There is Nothing that Creates More Anxiety and Fear of the Unknown Than Being Told – You Have Breast Cancer part 6
There is Nothing that Creates More Anxiety and Fear of the Unknown Than Being Told – You Have Breast Cancer part 6
After that, I was sufficiently appalled, incensed, angered – I mean, you name the emotion I had – that I knew that something had to be done. I mean something had to be done. I have a lot of resources. I’m blessed with those resources – friends that actually work in the cancer industry. A son that works at MD Anderson who is a very known biostatistician that I highly respect and adore. It’s like, okay guys, you got to help me figure out a way out of this because we just cannot have people, women especially particularly with breast cancer survive and live these long lives with these side effects because the side effects do not go away. You’re not curing cancer with this. I spent the next two years – I mean, I get up in the morning and I’m on my scientific papers and I read them and I download them and I call people. I talk to people. I read about all kinds of alternative treatments.
On February 12, 2007 – this day will go down in my memory forever – I went to the doctor and was called based on some tests that I had osteoporosis. I said, “Why? I’m not heavy. I workout every day. I do all these good things.” She says, “Maybe you have a vitamin D deficiency.” I said, “What’s that?” I went home back to work for me which was researching what could be done about this. I still apologize to my friends now saying it took me two hours before I keyed in vitamin D and cancer but it did. I just decided to see what’s out there. And to this day, I get goose bumps thinking about what I saw. It was Dr. Cedric Garland from the UC San Diego…
DM: Which is where you’re from.
CB: It’s where I’m from. Morris Cancer Center had just published a paper saying that the risk of breast cancer could be cut by 50% if people had vitamin D serum levels – this is a blood level of how much vitamin D you’ve got – somewhere about 40 to 50 nanograms per milliliter. I just sat there and looked at that and I started crying which is kind of like, this can’t be true. I have friends at UCSD of course. I picked up the phone and I said, “Is this guy a flake? This is unreal.”
DM: It can’t be.
CB: It can’t be. I’m a very skeptical scientist. She says, “Oh no Carole, he is not a flake. He’s been doing this research for 30 years.” I said, “What? Thirty years, and I’m just finding out about it?” She says, “At this point in time, he’s really very depressed.” I said, “Why on earth is he depressed?” She said, “Because he thinks nobody is listening.” Can you imagine that? I said out loud I’m listening. I knew that I had some wherewithal to get something going – starting businesses and running stuff like that.
DM: It’s one of your experiences and your expertise.
CB: Yes. So in May of that year (2007) there was one of the best cancer conferences I have been to sponsored by the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, Maryland on vitamin D and cancer.
For two solid days, I listened to reports by scientists from all over the world talking about vitamin D and cancer. Not all of them were things to jump up and down about but there was so much there that was so positive from what they were doing with rats, from what they were doing with all kinds of experiments that at the end of the session, when the session leader asked a group of scientist, what’s next? I was waiting for the action item. The action item that they had was – we need to do more research.
I sat there for a minute. I was an invited guest. I’m not a vitamin D researcher. I listened to people talk a minute and they had these absolutely beautiful microphones coming up on the table to everybody and if you wanted to speak you just press the button. To this day, I swear the microphone little button throbbed and I pressed it and I stood up. I only had a very few words. I just asked them, where is your sense of urgency? And I sat down.
The meeting was over and almost immediately, I had fully half of the scientists in that room come up to me and say, how can we help? Talk about other goose bumps. It’s like here is a group of people who got a message and they want to get it out and they can’t get it out. It wasn’t just Dr. Garland. I said at that point in time I said, I don’t know. I don’t know what the message is yet. So Leo and I took off in our motor home and did a four-month trip.
DM: That’s your husband.
CB: Yes of course. Leo Baggerly, my delightful husband and partner. Leo is a physicist – that’s how I met him by the way – and researcher as well. He currently works with the kinetics of vitamin D. It’s easy to get excited about this project.
DM: Excellent.
CB: We took off in our motor home to go meet with the scientists around the country and in Canada to see what is the message. If I’m going to take on a public health project, what do we need to say? At that time, as there is now, this ongoing stuff about what dosage should I take was still the same which is like, shall I take 2000 IU? Shall I take 20,000 IU? What should I do? But that wasn’t what they come up with.
Every single one of them agreed. Every one of them, we now have 40 on this panel, that the focus should be on the serum level not the dosage. The reason being, if you focusontheserumlevel,youcanhavepeopletakewhateverittakestogetthere. It does take something different for everybody. Everybody’s human body just responds differently. So we had our message. Our message for entire campaign was get your serum level to 40 to 60 nanograms per milliliter. That’s it. That’s really it.
