wellness news december 2009

Vol. 24 No. 9. DECEMBER 2009Vol. 24 No. 9. DECEMBER 2009

wellness newsonline magazine of the Cancer Support Association

environment, wellness and healing

Cancer Support Association of Western Australia Inc.

celebrate

Patron – His Excellency Dr. Ken Michael AC, Governor of Western Australia

MAKE A WISHTHE POWER OF

POSITIVE INTENTION

BEAT YOUR GENESEPIGENETIC CANCER

PREVENTION & CANCER FIGHTING FOODS

NOURISHING THE NOW

YOU ARE WHAT YOU EAT & HOW YOU EAT

DISEASE CAN BE AN AWAKENINGDISCOVERING THE HEART AND SOUL OF MEDICINE

THE POWER OF SLEEPHOW SLEEP AFFECTS CANCER

ANTIOXIDANT CHRISTMAS A COMPLETE HEALTHY & DELICIOUS CHRISTMAS LUNCH MENU

cc aattata eeetettet reawaken your joy!

news team...

monthly online magazine of the Cancer Support Association

of Western Australia Inc.

Editor Mandy [email protected]

Editorial Consultant Dr. Peter Daale

Wellness News e-magazine is published online and distributed free to members of the Cancer Support Association and subscribers.

Wellness News magazine is dedicated entirely to environment, wellness and healing. The magazine is for people with cancer or serious health issues; for people who are well and want to maintain their good health naturally; and for complementary, alternative and integrative health professionals.

Please enjoy your Wellness experience!

wellness news

...editorial

Dear friends,

In a few short weeks Christmas will be here and with it 2009 draws to a close. The end of one year and dawn of the next presents us with a unique opportunity for both reflection and forward planning.

We can look back over the year and reflect on our achievements and also our regrets. We can smile inwardly as we graciously accept life just as it is in this moment. And we can set positive intentions for the new year – to feel better, live better and make our world the best it can possibly be.

The Christmas edition of Wellness News contains articles, news and information to inspire, uplift and support you through the holiday season. I hope you enjoy the balance of articles

I will leave you with a quote by Agnes M. Pharo which reminds us of the deeper, spiritual significance of Christmas.

“What is Christmas? It is tenderness for the past, courage for the present, hope for the future. It is a fervent wish that every cup may overflow with blessings rich and eternal, and that every path may lead to peace.” Agnes M. Pharo

Happy reading this month! ✦

Love and peace, Mandy

One day seminars for people living with cancer and their carers with a special focus

on accessing key cancer information online, nutrition, and meditation. Held on the fi rst

Friday of every month. 2010 dates: 5th February; 5th March; 2nd April; 7th May; 4th

June from 9.30am-4.30pm.

To book phone CSA 9384 3544NEW CSA members

can attend free!

one day cancer wellness workshop

MEETING THE CHALLENGE!

Life Changing Information for people with cancer presented

by Dr. Peter Daale, Paul Alexander & Bavali Hill

make a wishAs often as possible, I make a wish and I dedicate it to something or someone else. I spend a spare

moment sending out wishes to bring about healing, solutions, joy and love ... whatever is needed, no

matter where in the world.

Every time I make a wish, I feel as though I’m sending out a bubble of good intention ...

something positive and fi lled with hope and love. It may not seem like much ... it may not seem very

practical. Often, it seems that there’s not a lot we can do to help where help is needed – perhaps

because the situation is too far away or our own circumstances prevent us from being able to do

more.

Yet, sending out a wish ... a bubble of positive intention, love and joy ... sets an intent in your life

that has more power than it originally seems. A heart-felt wish can make a diff erence. Try it!

But be careful what you wish for. It might just come true!

Karl Moore

in this edition...features6 WAKING UP IS HARD TO DO!

DISEASE CAN BE AN AWAKENING An interview with Rachel Naomi Remen M.D.

8

14 EPIGENETIC CANCER PREVENTION THROUGH NUTRITION

13 HOW SLEEP AFFECTS CANCER Poor sleep alters hormones which influence cancer cells

PUZZLE Riddles & Brain Teasers

regular

3

15 FOOD & NUTRITION The Mediterranean Diet’s Most Important Ingredient (15); Nourishing the Now (22)

5 IN THE NEWS Common pain medication fuels cancer growth; Brazilian mint tea is an effective alternative to aspirin

24 RECIPES The Antioxidant Christmas Lunch

EDITORIAL 2

22 BEAT YOUR GENES Cancer Prevention Tips and Cancer Fighting Foods

19 THE POWER OF INTENTION You are what you wish for!

Christmas Crossword Across1 Christmas hymn (5) 3 The wise men’s guide (4) 5 The town where Jesus was born (9) 10 The original Santa Claus (5,8) 11 The bird traditionally eaten for Christmas dinner (6) 12 A tradition introduced by Prince Albert (9,4) 16 A lot of angels (4) 17 evergreen plant with white berries (9) 18 Gift from the shepherds (4) 20 Climbing plant (3) 21 One of Santa’s reindeer (5)

Down2 Small brown thrush with a red breast (5) 3 Where Joseph and Mary had to stay (6) 4 The four weeks leading up to Christmas (6) 5 The day after Christmas Day (6,3) 6 The king visited by the wise men (5) 7 Gold, frankincense and ..... (5) 8 A popular addition to the Christmas table (8) 9 Name of the archangel (7) 12 A decorated orange (11) 13 Christmas lasts for ...... days (6) 14 A Christmas tree decoration (6) 15 The army occupying the land at the time (5) 16 Deck the halls with boughs of ..... (5) 19 Baby Jesus’ bed or crib (6) 20 No room for Mary and Joseph here (3)

Answers on page 28. Puzzle from:www.teachingandlearningresources.co.uk

One day seminars for people living with cancer and their carers with a special focus

on accessing key cancer information online, nutrition, and meditation. Held on the first

Friday of every month. 2010 dates: 5th February; 5th March; 2nd April; 7th May; 4th

June from 9.30am-4.30pm.

To book phone CSA 9384 3544NEW CSA members

can attend free!

one day cancer wellness workshop

MEETING THE CHALLENGE!

Life Changing Information for people with cancer presented

by Dr. Peter Daale, Paul Alexander & Bavali Hill

CSA will be closed from 5pm 24th December until 4th January 2010. CSA staff & Executive Committee wish our members & friends a peaceful and happy Christmas and New Year

20 CANCER AND WELLBEING Learn more about the 12 week program starting at CSA early 2010

The Cancer Support Association of Western Australia Inc is a non-

profi t charitable organisation which was established in 1984.

CSA’s key intention is to help people become informed, empowered

and supported on their cancer and wellness journeys. CSA encourages

an integrative, well-informed understanding of health and

treatment options and strategies, and is committed to supporting

all people, regardless of their treatment choices.

CSA supports individuals who are living with cancer, their families, carers and the wider community through the services we provide,

as well as through our widely distributed publications and unique

cancer information website. CSA’s workshops, courses, groups,

and complementary therapies are advertised throughout this

publication and are held at CSA’s premises in Cottesloe unless

otherwise stated.

About the Cancer Support Association

of WA Inc December 2009MONDAYMeditation Made Easy .................................................................................10.00 – 11.30amOngoing Lessons with Bavali Hill. FREE FOR MEMBERS (non-members $5) No bookings necessary.

TUESDAYYoga with Sydel Weinstein ($10 / $5 members) ...................................... 9.30 – 10.30am

Wellness and Healing Open Support Group ............................... 10.00 – 12.00noon with Dr. Angela Ebert and Christine Robbins

Carer’s Wellness and Healing .............................................................. 10.00 – 12.00noonOpen Support Group (1st and 3rd Tues) with Christine Robbins

Reiki Clinic .....................................................................................................12.15pm – 1.30pm

WEDNESDAYLaughter Yoga with Kimmie O’Meara ($3.00) ...................................11.45am – 12.45pm

Please note Laughter Yoga will be 12pm-1pm in 2010

Grief and Loss Open Support Group ................................................... 1.00pm – 3.00pmlast Wednesday of each month with Christine Robbins

Refl exology with Udo Kannapin .......................................................... 10.00am – 2.00pm(appointments available between10am – 2pm)

Chinese Medical Healthcare Qigong ($10/$5 members) ............. 1.30pm –3.00pmwith Master Andrew Tem-Foo Lim

THURSDAYCounselling with Dr. Peter Daale (by appointment) ........................... 1.00pm – 5.00pm

FRIDAYMeeting the Challenge 1 Day Seminar ................................................9.30am – 4.30pm 1ST FRIDAY OF THE MONTH with Dr. Peter Daale (and others).

DAILYWellness Counselling and Information Sessions with Dr. Peter Daale ........................................................................................... by appointment

General Counselling with Dr. Angela Ebert ..................................................by appointmentPhone direct on 0414 916 724 or 9450 6724 or email [email protected]

Go to our website to join the CSA Village and use your Village Card for great discounts at a number

of retail and online outlets. Remember: this is a great way to support CSA as a donation is

made with every purchase!

Join the CSA Village

CSA weekly program...

Please phone CSA on 9384 3544 or check our website for further information. We can help you with information packs, course prices, confi rm course times and make bookings.

Grief & Loss Support Group at CSA

Last group for 2009: Wed 16th Dec. 1-3pm.

Magazine of the Cancer Support Association of WA September 2008www.cancersupportwa.org.auCancer Support Association

December 2009 5WELLNESS NEWS

in the news...

Painkillers known as opiates are widely used to treat both acute and chronic pain. Morphine, in particular, is often used to relieve the pain experienced by cancer patients. But now comes evidence from two new studies that strongly indicates opiate-based painkillers actually fuel the growth and spread of malignancies.

The research presented in Boston on November 18, 2009, at “Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics,” a joint meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, the National Cancer Institute, and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer, advances the concept that opiate drugs are cancer promoters. The research also explains how protecting cancer cells from opiates may reduce cell proliferation, invasion and migration.

The concept that opiate drugs used to help cancer patients might be contributing to cancer recurrence developed about eight years ago from several unrelated clinical and laboratory studies. First, a 2002 palliative care study found patients who received spinal rather than systemic pain relief from opiate drugs lived longer. A short time later, Jonathan Moss, professor of anesthesiology and critical care at the University of Chicago, reported that several cancer patients receiving a selective opiate blocker called methylnaltrexone (MNTX) which was developed in the 1980s to treat opiate-induced constipation lived far longer than they were expected to. Other studies had similar results.

“These were patients with advanced cancer and a life expectancy of one to two months yet several lived for another five or six. It made us wonder whether this was just a consequence of better GI function or could there possibly be an effect on the tumours,” Moss said in a press statement.

Patrick A. Singleton, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at the University of Chicago Medical Centre, along with Moss, Joe G.N. Garcia, MD, professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, and colleagues decided to investigate the many peripheral effects of opiates that might encourage cancer growth and the potential benefits of blocking those effects. In laboratory studies using both cell cultures and mice, the scientists found that morphine did directly rev up the proliferation of tumour cells. It also inhibited the immune response, and promoted angiogenesis (the growth of the blood vessels that help “feed” tumours and allow them to thrive). In the research just presented by Singleton and colleagues, they focused on the mu opiate receptor as a regulator of tumour growth and metastasis and they documented the ability of MNTX to block the cancer-promoting effects of opiates on this receptor.

Bottom line: it appears time for doctors and patients to consider all the side effects of opiate pain relievers, including the fact they may spur cancer to grow. Blocking the cancer-fueling ability of opiates and/or using them for as short a time as possible – or not at all unless absolutely necessary – appears to be the safest, and healthiest course of action. ✦

By Sherry Baker. From: www.naturalnews.com, 27th November 2009.

Common Pain Medication Fuels Cancer Growth

For thousands of years it has been prescribed by traditional healers in Brazil to treat a range of ailments from headaches and stomach pain to fever and flu.

