What am I doing to heal?
One of the most debilitating feelings I have with my diagnosis and subsequent prognosis is one of helplessness. The feeling that everything is happening to you, that you are very much the patient, and a passive observer in the medical process.
For me, I have to find some way to be more in control, taking active participation in my healing and doing tangible things to make a difference.
This has driven me to a great deal of reading, the summary of which leads me to believe in taking an holistic and integrative approach to healing; I’m not ready to dismiss the standard Western oncology treatments, in fact I embrace them. But I am also convinced that there is much more that I can do to help across the spectrum that relates to physical, emotional, and spiritual healing. It is in this area that I can take some control.
As a cyclist I draw a great analogy from Dave Braislford’s philosophy when he took on the British Cycling Team.
Dave Brailsford explains the idea of marginal gains to the BBC in 2012: "The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1%, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together.15 Sep 2015
I am trying to do as many healing things as I can in order to increase my odds of survival.
Beating the statistics
through achieving
marginal gains
Emotional
Physical
Medical
Spiritual
Physical
There is no doubt that what we eat has a direct impact on our health. Our diets have changed dramatically over the years and while advice on what is good and bad may be subtly different from time to time, the fact remains that there are some solid basics that can always be adhered to.
Tough one this, I do prefer to sit on my arse rather than do anything resembling exercise. I’d really like to go down the pub instead of doing any exercise, but my new diet regime won’t allow it!
So, it would seem that doing exercise is generally considered good for you. In the case for it against cancer, there are many studies that show that cancer does not like oxygen. So, the more oxygen you put into your blood, the better. Again – look it up on the CANCERactive website.
This could be an endless list of all the well-known, and some lesser known things you can do to help the healing process – there are literally hundreds of treatments available.
Emotional
I have to say I’ve struggled with this a little. Can your mood or state of mind really make a difference to your physical well-being? I have typically disregarded this, and anything spiritual as a little bit of mumbo jumbo.
That is until I have started reading more and more on the subject. Now I have seen the science behind this, I get it. And I sincerely believe in the mind body spirit connection. While this is “the norm” in Eastern culture, there is so much evidence now that the doctors and institutions in the West are now promoting this as an important factor in combatting chronic illness.
Spiritual
I’m not particularly religious. My Mum went to Church, so I had to go to Sunday school. I was in the Scouts so had to do Church parade. I have kids, so we went to the yearly Nativity service. I got married in Church, and my boys were both Christened. I was bought up as a Christian and taught the ways of God and Jesus in school.
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Please help Matt in fighting this shit disease. Excuse the pun!
