Wellness News September 2011

Vol. 26 No.8

september2011

May my soul bloom in love for all existence.

Rudolf Steiner

Cancer Support Association of WA Patron – His Excellency Dr. Ken Michael AC, Governor of Western Australia

editorial Connect with the CSA community online We have created a new facebook page for our members and friends which we update daily with cancer news, inspirations and the latest CSA events and programs.

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wellness news

“people are happier when they invest their time and energy having a healthy diet low in sugar; doing at least one hour or exercise 7 days a week; spending quality time on meaningful relationships; focusing on loving connections; and learning to pay attention with all five senses”

is the monthly online magazine of the Cancer Support Association of Western Australia Inc. Wellness News e-magazine is published online twelve time a year and distributed free to members of the Cancer Support Association.

An annual print edition of Wellness News is produced at the end of each year and posted to all CSA members.

Wellness News magazine is dedicated entirely to publishing informative, inspiring and helpful articles related to wellness and healing. The magazine is for people with cancer or serious health issues; for people who are well and want to maintain their good health naturally; and for complementary, alternative and integrative health professionals.

editorial & production...

Editor & Designer Mandy BeckerKnox editor.wellness@yahoo.com.au

online at...

www.cancersupportwa.org.au Wellness News magazine is published by the Cancer Support Association of WA Inc (CSA). The contents of this magazine do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the CSA and should be not be construed as medical advice. CSA encourages readers to be discerning with information presented and make treatment, dietary and lifestyle choices in consultation with a team of health-care professionals. © Copyright of all articles and images remains with individual contributors.

~ Professor Paula Barrett, founder of Health and Research Centre, Brisbane Dear members and friends,

Did you know that Cancer Support Association was a pioneer of the wellness

approach to cancer in Western Australia? Back in 1984 when CSA began, it was uncommon to integrate meditation, diet or complementary therapies into a cancer care plan. In fact, there was active opposition from mainstream medicine!

It is through the efforts of wellness advocates such as Dr. Ian Gawler (and in WA CSA) that complementary therapies, meditation, nutrition and lifestyle medicine have slowly become recognised as key factors in cancer healing and are more widely accepted.

We have seen meditation, complementary therapies and lifestyle medicine become more mainstream, with many hospitals and oncology departments now advocating and implementing complementary therapies.

The CSA Wellness team have many, many years experience in cancer wellness (we counted 75 years of active involvement in the wellness and healing fields between three staff members alone!) and continue to provide wellness services and support to the West Australian community.

This year the team continues to pioneer new cancer wellness programs, taking our services to rural and remote areas of WA where we have hosted the Meeting the Challenge 1 Day Cancer Wellness Seminar. We have also been busy producing a Meeting the Challenge Cancer Wellness Handbook for people newly diagnosed with cancer which introduces the key aspects of the wellness approach to cancer.

The handbook will be launched later this year – to ensure that the wellness message reaches more people at the time they need it most.

There are many people with cancer who are alive today because they stepped outside the mainstream cancer treatment paradigm and wholeheartedly embraced the wellness approach, integrating deep and long-lasting lifestyle, psychological and spiritual changes which directly contributed to their recovery.

We are proud of the role we have played in popularising the wellness approach to cancer and we are proud of our many members and friends who have had the courage to look deep within to connect with their inner healing resources and to live according to their personal truth. F

Peace, Mandy

contents CSA Weekly Program . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 CSA member receives Order of Australia medal What’s on at CSA this month. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 In the News: Startling findings – ovarian cancer screening doesn’t save lives and not all ovarian cancers need treatment (7); Scientists discover bacteria in soil kills cancer (8); Older people who eat ‘healthy diets‘ officially lead longer lives (9) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Article: Something to Bear in Mind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Interview: From Cancer to Mindfulness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Article: The Miracle Tree. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Article: How to do Mindfulness Meditation. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 20 Article: A No-Nonsense Look at Toxins and How Your Body Deals with Them. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Recipes: from the Miracle (Moringa) Tree . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Feature: Meeting the Challenge Manjimup. . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . 28

sea of love Just like a sunbeam can’t separate itself from the sun,

Waves In An Ocean A little wave was bobbing along in the ocean, having a grand old time. He’s enjoying the wind and the fresh air – until he notices the other waves in front of him, crashing against the shore.

“My God, this is terrible,” the wave says. “Look what’s going to happen to me!”

Then along comes another wave. It sees the first wave, looking grim, and it says to him, “Why do you look so sad?”

The first wave says, “You don’t understand! We’re all going to crash! All of us waves are going to be nothing! Isn’t this terrible?”

The second wave says, “No, YOU don’t understand. You’re not a wave, you’re part of the ocean.”

by Mitch Albom. From: www.spiritual-short-stories.com

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and a wave can’t separate itself from the ocean, we can’t separate ourselves from one another. We are all part of a vast sea of love, one indivisible divine mind.

Marianne Williamson

this program is updated monthly. Check website for any changes before attending Monday Meditation Made Easy....................................................................................10.00 – 11.30am Ongoing Lessons with Bavali Hill. FREE FOR MEMBERS (non-members $5) No bookings necessary.

Massage with Nat Hazelwood ($55/$65 non-members)...................... by appointment

Tuesday Cancer Wellness Counselling with Mike Sowerby................................... by appointment Book with reception. $75 (CSA members), $100 (non-members)

meditation made easy with Bavali Hill Meditation is a safe and simple way to balance a person’s physical, emotional, and mental states.

The use of Meditation for healing is not new.

Meditative techniques are the product of diverse cultures and peoples around the world. The value of Meditation to alleviate suffering and promote healing has been known and practiced for thousands of years. In these weekly lessons at CSA, Bavali guides participants through various healing meditation techniques and gives notes and handouts to support home practice.

Wellness and Healing Open Support Group................................... 10.00 – 12.00noon with Dr. Angela Ebert Carer’s Wellness and Healing Support Group ........................... 10.00 – 12.00noon with Mike Sowerby (when required) Reiki Clinic.......................................................................................................12.15pm – 1.30pm

Wednesday Reflexology ..................................................................10.00am – 2pm with Udo Kannapin (by appointment between 10-2) Laughter Yoga with Kimmie O’Meara ($3.00).....................................11.00am – 12.00pm Chinese Medical Healthcare Qigong ($10/$5 members).............. 1.00pm – 2.30pm with Alan Donelly

THURSDAY Cancer Wellness Counselling with Mike Sowerby................................... by appointment Book with reception. $75 (CSA members), $100 (non-members) Yoga for Healing...........................................................................................10.00am – 11.15am with Madeline Clare (members $5 / others $10) Grief and Loss Open Support Group...................................................... 1.00pm – 3.00pm with Mike Sowerby (last Thursday of each month)

Friday Meeting the Challenge 1 Day Seminar...................................................9.30am – 4.30pm 1st Friday of the month “Arts for Healing” Art Therapy Group.................................................9.30am – 12.00pm with Glenys Gibbs (members $20 / others $25 includes art materials)

Daily General Counselling with Dr. Angela Ebert ................................................... by appointment Phone direct on 0414 916 724 or 9450 6724 or email a.ebert@murdoch.edu.au

counselling Individual, Family & Group Ongoing counselling sessions with a caring, compassionate professional could help you deal more effectively with the many issues, fears and emotions which arise on the cancer journey; gain clarity to make treatment decisions; give you the insight to grow from your experiences; and the peace of mind and heart needed to heal.

Sessions can be booked with our qualified psychologist, and are also available online for those unable to make it in to our Cottesloe premises.

laughter yoga with Kimmie O’Meara Laughter Yoga is a revolutionary idea developed by Dr. Madan Kataria, a Physician from Mumbai, India.

