Those who are already known to worry about their health become paranoid. They start speculating about the increasing incidence of disease and spread needless panic in the process. Many people start wondering: “In spite of doing everything right, if she or he is not immune to cancer, what chance do ordinary people like me have?” Such feelings are heightened if the celeb in question wasn’t known to have any unhealthy habits and appeared to lead a happy life. People flood social media with posts expressing all kinds of fears and distress. The celebrity’s life is dissected in the attempt to find a probable cause; many hypotheses are thrown around—maybe it was the toxins in their cosmetics or perhaps their erratic schedule is responsible; if nothing else, they blame their relationship challenges.

Can we ever know for sure?

It’s natural to want to know the cause of an illness, because no one likes uncertainty. But here is something to ponder upon: whether it’s a celebrity or someone else, no one can know for sure what causes the cancer, or any terminal illness for that matter, in a person. Sure, medical textbooks and journals enlist probable causes like smoking, exposure to toxins, environmental pollution, processed foods and so on as risk factors. But these are only ‘probable’ causes. The fact is that even if the person is genetically predisposed, not everyone with that same gene gets the disease. Epigenetics tells us that it’s the environment that triggers the gene. Environment here encompasses everything—from your diet to your emotions to the very air you breathe. So we can never know for sure what was the exact cause of cancer.

Not to forget that there are several examples of individuals who follow perfectly healthy lifestyles, only to be diagnosed with cancer or other chronic disease and equal number of those who smoke, eat junk foods and follow a poor lifestyle, yet live to a ripe old age without suffering any serious health issues.

When you approach your wellbeing from a holistic perspective, you are being pro-health rather than anti-illness

So what’s the point?

So does that mean we should throw all care to the wind and stop looking after our health? Actress and model Lisa Ray was once asked why, in spite of being a practitioner of yoga and following a healthy lifestyle, was she diagnosed with multiple myeloma [blood cancer]? Her response: “You don’t do these things solely to avoid disease. But when unexpected things happen or you are diagnosed with a disease, you are able to manage yourself better because you have been already taking care of yourself. I was able to go through the treatment better because of my yoga and meditation practice.”

That’s a very balanced approach to self-care. It teaches us to view healthy living as an attitude of complete wellbeing—living well and aiming for the highest quality of life in all areas—rather than as an effort in preventing illnesses such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease and so on. When you approach your wellbeing from such a holistic perspective, you are being pro-health rather than anti-illness. On the other hand, if you look after your health solely to avoid disease, you are working backwards and such a mindset is not only counterproductive but keeps us trapped in needless fear. And fear hurts our immunity which, in turn, increases our risk of disease.

So instead of being fearful and anxious about getting a disease, take care of your emotional and physical health lovingly. Live each day with gratitude, resolve your resentments as soon as you can and eat a healthy, balanced diet without being too rigid about it.

And yes, the next time you hear about someone diagnosed with cancer or any terminal illness, don’t look for a ‘why’ nor compare your lifestyle to theirs. Just send them your silent blessings and be grateful for your health.

The post Why did she get cancer? appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Each year, more nutritional research studies demonstrate that following a whole food, plant-based diet can prevent and even reverse chronic diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, other autoimmune disorders, and several types of cancer. These studies have repeatedly shown that such illnesses stop progressing and even go into remission when patients reorient their diet to more foods found in the produce aisle and the farmers’ markets: vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds.   Unlike treating illness with pharmaceuticals, the reported “side effects” of this approach to wellness are all positive, such as improved energy level, mental clarity, loss of unwanted weight, elimination of pain, improved complexion, improved sleep, lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol and blood sugar levels, and reduced dependence on prescription medications. The largest managed health care system in the United States, Kaiser Permanente, recently issued a health bulletin to all of its physicians, recommending that they “prescribe” a whole food plant-based diet—discouraging consumption of meat, dairy products, eggs, and all processed and refined foods—as the first line of treatment, especially for patients with high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, diabetes or obesity.

What makes whole plant foods so beneficial?

First, only plant foods contain fibre. Fibre is important for keeping the digestive tract flowing smoothly, which removes toxins from the body and also helps to remove excess levels of circulating hormones, such as oestrogen, that can lead to hormone-dependent cancers [e.g., breast and ovarian]. Fibre also helps us feel full and satisfied after a meal. Perhaps most importantly, fibre is essential for maintaining the good bacteria in the digestive system that are critical for a properly functioning immune system. When people eat a mainstream diet that is high in animal-derived products and contain no fibre, and refined and processed foods, that contain minimal fibre, they miss these beneficial effects, thereby increasing their risk of developing chronic diseases.

Whole plant foods are also rich in micronutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytochemicals, which play a key role in helping our immune system function optimally, so we can fight off communicable illnesses as well as genetically mediated diseases like cancer. When our immune systems are functioning properly, inflammation is minimised. In some, this may mean elimination of chronic pain [including migraine headaches and joint pain], reduction in inflammatory markers related to arthritis and a decrease in body mass index [BMI]. Studies have repeatedly shown that elevated BMI is a risk factor for heart disease, Type 2 diabetes and cancer.

How much does it matter whether or not those foods are organic?

Ideally, we want to minimise our exposure to toxins, like pesticides. However, it may not always be possible or affordable to eat only organic produce. A good rule of thumb is that, if a vegetable or fruit is consumed in its entirety, such as leafy greens, apples, berries and peppers, choosing organic is more important, but if the vegetable or fruit has a skin or rind or similar outer coating that is not typically consumed, choosing organic is less important. The Environmental Working Group maintains a list of the “Dirty Dozen” and the “Clean Fifteen,” so you can see which crops are least and most heavily sprayed.

If you purchase conventional produce, wash these items well and, where applicable, peel them to remove possible chemical residues. But always remember that it is better to eat conventionally grown produce than no produce at all.

Once you begin eating this way, your taste buds adapt and you begin to enjoy more intensely the natural sweetness of fruit, the saltiness of leafy greens, and the astringent nature of legumes. You will soon find that eating is even more pleasurable than ever before! It is important to note that even when you are eating healthy whole plant foods, you should eat only until you are satisfied, and over-full. Although whole plant foods are generally low in calories and nutrient-dense, over-eating these foods, like any other foods, can cause problems such as indigestion, bloating, and lethargy, and weight gain if done habitually. Overeating too close to bedtime may cause gastric reflux and interfere with sleep; best to allow 2 – 3 hours after the last meal before lying down. However, whole plant foods, with their high fibre and high water content, are naturally filling, and the body gives clear signals when sufficient calories, nutrients, and bulk have been consumed.

How to get started

If you are hesitant about jumping in with both feet, start by increasing the proportion of healthy whole plant foods in your diet. Allow vegetables, fruits, legumes and whole grains to make up the majority of your plate, and consciously reduce consumption of meat and dairy and processed foods. These changes alone will make a positive difference in your health. But if you want to see more substantial results, give an exclusively whole food, plant-based diet a “test drive.” Try it for three weeks and see how you feel. There is no need to make a long-term commitment; just pick a day to start and mark your calendar to note how you are doing at the end of 21 days. To help get you started, try out this free online program, starting next month: Every day for 21 days, you will receive an email in your inbox with recipes, tips, and lots of encouragement along the way.

