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the healing power of forgiveness

The Role of Forgiveness in Healing from Cancer

There are many benefits to forgiveness, but do we really need to forgive in order to heal from cancer? The following video shed light on why forgiveness contributes to your health and well being.

When you forgive you acknowledge your value and worth, you make a personal statement of power which contribute to your overall health and well being.

If you have punished yourself enough and ready to embark on a journey of self discovery and healing you must open the gate of forgiveness. Learn how to overcome the many misconceptions associated with forgiveness and reclaim your life. Discover why forgiveness is all about you and not about others learn how to take back control of your life and livelihood.

cancer meditation

Short Meditation for Healing During Cancer Treatment

Many of my clients are already enjoying the benefit of this short, sweet and practical meditation. The beauty of it, NO EXPERIENCE is NEEDED.

Practice meditation anytime and anywhere, even with your eyes open. Whether you are at home, waiting for chemo or on your way to surgery, this is the meditation that will transform your moment by moment experience. Learn how you can manage not only your body but also your mind. Fear, sadness and anxiety can rob us of our healthy and positive mental attitude. The Inner Smile meditation is an ancient Chinese Taoist meditation technique anyone could benefit from, even if you never meditated before. It is easy to practice and apply and it does not require you sit in a lotus position or contemplate the meaning of life. It is designed to help you awake and activate the innate healing capacity of your body.

medical hypnosis cancer

Cancer and Complementary Alternative Medicine

Are you amongst the 64% of all cancer patients who use some form of none medical or complementary therapy? If so this is a must video for you. Some time too much information is confusing, which treatment option to choose, which form of therapy can help me the most?

This video focuses on hypnotherapy as an adjunct therapy to conventional medical care. It points out some of the benefits you can expect from integrating it into your current cancer treatment. It also highlights the question you should ask your hypnotherapist so you can make an informed decision about their approach and methodology.

benefits of hypnosis

Benefits You can Expect from a Personal Healing Program

The medical model for treatment is often sterile and impersonal, that it its nature. This leads many of my clients to feel their doctor is more interested in their disease and treating their disease than in the person who is with the disease.

If this is how you feel, you too might benefit from a holistic and more personal model for treatment where you come first. While there is of course both purpose and value in the medical approach it simply cannot be the only approach or option for treatment on the table.

in this video you will learn about some of the benefit you can expect from a therapeutic model tailored around your individual needs. There are many benefits to enjoy when you integrate holistic medicine into your cancer treatment.

limitation of cancer medicine

The Limitations of Conventional Medicine in Treating Cancer or Chronic Illness

If you were to break your arm or leg in an accident, without a doubt, conventional medical treatment is what you most need. A physical cause needs an immediate physical response and the hospital is certainly the place to be.

Likewise if you have cancer or any other chronic illness it goes without saying that you need medical treatment. Conventional medicine is certainly the way to treat the symptoms of your illness – that is not in dispute.

Treating the symptom or condition is extremely important but at the same time addressing the root cause of the condition or symptom is just as important.

Frequently in my office, clients facing serious illness express immense need to look far deeper than the physical symptoms. As people struggling to make sense of a world spinning out of control we search for answers.

Conventional medicine does a great job in treating the symptoms of disease but that is where it stops. The cause of the disease is confined to the realm of biology and environment, but we know deep inside that we are much more than just a physical body or a biological machine.

A doctor or surgeon is all about the facts, what they can see with their own eyes or what they have learned from received medical knowledge.

In many ways, this is a good thing; we need skilled professionals who can fix the symptoms of illnesses or accidents. However with all the $$$$$$$$ thrown at cancer research and all the resources invested it remains a fact that the medical profession is still nowhere near to finding out the actual cause of illnesses such as cancer.

Medical research has provided a vast amount of data that tells us about the structure and mechanisms of cancer. But the one thing that research hasn’t provided is the answer to the question “Why does cancer occur”?

