Many times people find themselves shocked at the onset of a disease like cancer. They don’t see it coming. However, we believe that a healthy body can never offer a hospitable terrain to any disease. While people find themselves externally healthy, most of them don’t pay adequate attention to what’s happening inside them.
Leading a healthy life has different interpretations for different people. While some focus on healthy eating, they probably don’t sleep enough or don’t exercise at all. Here are some habits that contribute to a not-so-good quality of life:
Anyone following one or more of the factors mentioned above, creates the conditions favorable for the growth and spread of diseases like cancer. These conditions are:
In many cases, even after surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy cancer returns. This is because despite the best efforts made by doctors, some cancer cells might survive. If the internal defense system is up to the mark to kill these cells, then cancer can be kept from recurring.
Let’s look at some aspects of a healthy quality of life:
Attitude
Whether you are trying to keep yourself cancer free or battling the disease or trying to keep it from recurring, it is important to understand that healing starts much before you start taking medicines. It starts in your spirit – in your will to get healthier. Cancer patients are bound to feel a plethora of negative emotions like fear, panic, aggression, depression, etc. It is important to win over these emotions and harbor a positive attitude filled with hope, love, optimism, and a never-say-die spirit. It’s your body and you have to fight to keep it healthy.
It’s all in the mind – Medically too!
Apart from getting a grip on your emotions, positive and hopeful thoughts are known to release endorphins which boost the immune function. And when you are battling cancer, you need your immune system to be at its optimum level. Laugh a little. Find reasons to smile and most importantly, nurture hope.
You are what you eat
You can win the battle against cancer if you can manage to bring your body beyond surviving and into the thriving mode. Eating healthy helps you boost your immune system which in turn helps you fight the disease. Talk to your doctor about foods that you should eat. Find out about the medication that you are taking. Ask your doctor about the side-effects, if any. In short, take control of your health and steer it towards a healthier YOU.
Inculcate Healthy Habits
First things first, identify habits that are detrimental to your health. Are you eating healthy? Sleeping enough? Do you smoke or drink alcohol regularly? Do you exercise? Identify habits that you need to let go and ones that you need to inculcate in yourself for a healthier life. Remember, whether you are giving up a bad habit or inculcating a good one – it will take some time. Be patient and believe that these steps will help you live longer and healthier.
The Circle of Health
Imagine a circle (or draw one on a page). Imagine or draw the word “HEALTH” in the middle of that circle. Think of some activities or practices that might get you into the center of HEALTH. Write them on the circle, if you wish. Outside the circle, picture or write some things that keep you from getting to the center of HEALTH. Finally, think of what will open up your access to the Circle of Health.
You do not need to overwhelm yourself trying to do too much. Once you commit to your health, it only takes one practice to bring you into the Circle. Once one practice has brought you in, the nature of the circle is that other practices that are right for you will find their way in at the right time. All your practices will flow in an integrated way. This is why we depict the 7 Healing Practices as puzzle pieces forming the perimeter of a circle.
Lots of different ways are available to create healthy habits that stick. Find a strategy for change that works for you. Also read the article on Live Healthy
References
- Credit: Beyond Conventional Care Therapies
- ZenOnco.io Integrative Oncology Cancer Care
- Cancer.Net. Healthy Living.
- American Cancer Society. Cancer Survivors: 6 Tips for Staying Healthy. Jun 1, 2017
- Macmillan Cancer Support. Maintaining a healthy lifestyle.
- Carol Ann Petersen. Living with cancer: lifestyle changes, nutrition and exercise. May 25, 2018.
- Johns Hopkins Medicine. 5 Healthy Habits That Help You During Lung Cancer Treatment.
- World Cancer Research Fund. Healthy Living After Cancer.
- w to make positive lifestyle changes while living with cancer
- Dr. Jeremy Geffen: The Seven Levels of Healing
- Servan-Schreiber D. Anticancer: A New Way of Life. New York: Penguin Group. 2008.
- Gerald Lemole, MD; Pallav Mehta, MD; and Dwight McKee, MD: After Cancer Care: The Definitive Self-Care Guide to Getting and Staying Well for Patients with Cancer
- Jeremy R. Geffen, MD, FACP: The Journey through Cancer: An Oncologist’s Seven-Level Program for Healing and Transforming the Whole Person
- Lorenzo Cohen and Alison Jefferies: Anticancer Living: Transform Your Life and Health with the Mix of Six