DM: It’s a good action item.
CB: With that level, we really can reduce the incidence of cancer, heart disease, you name it. You get in that band of demonstrable evidence saying that you can prevent diseases. That’s how I got into it.
DM: Thank you for that explanation.
CB: It’s kind of long.
DM: No. It’s important to have a frame. It may not be obvious even from your explanation because you may appear to be a lay person so to speak but since you have committed essentially nearly four years now full time and interacting with your panel of experts which are some of the leading experts in vitamin D in the world.
CB: They are indeed.
DM: You’re doing this full time and you’re obviously very intelligent. You have an academic background. So it doesn’t take too long to get up to speed. You really do have a level of knowledge that is extraordinary, really at an expert level. We’re delighted to have you here and share your wisdom in that.
Yoga is a Lifestyle not Just a Proven Form of Stretching Your Muscles and Feeling Energized
Author – Glen B. Stewart
Yoga is a Lifestyle not Just a Proven Form of Stretching Your Muscles and Feeling Energized
Yoga is a proven 5,000 year old way of healing and transforming the Body, Mind and Spirit
Yet with 5,000 year old track record, Yoga is a very unique experience to each and every Yoga Practitioner.
There are 18 formalized Yoga Styles globally. And in addition, there are countless adaptations to the 18 standardized ways of teaching Yoga. Some of these Yoga offsprings come in the form of a base of a classical form with a few personalized additions. This this “new” way becomes known by a different name suitable to the new Yoga instructor.
Yoga has blossomed from very classical teachings – especially in the Western World. This has happened primarily because of the demographics of the Western Yoga students of today. Most in the Western World do not worship “Krishna”. As a result many of the ancient teaching relating to Hinduism have been simplified to just include “Asana” terminology.
In addition some Yoga schools have carried forward the ancient form of natural based healing called Ayurveda Healing. Other Yoga Schools have simplified to just their chosen Yoga Poses or “Asanas”
Here is an article written on the behind the scenes world of being a Yoga Practitioner as a Lifestyle….
Published in The Guardian:
“It’s meant to be spiritual, you know”
“Disco yoga? Laughter yoga? It’s more popular than ever before – but these days yoga is a lifestyle choice rather than a serious practice.”
Is there anyone who hasn’t tried yoga? Classrooms, gyms, studios and church halls are groaning with yoga devotees from Los Angeles to New York, from London to Sydney and more recently from Tokyo to Shanghai and Seoul. Movie stars, models, designers and television personalities have “found” yoga. We read about it endlessly (and inaccurately) in the media, snap up celebrity DVDs and books, go on yoga courses and retreats, not to mention taking it up as a career option (it used to be a vocation) along with the essential props of branded belts, blocks, mats and clothing, an organic diet and an ecologically conscious lifestyle which can be picked up and put down as easily as getting in and out of your 4×4.
So ubiquitous is yoga, and in so many forms, that we now have the British Yoga Championships, devotees of which are attempting to get yoga “recognised” as an Olympic sport. And one of the reigning British yoga champions has been doing yoga for only two years.
Pushing the Olympic dream forward is the Bikram school of yoga, founded by Bikram Choudry, who was always more of an athlete than an athlete. His system of the same 26 poses performed in a room heated to 41C was devised originally to restore his own health after a gymnastics accident at 20. Now, thanks to a nine-week teacher-training course and 840 studios world-wide, Bikram is claimed to be the fastest-growing yoga system in the world.
So I feel like a grumpy old woman as I clock up not two but 30 years of yoga practice, as well as a teaching qualification that took two years’ study of anatomy, philosophy, history and teaching practice. I despair at the idea that we now want to turn a 5,000-year-old spiritual system, seen in the words of the founder of Viniyoga, TKV Desikachar (an Indian guru who is still teaching today) as “the discipline of controlling the mind, rooted in ancient Vedic texts”, into a competition on a par with figure skating and gymnastics.
I feel even more depressed to hear that the egregious spread of any number of types of yoga has extended back to India itself, the home of yoga, where fashionable girls in Mumbai are taking it up for the first time because “Madonna does it”.
Power yoga classes, the Californian way, seem to have become a platform for both teachers and pupils to show off toned torsos as well as to perform and impress with their fabulous ability to bend and contort the body into ever more demanding positions. What happened to inquiry and the acquisition of wisdom? What happened to the teaching of BKS Iyengar, who suggested that all you need for yoga practice is a mat and some space in the shade?
