The Presense of Thought

Good Morning Everyone,

It has been a bit since I posted last so I thought I would give everyone an update on the what has gone on. This week has been busy for me. I was down at PMH on both Wednesday and Tuesday.

Yesterday's visit was to get some blood work done, visit my doctor, and have another LP done. After my visit with the doctor we decided to move forward into the next phase of my chemotherapy cycles as well so yesterday I received two doses of chemotherapy and moved into day 1 of my first intensification cycle. I still have two more LP's to complete to fully complete my CNS phase but the will be administered in the next two weeks as long as the head aches aren't present. Yesterday was another clear example that to make it in the health care industry patience truly is a virtue. You spend more time in the hospital waiting that you do being treated but it is definitely nothing to get angry about because there is really nothing you can do about it.

On Tuesday I was also at PMH. I joined a course called "The healing journey". It is a six phase course in which there are weekly classes for each phase. The phase length can be anywhere from 4 weeks to 9 weeks in duration. This course is designed to actively work on healing yourself from the mind and interior outwards. Most of medicine just focuses on the external, this course works on focusing on the internal. The leader of the course is extremely intelligent (he won an Order of Canada for his work in this field) and in addition is a cancer survivor.

The first phase is mainly looking at techniques to help cope with cancer mainly looking in relaxation exercises. But we also have begun talking about the mind and how powerful it truly is. A thought provoking example was presented to us that I wanted to share with each of you. We may walk into the doctor's office feeling fairly well and not unhappy with life, and walk out an hour or two later (or in most cases a day :) ), having been diagnosed with cancer, feeling filled with despair and hopelessness. Nothing has changed materially since you went in the doctor's office, except for the thoughts in out minds. It is often said that it is not the cancer that makes you depressed, it's your thoughts about it and what you think it implies.

I found this example to be really powerful especially having experienced this example in my life. But then I got to thinking as well. There are so many things in our lives that we over exaggerate in our minds and let ruin our days. I think it would be prudent for all of us to remember this example, the presence of cancer has nothing to do with the change in our behaviour, it is the presence of thought and more specifically the type of thought we choose to think about. So next time you are having a depressing moment try to think about what thought is actually causing that emotion and try to reverse it to a more positive thought.

I hope you all have a great day today,

Aaron