Food as medicine

Our genes are not our destiny. Rather, it is our lifestyle choices that most profoundly affect whether we can live longer, healthier lives, with the freedom and mobility to participate in the activities that bring us joy and to share precious time with our loved ones into our advanced years. Do yourself a favour and watch the documentary “Forks Over Knives.” In this film, you will follow the inspiring stories of several patients as they transition to a whole food, plant-based diet and experience remarkable health transformations. As the film so powerfully demonstrates, we can all benefit if we remember and apply the maxim, “let thy food be thy medicine and let thy medicine be thy food.”

The post Using food as medicine appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

From then on… it was only me

One thing I knew for sure—for whatever time I had remaining, I wanted to be happy, just being myself. For that reason, unappealing special diets made no sense to me, despite the claims they may help. Each meal was possibly my last meal and I wanted to eat what I really enjoyed. I had to be true to myself, to be real in all that I did. My values shifted. I lived in the present moment and everything I did was for its own sake, because I really wanted to do it. Some things that had seemed important before suddenly weren’t any more. The only important thing was being happy and to me that meant doing whatever I felt happy doing, and not doing anything that made me unhappy.

Two months later, I was still alive; I had run out of time, but I was still alive! One month later I was on overtime, and still alive. I wondered how long it could go on. New Year was five months away and I decided that if by some miracle I was still here, I would celebrate with a vacation in a tropical paradise. What I didn’t know then was how that vacation would save my life. Five months later, I was celebrating the New Year in Martinique, having a mind-expanding talk with a man who was there to teach Zen meditation. He said to me:

“Cancer begins in your mind, and that’s where you can go to get rid of it”.

It was like someone had switched a light bulb on—it was so clear. I knew what he meant and could see how the cancer was a metaphor for things held in and not expressed. I saw how my former lifestyle and way of being had led to me killing myself in many ways. I realised there and then that if I changed my way of being, I could somehow release the symptoms. I could use my mind as a tool to accomplish the changes in my way of being, and in my body. For the first time since I had been given the diagnosis, I was able to consider a possibility of turning around my condition and getting rid of the cancer. I could save my life!

Some things that had seemed important before suddenly weren’t any more

Several weeks later, I listened to a talk about Silva Mind Control [now renamed the Silva Method], which teaches people how to use their mind as a tool. The idea presented was that our perceptions create our reality, and since we choose our perceptions, we can choose to change any aspect of our reality. My consciousness had been the effect of programming; in the same way that a computer produces results based on how it has been programmed. I could reprogramme my consciousness. My perception had been that I was terminally ill, so I had to reprogramme my consciousness to create the perception that I was well. I was not prepared for such an abrupt shift. For some considerable time I had perceived myself as being in a state of deterioration, getting closer and closer to dying. This called for a major change in my thinking. I realised that I could much more easily create the perception that I was getting better and better, until I was eventually well. I knew the turnaround could happen in any moment. It was a matter of turning a switch in my mind, and insisting on knowing it had been turned. I decided that if the moment of change could be any moment, then let it be now.

The shift in my consciousness was immediate, I felt it, and I knew then that I was in a state of improvement. I also knew the importance of maintaining the integrity of my decision. From that moment on I knew that my perceptions had to reinforce the idea that I was now getting better and better, so I would eventually be well. As I ate whatever food I wanted, I told myself it was exactly what my body needed and was asking for in order to accelerate the healing process. Physical sensations similar to electric shocks in my body had previously reinforced the idea that the tumour was growing. They still came, but now I chose to perceive them as evidence that the tumour was shrinking. My mind looked for more and more ways of knowing the improvement was happening.

The shift in my consciousness was immediate, I felt it, and I knew then that I was in a state of improvement

I knew I had to stay away from people who insisted on seeing me as still terminally ill, not from any lack of love, but rather to maintain my own positive attitude toward the healing process. I had to be with people who were willing to encourage me on this seemingly impossible task I had set for myself. Whenever someone asked how I was doing, I insisted on answering, “Better and better, thank you”. And it was true.

I researched mental programming techniques, and learnt that if I put myself into a relaxed state and talked positively to myself for 15 minutes, three times a day, then within 66 days I could get myself to believe anything. And, whatever I believed to be true would be true. I knew that it was vital to maintain the positive programming, and that putting myself in a relaxed state of mind and talking positively to myself for 15 minutes, three times each day, was a part of the programming process I should in no way interfere with. There were temptations to not do the relaxations, and then I would remind myself that my life was at stake. Any such temptation, then, was something that stood between me and my life, and had to be removed, so that I could live.

Sticking through it

This may all sound very simple, but it was not always easy. At times—especially early on—it was very difficult. Sometimes my thoughts or words acknowledged something other than the idea that I was improving. On such occasions I had to be honest with myself and see that I had ‘blown it’. I would start again, telling myself I had been on a practice run, and the real moment of change was now. It did get easier. I was able to maintain positivity and integrity for just hours at first, then a day, then two days, and then I was solid. The programme was working. The doubting voice would occasionally make itself known, but I knew it did not represent truth. The encouraging voice within became my guide, leading me back to stable health, enabling me to maintain the single-mindedness of knowing positive changes were happening. When I was not feeling a symptom, I told myself that perhaps I would never feel that symptom again. If I did experience the symptom again, I would tell myself the process was not quite complete, but to acknowledge I was feeling the symptom less often and less severely than before. All was going well.

I had to know positive changes were happening now even if they were not always evident. I would tell myself they were possibly just at the threshold of my perception, so I could eagerly anticipate evidence to justify this. I was always able to find something positive, and assure myself it wasn’t all imagination.

There was much encouragement from my daughters, Jacki and Heather. Heather was only four years old at the time and she knew that love heals, so she gave me magic healing kisses—every morning and every night. I could also sense six-year-old Jacki’s belief in me, and in my ability to somehow come through this crisis. No other possibility was acceptable to her. In her eyes, I could always see her connection with me.

There were temptations to not do the relaxations, and then I would remind myself that my life was at stake

Catharsis was crucial

During my relaxation periods, I would visualise the tumour and imagine a layer of cancer cells dying and being released by my body’s natural elimination system. I knew the change was happening, even if it was not obvious and noticeable. Each time I released waste products from my body I knew dead cancer cells were being eliminated. I insisted on knowing this was true. I knew the cancer represented something held in and not expressed. With the tumour located right by my throat chakra [energy centre] I also knew this meant I had been holding back the expression of my Being. Since I wasn’t exactly certain what this meant, I decided it was imperative to express everything: every thought and every feeling. Whatever was in my consciousness and wanting to come out, I expressed it, knowing it was vital for my health. Before then, I had held the perception that expressing led to discord, but now I saw how what I was expressing and communicating was appreciated by those around me and resulted in harmony.