No longer does the aspiring yogi have to choose from acknowledged schools such as Hatha, Iyengar, Sivenanda, Ashtanga or Kundalini – the Bhagavad Gita (regarded as a sacred text by the majority of Hindu traditions) actually names 18 different kinds, each with its own emphasis. Today, due to the proliferation of yoga across the western world, teachers with only a few weeks or years of knowledge are offering a plethora of new permutations, some of which have strayed a very long way from the original systems.
Today you can choose from any number of “yoga fusions”, among them power chi yoga (a combination of tai chi and Ashtanga yoga), Sport yoga (aerobics and yoga), Fitcamp Fusion (yoga and pilates), weight loss yoga, disco yoga and laughter yoga (the latest hot trend from Los Angeles) – and that’s not a joke. I could go on.
“In the 60s, we didn’t know anything about yoga and we accepted all things oriental with blind faith,” says Peter Blackaby, a distinguished teacher with a practice in Brighton. “But after 40 years yoga has flowered and, yes, diversified and some of it is mad. Absolutely mad.”
Indeed, some teachers think that if they throw in some pseudo-science, a bit of Sanskrit, some chanting but little instruction, then that is all right. In one class in LA they even played bagpipe music and I wondered if they thought that it was Indian. And remember the woman who came back from India some years ago practising a yoga that involved not eating, just breathing?
“There is such a thing as intelligent yoga,” says Blackaby. “It’s about letting go, unravelling muscles only where you need to. There is nothing mindless or sleepy about it. ”
“For this article, I went recently to a so-called Ashtanga class in central London with a friend who is happily caught up in a passion for yoga. I have been to classes all over the world, in chilly church halls, mouldy basements, Zen gymnasiums, hotel spas as well as on distant beaches and in shaded gardens.
I have woken at dawn and driven from London to Oxford for regular classes and workshops. I have tried classes in Thailand, New York, Los Angeles, Paris and Shanghai. I have done days of yoga, three- and five-hour sessions and 40-minute bursts; classes where “gurus to the famous” presided and joss sticks were burned; where there was Sanskrit chanting, mystic breathing, and yogic jumping. I have done classes on my own and classes with up to 100 people.
In the Ashtanga class I tried, the pupils were packed in so tightly that the teacher couldn’t possibly see whether we were unravelling or not and she had no assistant. (It appeared to be more about making money than sharing knowledge.) She had what I call an Ashtanga body – taut and defined – and she started the class with an extremely advanced set of breathing exercises that are potentially dangerous. We then progressed to the familiar, tiresome routine of endless down-dogs, up-dogs and chatarangas that seem typical of many of today’s classes; repetitious poses that merely add up to callisthenics with absolutely no attention paid to the very stiff who were trying to go much further than their capabilities allowed.
Rarely do I go to a class (except those with my own teacher, Chloe Fremantle) in which upside-down poses (headstand, shoulder stand and variations), let alone a series of thoughtful floor poses (twists and balances), are taught or the individual is considered. It is all about pumping people up, rather than bringing them down into a calm, mindful place – despite ending the session with a bit of chanting (Sanskrit? Hindu? Tibetan?), to add a touch of random spirituality.
“In 1976, studying with Iyengar in India, we were told that we were very lucky to be learning yoga because it was something that was only for high-class, spiritual Indians,” says teacher and yoga book author Mary Stewart. “Nowadays yoga has been dumbed down. Publishers demand a ‘celebrity’ on the book or magazine cover even if they don’t know how to do the poses,” she says. “And I was asked to include a 10-minute programme presumably because no one these days is thought to have the attention span to do it for longer. In 1983, I was told that the word yoga could not be used, if the book I was co-writing was to sell in middle America.”
Stretch and Relax (the title that was chosen, and her first of six books on yoga) has sold for more than 20 years. Today anyone can write a yoga book and, worse still, sacred chants, costumes and rituals have been ambushed and taken up without conscience.
And this is the same yoga that Carl Jung described as “the spiritual achievement of the East, one of the greatest things the human mind has ever created”. What would he say about Geri Halliwell’s video? Would he be disenchanted to know that the desire for money and fame has corrupted Indians as well as westerners, many of whom have played along with what they think westerners want, both in India and, particularly, in guru-friendly California, branding their schools and systems for the rewards of money, status, cars and jewellery.
“Beneath the bogus spirituality and superficiality of some of the yoga around,” says Stewart, “there is a yearning among generations all over the world for something deeper and more meaningful.” I agree.
Yoga that is about strength and competition misses the point and inevitably ends up with injury and disillusion. Poses should be beneficial, not detrimental, as we strive for balance and the ability to sit and meditate with ease. The practice is about grounding and releasing; it involves effort but not push and struggle.