Now for the first time, researchers at Newcastle University have been able to scientifically prove the pain relieving properties of Hyptis crenata – otherwise known as Brazilian mint.

Testing this ancient South American herb on mice, the team led by researcher Graciela Rocha was able to show that when prepared as a ‘tea’ – the traditional way to administer the medicine – the mint was as effective as a synthetic aspirin-style drug Indometacin.

The research was presented recently at the 2nd International Symposium on Medicinal and Nutraceutical Plants in New Delhi, India, and will appear in the society’s journal Acta Horticulturae.

Now the Newcastle University team plan to launch clinical trials to find out how effective the mint is as a pain relief for people.

Graciela explains: “Since humans first walked the earth we have looked to plants to provide a cure for our ailments – in fact it is estimated more than 50,000 plants are used worldwide for medicinal purposes.

“Besides traditional use, more than half of all prescription drugs are based on a molecule that occurs naturally in a plant.

“What we have done is to take a plant that is widely used to safely treat pain and scientifically proven that it works as well as some synthetic drugs. Now the next step is to find out how and why the plant works.”

What the study showedIn order to mimic as closely as possible the traditional treatment, the Newcastle University team first carried out a survey in Brazil to find out how the medicine is typically prepared and how much should be consumed.

The most common method was to produce a decoction, a process whereby the dried leaves are boiled in water for 30 minutes and allowed to cool before being drunk as a ‘tea’.

The team found that when the mint was given at a dose similar to that prescribed by traditional healers, the medicine was as effective at relieving pain as the Indometacin.

Graciela, who is herself Brazilian and remembers being given the tea as a cure for every childhood illness, adds: “The taste isn’t what most people here in the UK would recognize as a mint.

“In fact it tastes more like sage which is another member of the mint family. Not that nice, really, but then medicine isn’t supposed to be nice, is it?” ✦

By Graciela Rocha. Source: www.eurekalert.org, 24th November 2009

Have a cup of Brazilian mint tea instead

www.cancersupportwa.org.au

WELLNESS NEWS

environment • wellness • healing

December 2009 6

Every Wednesday from 1:30pm to 3pm in the Sun Room at CSACost $5.00 (CSA members) or $10.00 per class

Phone CSA reception for more details on 9384 3544.

Bookings not necessary.

at CSA with Master Andrew Lim

You see, I want a lot.

Perhaps I want everything

the darkness that comes with every infi nite fall

and the shivering blaze of every step up.

So many live on and want nothing

And are raised to the rank of prince

By the slippery ease of their light judgments

But what you love to see are faces

that do work and feel thirst.

You love most of all those who need you

as they need a crowbar or a hoe.

You have not grown old, and it is not too late

To dive into your increasing depths

where life calmly gives out its own secret.

~Rainer Maria Rilke, Das Stundenbuch

In my midthirties, I’d noticed a remarkable number of clients coming to consult me with some version of the story [my friend] Paula and I were living out. These were adults with a reasonably functional sense of self, who’d managed to establish themselves at least tolerably well in life, finding satisfying work and developing stable relationships. They often showed up at my office because they had symptoms of depression or anxiety, sometimes psychosomatic symptoms, or what appeared at first glance to be unresolved identity issues.

But while the story changed, the core problem was often remarkably similar. Some disappointment in work or in love, some illness, or some breakdown in the familiar structures of their life, or perhaps something more positive, like a love affair or a serious promotion at work, had awakened them from the trance of their daily life. A crisis had forced them to look under the surface of things. In the process of falling apart these clients had been forced to discover a richness of inner resources they had not known existed. And in the process, they found a hidden depth to themselves and the world around them.

Dennis’s fifty-million-dollar company went bankrupt just as he reached his fifty-fifth birthday. As he worked through this devastating loss over the course of two years in therapy, he discovered that in many ways it was a blessing in disguise. He was, for the first time in his adult life, free to pursue his deepest inner passion – painting. By the end of our therapy, he wondered aloud whether he might have unconsciously engineered the business failure so his soul could find its expression in art.

When Dennis came to see me, he was not sick. He simply needed support in his search for the self he had not, at first, realized he had lost. The internal structures of meaning around which he’d built a complicated and seemingly full life during his first twenty-five years of adulthood no longer served his deepest internal needs and longings. Through the apparently disastrous drama of bankruptcy, he was actually being initiated into a new but hidden aspect of his humanness.

Emily, a thirty-six-year-old physician who worked as a top administrator in a large oncology centre, spent a year and a half undergoing treatment for breast cancer. Though the treatment was successful, the experience turned her life inside out, and through the course of her therapy she reevaluated her values and decisions about work. She and her family made the

By Stephen Cope

waking is hard up

to do!



Every Wednesday from 1:30pm to 3pm in the Sun Room at CSACost $5.00 (CSA members) or $10.00 per class

Phone CSA reception for more details on 9384 3544.

Bookings not necessary.

at CSA with Master Andrew Lim

decision to move to their farm an hour from the city, where she set up a smaller practice, specialising in women’s medicine, and began developing the property into a working farm.

By the time he reached his thirty-fifth birthday, many of my friend Jim’s career goals had been met. He had developed his own software business, and had sold the business to an eager buyer for almost ten million dollars. Jim spent the next two years feeling anxious, depressed and restless, moving from one business pipe dream to another until, in the process of therapy, he realized that the second half of his life would look extremely different from the first half. He could not use the familiar pattern of his early adulthood to find the prototype for the second half of life. He would have to look deeper. Through a courageous inquiry, Jim discovered that his heart’s desire was to live simply, to teach yoga, to learn the violin, and to write the coming of-age novel he had had in his head for many years.

As I looked more carefully at the dilemmas of friends like Paula and Jim, of clients like Dennis and Emily, and at my own dilemmas at midlife, I discovered that for many of us, the developmental tasks of the second half of life are primarily spiritual. Carl Jung had come to the same conclusion fifty years before:

Among my patients in the second half of life – that is to say, over thirty-five – there has not been one whose problem in the last resort was not that of finding a spiritual outlook on life. It is safe to say that every one of them fell ill because he had lost the way the living religions of every age have given to their followers, and none of them has been really healed who did not regain his spiritual outlook.

Jung believed that at midlife, most of us have refined our external selves, what he called the persona, the mask we wear to assure some stable, ongoing sense of identity. In his view, the persona represents only one limited aspect of the personality and by midlife, most of us are outgrowing it. At some point during the middle years, Jung said “the glowing coals of consciousness buried deep within the personality begin to break into flames.” When this occurs, the hitherto repressed and hidden aspects of the self may seem to overwhelm the conscious self, initiating a difficult period of disorganization of the personality.

The developmental demands of this newly awakening self are enormous, but they are mostly overlooked in our culture. While the awakenings of early adulthood, which are mostly about identity, are culturally supported with rituals and celebrations – weddings, graduations, ordination, baptisms – the more subtle spiritual awakenings of the middle years are culturally invisible. Jung was outraged by this.

Are there not colleges for forty-year-olds which prepare them for their coming life and its demands as the ordinary colleges introduce

our young people to a knowledge of the world? No, thoroughly unprepared we take the step into the afternoon of life; worse still, we take this step with the false assumption that our truths and ideals will serve us as hitherto. But we cannot live the afternoon of life according to the programme of life’s morning; for what was great in the morning will be little as evening, and what in the morning was true will at evening have become a lie.

Somewhere in the middle years of life, Dennis, Emily, Jim, Paula, and I were ready for a deep new pilgrimage to the centre to find what Jung called “the whole self.” And for each of us in our own way, the return to the centre of the self was inextricably linked with the return to God. Jung believed that the symbols for the self are indistinguishable from the symbols for God, and that the journey to the centre of the self and the journey to God are one of the same. But in order to find this centre it was necessary for each of us, in our own way, to deliberately enter the darkness of the unconscious, to begin what Jung called the “night sea journey.” This entry into the unknown began, for each of us, a period of disorganization and metamorphosis that would eventually allow us to accomplish the goals of the second half of life – the integration of opposites, bringing into awareness all the banished aspects of the self.

Many of us found that it was in the quiet moments of life that we picked up the thread of an altogether new sense of realness: Dennis found it in front of his canvas, Emily in quiet moments with animals and family members on her farm, Jim in his writing, Paula at Quaker meeting, and I found it in yoga. All of us discovered that when the sensory overload was turned way down, the connection with that elusive centre seemed remarkably automatic. Insight arose, along with happiness and a kind of sweetness, even in the midst of pain. Many of us had brief glimpses of living in the flow of life, reconnected to the sources of our energy. We wanted more. Perhaps, in the words of Rilke’s poem, we wanted everything. ✦

Stephen Cope, MSW, psychotherapist and senior Kripalu Yoga teacher, is Di-rector of the Kripalu Institute for Extraordinary Living. He is also the author of several books on yoga and the creator of the Gentle Yoga Kit.

This article is an excerpt from Stephen Cope’s well-known book, Yoga and the Quest for the True Self. Stephen is a consummate yogi, writer, teacher, and psychotherapist (who also has training as a concert pianist). In this book, a must-read for anyone interested in the deeper aspects of yoga, he guides the contemporary reader through the philosophies and practices of yoga in a thoughtful way that demystifies them and brings us to a greater understanding of ourselves. Reprinted with generous permission from Random House, Inc.

Buy the book: Yoga and the Quest for the True Self is available online from www.kripalu.com

By Ravi Dykema

AN INTERVIEW WITH RACHEL NAOMI REMEN, M.D.



RD: You’re a medical doctor with a distinguished career, and you’ve worked with many populations, currently with cancer patients.

RNR: I have to laugh when you say a distinguished career. I am a maverick. I became interested in mind-body health in 1972. There were only about a dozen of who were interested in it-people like Andrew Weil, Jon Kabat-Zinn, Joan Borysenko and others. Initially, I became interested because of my own health. I have Crohn’s Disease. I’ve had major surgery eight times. I no longer have most of my intestine. And I became ill when I was 15. It changed me profoundly, the way life-threatening illness changes people.

My own experience in the first 10 years of my illness were intense and enlightening. I was enraged all the time. And I had a sense that there was something growing in me, something which had no voice, which I couldn’t really talk about or explain, but which was absolutely whole. Then I began to notice it growing in my patients as well. And, you know, at that time, there was no thinking like this, that “Maybe there’s a healthy way to have a disease.” Maybe as the body becomes challenged, something in the person responds and becomes stronger. There were no tools, even, to enable this process. In fact, nobody thought the process was happening. From my own experience, I began to wonder if we understood illness at all, or if it was something completely different than what I had been taught about in medical school.

RD: How had you been taught about illness in medical school, and how was it different in your discoveries?

RNR: In medical school, illness is basically about the doctor. I was taught that I had to make the diagnosis, I had to select the treatment. If I was not successful, you would not have a good outcome. And the only outcome was physical. It was all about the body, about biological repair. And I took credit-or blame-for the outcome. I was in the centre of the stage.

During all this time, I was a patient as well. And the experience I had as a patient didn’t fit with the picture of illness I had been given as a doctor. I have been ill for 48 years.

RD: Had your doctor succeeded or failed in your case?

RNR: According to what I was taught about healing, my doctors have failed miserably. It began to come to me that unless doctors engaged this thing that was growing in sick people, unless they addressed healing, which is always possible, even when cure isn’t, we were failing people. I started talking about my theory, that we have been failing our patients for years. It was not very well received.

And I had gone to Esalen Institute. There are times when you’re on some straight and narrow path, and something happens in your life, and you start off in a different direction. Sometimes we don’t even realize it’s happened. It may be one tiny little thing, like a single workshop, and your whole life path will be different.

The associate director of the medical clinic at Stanford came to me one day and put some colored papers on my desk-I can remember this very clearly because it was an important turning point in my life-and said “There’s a place called Esalen Institute, and they want a dozen doctors to come down there. They’re working on something called the human potential movement, and there’s a woman down there who wants to see if these ideas have anything to do with health and illness and the recovery from disease.”

