
This seems a bit odd to me as happiness should really be a year round theme! When the word “happiness” crops up, I am reminded of a conversation I had with a beautifully reflective and deep…
This seems a bit odd to me as happiness should really be a year round theme! When the word “happiness” crops up, I am reminded of a conversation I had with a beautifully reflective and deep…
Cancer is stressful. In fact, some experts say that cancer is traumatic and that anyone who has lived through or lives with cancer suffers from traumatic stress. I have been a meditator for over 40…
A cancer diagnosis, cancer treatments and recovery are stressful both for the cancer patient and for their loved ones. During the day, if you find your mind is racing, you are having trouble focusing, or you are feeling overwhelmed, angry, agitated, worried or critical (of self and others), use the STOP method for finding calm in the midst of a storm of stress
Watch this beautiful video Gratitude: Louie Schwartzberg at TEDxSF narrated by Brother David Steindl-Rast nurturing a daily practice of Gratitude, taking in the beauty of everyday life. Make each day precious. A daily practice such as this can lower your stress response and enhance your immunity and simply change the quality of each day and each moment.
When we are diagnosed with cancer we find ourselves face to face with our mortality,our fragility and all of the things we cannot predict or control. We can learn to be with the effects of chronic stress and debilitating and life limiting illness by bringing a tender and compassionate heart and mindfull awareness to our often traumatic experiences. Susan Bauer Wu, Ph.D., R.N. masterfully teaches a beautiful restorative retreat which is very much about Coming Home to Yourself and Finding Calm, Clarity and Compassion at the Center of the Storm of Health Care and Serious Illness
Stress of all types damages our immune system and makes us more vulnerable to infections and cancer. By resting in tranquility and equipose, even for five or ten minutes, we begin to repattern our nervous system and our stress response. In doing so our Natural Killer cells, the cells in our immune system that fight cancer and infections increase.
For many cancer patients, finding ways to manage the side effects of chemotherapy, radiation and hormonal treatments is a great challenge. Most patients do not want to take more drugs and are looking for safe, health promoting solutions from Natural Medicine. Letʼs look at a few of the most common side effects and how we manage them with natural medicine:
How Meditation Can Support Cancer Treatment
Is Meditation Effective?
There is good news when it comes to meditation as a complementary treatment, and that is that a number of rigorous clinical trials are underway. Using controlled clinical trials, these investigators are studying the effects of both types of meditation on health issues such as hypertension, cardiovascular disease and the side effects of cancer treatment.
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