With or without Olympic yoga, there are people who will take yoga onwards and who realise the deep significance and power of its roots. “How can I say what is good and bad?” said the great Iyengar, recently interviewed about the way yoga is going. “People will find what they are looking for.”
That seems to say it all.
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The author was on point in many ways in terms of Yoga as a lifestyle. Transparently speaking, if you interview 100 Yoga Instructors, you will have 100 very sacred yet very individualized experiences. Yoga, unless taught in a standardized format such as the globally famous Bikram Yoga Franchise, can indeed vary widely in terms of Yoga Practitioner experience. And this can vary from Yoga Teacher to Yoga Teacher within the same Yoga School.
Yoga in this sense is like Martial Arts self defense instruction. In martial arts there are over 1,200 distinct styles globally as of the mid 1970′s. Bruce Lee was known to experience all of these before he set forth to sculpt his own “Highly Simplified” from called “Jeet Kune Do”. I am mentioning this because many contemporary Yoga styles such as Power Yoga, are essentially adaptations of more classical Yoga teachings.
In the end just as “No Man Is An Island” – no 1 form of Yoga is everything for everyone. And in the same vein, clearly not everything there is to possibly experience. Having shared that – I personally take part in Bikram Yoga when I am wanting to be part of that experience for a session, and my own form of “Sports Yoga” for the intense muscle building poses specifically for sports. I also combine my globally acclaimed Energy Healing Meditations with Bikram Yoga for optimized healing when needed.
Namaste -
Glen Glen B. Stewart Master Trainer and Acclaimed Author
Ayurveda Mastery Academy for Breakthrough Healing Diet and Healing Supplementation
Surviving Deadly Rectal Cancer How The World Sadly Lost Actress Farrah Fawcett and How to Survive Cancer Using Energy Healing and Distance Healing
Surviving Deadly Rectal Cancer – How The World Sadly Lost Actress Farrah Fawcett and How to Survive Cancer Using Energy Healing and Distance Healing
This Article on Surviving Cancer was written several years ago on my globally acclaimed “Mankind 2.0″ blog.
The alarming Cancer rates in the World today prompted me to repost it for the benefit of cancer stricken people globally.
“To Farrah ~”
I was floored today with the shocking news that famous Hollywood actress Farrah Fawcett is incredibly condition with deadly rectal cancer. Reportedly she has tried an alternative therapy in Germany but this cancerous condition has threatened her yet again.
As my global readers know I am a holistic health researcher and not an allopathic doctor.
In the traditional practice of holistic medicine – an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. In a crisis situation such as this there is another alternative that can provide assistance even in dire times of need. While this particular traditional therapy is not a panacea for everyone or every condition, Farrah Fawcett currently needs all the help she can get.
The particular holistic practice I am speaking of is called Reiki, Energy Healing and in this case Distance Healing. Energy healing has roots that date back to the ancient Atlantean civilization over 25,000 years ago. In the 1800’s energy healing was rediscovered by the Japanese and coined the term Reiki.
Energy healing is transmitted from one human to another through focused positive intentions and a connection to the divine. It can be applied through hands-on therapy by a certified Reiki Master. At a higher level it can also be applied to anyone anywhere on the globe through focused healing connection to the divine from experienced Reiki Master.
In my book “Visions Of A Champion” on Amazon.com I thoroughly cover this forward thinking and life transforming practice of energy healing.
For now I ask all of my global readership to inherently trust the unlimited power of their subconscious mind. While this post cannot completely cover such an advanced holistic therapy, trust in the fact that everyone can attract a healing difference using the powers of the Law of attraction.
With this in mind let’s gather together globally and make a life-saving difference to such wonderful and cherished human beings as Farrah Fawcett truly was – in your own family.
Let’s apply that Cancer Survival mindset to the sacred cancer stricken members of your family.
1) Sit comfortably with your feet touching the floor your back straight and your hands lying comfortably palms up in your lap. Have your thumb touch your middle finger on both hands.
2) Have the tip of your tongue touch the top pallet on the inside of your mouth.
3) Begin relaxing by breathing deeply into your nose and peacefully exhaling away all stress and daily thoughts.
4) Imagine your mind, body and conscious spirit being as peaceful as a silent pool of water on a truly glorious day.
5) Picture yourself connecting to the spiritually divine with a beautiful healing white light coming down through the top of your head.
6) Also picture the divine responding to your feeling intentions and sending your Cancer stricken family member a peaceful white light of healing energy flowing throughout their entire body.