It is a complete wellbeing workout combining Unconditional Laughter with Yogic Breathing (Pranayama). Anyone can Laugh for No Reason, without relying on humour, jokes or comedy.

Laughter is simulated as a body exercise in a group; with eye contact and childlike playfulness, it soon turns into real and contagious laughter.

The concept of Laughter Yoga is based on a scientific fact that the body cannot differentiate between fake and real laughter. One gets the same physiological and psychological benefits of laughter regardless of the source.

what’s on at CSA this month be part of the csa community by joining the groups and wellness activities at our premises in Cottesloe

Meeting the Challenge 1 Day Cancer Wellness Seminar Life Changing Information for people with cancer and their carers. Led by Cathy Brown, this seminar provides wellness information, wellness strategies, new resources (such as nutrition, treatment options, meditation) and sharing with others on a healing journey. There is also a focus on accessing cancer information online.

Held monthly at CSA on the first Friday of every month from 9.30am-4.30pm. Free for new CSA members, bookings are required.

“If you travel alone, you can probably go faster. But the journey will never be as rewarding, and you probably won’t be able to go as far.” ~ John Maxwell

yoga for healing with Madeline Clare Yoga for Healing classes bring the joy of yoga to people with cancer and those who may need a nurturing space to practice. CSA yoga teacher, Madeline Clare, takes inspiration from both Iyengar and Vinyasa approaches to yoga with an emphasis on relaxation, breath awareness, gentle movement and meditation. A balanced yoga practice has the capacity to heal, shift energy blockages and bring the body into physical, emotional, mental and spiritual alignment.

cancer support groups with Angela Ebert & Mike Sowerby

qi gong

Support groups enable people to discover new ways of coping; share the experience with others going through something similar; exchange information and resources; develop a holistic approach to healing; be inspired by others on the journey to regaining wellness.

with Alan Donelly

CSA offers an open cancer support group for people with cancer and their carers. This weekly group is facilitated by Angela Ebert and Mike Sowerby. We also offer a Carers’ Support Group and a monthly Grief and Loss Support Group.

Qigong is a traditional Chinese mind-body practice that uses meditation, breathing control, and movement to balance the flow of energy (qi) through the body to help healing to occur. CSA offers qigong to complement cancer therapies and help with the symptoms of cancer. In this setting, qigong is not used as a treatment for cancer per se, but as a method of easing cancer symptoms such as fatigue.

reiki clinic

every Tuesday

reflexology with Udo Kannapin Reflexology is the application of pressure, stretching and movement to the feet and hands to trigger corresponding parts of the body. It complements standard medical care by relaxing the body and reducing stress.

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CSA offers a weekly reiki clinic staffed by qualified volunteers. Gold coin donation. Reiki is a Japanese energy-based therapy that promotes healing and overall wellness. A trained reiki practitioner uses his or her hands to transmit energy to the recipient. Reiki has been proven to help with pain management, relaxation, and side effects of cancer treatment.

NEW CSA members can attend free!

Meeting the Challenge Handbook CSA will soon launch the Meeting the Challenge Handbook for people newly diagnosed with cancer.

The Handbook presents holistic cancer wellness strategies based on the principles of lifestyle medicine and mind-body healing.

T

here is no doubt that cancer is a challenge for the person diagnosed, their family and community. For many years the Cancer Support Association has hosted the 1 Day Meeting the Challenge Seminar to help people meet the many challenges of cancer.

Meeting the Challenge! one day cancer wellness workshop

First Friday of every month between 9.30am-4.30pm at CSA, Cottesloe Life Changing Information for people with cancer: • The Wellness approach to cancer • Nutrition for optimal health • Power of the Mind • Introduction to Meditation • Natural & Complementary Therapies To book ph CSA 8384 3544 online: www.cancersupportwa.org.au 6 Cancer Support Association www.cancersupportwa.org.au

The Meeting the Challenge Handbook contains information to supplement the seminar and can be used by anyone with cancer looking for a balanced perspective on their illness and strategies to recover from cancer.

If you have just been diagnosed with cancer you will benefit from the immediate strategies in this handbook which may help you positively deal with cancer and improve your life. Meeting the Challenge is based on the principles of lifestyle medicine and mindbody healing. The seminar and handbook contain information to help you process your diagnosis, to learn about the options available to you, and introduce you to the key areas of lifestyle medicine.

Lifestyle medicine is about what you can do within your everyday life to improve your health. Adjustments to lifestyle, nutrition and adding meditation, natural and complementary therapies into your daily routine can all improve your wellbeing. Once you’ve read through this handbook you may have a clearer idea about the kinds of changes you could make to aid your recovery from cancer. At the back of the handbook we have included a template for you to start thinking about your own personalised cancer wellness plan.

With total commitment, it has been found that even after being given a ‘terminal’ cancer diagnosis, there are many people who defy the odds and recover from cancer. Ian Gawler, CSA staff members Cathy Brown and Mike Sowerby, some CSA members, and many other long-term cancer survivors are vibrant examples of the potential success of the wellness approach to cancer. F

The Meeting the Challenge Handbook will soon be available for all CSA members and for anyone newly diagnosed with cancer. Contact CSA to preorder your free copy.

in the news...

Startling findings: ovarian cancer screening doesn’t save lives and not all ovarian cancers need treatment There’s no denying ovarian cancer is usually a terrible disease. A stealthy malignancy, it’s often misdiagnosed as indigestion and by the time ovarian cancer is actually discovered by a doctor, the disease may have spread extensively. According to the National Institutes of Health, ovarian cancer is the fifth most common cancer among women and causes more deaths than any other type of female reproductive cancer.

So it might seem like a potentially life-saving move to have all women 55 and older – the age group that suffers most often from this form of cancer – screened regularly for the disease with transvaginal ultrasound and the blood test that measures serum cancer antigen 125 (CA-125).

These are expensive tests but, if they could save the lives of women by pinpointing ovarian malignancies early, they are certainly worth it. After all, the screening tests should save countless lives, right?

Unfortunately, according to new research headed by Saundra S. Buys, M.D., of the University of Utah Health Sciences Center, Salt Lake City, that assumption is wrong.

What’s more, the tests can lead to unneeded surgeries and serious complications in women who actually have no cancer at all.

But the study came to another surprising – and positive – conclusion, too. It turns out that not all ovarian cancers may be deadly or even need treatment.

For the study, which was just published in the June 8 issue of JAMA, Dr. Buys and her team investigated studies of almost 80,000 women to compare outcomes between women who received standard health care with no specific testing for ovarian cancer, unless they had overt symptoms, and those who received regular, ovarian cancer screening. The results showed no reduced risk of death from ovarian cancer for those aggressively screened for the disease when compared to women who received usual care.

However, the study did reveal a big difference between the health outcomes of the women in the two groups. Those receiving the cancer screenings had an alarming increase in invasive medical procedures and associated harms as a result of being screened.

In all, there were 3,285 women who turned out to have false-positive results. And of these, over 1,000 were subjected to surgery (32.9 had their ovaries removed as part of the diagnostic workup). Among these 1,080 women, 163 (15 percent) experienced a total of 222 distinct major complications.

Bottom line: the research team concluded there is no evidence from clinical trials to support regular screening for ovarian cancer at this time. The authors of the study also stated that even an optimized program of annual screening may be insufficient to detect cancers early enough to prevent deaths.

“Evidence from modeling suggests that aggressive cancers progress rapidly through the early stages, limiting the ability to detect these cancers with yearly screening,” they stated in the paper. “We conclude that annual screening for ovarian cancer...with simultaneous CA-125 and transvaginal ultrasound does not reduce disease-specific mortality in women at average risk for ovarian cancer but does increase invasive medical procedures and associated harms.” F

By S. L. Baker. From: www.naturalnews.com, July 2011

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“Apparently, not all ovarian cancers detected may be deadly at all or even need treatment: “In contrast, more ovarian cancers were diagnosed in the screened group than in the usual care group (212 vs. 176), suggesting that some of the additional cancers detected by screenings were not clinically important and, if left undetected, may never have caused any symptoms or affected the women during their life-times (i.e., overdiagnosis).”

in the news...

