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.

Death Vows

These are strong beliefs where the person either casually or empathically, made a vow that they did not want to live. A vow is a belief that is a promise. It generally has emotion associated with it and can take on a life of its own. Examples of such vows are, “I would rather die, than live.” or “I want to kill myself.” Death vows can emerge during peak emotional experiences where the person feels trapped or that there is no other way out. What I have also found, that when death vows are made, generally the person does not mean it. In the heat of the moment the words just spontaneously emerge either as inner self talk or directed outwardly.

Un-forgiveness

An inability to forgive is linked to cancer. There is a difference between lip service forgiveness and true heart felt forgiveness. True forgiveness comes from within, and it occurs naturally when the past hurt or disappointment is released. When we find it in our hearts to whole-heartedly forgive ourselves and others, it creates an opening that unlocks a sense of peace, health and wholeness. Holding onto unforgiveness means that emotions such as anger, frustration and resentment fester beneath the surface and keep cortisol and adrenaline elevated, depleting natural killer cells which is one of the body’s defence mechanism against cancer cells replicating. You can read more about the healing power of forgiveness here.

Suppressed anger

Keeping any negative emotion suppressed can be harmful to health. It is toxic to the body, just like swallowing back down one’s own vomit. In a study conducted on 796 men and women, what was found was that those who bottled up their anger died from either heart disease or cancer. With anger, it is not always as simple as just express it. If anger is projected onto others it can be hurtful and sever relationships irrevocably. In addition, in my private practice I notice in the case of suppressed anger there are also beliefs and vows in place that prevent anger from being expressed. There is usually an early memory of parents fighting or anger being projected onto the child that makes the child decide, “Anger is bad, I must not get angry.” In fact the vow is so strong that the person would rather die, than risk getting angry.

The above 3 are the most significant emotional patterns that can cause cancer.

Other factors that could have an influence:

1. Low self esteem; not wanting to put oneself first; serving others first
2. Being overly critical; constantly beating oneself up; being harsh with self

In closing, while I have noticed these themes in my private practice and during the seminars I conduct, I will stay this: Everyone is unique and different and each person has their own story and life challenges. Who gets cancer and why, I really have no idea. I do as guided moment to moment as a channel.

Also read » 4 wonderfully simple ways to cultivate unconditional self-love

My top 3 tips to overcome these patterns are…

1. Uncover any death vows and find the healing method of choice to clear them from the root cause. My preferred method is The Journey which I have also used to clear my own cancer-related death vows

2. Releasing anger – You will have to work on consciously letting go of all the pent up anger accumulated over the years. Tantrum tapping can help you do that. The image below explains how it is done.
3. Forgiveness – First release the past hurt and pain and then forgiveness emerges automatically

The post An NLP expert talks about the possible emotional causes of cancer appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

The one common reason why we are all stressed

Let’s begin by asking, “Why are you stressed?” Some of you may point to hectic work pressure; some may cite family trouble or marital problems; yet others are stressed because of the struggle between fulfilling one’s needs and controlling one’s wants. But these are all external circumstances. The underlying emotion and root cause of stress is always fear—fear of losing control over a situation or of losing out on something; fear of failing to live according to our belief systems or being unable to live up to people’s expectations.

Get a grip on the situation

To eliminate stress, you must face your fears. Start by asking yourself, “What is the worst that can happen?” Go ahead and imagine the worst. Don’t be surprised if you realise that it isn’t so bad after all and, in fact, it is something you can easily deal with. When dealing with stress and its repercussions, it’s important to peel away our layers like that of an onion. Remember that only you and your reactions are in your control, so start accepting yourself and be honest with yourself. Changing yourself and your perceptions is the key to managing stress.

When dealing with stress and its repercussions, it’s important to peel away our layers like that of an onion

Three common symptoms of stress and the underlying emotions causing them

1. Frequent colds

If you are prone to catching colds, you need to look at your day[s] or life space. You will realise that you have been trying to [physically] be in too many places at the same time or [mentally] resolve multiple situations on your own. Cold is a sign of trying to do too much too soon. All you need to do is breathe, pause and prioritise, allowing some things to unfold in time.