Before, I had had the belief that if I expressed what I really wanted to, something bad would happen. I had to reprogramme that to the belief that if I expressed what I really wanted to, something wonderful would happen. I made that decision, and it was so.

Tuning in to the right frequency

I found myself having less and less in common with my old friends. It was as though we had shared a common vibrational frequency before, say 547 cycles [whatever that means], and suddenly I found myself at 872 cycles, with few things to communicate to the 547 cycle people. I had to find new friends who were also at 872 so I could have someone to talk with.

I found myself attracted to the 872 crowd, and them to me, as though I had become selectively magnetic. Certain elements of my reality were being released which were no longer in accord with the new Being I was becoming. Deep within I knew the process was inevitable and should not be interfered with. I developed a sense of compassion and understanding and knew my life depended on releasing all elements not in accord with my new vibration. The process was simple, though not always easy. I began each day as a process of self-discovery, with no preconceived notion of who I was, but with a willingness to discover the emerging me. There was a sense of delight with each new discovery.

Often I would imagine the scene in the doctor’s office after my work on myself was done. I would see him examining me and looking puzzled because he could find no tumour. I imagined him looking baffled and saying, “Perhaps we made a mistake.” I played this scene in my mind each day, during my relaxation periods.

About two months later I went to be examined by the very same doctor who had pronounced me terminally ill. He examined me and he found nothing. And guess what he said? “Perhaps we made a mistake.” I laughed all the way home.

I have transformed my way of Being. My lifestyle has changed dramatically. I had been working on Wall Street, designing computer systems and involved in computer fraud. While it was interesting, I didn’t feel it so important in the ‘bigger picture’. I was commuting 90 minutes each way to and from work, and living ‘the American Dream’ —a house in the suburbs, a wife and two children, two cars in the garage, a big dog… but I wasn’t happy. Working with consciousness, it feels as though I have moved up to a higher class of computer. The work I do now as a healer and teacher is meaningful to me, important to others, and of service to humanity. I feel a ‘high’ when I heal and teach and I know that I am doing my life’s work. The process of transformation is an integral part of the healing process, whether you’re healing your vision, releasing some serious illness, or if the imbalance exists on the mental or emotional level and has not yet reached the physical level.

I knew the cancer represented something held in and not expressed

An eye-opening effect

An unexpected but wonderful side benefit of my healing process was that I no longer needed the eyeglasses I had worn for 20 years. I used to be nearsighted and astigmatic, but my vision changed and my eyesight was tested as ‘normal.’

After my healing I was seeing the world quite differently, in a figurative and a literal sense. My outer vision had been transformed along with my inner vision. Curious about this ‘side benefit’ of my healing process I decided to research into what others were doing in the field of vision improvement. I read all the books I could find on the subject, not because I needed to find out ‘how to do it’, but rather to discover ‘how I had done it’. I found eight books, and seven of them referred back to the eighth, which was Better Eyesight Without Glasses, by Dr. William Bates. He was a pioneer in the field, and his ideas had startled the conventional medical community back in the 1920s. More recently, Dr. Richard Kavner, a behavioural optometrist, added some new information regarding brain/mind correlations and he achieved remarkable success through his work with children. The constant factor in all these areas of vision improvement was the process of personal transformation—just as in my own personal experience. With the insight I gained by reading the works of these experts I was able to build on their ideas, using my personal experience for additional insights. I began talking to people about these ideas and helping them to explore the links between their own vision issues and their way of being. After a while, those I spoke to were giving me their eyeglass, saying they no longer needed them. Since 1975, I have worked with tens of thousands of people, watching many of them improve their eyesight by retraining their consciousness, and changing their lives in the process. In fact, the attitude of change in their lives has often been such that these people consider their improved eyesight a relatively minor aspect of the whole.

I used to be nearsighted and astigmatic, but my vision changed and my eyesight was tested as ‘normal’

As we release tensions in our consciousness and accept new ideas, tensions are also released from the physical body and we return to balance on all levels. Dr. Bates stated that all impaired vision was the result of stress. When we think of impaired vision, we think not only of the organic mechanics of vision, but also about the function of vision, about what you experience visually. According to Dr. Bates, if we forget about the mechanics of vision and concentrate only on the function of vision—the experience in our consciousness—when the function of vision is restored, the organic ‘causes’ of impaired vision are also reversed. People who have had what are known as ‘organic’ visual difficulties [cataracts, glaucoma, etc.] have also reported improvement after conscientiously making a shift in their consciousness by using self-healing concepts. These include the idea that they were totally responsible for their condition, that it was the result of particular perceptions they chose to have, and therefore that they were able to change it, by changing their attitudes.

There’s a place in society for all of us. If we let ourselves be real there’s a place where we all fit in, where we are accepted and appreciated for who we are. We do not have to pretend not to see what’s real for us. We can allow ourselves to be who we really are, to be more and more real. With determination and a willingness to change perceptions and their accompanying realities, anyone can transform their view of the world—both literally and figuratively—and return to a natural state of clarity of vision.

Excerpted with permission from Improve Your Vision by Martin Brofman, published by Jaico Books

The post The Shift That Saved My Life — Martin Brofman appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

An inspiration to all

Everyone who knows Carissa has at least one of these stories of her kindness to tell. And even while battling cancer, she continues to provide inspirational tales that others can’t help but share.

Though at first she was hesitant to admit the difficulty of her struggles, Carissa eventually disclosed her diagnosis. The seemingly healthy 25-year-old shocked her family, friends and colleagues when they learned that doctors had detected cervical cancer in March of 2013. Within months, the cancer cells had spread to one of her ovaries, and by late October, a bone marrow biopsy and blood test revealed Stage 2 non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Carissa looked toward her friends and family for motivation to keep on fighting, knowing they’d be by her side. Today, she finds devoting time and energy to others as the strongest way of coping with cancer.

A devoted teacher

She spent last year teaching six courses a day to high school students with behavioural issues in Roselle, N.J., she’s also acted as adviser to the school’s graduating class and coached its varsity girls’ basketball team through nearly a dozen games and countless practices. “Throughout all of her hardships, she’s been there for her basketball players and students,” says Amy, who met the vivacious brunette in elementary school.

In between all of her doctors’ appointments, surgeries and treatments, Carissa has served as a caring math and science teacher, devoted coach, loving friend and understanding role model to the students in her school.

Her students are a group of disadvantaged teenagers who seldom hear words of encouragement at home. They are often raised by one parent or an extended family member in dangerous neighbourhoods.

When not teaching, Carissa makes it her full-time job to love and support her students in their own parents’ absences. “I have to maintain my persona and be who I am. There are a lot of people in this world who count on me,” she says. Outside of the classroom, Carissa cheers her students on at award banquets, drives them to and from practices in the frigid winter months and provides everyday examples of respect.

Jamie, a friend to Carissa since age four, notes, “She is very spontaneous in her giving back, and no matter how hard things may seem she’s always smiling.”

Carissa beamed at the sight of her female students during graduation this past June, because many of them were the first in their families to graduate high school. They stood proud in the business-casual shirts and pants Carissa had donated to them earlier in the day. That moment, witnessing her impact on the students who shot smiles her way, made an entire school year filled with pain, fatigue and nausea, worthwhile for Carissa. “You’ve got to push yourself as much as you can because, in the long run, the things you enjoy in life are what keep you alive,” she says.

