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Writer's pictureVictoria Rose

MIND BODY & SOUL

Updated: Feb 28

THE MIND-BODY CONNECTION

(From the VRF series of Inspirational stories that come from dark times)


rocks on beach

Your mind affects your body and your body affect your health. So where does the soul part come in to this theory? There must be some type of link the three...


It was a Monday at the University of Penn Hospital and I had just completed the first day of my 8-week radiation cycle. I'm not going to lie I was petrified...Let’s back up before I get into these mini-inspirational stories…


When I sat in that hospital bed at 21 years old, after my 10-hour Craniotomy, the neurosurgeon came in the room and told me that I had “a brain tumor and unfortunately it was cancerous…. we need to get you into treatment as soon as possible. The treatment plan started with 6-8 weeks rounds, Monday through Friday, of radiation for about an hour for each session. That treatment will be followed by 3 weeks of intense radiation/pro-ton therapy (side note: traditional radiation delivers x-rays, or beams of photons, to the tumor and beyond it. This can damage nearby healthy tissues and can cause significant side effects. By contrast, proton therapy delivers a beam of proton particles that stops at the tumor, so it's less likely to damage nearby healthy tissues.) consisting about a half hour a day, spaced out rounds of chemotherapy for 11-12 months, etc.”


I literally remember feeling numb but not actually understanding the severity of what I was just told.


The first treatment they had me do was radiation at PennMedicine. Most of you who had or have brain cancer understand how difficult it is to wear that mask – don’t even get me started on the molding process- UGHHHH literally the worse experience ever; it still haunts me! - and trying not to move an inch or scratch a tiny itch on your neck- just forget it, because they would have to start the entire 45-minute scan over again- it happened to me several times. Seriously the most uncomfortable position and feeling ever!


My Mother and I sat in the front main lounge waiting for our car that was being brought up by the valet workers. A lady (probably around 45-50) came walking over to me and asked to talk to me- I was kind of a little freaked out for I had just gone through something that my mind at the time could not fathom- I had so many different emotions flowing through my head; just one being the fear of the unknown. She said to me “Hi honey I saw you come upstairs from the radiation department. I just want to let you know


this cancer stuff, it’s 60% medical the rest is mental! Just remember that and good luck my dear….”



I thought to myself “Ok, that was really nice but made no sense after what all the Doctors have told me?” Little did I know at the time she was so right. Looking back on this later in life, I truly think she was some type of angel sent down from God as a vessel to deliver that message to me. From that day on I thought of my cancer treatments in that way, and it really helped me to keep focusing on the mental aspect of my body versus the physical (aches, pains, scaring, future hair loss and long term effects from treatments.)


I was beyond blessed and very fortunate to have great parents; I know not everyone can say that. Most of the time (not always- oh you know those high school days…and those grade school days…and those other times.. hahaha) I would take their advice and have it kind of sit dormant in the back of my head.


As little kids, my Dad would always tell my brother and me, don’t be a follower, be a leader…blah blah blah but the one quote that always stuck with me was the one with the glass. The glass? Yeah, that’s what I said when I was younger. “Kids, just remember, ‘The glass is half full, not half empty.” Um yeah, Dad whatever that means! He would repeat it year after year but I still never fully understood it- until one day as we were leaving my brother's 6th grade CYO basketball game and me and my brother were complaining about the snack bar food and how we didn’t like it-just endlessly complaining and moaning about it. As we were headed to the car we saw another family walking in for the next game. There was a young boy – who had to be around 10-11 years old and he was in a wheelchair with a basketball jersey on. He smiled at us, and we smiled back. We got in the car and my Father said to us, “guys, that’s why I always say you need to look at your life as the glass is half full not half empty. You both just walked into the gym with 2 working legs and were just walking out with two working legs complaining about a stupid snack bar; that boy can’t even walk, and he had a smile on his face! Just because you don’t always get what you want, or you don’t have the most expensive clothes, or the newest playstation game, doesn’t mean your life is not full. You need to try to look at everything that comes to you in life like this- look at ALL that you do have and be grateful and humble to have your glass even half full. He continued to say


There’s always someone out there who has less than you; their glass is half empty. Just know that your glass could be completely empty.