Lower risk of bowel cancer linked to ‘good’ cholesterol

Scientists discover harmless bacteria in soil kills cancer

People with high levels of "good" cholesterol

Cancer remains one of the most feared diseases on the planet – and cancer

may be less likely to develop bowel cancer, according to scientists.

High levels of high-density lipoproteins (HDL) have been shown to be good for health because they "collect" excess cholesterol in the blood and transport it to the liver, where it is broken down.

In a study in the journal Gut, experts compared data from more than 1,200 people with bowel cancer with data from a similar number of volunteers without the disease. They found that people with most HDL, and another blood fat called apolipoprotein A had the lowest risk of developing bowel cancer. F

From: The Guardian, March 2011

Blood cholesterol is of two main categories: High density Lipoproteins (HDL) and Low density lipoproteins (LDL). People with a high HDLcholesterol levels have low incidence of heart disease. HDL is a sort of cleaner that cleans the deposit of fats in the blood arteries. HDL is improved with regular exercise and eating low fat foods.

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patients being treated by mainstream medicine are usually bombarded with radiation and subjected to toxic chemotherapy that destroys healthy cells and weakens the body while trying to kill tumours.

Thankfully, a growing body of research is revealing that many natural substances have cancer prevention and treatment potential, including Mediterranean type foods that fight prostate cancer and walnuts which contain breast cancer preventive phytochemicals.

Now there’s evidence a cure for cancer may be all around us and is as common as dirt. In fact, it’s something in dirt.

Researcher Aleksandra Kubiak just presented the startling discovery at the Society for General Microbiology’s Autumn Conference currently underway at the University of York in the UK. She and other members of a research team from the University of Nottingham and the University of Maastricht have found that a strain of harmless bacteria that is widespread in soil is actually deadly – not to people but to cancerous tumours.

The researchers have developed a therapy using Clostridium sporogenes, a bacterium common in dirt. They found that when spores of the bacteria are injected into cancer patients, they only grow in solid tumours. Inside the cancerous growth, the bacteria produce a specific enzyme that activates a cancer drug. The results? Unlike current chemotherapy, the natural bacteria treatment causes only the cancer cells to be destroyed while healthy cells are left unharmed.

“Clostridia are an ancient group of bacteria that evolved on the planet before it had an oxygen-rich atmosphere and so they thrive in low oxygen conditions.

When Clostridia spores are injected into a cancer patient, they will only grow in oxygen-depleted environments, i.e. the center of solid tumours. This is a totally natural phenomenon, which requires no fundamental alterations and is exquisitely specific,” head researcher Professor Nigel Minton said in a statement to the media. “We can exploit this specificity to kill tumour cells but leave healthy tissue unscathed.”

He added that the new discovery could lead to a simple and safe procedure for curing a wide range of solid tumours. “This therapy will kill all types of tumour cell. The treatment is superior to a surgical procedure, especially for patients at high risk or with difficult tumour locations,” Professor Minton said.

“We anticipate that the strain we have developed will be used in a clinical trial in 2013 led by Jan Theys and Philippe Lambin at the University of Maastricht in The Netherlands. A successful outcome could lead to its adoption as a frontline therapy for treating solid tumours.” F

From: www.naturalnews.com, September 2011 Cancer Support Association

www.cancersupportwa.org.au

Older people who eat ‘healthy diets‘ officially lead longer lives Research in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association

found those who ate a low-fat diet that contained lots of fruit and vegetables lowered their risk of dying over 10 years.

The study compared the diets of 2,500 US adults aged 70 to 79.

Those who ate a high fat diet rich in ice cream, cheese, and whole milk, had the highest risk of death.

The study showed that 12 extra people in every hundred survived over the ten years, if they ate healthily.

Participants were split into six different groups, according to how often they ate certain foods.

The groups were: healthy foods; high-fat diary products; meat, fried foods and alcohol; breakfast cereal; refined grains and sweets and desserts.

Those who had a “healthy foods” diet ate more low-fat dairy products, fruit, whole grains, poultry, fish, and vegetables.

People in this group had healthier lifestyles too; smoking less and being more active than other participants.

They also ate lower amounts of meat, fried foods, sweets, high-calorie drinks, and added fat.

The “high fat dairy products” cluster ate more ice cream, cheese and whole milk and yogurt. They ate less poultry, low fat dairy products, rice, and pasta.

Researchers found that those who followed a predominantly high fat, dairy products diet, had a higher death risk than

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those in the healthy food group. No significant differences in death risk were seen between the “healthy foods” eaters and the “breakfast cereal” or “refined grains” eaters.

Lead researcher, Dr Amy Anderson, from the University of Maryland, said the results suggest “older adults who ...consume relatively high amounts of vegetables, fruit, whole grains, lowfat dairy products, poultry and fish, may have a lower risk of mortality”.

Saturated fat British dietitian Lucy Jones, who is a spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, said that saturated fat and trans fatty acids (a type of fat found in processed foods) were a common factor for those in the higher risk groups.

“The most harmful food groups appear to be the ‘sweets and desserts’ group and the ‘high fat dairy group’ in terms of risk of death,” she said.

“These groups are both high in saturated fat and trans fatty acids in addition to calories, contributing to obesity and high cholesterol.”

However, she noted that participants were not controlled for their weight and body mass index, which, she said, could mean that the increased risk of death was linked to being overweight. F

From BBC Health News: http://www.bbc.co.uk

Something to bear in mind Paying attention to the here and now and not letting yout thoughts be hijacked by worry about things that might happen in the future is the basic premise behind mindfulness, a thought therapy that’s gained wide acceptance, a thought therapy that’s gained wide acceptance in psychology practice in psychology practice in recent years.

Australian Psychological Society acceptance and commitment therapies interest group convenor Matthew Smout said mindfulness was about learning how to pay attention to parts of your experience happening right now in a particular way, purposefully with interest and curiosity. “(It is) learning to be open and accepting of whatever experience comes up, whether that is a physical sensation we don’t particularly care for, a thought that might frighten us normally or an image we don’t particularly like,” Dr Smout said.

“Rather than getting upset about the fact that these things have come to the mind or come to the body (it is) just allowing those throughts as thoughts which are reasonably harmless – letting them ocur and not creating a bigger problem by panicking or getting upset with ourselves for having some thoughts or others come to mind.”

Dr Smout said it was common for people to worry and spend a lot of time imagining worst-case scenarios of how things could go wrong, even though these thoughts were completely hypothetial and products of our own imagination.

“We tend to experience our worry fairly vividly as if it was as real as reality itself and sometimes we lose that distinction between our own thoughts and the world outside our thoughts,” he said.

“Mindfulness practice is learning to see our worries and our thoughts less vividly, in a more detached sense – more like events that are in the background rather than in the foreground.”

Practitioners of mindfulness find a focal point, often their breath, and focus on the act of breathing in and out.

A weekly group held every Tuesday at CSA 10am – 12noon. Anyone who’s life has been affected by cancer or other life threatening illnesses is welcome to attend. A Carer’s Support Group is held at the same time when required.

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Once people can maintain their focus they then move on to noticing sensations in the body, Dr Smout says. “This appliess particularly to sensations they may not like and then they learn to direct the breath and imagine it moving into those parts of the body and giving those sensations attention but pratising not trying to fight them or get rid of them.

“We don’t want to evaluate it or reason with it, we just want to notice the thought that has popped up but just reat it like a sound in the background.”