After undergoing a nerve-wracking 14-hour surgery at Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, N.J., Carissa pushed herself to return to school as quickly as possible. On her first day back, she was met in the hallways by students wearing teal ribbons in her honour. She smiled on the outside, but struggled internally to move on with a life she knew would never be the same. “I always knew in my heart I was strong enough to fight a battle, but my dream in life was to be a mom. When that was taken from me, that was the hardest thing to accept,” shares Carissa, who lost one ovary and the portion of her cervix showing cancerous cells.

She cried for days on her mother’s shoulder following the news from her doctors. “She’s the one woman in the world I know would take my place if she could,” says Carissa of her mom. “She always wants to be there and there’s nothing more important to me.”

Cancer won’t keep her down

Like her own mother, this same sense of caring lies within Carissa. An adopted parent to her students, she goes above and beyond to protect, nurture and comfort them. Her dream of having a child no longer a possibility, she’s found even greater reasons to fight cancer: the chance to raise a Maltese puppy named Niko, change the lives of a new group of students come September and make memories with the friends and family around her.

“She’s an incredible inspiration; her persistence, her perseverance,” says Jamie. “Even when she is completely down, Carissa always finds something to keep her a little above. She will overcome.”

The post Carissa’s battle with the big ‘C’ appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

But Anita was aware of everything that was happening around her. She could see the doctors working furiously on her near-lifeless body, even as her loved ones looked frightened. Her Mom was crying. But when she tried to comfort her, no one could hear her.

Meanwhile, she could see that her doctor had called for another senior oncologist and together they were working hard to save her. She could see the scurrying around of nurses, the portable oxygen tank, the needles and tubes through which treatment was being administered. She could see her helpless family and other people who came to see her. She was acutely aware of every minor detail that was happening, not only around her immediate space but even beyond. Though her eyes were closed, the sharpness of her perception was more intense than usual.What’s more, she could not only see her loved ones but also feel their fears and hopelessness. She even knew how, in spite of all their efforts, the medical team had essentially given up on her.

But strangely, she didn’t feel frightened. On the contrary, she was experiencing a freedom that was as light as it was liberating. For the first time since her cancer diagnosis four years earlier, she felt no physical pain, no sorrow, no sadness, not even any emotional attachment to her physical body. She felt weightless and became aware that she could be anywhere, anytime.

“There’s nothing we can do for your wife, Mr Moorjani. Her organs have already shut down… she won’t even make it through the night,” she heard one doctor tell Danny, who was visibly anguished. She called out to him, to let him know that she’s perfectly fine but she just couldn’t voice her thoughts. And though she wasn’t attached to her own body, she could feel the despair of her husband. But, when she tried to comfort him, she felt she was being pulled away from the drama with a knowing that everything that was unfolding was part of a grander plan.

That’s when she felt her awareness expanding and her sense of separation with the others kept diminishing until there was no separation at all—she was in the other realm. There, she felt the presence of her late father and her best friend, who had succumbed to cancer a few years ago. She even conversed with them, though spoken words were not employed to communicate.

There’s a lot more that she experienced during that coma, which she later knew was a near death experience or NDE. She describes her glorious experience in her book Dying To Be Me, a beautiful piece of work that is evidence of the incredible transformation of Anita.

Her NDE transformed her in more ways than one. Not only did she experience miraculous remission of her ‘incurable’ cancer, she also witnessed a change in her perception of life, so much so that her whole life took on a new meaning.

Manoj Khatri caught up with Anita to get a glimpse of the magnificent wisdom that she now embodies. Here are the excerpts from the interview:

Manoj Khatri: “Death is the ultimate leveller.” How do you explain this popular expression in context of your NDE?

Anita Moorjani: I agree absolutely! You cannot take what you have here into the other realm. My NDE brought that home to me; it made me revaluate what is actually important in life. When we don’t realise this—that death is the ultimate leveller—our priorities are very different. But once you have a glimpse of it… when you actually experience it and bring that feeling back with you, you realise: Wow! All these things that I thought mattered lose all significance on the other side. It rearranges all your priorities in life—how you live, your emotions, everything. It makes you realise that the life we have created here, on the physical plane, is completely back to front. If you were to step out and look at it from the grander perspective, from the perspective of death, you see that everything we have created here is absolutely the wrong way around.

Manoj Khatri: You mean we’ve put the cart before the horse, so to speak?

Anita Moorjani: Yes, we’ve put the cart before the horse. You know we’re very much full of contradictions. What stands out for me is this: There are people who believe that being spiritual and religious means really trying to live as though the afterlife is here. So, on the one hand you have people saying that you have to renounce the world and give up materialism, you have to detach from all this, and that is how you get close to ‘spirituality’. Then you have all these people who live as though the only real world is this physical world and all they want to do is amass wealth, indulge in greed and consumerism. So you have these two extremes.

Interestingly, what I actually sensed in the other realm is that neither of these two is ideal. Because, on the one hand, if you surrender and renounce everything, there is no point of being here. You’re here to experience physicality, not to pretend that you’re already in the afterlife. You’re not here to give up everything and just wear orange robes and sit on a mountain top and meditate because you might as well not be here if you’re going to do that.

On the other hand, the way we’ve designed our world has got all of us on a rat race, where we work just to make money. We’re constantly on a treadmill. Of course, we got that completely wrong too. So people seem to be going from either thinking one or the other.

Manoj Khatri: So how does one bring this balance in our perspective? And what really is the purpose of being physical? Do you even think that there is any purpose?

Anita Moorjani: The purpose is to experience life. It’s to experience being in the physical. Because in the other realm we don’t have a physical body and we can’t know who we are. The other realm is a realm of non-duality. Here, we are in a state of duality. Only in this state of duality can we know who we are. Because, it’s only by comparison with others, by knowing who we are not, by knowing opposites—that you can’t have good without bad, negative without positive—do we know who we are. All that is only possible here. Only here can we feel our emotions, fall in love, get hurt and really experience life to know who we are. None of this happens in the other realm. You can say that this is reason we take form, we take birth here.

So, you don’t want to fall into the trap of escaping life by thinking you’re being spiritual by just becoming a hermit on a mountain top and meditating. On the other hand, you don’t want to part of the treadmill that I’m talking about that just goes to work everyday and doesn’t enjoy life.

What I suggest to people is that the thing to do is very simple. Just ask yourself: What brings you joy? What makes you happy? And that is your biggest signal into your heart. What has happened is that we have become a society of people that live from the head. But it is our heart that is actually the doorway to our soul and the doorway to our infinite self. So start living from your heart and ask yourself everyday, “What brings me joy?” Everything you do, whether you are going to work, or praying, or meditating, ask yourself, “Am I doing this out of love for myself, out of love for the people around me, out of love for my life?” Or “Am I doing this out of fear of the consequences?” and interestingly—nine times out of 10—you will find that most people do something not because they want to do it, but because they are afraid that if they don’t do it, there will be consequences.

