Natural Cancer Remedies Psychological Self Care  

Natural Cancer Remedies and Holistic Cancer Treatment You Can Undertake That Cost Nothing But Time

Too often when we suffer from an illness we focus on what we hope will be the one answer for our condition. We are searching for the holy grail, or the magic bullet. We want to return to normal. NOW.

But what if the magic bullet isn’t so magic? What can we do then?

Medical and psychological research has turned up many little suggestions and recommendations which have been shown to improve immune function that we don’t usually think about when first faced with managing acute or chronic disease.

Stress Management

There is much written about stress and the negative impact extended periods of stress have on the body in general and the immune system in particular. In addition any diagnosis of severe illness like cancer adds further strain. Take time to become aware of your various stressors and start to deal with them. Meditation will give you this awareness (see below).

Be aware that there are some stressors you can do something about (like managing your household) and some that you can do nothing to change the fact of its occurrence (like a death in the family, rail strikes or droughts). When assessing your stressors consider whether they are within your zone of influence to change. If not then accept that there is little you can do about it and focus on what is possible.

If you can do something then think about your priorities. You are not likely to have the energy to deal with every stressor at once. You will need to prioritize and maybe negotiate with family or colleagues for change.

In the old days family and friends used to be the ones you would talk things over with. Now it is often thought that you should seek professional advice. How you work through your concerns will very much depend on your social and cultural environment, and whether you can afford to pay a counselor.

Journal writing and meditation are also useful methods of stress reduction and are a useful holistic cancer treatment.

When you write a journal the core idea is to get your feelings down on paper. Research has shown that if you write down your feelings and thoughts, allowing the process to organise your mental and emotional lives then it does impact all the way down to how your cells function. This is not to be done as an alternative to appropriate medical care, but as additional self care.

When you write don’t worry about “having it all sorted” when you start. Allow yourself to be contradictory, over emotional, or lacking in compassion. In fact the more emotional the writing, the greater the positive impact has been shown to be on the writer’s immune system. No-one but you need read it. It works best on your immune system if you start with the chaos and let the writing evolve as you go.

Write every day, just allowing all feelings and thoughts to spray out over the paper. Over a few days you will find yourself organising the ideas. Feelings will change. You are looking for changes to occur over time.

If changes don’t occur over time and you are using your writing just for uncensored complaining then you need to ask yourself some additional questions. Why are you writing this way? Why does [whatever] annoy you so much? What beliefs are getting in the way of resolving your feelings?

Pennebaker, JW. Opening Up. The Healing Power of Expressing Emotions.1990. Guildford Press:  New York.

Meditation

Meditation has been known to be good for spiritual health across the majority of major religions for millennia. Now it has been shown to be good for physical and emotional health as well, increasing melatonin and reducing the physical stress response in the body.

If you are choosing some sort of meditation discipline, the type you choose will very much depend on your local culture. If you have strong religious beliefs you may choose to look within your tradition first. That has the benefit of fitting in with the rest of your life. However be aware that meditation can sometimes take you in a direction that is different from your current beliefs and, or, the dominant beliefs of your meditation tradition.

Meditation is about increasing your awareness, about being more “at one”, and of “mindfulness”. You become aware of discrepancies in your life and in the lives around you. You develop new insights and usually a greater sense of love, hope and faith.

Along the way your brain goes more and more frequently down into the deep healing brainwaves.

Meditation has been shown to improve psychological functioning, reduce stress, enhance coping and wellbeing in cancer patients and all of these have, in other studies been shown to improve immune functioning, some with a direct effect on cancer cells.

For more on Meditation there is a full page on meditation

Ott, MJ et al. Mindfulness meditation for oncology patients: a discussion and critical review. Integrative Cancer Therapies. 2006;5(2);98-108

Having a Purpose in Life is One of Your Natural Cancer Remedies 

Viktor Frankl was the doctor who first wrote about the importance of having a reason to live. He was a Jewish psychiatrist who got caught up in one of the German concentration camps during the Second World War. He was particularly interested in why some people survived and yet others, who might have been in better physical condition died.

He came to the understanding, after much observation, that survivors of the terrible conditions had to have a reason for living. It might have been that they desperately wanted to see a spouse or family again, or that they were going to seek justice, or anything at all, so long as it had enough emotional connection to pull them through.

What is it that is really important to you to achieve? If you have another forty years to live, then what would give that four decades the meaning and purpose to carry you through?

If your “call” is something to do with ending world poverty, or supporting orphans somewhere, that is great. But for most people it is much smaller and more individualistic.

For one young man it was to ride the perfect wave as a surfer.

For a grandmother it was to put each day in God’s hands and do what she could with each day. This included being there for her son’s family as required.

For a young woman it was to share happiness each day with everyone she met – she was one of those lovely, genuinely joyous people you love to be with.

For an older man it was just to grow old with his wife of 40 years. He wanted to celebrate their 80^th wedding anniversary.

Frankl, V. Man's Search for Meaning. 1959 Washington Square Press: New York.

For Further Suggestions 

Dr Denz-Penhey was particularly irritated that she could not find out in a simple way what she could do to improve her health and the health of others. She set out to find out for herself and became a researcher of holistic treatments.

She wanted to know what survivors (who medically speaking, should have died) all had in common so she could share their way of living with others. It took her many years to get her research to the point where it was ready to be published. Then she set out to make it more accessible and more readable for the ordinary person.

For a review of her book go here and to look at buying it, go here.

Denz-Penhey H, Murdoch, JC. Personal Resiliency:Serious Diagnosis and Prognosis With Unexpected Quality Outcomes. Qualitative Health Research. 2008;18;391-404