wholeness Archives - Amazing Health Advances

How Sorrow & Longing Can Make Us Whole

The AHA! Team — Mon, 22 Jul 2024 08:37:15 +0000

Dr. Caroline Leaf – In this podcast (episode #475) and blog, I talk to bestselling author and speaker Susan Cain about sorrow and mental health, embracing bittersweet moments and feelings, how longing makes us whole, her amazing new book Bittersweet, and so much more! As Susan notes in her book, bittersweetness is a tendency toward states of longing, poignancy, and sorrow, an acute awareness of passing time, and a curiously piercing joy at the beauty of the world. It recognizes that light and dark, birth and death—bitter and sweet—are forever paired. In Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole, Susan uses research, storytelling, and memoir to explore why we experience sorrow and longing and how embracing the bittersweetness at the heart of life is the true path to creativity, connection, and transcendence. She describes how a bittersweet state of mind is the quiet force that helps us transcend our personal and collective pain, whether from a death, breakup, addiction, or illness. She also explains how we can end up inflicting our own heartache on others via abuse, domination, or neglect if we don’t acknowledge it. But if we realize that all humans know—or will know—loss and suffering, we can turn toward one another. Susan calls this a “bittersweet state of mind”: the power we find in longing and sorrow and how it can shape our mental health and lives. This sense of bittersweetness, whether we are watching a sad movie, listening to a sad song, or thinking of something that has happened in the past, allows us connect on a deeper level with both ourselves and others, shaping our lives in ways that enhance the beauty of being alive—of being human. This sense of sorrow and longing also includes inherited grief. All of us carry around our own losses and sorrow, as well as grief inherited from our parents and ancestors which affects us as well. Indeed, emerging evidence shows how inherited grief even impacts our biology through epigenetics. Biological responses to environmental signals can be inherited through the generations via epigenetic markers in our genetic makeup. However, epigenetics does not mean that we are trapped by our past. Our brains are neuroplastic, which means they can change. If we remove the signal, the epigenetic mark can fade. If we choose to add a signal, on the other hand, the epigenetic mark can be activated. We are not merely our genes or biology. Our past doesn’t have to be our destiny. How we think and choose to live our lives impacts a big part of the picture, including how we let our inherited grief shape and impact us as individuals and our relationships with our parents and ancestors. Unfortunately, in our society today, there is often no room to allow for grief and sorrow. We tend to overemphasize positive thinking and overlook the power that human feelings like sadness and longing have to shape and heal us and help us grow. As we see in different religions and wisdom traditions, sadness and grief are powerful aspects of the human condition and can help us connect with some of the most fundamental parts of who we are. It is okay to experience emotions like sadness, longing and grief. It is through embracing these emotions and understanding what they are telling us about ourselves that we come to understand who we are on a deeper level. We should not just try to replace these feelings with something “positive”. It is only by going through what we experience that we can heal and grow. Especially when it comes to grief, there is a difference between moving on and moving forward. Moving on implies the need to march on—to move past something or bury what happened. Moving forward, on the other hand, acknowledges the pain and sorrow of what happened while understanding that life continues. It helps us acknowledge that who we are today has been forever changed by what happened to us, but that loss is not something that stays in the past—who we are today moves forward with the love and impact that what was lost had on our life. For more on sorrow, longing and mental health, listen to my podcast with Susan (episode #475) Podcast Highlights 1:55 Susan’s journey 5:45 What a bittersweet state of mind is & why it’s important 9:31 Epigenetics & inherited grief 17:45 The downsides of positive thinking 28:30 Mental health & sorrow 31:30 Why everyone should watch the movie Inside Out 35:30, 40:10 The difference between moving on & moving forward 45:00 How sorrow & grief can create meaningful connections 48:50 The deep joy & deep sorrow of being human This podcast and blog are for educational purposes only and are not intended as medical advice. We always encourage each person to make the decision that seems best for their situation with the guidance of a medical professional. To read the original article click here.

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Negotiating for Life: Mexico’s Oasis of Hope Hospital Touching Patients’ Body, Mind & Soul

