Question for Bernie:
My mother has ovarian cancer and the doctors would not operate. They said her cancer was too advanced so an operation would not be advisable. She is just being treated with chemotherapy now.
She responded well to the first round of chemo and the tumors shrunk. But for the second round, different chemo drugs were used. They are slower acting so the tumors are not shrinking as fast.
Is there anything more my mother can do to help her heal? Thank you so much for any help you can give us.
Bernie’s Answer:
Please ask her to read my books to help empower her. Offer to read to her if she is too tired at times. I recommend especially Love, Medicine & Miracles, and my latest book, The Art of Healing: Uncovering Your Inner Wisdom and Potential for Self-Healing.
Remind her of her potential to get well. Our minds are the most powerful tools we have for healing and for keeping our immune systems strong. Ask her to look at her life and let you help her create a life she loves so her body receives the message that she intends to LIVE!
Look into integrative and alternative therapies as well as nutritional approaches to strengthen the body for both getting through chemo treatments and for healing. Find either an MD physician who uses some alternative methods like acupuncture and massage in his/her practice, or find a naturopathic physician (ND) who uses many alternative approaches to wellness.
Another very powerful healing tool is visualization. Look through the CDs on my site or others and find one that will help your mother learn how to visualize effectively. Visualizing cancer cells getting smaller and smaller and finally being completely gone or any other way to visualize cancer cells leaving the body is very effective for many patients and could be for your mother, too.
Also, visualization can really help if your mother imagines receiving her chemo and doing very well without any side effects at all. This has helped many patients stay much stronger physically as they take their chemotherapy treatment. When you visualize having no side effects, you feel well, can eat nutritiously, and even exercise.
It is important that your mother not see her cancer as the enemy that she is at war with because that is a negative vision. She must keep thinking positively and see her body getting strong and healing itself because she is taking good care of it and loving her body just as it is right now.
The medication Metformin can help, as well as Curcumin and other herbs. These are things that a naturopathic physician can help you and your mother with.
Another resource for supplements is the Life Extension Foundation at www.lef.org or you can call their advisors at 1-800-226-2370.
Peace,
Bernie
Question for Bernie:
How do I remain positive when so many negative life circumstances keep me from believing that things will get better?
Bernie’s Answer:
It still surprises me that we have a hard time remembering the most obvious part of how we, as human beings, think and what we think about. We just need to remember always that it is you who decides what you believe and choose to think about. Nobody else can do that for you. We make the mistake of mixing up what people in our lives tell us to think about, and even sometimes try to make us feel responsible for in their lives, when we have all the power over what we take in as beliefs and what we choose to think about.
You can be a nice, compassionate person by just nodding your head, listening to someone who really needs to be listened to, and reassuring them. But you do not have to take on their problems, pressures, and the responsibility for their happiness. In our culture we get the wrong message all the time—the one that seems to say you are a bad person if you do not bear the burdens of everyone you know, or even everyone on earth!
Your job is to say to yourself that you are a caring person whose best gift to anyone who is in distress is to tell them to take back control—and not expect anyone to provide all the answers or constant support. We can only really feel good about ourselves when we stand on our own two feet. Sometimes we may need a little help, but that help is just to get you back up and in control of your own life. It is NOT helpful to do the thinking for others. You choose what you need and want to think about and you will improve your sense of control over your own life. That is what makes people happy.
Worrying is the most useless of all human activities. Think about this example for a moment—you have a flat tire on the way to the airport and you end up missing your plane. You plunge into worrying about what the people who are expecting you on the other end will say or think about you. The worry raises your blood pressure, makes you nauseous, and even maybe a little afraid. But then you learn that the plane you missed crashed. What did the worry accomplish for you except weakening your immune system and making you feel physically and emotionally terrible?
Instead of choosing other people’s problems to think about, remember YOU choose what to think about, so limit your choices to what you need to do or to change in your own life. Only you can do that—and only you can take the actions that will make you feel back in control and able to enjoy life.
Every morning, and several times during each day, say this:
Thank you for everything
I am happy, I am healthy
I love my life
I have no complaints whatsoever.
Peace,
Bernie