Many of us even pray out of a fear. We go to temples or churches and follow religion out of fear; not because we want to attain higher levels of consciousness but because we fear what will happen to us in the afterlife if we don’t. So that’s actually the crux of my message. The biggest shift we can make is to make every decision from a place of love, and not because we feel fear of not getting ahead, or not having enough money and so on. For instance, when you choose everything you do from a place of love, then everything you eat, you will eat it because you love the food or because you love your body, or you love your health or you love your life… and not because of some fear such as, “If I don’t eat this, I’ll be unhealthy” or “If I eat that, I’ll become fat.”

If we start choosing everything from a place of love, our lives take on a completely different level. And this is the most upside-down thing we can do—to rearrange our priorities.

Manoj Khatri: When you use the term ‘the other realm’, do you really mean to say that there is just one realm or, are there layers and layers, and you’ve just entered one and there could be so many others beyond than what you just experienced?

Anita Moorjani: This one’s a little harder to explain because I say ‘the other realm’ due to the limitations of our language. Here, in this realm, we have all these divisions. Like here, when you’re in the physical, we think in terms of linear time, and even in terms of different dimensions. That is all something created by our minds that are only capable of understanding in physical terms. Once you’re no longer thinking in physical terms, there is no more separation, no more division. But if you ask me, are there other galaxies and are we connected to them, I can’t answer that. I believe that we are, even though I didn’t have a direct experience of other beings from other planets or other galaxies. But what I did have an experience of was this feeling of being able to be anywhere at anytime. And when we are not in this physical body, when we are just pure consciousness, and when time and space is not an issue and you can be anywhere at anytime—that literally covers every realm available to you. There is no division, no walls—nothing to keep you separated from anything.

Manoj Khatri: You said that in order to be healed you had to let go of the need to be healed and trust and enjoy the ride that is life. Yet, letting go came to you after immense struggle. In your own words, “When it became too difficult to hang on anymore, I let go”. Do you think letting go is possible without the struggle? How?

Anita Moorjani: What I’d like to advise people is: Don’t wait until your life becomes a struggle. Now, I practise letting go, every single day. I don’t wait for my life to become a struggle before letting go. Every morning, I just surrender myself to the universe and it’s almost like allowing the universe to work through me and allowing the universe to use me as its channel. Surrendering in this way does not mean giving your power away. When you give your power away, you weaken yourself, drain yourself. When you give your power away, you allow others to manipulate you. Surrendering, on the other hand, is empowering. It means allowing the entire universe, it means having the power of the entire universe, to work through you. It’s like you’re flowing with universal energy rather than going against it.

Before my NDE, I was just fighting, and fighting, and fighting against [cancer]… until that point when it was too hard to fight, and I let go. But since that experience, I understood that fighting is of no use. So now when I wake up, I just say—to no one in particular, to my highest self, to consciousness, to the universe, whatever you want to call it, even if you believe in God you can say it to God—I just say: “I surrender myself to you” and then allow the day to unfold and whatever is meant to come my way will come to me today. At night I just let go again… I release everything and go to sleep.

I have found that this really works for me. And the way my life has been unfolding since I have learnt to surrender and the things that have happened—I wouldn’t have been able to script it better. I couldn’t even have thought of setting such goals or dreaming such dreams. By surrendering and allowing things to happen, I have lost the need to pursue or chase anything.

Manoj Khatri: How do you deal with scepticism and cynicism? More accurately how do you stay insulated from other people’s opinions? Especially, the reaction of the medical fraternity. Have at least some of them reconciled that they just don’t know enough? Or do you find them rationalising away your inexplicable healing?

Anita Moorjani: Initially, I encountered a lot of scepticism but it’s decreased a lot now, which is good. And yes, they do try to rationalise. And the other thing is that many of them never take into consideration that mine is not an isolated case—there are thousands of such phenomena out there. But they deal only with one case at a time, then they argue with you as though you’re the only one that has had this experience. And they use their materialistic arguments and reductionism to explain it away. What they invariably fail to take into account is that there are thousands of people that have had these kinds of experiences. But if somebody has made up their mind, then there’s no way we can convince them.

Having said that, I have realised that there are two types of so called sceptics I’ve come across. The first kind is the one where I can sense that they want to believe, they are trying to believe, but their minds somehow won’t allow them to. They are so entrenched in their conditioning that they don’t seem to get out of it. But they are trying. And I can deal with those kind and quite like them. They have a natural skeptical mind but they are open, they want to understand.

Then there’s the other kind who I call the “debunkers”. Those are the ones who have made up their mind and for them it’s more like a sport. They try and disprove everyone and everything. I don’t really give these debunkers much time because the minute I sense what they are doing, I tell them: I don’t think it is my responsibility to convince you of anything. Because, I don’t actually try to convince them of anything. I just share my story. If it doesn’t resonate with them, that’s fine. If people think that everything that happened was only in my mind, that’s fine. So I just say to them, “I respect you for what you believe” and then I move on.

But if they are people who want to believe, I tell them that I have the medical records to prove that the cancer healing did take place. And it was more rapid than anything else. The healing itself is medically inexplicable. And then I tell them that I know that it was a consciousness shift. If they say, “But how can you be certain that your healing came about because of your NDE”? I tell them, “OK, so let’s just say that I don’t know what happened. Now I leave it to you. These are the facts on the medical side and I leave it to you to come up with an explanation.” So I give it back to them.

Manoj Khatri: Talking about healing, do you think that there is a radical change that is required in the current approach to medicine, if we are to truly heal people of diseases?

Anita Moorjani: Absolutely! Very, very radical… because I think that what medicine fails to take into consideration is that a person is much more than just a physical body. A much more holistic approach needs to be taken. Now, I don’t undermine medicine. Very often illnesses do need to be managed with medicine, but at the same time, I really think that potential doctors as well as people in the medical field really need to be taught to tell their patients to look at all the reasons why they are getting the illnesses, especially cancers, chronic illnesses, allergies, and anything that weakens their immune system. Why are these people’s immune systems becoming weak? What are they doing to constantly destroy their immune systems? A person is not just their physical flesh. There is so much more. There is their emotions, their identity, their self worth, their spiritual practice.

A much more holistic approach needs to be taken for sure. And we have actual proof… there are so many tests done with placebos and so much anecdotal evidence of people being healed because circumstances in their life change, or their emotional circumstances change, leading to better physical health. There is just so much evidence, too much to ignore and yet in medical schools, doctors are still not being taught all these things. We’re still dealing with most illnesses, I would say, in a very medieval and almost barbaric way—the way that we treat patients and the way that we only improve our diagnostic tools but we’re not broadening the way that we look at illness itself. I think that the way medicine treats people, the way they use diagnostic tools to treat very specific parts of the patient is no different from the way a garage repairs a car.

Manoj Khatri: Moving on from health, you have Indian origins and you have mentioned that your own culture caused you to put others before you. On the other hand, the western culture is often the other extreme—hedonistic, self-before-others. Urban Indian kids are getting more and more influenced by western lifestyles and beliefs. In this context, what advice would you give to parents, especially Indian parents, about raising children?