“Rather than trying to change what is going on it’s essentially calmly observing what’s going on, which is the opposite to what we often do,” he said. “What we usually do when we identify a problem is we become more anxious about it and we try to do things...to get rid of whatever we think is the problem and if we don’t have direct control over those things, that’s when we can get into a panicky cycle (and) make futile attempts to control something that we can’t control.”

The origins of mindfulness can be traced back to eastern philosophy, including Buddhism, American Professor Jon Kabat-Zinn is credited with introducing it to Western medicine through his scientific work in the late 1970s, proving its benefits in treating people with pain, anxiety and stress.

Dr Smout said by 1990s many mainstream psychology and psychiatry approaches had begun to incorporate elements of mindfulness into their therapies.

“Nowadays it’s become extremely mainstream,” he said.

“Professor Kabat-Zinn’s work shows that for many problems – anxiety, depression, stress, pain – it works as a stand-alone solution but it is also a useful adjunct to more traditional ways of working.” F

From: The West Australian, August 2011

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Mindfulness is simply being aware of what is happening right now without wishing it were different; enjoying the pleasant without holding on when it changes (which it will); being with the unpleasant without fearing it will always be this way (which it won’t). ~ James Baraz

From Cancer to Mindfulness An interview with spiritual teacher Esther Kennedy by Mike Bundrant

For 45 years Esther Kennedy of Spirit Mountain Retreat in Idyllwild, US showed up for her Having cancer annual mammogram. There is a history of cancer in her family and she wasn’t about to take any chances. For 44 of those years, she was quickly informed that everything looked fine. On the 45th became a way time, in August 2008, the story changed. They found something, which turned out to be the early stages of ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) – a form of breast cancer. of connecting I took opportunity to speak with Esther about the experience and the change in perspective that with the heart, came through it. appreciating HT: After 44 years of positive results, I’ll bet you were shocked to hear that something was wrong. the qualities of Esther: There was a shock to it. I knew that something was up when the doctor said, “I need to see you.” He sent me over to a surgeon that very morning. In a sense, when all this was happening, gentless, kindness I was in a bit of a fog. The surgeon wdid a biopsy and the lumpectomy, which took place in September, 2008. and deeply HT: That was fast. acknowledging the Esther: I guess if you are going to have a diagnosis of cancer, mine’s the kind to have, as it was in sight and contained. It was a very early detection. Years ago, they may not have even picked gift of life. this up, but due to the new digital mammograms, they pick up the very early stages of cancer.

So, in that sense I felt very fortunate and was so glad that I had been faithful in getting regular mammograms.

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When they do the lumpectomy, they want to make sure there are clear margins around where the cancer was found. So, I did have to go back and have a second lumpectomy. Then it was suggested I get some radiation. Initially it was thought that I wouldn’t need anything. Then my doctor said, “I think it would be good to do some radiation.”

I had the choice of doing a new type of radiation called mammosite. That means they deliver radiation seeds just to the site of the cancer, not to the whole breast. My choice was either that or doing thirty days radiation to the whole breast. The doctor said he felt the mammo-site would be sufficient and so that is what I did.

HT: How did it make you feel? Did it make you sick?

Esther: Actually, I had no serious side effects, just a bit of fatigue.

What they do is insert a balloon into the site where they did the lumpectomy. The radiation only goes into that place where they know they discovered the cancer.

HT: So, if they insert a balloon, it’s invasive?

Esther: It’s invasive in the sense…well the whole thing is pretty invasive (laughter). The incision was already there from the lumpectomy, however they insert it in a very tiny little hole. It’s really quite an amazing procedure. After the radiation they just pulled the balloon out. There is some discomfort, of course, but overall it’s really no big deal. For the mammo-site treatment, you get it twice a day for five days, ten treatments.

HT: So, that whole episode was over and you had a clean bill of health – when?

Esther: October 27th, 2008.

HT: Since then, life has returned to normal?

Esther: It has. Well, I actually had people here on retreat in the midst of all this!

They were already here, so you can tell there was a suddenness to it. The presence of good friends and good family is so important.

My whole community of sisters were here for a meeting the day I went to see the surgeon. We hadn’t planned it that way. They were all here and three or four of them went down with me. That sense of having a support system, having people who really care and are just present was very, very significant for me.

Anyway, I’ve been back to the doctor and had a six month mammogram and I will have another one in six months. Right now, I’m okay. Nothing seems to be showing up that raises any concern and that feels good.

HT: Has there been any sort of heightening or deepening on the spiritual side of your life?

Esther: Well, I was sitting out here in our new garden before you called, thinking that, in a sense, any serious diagnosis or a death in a family alters ‘what is.’ Anything that shifts the ongoing routine in a fundamental way allows us to see out of new eyes. It becomes like a new lens that you look through.

One thing that happened to me was that I became far more sensitive to people’s kindness. I was in awe at the radiation center at the kindness of people. They weren’t going out of their way like, “oh that poor thing.” It was just normal kindness, genuine kindness. It was probably always there, but I noticed it. I noticed how it made me feel connected and that people really did care.

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birdwings Your grief for what you’ve lost lifts a mirror up to where you are bravely working.

Expecting the worst, you look, and instead, here’s the joyful face you’ve been wanting to see.

Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes.

If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralysed.

Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as birdwings.

Rumi

...from previous page Nobody was saying, “Oh I am so sorry this happened to you.” It was more like, “Esther, we are ready for you. How are you doing today?” I think my eyes opened to kindness, gentleness, and personal connection. I knew what it meant to have them call me by name.

HT: As if the profundity of the ordinary opened up.

“Let me awaken with gratitude.”

Let me just be able to say, “Thank you.

I have a day.”

Esther: Yes, absolutely. When I was getting the actual radiation, it took about a half-hour before they got me settled on the table; and, of course, then they all leave and they had Celine Dion playing and that was great. That was nice. I began doing some mindful breathing because for the past twenty years I have been touched by the teachings of mindfulness. I did mindful breathing during the whole session of radiation. I would breathe in and calm my body and breathe out and smile. Breathe in slow, breathe out deep, breathe in present moment, and breathe out only moment.

That was a spiritual practice I would do from the time they were getting me ready and after I was left there by myself. I was so struck by how it made me feel present and not be anxious, wondering if everything would turn out okay and so on.

HT: Not getting caught up in your mind chatter.

Esther: That’s right. That was a significant piece for me and that has continued. I have always done that, but it has been much more focused. I also noticed that it moved me and carried me through the day in a kind of acceptance. I said to somebody that I felt so blessed. Then I said, “No, we are all blessed, I am just fortunate.” That was a nice little shift. I am just fortunate.

This is just my story. My story right now is to have cancer but not a very severe kind.

The lens with which I now view my daily life is to be more attentive to the moment. I realised the preciousness of each moment. As I talk to you now, there is a squirrel balanced on the fountain we have here in our garden. Something has opened in me that has made me more, uh, sensitive is the word that comes to me, more appreciative to all the different ways of life. There is something so sweet about this squirrel. I have seen it before, but it has a different quality to it right now. Whether I am more vulnerable to the fragility of life and the preciousness of life may be part of this. Something opened me more to the mystery of life.

HT: I have had a long-term question about this. I have a friend that I have known for many years, whose brother recently passed away from a brain tumour. He was 56. He went from feeling fine, jogging five miles a day – and six weeks later he was gone! It so happened that Jake’s father and his sister-in-law also died within the same three-year period.

Jake has been doing his work for decades and he’s an emotionally healthy man. Working through the grief and anger and shock of it all, he ended up in a place that seems very similar to what you describe, realising how precious life is. He has this question about why it takes such an extreme event in order to get into that sacred space where we simply appreciate life more and take it for granted less. Why do you think this is the case?

Esther: One of the first things that comes to me is David White, a poet. He is in one of the series we show up here. He made the comment that homosapiens were supposed to be wise humans.

