More on Fear...What is the antidote to Fear?

A plea for my daughter Dana, More on Fear…What is the antidote to Fear?

Today my daughter Dana is going in for her 6 month PET Scan of which I acutely feel in my heart.  In our journey and my work with The Mindfulness Center, I have learned that you are not fully in recovery until you can let go of the fear.  I know, “Easier said than one…”

This is why I gave every member of my family and a few close friends, the book “The Gifts of Imperfection” this year for Christmas and a big catalyst for my group on “Cultivating Joy”.  Written by Brene Brown, Ph.D., L.M.S.W., the book is your guide to a wholehearted life.  I am using her book as one of the tools and a guide for our group that gets together and practices courage, compassion and connection, the three “C’s” that Brene has identified as essential for developing resilience and an antidote against fear and anxiety.

What is the ultimate antidote to fear?  It is not courage. Courage comes from the latin word Cour and means owning and telling your story with your whole heart.  Dana is certainly accomplishing that with her blog that has reached over 10,000 people showing us her strength, her courage, her humor and her gift of writing. 

According to Gary Zukav, which I now believe to be true, the antidote to fear is love.  Every day, every moment we have a choice on how to think, act and respond to the situation given to us.  We can either choose to react based on our fears or set the intention to respond out of love.

When I let my fear overcome me I become the over-functioning, caretaking, crazed mother who is desperately trying to “fix” Dana with the right combination of food, supplements, yoga and meditation.  Don’t get me wrong, these practices can be life changing and transformational, but my beautiful daughter does not need “fixing”.   

Dana is perfectly imperfect and like all of us, like nature intended, has the ability to heal from within.  All of us can choose love over fear.  Again this requires courage, compassion (self compassion) and connection.   This requires a practice and a safe place and community for support.

Last night, I posted on my Facebook page that I had been listening to Candace Pert, another well-known Ph.D researcher who discussed the importance of authenticity and emotional integrity.  She sited research on spontaneous remissions happening after an angry outburst and suggests that releasing pent up emotions can be a dramatic boost to the immune system.  I’ve already stated previously how Dean Ornish, M.D. book on Love & Survival, speaks to the research on how much more powerful and essential Love is to healing.

Finally, how do we cultivate Joy & Gratitude?  First we have to let go of the practices of numbing and learn how to cultivate a resilient spirit, which Dana is proving good at.  Second, we must let go of scarcity and fear.  Scarcity is when we keep saying to ourselves, “I don’t have enough (time, money, health, etc.).  As Deepak Chopra says, If you think you don’t have enough time that is the fastest way to a heart attack.  Our subconscious thoughts are drivers of our reality.

What is Joy?

Joy seems to me a step beyond happiness. Happiness is

 a sort of atmosphere you can live in sometimes when you’re lucky.

Joy is a light that fills you with hope and faith and love.

-Adela Rogers St. John

Here is my Plea, a request for action.  Please join me TODAY, right now as she is getting her scan, in spreading hope and faith and love to Dana.  Please send your Metta, your LOVE & Kindness, your prayers and meditations to my daughter Dana so she can feel in her heart this positive healing energy and be filled with hope and faith and love.

With Love & Gratitude,

Dana's "Momma Bear"

PS

Please sign up and join us in Mind Body Week DC next week to learn more about the science and research behind the power to heal from within.  Don’t forget to sign up for our workshop at Beloved Yoga Studio on Sunday too. 

Dana’s Pet Scan is Clean!!!

I knew it would be, because she decided it would be.  Dana chose the road less traveled.  Twice, first she eliminated the tumors that were displacing her trachea, strangling her juggler vein and causing an enlarged heart.  She did this through low dose chemo, coupled with wheat grass shots, a raw vegan diet, colonics, probiotics, yoga and meditation.  Then she went home to her lifestyle but worried it wasn’t enough.  The lumps returned.  Three doctors said the treatment was effective, just not enough long enough.

Her HMO Doctor told us that had we not done this crazy thing, he could have had an 85-90% chance of success.  Now she had 10% with radiation or 65% with a complete bone marrow transplant.  Talk about a punch in the stomach, talk about disempowerment, talk about FEAR!  Paralyzing fear…..