Well, I think the most important missing ingredient that parents are neglecting to teach their children—regardless of culture—is self-respect and self-love. The problem with kids these days is that they feel they are not meeting anybody’s expectations. They feel that they are letting down everyone—their parents, their peer group, their friends. Moreover, kids feel lost with all the coverage they see on TV, Internet and other media which exposes them to these different values.

What happens is that if these kids don’t love and respect themselves, they start blaming their parents for not letting them follow that other culture, for not letting them wear the clothes that they see the others wearing.

One thing that even I recall as a child—and I believe that many kids feel this way—is that when we are being punished, we feel our parents don’t love us at that time. Kids believe that they’re loved only when they meet their parents’ expectations. And I don’t know why it never occurs to us to recall this when we become parents, because we’ve all been children. When I tell this to people they say, “Yeah, that’s right! I used to feel that way too and I would do things so that my parents wouldn’t punish me.”

If parents really want to teach kids their own cultural values, the first thing they have to teach them is very good self-esteem. Kids need to know that they are loved unconditionally, even when we punish them.

We need to tell the kids, “If you behave badly, you will be punished, but we will still love you.”

What I strongly believe now is that it’s really important for parents to reassure their children from the time they are very young. Parents need to tell them, “You are loved absolutely unconditionally. You are a beautiful person with a lot of strengths. If you stay true to your nature, if you maintain your own culture, you will be more interesting to your peer group. Don’t be afraid to be different. You are unique and it’s good to be unique. In fact you should be unique, it makes you more interesting and these are your cultural values”. Children who know that they are valued, unique, and loved, have a healthy self-esteem. Then they can hold on to cultural values even when they are amongst people who don’t necessarily share their values.

Manoj Khatri: That’s so true, self-esteem is one ingredient that is missing. We all experience that when we are growing up. And I don’t think that it is particularly the parents’ fault because they themselves have been brought up like that. But somebody needs to tell them.

Anita Moorjani: Yes, it is not the parents’ fault at all. Everybody is doing the best they can with what they know. And many people, even young parents today, don’t realise it until someone tells them and then they go, “Yeah you have a point”. But the real missing ingredient has nothing to do with being exposed to different cultures or being exposed to TV or moral values or anything; all that is only on the surface. The real issue is that most of us grow up feeling unloved, lost and we feel that we need to conform to something to fit in and we feel that we’re letting everybody down. Somebody—namely our parents—need to tell us. And if we are parents, we need to tell our kids that you are perfect the way you are; you’re amazing, you’re beautiful and so on. And many people worry that this will make the kids bigheaded and too egotistical but it’s actually the opposite. Kids who turn out to be spoilt, bigheaded and egotistical are actually the kids who are neglected, and not the ones who are loved unconditionally. There is no such thing as loving a kid too much. The reason for the problems of kids and most adults today, is that they have too little love. There is no such thing as too much love.

Manoj Khatri: This brings me to another assertion you have made in your book. You said that perpetrators of crime and terror are the ones who suffer the most and need most sympathy, which on deep analysis seems to be true. Why are people so reluctant to accept this?

Anita Moorjani: Because, they don’t realise that these perpetrators are only a symptom of the problem of our society and we cannot deal with them in isolation. But then, we are conditioned to see everything as separate. You see, all these things—like the Delhi gang rape or the gun violence in the US—these are just symptoms of a deeper problem. And the deeper problem is not ‘their’ problem. It’s our problem. We’re all in it together. We, together, have created this problem and we now have to resolve it. But many people don’t want to feel that way. They are so entrenched in this physical ideology of separation, of believing, “I’m not them, they are not me, and I would never do something like that,” that it keeps them stuck in judgement. We’re always judging—they did this, they are wrong—that intrinsically we have become a very judgmental society.

Manoj Khatri: Isn’t this similar to the erroneous approach to health that you touched upon earlier—that we isolate one thing and try and treat that, whereas the whole organism needs to be addressed?

Anita Moorjani: Yes, and I think it starts with our education. It starts at a young age. But slowly people are starting to change and that is my hope. That is one of the reasons why I wrote my experience and I speak about it. It’s because people really need to see things differently if we want to see any real change. And what I’m really happy about is to see how people are speaking about things like the gang rape etc. At least the public is speaking out about their discontent toward the government and they are exposing so many problems. This was just the tip of the iceberg—they are exposing so many problems. Even in the US, they are exposing loopholes in laws that allow people to carry guns, which people believe they are doing for their own protection. But at the end of the day, they have to ask themselves: protection from what? Basically all these things are happening because, at the core, we have become a very fear-based society. Everything we do is from a place of fear. Every single thing. That’s why we have guns.

Manoj Khatri: So what should we do to address this deep rooted fear that is so entrenched in our genes now? What’s the message you would give to the readers who understand that fear is the root cause and would like to operate from a position of love? How does one make that shift?

Anita Moorjani: The only thing you can do is make the shift within yourself. You can’t go out and rally for all to do it. Because the minute you start doing things like fighting or rallying, you’re adding to that same fear-based energy. And it will again create resistance and cause people to fight back. So the minute you start fighting and telling everybody else to make the shift, they will resist and again it means that you are judging them. So all that we can do is see through it for ourselves and take the stand: “This is how I’m going to live… this is my life.” Just embody it. That’s all you can do. Just be it and what you will find is that you will actually touch the people around you and they will then touch the people around them. That’s what I have been doing since my NDE seven years ago. I was able to see through everything. I knew what I knew, I knew everything that I am telling you now, but I never actually ever attempted to go out and convince anyone else. All I did was embody my truth and then just watched what unfolded. And already, I see how things that I have written have gone viral, the interviews are happening, the book came out… so all you can do is just embody it. And that’s what I tell people, when they ask me, “What can we do?” I say to them, “Don’t go out and try to change the world, because people will resist you and you will only add to the same energy that’s fighting. Because you will just be judging those people and they will fight back.” In a way, I feel that’s what Mahatma Gandhi tried to say when he said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.”

Manoj Khatri: Finally, can you speak a little about relationships? Has the idea of ‘love’ changed for you? What is the most profound insight that you have gained about love post your NDE?

Anita Moorjani: When we learn to love ourselves unconditionally, we are able to love other people unconditionally. And if you are having an issue in your relationship, the conversation I would really like to see you have is something along the lines of saying to your partner, “I love you unconditionally enough for you to have whatever you want in life. But, if what you want goes against my values for myself, I love myself unconditionally enough not to have to put up with it.” In other words, in regular love as we tend to practise in physical life, we tend to place conditions, we tend to have contracts like marital contracts and we expect people to stand by the contracts, whether they feel love for us or not. Unconditional love is when you love somebody so much that what you want for them is for them to have what they want for themselves. And when what they want for themselves is not quite what you want in the relationship, unconditional love for yourself allows you to leave the relationship. And if that person doesn’t want to lose you, if they love you and want to give you what you want, they will stay in the relationship, but it will be a much more real relationship than a conditional one where two people are doing it out of obligation.