But, in a sense we are really “homo-forgettings,” in that there has been a slow dulling of our sensibility. This has happened as we have moved away from a really profound relationship with the natural world.

Weekly Art Therapy at CSA Arts for Healing is a gently empowering form of self-expression which actively and creatively engages you in exploring and developing your unique inner resources to make personal meaning of your life experiences, symbolically and spontaneously.

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This has been a slow process, probably over the last hundred years, as the industrial revolution took over the mechanization of our lives. I believe our sensibility to the mystery of life got dulled and we forgot it. Many in the spiritual traditions are always calling to us to pay attention, wake up! That wonderful poem of Rumi: Don’t go back to sleep. Don’t go back to sleep. Stay awake!

HT: What a great way to be.

I don’t know, sometimes I think that we’ve learned to control so many things that we have a particular attitude in the western world that we can fix anything. We certainly have learned since the fifties to live a much more comfortable life. For us it takes kind of a dramatic thing for us to wake up. Why has it taken us so long to see that the planet is in peril?

Esther: Ever since my surgery I think, “Let me awaken with gratitude.” Let me just be able to say, “Thank you. I have a day.” When I find myself getting pissy about stuff, I say, “Esther, put it in perspective. Tomorrow, who the hell cares?

Even in this moment, who cares?” F

Within my own soul I want to take nothing for granted. I want to repeat the generosity of the sun that just keeps pouring out. I want to delight in that radiance of moon. Even if it’s just for a moment to say thank you. I also want to recognize all beings, to begin looking at human beings as being quite precious, even though we do awful things to one another; I want to generate more kindness. I think I’ve awakened a kind of sensibility in me. I recognize impermanence. Change is the way. Don’t take anything for granted. Live in the present moment.

From: www.healthytimesonline.com . Esther Kennedy is the Director of Spirit Mountain Retreat in Idyllwild. In the mid-90’s, eager to reclaim a sense of the sacred and experience the spiritual traditions of the East, she traveled to India and lived for a year in Central Java and Bali, Indonesia. This rich experience opened her to the sacred scriptures and the teachings of the East and drew her more deeply into the contemplative core of her Christian tradition~Love. She has come to know that we are all from the One Source.

HT: That’s as good an answer as I’ve ever heard to that question. I appreciate that, Esther.

Esther’s work is to facilitate and guide others on their own path of awakening and of living from their deepest selves. She has offered numerous women’s retreats and workshops, which unfold through presentations, meditation, creative process and sacred dance. She trusts that when a group gathers there is an abundance of love and light available to transform personal stories and embrace the new story unfolding in our culture and world. She is grateful to all of her teachers for their wisdom and consistent invitation to awaken to the times in which we live.

Esther: I feel touched that you are asking me. These are precious things to talk about. Having the opportunity to speak to these things awakens a kind of sensibility of life and how precious it is for all beings.

This is going to sound silly, but I was eating breakfast the other day and a little ant landed in my cereal. I scooped it out and put it on the ground. There was a time when I would

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have said, “Oh, yuck! Get out of my cereal!” When I dropped that ant on the ground I thought, “Oh, I can’t even begin to imagine all the little organs in you.” I watched to see if it could move, but I think it had drowned. It was okay, but there was mindfulness to all of life and a connection to it. This ant is not separate from me. He, or she, and I share a life impulse.

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Sprouting Seeds of

compassion Can one person really make a difference?

Marc Ian Barasch plants a seed of good intention...

After losing his mother to cancer, and inspired by the small acts of kindness she displayed during her lifetime, Marc Ian Barasch finds a new purpose in life – “green compassion” – helping others, helping the planet and finding contentment.

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I’d begun writing my book The Compassionate Life to blow the dust off my bodhisattva vows, little suspecting how much the ideas on the page would get under my skin. Hanging out with the folks who do the heart’s heavy lifting – homeless shelter workers, kidney donors, people who forgave their mortal enemies – made me want to get out from behind the desk and do something for the world (wherever that was).

When I heard Mom was suddenly fading, I cabbed from a Seattle bookstore to a New Yorkbound redeye, arriving just in time to say goodbye. Afterward, people kept coming up to tell me things that Mom had done for them: little things, big things, always specific, usually unasked for. A giver to the end, she’d done a final boon for me, too, leaving me enough money to pay my debts and live for a year without working.

I needed the time – to mourn, to reassess, to molt. One day, loitering in a used bookstore, I met a beautiful Russian who was visiting on a Fulbright, and I took the poet Rumi’s advice: Gamble everything for love. We soon moved in together, though she found my career trajectory baffling: what exactly did I do? I tried to explain wu wei, the Taoist art of “not-doing,” insisting this was not the same as doing nothing. She looked dubious.

I realised I’d embarked on an ad hoc metaphysical experiment: what would happen if I planted a seed of intention to do some tangible good, and waited to see what came up? I’d long been inspired by my activist friends who saved rainforests, protected human rights, made peace in war zones. Some of them were wealthy enough to never worry about money, but why wait until I got rich to be the change I wanted to see? “Why,” I half-jokingly asked a friend, “can’t I be a penniless philanthropist?”

Cue the voice-over: Be careful what you wish for. One day, visiting a friend’s house in Malibu, I met an old man who had spent his life planting trees. As we talked through the afternoon, with the blue Pacific murmuring rumors of the world’s vastness, and nearness, he explained how trees were the ecological equivalent of one-stop shopping: they could restore degraded soil, increase crops, feed livestock, provide building materials and firewood, restore biodiversity, sustain villages, and bring dormant springs back to life – all the while sucking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. www.cancersupportwa.org.au

I had a minor epiphany: green compassion! It’s said that in meditation, you should practice as if your hair is on fire. Now, with the forests burning, land desertifying, and the climate creeping ominously up the Celsius scale, what was I – or any of us – waiting for?

My friend in Malibu gave me the umbrella of his nonprofit foundation and a small loan to start what I dubbed the Green World Campaign. I decided to work for free, testing the germinating power of pure intent, the fecundity of the void. My kitchen table became campaign headquarters. Soon enough, willing hands appeared: a former World Bank country director; a geospatial expert from UC Berkeley; a former corporate technology officer from New York; a climate change lawyer in London; an adman whose footwear campaign was a case study in The Tipping Point. We cadged a Hollywood crew to make a video touting agroforestry, funded a pilot project in Ethiopia. When my savings were depleted and I began to doubt my sanity, a movie director astonished me by writing a check to support me for six months. “I like the idea of planting trees,” he told me, “but right now I want to water the tree-planter.”

Someone gave me a ticket to Ethiopia so I could see for myself the programs we were supporting. One night I found myself the only foreign face among ten thousand Muslim pilgrims at a backcountry religious festival in the Gurage Zone. Families set up campsites bounded by sheets and chanted and clapped through the night, their silhouettes backlit by smoky orange fires. I felt enfolded, no longer a stranger in a strange land but a global citizen, permanent home address Earth.

Later, I visited a remote village where the main water pump had been broken for more than a year. The stagnant well was infested with parasites. The young people had to trek for miles each morning to get fresh water, reserving a few gallons to keep a few scraggly tree seedlings alive. For under a thousand dollars, I was told, they could get their pump fixed. Done, I said. Kadam! they yelled. Wonderful! I reveled in the joy on the kids’ faces, amazed that scratching a few symbols on a piece of paper could renew a village.

A Mexican organization working to restore the forestlands of an indigenous Tlahuica community soon asked to be Green World Mexico. I was emailed by a forestry professor in Zambia, by a tribal prince in Kenya, by a community doing ecological restoration of India’s sacred Arunachala mountain. It dawned on me that there were groups all over the world creating organic models of rural development to turn barren land green again, and we could help weave them together.

