#9 It's Not About the Illness

More than one million people in America get cancer each year and for more than sixty-five years, the American Cancer Society has been finding answers that save lives- from changes in lifestyle to new approaches in therapies to improving cancer patient’s quality-of-life (cancer.org).  What we know now and what I’ve been told by my doctors many times over is, that it’s all about the attitude.

“It’s supposed to be a professional secret, but I’ll tell you anyway.
We doctors do nothing.  We only help and encourage the doctor within.”
- Albert Schweitzer, M.D.

As I continue to thank my doctors profusely for getting me through such a trepidatious time, they continue to remind me of my outlook and the positive effect it had on my healing and my cure.

I want to know how you handled your news. How are you coping with your situation? How do you continue to thrive and survive?  Are you hanging in there or could you use some help and inspiration?

We all have our own story and it’s often our story that lands us in our current state of health.  We all have experienced different levels of pain and uncertainty and it’s these levels that contribute to how we handle what life throws our way.  The question is, is life really throwing it our way or are we creating undue stress to our systems, which increases the possibility of illness in our lives by the stories we tell ourselves?

Wellness. Inner calm. Stillness. Gratitude. Passion. Happiness. Faith. Hope. Love. They are all mindsets.  If we want them, we need to be them. To ask for them. Offer them over to our higher power. Put the intention out to the universe and let the higher power bring what we are ready to accept.

Here's a gratitude prayer I like to say each day.  See if this works for you:

Thank you for the happiness, perfect health and abundance in my life and for all those in it. Thank you for peace in my world.  Thank you for patience and for good news.  Thank you for a calm, cool, smooth and easy day. Thank you for all of the happy and healthy relationships in my world.

There is much proof that nurturing care from our health care providers has a positive impact on our wellness. It only stands to reason that nurturing ourselves would do just the same with an even greater impact.

In Mind Over Medicine, Scientific Proof that You Can Heal Yourself, Dr. Lissa Rankin defines the difference between curing and healing. She uses the words interchangeably throughout her book.  The dictionary defines heal in two ways: “To effect cure” and “to become whole”. When Dr. Rankin refers to the word heal, she refers to the return to wholeness.

Dr. Rankin says you can be cured without being healed and you can be healed without being cured. She guarantees that if you embark upon the process of healing yourself with the support of the right people, you will wind up healed and whole, even if you’re not cured.

In her book that you must go and buy right now, she shares 6 STEPS TO HEALING YOURSELF:

STEP ONE: Believe You Can Heal Yourself

Replace the negative, self-sabotaging beliefs about your health either consciously or sub-consciously and stop limiting your healing process.  Reprogram the subconscious mind with kind and gentle stories.  (See Affirmations)

STEP TWO:Find the Right Support

• Interview your team
• Find health care providers who believe in you and who truly care and are willing to collaborate
• Listen to the wisdom of your body and be sure your health care provider respects your intuition
• Be willing to sign a waiver
• Know that you deserve the best care possible

STEP THREE: Listen to Your Body and Intuition

Let your body be your guide.  Get quite.  Be still.  And listen to what it’s telling you. What physical sensations are you feeling? Make note of what you are feeling.

STEP FOUR: Diagnose the Root Causes of Your Illness

Check in with your stress response that triggers in the body but starts in the mind.  If your medical file is inches thick and no doctor can find a diagnoses, consider digging deeper to see what’s triggering your stress response.

STEP FIVE: Write the Prescription for Yourself

In order to optimally prevent and treat disease so you don’t keep circling back to a weakened, sick body, you must, must, must address the root causes that make you susceptible to illness in the first place.  Listen to your Inner Pilot Light and let it help you choose how to maximize what conventional medicine has to offer in a way that is in alignment for you.

STEP SIX: Surrender Attachment to Outcomes

While we hold within us the power to make changes in our life designed to foster the body’s ability to self-repair, we must accept that, when it comes right down to it, we have no guarantees as to whether or not we will stay unwell or get well. The question is, can you let go and trust the journey?

Read more from Lissa Rankin, MD on her blog, LissaRankin.com, where you can download the free eBook 10 Secrets to Healing Yourself.

It is my hope you leave reading this post feeling motivated and encouraged to take action for yourself. I leave you with these lovely simple words from Robert L. Lynn…

CANCER IS SO LIMITED

They’ve sentenced you with invisible cells that

embed themselves deep in body recesses and multiply:

lymphatic assault on vital functions.

Can cancer conquer you?

I doubt it, for the strengths I see in you have

nothing to do with cells and blood and muscle.

For cancer is so limited---

It cannot cripple love.

It cannot shatter hope.

It cannot corrode faith.

It cannot eat away peace.

It cannot destroy confidence.

It cannot kill friendship.

It cannot shut out memories.

It cannot silence courage.

It cannot invade the soul.

It cannot reduce eternal life.

It cannot quench the spirit.

It cannot cancel Resurrection.

Can cancer conquer you?

I doubt it, for the strengths I see in you have

nothing to do with cells and blood and muscle.