7) Now picture yourself sending this beautiful healing white light gently and reassuringly to your Cancer stricken family member as she lies comfortably in their bed.
Feel the healing energies from the divine cascading down throughout your body.
9) Now experience the God-given beauty of sending this beautiful healing experience to your Cancer stricken family member and picture it flowing life-giving healing energies throughout their body.
10) Trust your subconscious mind and it’s divine ability to heal her and be part of this healing miracle together with them.
11) Imagine these energies slowly healing their thoughts and stresses and calming their mind to receive this miracle of healing.
12) Now imagine healing energies slowly and peacefully traveling down their spine and sending vibrant healing energies to all of the corresponding organs.
13) Spend several minutes bathing their spine is beautiful miracle of healing energy.
14) Next, languidly send these healing energies through their digestive tract for several minutes and finally sending these healing energies to their Cancer stricken area.
15) Spend the next 10 minutes or so manifesting this incredible healing energies to the Cancer stricken area.
16) Finish with sending healing energies flowing throughout their entire body through your blissful and healing connection to the divine spirit.
17) Close the miracle of energy healing your cherished family member with the reassurance of peaceful divine healing solitude to yourself and them.
18) Spend a few moments peacefully basking in one of the most precious moments you’ll ever experience as a caring human being on planet Earth.
Discover the divine gift of Healing Cancer using Energy Healing and Distance Healing.
Pick up a copy of “Visions Of A Champion” on Amazon.com today.
Godspeed Farrah ~
- Glen
Glen B. Stewart
Master trainer and globally acclaimed author
Other Alternative Healing, Weight Loss, Health, Fitness and Sports Performance related sites of mine you mat be interested in:
Executive Fitness Mastery for Breakthrough Executive Performance Transformations
Energy Healing Secrets for Everything from Sports Injury and Sports Rehabilitation to Fighting Cancer as Well as Insomnia and Depression part 3
Energy Healing Secrets for Everything from Sports Injury and Sports Rehabilitation to Fighting Cancer as Well as Insomnia and Depression part 3
“In trying to envision yourself healthy, you need not view realistic representations of the ailing body part. Instead, imagine a virus as tiny spots on a blackboard that need erasing. Imagine yourself building new, healthy cells or sending cleaning blood to an unhealthy organ or area”
“If you have a headache, picture your brain as a rough, bumpy road that needs smoothing and proceed to smooth it out. The point is to focus on the area you believe is causing you to feel sick, and to concentrate on visualizing or imaging it to be well. The more clearly and vividly you can do this, the more effective the technique becomes”
Another method for banishing pain was developed by Russian memory expert, Solomon V. Sherehevskii, as reported by Russian psychologist Professor Luria. To banish pain, such as a headache, Sherehevskii would visualize the pain as having an actual shape, mass and color. Then, when he had a “tangible” image of the pain in his mind, he would visualize or imagine this concrete picture slowly becoming smaller and smaller until it disappeared from his mental vision. The real pain disappears with it.
Others have modified this same technique and suggest that you imagine a big bird or eagle taking the concrete image of the pain away. As it flies over the horizon, see it becoming smaller until it disappears from your view. The actual pain will disappear with it.
“Life’s blows cannot break a person whose spirit is warmed at the fire of enthusiasm” – Norman Vincent Peale
Of course, the effectiveness of this imaging technique depends on the strength of your desire to improve your health and your ability to visualize well. But there is no harm in trying it, because unlike drugs, creative visualization has no side effects.
Practice any of these visualization techniques three times a day for one week and observe your health improve.
Creative visualization and success in Sports
“Success means never letting the competition define you. You are the only one who should define yourself!” Chappell
Let me guess. You are grinning like Michael Jordan upon reading the title of this chapter, right? Sure, every athlete on earth wants to be successful, wants to be somebody that others can look up to and emulate. More often than not, if you are successful in sports, you learn how to pursue your dreams and live life to the fullest. You also have the greater responsibility of “paying forward” everything that you have accumulated. There is nothing wrong with hankering for success. It only becomes a mistake if you let it go to your head and allow it to make you an arrogant fool.
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away” – Author Unknown
In whatever type of sport you choose, success is the mark of excellence. It is the distinction which separates you from ordinary individuals. It is the delineation between the mediocre and the best.
If you want to be an amazing success in sports, follow these tips:
“There is nothing like a dream to create the future” – Victor Hugo
Pay close attention to the thoughts in your mind. Try to distinguish whether the thoughts are mostly reflecting optimistic or pessimistic views. Are you happy with what you’ve discovered? If your often-repeated thoughts are constructive, well and good. If not, don’t fret. It’s not the end of the world yet.