Maybe conventional medicine is looking for the answer in the wrong place by looking for answers from purely within the physical body?

I believe that the real answers lie within an individual’s mind, and more appropriately the subconscious mind. The part of the mind we can access with hypnotherapy.

If negative emotions and thought habits are allowed to evolve over the many years of our conditioning process they can become toxic. In other words we may become conditioned, by certain events or inherited beliefs, to think in certain ways. Not all of these will be helpful to us.

Healthy, balanced and positive thought patterns that facilitate our progression in life will not be harmful, however negative thought patterns held within the mind too deeply may eventually prove to be detrimental to our health if they cannot be identified and released.

I call this process the subconscious Illness Paradigm.

Immersive Healing as an immunotherapeutic approach to healing aims to find the root cause of the disease at the subconscious level, in doing this we can help individuals to heal on a deeper level i.e. emotionally bringing about changes for the better that go way beyond the physical.

stronger than cancer

How You Can Get Stronger While Undergoing Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy while proving highly successful when it comes to attacking cancer cells in the body comes with a number of side effects. Side effects which can be uncomfortable, debilitating and emotionally distressing.

Many people undergoing chemotherapy reported experiencing digestive disturbances such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, acid reflux and also extreme fatigue, weakness and feverish or achy flu-like symptoms.

Then there are the symptoms that can have a profound psychological effect such as hair loss, weight loss or gain due to medication, changes in body image and loss of libido.

To suggest that this must be difficult for anyone undergoing cancer treatment is an understatement. A person undergoing cancer treatment often notices changes in thoughts patterns, self image and quality of life in general.

This dramatic level of change can be overwhelming, it is therefore vital that the individual does their very best to facilitate their own healing process.

There are several ways in which this can be done. Firstly taking care of the physical body is paramount. Any prescribed medications need to be taken as discussed and the aftercare advice given by your oncologist adhered to as best.

Secondly taking care of the mind at this physically and emotionally taxing time is also a vital part of the healing process. This can be achieved in a number of ways and of course hypnotherapy can help to keep your mind calm, focused and positive during your treatment.

I have also blogged previously on the subject of the benefits of another powerful mind-body healing tool.

Support is also an important part of your healing process and this can come from various groups of people including but not exclusively friends and family.

Many people find support in the form of cancer specific support groups, social organizations or religious/spiritual groups with which they can relate to.

A recent study by Vanderbilt University Medical Center published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology found that a strong social support system improved outcomes for women diagnosed with breast cancer, especially in the first year.*

* http://jco.ascopubs.org/content/29/4/406.short

Staying strong both physically and emotionally during chemotherapy is challenging but achievable – letting others help you do so is also a good idea.

Most importantly of all is for you to use this time to find out what makes you happy.

This may sound over simplistic: “Be happy at a time when I’m battling a potentially life threatening disease, are you crazy?” And the notion that being ‘happy’ during this difficult time can enhance the healing process may feel like extra pressure. It’s very hard to force happiness.

However re-evaluating your situation and focusing on what is good in your life can help you to remain strong through your treatment program.

Self-nurture is a key factor in healing, being with the people you love, doing what you love whether it’s work or play and allowing yourself to follow creative or spiritual pursuits is the key to your happiness.

hypnosis chemotherapy

The Key to Increasing Your Healing Factor When Facing Life Threatening Illness

The success of advancements in modern medicine is indisputable – I have acknowledged this many times before.

However it is fair to say that because of this amazing progress, it is easy to accept that the medical and technological path is the ultimate way towards health and healing. After all medical advancement is one of the greatest success stories of the human brain.

When considering modern medical progress, because it is so amazing, it is easy to fall into the trap of disregarding the fact that our own internal resources can make a difference to our health. And so easy to believe that medical science is all-powerful.

But in truth, what is all-powerful is disease itself, in spite of everything the fact remains that some patients do not survive medical intervention. Patients with the same diagnosis, the same prognosis and the same treatment do not all respond the same way. Some live, sadly some pass away.

