My Turn Now: Faith and affirmations

I have accepted traditional medicine.
I have experienced multiple surgeries.
I believe those surgeons did what was necessary and helped save my life.
I have experienced three rounds of radiation treatment.
I believe those radiation rays went to where they needed to go to help me heal.
I have experienced six rounds of aggressive chemotherapy.
I know those chemicals have run through my body to help it heal.
I have finished the traditional medicine reaction to the cancer.

Now it is my time.
Time to focus my mind on the positive.
Continue positive affirmations.
Continue qigong.
Continue meditation.
Continue deep breathing.
Continue acupuncture.
Continue yoga.

What am I continually saying to myself? Things from Louise Hay from her book You Can Change Your Life:

My body now restores itself to its natural state.
- I'm repeating this throughout the day. It is time to heal. Time to recover. Time to be strong. Time to continue to celebrate life.

I lovingly forgive and release everything in my past.
I choose to fill my world with joy.
I love and accept myself.
I love myself just the way I am.

Years ago I experienced something I loved. When I was in high school there was a group called Dram-edy I was a part of. Drama and comedy combined. We came up with skits that communicated about positive approaches to life, taught lessons to inspire, etc.
We often began our meetings with this chant:
"I love myself.
I love my body.
I love my mind.
I love my spirit."

What positive affirmations they were... that have run through my mind through the years. I continually focus on the positive. I try my best to look for the good in others. If I'm in a situation where I'm judging another I often try to redirect that thought to think about their perspective. My best friend calls me "ever the diplomat". I think never a word more true has been spoken. I act based on how I want to see myself viewed out in the world.

This afternoon my family attended CancerLink's Celebration of Life. It was interesting. I learned about a rock star Coco Lee who is popular in Hong Kong, Korea, and in the US as well. Hmm. She sang beautifully. There were dance performances, a laughter yoga workshop (all in Chinese, ack, strained to understand, really really was interested), and it was nice to see many friends from CanSurvive group and CancerLink support group as well. Lovely people. Poor husband and kiddo. Was a bit of a push for them with 90% in Chinese. I appreciated that they came... Love my family.


There's a Hay House World Summit available right now. Free. Videos, audio inspiration and more... I appreciated watching this movie:
https://www.hayhouseworldsummit.com/lessons/you-can-heal-your-life-movie/

Appreciated this family dinner idea, what discussions and deeper understanding can occur with this: http://momastery.com/blog/2015/04/24/key-jar/

Feeling a little better today. More energy. Less shakiness. Grateful for how amazing the body is at healing. Taking things day by day by day. I keep on keeping on.
Thanks for journeying with me folks...

Last Day of Chemo

Actually smiled.

I'm keeping faith.
Faith that this is really my last day of chemo.
Faith that the exhausting, expensive, emotionally draining experience over the past 10 months has successfully helped me rid cancer and extended my life. I'm continuing positive thoughts, deep breathing, qigong once or twice a day, and all the other things from oil pulling to essential oil treatment and I really do believe this is helping me. I've been dealing with pain in my side and more recently in my stomach and doing the deep breathing and acknowledging the pain has really helped me actually ease the pain.

Found out I have the stomach bug which helps me understand why I had stomach pain. It is difficult to distinguish sometimes what type of pains I'm dealing with. Good to have a solution, rice water to drink, and meds to take.

Happy moments and a feeling that an anvil has been lifted off my shoulders.... that's how I feel after finishing the chemo experience.

Hope this view is done in my life.

Author/Illustrator Debbie Ridpath Ohi made this for me.
As sad as I am to be wearing hats again,
I feel like this picture represents me.

A wonderful friend mentioned to me that some of my random shares in these posts have helped her out with her own medical needs. Hooray. That just makes my day. Touched by all wonderful people I'm keeping up with on here, Facebook, and other places...

Here's what has inspired me recently:
I LOVED the idea of these greeting cards created by a former cancer patient... this woman is an inspiration:
I'm grateful a friend sent this my way (thanks Candy!) and I agree, each person is different and it is really challenging to know what to say to someone who is dealing with cancer in their life.
Now, I do not refer to my illness as a journey, my journey is celebrating life itself every day. It has been interrupted slightly by this darn cancer but I am still celebrating what I appreciate, spending time with those I love and care about, pursuing my passions, and not letting go of my dreams...
http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2015/05/07/404976537/are-you-sick-and-sick-of-hearing-everything-happens-for-a-reason?
Here's lovely card examples:

My beautiful qigong teacher sent me a link about gratefulness. 

Really appreciated this link and this song - 

Grateful  - A love song to the world: http://www.karmatube.org/videos.php?id=4460

I watched a video on Positive Psychology, enjoyed watching, most of what I know but I appreciated watching the research reinforcing it. (Shared by wonderful colleague at my school...)