I didn't use it much therefore after until I was diagnosed with cancer. It's almost like it was uprooted into my life at the exact right moment. I tried and continue to try to look at things more that way; kind of like looking at life through a different lens.



coffee cup


My Mother always told me (side note: this is a good tip for those about to start rounds of radiation or other cancer-related therapies) that when I get into the radiation booth to picture PAC-MAN eating the cancer cells as it acts as a positive energy giving affirmation and connecting the mind to the body.


The mind is a powerful thing; something I always knew but what I didn’t know was how it can work as a well-oiled machine.


That first week of radiation I pretty much felt sub-human.. like some type of science experiment haha - 45 minutes in a straight jacket type of crazy

I used the “PAC-MAN theory" in my first treatment and consecutively after. I also would pray heavily throughout those 45 minutes reciting Hail Marys and Our Fathers for a good 30 minutes. I had a cancer CD that I made with calming songs by Jack Johnson, Jewel, Alanis Morrisette, and Bob Marley that they would play for me in the booth. At the end of that session, I thought about how my glass is half full not half empty.


From there on out for 8 weeks, those 45 minutes in that booth were consumed with PAC-MAN eating cells, Jack Johnson playing guitar and singing to me on the beach, tons of prayers over and over again which included an out-of-body experience, and the quote from my Dad and what that angel-lady said to me all on repeat for 5 days a week for 8 total weeks. I know that all of that positive repetitive affirmation must have helped me beat the hell out of cancer!


It was week 3 and I was getting increasingly tired, sick, and very down on myself– I was sick of going through the process and I knew I had so much more ahead of me- so overwhelming. That day I barely did any of my tactics in the booth I just prayed so hard and I kept talking to God saying please God I just want to get through this I want to live and I want to experience life…..Our Father, Hail Mary, Our Father, Glory Be, over and over again, I then stopped and talked to God again- all of a sudden I was hovering over the booth looking at myself (I get chills every time I tell this story) and I saw that my eyes were closed and I looked at peace. The painful white head mask to keep my head still was not on. Then there was a brief image of a man with piercing blue eyes, dark, tan skin, dark brown eyebrows, and medium-length hair….. It was an image of Jesus. It took my breath away literally- I remember grasping for air. This experience was all of 30 seconds. When my 45 minutes were done, I came to the waiting room to meet my Mom and I said to her “Mom, I’m cured!” – as you can imagine she was at a loss for words knowing that I had about a year of treatment left to do. She just smiled and hugged me. Later I told her what I saw and she believed me – why would I ever make something so detailed up like that? Especially when I was fully aware of all of my treatments and the difficult journey ahead.

jesus praying


I also know what you’re thinking…sounds like I was on some type of hallucinogen? Or too much pain medicine? – NOPE, that right there is called the body-mind connection.


BODY MIND CONNECTION

What does it mean? A study from the University of Minnesota’s Earl E. Bakken Center explains that “the mind-body connection means that our thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes can positively or negatively affect our biological functioning. In other words, our minds can affect how healthy our bodies are. On the other hand, what we do with our physical body (what we eat, how much we exercise, even our posture) can impact our mental state (again positively or negatively). This results in a complex interrelationship between our minds and body”


That confirms a lot of what I was doing could have really been beneficial to beating cancer. Another article called The Power of Positive Thinking posted by John Hopkins Medicine states that “The mechanism for the connection between health and positivity remains murky, but researchers suspect that people who are more positive may be better protected against the inflammatory damage of stress. Another possibility is that hope and positivity help people make better health and life decisions and focus more on long-term goals. Studies also find that negative emotions can weaken immune responses. What is clear, however, is that there is definitely a strong link between ‘positivity’ and health.