The campaign was becoming an interface for direct planetary action, an emergent network of global citizens. It was exhilarating, and also heartbreaking. There were the inevitable screw-ups. I was reminded how our grasping, aversion, and ignorance ever shadow our generosity and openheartedness. Philanthropy can be a competitive scrum where the most ringing declarations of we’re-all-in-this-together devolve into what’s-in-it-for-me. I learned the truth of the Arabic adage: “Love all men, but tie up your camel.” I saw how the ensorcelling web of symbols called money obscures the imperative to preserve the green Earth. In Ethiopia’s Rift Valley, a mosquito donated a malarial parasite that nearly killed me, proving how small things of no seeming consequence can thwart our loftiest purposes.

But as long as you’re willing to keep having your heart broken, all things are possible. The ground, no matter how many times you land on it, hard, is the working basis: the earth beneath your feet, the dirt under your fingernails. I’ve spent four stubborn years at my unexpected posting in the forest legion, and it’s resurrected my hope and blown my life wide open. Though I’m hesitant to recommend my approach (Don’t try this at home!), I offer, for what they’re worth, these few apercus:

Expect Synchronicity The Bible lauds the mustard seed of faith. It’s said in Hinduism that “the means gather around sattva.” New Agers reference “the power of intention.” Businesspeople talk about what happens when you put “skin in the game,” while Buddhists refer to tendrel (a Tibetan term that means both serendipity and the interdependence of all things).

Whatever’s at work, I’ve had a growing sense of invisible orchestration and behindthe-scenes cosmic string-pulling since I started groping for ways to do my part for Gaia.

I’ve also learned that when doors magically fly open, you’d better walk in with your

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I think a lot about seeds. How does a tiny dot of seemingly inert matter buried in dirt produce such beauty and utility?

...from previous page pragmatic hat jammed firmly on your head, your practical feet encased in sturdy shoes, and your sleeves rolled up for the grind of making (and keeping) it real.

You Don’t Need Money (Then Again, You Really Do) Time, energy, vision, and love will go an astonishingly long way, but funding counts.

“Your balance sheet is feedback,” a business adviser bluntly told me. “It shows whether you have a viable model.” True, the only meaningful metric is the thriving of people and planet. And the financial system is fictive (the numbers only work when people at the “bottom of the pyramid” are omitted from the bottom line, and the value of nature is discounted to near zero). Put on a real green eyeshade and nearly every business on Earth is revealed to be running in the red. Still, one must respect – no, embrace – the dance-partner of illusion: money may not be “real,” but you suffer when it tromps on your instep, feel the joy of efficacy when it empowers your mission. Beyond that, as Whitman said, “Resist what insults your own soul.” If we all were to start doing what we authentically believed to be the needful thing, we could yet pull the fat out of the fire.

I’ve come to admire the metaphoric elegance of a tree: donating free oxygen, running on solar energy, sheltering all creatures, putting on a display of life’s ceaseless generativity. Since forever, people have gathered beneath trees to parley and palaver, to picnic and to play.

Don’t Get Grandiose (and Don’t Play Small) Self-anointedness is an occupational hazard for would-be world-savers. It’s easy to succumb to the Atlas syndrome (don’t shrug!). On the other hand, what’s at stake these days is the fate of the Earth and of generations to come. If you believe there really is enough to feed, clothe, house, heal, and educate everyone, that our environment can be green again, then follow Goethe’s inimitable words: “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.” Our problem is less a shortage of resources than a shortchanging of our imagination. Compassion is just the ability to see the connection between everyone and everything, everywhere – and to act on it.

Go With What You’ve Got (and Ask for What You Don’t) Trust that solutions are self-emergent, that the right people will self-aggregate, and that to ask what the universe wants is not a crazy question. Sketch a few back-of-the-napkin diagrams of your networks of networks (and notice how the degrees of separation dwindle to nil). You’re a neuron in the global brain, a muscle cell in the heart of new planetary body. Suss out your function in this evolving physiology, stay authentic, keep signaling your fellow organelles, and you might find the resources you need close at hand, among your friends and neighbors.

Start With a Seed I think a lot about seeds. How does a tiny dot of seemingly inert matter buried in dirt produce such beauty and utility? A seed is less a physical object than it is the germ of an idea. It’s the information it contains that mobilizes elements in the soil to join the dance that creates magnificent living structures. There’s something within each of us, within each situation, that already knows how to grow, that just needs light and nourishment to potentiate truly magical creative forces. If you start small, dream big, plant a seed of intention, and care for it, it’s not unrealistic to expect something marvelous to come up.

I’ve come to admire the metaphoric elegance of a tree: donating free oxygen, running on solar energy, sheltering all creatures, putting on a display of life’s ceaseless generativity.

Since forever, people have gathered beneath trees to parley and palaver, to picnic and to play. Every faith has a Great Tree somewhere in its narrative. Each sapling we help to plant feels like a resurrection of hope, an emissary to future generations. We’re now setting out to scale up our efforts, convinced that the Green World Campaign can help plant billions of trees, restoring the economy and ecology of some of the world’s poorest places. I made up a slogan, a mantra I apply to both daily increments and grand gestures: It’s amazing what one seed can grow. Sown in the ground, planted in the heart, each day it grows a little more true. F

Article from: http://mindful.org. Marc Ian Barasch is the author of four books, including Field Notes on the Compassionate Life, now in paperback as The Compassion Life. He is founder and CEO of the Green World Campaign.

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The Miracle Tree Getting outdoors for fresh air and exercise is a great way to fight cancer

because it helps to reduce blood sugar levels, which reduces insulin levels.

Exercise also causes one to sweat, which gets rid of xenobiotic toxins.

Why not combine the exercise with the quest for a healthy diet by planting and maintaining a vegetable garden?

Or, consider planting a moringa tree for its nutritional value and potential to fight cancer, especially if you live in a dry, arid area.

Dubbed the “miracle tree” by many, it is said that its cooked leaves have an estimated 17 times the calcium of milk, 10 times the vitamin A of carrots, 15 times the potassium of bananas, 25 times the iron of spinach and 4 times the protein of eggs. In addition to the leaves, the seed pods (drumstick) and other parts of the tree can be eaten as part of a tasty, nutritious dish.

The moringa tree has long been recognized by traditional healers as valuable in the treatment of tumours. Although the scientific research into the effects of the moringa tree on cancer has been limited, there appears to be some evidence in support of the traditional healers’ faith in the moringa tree. For example, the journal Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention reported that a dramatic reduction in skin papillomas was demonstrated in a mouse after ingesting a moringa seedpod.

The journal, Planta Medica, which is considered to be one of the leading international journals in the field of medicinal plants and natural products, documented results that shows that niazimicin, a phytochemical found in the Moringa tree, inhibited tumour promotion in a mouse two-stage DMBA-TPA tumour model.

Can the moringa tree prevent cancer in humans? According to researcher Jed W. Fahey, “Neither the prevention of cancer nor the modification of relevant biomarkers of the protected state has been adequately demonstrated in human subjects”. However, when commenting on whether the Moringa tree could prevent cancer, he had this to say: “Does this mean that it doesn’t work? No. It may well work, but more rigorous study is required in order to achieve a level of proof required for full biomedical endorsement of Moringa as, in this case, a cancer preventative plant”.