“Raise the Bar of Your Commitment so High that Excuses can’t Jump Up and Pull You Down”
Review what you have learned earlier. Like attracts like. If you think of breakdowns in the workplace or at home and a miserable life every day, that’s what will come to you. Again, your predominant thoughts are the key to success or failure. Use this knowledge consciously and in a positive way.
Unlike most people, you already know that creative visualization is a portal to success. Use it to your advantage. Utilize certain traits of characters and skills that you have such as faith in yourself and in your abilities. Add to these limitless patience, perseverance, powerful concentration, willpower, intense discipline and strong ambition.
“Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become the person you believe you were meant to be” – Sheehan
Success is within your grasp, if you believe it to be so. What you imagine is the seed of what you will experience. Every success in sports starts in YOUR mind. The mental images you have attract the corresponding situations and circumstances into your life. Believe that you can impress the detail minded coach. Trust your potential to be selected on the “All Star Team”. Carry on in completing the seemingly insurmountable workouts with passion. Do your road work without hesitation. Use your passionate desire to Win – to bring out the best in every situation.
By following the tips given above, you will find out what your true goals and abilities in sports really are. You will have more more satisfying and rewarding experiences to be sure. Make the necessary focused changes in your life. Do not be afraid to prune the unwanted aspects because it will ultimately help you attain your goal of being a successful athlete.
They did it — and so can you!
“Limitations live only in our minds. But if we use our imaginations, our possibilities become limitless.” - Paolinetti
- Glen
Glen B. Stewart
Master Trainer and Acclaimed Author
Energy Healing Secrets for Everything from Sports Injury and Sports Rehabilitation to Fighting Cancer as Well as Insomnia and Depression part 1
Author - Glen B. Stewart
Energy Healing Secrets for Everything from Sports Injury and Sports Rehabilitation to Fighting Cancer as Well as Insomnia and Depression part 1
Your mind can help with sports injury
“When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you” – Lao Tzu
Did you know that it is only recently that medical doctors have accepted how important the power of the mind is in influencing the immune system of the human body? Many decades passed before these men of science decided to test the proposition that the brain is involved in the optimum functioning of the different body systems. Recent research shows the undeniable connection, the link, between mind and body, which challenged the long-held medical assumption.
A psychologist at the University of Texas Health Science Center, Lean Achterberg, suggests that emotion may form the link between mind and immunity. “Many of the autonomic functions connected with health and disease,” she explains,” are emotionally triggered.”
Exercises which encourage relaxation and mental activities such as creative visualization, positive thinking, and guided imagery produce subtle changes in the emotions which can trigger either a positive or a negative effect on the immune system. This explains why positive imaging techniques have resulted in dramatic healings in people with very serious illnesses, including cancer.
“Minds are like parachutes – they only function when open” ~ Thomas Dewar
OMNI magazine claims (February, 1989), in a cover article entitled “Mind Exercises That Boost Your Immune System”:
“As far back as the Thirties, Edmund Jacobson found that if you imagine or visualize yourself doing a particular action – say, lifting an object with your right arm – the muscles in that arm show increased electrical activity. Other scientists have found that imagining an object moving across the sky produces more eye movements than visualizing a stationary object.”
One of the most dramatic applications of imagery in coping with illness is the work of Dr. Carl Simonton, a radiation cancer specialist in Dallas, Texas. “By combining relaxation with personalized images,” reports OMNI magazine, “he has helped terminal cancer patients reduce the size of their tumors and sometimes experience complete remission of the disease.”
“Some people are so afraid do die that they never begin to live” – Henry Van Dyke
Many of his patients have benefited from this technique. It simply shows how positive visualization can help alleviate – if not totally cure – various diseases including systemic lupus, migraine, chronic back pain, hyperthyroidism, high blood pressure, hyper-acidity, etc.
However, individual differences have to be taken into consideration when discussing each patient’s progress. It’s understandable that individuals have varying abilities to visualize or create mental images clearly; some people will benefit more from positive-imagery techniques than others.
Nevertheless, if visualization can help people overcome diseases, it could possibly help healthy individuals keep their immune system in top shape. Says OMNI magazine: “Practicing daily positive-imaging techniques may, like a balanced diet and physical exercise routine, tip the scales of health toward wellness.”