At the time, Esalen was the centre of one of the largest revolutions in thinking and perspective in the last century, but I’d never heard of it. That’s how insulated medicine is. When he explained what Esalen Institute is, my first thought was “Oh, what a great way to meet men,” because I had just broken up with my fella. And so I went.

If you had asked me at that time what my life path was, I would have told you: I was going to be the first female head of the department of pediatrics on the west coast

Rachel Naomi Remen, MD, may have

discovered what traditional medicine has long

been missing: heart and soul. Author of the

best-selling Kitchen Table Wisdom: Stories

That Heal (Riverhead Books, 1997), Remen

has plenty of stories herself. She’s a medical

educator, pioneering healer and survivor of

a life-threatening illness. And as one of the

pioneers of the mind-body health movement,

she’s helping people to learn more about heart

and soul in healing.

Remen is a graduate of Cornell Medical School

and received her post-graduate training

at Cornell and Stanford. She also holds an

honorary PhD in health psychology from

California Institute of Integral Studies and an

honorary PhD in Humane Letters from John F.

Kennedy University. Currently, she’s a clinical

professor of Family and Community Medicine at

the University of California San Francisco School

of Medicine, where she has won numerous

teaching awards and academic recognition

for returning humanity to the practice of

medicine. Her book, My Grandfather’s Blessing

was released earlier in 2001. In this interview,

Remen talks to the publisher of Nexus, Ravi

Dykema, about heart and soul in medicine,

telling our stories and fi nding a new defi nition

of healing.

continued on next page...


WELLNESS NEWS


December 2009 10

who was a woman. Every move I had made professionally for 10 years prior to that was towards this single goal. And I think that if I had understood at that moment that this choice of going to Esalen Institute would mean giving up pediatrics entirely, resigning from the prestigious faculty position that I was in and being a medical outcast for about 12 years, I would never have gone down there.

RD: So you weren’t searching for a new course, or a new path?

RNR: No, I wasn’t. I was very much on track. But I think the soul takes us by whatever handle is sticking out, and moves us along in a direction that serves its purposes. And it may be years before we understand where we’re really going-half that time we think we’re going somewhere else. So I went down there to meet men. But that’s not what happened.

When I went to Esalen, I met Sukie and Stewart Miller, who had a residency program in which, once a month, doctors spent the whole weekend with one of the seminal thinkers of the time, like Elmer Green, who wrote Beyond Biofeedback, or George Leonard. These amazing people would sit with us and talk about the growing edge of their thinking, stuff we had never heard of. We would practice those new ideas, like biofeedback or Aikido. Then we would come back to the Bay Area and have meetings to see how either the thing itself, or the principles behind it, might have something to do with illness, health and the recovery of health.

RD: And you discovered it did, and that changed the course of your life?

RNR: Yes, it did. The interesting thing is, there were 11 men in this program and me. At the end of the program, they all went back to their respective practices. And I quit Stanford and began doing what I do now. There was only one of us who went on. Isn’t that interesting? It seems like the weekend with George Leonard, when he introduced us to Aikido, gave me a completely different sense of my own relationship to my illness. In western medicine, the opponent comes at you, and you either overcome the opponent or you are overcome by it. But in Aikido, you take your energy and you blend it with the energy of the attack, and you go off on a vector in a new direction with a new perspective that you would never have without the attack. And at the end of the encounter, the Aikido master thanks the opponent for the gift of his energy, which has allowed the new perspective, the new direction to be born.

That’s what had happened to me when I became ill. It was like an Aikido encounter, and I learned that perhaps there’s a way to deal with an illness as an honorable opponent and thank it for the new perspective, the greater ability to live from the heart and from the soul that it brought into your life. The minute George described this to us, it was like it all came together. I understood how all of the experiences in my previous 17 years or so related to this illness, and I saw that everyone around me who was ill was struggling to find this same way. They were struggling to use illness as a force for growth in their lives. And it’s the nature of suffering to be a force for growth unless we get stuck in anger or self-pity or something like that.

RD: You said earlier that even if someone is terminally ill, they can still find healing.

RNR: Many people die more whole than they’ve ever lived. Anything can be used to bless the life in others, or anything can be turned into something that blesses your own life. I’ve seen people bless the life in others by the way in which they die. A blessing is not about butterflies and rainbows. It’s about the power of the human spirit.

Illness, injury or disease can be an awakening, rather than a setback. Suppose you suffer what some people may call a misfortune, and you find yourself thinking, “Now I’m back to the financial state I was in five years ago,” or “Now I’m alone again,” or “Now I can no longer do my sport because I’ve broken my ankle.” These are opportunities to discover who you are – who you really are – and what’s important to you. They’re opportunities to live life more passionately, more fully than you have ever dreamed.

RD: Let’s say you have a chronic pain that you didn’t have before. And the pain makes you unable to hike in the mountains. And you loved hiking. How could that possibly be a rich opportunity to find your true self?

RNR: It depends on how a person reacts. For some people, it’s an opportunity to be a victim for the rest of their lives. Other people will look at not just the activity that they can’t do anymore, but why that activity is important. What’s the meaning of it? And they will find other ways to have that meaning in their lives, usually ways that are much more profound than the way they’ve lost. I was thinking about a young man that I saw years ago. He was a football player, who no longer played football because of a sports injury. He spent about eight years trying to destroy himself with alcohol and cars and just about anything you can use. And in the course of our working together, he got a sense of what football was really about for him. He understood what it meant to be a part of a team, to have a passionate common goal with other people, to move past the obstacles to victory as he saw it. He realized he could still do those things, except he could no longer do them on the football field, and he became an innovative psychologist, whose name you would know. He has done a great deal of work with groups-in fact, a lot of what we know about groups and group process comes from his work. I think he’d probably be a retired football player living in the past, now that he’s about 50. It’s really all about the will to live. I think there’s something in people that struggles towards wholeness. It’s very much a part of essential human nature.

RD: So it’s more than just a will to live, it’s a yearning for wholeness.

RNR: Yes – the will to wholeness. The will to manifest one’s dream of oneself. Even though you may not be able to say in words what that dream is, and it may exist deep in your unconscious. The Buddhists talk about the Buddha seed in an individual, that part of us that can become more Buddha-like, more whole. These are not static things. This is a dynamic thing. And the will to live manifests itself often as anger. When you wreck your knee, or you get a diagnosis like Crohn’s Disease, anger is usually the first expression of your will to live. It was for me. I was enraged for 10 or 12 years. I hated all the well people. I was unfairly a victim, and it was all your fault that I was a victim.

I remember walking down a beach in the New York City area and feeling that this disease had robbed me of my youth and so many opportunities. I was thinking that other people my age had

...from previous page



I remember feeling that this disease had robbed me of my youth and so

many opportunities. I was thinking that other

people my age had so much energy and power.

And suddenly this rage came up in me, and I

recognised it for what it was – that very deep

inside me, I loved life. I wanted to celebrate

life. And I had a power in me that wanted to

do that. But I had been expressing it in the form

of anger. ”

“

so much energy and power. And suddenly this rage came up in me, and I recognized it for what it was – that very deep inside me, I loved life. I wanted to celebrate life. And I had a power in me that wanted to do that. But I had been expressing it in the form of anger.

Some of the esoteric teachings talk about energy and energy form. The energy is chi, the life force. The energy form is anger, love, whatever it is. And I realized that I couldn’t own my power if I kept running it through the energy form of anger. I understood that I needed to experience the will to live, the love of life, directly, and that I could not live my life as an angry person. I felt liberated, as if I had reclaimed my power from something that had held me captive, which was my anger. I’m seeing this happen to many other people now who are in the process of healing from a disease – not necessarily in the process of curing. Curing is about expertise. Healing is about a human relationship. We’re all healers. It takes years to learn how to cure. And that’s a very limited approach to something like an illness.

RD: Do you think one’s attitude, let’s say of shifting from a reaction of anger to one of appreciation or gratitude, could change a medical condition?

RNR: Sometimes. There is a connection between the mind and the body that works both ways. But if we look at that relationship and assume that we use the mind to cure the body, it’s a limited view. This is not about a cure. Is there a change in the medical condition? Sometimes, sometimes not. Is there a change in the person? Always. Our real power may not be to influence our body. It may be to influence ourselves, to grow beyond the challenge of an illness and free yourself from it by living beyond it.

There’s a funny little story in my book My Grandfather’s Blessings called “Eggs.” It has to do with my grandmother, Rachel, who came from Russia, a place where she and the family were often hungry. When she got to America, her kitchen was bursting with food. Even so, nothing was to be wasted. Even the tea bags were used twice. Her icebox was always filled to the brim, and if somebody opened the door without caution, an egg might fall out and break on the kitchen floor. And my grandmother would always have the same response to this: She would look at the broken egg and say, “Aha! Today we have a sponge cake!”

When I first became ill, I was about 15 years old and I was told I would be dead by the time I was 40. I was told there was no cure, that no one even knew what this disease was about and that I would have multiple surgeries. My mother was there with me, and I remember turning towards her for some kind of comfort. But she didn’t comfort me. She did something rather spectacular. She took me by the hand and said “Rachel, we will make a sponge cake.” And you know, it’s taken years to find my own recipe. But in that moment, I had a sense that something was possible that my doctors had no idea about.

RD: I imagine that making sponge cake in such a situation reduces your suffering a lot, whereas believing that you are weak or chronically ill or terminally ill involves a lot of suffering.

RNR: It involves what I would call unnecessary suffering. There’s enough suffering from the illness itself-we don’t want to be visiting unnecessary suffering on people. I think many people feel diminished by their illness, because they’ve identified themselves with their body. We have bodies, but we are not our bodies. It’s not who I am. I myself am a person of considerable power, with the capacity for love, understanding, wisdom and seeing meaning. Even though I don’t have the physical stamina to walk three blocks, I’m a person of power-probably more power than when I was able to run three blocks. It’s important not to identify with something as impermanent as the body, when there’s something in all of us that is not impermanent. That something is probably who we really are.

One of the things I do is run a large continuing medical education curriculum, a series of retreats for the California Medical Association. For the past 10 years, I’ve run a course at the medical school called “The Healer’s Art.” It’s a student-initiated elective, which means it bypasses the curriculum committee. I take a different approach than what I think is the norm in any medical school.

First-year students are on fire with the spirit of service. They come in filled with gratitude for an opportunity to use their lives to help others. Four years later, they’re filled up with facts, cynical, depressed, numb. So the first thing I say to them is, “You are already doctors. You just don’t have any facts yet. The whole trick of your training will be to remember the facts without forgetting what it feels like to be a real physician, which is the way you feel right

continued on next page...


WELLNESS NEWS


December 2009 12

now.” I tell them that what they know and who they are is as important as anything they’re going to learn in school, in terms of being able to help people. We engage them in the preservation of their humanity, and we create a community which supports a different set of values than the dominant medical culture supports. It’s a way of taking on the shadow of medicine, if you want to look at it that way.

The conventional values are the ones that most people are aware of: expertise; a certain kind of professionalism, which involves distance; a certain kind of control; a belief that the heart and soul are somewhat irrelevant to the task at hand. I’ve seen it affect doctors like a disease. We have to heal that, to recover from it, and it can be a long, slow process. I’m still recovering.

RD: What did your “recovery” look like?

RNR: A lot of it had to do with the writing of my books. When I started to write my other book, Kitchen Table Wisdom, I didn’t know how to write. I didn’t even know what I was writing. But I had this wonderful editor who said, “We have no outlines, no proposals. Why don’t you just write down 400 pages of what’s important to you and we’ll sort it out.” I don’t know how to write, but I have been telling stories for years. So I tell the computer a story, and then I tell it another story. And then I can remember another story, so I tell the computer that story. It’s like a meditation, for 14 months in the end. I told the computer story after story, until I could remember the stories from my early childhood. They just kept coming up. At my deadline, I had 400 pages, but it wasn’t a book. It was just a bunch of stories. I sent it off to the editor with an apology, and a note saying “It will take me another four weeks to write the book, and I’m starting now.” She called me back and said, “Stop writing. It’s done.” I was horrified. I said, “I can’t write a book of stories.” She said, “Why not?” And I said, “Well, it doesn’t have any footnotes. It won’t have any credibility.” (These things die hard, you see!) And she said, very slowly, “Rachel, I think you’re about to discover what real credibility looks like.”