Manoj Khatri: That’s absolutely beautiful. Well, thank you, Anita, for sharing all the practical wisdom with our readers. It has been an absolute pleasure speaking to you.

Anita Moorjani: Thank you for giving me the opportunity, Manoj.

The post “The only thing you can do is make the shift within yourself” (Interview with Anita Moorjani) appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Breaking the taboo that surrounds discussing cancer publicly, she no longer feels the need to keep up any image and treasures authenticity. As a result of her treatment and changes in her diet and lifestyle, the cancer in now in remission. Meanwhile, she has successfully resumed her media career and now also finds time to support several philanthropic campaigns. Here are excerpts from our interview with this confident, brave and inspiring woman.

Your father is Bengali and mother is Polish, you grew up in Canada, married a man of Lebanese descent, and spent time in London—how does the world look like to a person who has had so many cultural influences?
Lisa Ray: I feel blessed. To be honest, my mixed blood and diverse cultural references caused a lot of confusion and identity issues when I was younger. However, today I understand that my differences are my strength. I have unique experiences and a unique view of the world. I am very open and accepting and curious about the world to this day. I was a global citizen even before there was such a concept. However, at my core, I am very Indian. I came to Mumbai when I was 16—it was ‘Bombay’ then—and I spent more than a decade in India, so a lot of my cultural references are still Indian. I call myself a global Indian.

What made you write the “The Yellow Diaries”? Where did you find the strength to be open and vulnerable like any other common man or woman?
Lisa Ray: The Yellow Diaries started from a simple impulse to try to decode and process my Cancer Journey. I wrote to understand. It was like journalling, except I chose to upload those words onto a blog. I can’t explain exactly what motivated me to start a blog—but I can tell you that I started writing when I was on steroids and sleepless at night. Words have always been important to me, and using them to express what I was going through helped me connect with my vulnerability and the truth of the moment. When I was facing my mortality, it made me realise how much I value truth and authenticity and it released me from the efforts of maintaining an ‘image’ for the media. I simply wanted to share a very human experience and I’m fortunate that people supported me through it. I guess Cancer made me brave.

Writing is known to be therapeutic. Do you think blogging about your disease contributed to your healing?
Lisa Ray: I think my healing journey involves so many aspects of my life today, from food and nourishment to lifestyle changes to detoxifying techniques to healing old emotional and mental wounds to meditation—but the courage to begin to make those changes in my life started with blogging. It also helped me connect with others. I will never forget the full hearted support I got from India. I think that blogging also helped to challenge the fear factor around cancer. There’s a taboo in India—and to a lesser extent abroad—about discussing a serious disease openly. I couldn’t understand why? Keeping it a secret for the first two months of my treatment was difficult and painful and it made me think about other cancer patients who are suffering in silence. Writing the blog helped challenge this cultural taboo.

My priorities have completely changed for the better. Today my actions and priorities are in line with my values and my heart’s desire

In your journey towards remission, did you feel weak at times? How did you deal with your weak moments? Did you ever contemplate giving up?
Lisa Ray: Of course I felt weak and even depressed, but never hopeless. After getting diagnosed, something was unlocked in me, an unlimited potential for hope. But during my weak moments, I turned to humour, writing, meditation and contemplation. I truly believed that there was a reason for my disease, that it was connected with emotional and mental traumas and that I could heal—though it would not be easy.

What role does the mind play in healing? To what extent did your attitude and your thoughts help you in your tryst with MM?
Lisa Ray: I believe the mind plays a huge role in healing. Holistic medicine, ayurveda and even traditional western medicine draws a strong connection between the mind, body and spirit in health and healing.

Before you got diagnosed, you had been practising yoga and meditation for several years; you were also a seeker of spiritual traditions. Did that help in your healing?
Lisa Ray: Without a doubt, my yoga and meditation practice helped me through my cancer treatment. What’s interesting is you practise and you practise more, but in order to reap the benefits, you need to be in a crisis. For instance, I think my relationship to fear and control over fear was different because of my meditation. I was able to manage my anxiety much better due to my yoga practice.

Tell us something about your term “cancer graduate”—what made you think of yourself as a graduate than a survivor?
Lisa Ray: I’d like to point out a crucial fact about MM, the blood cancer I am living with: it is considered incurable. There are many new treatments and the prognosis is looking increasingly bright but the fact remains that I am living WITH the cancer. It is under control due to medication and lifestyle and diet changes I have made. In fact, I relapsed in early 2013 and ended up attending a three week Life Transformation programme at a holistic healing centre called The Hippocrates Health Institute, where I started applying healing techniques like juicing and releasing emotional blocks. Fortunately, due to my medication and these changes, I went back into remission after a few months. That’s why I call myself a ‘graduate’, since it’s an ongoing learning process. I’d also like to share that I’m participating in a clinical trial right now, which is very promising and has the potential to cure. I believe with my heart I will be cured and heal completely, but I’d like to emphasise that I’m living with this condition at the moment.

Every triumph and misstep has made me who I am today

How have your priorities evolved from the pre-diagnosis time? What excites Lisa Ray now?
Lisa Ray: My priorities have completely changed for the better. Today my actions and priorities are in line with my values and my heart’s desire. Health, wellness, writing, giving back and spending quality time both with myself and with my family are activities for which I never had time before. I still love acting and being in front of the camera; however today whatever I do is rooted in intention and values. I’m doing a lot of writing and painting and discovering full expression in other art forms. I’m planning on spending half my year in India and the other half in Canada. I also practise gratitude and try my best to focus on what I have and not on what I don’t. Travel is also still important, but with balance. I led a crazy, unbalanced life for so many years that it is taking time to heal from that lifestyle.

Has life changed after being married? If yes, how?
Lisa Ray: I have a soul mate and a partner-in-crime to share adventures with. We have so many common dreams and I’m so excited to make our dreams come true.

Lastly, if you could, would you change anything about your past? What and why?
Lisa Ray: Not a thing. Every triumph and misstep has made me who I am today. And a big part of healing is acceptance—because life is a gift.

The post “I believe with all my heart that I will heal completely”—Lisa Ray appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Find out if you are at a high risk of breast cancer and be vigilant about the early signs.

How often are women affected by this

According to the research and data collected by the Tata Memorial Hospital, breast cancer is the most common of all cancers and is the leading cause of cancer deaths in women worldwide. This cancer accounts for 1.6 per cent of deaths. Another recent study of breast cancer risk in India revealed that in the span of a lifetime, one in 28 women develops breast cancer. The study also pointed that one in 22 women in the urban areas was likely to develop breast cancer as compared to their rural counterparts where one in 60 was at risk in her lifetime. Indian women aged between 43 – 46 years are more prone to breast cancer unlike women in the west where the age group of 53 – 57 years is at the highest risk.

Risk factors of breast cancer

There are some risk factors that can be avoided and some that you can’t do much about. The non-modifiable risk factors are age, gender, number of first degree relatives suffering from breast cancer, menstrual history, age at menarche and age at menopause. The modifiable risk factors are BMI, age at first child birth, number of children, duration of breast feeding, alcohol, diet and abortions.

