More Than the Physical

It is my personal opinion that my diagnosis of breast cancer was not just a sign of my physical health in distress but also my mental, emotional, and spiritual health as well.  I have seen it in my line of work many times where stress or a traumatic event has caused a patient to manifest physical illness.  For me it was a wake up call to find me. It was time to take care of issues I had set aside or forgotten.

I did some research on this, and I found some credible sources that agree with me on the subject.  I will include some of them here in case you are of a curious mind as I sometimes can be...

http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsletters/Harvard_Womens_Health_Watch/2008/July/Anxiety_and_physical_illness

http://faculty.weber.edu/molpin/healthclasses/1110/bookchapters/stresseffectschapter.htm

http://www.csun.edu/~vcpsy00h/students/illness.htm

http://www.naturalnews.com/039576_christiane_northrup_hidden_emotions_mental_health.html

I'm not saying that I have had a terrible life or that I am crazy, but I am saying that in the rush of growing up and wanting to be an adult, I forgot to really live my life.  I became a drone.  I had to go to school.  I had to find a job.  I needed to get married.  I needed to have kids.  Somewhere in there I lost myself.  Don't get me wrong.  I love being a wife and a mother more than anything, but I did forget to take care of myself.  I think we often do.

So once I got this wake up call, I decided to take care of myself in many different ways.  The first thing I did was take care of myself physically with the surgery and lifestyle change of the Gerson Therapy.  After that, it was time to take care of myself mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.  So far I have done a few different things.

First, I started Rapid Eye Technology or RET.  Now you want to know what RET is, huh?  To describe this, I will quote directly from the official RET website.

"RET is a natural, safe way to release stress and trauma. RET simulates REM sleep, your body’s own natural release system. This powerful quick release happens without reliving the trauma. Accessing the whole mind/body system while in an awake state allows you to be in control of your own journey. RET empowers individuals to live a happy, productive life by releasing negative belief systems, negative thought forms, and emotions—all of which contribute to emotional stress."

This information and more can be found at their website http://rapideyetechnology.com.

So far I have had just a few sessions, but I feel good afterwards.  There are many scripts as they put it that deal with different issues, so I feel as though I may as well go through all of the scripts to take care of as much as possible.  All I know is it can't hurt me in any way.

After my diagnosis, I wanted to explore meditation.  I saw a local family practice doctor and Osteopathic physician, and expressed to her my wish.  She is very in tune with this side of medicine and just recently she started a class for the public including many of her patients.  I just attended the first class, and already I feel a connection with everyone there.

We spent our time there discussing the topic and creating a community of openness.  We explored stillness and different breathing techniques.  Everyone brought their own experiences and expertise to the group, and that was good to explore different ways of doing things.  I'm pretty excited to learn more with the group.

Another thing I have done is course recommended to me by my mother.  It is called Alchemists Authentic Leadership Course.  It was amazing on so many levels.  It was a class with many different people from many different walks of life.  I not only was able to learn about myself, but I was able to learn through the other's experiences as well.  Here are their guiding values.

Used with permission from the Heartway Foundation

One of the things that I loved so much about the class was that we did body learning.  In my own words body learning was learning mentally, emotionally, and spiritually while using your body to teach you.  It was amazing to me how much my body knew about me already but that I just wasn't getting on all levels.  If you're interested in learning more about this just Google body learning, and you will get a million results.

We also did fun stuff like art therapy, etc.  An example of this is when the instructors told us to draw a tree.  From that drawing, they were able to tell us stuff about ourselves just by looking at the drawing.  It was so fun.

A couple of other drawings I did while in the class...

A drawing of my grandparents' cabin with all the cousins and even a baby and the boat in the corner.

I think I drew a picture of myself as a child because I'm ready to learn and I want to listen to my inner child more often and have fun.  

Music also played a big part in this class.  It is amazing the power that music can have on a person.  It can express so much in in such an emotional way.  We all chose a dance song for an exercise, and it was a big help to bring us closer.  Now every time I hear those songs, I will think of my friends.  

I have to say I learned so much from this class.  The instructors and the rest of the group were amazing.  It is crazy how close you can get to a couple of people that you don't know in just a couple of days if you let it all happen.  I guess with everything we did together it would be hard not to feel close to them.  

Some things that I will take away from this class are that I have so many talents and a lot of life experiences that I can use to help others.  I am more powerful than I ever would have imagined, and I have influenced people for the positive by sharing myself.  In the past I have been hesitant to open to others in fear of being hurt.  I'm working on this.  

I also learned (or more appropriately re-learned) that you can't judge a person by what you see on the outside.  Of course I got the part that we should treat everyone as human and a special child of God, but I never would have guessed that I shared certain life experiences with so many of my classmates until they shared them.  It touched my heart in so many ways.  It made me feel like I was not so alone as I thought many times in my life.  It was even very surprising how much I didn't know about people I had know for years and just didn't see.  I was so blind in so many ways.  It is amazing how we are all connected. 

Of course this is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this class and what I learned personally.  I will never forget this class.  I will never forget the people, and I know that I have made some life long friends. 

So far, this is what I have done for myself on more than the physical level.  I will do more.  I have found that this will be a lifelong work to better myself and continually learn and grow and heal and help others.