Additional studies have found that a positive attitude improves outcomes and life satisfaction across a spectrum of conditions—including traumatic brain injury, stroke, and brain tumors.”


I firmly believe a strong, positive outlook (although extremely hard to say rather than do in such a difficult time) and training your mind repetitively is essential to battle this disease. No, I don’t think it’s just that easy to instantly make your mind think a certain way; especially when you have so many negative factors trying to interrupt the positive connection. I get it, it’s hard but it’s also doable. I taught myself, and I tell everyone who is struggling (not just those struggling from cancer but many other situations in life) that you need to retrain your brain. It’s not an overnight thing you can do. It took me years and I mean YEARS to gain this brain strategy. What I didn’t know is how powerful it really is. Retraining your brain is like rewiring the way you think- you need to be strong-minded to be able to stick with this strategy even when it feels impossible. Tell yourself when you wake up, whenever you struggle during that day, and when you go to bed things like, “I am going to get through this come on I’m strong” - “This pain is temporary just look towards a brighter day” - “This does not define me” - “I am going to have a good day even if something bad happens I am not going to let it ruin the entire day - “I am a really good Mother” “I am so grateful for the things that I do have.” - sayings like that. Even if your body or mind is not feeling any of that you still need to reinforce these positive affirmations continuously to see any type of results (trust me I know it sounds strange). You’re not masking your true feelings it’s almost like your starting to heal them; the mind is triggering the body to tell it to do something positive verse negative.


In these cases I feel there is some type of spiritual force that comes in to finish the job– that’s where the SOUL (the whole mind body soul thing) part comes into play.

The soul is “the spiritual and emotional part of a human being or animal, regarded as immortal. It also is the emotional or intellectual energy or intensity of a being.”

Retraining your brain involves your mind, body, and soul. 1. Your mind which I just discussed 2. Your body is being affected by your mind. And 3. Your soul which can reinforce whatever emotional or passionate energy you feed it.


So we know the mind is a powerful thing but prayer is just as powerful


– it's spiritual affirmation. This leads me to the question that you’re probably asking yourself… Victoria you’re saying having a positive mindset is shown to create positive results- but is it proven in the medical field?


An article from the Baylor University Medical Center Proceedings says, “The effect of spirituality on health is an area of active research right now. Besides being studied by physicians, it is studied by psychologists and other professionals.”


Ok, so there's no solid evidence that this is a real thing- but how could you possibly measure or test something like a soul or a spiritual experience? This is where I stop for a moment and my faith steps in– I think it’s to your digression on what you believe or what your religion/culture is – but for me, I believe that this is not 100% a medical topic but more of a spiritual topic.

feathers

Still skeptical? That’s ok, I would be too if I didn’t experience any of the previous events I just stated.


A study in the Oncology Nursing Forum (Vol. 31 Issue 1, p89-94. 6p. 1 Diagram, 5 Charts.) studied the effects of spirituality on the well-being of people with lung cancer. “Concepts were examined, and multiple regression analysis was used to determine the effects of spirituality in life, prayer activities, experiences, symptom distress, and psychological well-being.”


They found that there was a greater significance in “life scores that were associated with higher psychological well-being and lower symptom distress scores. Higher prayer scores were associated with higher psychological well-being scores. Regression analysis indicated that meaning in life mediated the relationship between functional status and physical responses to lung cancer and explained 9% of the variance in symptom distress. Prayer mediated the relationship between current physical health and psychological responses and explained 10% of the variance in psychological well-being.”

Their conclusions included that


"aspects of spirituality, meaning in life, and prayer have positive effects on psychological and physical responses in this group of people with lung cancer."