I've added the mantra from this meditation link/video to my daily practice with my deep breathing. Really helpful reminder every time...

http://www.ishafoundation.org/Ishakriya/Learn-online

Moving ahead, taking care of myself... thanks for journeying with me...

Oh, duh!

A glimpse:
Gee. I feel pretty terrible. I wonder why? Shaky, weak, stomach issues, and more? Blood test says? Very low blood cell count. Ahh. That's right, chemo kills off blood cells. Glad I changed my oncology appt. to today. Answers on the spot, helpful. Might not get chemo on Saturday unless cell count goes up? Great... just want to be done already.
Gather up energy, head home. Jump in bed. Ask husband for a burger. Yes, that's right, a burger. Plus eat dinner. Time to feed the body. Rest. Rest. Rest. Kiddo time. Finish book together silently reading side by side. Reading aloud won't happen til the last few pages. Coughing fits galore equal my evening. Rest. Rest. Rest. Qigong. Sleep.

Appreciated this meditation video my acupuncturist told me about, good one: https://youtu.be/wHnl_XugJyE

Can't wait to make this horchata recipe- I LOVE horchatas, this one being healthy with chia seeds, etc. sounds terrific...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/05/01/horchata-recipe-rice-free_n_7185014.html?ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000063

Quick journeying share but I got thru a low day and family time made things quite positive... so did a few classes today, enjoying unit I'm teaching and students I'm seeing. :)
Thanks for coming along as always...

Health- More Alternative Practices and Music

Note- I wrote this part 2 weeks ago! Just wasn't ready to share it, but loved every minute and have thought about this interview many times since:
I appreciated listening to this interview with Rae Leung by my wise friend Reenita who has written numerous books on Ayurvedic medicine and also a fantastic young adult book called Operation Mom that I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend to others.
http://podcast.rthk.hk/podcast/item_epi.php?pid=363&lang=en-US&id=38781

http://podcast.rthk.hk/podcast/item_epi.php?pid=363&lang=en-US&id=38976

Not only did I appreciate the interview but I also enjoyed the music that was mixed throughout the interview. Powerful thoughts and messages. I found that much of what Rae Leung, the person interviewed, had to say about her Cancer journey were things I agreed with... It was interesting to hear more about how she went to try out Bioresonance and Tapping/EFT. Interesting. Heartbreaking. Understandable.
*Loved that her #1 lesson was to learn how to be more patient... I really can appreciate this.
Learned about how she ran a project here a few years ago in Hong Kong: http://www.raerity.com/CWord/CWord.html - Looks interesting.
"When I look at cancer, I don't want to think of it as a battle, because that puts us in a combative mode every day. That creates too much stress, too much anxiety. Just to psych ourselves up for a fight every day? Then we're constantly struggling. And I don't feel like I'm struggling at all... I don't see it as a battle. I see it as an existence... And that's where I see pain can creep in and negative stressful signals can creep in..." - powerful reflection to think on.

India Arie - I am not my hair:

Melissa Ethridge - I run for life:

I sat back and looked into a few things this week. 

I am appreciating this Jewish Mindfulness Program:

https://mishkan.org/elul-week-three-forgiving-ourselves-forgiving-others

I looked into Tapping or EFT/Emotional Freedom Technique. Interesting practice. Going to see what works, fits, feels right. My good friend, cancer survivor, told me tapping really helped her deal with chemotherapy and the side effects. Think I haven't formed this as a routine yet.

Also looking further into Qigong, I need breathing exercises... must retrain my lung! (Since I wrote this, I've had two qigong sessions by a talented, thoughtful instructor at my apartment, really is a good practice, well worth the time and routine to get into.)

Finally, present day:
Every day in the morning I wake up dying to drink water... but I stop myself. I go into the bathroom and dump 2 teaspoons of coconut oil in my mouth and do 10-15 minutes of pulling. It should be more like 20 minutes but that just doesn't work out quite right yet. Then I do my swishing/gargling from the doctor- a mix of sea salt and baking soda. Plus many report that their teeth deteriorate with chemo so if pulling helps? Heck yeah, I'll do it. No fun but part of my routine. Anything I can to prevent mouth/lip/throat sores, the better. I then drink squeezed lemon in warm water with my chinese herbal medicine... every morning. There's other routines I'll share on another day.
Never heard of pulling before? You're not alone. It was new to me...
Here's a little info on it:
http://authoritynutrition.com/oil-pulling-coconut-oil/

http://edition.cnn.com/2014/08/06/health/oil-pulling/

Pulling- Months ago I asked my dentist his opinion and he said, go for it, it doesn't hurt but I don't personally believe it helps much either. So... going for it.
Happy New Year to my friends celebrating Rosh Hashanah! I wasn't at services this year but took time to reflect upon the year and appreciate all the good things that have happened. Important to do!