Meditation To Help Cancer Survivors Achieve Mind-Body Wellness

Founded in ancient religious and spiritual traditions, mediation is growing in practical acceptance to promote physical relaxation, guide spirituality, and improve our mind-body wellness. Some underestimate the possible health benefits that can be achieved by finding a quiet location, getting into a comfortable posture, and focusing our attention and attitude toward something positive. But, many health care professionals recommend meditation as a treatment option for chronic pain, stress, anxiety, insomnia, depression, as well as symptoms of major chronic illness like heart disease, cancer, and diabetes. For over ten years, it’s measurably improved my experience as a healthy cancer survivor. That, thanks to my mindfulness and meditation mentor, Micki Fine, MEd, LPC.

Here are a few testaments that promote meditation for mind-body wellness. I find them helpful in founding a discussion of meditation and mindfulness with those new to the process.

  1. “In meditation, I can let go of everything. I’m not Hugh Jackman. I’m not a dad. I’m not a husband. I’m just dipping into that powerful source that creates everything. I take a little bath in it.” — Hugh Jackman
  2. “If a person’s basic state of mind is serene and calm, then it is possible for this inner peace to overwhelm a painful physical experience.” — The Dalai Lama
  3. “Once you get the hang of it, the practice of meditation can create just enough space in your head so that when you get angry or annoyed, you are less likely to take the bait and act on it. There’s even science to back this up — an explosion of new research, complete with colorful MRI scans, demonstrating that meditation can essentially rewire your brain.” — Dan Harris
  4. “Meditation is the dissolution of thoughts in eternal awareness or pure consciousness without objectification, knowing without thinking, merging finitude in infinity.” — Voltaire
  5. “Whenever anyone has offended me, I try to raise my soul so high that the offense cannot reach it.” — Rene Descartes
  6. “We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and private: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.” — C.S. Lewis
  7. “I’m a great supporter of transcendental meditation (TM). I’ve been using it for almost 40 years now — and I think it’s a great tool for anyone to have, to be able to utilize as a tool for stress. Stress, of course, comes with almost every business. I think there are enough studies out there that show that TM is something that could benefit anybody. It’s a great system to use. Otherwise, why would I’ve been doing it for all these years, for almost half of my life?” — Clint Eastwood
  8. “Meditation brings wisdom; lack of meditation leaves ignorance. Know well what leads you forward and what holds you back, and choose the path that leads to wisdom.” — Buddha
  9. “Happiness, whether consisting in pleasure or virtue, or both, is more often found with those who are highly cultivated in their minds and in their character, and have only a moderate share of external goods, than among those who possess external goods to a useless extent but are deficient in higher qualities.” — Aristotle
  10. “Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” — Bruce Lee
  11. “In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty, poverty, nor weakness, weakness.” — Henry David Thoreau
  12. “The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.” — Albert Einstein
  13. “In dwelling, be close to the land. In meditation, go deep in the heart. In dealing with others, be gentle and kind. In speech, be true. In ruling, be just. In daily life, be competent. In action, be aware of the time and the season.” — Lao Tzu
  14. “Meditation is such a more substantial reality than what we normally take to be reality.” — Richard Gere
  15. “He who lives in harmony with himself, lives in harmony with the universe.” — Marcus Aurelius
  16. “Your mind is a powerful thing. When you filter it with positive thoughts, your life will start to change.” — Buddha
  17. “A fundamental concern for others in our individual and community lives would go a long way in making the world the better place we so passionately dreamt of.” — Nelson Mandela
  18. “That which we do not bring to consciousness appears in our lives as fate.” — Carl Jung

Category: Cancer

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