These books have been the final step in the healing of the wounding of my training, which taught me that the intellect is everything, and that nothing else is nearly as significant. These stories are about the heart. They’re about the soul. They’re about what I think medicine is really about. And the thing that’s so interesting, of course, is that Kitchen Table Wisdom is now a textbook in 34 medical schools. Since it was published, I’ve received close to 10,000 letters. What I’ve discovered is that the world isn’t made up of facts. The world is made up of stories, and it’s stories that empower us and change us.

RD: What do you mean by stories?

RNR: Everybody has stories. In the old days, we’d sit around the kitchen table and share stories. That’s how Kitchen Table Wisdom got its name. And the stories help us to live better. A story is like a compass. It points to what’s important. And no two people read a story in the same way.

There’s a book called Crow and Weasel by Barry Lopez, in which he talks about the power of story. He says sometimes people need a story more than food in order to live. That’s why we put these stories in each other’s memories. When I first became ill, I needed a story. I needed a story about the possibility of breaking through an obstacle, about the life force, about mystery. I think

the first book, Kitchen Table Wisdom, was the book I needed to read when I was 14 or 15 years old, when I got sick. I think the story is more important than the fact.

RD: So you became your own story, and then you realized it and you told it.

RNR: The story we all need is our own story. Most of us don’t know our own story. For me, both of my books are memoirs. But when you tell your stories without putting yourself in the middle of them, they become everybody’s stories. These are stories about me, but they’re also stories about everybody, which is why I think people respond.

RD: If a person doesn’t plan to write a book, they can still tell their story. How would you suggest they do that?

RNR: I suggest they do it the way people have done it for thousands of years: by telling their stories. We have something called “Finding Meaning in Medicine Circles,” which I think of as AA for recovering doctors. Doctors are being asked to function below their level of excellence by the present medical system, and so something in them, something that has made medicine what it is for thousands of years, is eroding and dying. This is a way for those people to strengthen themselves. Story strengthens us.

I suggest people find three or four friends to meet with once a month. You meet in someone’s living room, and you start with the first topic. The one we recommend to people is compassion. The price of admission to this group is to bring a story about compassion from your personal or professional life, or from literature or a poem. The whole evening is simply about everyone telling whatever it is they brought. It becomes a community of inquiry, a discovery process, and it validates compassion as something to be cultivated. Then the group will choose another topic-for example, suffering. And people bring their own stories about suffering. And you get to look at all the different kinds of suffering. Six people telling their stories have enormous power to show each other the direction of wholeness. Not just personally, but also professionally.

RD: What message would you like to leave us with?

RNR: I’m not one for messages. I think most messages are the ones that we discover are written on the reverse side of our own hearts. The only message I have is for me. But in a general way, I think our whole culture has persuaded us to give up our power. We don’t even know what our real power is. We think it has something to do with our expertise, our technical skills. And I think the important thing for people to realize is that expertise does not make you whole, and it will not make the world whole either. It’s going to take our hearts to do that. It’s going to take something different to make the world whole.

You can’t talk about a single individual struggling to become whole without talking about the whole world. It’s the same struggle, and it’s the same power that will make us whole. We’ve turned away from it, and we need to turn back towards it. What that will look like for each person is as unique as their own fingerprints. But just knowing that there is this possibility of living whole is very important, because if you don’t know, then you never search. ✦

Reprinted with permission from Nexus Publishing, Colorado’s Holistic Journal. Nexus promotes holistic health and natural living through their publications and website: www.nexuspub.com.

...from previous page



“Getting a good night’s sleep is fairly simple, if you allow yourself to do it. The big problem for cancer patients is they take too much on themselves and don’t give enough time to help their bodies cope with the illness. They’re worried about burdening their families and fulfilling their usual obligations.”

And that’s the real message of his study, in the October issue of Brain,Behavior and Immunity. Itindicates the importance of good sleep as one of several mind-body factors that might influence cancer outcome.

Sleep, Stress, and CancerPrevious research, including some noted in Spiegel’s study, shows that cancer patients who manage their stress in group therapy, with good social networks, or with regular exercise often fare better than patients who don’t manage stress effectively.

“We know that people who are depressed or anxious have a specific pattern of sleep disturbances. And if you had a bad night’s sleep, you don’t handle stress as well,” says Spiegel. Conversely, those who better manage stress are more likely to have good sleep patterns.

Just last week, Swedish researchers said women under a lot of stress may double their risk of breast cancer compared with those who remain calm when life throws them a curveball.

“My advice for cancer patients is to try to handle stress well,” says Spiegel. “By doing all the things your grandmother told you to do – eat well, sleep well, and get plenty of exercise – you’re helping your body cope better with the disease.”

“The bottom line of this report is that there is enough information to take seriously the idea that how our bodies respond to cancer is influenced by more than just the surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation. It can be influenced by stress and sleep, and these are two pieces in the puzzle that shouldn’t be overlooked.” ✦

From: www.webmd.com

Poor Sleep Alters Hormones That Infl uence Cancer Cells

A new study shows that how well you sleep may determine how well your body fights cancer – and may help explain how mental well-being plays into cancer recovery and progression.

After analyzing previous studies, Stanford University psychiatrist David Spiegel, MD, and colleague Sandra Sephton, MD, say that sleep problems alter the balance of at least two hormones that influence cancer cells.

Sleep, Hormones, and CancerOne is cortisol, which helps to regulate immune system activity – including the release of certain “natural killer” cells that help the body battle cancer. Cortisol levels typically peak at dawn, after hours of sleep, and decline throughout the day.

Spiegel tells WebMD that night shift workers, who have higher rates of breast cancer than women who sleep normal hours, are more likely to have a “shifted cortisol rhythm,” in which their cortisol levels peak in the afternoon. At least two studies show those women typically die earlier from breast cancer.

“We also found that people who wake up repeatedly during the night are also more likely to have abnormal cortisol patterns,” he says.

Cortisol is the so-called “stress” hormone triggered, along with others, during times of anxiety and may play a role in the development and worsening of cancer and other conditions.

The other hormone affected by sleep is melatonin. Produced by the brain during sleep, melatonin may have antioxidant properties that help prevent damage to cells that can lead to cancer.

In addition, melatonin lowers estrogen production from the ovaries. Thus, a lack of sleep leads to too little melatonin. This series of events may expose women to high levels of estrogen and may increase the risk of breast cancer.

Spiegel says that women shift workers who are up all night produce less melatonin. “There’s a definite hormonal pattern that is affected by sleep that in itself, can predict a more rapid progression of cancer.”

How SLEEP Affects Cancer


WELLNESS NEWS


December 2009 14

Epigenetic Cancer Prevention through Nutrition

Be Nice To Your EpigenomeWhat is your epigenome? You are born with genes that you inherit and can’t change, which is your genome. But you can readily influence what was once called “junk DNA” and molecular substances around the DNA, which is part of the epigenome.

This complex set of molecular level processes and compounds are closely inter-related to the DNA and act like switches that turn genes on or off in specific areas and under specific circumstances. If you visualize your genes as ballet dancers that are ready to perform and your cell nucleus as a stage, the epigenome represents the choreography. You can imagine how the performance can vary from cell to cell, or imaginary stage to stage, despite the fact that the genes or imaginary dancers are exactly the same.

Modifications within the epigenome take a number of forms, and we are discovering more. The most well-known of these is “methylation,” whereby methyl groups, small biochemical “particles” made up carbon and hydrogen, are added to DNA. These gene areas are generally correlated with low activity. Also, special proteins, called histones, are the molecular glue which holds the long DNA strands within the nucleus. These are also affected by methylation and by other biochemicals. These are simple examples of a very complex set of processes which it turns out can apparently be influenced by environment, particularly what you breath or ingest.

Epigenetics and CancerThe relationship between epigenetics and cancer is far from clear in general, and certainly for any specific cancers like ovarian. However, we know that cancer cells have relatively low levels of DNA methylation, which is known to switch off tumour suppressor genes. Studies have been conflicting, but it is clear that many biochemicals affect methylation. The idea is that what you ingest affects the level of biochemicals which then affect methylation and gene expression.

Although diet is hard to study on a large population basis, there are a number of well designed studies published in both alternative and well respected mainstream medical journals which show diet modification to be effective in disease prevention and management. Some of the effects might be direct, such as sugars affecting blood glucose levels, but some are likely to be epigenome modification phenomena. A large study spanning decades called the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) is underway which will shed some more light on this relationship.

So, even though the medical evidence is still developing, this may certainly point to the reason that well nourished people on known “healthy diets” develop less cancer or other chronic illnesses common in the West. The good news is that finding a diet

By Steven Vasilev, M.D



that fits this theory and holding to it is not a dangerous fad or high dose supplement adventure which may help, but can also harm you. It is simply looking at the science as it develops and picking food groups that are balanced but generally support the scientific evidence.

Epigenome Methylation FoodsThe league leading foods and herbs that support prevention by the epigenome methylation theory are green tea, cruciferous vegetables, foods laden with folic acid (leafy vegetables, beans, peas, sunflower seeds and liver), fortified whole grain breads, and non-sugar supplemented breakfast cereals.

A good source that boosts methylation is the essential amino acid methionine, which is called essential because the human body does not synthesize it. Foods that are rich in methionine are spinach, garlic, brazil nuts, kidney beans or tofu, chicken, beef and fish. For many reasons, chicken and fish are preferable to a lot of red meat.

Choline, which is an essential nutrient that is grouped within the B Vitamin complex, is another great source for methylation processes. Foods rich in choline are eggs, lettuce, peanuts and liver.

Zinc helps properly regulate the methylation process, so either supplementation (not mega doses) or eating some oysters will fit the bill here.

Enjoy a Glass of WineWine contains alcohol, which can interfere with folate metabolism and therefore interfere with methylation, when taken in larger quantities. But with moderate consumption, such as a glass per day, there are health benefits from resveratrol (powerful antioxidant from red grape skin), including cancer prevention. This benefit is complex but partly related to switching on specific DNA-repair genes, which are part of the epigenome. In fact, even two buck chuck (cheap wine) can be beneficial due to the presence of betaine, which may explain how the French are healthier than they should be given a high cholesterol diet.

If any of this sounds familiar, a lot of the components mentioned above are part of the Mediterranean Diet, which is widely regarded to be one of the healthiest diets in the world. ✦

From: http://ovariancancer.about.com

When we talk about the Mediterranean Diet, we are not speaking about a specific set or rules for a diet, instead we are talking about habits that have been adhered to that have been linked to the reduction in heart disease, mortality rates and cancer.

Health professionals are in agreement that the diet of those living in the Mediterranean have much healthier eating habits than those living in America and Northern Europe. The Meds consume much larger quantities of things like vegetables, legumes, fruits, grains, nuts and of course, olive oil. Quality olive oil is loaded with antioxidants and monounsaturated fats. When adding an olive oil to your regular diet, look for brands such as Kalamata Extra Virgin Olive Oil, made in the Kalamata region of Greece, as it not only aids in your health, it will also give a flavour boost to your food!