Will the big drug companies invest money researching a tree that can grow like a weed in your back garden? Hardly! If the claims about the Moringa tree’s ability to treat or prevent cancer are true, it could put them out of business. F

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From: www.naturalnews.com. In Australia the Moringa Tree is also known as the DRUMSTICK tree.You may find it in your nursery or from the online nursery at www. daleysfruit.com.au Cancer Support Association

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The Moringa Tree is used widely in Ayurvedic Medicine. Daily consumption of the Moringa Leaf Powder yields the following benefits: • Antioxidants • Nourishes Body’s Immune System • Promotes Healthy Circulatory System • Anti-Inflammatory • Provides a Sense of Well-Being • Supports Normal Blood Glucose Levels • Promotes Healthy Digestion • Increases Energy • Enhances Skin Health • Promotes Normal Liver Function • Reduces the Appearance of Wrinkles • Promotes Normal Serum Cholesterol • Promotes Healthy Cell Structure • Nourishes the Eyes and Brain • Triggers Metabolism • Promotes Body’s Natural Defenses

How to do Mindfulness

Meditation

By Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche

“Psychotherapist Fritz Pearls said: “Anxiety is the gap between the now and the later.” Where is your attention? Do you live in “the later” more than the now? Then you are trapped in your thoughts,

I

n mindfulness, or shamatha, meditation, we are trying to achieve a mind that is stable and calm. What we begin to discover is that this calmness or harmony is a natural aspect of the mind. Through mindfulness practice we are just developing and strengthening it, and eventually we are able to remain peacefully in our mind without struggling. Our mind naturally feels content.

An important point is that when we are in a mindful state, there is still intelligence.

It’s not as if we blank out. Sometimes people think that a person who is in deep meditation doesn’t know what’s going on – that it’s like being asleep. In fact, there are meditative states where you deny sense perceptions their function, but this is not the accomplishment of shamatha practice.

because what is the future other

Creating a Favorable Environment

than a thought in your head?

There are certain conditions that are helpful for the practice of mindfulness. When we create the right environment it’s easier to practice.

Only your thoughts can make you anxious! Bring your attention to the now. Seeing, listening, breathing, feeling the aliveness inside your body.”

Eckhart Tolle

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It is good if the place where you meditate, even if it’s only a small space in your apartment, has a feeling of upliftedness and sacredness. It is also said that you should meditate in a place that is not too noisy or disturbing, and you should not be in a situation where your mind is going to be easily provoked into anger or jealousy or other emotions. If you are disturbed or irritated, then your practice is going to be affected.

Beginning the Practice I encourage people to meditate frequently but for short periods of time – ten, fifteen, or twenty minutes. If you force it too much the practice can take on too much of a personality, and training the mind should be very, very simple. So you could meditate for ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes in the evening, and during that time you are really working with the mind. Then you just stop, get up, and go.

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Often we just plop ourselves down to meditate and just let the mind take us wherever it may. We have to create a personal sense of discipline.

When we sit down, we can remind ourselves: “I’m here to work on my mind. I’m here to train my mind.” It’s okay to say that to yourself when you sit down, literally. We need that kind of inspiration as we begin to practice.

Posture The Buddhist approach is that the mind and body are connected. The energy flows better when the body is erect, and when it’s bent, the flow is changed and that directly affects your thought process. So there is a yoga of how to work with this. We’re not sitting up straight because we’re trying to be good schoolchildren; our posture actually affects the mind.

People who need to use a chair for meditation should sit upright with their feet touching the ground. Those using a meditation cushion such as a zafu or gomden should find a comfortable position with legs crossed and hands resting palm-down on your thighs. The hips are neither rotated forward too much, which creates tension, nor tilted back so you start slouching. You should have a feeling of stability and strength.

When we sit down the first thing we need to do is to really inhabit our body – really have a sense of our body. Often we sort of prop ourselves up and pretend we’re practicing, but we can’t even feel our body; we can’t even feel where it is. Instead, we need to be right here. So when you begin a meditation session, you can spend some initial time settling into your posture. You can feel that your spine is being pulled up from the top of your head so your posture is elongated, and then settle.

The basic principle is to keep an upright, erect posture. You are in a solid situation: your shoulders are level, your hips are level, your spine is stacked up. You can visualize putting your bones in the right order and letting your flesh hang off that structure. We use this posture in order to remain relaxed and awake. The practice we’re doing is very precise: you should be very much awake even though you are calm.

If you find yourself getting dull or hazy or falling asleep, you should check your posture.

Gaze For strict mindfulness practice, the gaze should be downward focusing a couple of inches in front of your nose. The eyes are open but not staring; your gaze is soft. We are trying to reduce sensory input as much as we can. People say, “Shouldn’t we have a sense of the environment?” but that’s not our concern in this practice. We’re just trying to work with the mind and the more we raise our gaze, the more distracted we’re going to be. It’s as if you had an overhead light shining over the whole room, and all of a sudden you focus it down right in front of you. You are purposefully ignoring what is going on around you. You are putting the horse of mind in a smaller corral.

Breath When we do shamatha practice, we become more and more familiar with our mind, and in particular we learn to recognize the movement of the mind, which we experience as thoughts. We do this by using an object of meditation to provide a contrast or counterpoint to what’s happening in our mind. As soon as we go off and start thinking about something, awareness of the object of meditation will bring us back. We could put a rock in front of us and use it to focus our mind, but using the breath as the object of meditation is particularly helpful because it relaxes us.

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What is

Mindfulness Meditation?

Meditation and mindfulness practice are increasingly being recognised as valuable skills for achieving a balanced life.

Meditation is the practice of quieting the mind.

The word meditate stems from the Latin root meditatum, meaning ‘to ponder’.

Depending on the style practiced, broadly speaking meditation is holding ones attention on a subject, object or process. Through the practice of meditation you can train your mind to achieve a greater state of peace and calm.

Through the inner understanding and stillness that meditation offers you can find emotional balance, gratitude and happiness in your daily life.

It enhances personal insights and taps into the innate potential for self-healing and wisdom that we all have. Through meditation you can begin to understand what we call the ‘ true self’.

This allows us to live more consciously in this ever changing world.

Mindfulness Practice is moment by moment awareness with qualities like compassion, curiosity and acceptance. It allows you to be awake and fully present to your life bringing greater insight into the way you manage yourselves. In essence mindfulness practice can bring you more in tune with how to be a human ‘being’ as opposed to a human ‘doing’.

Although meditation and mindfulness practice are not complicated to learn the benefits will only be obtained with regular practice and persistence.

Some of the benefits that can be experienced are: • • • • • • • • • •

Reduced stress, anxiety, anger and tension Less emotional turmoil More joy, love and spontaneity Greater sense of self awareness, self understanding and self acceptance Deeper sense of meaning and purpose Improvement in concentration, clarity of thought and memory Increased ability to solve problems creatively Increased sense of humour, the ability to see the light side of things The ability to address addictions and other self-defeating behaviour Improved sleep and the ability to know when to rest

...from previous page As you start the practice, you have a sense of your body and a sense of where you are, and then you begin to notice the breathing. The whole feeling of the breath is very important.

The breath should not be forced, obviously; you are breathing naturally. The breath is going in and out, in and out. With each breath you become relaxed.

Thoughts

The most precious gift we can offer anyone (including ourselves) is our attention.

- Thich Nhat Hanh

No matter what kind of thought comes up, you should say to yourself, “That may be a really important issue in my life, but right now is not the time to think about it. Now I’m practicing meditation.” It gets down to how honest we are, how true we can be to ourselves, during each session.

Everyone gets lost in thought sometimes. You might think, “I can’t believe I got so absorbed in something like that,” but try not to make it too personal. Just try to be as unbiased as possible. Mind will be wild and we have to recognize that. We can’t push ourselves. If we’re trying to be completely concept-free, with no discursiveness at all, it’s just not going to happen.

So through the labeling process, we simply see our discursiveness. We notice that we have been lost in thought, we mentally label it “thinking” – gently and without judgment – and we come back to the breath. When we have a thought – no matter how wild or bizarre it may be – we just let it go and come back to the breath, come back to the situation here.

Each meditation session is a journey of discovery to understand the basic truth of who we are. In the beginning the most important lesson of meditation is seeing the speed of the mind. But the meditation tradition says that mind doesn’t have to be this way: it just hasn’t been worked with.