Why are you in such a hurry to get things done? If things spill over to the next day, will your world end? The answer is an emphatic ‘No’! Then why run? Allow yourself to slow down every now and then. Create a to-do list based on priority and not just on your [or somebody else’s] expectations. When helping other people, remember to place your wellbeing first. If your body and health cannot support you, it’s of no help to you or to the people involved. Next, ask yourself if you are taking on more than you can handle. If others are allowed to ask you for help, why can’t you do the same? Give yourself the permission to reach out to people and also to say “no” if and when required.

Remember that one of the things we subconsciously do when stressed is hold our breath. So make it a point to inhale and exhale consciously when you feel stressed.

When helping other people, remember to place your wellbeing first

2. Constant headaches

Do you suffer from chronic migraines? Does your head hurt every afternoon or towards the end of the day? To help yourself on a physical level, don’t have more than two cups of regular tea, green tea or coffee in a day. Ensure that you drink two to three litres of water and eat your meals on time. Also, make sure you aren’t drinking colas and aerated drinks every day.

Emotionally, headaches are a sign of self-criticism. How do you treat yourself when faced with stressful circumstances? How do you address or speak to yourself when placed in high-pressure situations? Being harsh on yourself or constantly judging or putting yourself down can cause severe headaches. The quest for perfectionism may be exhausting your body and mind. Avoid defeatist thoughts and words such as “I’m not capable” or “I’m not good enough”. When you tell yourself that you are incapable of doing something, is it because you genuinely don’t have the skill set or are you afraid of being judged by others?

It’s time to stop criticising yourself. Instead, approve of yourself, your thoughts and your actions. It’s time to stop being the cause of the stress you are facing.

The quest for perfectionism may be exhausting your body and mind

3. Upset stomach

The stomach is responsible for the absorption and digestion of food. A weak stomach, indigestion, irritable bowel syndrome or chronic gastric trouble signals an inability to digest life. Fear is the core emotion that leads to stomach trouble.

What is going on in your life—be it on the personal front, at work, with a group of people or with an individual—that is so difficult for you to accept or handle? Be aware that an unhealthy tummy could be causing those headaches too. Hence you may not be facing a case of self-criticism, but one of being unable to adapt to change or fearing a situation or event.

It is important to introspect and isolate your fears. Ask yourself if your reaction to the said situation or people involved is a force of habit or a reflex. Is it a pattern that is repeating or a case of conflict with your conditioning and beliefs? Often, you can avoid throwing your health off kilter by being open to and accepting different perspectives. Yes, there will be times when the solution to a problem may not be as expected or desired. But it is important to face the changing reality with confidence and have faith in self.

Stress manifests itself in many other ways but physical discomfort and pain is your body’s way of speaking to you. Acknowledge the problem and while seeking medical help, find the underlying negative emotions that need to be eliminated. Know that your fear is an important defence mechanism only as long as you don’t allow it to take charge of your life, dictating every move and every choice you make.

This was first published in the January 2016 issue of Complete Wellbeing.

The post Do you suffer from frequent cold, headache or upset stomach? Check your emotions appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

Huna is actually a modern label given to an ancient system and that system was originally called Ho‘omana. Ho‘o means ‘to make’ and mana means ‘life force’. Mana is equivalent to ki [as in Aikido], chi [as in Tai Chi] or Shakti in Sanskrit. So Ho‘omana means empowerment or to empower.

What is Huna?

Huna is an integrated system of energy work, psychology and spirituality. It is one of the original sciences of healing, enlightenment and personal empowerment. Huna isn’t a religion; it is a practice that helps people get in touch with their mana [life-force energy], to move this energy, and to understand their individual connection with the environment and with others. It teaches people how energy moves back and forth between them and everything else around them.

The majority of ancient Hawaiians fully integrated basic concepts of Huna into their daily lives—concepts such as aloha, personal responsibility and cause-and-effect. They didn’t see these concepts as complex theories that needed a lot of study. Rather, they saw Huna fundamentals as simply how things work, just the way that nature and consciousness operate.

It’s similar to the way we think about gravity. Most of us don’t have an in-depth understanding of how gravity works, but we’re pretty clear what will happen if we try to defy gravity by stepping off a 20 storey building! So without thinking, we incorporate the ‘law of gravity’ into what we do and how we do it.

Huna and the mind-body connection

Ancient Hawaiians didn’t have to discuss or analyse the mind-body connection. It was simply a way of life. Like current Western thinking, they believed that the unconscious mind is responsible for preserving and running the physical body. But they did not believe that physical ailments or issues are created by physical causes alone.