Here is a quick dish that defines the wonderful flavours of the Mediterranean Diet:

Bruschetta with Tomato, Garlic stuffed Olives and Arugula1 loaf bread, Ciabatta¼ C olive oil, extra-virgin2 C vine-ripe tomatoes, peeled and choppedOne half jar Iliada green, garlic stuffed olives, roughly choppedSea salt (to taste)Black Pepper, fresh ground (to taste)One bag baby arugula leaves (make sure you wash them)Fresh basil, shredded and torn

Set oven to 350 degrees and allow to reach temperature. Take loaf of bread and cut into thick slices. Lightly coat bread with olive oil. Place bread on baking tray and put into oven, cook for about eight minutes until you see that it has turned slightly brown around the edges. Combine all ingredients except arugula. When ready to serve, add arugula and combine. Spread tomato mixture evenly across slices of bread and basil as garnish. Serves 6. Makes an excellent appetizer for pasta and soups.

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The Mediterranean Diet’s Most Important Ingredient

Olive Oil


WELLNESS NEWS


December 2009 16 WELLNESS NEWS16 WELLNESS NEWS December 2009 Beat Your Genes!Cancer Prevention Nutrition Tips and Cancer Fighting Foods

By Maya W. Paul and Melinda Smith, M.A

Are you interested in doing all you can to improve your health and fi ght off cancer? Maybe you have a history of cancer in your family or a loved one who’s battling the disease. Maybe

you’re dealing with cancer yourself or trying to prevent a recurrence. Whatever the situation, your dietary choices matter. Some foods actually increase your risk of cancer, while others

support your body and strengthen your immune system. By making smart food choices, you can protect your health, feel better, and boost your ability fi ght off disease.

What you need to know about cancer and dietNot all health problems are avoidable, but you have more control over your health than you may think. Research shows that a large percentage of cancer-related deaths – maybe even the majority – are directly linked to lifestyle choices such as smoking, drinking, a lack of exercise, and an unhealthy diet. Avoiding cigarettes, minimizing alcohol, and getting regular exercise are a great start to an anti-cancer lifestyle. But to best support your health, you also need to look at your eating habits.

What you eat – and don’t eat – has a powerful effect on your health, including your risk of cancer. Without knowing it, you may be eating many foods that fuel cancer, while neglecting the powerful foods and nutrients that can protect you. If you change your diet and behaviours, you can minimize your risk of disease and possibly even stop cancer in its tracks.

Cancer prevention diet tip #1 Focus on plant-based foodsThe best diet for preventing or fighting cancer is a predominantly plant-based diet that includes a variety of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. A plant-based diet means eating mostly foods that come from plants: vegetables, fruits, nuts, grains, and beans.

The less processed these foods are – the less they’ve been cooked, peeled, mixed with other ingredients, stripped of their nutrients, or otherwise altered from the way they cam out of the ground – the better.

There are many ways to add plant-based foods to your diet. A nice visual reminder is to aim for a plate of food that is filled at least two-thirds with whole grains, vegetables, beans, or fruit. Dairy products, fish, and meat should take up no more than a third of the plate. Keep in mind that you don’t need to go completely vegetarian.



Instead, focus on adding “whole” foods, which are foods close to their original form. Just as important, try to minimize or reduce the amount of processed foods you eat. Eat an apple instead of drinking a glass of apple juice, for example. Or enjoy a bowl of oatmeal with raisins instead of an oatmeal raisin cookie.

Simple tips for getting more plant-based foods in your diet

Breakfast: Add fruit and a few seeds or nuts to your whole grain breakfast cereal (oatmeal!).

Lunch: Eat a big salad filled with your favourite beans and peas or other combo of veggies. Always order lettuce and tomato (plus any other veggies you can!) on your sandwiches. Order whole grain bread for your sandwiches. Have a side of veggies like cut up carrots, sauerkraut or a piece of fruit.

Snacks: fresh fruit and vegetables. Grab an apple or banana on your way out the door. Raw veggies such as carrots, celery, cucumbers, jicama, peppers, etc. are great with a low-fat dip such as hummus. Keep trail mix made with nuts, seeds and a little dried fruit on hand.

Dinner: Add fresh or frozen veggies to your favourite pasta sauce or rice dish. Top a baked potato with broccoli and yogurt, sautéed veggies, or with salsa. Replace creamy pasta sauces, with sautéed vegetables or tomato sauce made with healthy olive oil.

Dessert: Choose fruit instead of a richer dessert. Or a single square of dark chocolate.

Cancer prevention diet tip #2 Bulk up on fibreAnother benefit of eating plant-based foods is that it will also increase your fiber intake. Fiber, also called roughage or bulk, is the part of plants (grains, fruits, and vegetables) that your body can’t digest. Fiber plays a key role in keeping your digestive system clean and healthy. It helps keep food moving through your digestive tract, and it also moves cancer-causing compounds out before they can create harm.

Fibre is found in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. In general, the more natural and unprocessed the food, the higher it is in fibre. There is no fibre in meat, dairy, sugar, or “white” foods like white bread, white rice, and pastries.

• Use brown rice instead of white rice • Substitute white bread with whole-grain bread

• Choose a bran muffin over a croissant or pastry • Snack on popcorn instead of potato chips • Eat fresh fruit such as a pear, a banana, or an apple (with the

skin) • Have a baked potato, including the skin, instead of mashed

potatoes • Enjoy fresh carrots, celery, or bell peppers with a hummus or

salsa, instead of chips and a sour cream dip • Use beans instead of ground meat in chili, casseroles, tacos, and

even burgers (bean burgers taste great!)

Cancer prevention diet tip #3Cut down on meatResearch shows that vegetarians are about fifty percent less likely to develop cancer than those who eat meat. So what’s the link between meat and cancer risk? First, meat lacks fiber and other nutrients that have been shown to have cancer-protective properties. What it does have in abundance, however, is fat – often very high levels of saturated fat. High-fat diets have been linked to higher rates of cancer. And saturated fat is particularly dangerous. Finally, depending on how it is prepared, meat can develop carcinogenic compounds.

Making better meat and protein choices

You don’t need to cut out meat completely and become a vegetarian. But most people consume far more meat than is healthy. You can cut down your cancer risk substantially by reducing the amount of animal-based products you eat and by choosing healthier meats.

Keep meat to a minimum. Try to keep the total amount of meat in your diet to no more than fifteen percent of your total calories. Ten percent is even better.

Eat red meat only occasionally. Red meat is high in saturated fat, so eat it sparingly.

Reduce the portion size of meat in each meal. The portion should be able to fit in the palm of your hand.

Use meat as a flavoring or a side, not the entrée. You can use a little bit of meat to add flavor or texture to your food, rather than using it as the main element.

Add beans and other plant-based protein sources to your meals.

Choose leaner meats, such as fish, chicken, or turkey. If possible, buy organic.

Avoid processed meats such as hotdogs, sausage, deli meats, and salami.

Cancer prevention diet tip #4:Choose your fats wiselyA major benefit of cutting down on the amount of meat you eat is that you will automatically cut out a lot of unhealthy fat. Eating a diet high in fat increases your risk for many types of cancer. But cutting out fat entirely isn’t the answer, either. In fact, some types of fat may actually protect against cancer. The trick is to choose your fats wisely and eat them in moderation.

Fats that increase cancer risk The two most damaging fats are saturated fats and trans fats. Saturated fats are found mainly in animal products such as red


WELLNESS NEWS


December 2009 18

meat, whole milk dairy products, and eggs. Trans fats, also called partially hydrogenated oils, are created by adding hydrogen to liquid vegetable oils to make them more solid and less likely to spoil – which is very good for food manufacturers, and very bad for you.

Fats that decrease cancer risk The best fats are unsaturated fats, which come from plant sources and are liquid at room temperature. Primary sources include olive oil, canola oil, nuts, and avocados. Also focus on omega-3 fatty acids, which fight inflammation and support brain and heart health. Good sources include salmon, tuna, and flaxseeds.

Tips for choosing cancer-fighting fats and avoiding the bad

Reduce your consumption of red meat, whole milk, butter, and eggs, as these are the primary source of saturated fats.

Cook with olive oil instead of regular vegetable oil. Canola oil is another good choice, especially for baking.

Check the ingredient list on food labels and avoid anything with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils, which are usually found in stick margarines, shortenings, salad dressings, and other packaged foods.

Trim the fat off of meat when you do eat it, and avoid eating the skin of the chicken.

Choose nonfat dairy products and eggs that have been fortified with omega-3 fatty acids.

Add nuts and seeds to cereal, salads, soups, or other dishes. Good choices include walnuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds, hazelnuts, pecans, and sesame seeds.

Use flaxseed oil in smoothies, salad dressings, or mixed in snacks such as applesauce. But do not cook with flaxseed oil, as it loses its protective properties when heated.

Limit fast food, fried foods, and packaged foods, which tend to be high in trans fats. This includes foods like potato chips, cookies, crackers, French fries, and doughnuts.

Eat fish once or twice a week. Good choices include wild Alaskan salmon, sardines, herring, and black cod. But be conscious of mercury, a contaminant found in many types of fish.

Cancer prevention diet tip #5Choose cancer-fighting foodsYour immune system keeps you healthy by fighting off unwanted invaders in your system, including cancer cells. There are many things you can eat to maximize the strength of your immune system, as well as many cancer-fighting foods. But keep in mind that there is no single miracle food or ingredient that will protect you against cancer. Eating a colorful variety gives you the best protection.

Boost your antioxidants. Antioxidants are powerful vitamins that protect against cancer and help the cells in your body function optimally. Fruits and vegetables are the best sources of antioxidants such as beta-carotene, vitamin C, vitamin E, and selenium.

Eat a wide range of brightly colored fruits and vegetables. Colorful fruits and vegetables are rich in phytochemicals, a potent disease–fighting and immune–boosting nutrient. The greater the variety of colors that you include, the more you will benefit, since different colors are rich in different phytochemicals.

Flavour with immune-boosting spices and foods. Garlic, ginger, and curry powder not only add flavour, but they add a cancer-fighting punch of valuable nutrients. Other good choices include turmeric, basil, rosemary, and coriander. Use them in soups, salads, casseroles, or any other dish.

Drink plenty of water. Water is essential to all bodily processes. It stimulates the immune system, removes waste and toxins, and transports nutrients to all of your organs.

Cancer prevention diet tip #6 Prepare your food in healthy waysChoosing healthy food is not the only important factor. It also matters how you prepare and store your food. The way you cook your food can either help or hurt your anti-cancer efforts.

Preserving the cancer-fighting benefits of vegetables

Here are a few tips that will help you get the most benefits from eating all those great cancer-fighting vegetables:

Eat at least some raw fruits and vegetables. These have the highest amounts of vitamins and minerals, although cooking some vegetables can make the vitamins more available for our body to use.

When cooking vegetables, steam until just tender using a small amount of water. This preserves more of the vitamins. Overcooking vegetables leaches the vitamins and minerals out. For an extra vitamin boost, use the vegetable cooking water in a soup or another dish.

Wash or peel all fruits and vegetables. Use a vegetable brush for washing. Washing does not eliminate all pesticide residue, but will reduce it. ✦

From: www.helpguide.org. Helpguide’s mission is to help people understand, prevent, and resolve life’s challenges through access to information and support.

It comes down to this: Plants have less fat, more fi bre, and more cancer-fi ghting nutrients. These three elements work together to support your immune system and help your body fi ght off cancer.



“It’s hard for me to call it a law. I never liked laws or rules.” Dr. Wayne Dyer, affectionately known as the “father of motivation” by his fans, sits back in his chair, props his bare feet up on the coffee table and shares his unique take on the Law of Attraction. His inviting smile, reassuring blue eyes and relaxed demeanor reflect the warm and loving energy he speaks of so frequently to others.

Dyer has another term for the concept behind the Law of Attraction. He calls it the Power of Intention. His philosophy is pure and simple, “The law of attraction is this: You don’t attract what you want. You attract what you are.”

“Most people’s mistake in trying to apply the law of attraction is they want things; they demand things. But God doesn’t work that way,” continues Dyer. “It’s all about allowing.”Dyer refers to the Tao Te Ching, written by Lao Tzu. “He says in there, 2,500 years ago, if you live from these virtues, then all that you could ever need or want could be provided for you.” Dyer excitedly retrieves his personal copy of the book, leans forward and reads the words that touch him so deeply. He explains how virtue is a very important concept in the Law of Attraction.

