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A new paradigm for cancer care
Highlights
A new paradigm for cancer care. The author shares, “‘you have cancer.’ These simple words come as a terrible shock. Life, as you know it, changes in an instant and nothing is the same again.
The author shares, “‘you have cancer.’ These simple words come as a terrible shock. Life, as you know it, changes in an instant and nothing is the same again. Panic and fear overwhelm you as you desperately pin your hopes on doctors and on medical treatment. But this is only part of the story. While your doctors focus on healing your body, you can and must focus on healing yourself,” which was what Vijay Bhat did to beat his cancer.
Amala Akkineni shared her experience of dealing with her near ones who suffered from cancer. “In my life I saw my guru first who was suffering from cancer and then my father-in-law, Akkineni Nageswara Rao garu. I still remember how we used to support him. He doesn’t like to have wheat grass juice and to encourage him all the family members used to have it on breakfast table.”
“As a yoga teacher I also want to tell that one should be strong which is only when you can fight against any disease,” she adds.
Based on their 12-year journey as survivor and caregiver, the authors of ‘My Cancer Is Me’ propose that healing requires a ‘person-centric’ approach, where the focus is the whole person and all the aspects of his inner and outer life, rather than an ‘organ-centric’ one, where the focus is merely the disease or affected organ. According to them, cancer is the result of your physical lifestyle along with your mental, emotional and spiritual processes and the ‘stressors’ associated with these processes. For instance, negative thoughts and attitudes are mental stressors while negative emotions such as anger and guilt are emotional stressors. Addressing these aspects within you is essential for true healing. The authors guide you through your process of self-discovery, show you how to find your stressors and teach you to recover from them. They also present exercises and worksheets devised for this purpose.
Vijay says, “Cancer did for me what Richard Parker did for Pi. It scared me, challenged me, toughened me and matured me. In my 23 years as a successful advertising professional, I could never have foreseen how Cancer would re-direct my life. It put me back in touch with a deeper, wiser, more resourceful and more humane part of me, that I had lost sight of. I invite our readers to treat cancer as a worthy partner in your healing and growth journey. It can be done, I promise you!”
“It is said 'That which is deeply personal is also completely universal'. So I have bared my inner journey of pain, invisible to the public eye, even as the world saw a brave wife who seemed to heroically be the Savitri to her Satyavan. I share it in the hope that you too become more accepting of your frail, fallible, human self ... for on the other side of this acceptance is the power and grace of who you journey towards and become. As a care-giver or a therapist, may cancer be your own heroic 'call to adventure',” says Nilima.
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