Huna would say the physical body goes off-kilter into dis-ease due to the mixed messages we give the unconscious mind. For instance, we say we want to be healthy, but then we eat unhealthy foods. We say we want to feel energised but we don’t take time to rest. When the unconscious mind gets conflicting messages, it may stop working properly, follow the message that is the easiest, or even begin to create dis-ease out of confusion. From the Huna perspective, this is the basis of all physiological disease, not germs or viruses or aging, so disease cannot be explained or fixed on the physical plane alone.

Huna and neuroscience agree

As modern neuroscience has proven, input to your senses, including a directive or desire from your conscious mind, creates an electrical impulse. As soon as the impulse gets to the end of a neural pathway, it releases a chemical. Researchers say that this chemical is then picked up by every cell in your body. As Deepak Chopra puts it, “Every cell in your body is eavesdropping on your internal dialogue.”

To be healthy, not only should you avoid conflicting messages, you want to produce the right messages to release the right chemicals. To raise the energy vibration—and improve health—in your body, you’ve got to do something to get the right electrical impulses to trickle down into the physical. So in Huna, we ask ourselves:

“What am I creating in my head and what chemicals are those thoughts releasing, trickling down into the physical?”

Trickle down

When I use the phrase ‘trickle down’, I’m not just referring to the chemical release through your system. In Huna, like most esoteric systems, it is believed that the plane above the plane with which you’re working is the controlling or directing plane. In other words, a higher plane trickles down to a lower plane.

Take a look at the graphic of three minds and four bodies.

If you’re working on your physical health, the body above the physical body—the emotional body—will have a great deal of control over it. You may have some conscious control over your physical body but the emotional body rules the physical body. Think about people you know who hang on to negative emotions over a prolonged period. The destructive impact on their physical bodies is often painfully apparent. Emotional stress creates damaging physiological consequences all the way down to the quantum.

To be healthy, not only should you avoid conflicting messages, you want to produce the right messages to release the right chemicals

By the same token, the mental body rules the emotional body, so a limiting decision or belief can prevent you from releasing a negative emotion. For example, if you firmly believe that your guilt keeps you from ‘doing bad things’, that belief of the mental body will block the emotional body from releasing your guilt. Or, if someone believes that releasing anger toward another is a sign of weakness, he or she will have trouble releasing anger.

Ancient Hawaiians believed that any physical, emotional or mental issue also affects the other bodies because they’re all interrelated. Therefore, the best healing begins from the highest plane possible. The ancient practice of Higher Self therapy or Ho‘oku‘u [literally ‘to make release/let go’] is most effective because it incorporates the spiritual body and trickles down through all of the others.

Ho‘oku‘u [Higher Self Therapy]

The highest plane, the one that governs all the planes beneath it, is your Higher Conscious Mind or Higher Self [which is related to your spiritual body]. When you connect with your Higher Self, you have access to universal energy to rebalance all four bodies for your complete healing.

Great, but how do we do that?

Well, to begin, acknowledge that you have a Higher Self and that you are already connected with it. I work with chants, ceremonies and mediations from Huna to strengthen this natural connection. Obviously, I can’t teach you those through this print medium, but here are three simple things you can do to connect with your Higher Self.

Find what resonates with your spirit

Take a moment now to remember a time where you experienced a spiritual moment, however you define it. As you think of that moment, what was going on? What were you seeing, hearing and feeling? Can you recapture the feeling of that moment to experience it again? By reliving it and feeling the presence of Higher Self, you can begin to recognise when your Higher Self wants to communicate with you.

Do something you love

One of my kumu [teachers], Uncle George Na’ope always emphasised the importance of finding and doing what feels good and right to you. You can connect to the Higher Self through dance, singing or chanting. Communing with nature or listening to beautiful music also gets the mana loa [spiritual energy] flowing. Even simply hanging out with people you enjoy or laughing out loud raises your vibration. Don’t underestimate the power of doing something you love!

Try meditation

Meditation changes the energy travelling across our neural pathways and this energy trickles all the way down into the physical. Personally, I have spent a lot of my life studying and practising meditation. Spending time with a meditation that works for you enhances the mind-body connection as well as the connection with the Higher Self.