“This is called the Hua Hu Ching, written by Lao Tzu. It’s the unknown teachings of Lao Tzu. Number 51 says, ‘Those who want to know the truth of the universe should practice the four cardinal virtues. The first is reverence for all of life. This manifests as unconditional love and respect for oneself and all other beings. The second is natural sincerity. This manifests as honesty, simplicity and faithfulness. The third is gentleness, which manifests as kindness, consideration for others and sensitivity to spiritual truth. The fourth is supportiveness. This manifests as service to others without expectation of reward.”

“All great spiritual masters are teaching what we’re talking about,” says Dyer. “They’re teaching forgiveness. They’re teaching kindness. They’re teaching love. They’re not teaching wanting. They’re not teaching greed.”

So the notion of seeking what you want, or think you need, is not what the Power of Intention is all about. “The ego’s mantra is ‘What’s in it for me? How can I get more? I want a BMW in my driveway next Thursday,’” he explains. “All of that is what most spiritual teachers call the false self – the ego.”

According to Dyer, the process of allowing, just being and embracing this heightened level of consciousness, goes back not to attracting what you want, but attracting what you are.

“You have to just be. You have to let go. You have to allow. You have to be free and make this your consciousness.” He continues, “Basically, what you would see is a frequency (of energy) that manifests itself through the process of giving, of allowing, of offering and of serving. It asks nothing back.”

Dyer illustrates the concept of giving without expectations by quoting the great poet Hafiz: “Even after all this time, the sun never says to the earth ‘you owe me.’”

Excitement and energy permeate the room as Dyer finishes his thought, “Just think of what a love like that can do. It lights up the whole world.” ✦

From: Successful Living magazine. Dr. Wayne Dyer is an internationally renowned author and speaker in the field of self-improvement. He has written more than 30 books – many of which were featured as National Public Television specials – created numerous audio and video programs, and appeared on thousands of tel-evision and radio shows. His new movie, The Shift, is available at HayHouse.com. visit his website at www.drwaynedyer.com and subscribe to his inspirational blog.

The Power of Intention

You are What You Wish For

Even after all this

time, the Sun never

says to the Earth ‘you

owe me.’Hafiz

By Valarie Griebel


WELLNESS NEWS


December 2009 20

THE GAWLER FOUNDATION 12 WEEK CANCER SELF-HELP PROGRAM

Cancer Healing and Wellbeing

This program was developed after Ian Gawler recovered from a very difficult cancer. It was based on the notion that people could be helped to learn key lifestyle and self help techniques that could improve their experience of cancer as well as extend their life.

The program is essentially a self-help group. Each of the 12 weeks has its own theme which establishes a structure for the sharing of participants’ experiences, reinforcing hope, providing health education, clarifying choices and supporting participants’ decisions. There is the ongoing effect of establishing a level of peace of mind which many participants experience to be both profound and sustainable.

The program is run over twelve weeks in a two and a half hour session each Wednesday from 10am to 12.30pm. These sessions cover a range of topics that build upon each other and continue to reinforce potential for health and wellbeing through an integrated approach to healing. Each session aims to impart knowledge about the subject of its focus, to form positive attitudes, to cultivate and support participants’ motivation to be well, and to provide opportunity for active participation and the learning and practice of new skills and behaviours.

Each session focuses upon a specific self-help theme based on a chapter from Ian Gawler’s book You Can Conquer Cancer. There is plenty of time to practice techniques as well as discussions and questions. Meditation instruction and practice is continuous in this program, consolidating knowledge and skills, as a twenty minute meditation practice is built into each weekly session.

Each session is based on the principles of mind body healing. Our bodies have a natural inherent capacity to heal themselves. The principles presented in the program will enable the participants to activate and develop their own healing power, maximizing their body’s potential to restore its natural state of balance and vitality. The program is complementary to any mainstream medical treatment.

Weekly TopicsWeek 1: Introduction and Meditation 1 – Participants introduce themselves to the group and then the purpose, value and preparatory techniques of meditation are discussed and experienced.

Week 2: Meditation 2 – This session provides an in-depth theoretical and practical framework for understanding and practicing meditation. It examines the different types of meditation and introduces the three major pathways covered in the program – Health, Insight and Creative meditation.

Week 3: Mind Training 1 – This session explores the power of the mind, specifically in relation to the connection between positive thinking and healing. This is contextualized within a detailed explanation of how cancer develops, how the body defends itself and how it can heal.

Week 4: Food 1 – This session explains and promotes the principles of good nutrition and a healthy diet appropriate to the healing of cancer and the maintenance of ongoing health and wellbeing. It clarifies people’s motivations, attitudes and intentions around eating, examining them within several key contexts. The principles of a healthy diet specific to healing cancer are then expounded and linked to the capacity of the immune system to fight cancer and other illness.

Week 5: Food 2 – After reviewing the key principles of good nutrition, participants study a handout on anti-cancer properties in foods which leads into an explanation of how metabolically creating a cancer unfriendly environment can stimulate healing. Practical concerns around food

In last month’s Wellness News Cathy Brown shared her personal cancer healing story with readers. This month Cathy talks about the upcoming self-help program soon to start at CSA.

Cathy Brown was diagnosed with malignant melanoma twenty years. Her determination to beat cancer, her wisdom and her grace have been an inspiration to the CSA community for two decades.

Cathy will facilitate the coming Gawler Foundation 12 Week Cancer Self-Help Programme – Cancer, Healing and Wellbeing – which commences at CSA in February 2010. You can register your interest with reception.

This is a fantastic opportunity to learn Ian Gawler’s cancer healing methodology from an inspirational woman who is a living example of how a powerful will to live combined with the commitment to do ‘whatever it takes’ can literally cure cancer.



availability and preparation are discussed as part of the guidelines on how to implement major dietary change.

Week 6: Pain Management – This session explores with participants the nature, reality and purpose of pain. It analyses the challenges and choices a person has in managing pain, including orthodox medical pain management, complementary and meditative treatment options. Three meditative options for pain management (both physical and emotional) are taught: relaxing into the pain (PMR), distraction (passive scene imagery) and directly exploring the pain using imagery and self-dialogue questions.

Week 7: Healing – This session focuses on integrative healing – body, mind, emotions and spirit. It delivers an overview of orthodox medical treatments and explores lifestyle and complementary healing options relevant to cancer. Participants are encouraged to think about the spiritual dimensions of illness and healing and to question how their spiritual view informs their healing and purpose in life.

Week 8: Causes and Solutions for Cancer – This session aims to help participants understand the physical, psychological and spiritual causes of cancer and to realize that making changes in attitudes and behaviour can increase their ability to heal themselves. It begins by addressing the questions ‘Why me?’ and “Is a diagnosis of cancer bad luck or lifestyle related?’ A distinction is made between blame and responsibility, avoiding guilt and emphasizing understanding.

Week 9: Mind Training 2 – The purpose of this session is to continue on from the first Mind Training session and particularly to examine the nature and power of the mind for healing and to equip people with strategies to use this power more effectively. The session reinforces the principles of positive thinking, exploring ways in which people sabotage their personal power and how the use of goals can create and support change.

Week 10: Living and Dying – This session explores attitudes and cultural beliefs around death and dying to counter the associated fear and to improve participants’ chances of healing. Through a series of questions, participants are encouraged to contemplate and to talk about attitudes to their own mortality as a means of overcoming fears. Basic attitudes to healing are reviewed and emphasis is placed on the process of ‘living well’ in preference to the goal of ‘not dying’.

Week 11: Healthy Emotions – This session examines the connection between emotions and our physical, mental and spiritual wellbeing. The impact of emotions on the immune system is studied within the framework of Psychoneuroimmunology i.e. what happens in our body/mind when we experience and express different emotions. Destructive emotions are clearly identified and healthy emotions such as joy, laughter, humour and gratitude are promoted in order to improve healing and quality of life.

Week 12: Philosophy of Health and Wellbeing – This final session of the program summarizes and reinforces the key principles, techniques and strategies and addresses the question ‘Where to from here?’

So, come and join us on 3rd February and enjoy being part of an active and inspirational group of people who are on a journey of self-discovery and reclaiming hope in achieving profound healing and sustainable wellbeing. ✦

Facilitated by Cathy Brown. Starts: Wednesday, 3rd February 2010. 10am to 12.30pm weekly at CSA

The Gawler Foundation 12 Week

Cancer Self-Help Programme

Cancer, Healing & Wellbeing


Cost: $350 per person. Bookings: reception

ON THE PROGRAMME YOU WILL LEARN TO:• Activate your potential

for healing• Relax eff ortlessly and

meditate deeply• Develop and sustain a

positive state of mind• Understand the role of

nutrition and healthy diet for healing

• Develop strategies to manage pain and fear

• Find meaning and purpose in life

WEEKLY TOPICS INCLUDE:Week 1: Introduction and Meditation 1Week 2: Meditation 2Week 3: Mind Training 1Week 4: Food 1Week 5: Food 2Week 6: Pain ManagementWeek 7: HealingWeek 8: Causes and solutions for cancerWeek 9: Mind Training 2Week 10: Living and DyingWeek 11: Healthy EmotionsWeek 12: Health and Wellbeing

“Cancer is a challenge – something you can conquer. Use it to make changes in your life – the things you have always been going to do. Do them now and change them now. Be

open to things you may never have explored before.”


WELLNESS NEWS


December 2009 22

FEEDING WHOLENESSOn a recent trip to New York City, I decided to venture out of my hotel in search of a health food store where I could pick up a few items for breakfast. I asked the young women at the front desk to point me in the right direction. Even at 8:00 a.m., these women were as stoic as the modern columns supporting the lobby ceiling. When I explained that I wanted breakfast, they suggested the hotel’s restaurant. I shook my head, and they asked what I usually ate.

“It varies,” I said, “eggs, greens, yogurt, sometimes fish, quinoa.” My mouth began to water at the thought of my latest breakfast favourite of quinoa, kale, and avocado, which I knew I’d be hard pressed to find in Times Square. At the mention of these foods, the women’s professional composure crumbled. They sparked to life. “I love to eat healthy!” they exclaimed in near unison. “But it’s so hard to eat well here,” the young woman said, glancing around the lobby. “Getting to work by 6:00 a.m. and having 20 minutes for lunch doesn’t leave much time for anything besides the deli next door.” The others were nodding. “You sound so healthy, do you ever cheat?”

Cheat? The question took me by surprise. Cheating would mean I was on a diet, which I’m not. This is my life, I thought. Who would I be cheating?

I told this young woman, who suddenly looked so hungry to me, that in fact I had a slice of baklavah and a cup of Turkish coffee the night before. She didn’t quite know what to make of this. How can healthy and dessert go together in the same breath? Before I encountered nourishment consultant Hale Sofia Schatz’s joyful and heartful approach to food, I felt the same way: you were either on a diet or else it was a free-for-all.

Nourishing myself has become a way of life that I can’t separate from anything else I do. Nourishment means loving and giving to myself, and knowing that I deserve this care and respect. Sometimes that care looks

If you want something to grow, you have to feed it. For anyone who’s ever had a houseplant or pet, this seems obvious. But we don’t necessarily think about applying this natural principle to our own growth and development. According to the pioneering work of nourishment consultant Hale Sofi a Schatz, a secret to vibrant living resides in one of our most common daily activities – how we feed ourselves.

NourishingTHE

NOWBy Shira Shaiman

like a bowl of miso soup, other times it’s a piece of dark chocolate, or a night out dancing. The point is, I stopped swinging on the pendulum of starvation and stuffing by learning how to really feed myself.

People generally know what they need to feed themselves well: more fresh foods and fewer processed and refined ones. But between the knowing and the doing there’s frequently a gap, which often results in unnecessary suffering. Of course, this applies to our relationship with food and every other way we treat ourselves.

