Mindset and Cancer
I’d compare it to a person in a sailing boat experiencing choppy conditions on a large body of water. One extreme would be just sitting in the boat and letting the external elements control every motion, going against the tide, letting the waves knock the boat around and sometimes almost tipping it over while at the other end of the scale would be a well practised, knowledgable person who knows about the idiosyncrasies of the water, the wind and how to guide the boat through the sometimes unfamiliar straits but being armed with maps and a willingness to understand them the sailor controls his own destiny.
As far as I am concerned the same can be said about navigating life with cancer.
The first area I will touch on is mindset. I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again … the first step is to be able to face what is there in front of you. Good or bad. If you can create some space between yourself and your mind and be an observer I believe that you have taken the first steps to being in control of your emotions, reactions and ability to be in control.
I don’t quite know how to say this without seeming glib, but here goes. There are times when you feel so deeply immersed in the apparent turmoil of your thoughts, when you feel battered by a sense of hopelessness, when you feel completely overwhelmed by problems. In the same way that pain is invisible to others and so are your thoughts.
The more you resist or push against either of these things the more power they seem to have over you.
Sometimes it takes courage to just step back and become an observer but on the other hand just remember that you can’t see anything when you are right up against it, immersed in the random motion.
With cancer, the biggest enemy is a lack of knowledge and no understanding of the disease. Without these two factors it becomes a dark, menacing enemy that you seem to have no control over and as such, you might become willing to accept collateral damage to yourself, your body and the quality of your life to give you a brief moments respite (from tumour growth).
I remember reading Dune by Frank Herbert decades ago and being struck by this quote
“Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me.”
It made quite an impression on me back then. I am not speculating that there is no place for fear, of course there is. Without any fear you will do some very really crazy shit. But when the fear takes control and dilutes your reason then it becomes your biggest enemy.
My most powerful weapon so far has been knowledge. When I was diagnosed with cancer 2 months ago I have to now admit that I knew absolutely nothing about it except that it was a nasty illness that appeared to kill people sooner or later. It was something that other people were affected by. I even have to admit, now with a certain amount of remorse, that when both my Mum and Dad reached 90 and were diagnosed with cancer I didn’t try to understand it.
Needless to say I threw myself into research, waded through the literally millions of articles available on the Internet and YouTube. I won’t go into this in detail now but I will list out the people who I trust the most when it comes to cancer research and therapy.
- Thomas Seyfried
- Dominic D’Agnostino
- Miram Kalamian
I discovered that there are many strategies available to me that while that won’t “Cure” the cancer they will make it far more manageable.
- Nutritional Ketogenic Diet specifically designed for Cancer.
- Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
- Press/Pulse Therapy
- Metformin
- Controlling Blood Glucose levels and getting insulin resistance under control
- Exercise