To sum it up, from a Huna perspective:

1. All physical dis-ease is caused by imbalance in the four bodies or miscommunication between the three minds.
2. The best therapy comes from the highest plane possible, your Higher Self.
3. You are naturally and always connected to your Higher Self. To support healing, trust and consciously strengthen that connection in whatever ways feel right to you.

Mahalo—to your perfect health!

This was first published in the May 2015 issue of Complete Wellbeing.

The post The Huna approach to health appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.

The mind-body link

Examples of this connection are all around us. We see a rat and show signs of fear as our pulse races and sweat breaks out on our skin; we think about losing a significant other, and our blood pressure increases; we watch someone vomit, and we feel nauseous ourselves. While we easily see evidence of the connection, it’s not well understood.

We [my colleagues/students and I] conducted several studies that question the prevailing view of physical limits. They were all driven by the simple idea of the power of our minds.

We see ourselves as having a mind and a body that is separate from it. So when the body ails, it typically doesn’t occur to us to seek the solution in our thoughts. And when it does occur to us, dramatic changes take place.

Clock back

In 1979, my students and I devised a study—which we would later come to call the “Counterclockwise” study. In this study, we took elderly men to a timeless retreat for a week with the intention of turning the clock back. Could men in their 80s feel as good as they did in their 60s? We decided to find out.

We selected participants, divided them into two groups of eight—an experimental group and a control group.

The men from the experimental group were to live for a week as if it were 20 years earlier. Twice a day, they would have group discussions about the past; see movies and television shows from that era; and engage in quiz show sorts of entertainment. All the while they would be having their discussions in the present tense as though the event was happening right now. Thus, for them it ‘was’ the past.

For the men in the comparison group [control group] the task was to reminisce about the past and thus all discussions were in the past tense. Their minds were in the present looking back at the past.

We had noted down many measures before we began the study and repeated them at the end of the week. The results were dramatic.

Young again

Hearing and memory of men in both groups had improved. They gained an average of three pounds each and their grip was significantly stronger—indicating improved motor skills. We found that on many of the measures, the participants had become ‘younger’.

The experimental group showed greater improvement on joint flexibility, finger length [their arthritis diminished and they were able to straighten their fingers more], and manual dexterity. On intelligence tests, 63 per cent of the men in the experimental group had improved their scores, compared to only 44 per cent men from the control group. There were also improvements on height, weight, gait, and posture.

Finally, we asked people unaware of the study’s purpose to compare photos of the participants taken at the end of the week to those submitted at the beginning of the study. These objective observers judged that all of the experimental participants looked noticeably younger at the end of the study.

We can change our physical health by changing our minds

Perspective tweak

In another investigation, we looked at the exercise and mind connection. This time, our participants were chambermaids—women for whom work is like a good exercise. But because the Surgeon General defined exercise as something we do outside of work—since so many are at desks all day long—these women actually saw themselves as not getting any exercise.

How healthy were they? Since they are getting so much exercise and exercise is so good for one’s health, we’d expect them to be healthy. Actually, they weren’t.

We divided them into two groups and explained to one of the groups that their work gave them enough exercise. “In fact”, we told them, “you’re getting more exercise than the surgeon general recommends.” They were shown how various tasks they did were equalled working on different machines at the gym. A month later, we asked them many questions: were they exercising outside of work now? Were they working harder? Were they eating more or differently? They answered in the negative to all the questions, which means things were the same as before.

The only difference was that now they saw their work itself as exercise. So we took their measures and found that they had lost weight; had reduced their body mass, waist to hip ratio and blood pressure. All of this happened because they changed their mindset.

Mind-sight

We ran several other studies but to give just one more illustration of the hidden power of the mind, consider our work on vision. We had found in the Counterclockwise study that vision improved over time because of changes in the mind. So we wanted to see if such improvement could arise more immediately.

To do this, we made use of the standard eye chart, which each one of us has seen in our doctor’s office. The standard eye chart has letters arranged so that they get progressively smaller as we read down the chart. This implicitly creates the expectation that soon we will not be able to see. We were curious about what would happen if we changed our minds so that the expectation was that soon we would be able to see. To accomplish this, we created another eye chart. This one had the letters getting progressively larger as we read down the chart. Now as we read down the chart and the letters are getting larger and larger, we come to expect that soon we will be able to see.

And what we found matched these expectations—people could now see what they couldn’t see before!

