Your Body Is on Your Side: A Different Way to Think About Cancer
Your body is on your side, even when you are living with cancer. Yet when someone hears the words you have cancer, it can suddenly feel as though their own body has turned against them.
People talk about fighting cancer, battling cancer, beating cancer and winning the war. I understand why. For some people, that language feels empowering. If it works for you, use it.
But after decades of working with people living with cancer, I’ve seen something else. For many people, battle language creates one more source of stress. They may begin thinking of their own body as the enemy.
I offer you a different way to think about cancer:
You and your body are on the same side.
Your Body Is on Your Side, Even With Cancer
Cancer may be present in your body, but your body is not cancer.
Your heart continues beating. Your lungs keep breathing. Your nervous system keeps responding and adapting. Your body continues repairing tissue, regulating temperature, moving blood and oxygen, and doing thousands of things without you consciously directing them.
Instead of imagining your body as a battlefield, you can begin relating to it as the body carrying you through this experience.
Your medical team can address the cancer. Surgery, chemotherapy, radiation, immunotherapy and other treatments can do what they are designed to do.
Meanwhile, you can give care to the person receiving those treatments.
That includes sleep, nourishing food, appropriate movement, emotional support, meaningful relationships and moments of pleasure. The American Cancer Society encourages appropriate physical activity and good nutrition during and after cancer treatment because they can support quality of life and help people cope with treatment side effects. (American Cancer Society)
Agency Without Blame
You can have agency without accepting blame.
You did not fail because you developed cancer. You did not get cancer because you worried too much, failed to think positively or somehow sent the wrong message to your body.
The National Cancer Institute says the evidence linking stress directly to cancer remains unclear. It also recognizes that a cancer diagnosis itself can create significant stress and that emotional and social support can reduce anxiety, depression and treatment-related distress. (Cancer.gov)
I never want someone leaving my office thinking, If I can just be positive enough, I can make this cancer disappear.
That puts an enormous burden on someone who already has enough to carry.
You are allowed to be frightened. You are allowed to be angry. You are allowed to have a lousy day.
Agency means asking, What can I do today that supports me?
Maybe today that means walking. Maybe it means sleeping. Maybe it means calling someone you love. Maybe it means asking your oncologist another question. Sometimes it means simply allowing yourself to receive care.
Your Body Is on Your Side With Medical Hypnosis
This is where Medical Hypnosis can be especially useful.
I don’t use Medical Hypnosis to tell people that thoughts magically destroy cancer cells. I use it to help people change how they experience what is happening.
Fear can become calmer. A treatment room can become less threatening. Anticipatory anxiety can decrease. A person can learn to respond differently to procedures, discomfort, nausea, uncertainty and those frightening thoughts that sometimes arrive at 3:00 in the morning.
The National Cancer Institute includes hypnosis among relaxation approaches that can help with cancer-related nausea and vomiting, and describes hypnosis as an approach that may help relieve stress, anxiety and pain. (Cancer.gov)
Medical Hypnosis can help you discover that there are still things you can influence.
That is agency.
This Idea Applies to All Illnesses
The same idea applies to illness in general.
If you are living with Parkinson’s disease, your body is not your enemy.
If you have diabetes, heart disease, chronic pain, an autoimmune condition or Alzheimer’s disease, your body is not deliberately betraying you.
And if you wake up tomorrow with a miserable head cold, your body still isn’t the enemy.
Something is happening in your body. That is different from your body being against you.
Instead of Why is my body doing this to me? you might ask, What does my body need from me today?
Instead of I hate my body, perhaps it becomes, How can I work with my body?
You still seek appropriate medical care. You still take medication when needed. You still make informed decisions with your healthcare professionals. You simply stop making your own body another opponent.
Your Body Is Still Yours
A diagnosis can change your relationship with your body almost overnight. Suddenly there are scans, numbers, medications, procedures and people examining parts of you that you rarely thought about before.
It can begin to feel as though your body belongs to the illness or the medical system.
It doesn’t.
This is still your body.
There is tremendous power in returning to cooperation rather than conflict.
You can support your body while medicine treats disease.
You can be scared and still feel safe in this moment. You can have uncertainty and still experience joy. You can receive treatment without spending every waking hour thinking about illness.
Most of all, you don’t have to fight yourself in order to give yourself the best possible care.
You and your body are on the same side.
Email me at Roger@HypnosisHealthInfo.com to learn more about how Medical Hypnosis can support you while living with cancer or other health challenges.
Your Hypnosis Health Info Hypnotic Suggestion for today:
I am working together with my body.
Since January 2, 1997
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