This leads us to the mystery of healing and the question – why do some patients recover even though medical treatment can no longer offer them hope?

Certain individuals understood the possibility that the body, mind and emotions are a powerful, unified system and it now seems that some factions of the medical professions are exploring this possibility too.

When it comes to efficient healing we simply have to consider the concept that the body is not some stand-alone system that can be fixed in the same way we would fix a car.

We have to consider that body and mind are an integrated system. That what is occurring in the mind can have a physiological counterpart within the body.

When it comes to chronic and life threatening diseases such as cancer, medical treatment is just one of the essential, integral parts of the healing process. The other essential component for healing must then be the healing of the mind otherwise the treatment is incomplete.

Maybe this factor holds the key to the question as to why some people do not heal. Perhaps recovery is more likely to occur when the ‘whole’ person, body and mind are directed towards full health?

Healing the mind gives back a sense of control to the patient, he or she can become an active participant in the healing process and not just a passive ‘victim’ waiting to be ‘fixed’ or not fixed, as is the case sometimes, by modern medical practices.

stress as a cause for cancer

Can Stress Really Cause Cancer?

Research showed that people who have been through a traumatic event in the previous one or two years are more frequently diagnosed with cancer . Much is still unknown about the origins of cancer however there is the distinct possibility that it is an illness that has a long incubation period.

boston cancer treatmentWhat this mean is that if you have been exposed to carcinogenic substances in your 20s, cancer may not develop until some 30 to 40 years later. This certainly seems to be true in the cases of people who have developed asbestos related cancers in later years, long time after the initial exposure to asbestos.

However in the presence of extreme stress, trauma or loss illness may develop at a much faster rate. From what is known about the effects of stress on the immune system it seems very likely that the ‘stress’, in whatever form dramatically weakens the immune system function allowing the process of disease to develop more rapidly.

The problem with chronic or severe stress is that it encourages the production of adrenal hormones which in turn lower the levels of white blood cells within the body placing an individual at increased risk of infection.

Stress in all its forms, depression, anxiety, shock, results in the poorer function of the immune system.

Having said that, many people who experience stress never go on to develop cancer or other chronic diseases – there are many things that can contribute to illness, and often it’s a combination of factors that tip health into sickness. This is why it is vital that we fully understand that WE ARE NOT TO BE BLAMED FOR OUR ILLNESS – in no way did they cause the disease or ask for this to happen. If you’ve entertained these intrusive thoughts, refer to my book The New Cancer Paradigm and you’ll discover why you can’t possibly have done so.

Everyone experiences a varying degree of stress throughout their lives and some of the calmest and most content people develop cancer. There is no one ‘type’ of person who develops chronic disease.
Blaming yourself for your illness is counter-productive and sadly there are some things that happen in life that we all just have to accept as unfair.

Accepting things as they are does not mean giving up in any way; it simply means not wasting valuable energy fighting the wrong thing. It’s true that at times you can’t fix the cancer, but that’s not what need fixing.

Which leads us to ask which emotions may be aggravating your disease? The effect of stress in all its forms on the body is well documented (see one resource here) but we can also add to the list hopelessness, helplessness, worry, internal or buried rage, chronic low self-esteem, frustration, fatigue, hostility, blame and guilt.

Sometimes we know we are running negative emotions over and over in our heads, we know it is not doing us any good but we continue. Maybe a pattern has become ingrained? Maybe our thought patterns have become a habit? Hypnosis can help you to address these negative painful emotions and harmful patters, track them down and deal with them and by doing so help you to move forwards in the best way possible as you heal. By Avinoan Lerner

medical hypnosis cancer

Why your Oncologist/Doctor would love it if you used hypnosis

Medical professionals working in the field of cancer care have in the past often seemed to be at odds with those who practice Complimentary Alternative Medicine (CAM).

boston holistic cancer treatmentThis is perhaps more pronounced in the Western World where scientific knowledge has been valued over and above any ancient or traditional medicinal wisdom.

