Chicken Soup for the Breast Cancer Survivor's Soul by Jack Canfield

Author:Jack Canfield
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
ISBN: 9781453279137
Publisher: Chicken Soup for the Soul Publishing
Published: 2010-08-31T07:00:00+00:00

A “Gift of Healing” Journey

No journey carries one far unless, as it extends into the world around us, it goes an equal distance into the world within.

Lillian Smith

Little did I know that following my breast-cancer diagnosis in June 1989 that I would go on a fantastic, life-enhancing, healing journey. It’s hard to believe that cancer can be a gift in a person’s life. It is in mine, although it didn’t happen right away. I had all the shock and fears, and I was so afraid that I couldn’t even pray for myself, but I reached out to everyone whom I thought could help me.

My first call was to Reach to Recovery with the American Cancer Society. Next, I called Mitz Aoki, a professor at the University of Hawaii, who ministered to those with life-threatening illnesses. Through prayer and guided imagery, he turned my focus away from fear and into looking into our Lord’s face to see peace within me— and see myself healing.

I created a team of loving people and a healing environment around me—medically, spiritually, emotionally and physically. In his book, Love, Medicine and Miracles, Bernie Siegel calls people like me “exceptional cancer patients.” He says we can’t only rely on doctors to help us; we play a major part in our healing. I began to feel I could be in control of my life again—a feeling I had lost.

I also started to journal. I wrote down all the scary stuff, the frustrations, the mountain-top and valley experiences. It meant so much to me to reread it later—to see where I had been and how far I had come.

I found a cancer support group at a local church led by a woman who was recovering from breast cancer. She, too, used guided imagery that she had composed and shared. She took us, in our imaginations, to places where we could feel comfortable, peaceful and safe—on a beach chair by the ocean, a flowering garden, beside a gentle, trickling stream. We were relaxed, refreshed and restored.

The cancer support group became a part of my life, and our leader asked me to take over the group when her breast cancer recurred. Creating my own meditations and prayers, and ministering to my brothers and sisters, was where I wanted and needed to be. At that point I realized my healing journey had become a “gift” to me. I had my eyes open for other ways to share my “gift” on my healing journey.

In 1996, I took a class on energy centers of the body that was offered for interested volunteers at Queen’s Medical Center. It is called Healing Touch as it is a hands-on type of complementary medicine, and I asked to volunteer in the radiation therapy department so I could be there for cancer patients. I see the patients in the waiting room, their faces full of concern, and I invite them to have Healing Touch in a room where we have a bed set aside. I play soft music and pray silently or aloud, whichever the person prefers.

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