“The only way I see people make lasting change,” observes Schatz, “is by connecting to their spirit. When there’s the awareness that we are more than just bodies, that we are spirit embodied in physical form, it changes how we relate to ourselves. It wakes us up, makes us consider our choices and how to care for ourselves in ways that truly align with the spirit.”

The more we nourish the place of wholeness within ourselves, the more our spirit can shine its light. “And this is what we all really want!” says Schatz. “It’s not about losing five pounds or achieving a body that looks a certain way. Everybody wants to feel good – healthy, passionate, at peace, in balance. We yearn to come home to our bodies, minds, and spirits.”

PRESENT-MOMENT NOURISHMENTNourishing yourself has more to do with responding to your needs in the present moment than following any particular diet or health system. That’s because the body lives only in the present. Our thoughts about our bodies, however, tend to linger in the past or leap into fantasies of how we wish we looked.

Frequently, we eat according to an old sense of who we are, whether that’s feeding our emotional stories or an idea of who we were at different stages of life. But the body we have today isn’t the same one we had



Nourishing ten years ago, or even ten days ago, and feeding our past instead of our present is a recipe for potential distress.

How can we know what feeds us now? According to Schatz, feeding ourselves is a matter of response-ability: listening to the body and providing for its needs at any given time. Does this seem like a simple approach to feeding ourselves? It is.

Schatz has dedicated the last 30 years to teaching people how to develop communication with their bodies. Her approach is based on the premise that the body is perpetually conveying a stream of information about our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health. All we have to do is listen.

The most basic way to tune in to your nourishment needs is clarifying what you are feeling at any given moment--digestion, energy level, emotions, and all the other dynamic experiences of being human.

To illustrate how this simple barometer works, here’s a situation that many of us can relate to. Let’s say you’re a regular coffee drinker who decides to give up caffeine. As the caffeine releases from your bloodstream, chances are you’ll feel fatigued, even grouchy. You wonder: “Why am I so tired all of a sudden?” But it’s not all of a sudden. Without the coffee, you now have a chance to feel what your body’s been trying to convey to you all along, and what the caffeine had masked: “I’m tired!”

While this may not feel good, it does create an opportunity to hear the body’s needs and respond in a more nurturing way. What is your body really asking for? A longer night’s sleep? Less work and more downtime? A new job? Or perhaps a new and refreshed attitude toward life.

SIMPLIFYHow can we hear our inner needs, let alone respond to them, amidst the noise and distraction of our rapidly expanding consumer culture? When you consider that the typical American carries 35,000 food products, that food is available everywhere and at all times, and that countless diets and expert theories about food come in and out of vogue, it’s no wonder we feel so overwhelmed and conflicted when it comes to feeding ourselves.

One way to clear the confusion is by limiting our field of choices. For the first time in human history, we regularly eat food that’s prepared by people we don’t know, and with questionable ingredients, or ingredients of unknown origin. We would never consider putting a foreign object into our bodies, but with food we do it all the time. We need to bring nourishment home, literally back into our hands and kitchens.

Since a one-size-fits-all food plan won’t accommodate everybody’s unique needs, we can always rely on the earth for sane guidance. After all, that’s where food originates. When we regularly choose whole foods, like seasonal vegetables and fruit, whole grains, seeds and nuts, lean proteins, and organic animal products, we receive the most potent life-giving nourishment with the least amount of excess.

Essentially, vital foods energize and give us life, while processed and refined foods have a deadening effect. Feeding ourselves fresh vegetables and fruits, especially in season and from local sources, also connects us to the life force of the earth. Even if you can’t garden or spend time in nature, feeding yourself vegetables and fruits is one way to literally engage with the natural rhythms that connect all life together.

WHO ARE YOU FEEDING?Feeding yourself is an intimately personal experience. Think about it. Let’s say you buy a beautiful apple from a farm stand. You take a bite and the crisp textures and juices explode in your mouth. You chew, swallow, and the apple is gone.

Usually we don’t dwell on what happens to our food once we’ve consumed it. But now that you’ve taken that apple into your body the fruit has become part of you. In fact, some of that apple will literally become you, transforming into the energy your body and mind need for sustenance. In this sense, the adage “you are what you eat” has some validity. If you’ve only considered food for its taste, then this can be quite a wake-up call.

But Schatz has a different spin on this familiar saying. “In my view, it’s also true that you eat what you are,” she explains. “From working with hundreds of people in various stages of life and from different backgrounds, I see that we eat foods that perpetuate certain behaviors. For example, a fast life seeks out fast food, whether it looks like McDonald’s or the health food deli counter.”

For many, eating has become a mindless activity, or something done in conjunction with at least one or more tasks. How can you be present for a meal if you are also reading a book, typing on the keyboard, eating while rushing to work, or driving your car? We open our mouths, but we don’t necessarily receive the food we give ourselves. The Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh teaches that no activity is too mundane for mindfulness; even washing the dishes is an occasion to be present. If we aren’t present for ourselves when we eat, then we’ve missed a little piece of our lives, and this leaves us wanting more and more to feel satiated.

To highlight the difference between mindless, frenzied consumption and purposeful, conscious nourishment, Schatz encourages people to explore the concept of feeding themselves. When you feed yourself, there’s a giver and a receiver: the one who does the feeding and the self who receives the food.

The question then becomes: Who are you feeding? Which aspect of yourself are you choosing to nourish? The one who moves calmly through life, or the stressed-out person who rushes from appointment to appointment? Which parts of yourself do you want to nurture? Consider the foods, as well as the activities, friends, books, music, even profession that would support your growth.

DAILY DISCIPLINENourishment is a daily awareness practice, just like yoga or meditation. But where we can miss a day on our mat or zafu, we don’t usually skip a day of feeding ourselves. For this very reason, nourishing ourselves offers countless opportunities to pay attention to who we really are and to respond with kindness and respect.

Nourishment doesn’t mean always or never. When we follow an all-or-nothing mentality, we do ourselves a great disservice. “We have to dispel the myth that a healthy lifestyle means never eating a piece of chocolate, or making ourselves take a yoga class every day no matter what. This kind of rigid behavior is too difficult for us to sustain,” says Schatz. Just as a flexible spine is an essential yogic element to maintaining health, a flexible attitude toward food is crucial for nourishing yourself. The middle-way approach is rooted in a regular discipline that’s also relaxed and responsive to your complex physical, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual needs in the present moment.

For Schatz, the body is an ongoing experiment, the laboratory where she studies how to take care of the gift that we’ve all been divinely given. “People are surprised when I tell them that I have to continually engage with the question of feeding myself. I’m faced with the same daily choices as everyone else! There’s nothing automatic about it. The body has so much to teach us. If we can learn to live in this vehicle with love, equanimity, and compassion, then imagine what we can do in the world, which is just a bigger vehicle.” ✦

From: www.kripalu.org . Shira Shaiman is coauthor with Hale Sofia Schatz of ‘If the Buddha Came to Dinner: How to Nourish Your Body to Awaken Your Spirit.’


WELLNESS NEWS


December 2009 24

the healthy antioxidantchristmas lunch

Sweet Potatoes & Cherry Juice

Email your healing recipes and food news to the Wellness News editor: [email protected]

Ingredients 1 medium bunch arugula (rocket) OR medium head Romaine lettuce1 med head radiccio OR red leaf lettuce2 heads Belgian endive1 green bell pepper, seeded and sliced OR ½ cucumber, sliced1½ c cherry tomatoes OR 2 medium tomatoes, cut into wedges1½ c white mushrooms, sliced OR ½ c white onion, sliced into ringsVinaigrette dressing

MethodWash the lettuces, pat dry, trim, and tear into bite-size pieces. Toss them together in the bowl, then top them with the vegetables.

Serve with vinaigrette on the side, or you can toss the salad with a few T of vinaigrette and serve immediately.

Note: The ingredients listed here are just for ideas; you can use just about any red, white, and green lettuces and vegetables to find the combination you like. Other options include scallions, radishes, broccoli, cauliflower... the garden is the limit!

Christmas SaladThis red, white, and green salad will help spread Christmas cheer.

VinaigretteThis classic dressing is great on just about any kind of salad. Whisk together the following ingredients:

3/4 c vinegar1/2 c olive oil 1 T lemon juice1 t Dijon mustard1 t light brown or turbinado sugar1-2 t soy sauce1 t minced rosemary3 cloves garlic, sliced or minced1/2 t ground pepper

Antioxidant-rich sweet potatoes and cherry juice are featured in this colourful Christmas dish.

Ingredients 2 medium sweet potatoes 2 Tbsp undiluted cherry juice concentrate 1 Tbsp brown sugar 1 Tbsp butter, melted 1/8 tsp ground ginger 1 green onion, sliced

MethodPreheat oven to 220ºC. Scrub potatoes and cut in half lengthwise; do not peel. Place potatoes in a greased baking pan, cut-side down. Bake in preheated oven 30 to 40 minutes or until almost tender. Stir together undiluted cherry juice concentrate, brown sugar, butter, and ginger. Turn potatoes cut-side up and brush with cherry mixture. Bake 5 to 10 minutes or until tender. Sprinkle with green onion. Serve immediately. Serves 4.

From: Cherry Marketing Institute.



Salmon Bake with Pecan Crunch Coating

Ingredients 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard 3 tablespoons butter, melted 5 teaspoons honey 1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

MethodPreheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). In a small bowl, mix together the mustard, butter, and honey. In another bowl, mix together the bread crumbs, pecans, and parsley. Season each salmon fillet with salt and pepper. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet. Brush with mustard-honey mixture. Cover the top of each fillet with bread crumb mixture. Bake for 10 minutes per inch of thickness, measured at thickest part, or until salmon just flakes when tested with a fork. Serve garnished with lemon wedges. Serves 6.

From: Allrecipes.com Cookbook.

ANTIDOTE FOR CHRISTMAS OVER-

INDULGENCE!Christmas is a time when many of us over-indulge by eating way too much. This puts considerable strain on the body, particu-larly the digestive system which will not function correctly if it is overtaxed. A sim-ple Ayurvedic antidote to overeating is to drink a cup of hot ginger tea 15 minutes after eating. You can prepare this tea by either steeping freshly cut ginger root in a cup of boiling water, or by adding an 1/8th teaspoon ginger powder to very hot water.

Ginger has been regarded for centuries in Ayurveda as “the universal medicine.” Not only has it been used for some 5,000 years to relieve upset stomach, intestinal gas and PMS, but it is also known to support the immune system, promote rapid and complete digestion and increase intesti-nal tone and peristalsis.

Furthermore, it works as an antioxidant and has been shown to safely and effec-tively relieve nausea associated with mo-tion.

Ginger is one of the best remedies for overeating and is commonly used in di-gestive and antacid preparations through-out the world.

From: Diet, Healthy Nutrition and Exercise Guide for better health

Beautifully refreshing drink in place of coffee.

Ingredients 3 tbsp green tea leaves3 tbsp coarsely chopped fresh mint, plus sprigs1 ice cubes

3 teaspoons chopped fresh parsley 6 (4 ounce) fillets salmon salt and pepper to taste 6 lemon wedges

Baked salmon makes an excellent Christmas main course!

Iced Green Tea

MethodMix tea, mint, and about a quart of boiling water in a bowl. Allow to sit for about 6 minutes. Pour through a wire seive over another bowl and throw away all the leaves. Add about 250ml of chilled water. Cover the bowl and allow to chill for at least 2 hours or until desired temperature. Add ice and sugar if desired. Mint sprigs can beused as a garnish.

From: www.recipes-4u.co.uk.

