Question for Bernie:
I have a cancer patient who recently came to me for some nutrition advice. She then retracted her agreement with me due to her latest doctor visit. She has been told she has only six months to live. How in the world can I help her now?
I remember the healing power you talked about in the 2010 NYC class and hope you can give me light & insight into how I can help her even a little bit.
Thank you.
Bernie’s Answer:
Start to help your patient by giving her my first books—Love, Medicine and Miracles and Peace, Love and Healing. They teach us to survive…to live now…to have the courage to confront each day.
Remind her that she, too, like the patients who share their stories in my books, has the potential to exceed expectations.
Help her find a new doctor who is positive and supportive of her efforts to live life fully each day and does not hand her a self-fulfilling prophecy of certain death at a specific time. Tell her about physicians practicing Integrative Medicine who have more to offer.
Since she came to you originally for nutritional advice, she must already have some awareness and belief in the importance of taking care of every aspect of her body’s needs—not just relying on the treatments and medicines prescribed by mainstream physicians that exclude holistic healing approaches. Today well-established medical centers are offering Integrative Medicine (sometimes called CAM or Complimentary Alternative Medicine) that offers patients the whole spectrum of the science and art of healing.
Tell your patient that I will put up $10,000 on a bet with the doctor who pronounced her life would end in six months that she lives a year or more past the six months–and we’ll split the winnings.
But above all, right now she needs the desire and intention to act on her own behalf. Help her recapture that spirit within that wants to live everyday fully.
As I have often reminded people whether they are coping with a disease or overwhelming stress from other factors in their lives, “Today is all we have.” That is something we all share, and it can be the key to true happiness even with a diagnosis like the one your patient has.
Help her learn to love her life and body just as it is now–amazing things can happen.
Here is a quote by Joan Borysenko, a pioneer in Integrative Medicine and the Mind-Body-Spirit Connection that underscores my message to you and your patient:
“The question is not whether we will die, but how we will live.”
– Joan Borysenko
Peace,
Bernie