Mind Choice: Seize the day

Today's post is the second post written by Clare McLusky who provides us with an insight into her experience with cancer and the popular practice of Mindfulness. 

Clare has a Masters degree in Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy from University of Oxford and teaches Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy to people living with cancer. Clare is also a qualified Occupational Therapist, Yes to Life Helpline volunteer and one of the founding members and facilitators of Oxford Sangha, practicing in the tradition of Thich Nhat Hanh.

January was a real struggle and it took me practically the whole month to recover from Christmas and to feel alive and focused again.  The festive period combined with the school holidays is frequently a time when I find myself becoming scattered and depleted.  The culmination is that I drift along feeling tired, eating more, meditating less and becoming increasingly unaware of where my attention is and consequently making less choices in the moment, for example, about whether or not to follow a train of thought.  I am more reactive than responsive to life.  This vicious cycle keeps going until I have a deadline that can no longer be put off.  I then do the necessary to feel alive and focused again in order to get the job done, which for me is a return to healthy eating, exercise, meditation, journal writing and setting intentions.  Thank goodness for deadlines!

Your Mitochondria and Cancer

Today's post, written by Xandria Williams, discusses mitochondrial damage and highlights the importance of lifestyle and diet when it comes to preventing, and recovering from, cancer. 

This is an excerpt from Xandria Williams' latest book 'Detecting Cancer' which is now available for purchase. 'Detecting Cancer' is the third book in her 'Cancer Quintet', of which the first two are 'Vital Signs for Cancer' and 'Cancer Concerns'. Xandria Williams has worked as a Nutritional Biochemist and Naturopath for over thirty years. For the past ten years she has had a particular interest in researching cancer as a process, and the ways in which nutritional, plant and other natural substances can be used to help restore health

  

YOUR MITOCHONDRIA AND CANCER

 “The cause of cancer is no longer a mystery; we know it occurs whenever any cell is denied 60% of its oxygen requirements.”[i]

“Cancer, above all other diseases, has countless secondary causes. But, even for cancer, there is only one prime cause. …the prime cause of cancer is the replacement of the respiration of oxygen in normal body cells by a fermentation of sugar.”[ii]

Thus stated Nobel Prize Winner Dr Otto Warburg 90 years ago.

Changing Sides

This post was written by one of our long time supporters, Jane Fior, a psychotherapist who for the last 23 years has been supporting cancer patients and those close to them face the impact, feelings and challenges of a cancer diagnosis and treatment that ensues.  In 2013 Jane was diagnosed with cancer and this is her truly moving story.  We thank Jane for sharing this with us.

I am a psychotherapist and for the last twenty-three years I have been supporting cancer patients and those close to them face the impact, feelings and challenges that a cancer diagnosis and treatment brings in its wake. I have always been interested in the role of complementary therapies and a keen supporter of an integrated approach.

Although I had not had cancer myself, with the exception of a scare in my mid-30s, through my clients, I learned how different reactions can be from person to person, no matter what the prognosis, and how certain key points can turn out to be the hardest to navigate for that individual. Not surprisingly, these are prompted by how you are given the news that you have cancer, how you get on with your medical team, coping with the side effects of the treatment including loss of hair, physical symptoms and bodily changes, the end of treatment, the challenge of recurrence and the shift to palliative care. In other words, vicariously, I was familiar with the terrain.