Dana chose the road less taken again.  She took the 10% success rate or radiation, because the doctor felt it would eradicate the tumors but his fear was it would keep the cancer away for ever.   Dana said, “I think I have some control over that”

Halleluah Dana!  Shout from the rooftops!  Because that is what Mind Body Medicine does.  It helps you become empowered.  To reach the inner strength that can create disease or heal thyself.

I’m told that you are not cured from cancer, not healed until you no longer have fear.  And yes, you can embrace the fear and find peace and joy from within. 

Overwhelmed with Joy

I am so very proud, grateful and overwhelmed with joy to post that my Daughter, Dana Miles Frost, aka www.stealingyourthunder.blogspot.com yesterday received her third PET Scan of which we have a DVD copy which shows zero SUV and ZERO metastatic disease!!  I could not stop crying with joy and relief yesterday and could not post (lest I steal her thunder) until this morning.  We spent yesterday evening celebrating and buying her a suitcase so she can finally return home to Brad and Dune later this week.

Dana has been in Arizona for 8 weeks and has faced this part of her journey with courage and grace and I am so very proud of her.  She will be here this next week to detox from the last round of IPT and the PET Scan which injects radioactive glucouse throughout her bloodstream.  She will continue to have IV vitamin C, colonics, acupuncture, infrared sauna, structural integration, raw vegan food prep class and I hope yoga and meditation.

Dana is successfully completing her first and second phases of this journey.

The first phase (which I did not blog about) were the two months of shock and pain of diagnosing her disease, researching and deciding on treatment options.  I want to personally thank again Sue Ansari, Liz Jackson, Sharon Smith, Chris Kraft and Dr. David Duhamel, Joda Coolidge, Lois Pozesky, Candace Campbell, Barb & Art Behrman, Linda Hill, my sisters Denise, Debi and Cristin and my husband Doug, My Mother, Dana’s other mother Marsie and husband Brad, my Aunt Joanne, Susan Abraham and all of my dear study buddies at Institute of Integrated Nutrition, Katie Horan, Heather Maurer Raskin, Martha and the rest of our fellow travelers group and everyone else who so helped to guide us on this journey.  Without your support we clearly would not be where we are today and we are so very very grateful.

The second phase is to get rid of the tumor, which Dana has done in less time and much less damage to Dana than it would have taken with conventional medicine. Thank you Gretchen, Lyle and Jordan Hogg, Brad, Margo, and all of our friends, family and neighbors for your unbelievable support and prayers. 

The third phase of her treatment, which is the most crucial and 100% up to Dana, is to keep the cancer from returning.  We will finalize her aftercare this week. But Dana will continue to be in recovery and treatment at home in Detroit and her lifestyle choices are critical to her ongoing success, health and wellbeing.  I’ve always witnessed those actively in a recovery program as being  “better than well”.  She will not be a survivor but instead has learned how to become a THRIVER!

Carpe Diem & Namaste!

Chemo & Radiation Versus Love & Gratitude

Many are asking for more details on the last few weeks here so I thought I would start at the beginning.  Here is a journal entry I wrote a couple of weeks ago for Dana's blog, The Thunder Stealer.

January 18, 2011

Chemo & Radiation versus Love & Gratitude

If I am Momma Bear, then Dana is the Courageous Warrior.  So courageous to be thinking about and pursuing out of the box cancer treatments. Dr Lodi reminded us yesterday that Dana does have one of the 2% of cancers that are "curable" with conventional medicine.  50%-85% survival rates after five years,... but at what cost?  Longterm effects of chemotherapy and radiation include risk of future leukemias, 30% higher risk of breast cancer, weakened heart, lung and thyroid from irradiation to the chest and neck areas, weakened immune system and more.  Which is worse then, the disease or the "cure"?  More importantly, conventional medicine does not address the cause of the cancer in the first place.  "Let's use napalm to bomb the body and a nuclear bomb to kill those cancer cells and hope that the host still stands..."  In my heart and gut I couldn't watch my beautiful talented daughter go through that.  This world lost her grandmother and an old boyfriend to that treatment for lymphoma and Hodgkins years ago using the exact same treatments.  True, we have better anti-emetics today to help with the nausea and vomiting, but we are using the exact same drugs and protocols developed in the 1970's.  Let’s think about that folks for one nanosecond.  Think about the progress we have made in technology since the 1970's and how radically different our communication has evolved from typewriters to pc's and ipads. Yet cancer has grown dramatically.  One out of two men will develop cancer in his lifetime and one out of 2.5 women will be affected.  Why have we not won this "war on cancer"?  Perhaps we need to have a paradigm shift.  This is similar to the futility of the "war on drugs" and treatment is likely to be the same.