There is of course good reason for this and without advancements in scientific and medical research many of us would have been left to the fate of dying at a young age as was in the past.

However in recent years the medical professions have taken an interest in some types of CAM and its positive role in the healing process – hypnosis is one of these.

The use of hypnosis for patients experiencing a whole range of illnesses from irritable bowel syndrome to cancer has had proven results that have grabbed the attention of scientists and doctors alike.

The acceptance of hypnotherapy as a powerful tool for healing that works alongside and not against traditional medical techniques is very encouraging. In my opinion a multi-tiered approach to healing is always going to be the ultimate choice.

A combination of superior nutrition, relaxation, medical intervention i.e. surgery/drugs, and body-mind healing such as hypnotherapy will put a person who has cancer or any other chronic disease into the optimum state for recovery. If we can all work together, towards the same positive goal of healing then we can give patients the best possible chance to heal fully.

In the UK in June this year The Hypnosis and Psychosomatic Medicine Section of the Royal Society of Medicine released a statement suggesting that using hypnotherapy to treat individuals suffering from stress-related illnesses, including cancer, could save the UK National Health Service (NHS) “millions of pounds”. President elect of the Hypnosis and Psychosomatic Medicine Section, Dr Peter Naish, said: “Through hypnotherapy it’s possible to get a better rate of healing among patients and so limit the amount of time they spend in treatment”.

A win-win situation it would seem? Yes, indeed. If you would like more information contact me at my Brookline MA office at 617-564-0707.

reasons for integrating hypnosis into cancer care 4

The Top 4 Reasons for Integrating Hypnotherapy into Your Cancer Treatment Plan – Part Four

This is the final part of my Top 4 Reasons for Integrating Hypnotherapy into Your Cancer Treatment Plan

Reason 4 – Healing the root cause of the disease

brookline hypnosis, boston hypnosisWe all accept that if we are ill in any way, even with a lesser illness such as a cold, that something is not physically ‘right’ within the body; there is an imbalance somewhere.

In the case of the common cold a virus has entered the body and as the body tries to defend and rid itself from the virus we experience symptoms such as a high temperature, runny nose and a cough.

From the perspective of a hypnotherapist it is the power of the subconscious mind that governs all bodily functions and this includes your immune function.

A clinical hypnotherapist would tend to look deeper to find the root cause of your condition. It’s no coincidence that we feel down and come up with a cold for example just after periods of intense stress or worry – you may explain it away, thinking to yourself … “well I have been a bit stressed out lately”.

When you have a cold you are almost always forced to stop and rest up a bit. The subconscious mind is telling you to rest, eat well, sleep well and generally take better care of your health. Your body is telling you that you need to look after ‘you’ for a bit, that something in your life is not working for you right now.

The goal of the process I am working with in my practice is to identify and resolve or heal the subconscious stressors or the illness paradigm which weigh heavily on the immune system and suppressing it. As we know in some cases these factors can cause serious disease, even as serious as cancer.

Healing these negative subconscious stressors means igniting or reviving the natural immune response and strengthening a patient’s will to live, which is a very significant aspect in the process of healing.

The therapeutic application of hypnosis (hypnotherapy) can help a patient to experience thought process changes and strengthen their motivation to live. This is turn effects physical changes that will enhance their immune function and maybe alter the course of the disease.

This comes about because hypnosis is the most practical tool for communicating with the subconscious mind, the part of the mind where many of our beliefs are locked away.

During a session, negative thought patterns and beliefs, that are detrimental to our health or no longer serve any useful purpose, can be identified, evaluated, changed or eradicated if so desired.

Your mental processes have a direct influence on your immune system and its’ function. If we can change these negatives to positives then it is entirely possible to bring about physical changes within your body.

By going deeper, by identifying the root cause of your illness we can heal the “ghost of the disease” enabling the body to follow suit.