can expect to live longer than any other time in history. On the other hand, these same technological and medical advancements may cause us to feel more and more separated from our bodies and the illness. Instead of being viewed as a whole being with a physical dimension, mental, emotional and even spiritual dimensions we are viewed, through the prism of medicine, as a collection of parts, organs, tissues and glands.

The modern view of illness is as an act of genes, environment, and viruses, promote the sense that we are but victims of the illness and therefore stand helpless against it. In light of this, it is easy to see why the first-order for healing is courage. One must find the courage to break free from cultural, social or personal beliefs about illness and see his or her true whole nature.

Breaking free from these cultural, social and personal beliefs is neither easy nor comfortable.  But recent history shows that a great number of those who have released themselves from societal norms of diseases survived.  Louise Hay is a prime and an extreme example of this last statement.  She chose a non-medical healing path despite of her doctors warning that she put herself at great risk.

Louise Hay, as she reveled in her book “Heal Your Body” (1976) had vaginal cancer and was able to recover and heal by addressing the mental causes she believed produced her physical illness. While this path worked for her but it may not be for everyone. The main point here was that she did summon the courage to stand for what she believed to be right. And in making this stand, something within her was triggered and activated that allowed her body’s innate healing to take place.

The online dictionary defines Courage as. The quality of mind or spirit that enables a person to face difficulty, danger, pain, etc., without fear. In my view there is more to courage than that.  It is not only facing the danger and pain without fear, but despite of it.  And in the context of illness, to have courage is to recognize that illness has a purpose, that through illness we are provided with an opportunity, a way to become more than we currently are.

If you yourself have found meaning and purpose in your experience of illness or know someone who did, feel free to share it with us.