Nevertheless, Dr Lodi cannot "guarantee" success,  no one can really, except for Dana.  We are not fighting this war, we are surrendering.  We are learning to let go and let God.  Dana will need to let go of all of the myths of modern life.  Let go of the marketing mumbo jumbo we are bombarded with minute to minute.  We cannot drive our 30 minutes to the clinic everyday without passing McDonalds, Wendy's and other convenient stores selling dead artificial foods that are sold to us as "Happy Meals".  After all, don't we "deserve a break today"?! 

Today we start on a juice fast (yes me too, as I am small part of the solidarity project and the surrogate for Hubby for a few weeks)  the juice fast gives the body and digestive system a break while Dana is also cleansing the toxins out of her system using multiple treatments that include colonics, far infrared sauna, and lymphatic drainage.  More than 70% of the lymphatic system is located in the gut to filter the daily toxins we consume, thus leaving little to fight infection, to combat cancer and to clear the body from the toxins of chemotherapy.  So we will be, in essence, re-directing the immune system to be working for us.  Did I mention the  study done that showed rats lived longer consuming the cardboard box than the processed cereals we are feeding our children?  Dana's pancreas is enlarged, fortunately not from cancer cells but from overwork.  You see, when we eat cooked artificial food, our pancreas has to produce the digestive enzymes that have been killed by microwaves, pasteurization and food processing. These same enzymes, that nature provides us free of charge, are available to us in real raw food.  The juice fast not only rests the lymphatic system, it rests the pancreas and liver too.  During a fast, the body naturally protects other vital organs while allowing the body's natural armies to find and fight disease. 

But diet is only a part of the treatment. Of essence is our mind, body, spirit relationship. 

Which leads me to the love and gratitude in the title of this blog. We saw a fascinating film yesterday titled, "Water, the Great Mystery".  The movie enlightens us to all of the research done on water, from the making of the hydrogen bomb to work you may have seen showcased in the movie, The Secret.   Water changes its structure based on energy vibrations, and thoughts are powerful energy vibrations.  Thoughts of love produce beautiful crystal structures while anger, fear and hatred produce entirely different structures.  Our bodies are more than 70% water, our brains are 85% water.  Every action from thought to digestion to regeneration and procreation are electrical impulses affected by water and energy.   Water has structure like nerves that react to stimuli and water is capable of recording and storing information.  Water structure can be changed by thought.  This is why for generations, and in every culture, we have said prayers and blessings before meals.  This is the magic of holy water.  This is why, my very dear friend Gretchen Hogg says we should say "infinite love and gratitude" every day over our food and bodies to balance our energies.  This movie explains how the power of love, prayer and faith can change the structure of water and therefore provide God giving healing powers.

The most vital question is this, "why is it easier for us to accept chemo, radiation and surgery than love and gratitude as treatments for cancer"?  Why are we so programmed towards self abuse?  Must we self sacrifice everyday? Is it essential to have a "no pain, no gain" attitude or is it just the opposite?  Do we just need to Let go, Let God and Let Live? 

Why is it that we can all easily and readily discuss what is wrong in our lives, our world and ourselves yet we struggle to say what brings us joy and bliss?  Why do we have to be stoic and fear crying and showing emotion?  How does holding in our emotions contribute to our aching bones and dis-ease?  Why are we afraid to dance without alcohol?  Why do we need artificial stimulants to get us going in the morning and to be able to relax at night and go to sleep?  Why do we need certain clothes, cars or objects to feel complete? Why have we lost our God given innate ability to trust our own God given instincts and ability to heal ourselves? Why do we think that modern day science can improve upon Mother Nature?  Why do we relinquish our own power and authority to others by treating symptoms with chemicals that produce more symptoms and a need for more chemicals?  Why do we think that chemo, radiation and surgery are more effective than love and gratitude and why is self love the hardest task and yet the most essential task for modern man and woman to master? 

More to follow.

Namaste and Carpe Diem

Momma Bear