AHA Publisher — Fri, 26 Nov 2021 08:00:30 +0000

George Thomas via CBN News – August 2017. Michelle Tucker remembers the words from that day while she was in the doctor’s office as her oncologist delivered the news. “I was told I had about four weeks to live, to go home and get my affairs in order,” Tucker told CBN News. The 46-year-old mother of three from Arizona had battled cancer since she was 19. It started in her breast, first spreading to her thyroid and then pancreas. “I figured I would take my children maybe to the beach for the first week of those four weeks,” Tucker recalled. “We love hearing the waves crash, so I figured let me take them to the beach and we’ll just kind of like ride it out.” Yet, there was something stirring in her that said she simply could not give up without a fight. “I had the attitude of like ‘Who are you to tell me my expiration date? There’s only one person that can do that and that’s not a doctor, no offense to medicine, that’s the man upstairs,'” Tucker recalled. In desperation, she researched alternative cancer treatments and ended up at the Oasis of Hope Hospital. “You get diagnosed with cancer, you’re not going to travel to Tijuana, Mexico. But when they have reached a point where the doctor is saying ‘We really can’t do anything else for you.’ This is the typical person that comes to Oasis of Hope,” said Oasis of Hope CEO Daniel Kennedy. Twenty-five miles south of San Diego and just across the U.S. – Mexican border, Tucker believes God is using Oasis of Hope to give her a chance to continue living. “From the moment you walk in the door, you feel this overwhelming spiritual presence,” she told CBN News during a visit to the facility in Tijuana. “There’s the pastor that sings with you. They pray with you. They become a family with people with strangers, complete strangers, from all over the world, all walks of life.” Tucker has been in remission now for two years. “Four years later, I’m still alive,” she exclaimed. Hospital Founded in 1963 Oasis of Hope was started in 1963 by the late Mexican doctor Ernesto Contreras, Sr., who believed in taking a holistic approach to fighting cancer. His son, Dr. Francisco Contreras, a surgeon and oncologist specialist, now serves as the hospital’s president. “My father felt that the reason for the failure in oncology, and medicine overall, is that we have become just mechanics of the human body,” said Contreras. The idea for Oasis of Hope originated back in the early 1960s when Contreras’ father, who was also a physician, decided to go on a mission trip to Greece and on that trip discovered three important elements that are today at the core of the hospital. Contreras says while traditional oncology focuses on destroying the tumor, his father wanted the hospital to focus on the patient’s emotional renewal, spiritual revival as well as physical restoration. The founder’s grandson, Daniel Kennedy, is proud of his grandfather’s lasting legacy. “There is no other clinic in Tijuana that actually has a pastor on the payroll, praying for patients every day, opening with praise and worship,” Kennedy told CBN News. Miracles Bringing Back Life, Hope, Faith, and a Future Ernesto Lopez is that pastor. He used to lead a local church in Tijuana. Now he walks the corridors of the hospital ministering to the spiritual and emotional needs of patients. CBN News asked Lopez if he’s encountered miracles at the hospital. “Yes, a lot of miracles,” Lopez responded. “Miracles of healing, miracles of salvation, miracles of bringing life back, bringing hope again, bringing faith again and have a hope and a future.” Using a combination of conventional treatments with alternative therapies such as whole-body hyperthermia, Ozone therapy, and dendritic cell vaccine immunotherapy, Oasis of Hope says it has treated more than 100,000 cancer patients from 60 countries. “The majority come from the United States because we’re just across the border from San Diego, but we’ve had patients from South Africa, from Vietnam, from China, from all over the world,” Kennedy said. Cancer-fighting Food Program Rosa Tessada is the hospital’s nutritionist. Working with kitchen staff, Tessada has designed a cancer-fighting plant-based food program to help patients live a healthier life. Ninety percent of meals served at the hospital are vegan-based. “We don’t want to make anybody feel like you have to leave your old life. Let’s just add more greens, more vegetables, and kind of enjoy food and go along with it,” Tessada told CBN News during a cooking demonstration. The hospital grows vegetables on its rooftop garden and teaches patients how to prepare healthy meals. “What the patients tell us is, ‘I’ve never done this. I’ve not used to eating these foods,'” Tessada said. “So what we do is help them to see, hey, you can make very healthy dishes, very fast, and very easy.'” It took a while, but Caleb Dominguez is now sold on eating healthier thanks to Oasis of Hope. Doctors in the U.S. told the 35-year-old they could do nothing for him after being diagnosed with an advanced stage of leukemia. Then he came to Tijuana. “I was going through their treatment plan and within weeks everything that my doctors were trying to fight had shrunk by half. The cancer numbers were going down. My strength was rising. My blood counts were coming back up. I just felt life being restored back to me,” Dominguez told CBN News. That was in 2007. Today, because of his experience at the hospital, Dominguez said his whole approach to life has completely changed. His eating habits, his attitude, and his walk with God have gone through a radical transformation. “Having known what I’ve been through. To be alive and well and healthy, taking all the lessons and experience here, I carry it with me everywhere I go,” Dominguez said. All Patients Need to be Treated with Compassion and the Love of Christ There remain several opinions on this alternative approach and others. For example, the American Cancer Society states some complementary methods have generally not been proven to help prevent or treat cancer or its symptoms. It recommends discussing any treatment patients might consider with their doctor or cancer team. While the doctors at Oasis of Hope are proud to share success stories like Dominguez, Tucker’s, and others, they point out not all patients who come here will make it. Still, Contreras believes all deserve to be treated with compassion and the love of Christ. “I believe that hope is a very powerful tool and that all patients should have hope because as a very old doctor said many, many years ago to a parent of a child, ‘While there’s life, there’s hope,'” he said. Contreras explained what he, along with his team of doctors, nurses, nutritionists, pastors, and counselors is negotiating for, is more time for patients. “I cannot guarantee anything,” he said. “The only thing I can guarantee is that I’m going to sit with you and I’m going to do everything possible. And I’m going to negotiate with you for life and God will decide yes, no, or maybe.” To read the original article click here.

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