“Some people dream of great accomplishments, while others stay awake and do them” – Anonymous
The Simonton process of visualization for cancer
Dr. Carl Simonton, a radiation cancer specialist, and his wife, Stephanie Matthews-Simonton, a psychotherapist and counselor specializing in cancer patients, have developed a special visualization or imaging technique for the treatment of cancer which is now popularly known as the Simonton process. Ridiculed at first by the medical profession, the Simonton process is now being used in at least five hospitals across the United States to fight cancer.
“There are two ways to live your life – one is as though nothing is a miracle, the other is as though everything is a miracle” – Albert Einstein
The technique itself is the height of simplicity and utilizes the tremendous powers of the mind, specifically its faculty for visualization and imagination, to control cancer. First, the patient is shown what a normal healthy cell looks like. Next, he is asked to imagine a battle going on between the cancer cell and the normal cell. He is asked to visualize a concrete image that will represent the cancer cell and another image of the normal cell. Then he is asked to see the normal cell winning the battle against the cancer cell.
One youngster represented the normal cell as the video game character Pacman and the cancer cell as the “ghosts” (enemies of Pacman), and then he saw Pacman eating up the ghosts until they were all gone.
“There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth…not going all the way, and not starting” – Buddha
A housewife saw her cancer cell as dirt and the normal cell as a vacuum cleaner. She visualized the vacuum cleaner swallowing up all the dirt until everything was smooth and clean.
Patients are asked to do this type of visualization three times a day for 15 minutes each time. And the results of the initial experiments in visualization to cure cancer were nothing short of miraculous. Of course, being medical practitioners, Dr. Simonton and his psychologist wife were aware of the placebo effect and spontaneous remission of illness. As long as they were getting good results with the technique, it didn’t seem to matter whether it was placebo or spontaneous remission.
“Everything That I Have Done For You – You Can Do For Yourselves” ~ Jesus Christ
Sports Visualization To Enhance Sports Performance and Visualization Tips For Enhancing Your Lifestyle part 1
Sports Visualization To Enhance Sports Performance and Visualization Tips For Enhancing Your Lifestyle part 1
“A very great vision is needed and the man who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky” – Crazy Horse
Uncovering the hidden secret
“The secret of strength lies in the quiet mind” – White Eagle
As you start to leaf through the pages of this book, you will be given a glimpse of a great secret that has been handed down to many generations throughout history.
This secret has been so effective that majority of the greatest sports athletes who have ever walked on the lands of this planet have known and implemented it in their lives. Are you deeply intrigued with the secret already?
The secret is creative visualization.
“I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious” Albert Einstein
A little background on what I am about to reveal…
Everything that has happened in your life in the distant past, whatever is currently happening in the present state and even that which will be happening in the near future, have been created in your mind at one point or another. They were formed concretely by virtue of the mental images you generated. This seemingly simple exercise will bring you to greater heights and take you to levels of greatness you never knew existed, or gave a mind to in the past.
So sit back, relax and fasten your seatbelt as you come along on this mind-blowing trip.
“Friends will tell you what you want to hear. A Mentor will tell you what you need to hear. A Friend wants to keep you as you are. A Mentor wants you to be who You can Become!” – John Di Lemme
Surely, as an aspiring athlete you are very excited to know more about creative visualization and it’s impact on sports performance. But first, let’s backtrack a little to the past so that you will gain additional insight on what prominent researchers have declared to be true regarding mental images – those sometimes vague, sometimes distinct representations of ideas in a person’s mind.
In the fascinating field of sports performance, mental images play an important game changing role.
What is creative visualization?
“Success is simple. Do what’s right, the right way, at the right time” Arnold H. Glasgow
The advent of the 21st century coupled with the rapid and sophisticated influx of information technology has brought about numerous advances in the different fields of science. Modern science, more specifically quantum physics, has begun to accept and prove the fact that thoughts are emitted energy that can affect the surroundings. According to an increasing number of physicists, this energy, when used to observe a certain object, already changes that object somehow. This line of thought is similar to what Zen Buddhist masters have been claiming all this time: You create your own reality.
“Life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself” – George Bernard Shaw
So if this type of thinking, that thoughts hold a potential amount of tremendous power, is true, does that mean that the mind, which produces the thoughts, can manifest whatever it wishes? Without a doubt, the answer is YES! And the key to this life-changing process is creative visualization.
“Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn” – Benjamin Franklin
Creative visualization is the process of forming a vibrant and detailed picture in one’s mind of whatever one wishes. Whatever one conceives, one can achieve. The mental images formed are essential in fueling the entire process of achieving your goals, dreams and aspirations. It is THE starting point.
