The Healing Power of Joy

As my younger sister is treated for Melanoma, my desire to help her to prevent this condition's recurrence is high.   Several years ago we lost Mom to a six-year battle with Lymphoma, and (too high) a number of good friends and family members have faced this challenge as well over the years. Prevention (for my sis, and for us) is paramount in my life right now. Individualized nutrition, fresh air, adequate sunshine and consistent exercise are all absolutely necessary for our healthiest life and Ron & I have availed ourselves of them all throughout the years.

But there's a lesser-known prevention measure that greatly deserves mention. And I'm more excited about this than all the others put together. But I'll let my good friend Don Richmond (recording artist, writer-musician extraordinaire, and cancer survivor) tell you what it is. In a recent conversation, when asked for his suggestions on diet, etc., he spontaneously added his insights on this prevention measure.

"Truly, I think one of the most powerful cancer-fighting things is to do things that bring joy - Joy with a capital J - things that make your heart soar and send chills up your spine. [And we all] need to do things that we always talk [ourselves] out of, saying that we have no time or that we are too selfish. Because the truth is, if we don't do those things we have nothing to offer others anyway. I came out of the period when I almost died knowing that in the core of my being. I still wrestle with it, telling myself I need to stay and work instead of going to the mountains or whatever, or taking a walk down to the river. "

Alamosa, CO Song-smith Don Richmond

He continues, "Sorry for the preaching - I couldn't not add that in - I think it is more powerful than almost anything else we can do. I also attribute a lot of my healing to the prayers and energies of others, and of God through that. But there is a saying that God cannot give us what we refuse to give ourselves, and I think that Joy I spoke of falls in that category."

Don's advice is timely and right on target. So often we deny ourselves joys in life which we view as frivolous or selfish. But a balanced life lies in both giving to others and taking for ourselves. Imagine that! It's been said that the cancer profile-type is often a studious, hard-working person who holds stress inside. They hesitate to do the things for themselves that others often do, and instead focus on others instead of themselves. In creating a healthy physical landscape where healthy cells thrive and cancer cells don't, our psychological landscape cannot be ignored. Our mind and body are one. And if we are laughing, loving, and living, things happen in our bodies that chase the blues (and the bugs) away. 

Question: do you know what you really enjoy? Wait. Think about that. Not what your spouse enjoys. Not what your friends enjoy. What YOU enjoy? Do you enjoy it regularly? If not, what keeps you from it? 

What do you really enjoy?

These may be life-or-death questions, so ponder them carefully. Also, it's worth mentioning that there are many things that weigh on our minds each day that would rob us of our joy. The world is in disorder, our finances don't always balance out, and maybe our jobs or families are not what we'd hoped for them to be. It's enough to make for a pretty noisy head. But we needn't live in those parts of our head. Emotions (anger and fear, for example) were created to help us to make needed adjustments in our lives, and then be put aside until needed again. They were never designed to hold us captive and addicted. We are emotional free agents-we were designed with the ability to choose. And I choose joy. You see, joy saved my life also. In a very painful season several years ago, hurt and fear took over. My health suffered and my body weight dropped which made it even worse.  Positive cognition came very hard at that time, but somehow I knew that in addition to whatever physical methods I used to recover, restoring joy to my life would be the key to permanent recovery. You can read about it here. 

And restore it did. Hard as that time was, it opened a door for me that may never have been opened otherwise. And for that I am thankful. Joy is a choice that will always lead to healing, and winning. And it can come in the smallest of things. If you really want to win in life, you've got to check your joy gauge. When it's empty, it's hell. But it's hard to get to the top. Joy is something we humans can't get enough of. Being cognizant of joy, and including it in our schedules (and budgets-c'mon, pedicure!) is a noble thing to do!

I'll leave you with this on the matter. A shot of me with my littles. And a caption from Mr. Richmond.
                     "I see you holding your grandbabies - now there's Joy with a capital J!"

Health: The Full Landscape

A Healthy Body Terrain is Critical for an Optimal Life

We all enjoy a hike in beautiful terrain. It does our soul good to see nature in balance -soil, plants, trees, animals all thriving in a healthy, balanced environment where even the less beautiful elements are there for a reason, when they stay in their proper place.

In some ways, the human body is a lot like that landscape. 

