I recently saw this post by Fox News … wow, I never thought
I would begin my blog post this way - ever … but here goes…
In 2009, Kristi Russo was diagnosed with colorectal cancer –
Stage 3. She went through the
traditional treatments – chemo, drugs, more chemo, more drugs... After all of this treatment, her cancer was
minimally impacted and in fact, had spread to her lungs.
She researched alternative cancer treatments. There is so much evidence from the East in
Ayurveda and Chinese medicine that is just now starting to infiltrate Western
thinking suggesting that: we are whole
beings; disease is not normal, but abnormal.
Dis-Ease is a function of our life not being in balance – the thoughts
we think, the stress we feel, our environment, the food we eat, etc. And, right now, people all across the world
are curing themselves of cancer by turning inward rather than outward.
Kristi adopted holistic practices of health and wellness –
as advocated by Andrew Weil, Deepak Chopra, the Moksha Institute, etc.
Four years later, Kristi is cancer-free.
“First, we have to recognize that self-repair is, of
course, innate to our biology,” Chopra said. “We call it homeostasis. People do
repair their bodies. I think the best
thing we can do today is combine the best treatments in medicine, biological
treatments that are getting better day-by-day, with these integrative
approaches.” – DP on FN
The heart of this is in stress management. Learning to deal with stress is crucial for
any treatment, because when stressed, adrenaline increases, cortisol increases,
and a host of other hormones change within your immune/endocrine system, which
directly interferes with your body’s ability to heal.
Deepak (as reported on FoxNews) advocates the following six
priorities to wellbeing. Forgive the
typos. Deepak is Indian after all, and I
strongly recommend reading the list below with an Indian accent. It helps:
- 1. Set goals and priorities.
- “Goals to establish a baseline health status and decide where you want to be, and what it’s going to take in terms of lifestyle, also in terms of standard treatment,” Chopra said. “That’s the first thing.”
- 2. Get rid of processed foods.
- “In very simple words, get rid of anything that is processed, refined or manufactured. By large, anything that comes in a can or label. You know, she (Russo) did that,” Chopra said. “She planted her own garden and went to farmers’ markets.”
- 3. Practice meditation and visualization.
- Russo said when she got sick, she would sit outside and visualize the sun, with all her kids home and a big swimming pool – and this is what they would do when she was healthy.
- “Visualization actually changes your behavior,” Chopra said. “It motivates you to do all the things. If you visualize a healthy, energetic, joyful body, and a quiet, restful mind, then that in itself will influence how you do other things.”
- 4. Express your emotions.
- “It’s not that you have to think positively all the time,” Chopra said. “You have to get in touch with your emotions. You have to share them with somebody that you love, like (Russo) did with her husband. You have to release them. You have to express them, because if you repress emotions, that creates its own biology, too.”
- 5. Resist alienating yourself.
- Chopra said you need to connect with peace, harmony, laughter and love – it’s as simple as that. They are healing emotions.
- “My husband and I walk every night, especially before I’m going to have a blood test,” Russo said. “(I’ll ask) ‘Do you think I’m going to be OK? I’m nervous, do you think everything is going to be alright?’ He’s like, ‘Yes, it’s going to be fine.’ I always have somebody to talk to.”
- 6. Learn the science of self-repair.
- Russo said she is a different person now – she’s more tolerant – and she does not believe her cancer will ever come back.
- “I believe that your mind has a lot to do with healing your body,” Russo said.
She’s right. Your
mind has everything to do with healing your body. When I was a Corporate VP, our third largest
cost was healthcare, behind the cost of manufacturing and payroll. As a large company, we spent millions of
dollars to provide healthcare for our associates. And, we were self-insured. That
meant that we literally paid for every ailment, illness, and appointment. We paid the provider for the cards and for
negotiating prices. That’s it. So, preventing illness actually IMPROVED our
bottom line. We paid Active Health (a
firm to help control these costs) almost a million dollars a year to do
biometric screenings for us. Our health
care costs did not change. Not one
bit.
To this day, I still don’t know why companies will spend
millions of dollars on strategy consultants while ignoring the white elephant
in the room – happy employees produce more, perform better, and are actually
MORE healthy (and less costly).
Our paradigm has to change.
Not for our company’s sake, but for all our sake. Your health directly impacts me, because we
know from interpersonal neurobiology that your “state of being” directly
impacts my state of being through chemical and energetic transfer – something that is no longer viewed as a
hypothetical construct, but as a scientific reality. Further, it affects my pocket book. Wait … it impacts my WALLET. Why?
Because healthcare costs are so high because we are so sick. If more use insurance, then insurance rates
have to go up – perhaps the only linear relationship that truly exists.
We’re all in this together.
And, the story you have been sold about your health isn’t exactly
true. You don’t have to take that pill
that will make you have uncontrollable bowel movements and carries a slight
risk of permanent narcolepsy. All you
have to do is meditate. And, that’s
free. And, that’s why you DON’T see it
advertised in between Orange County housewives and Jersey Shore… not that I
have any clue what either of those shows are about.
Namaste and good health!
Ryan Pride
Dr. Ryan Pride is the
owner of the Moksha Institute, a firm dedicated to improving the wellbeing of
individuals, teams, and organizations through culture transformation and
leadership development. A profit-for-purpose
company, the Moksha Institute applies Ancient Teachings for the Modern Time in
order to transform striving into thriving.
For more information, please go to: www.mokshainstitute.com