“Success always comes when preparation meets opportunity” Henry Hartmanabout
Physical reality is the last to be produced in the order of creation. Whatever exists in the physical world has already existed on the higher planes, which are the mental and spiritual levels. Take for example a painting. It must first be conceptualized in the mind of a painter before it can exist as a magnificent work of art on a canvass. The same is true with statues. Long before they are formed on the physical level, they have already been imagined in the realm of the sculptor’s artistic psyche. The lesson is simple: before anyone can achieve anything in physical reality, they must first have a vivid mental image of what they want.
You SHOULD have a detailed mental image or vision.
Like attracts like…
“Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you do,you will be successful” Cain
Have you ever thought of yourself as a magnet? No? Well, you should. It is because the universal law of magnetism states that “like attracts like”, referring to the attraction of polarities. In simpler terms, when applied to mental images, this explains why it is important to hold onto thoughts with positive vibrations so that you will be able to bring about positive changes in your life. You become what you think about most and you also attract what you think about most.
Your thoughts become reality.
“Learning is the first step in making positive changes within yourself. Other factors are conviction, determination, action and effort. Learning and education help develop conviction about the need to change and increase your commitment. Conviction then develops into determination. Next, strong determination leads to action: a sustained effort to implement the changes. This final factor of effort is critical” – Dalai Lama
Most people don’t realize that every thought has frequency or vibration. According to researchers, thoughts can be measured. If you are thinking of a particular thought over and over again – a brand new mobile phone, a stunning luxury car, money that you desperately need, finding your soul mate—you’re emitting that frequency on a consistent basis. You are emanating that magnetic signal that is directing the parallel back to you.
“I always turn to the sports page first. The sports page records people’s accomplishments; the front page nothing but man’s failures” – Earl Warren
However, one big problem people often encounter is when they think of what they DON’T want. This applies to many people in sports, not only pessimists, who think of worst case scenarios and terrifying or gut-wrenching episodes that may possibly happen. Then they wonder why such bad luck seems to show up again and again. This is really terrible because the law states that “like attracts like.” It doesn’t care whether you perceive something to be good or bad, or whether you want it or you don’t want it. It just attracts events with similar vibrations.
“I can’t believe that God put us on this earth to be ordinary” Lou Holtz
Was there a time in your life when you were deep in a sports performance rut and you just desperately wanted to wave the white handkerchief as a sign of surrender? It wouldn’t be farfetched to say that you must have constantly been on the lookout for the coach’s appearance, with a stern look and ready to bench you from the game. You wanted nothing more than to disappear off the face of the earth forever.
“We either make ourselves miserable or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same” ~ Don Juan Matus
If negativity was, or still is, your mentality, that is also the signal you’re putting out into the universe. If you feel this negative emotion down to the very core of your being, then that’s what you’re going to get more of. You should definitely be thankful that numerous studies conducted by scientists, have proven that affirmative thoughts are a hundred times more powerful than negative ones…
“Nothing can resist the human will that will stake even its existence on its purpose” – Benjamin Disraeli
This law should not be viewed as just wishful thinking or pure craziness. It has a deep basis, as evidenced by breakthroughs in the area of quantum physics. In fact, quantum physicists were the first ones to point to this discovery. It says you don’t have a universe without mind entering into it. Mind is actually shaping the very thing that is being perceived.
Doubtful? Keep on reading.
The human mind is the only faculty capable of reasoning and reflecting upon itself. It is also the only faculty capable of reaching out to other dimensions of reality beyond the merely physical.
“A ship in the harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are for” Grant M. Bright
Who can visualize?
Everyone.
As in, every person who has a brain.
You might argue and say, “I cannot visualize.” That’s not a possibility because the brain, by its very nature, visualizes. You only have to replace the word “visualize” with the term “remember”. If you do this, the problem fades away. When you are told to remember the face of your favorite singer or actress, you find it a whole lot easier than being asked to “visualize”. Try it to believe it.
“Intention is the active partner of attention; it is the way we convert our automatic processes into conscious ones” – Deepak Chopra
The human brain is an astonishing organ. It is capable of structuring and storing mental images in several ways. Sometimes, it produces clear, detailed pictures in full color. Then, there are also times when it generates only hazy or fuzzy results. In rare instances, you can’t see anything in your mind, no matter how hard you try to come up with something. Times like these, when you have no image, only an instinct that the object is there, you merely supplement it through feelings or flashes of ideas.
“Ideas without action are worthless” – Harvey Mackay
Now that you know the basis for creating reality, you are almost ready to begin with the process. Bear in mind that this requires the two essential D’s to succeed: discipline and determination. It is not merely a chore to be executed whenever you feel like doing it so prepare yourself for an intense but enjoyable workout. Are you ready?