Most breast cancers are detected as a lump felt by the patient, while performing self-examination or during routine medical check-ups or mammography. Less commonly, the cancer can also be detected as a thickening inside the breast. Paget’s disease of the nipple presents with skin changes, including redness, crusting, scaling, and discharge. A few patients with breast cancer show signs of metastatic disease. Some of these signs could be a pathologic fracture or a lung disease.

During a physical examination, a lump is felt distinctly different from the surrounding breast tissue. More advanced breast cancers are characterised by fixation of the lump to the chest wall or to the overlying skin, by satellite nodules or ulcers in the skin. Matted or fixed axillary lymph nodes suggest tumour spread. Inflammatory breast cancer is characterised by diffuse inflammation and enlargement of the breast, often without a lump, and has a particularly aggressive course.

Diagnosis

Practising a monthly self-examination is one of the best preventive ways to find any new or changing lesions that might be cancerous or pre-cancerous. A woman should start performing this self-examination once she is in her 20s. The best time so do this is a few days after your period has ended since at this time the breasts are not tender.

Steps for self-examination

• Stand in front of a mirror, using both palms [not fingers] palpate both breasts, one at a time. Check for any lump or growths.
• Now, raise one arm over the head and with the other hand inspect if there is any lump in the armpit.
• Repeat step 2 on the other side.
• While facing the mirror, press the nipples and check if there is any discharge, irregularity, puckering or size difference. Puckering is when the skin on the breast starts getting tiny dimples, similar to the skin of an orange.
• Do not neglect lifting the breasts and checking for any lumps under them.
• Examine if there is any difference between the sizes of both breasts.
• Now while lying down, using the first few fingers as a pad, move them in a circular motion and check again for growths. Check both breasts thoroughly.
• Ensure you inspect the entire breast from the top to bottom, side to side. And also, from the collarbones up to the abdomen and the armpits to the cleavage.

What signs must one look for

Look for any unusual lumps, bumps, masses and obvious changes in skin color or textures on different body parts. Examine your skin and mouth very minutely. Watch out for any swelling, warmth, redness or darkening of the breast, change in the size or shape of the breast, dimpling or puckering of the skin. Also don’t ignore any itchiness, scaliness, soreness or rash on the nipple and new pain in any spot that doesn’t go away.

In case you spot a lump, do not panic. 80 per cent of all breast lumps are benign, which simply means they are not cancerous. Normal changes in the breast tissue, infection or even medication can cause these lumps. Benign lumps are usually painless and rubbery, and move freely, if you pushed them around. However, to know whether a lump is benign or malignant, a thorough diagnosis needs to be done. For its identification, one needs to undergo clinical examination, radiological investigation and pathological examination as suggested by the doctor. Since very small lumps can be missed on self-examination, periodic examination by a gynaecologist is a must.

Mammogram or mammography is another essential screening test. It should routinely be done by all women beyond 40 years of age, every three years if there is no high risk factor. However, if there is family history of breast cancer, or any other risk factor, the mammography should be done every year. It is a simple procedure that can be compared to an X-ray of the breast or for better sensitivity and specificity it may be associated with an ultrasound of the breast. For any nervous women, it should be noted that mammography doesn’t require any prior preparation. The whole procedure lasts for 10 – 15 minutes. It can be carried out at any time of month regardless of one’s menstrual cycle. If needed, a doctor may even carry out a ‘fine-needle aspiration cytology’ [FNAC]—a diagnostic procedure where a thin needle is inserted into the lump to sample cells for investigation under a microscope. This procedure is less traumatic as well as safe and sometimes eliminates the need for a surgery or hospitalisation. In fact, most of these screening tests and procedures are risk-free, so one must not feel overwhelmed or anxious.

Women at large have become aware of the ramifications of breast cancer. But it is crucial to self-examine—once a month or more as suggested by your doctor—so that you can identify every minute sign of breast cancer. Of course, no woman would want to hear the bleak news of a developed breast cancer. Hence, this article suggests that being prudent and simply sparing a few minutes on yourself could be a life-saving habit.

• October is Breast Cancer Awareness month.

The post Breast cancer: Early detection is the best protection appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

A whole new life

This is the story of a woman, that could be the story of any of us. Anita, born and brought up in a traditional Indian household in Hong Kong, grew up with a lot of complexes and low self esteem. Struggling with the many cultures she was exposed to, she grew up to be a girl who was different from the rest. But her constant inner battles and worries made her an unhappy soul, in spite of having everything going great and being married to a person she loved.

The disease that was eroding her thoughts and her spirit manifested physically and she was diagnosed with cancer of the lymph glands. Anita refused to subject herself to the standard course of cancer treatment, namely chemotherapy, and tried a whole lot of alternate therapies, both in Hong Kong and in India. This was more because she was afraid of the daunting treatment modalities of modern medicine than her faith in the alternative sciences. Over the next four years, following her diagnosis, her health continued to worsen till one day, she slipped into a coma. Her husband rushed her to the hospital where the doctors told them that it was too late, the cancer had spread all over the body, her organs had failed and she had less than 36 hours to live. At this point, Anita had the experience that renewed her life. She had an out of body experience, where the meaning and purpose of life became perfectly clear to her. She chose to return to her bodily form, and was healed of her disease. The book is about the lessons she learnt during this state and how they helped her understand life and cure herself.

The book is divided into many small sections and reads like a story; the prose is simple to understand. From the very first page, the reader can easily identify and empathise with the author’s life and her shortcomings. Anita touches a deep chord, and makes us realise that we are all born perfect, and that we are magnificent creatures, who lack nothing. Much of the worry and fear that we have are negative energy patterns. These energies are often not expressed for lack of a suitable outlet. It is only in our minds that we degrade ourselves, think of ourselves as incomplete. Her message to us is to be ourselves, love ourselves, and do exactly what makes us happy, without worrying about the consequences. She concludes by reiterating the fact that fear is the biggest cause of most of our physical and mental illnesses, and if we can get rid of fear, we could get rid of a whole lot of problems plaguing us. According to her, disease is nothing but our own negative energies trapped in our bodies.

Her message to us throughout the book is to be ourselves, love ourselves, respect ourselves, and do exactly what makes us happy. Very often, we feel that if we do what makes us happy, we are behaving in a selfish way. This is how we are conditioned by society. But a person who has no self respect or self love is empty, and cannot give any real love or respect to another person. She concludes by reiterating the fact that if we can get rid of fear, we could get rid of a whole lot of problems plaguing us. And according to her, the best way to do that is to realise our magnificence, realise that we are all perfect souls with nothing to achieve. Her focus throughout is on ‘being’ and not on ‘becoming’, because being is our soul’s perspective, while becoming is the mind’s endeavour.

The book is a must read, especially in today’s highly stressful age, where lifestyle diseases are rampant, and the cures for these diseases are often as bad, if not worse, than the diseases themselves, not to mention the physical, mental, emotional and financial strain that they impose.

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