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MEMBERS RRP Footsies Detox Patches (20’s) 40.00 46.00Maxi-Phyte – Soya Phytosterols 25.50 30.00Perfect Sweet – natural Sugar Substitute 15.30 18.00BalanceZyme Plus (Transformation) 49.50 55.00DigestZyme powder (Transformation) 31.50 35.00Plantadophilus (Transformation) 45.00 50.00SuperCellZyme (Transformation) 49.50 55.00Acid/Alkaline Food Chart 8.50 10.00Chewing Gum (perfect sweet) 2.55 3.00Chlorella (vitamin and mineral powder blend) 120g 20.35 23.95Alkalizer (Becoming Younger) 35.00 30.00 Testing Kits (Global harmony) 37.40 41.20 CH77 (Global harmony) 33.00 36.30Coconut oil (1 litre) Tropical Traditions 35.00 38.50 Rainshow’r – dechlorinating shower filter 95.00 110.00Denta-Med Dental Care Product 15.00 16.50

CSA Wellness Shop

MEMBERS RRP DEF – digestive enzyme formula (Orthoplex) 60’s 22.50 26.50Omega 3 (By Nature) 30.15 35.50Vital Greens 120g 25.10 29.50Vital Greens 400g 86.40 73.45Barley Green ikg 101.15 119.00Barley Green 200g 36.00 41.00B Vital (Orthoplex) 150g 20.30 23.90Alkala N (Sanum) 22.50 26.50Sanuvis (Sanum) 29.90 35.20Sanumgerman (Sanum) 35.90 42.25Vit C (200g with hesperidin) (Millenium) 16.35 19.25Vit C (500g with hesperidin) 35.45 41.70Hepatic Detox (Advanced Medicine) 30.50 35.90Glutamine (Advanced Medicine) 30.75 36.20Chelatox 120’s (Orthoplex) 45.60 53.60Multiflora 30 caps (Orthoplex) 24.95 21.20Zymin 200ml (Orthoplex) 17.75 15.10Vit E 500IU100 caps (Vital) 20.85 17.70Arctic D Cod Liver Oil 237ml (Nordic) 39.95 33.95

CSA Wellness Shopwww.wellnessshop.com.au15% members discount on all items

Gift Items

Supplementsfor optimum nutrition when diet alone is not enough

cancer specifi c, general health and nutrition titles

leadlight angels, inspiring cards, natural soaps & candles

Health productsproducts to support health and wellness

BUY INSTORE, ONLINE OR BY EASY MAIL ORDER.The easy way to shop for your health, wellness and lifestyle products

CSA Wellness Shop

Supplementsfor optimum nutrition when diet alone is not enough

MEMBERS RRP Balancing Cleanser 34.00 40.00Gentle Exfoliant (Sensitive) 25.50 30.00Balancing Moisturiser 42.50 50.10Rejuvenating Moisturiser 42.50 50.10Desert Flower Shampoo (Norn-Dry) 14.50 17.00Lemon Myrtle Shampoo (Norm-Oily) 14.50 17.00Shine Herbal Conditioner 14.50 17.00Anise Toothpaste 6.80 8.00Spearmint Toothpaste 6.80 8.00Lemon Toothpaste 6.80 8.00Sunshower Body Wash 10.20 12.00Ancient Spice Roll-on Deodorant 6.80 8.00Tahitian Breeze Roll-on Deodrant 6.80 8.00Aroma Free Deodorant 6.80 8.00Rainforest Air Freshener 8.40 9.90Lip Balm 6.50 7.60Mascara (black) 17.25 20.25 Styling Gel (hair) 14.50 17.00Blemish Gel 24.50 28.80

MEMBERS RRP Body and Hair Cleanser (1 Litre) 12.75 15.00Sensitive Body and Hair Cleanser (1 Litre) 11.70 13.80Hair Conditioner (375ml) 14.20 16.70Moisturiser Lavender (250 ml) 15.70 18.50Disinfectant (1 Litre) 9.80 11.50Dishwashing Liquid (1 Litre) 8.90 10.40Dishwasher Powder (1 Kg) 13.90 16.30Fabric Conditioner (1 Litre) 8.60 10.10Laundry Liquid(1 Litre) 10.10 11.90Laundry Powder (1 Kg) 13.60 16.00Laundry Powder (5 Kg) 50.10 58.90Fruit and Vegetable Wash 8.20 9.60Oven and Barbeque Cleaner (1 Litre) 12.70 14.90Vigor All Purpose Cleaner (1 Litre) 9.00 10.50 Delicate Wash (1 litre) 8.50 9.90Cloth Moth Trap 10.20 12.00Pantry Moth trap 11.10 13.00insect and Roach Trap 6.50 7.60Pet Sensitive (1 Litre) 19.50 23.00

HOW TO ORDER OUR PRODUCTS

WELLNESS SHOP ORDER FORM

Please include membership number for member prices:

Your Name:

Postal Address: Postcode

FORWARD PAYMENT TO:Cancer Support Association PO Box 325 COTTESLOE, WA, 6911. FAX: (08) 9384 6196

Enquiries: Tel (08) 9384 3544E: [email protected]: www.cancersupportwa.org.au

Please post my order & payment to the address below (must include postage).ORI will collect my order from the CSA, 80 Railway St. Cottesloe. Please phone me when ready on

Sub TotalPostage

Total Cost

Product Name Unit Price Quantity Total Price

NB: Please add $5.00 Postage and handling for fi rst item and $2.50 for each subsequent item. (Unless specifi ed)

I enclose my cheque/money order (to be made payable to the Cancer Support Association of WA Inc)ORPlease debit my Bankcard M/card Visa Card Amex Diners

Card Number Expiry Date

Name on Card Signature

Payment Details:

Mail this order form to: Cancer Support Association, PO Box 325 Cottesloe WA

Miessenceorganic personal care products and cosmetics

• All these items are available by personal collection or by mail order. • Payment can be made by cheque or credit card. • Postage is $5.00 for the fi rst item, then $2.50 per subsequent item in the order.• Please phone CSA on 9384 3544 to order, OR POST OR FAX THE ORDER FORM BELOW. • OR log on to the secure Wellness Shop website: www.wellnessshop.com.au.

The online shop stocks the entire catalogue listed here and you can pay easily and securely with your credit card.

Envirocarechemical free household and personal care products

Sandra McKelvie

Guiseppe Fogliani

Leanne Breen

Mark Edgar

Do not stand at my grave and weep. I am not there. I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. I am the sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain...

In fond memory of those who have shared part of their journey with us...

Christmas CrosswordAnswers to puzzle on page 3

ACROSS1 Christmas hymn (5)CAROL 3 The wise men’s guide (4)STAR 5 The town where Jesus was born (9)BETHLEHEM 10 The original Santa Claus (5,8) SAINT NICHOLAS 11 The bird traditionally eaten for Christmas dinner (6) TURKEY 12 A tradition introduced by Prince Albert (9,4)CHRISTMAS TREE 16 A lot of angels (4)HOST 17 Evergreen plant with white berries (9)MISTLETOE 18 Gift from the shepherds (4) LAMB 20 Climbing plant (3) IVY 21 One of Santa’s reindeer (5) VIXEN / COMET

DOWN2 Small brown thrush with a red breast (5) ROBIN 3 Where Joseph and Mary had to stay (6) STABLE 4 The four weeks leading up to Christmas (6) ADVENT 5 The day after Christmas Day (6,3)BOXING DAY 6 The king visited by the wise men (5)HEROD7 Gold, frankincense and ..... (5) MYRRH 8 A popular addition to the Christmas table (8)CRACKERS 9 Name of the archangel (7) GABRIEL 12 A decorated orange (11) CHRISTINGLE 13 Christmas lasts for ...... days (6)TWELVE 14 A Christmas tree decoration (6)TINSEL 15 The army occupying the land at the time (5)ROMAN 16 Deck the halls with boughs of ..... (5)HOLLY 19 Baby Jesus’ bed or crib (6) MANGER 20 No room for Mary and Joseph here (3) INN

A weekly group held every Tuesday at CSA from 10am – 12noon. Anyone who’s life has been aff ected by cancer or other life threatening illnesses is welcome to attend.

Meditation Made Easy

Every Monday at CSA from 10am to 11.30am. Newcomers welcome.Cost: Free for CSA Members, $5 for non-members. No booking necessary.

weekly meditation classes with Bavali Hill

“Tell Me What You Want” is from the book ‘Angel hugs for Cancer Pa-tients’ by LaDonna Meinders. In these thirty-one reflections, LaDonna Meinders – herself a cancer patient – shares the scriptures, stories, and experiences that have given her strength and transformed her life. She shows us that we need to care for our spirit, as well as our body, that we can find and give comfort in the simplest forms, and that there is something to be grateful for in every day. Each reflec-tion offers a scripture passage of solace and guidance, stories and thoughts of encouragement and spiritual growth, an inspiring quote, and a prayer.

Tell Me What You Want

A weekly group held every Tuesday at CSA from 10am – 12noon. Anyone who’s life has been aff ected by cancer or other life threatening illnesses is welcome to attend.

A gentle, holistic, relaxing class with Sydel Weinsteinin the Sun Room at CSA

Tuesdays 9.30 – 10.30am. Suitable for beginners.

in the Sun Room at CSA

Meditation Made Easy

Every Monday at CSA from 10am to 11.30am. Newcomers welcome.Cost: Free for CSA Members, $5 for non-members. No booking necessary.

weekly meditation classes with Bavali Hill

with Kimmy O’MearaAt the CSA every Wednesday morning 11.00am to 12.00pm (note: new time for 2010)Cost: CSA Members $3; Others $5. For enquiries phone CSA on 9384 3544.

CSA Laughter ClubHE WHO LAUGHS LASTS!

Groups & activities at CSA...

Grief and Loss Support Group at CSA

LAST GROUP FOR 2009: Wed 16th Dec. 1-3pm.This open support group is for anyone experiencing grief as a result of losing a loved one to cancer. Join us for an opportunity to share these feelings with others in a safe and compassionate space.

FREE FOR MEMBERS. $10 NON-MEMBERS.

contact cancer support association...

The Cancer Support Association of WA Inc is a registered charity and non-profi t organisation, formed to help people aff ected by cancer. The Association relies on donations, bequests and member subscriptions to continue its services.

Enclosed is my cheque/money order OR please debit my credit card detailed below:

BankCard Master Card Visa Card AMEX Diners

Card No Expiry Date /

Name on Card Signature

I would like to become a Wellness News emagazine subscriber for $50 per annum, and have enclosed AUD$50

Please post to: Cancer Support

AssociationPO Box 325, Cottesloe

W.A. 6911OR email:

[email protected]

I would like to make a donation to CSA. Enclosed is $25 $50 $100 Other $

Details for Subscription Date of Joining

Name (Mr, Mrs, Ms, Dr.) D.O.B.

Postal Address

Phone No. (home) (work or mobile)

Email Occupation

Website username: Website password: (5-12 characters only) (5-12 characters only)

All Wellness News magazine subscribers receive a FREE membership from the Cancer Support Association which entitles you to many benefi ts including: • A place on the informative 1 Day ‘Meeting the Challenge’ Cancer Wellness Seminar• Cancer wellness information counselling session• 15% DISCOUNT on all items from the Wellness Shop• CSA Village Card for online shopping discounts• access to our world class wellness library• members prices on all CSA activities including yoga, qigong, refl exology & seminars

Subscribe to Wellness Newsprint and return this form to subscribe, make a donation

or give it to an interested friend...

Wellness News magazine is published by the Cancer Support Association of WA Inc (CSA). Wellness magazine contains a diverse selection of articles and information on subjects related to cancer, wellness and healing. The contents of this magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the CSA and should be not be construed as medical advice. CSA encourages readers to be discerning with information presented and when making treatment, dietary and lifestyle choices. © Copyright of all articles and images remains with individual contributors.

80 Railway St, Cottesloe, Western Australia. PO Box 325 Cottesloe WA 6911 AustraliaPhone 08 9384 3544, Fax: 08 9384 6196. Email: [email protected]: www.cancersupportwa.org.au

wellness news december 2009

Documents

wellness news magazine

key cancer information

wellness newsonline

wellness experience

news team

monthly online magazine

short weeks christmas

new year