It's becoming crystal clear to me that in human health, disease is just a signal, not really the problem itself. When disease presents itself, it's saying that something bigger, underneath in the body's terrain, is wrong and must be corrected or it will return. It's like weeds growing in soils where other life cannot grow so well. Or trees along a mountain trail. When they're healthy and well-watered, they're fine, but deprived of water, they are vulnerable to disease and infestation.We can treat these weeds or bugs, but we should never forget to treat the terrain itself, if we can. Modern medicine is a blessing, but most often, it doesn't look for underlying problems as it should. We need to do this work for ourselves. Determining what is wrong (deficiencies, etc) can be a difficult task but once we do it, we can find more lasting success because our bodies want to cooperate in our healing and will do amazing things to keep it!

It's so easy these days to put our health on the back burner. And yet with today's foods, stress, and environmental factors, it seems we pay more of a price for doing so than we ever have. And that seems so unfair! But like it or not, we have to be more diligent in avoiding disease than ever before. We cannot depend on anyone else to do it for us!

I've corrected a number of things in my own health in recent years, and these corrections are an everyday task. I fall down sometimes, but have been doing much better. Diet is my big challenge. I've frankly been a bit flippant about it, thinking that since I see no outer signals that all my sugar and refined food intake is a problem, that it won't someday be a problem inside somewhere. Sugar (from sweets and from many starches) creates a high-acid environment in the body (among other negative changes), and disease thrives in such an environment. Even if one's metabolism uses sugar well without storing fat, the toxins that it produces are surely not something one should subject their body's terrain to so much, especially with age. The same may be true about certain meats (at least in current amounts) which I am currently researching. And lastly, I just need more live foods. Period. I believe if I were to simply change that, I could buy myself the added energy and alertness I've been praying for, as well as a reduced risk of illness in so many ways. 

So I'm wising up.-And it's about time.
Below is my current outline for better health for the DH and me. 
We have a lot of work to do, but it's so worth it.

The Goal:

Better Body Terrain

The Work:

✔   Adequate sleep

✔   Adequate fresh air/sunshine

✔   Adequate, varied exercise

✔   Stress management

✔   Joy, self-care

✔   Hydration

✔   Deep breathing

__  Adequate nutrition with fewer supplements

The Plan:
✔  Get suggestions from friends
__  Watch "Food Inc."
__  Re-read "In Defense of Food" (Thanks to my daughter Annie for both of these)
__  Review food sources
__  Draft individual diets
__  Integrate diets into meal plans

Better get to it right now. With a little diligence and a lot of prayer, We'll find success. Thank you to the friends I've polled for ideas. I may share more of them later. Here's to a better health landscape!

Casting Cares...For Real

I was awakened early this morning by...cares. Nothing major, just...cares. One after another until I realized that this was not spicy food, not hormones, not anything other than that same old uneasiness about life's little things that can so easily creep up on us when we forget to, well, cast our cares.

It started with things I need to do tomorrow. Then it made its way through loved ones, their health, jobs, general well-being...Then on to whatever was next on the list. Before I realized it, I had lost my peace somewhat. At this point, I remembered that I was made for better and that I needed to act. I knew how to release. I had done it before, in fact I'd become aware that it needs to be done now and then. Perhaps daily, even. But things get busy and we get caught up. So here I was looking at the ceiling asking God for help. And He showed up. I was instructed to simply breathe. 

That's all. Breathe. Breathe out worry and fear. Breathe in (deeply) confidence and trust.  Each care was to go into a box "over there" and if it came back, it was to go in again. Done. Now leave them alone and enjoy the rest. As if by miracle, my peace came back and I with cleansing tears of gratitude, I was able to roll over and simply go back to sleep. Deep, peaceful, restful. I awoke wondering why I let God's wonderful healing ever get so far away. I truly believe that there are many people who want to know God better, because they know He cares and heals. But they see so many "Godly" people who aren't healed that they wonder where to find the real thing. They know that what He wrote down in the old texts is a literal prescription for the most awesome life ever, but so many people who would die for that book are sadly dying also for their disease, anger and fear. Where is the real life manifestation of God's love and inner peace? Where is it?

I know that for me, it is greatly in casting my cares. -Renewing my mind. -And attitude of gratitude, trite as that has become. But so beautiful. I don't have to worry. I don't. Someone loves me enough to suffer a horrible fate in order to make a cosmic switch which trades my anxiety for His peace. So who am I to not accept it thankfully? I don't understand how it works, but that won't keep me from realizing that it does. Or from taking advantage. Knowing God on a friendship level is amazing. Knowing Him as your healer and peace-maker, wow. It's incredible. I just wish I could show it more in my life so others would want it more for themselves. Oh, well. I'll keep at it, and thank my loving Lord every day for it. And celebrate a great life. Thank You, Father, sooooo much!