I have found only
one bit of information that could help change you. It is that you are mortal and will die some
day. Therefore, don't do things to not
die but do things to enhance the quality of your life and you may be surprised
by how long you do live. Accept that you
will die and make decisions about how you want to spend the limited amount of
time you have.
Medicine still
focuses on disease, giving it a failure orientation. Its practitioners still act as though disease
catches people, rather than understanding that people catch disease by becoming
susceptible to the seeds of illness to which we are all constantly exposed.
The state of the
mind changes the state of the body by working through the central nervous
system, the endocrine system, and the immune system.
Peace of mind sends
the body a "live" message, while depression, fear and unresolved
conflict give it a "die" message.
One problem with
cancer statistics is that most self-induced cures don't get into the medical
literature…. A person who gets well when he isn't supposed to doesn't go back
to his doctor.
Exceptional patients
refuse to be victims. They educate
themselves and become specialists to their own care. They question the doctor because they want to
understand their treatment and participate in it. They demand dignity, personhood and control,
no matter the course of the disease. It
takes courage to be exceptional.
Hope is not
statistical. It is physiological.
Refusal to hope is
nothing more than a decision to die.
Beliefs are a matter
of faith not logic.
One of the most
common precursors of cancer is a traumatic loss or a feeling of emptiness in
one's life.
Emotional growth
toward greater self-acceptance and fulfillment helps keep the immune system
strong.
To become
exceptional in caring for the body, one must take stock of the beliefs one has
about it, especially those so ingrained that they're normally unconscious.
Affirmation aids the
body, fear is destructive. Treatment
chosen out of fear is unlikely to be helpful.
The most important
thing is to pick a therapy you believe in and proceed with a positive
attitude.
We must learn to
give fun a high priority in life.
Visualization takes
advantage of what might almost be called a "weakness" of the body: it
cannot distinguish between a vivid mental experience and an actual physical
experience.
We prepare our
future by what we think and do each day.
People who always
smile, never tell anyone their troubles, and neglect their own needs are the
ones who are most likely to become ill.
For them, the main problem often is learning to say no without guilt.
People heal doing
something they believe in, something that gives them hope.
Our emotions don't
happen to us so much as we choose them.
Resentments and hate
are the obstacles that keep many people from clearing up their unfinished
emotional business and achieving harmony with others.
You create your own
opportunities out of the same raw materials from which other people create
their defeats.