Those findings are amazing to me; just to know that that information could potentially help current and future lung cancer patients. I personally don’t need a medical article to confirm that prayer is powerful (with my Catholic/Christian background all my life) but it doesn’t mean everyone else in the world doesn’t and I am a very open-minded person so I am not counted anyone out on how they deal with their spiritual journey in life.


brain cancer

Again, taking a segment from the University Medical Center Proceedings, I read that “Spiritual commitment tends to enhance recovery from illness and surgery. For example, a study of heart transplant patients showed that those who participated in religious activities and said "their beliefs were better with follow-up treatment, had improved physical functioning at the 12-month follow-up visit, had higher levels of self-esteem, and had less anxiety and fewer health worries.


In general, people who don’t worry as much tend to have better health outcomes. Maybe spirituality enables people to worry less, to let go and live in the present moment"

Another astounding study performed by Harvard School of Business Health confirms “that for healthy people, spiritual community participation–as exemplified by religious service attendance – is associated with healthier lives, including greater longevity, less depression and suicide, and less substance use.”


Tracy Balboni, lead author and senior physician at the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center and professor of radiation oncology at Harvard Medical School also states that the study “represents the most rigorous and comprehensive systematic analysis of the modern-day literature regarding health and spirituality to date. Our findings indicate that attention to spirituality in serious illness and in health should be a vital part of future whole person-centered care, and the results should stimulate more national discussion and progress on how spirituality can be incorporated into this type of value-sensitive care.”

Another good tip as your go through cancer treatments, or even after is to learn about “Mindfulness” and more specifically MBSR which is Mindfulness Based Stress-Reduction. This strategy, along with the other ones stated above could greatly help you through your difficult moments – I’ve had a lot of them as I said and it helped me – so it’s worth trying!


The term mindfulness itself is a type of meditation in which you focus on being intensely aware of what you're sensing and feeling in the moment, without interpretation or judgment. I have heard of I before while I was going through a lot of depression and anxiety (which my anxiety has never gone away- that’s a whole nother beast that I could get into but I’ll spare you and your time ….for now – probably will be in a future blog haha)


Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Therapy is a new term that I just learned recently but unbeknownst to me it’s been around since the 1970s. The technique was developed by a man called Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn in 1979. MBSR is a meditation therapy, though originally designed for stress management, it is being used for treating a variety of illnesses such as chronic pain, depression, anxiety, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and immune disorders. According to the National Library of Medicine (which I refer to in most of my articles. They are extremely thorough and credible. I suggest you check it out if interested.),


“Studies have shown a significant decrease in anxiety, stress and depression as well as enhanced the quality of life in patients with chronic diseases like cancer,


hypertension, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, chronic pain, and skin disorders, after MBSR therapy. It also was found that there were decreases in depression, anxiety, and general psychological distress in patients undergoing MBSR therapy.”


Lastly, YOGA. Most of you probably know the benefits of this exercise but Love Equals (an inspirational business blog) explains that “Yoga doesn't deal with the physical wellness alone but it also has a great influence over mental and spiritual wellness. Practicing yoga after a long tiring day can help in stimulating the mind, body, and soul as it helps in keeping the body relaxed and relieving everyday stress.***I will get more into the exercise part of mind, body, and soul in my next blog.

yoga positions

Hey maybe none of these strategies work for you in the future or hasn’t worked for you in past and you have some other strategies to get through difficult times in life - but don't give up on the process it takes work- and try again and again..maybe that 3rd or 4th time something triggers and you find that body-mind-soul connection to help you.


It works, I am the living testament of that. I know without all of these strategies I just spoke about Imost likey would not be here today writing this. I hope that this helps even one person. One thing I do know for sure is that with the chemotherapy, the radiation, pro-ton therapy, all of the surgeries, blood transfusions, and endless list of medications medicine I was on, definitely helped me battle cancer- but what was unseen was that “40% mental” aspect that that lady said to me on that first day of radiation. Pretty crazy how a total stranger …or angel? can change your entire perspective on something so negative. Look out for those signs that are coming to you- sometimes you may think you're battling alone when God sends you help in different disguises. I’ll leave you with something I try to tell myself everyday...



“there is always someone out there

praying for what you have”



prayer is strong



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