In another version of this, we took advantage of the expectation that about two-thirds of the way down the standard eye chart, people expect not to be able to see. Here, we started the new chart around a third of the way down—thus with smaller letters—so that even if people expect not to be able to see two-thirds of the way down the chart, the letters are actually much smaller than usual.

Again, people were able to see what they originally couldn’t see.

Attention on illness

When we are ill in almost any way, most parts of our bodies are still working well. But by paying attention to ourselves, as if we are our illnesses, we feel more helpless than we need to. Thinking we are our diseases is more of a problem than meets the eye.

It is not just that we avoid situations that might be good for us [e.g. avoiding people because we’re depressed] or over-assimilate any aches to that illness that could be caused by other things [e.g. mistaking aches from a bad mattress for arthritis]. But we fail to realise that health is more than just the absence of illness.

Folly of mindless acceptance

When someone has a chronic illness, they do not have the symptoms all the time. In fact, there isn’t even a definition of the word ‘chronic’. So, do we have to have the symptoms every day, once a week, once a month for that diagnosis? It’s not a small issue, because if we’re told our disorder is chronic v/s acute, we often become helpless. People who have asthma, for example, don’t need their inhalers most of the day. What is happening when they are symptom-free?

The dyslexic reads most words without difficulty; the person with ADHD [Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder] has no trouble paying attention to most tasks; the individual with memory problems is remembering most things correctly. Even the person who thinks s/he is always depressed is not really depressed all the time. By accepting our diagnoses as chronic, we simply don’t look for the times we are without symptoms, and those are the times we’re back in control.

Controlling the uncontrollable

If we mindlessly accept a condition as chronic, we presume that it is uncontrollable and ever-present. But if it is really ‘uncontrollable’, then wouldn’t we be foolish to try and control it? On the other hand, if we recognised that the ‘facts’ about ‘chronic’ ailments were only probabilities—sometimes true and sometimes not—we might be inclined to examine when we have the problem and when we don’t.

Once we do this, we can begin to find ways to control the so-called uncontrollable.

Let me explain. If I found that I only have symptoms when I’m with Sam and never when I’m with Brett, then the answer would be to either stop seeing Sam or make my interactions with him more like they are with Brett.

That is, noticing the variability in our symptoms, rather than mindlessly presuming they are always there, suggests things we might do to help ourselves. The same is true for any disorder.

Being more aware

When we accept that we can’t do something, we rarely try. When the world around us fosters this illusion of stability, it’s that much less likely that we will think to heal ourselves or even become better than we’ve ever been. Someone may object to my optimism and say that if people believe they can control all or part of their illnesses with their minds, won’t that get them in trouble if they can’t find the way. I don’t think so.

In research, we’ve conducted over so many years, we’ve found that being mindful by actively noticing new things results in positive health outcomes.

In fact, when we instruct elderly adults to be more mindful, they actually live longer. Therefore, attention to variability—mindful noticing—will improve our health, even if we don’t come up with the specific solution to the problem at hand.

Being mindful by actively noticing new things results in positive health outcomes

Tuning into health

Mindful health is not about how we should eat right, exercise, or follow medical recommendations. Nor is it about abandoning these things. It is neither about New Age medicine nor traditional understandings of illness.

It is about the need to free ourselves from constricting mindsets and the limits they place on our health and well-being, and to appreciate the importance of becoming the guardians of our own health. Learning how to change requires understanding how we go astray.

The magic lies in being aware of the ways we mindlessly react to social and cultural cues.

Attending to the world doesn’t mean that we need to become hypervigilant. Our attention naturally goes to what is different and out of balance. If we allow it, we will begin to notice small signals without consciously searching or paying any particular attention to them. But first we need to open our minds to possibility [see box for more on this].

Opening up to wellbeing

Improved vision, a younger appearance, weight loss, and increased longevity are just four of the many experimental results that are a consequence of making these subtle changes. They are proof that with only subtle shifts in our thinking, our language, and in our expectations, we can begin to change the ingrained behaviours that sap health, optimism and vitality from our lives.

So open your mind and take back what is rightfully, sensibly, and importantly yours—health, wellbeing and happiness.

Ellen Langer discusses Mindful Health and the Power of Possibility in detail in her book, Counterclockwise by Belantine Books; ISBN 978-0-345-50204-9.

The post The mind body connection appeared first on Complete Wellbeing.