What we are talking about is very practical. Mindfulness practice is simple and completely feasible. And because we are working with the mind that experiences life directly, just by sitting and doing nothing, we are doing a tremendous amount.

Sakyong Mipham Rinpoche is holder of the Buddhist and Shambhala lineages of Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche. He has received teachings from many of the great Buddhist masters of this century, including Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche, Penor Rinpoche and his father Trungpa Rinpoche. In 1995 he was recognized as the incarnation of the great nineteenth-century Buddhist teacher Mipham Rinpoche. F

From: ww.shambhalasun.com . This article was originally published in the January 2000 issue of the Shambahala Sun, and was then excerpted in the 30th-anniversary edition, January 2010.

Mindfulness Exercise

by Dr. Ian Gawler

This is a simple exercise. You smile warmly at everyone you meet, whether on introduction from a trusted friend, whether at a business meeting or as you pass them casually in the street. The easy mindfulness bit is to give them your full attention for the few moments the smile takes; the tricky part is to notice your mind as you offer the smile. You aim to notice what response you have to smiling at everyone, regardless of their size, shape, age, gender, colour race, creed etc When you can genuinely say the feeling that goes with smiling at everyone is the same, you have achieved something quite difficult I would suggest, but something incredibly worthwhile. The advanced practice is to remain unaffected by whatever judgements you get the impression the other person is making of you! Like all exercises such as this one, it takes effort and practice; and any progress you make is valuable.

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A No-Nonsense Look at Toxins and How Your Body Deals with Them

By Dr. Ben Kim

The world wide web is overflowing with information

on toxins and countless programs and products that are touted to cleanse your body of them. I hope that this article provides you with a clear understanding of what toxins are, how they can affect your health, and a sensible approach to preventing accumulation of toxins in your body.

First, let’s differentiate between the two main types of toxins that you’re exposed to on a day-to-day basis.

On their own or with

1. Exogenous Toxins Exogenous toxins are chemicals that are made outside of your body and can harm your cells if they are ingested, inhaled, or absorbed into your bloodstream through some other channel.

While it’s unrealistic to live and work in an environment that’s free of exogenous toxins, you should strive to minimize your exposure to the following most common exogenous toxins: • MSG and aspartame – both are especially toxic to your nerve cells • Recreational drugs • Any over-the-counter or prescription drug that comes with a warning that use of the drug in question may lead to liver damage • Most personal care products, especially cosmetics that are applied around the mouth, which are easily swallowed in trace but potentially significant amounts The exogenous toxins mentioned above may not be as harmful in one shot as other obvious toxins like carbon monoxide and volatile organic compounds, but the four groups mentioned above tend to be used regularly by large segments of the population, so they’re definitely worth highlighting.

For a closer look at other exogenous toxins that tend to be in modern living and working environments, please view my article on the most common household toxins.

2. Endogenous Toxins Endogenous toxins are toxins that are produced inside of your body.

Some of these toxins are waste products from normal metabolic activities – carbon dioxide, urea, and lactic acid are examples of

continued on next page...

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other disease-causing factors, toxins can create life-ending diseases over time.

But your body is well designed to recognize and eliminate toxins. Your job is to minimise your exposure to exogenous and endogenous toxins, and to provide your body with the support that it needs to clear out toxins that make their way into your system.

...from previous page endogenous toxins that your body churns out by the second. Unless your health is severely compromised, your body is well equipped to eliminate these endogenous toxins from your system.

An often overlooked source of endogenous toxins is an unhealthy gut. Over time, a diet that’s rich in highly refined foods, poor eating habits (lack of chewing is a big one), and emotional stress can lead to an unhealthy balance of microorganisms in your gastrointestinal tract, a state that’s called intestinal dysbiosis.

As your body accumulates toxins and develops dysfunction and disease, it’s constantly doing the best it can with the resources that it has to cleanse and repair itself.

Intestinal dysbiosis is accompanied by steady production of endogenous toxins by undesirable yeasts, fungi, bacteria, and in rare cases, even parasites. These toxins include various aldehydes, alcohols, indols, phenols, and skatols, just to name a few.

While some of these endogenous toxins are eliminated as gas, some make their way into your bloodstream by traveling through your intestinal walls, and once they make it into your bloodstream, they can get into your cells. *** Now that we’ve reviewed the two main types of toxins that your body is exposed to, let’s assume that you haven’t yet taken steps to reduce your exposure to toxins, and that these toxins are steadily making their way into your blood.

How does your body deal with this constant influx of toxins?

Your body always works within the framework of trying to preserve health, so its first defense against toxins is to eliminate them through one of your main eliminative channels – these are your urinary tract, colon, lungs, skin, and mucosal linings in your nose and ears.

So your body may create symptoms like diarrhea, a persistent cough, a skin rash, nasal discharge/congestion, and even chronic recurrent ear discharge/infections, all with the intent of protecting your cells against toxins.

By recognising these processes as being helpful and allowing them to take their course, and working to identify and eliminate their root cause(s), you can support your body’s self-preserving mechanisms to keep you well over the long term.

Let’s continue to assume that you’re not aware of toxins that you’re steadily being exposed to, and that toxins continue to roll in. Eventually, the pace of incoming toxins may overtake the pace at which you can eliminate them.

If you reach this point, your body will have no choice but to store some of these toxins.

Keeping in line with its desire to preserve its health, your body will first store “excess” toxins in your fat tissues. This is because your fat tissues are less vital to your immediate survival than other tissues like your ligaments, muscles, and nerves. This is not to say that fat tissue that’s found throughout your body isn’t important. It’s to say that your body instinctively seeks to preserve more important tissues whenever possible.

Accumulation of toxins in your fat tissues is what can lead to so-called harmless conditions like cysts, lipomas, and other benign tumours. These are conditions that conventional medicine typically cite as having no known cause, but they most certainly have a number of causes, with a major one being steady exposure to endogenous and exogenous toxins.

Myelin – the fatty sheath of insulation that lines all of your nerves – is also a target site for toxin accumulation. And whenever your body has the energy to cleanse such accumulations of toxins, the nerve(s) in the area being cleansed may get irritated, which is one potential cause of chronic, intermittent headaches. This is why some people experience headaches when they get more sleep than usual. Getting more sleep allows the body to use its resources to stir up stored toxins – good for long term health, but uncomfortable in the short term.

Getting back on course, let’s assume that your body continues to be exposed to a steady diet of exogenous and endogenous toxins. At some point, your body may need to start storing these toxins outside of your fat tissues.

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Alternative storage sites are connective tissue (ligaments, bones, blood, etc.), muscle tissue, and nerve tissue. Of these choices, connective tissue arguably has the greatest capacity to store toxins without causing debilitating problems in the short term.

As toxins begin to accumulate in connective tissue, you may start to experience generalised joint pain and even aches and pains in various bones. You may even develop a blood-related health challenge, as blood itself is considered connective tissue, and actually originates from bone, which is another connective tissue.

Hopefully, the big picture is coming into focus. Accumulation of toxins in specific tissues can lead to health challenges in those tissues.

And if your exposure to toxins goes on long enough, the individual building-blocks of your tissues (your cells) can begin to accumulate toxins within their membranes and inner lumen areas.

If enough cells in one organ or gland become dysfunctional due to a build-up of toxins, you may experience organ or glandular dysfunction – examples of such dysfunction include thyroid disease, impaired vision, congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, kidney failure, and any stage of liver degeneration (fatty liver, cirrhosis, etc.).

If the innermost part (nucleoli) of enough cells in one area accumulate enough toxins, the DNA that controls those cells can become affected, and this is where you may increase your risk of experiencing a lack of control over cellular reproduction, the hallmark of malignant growths.

Infrared Sauna is an effective

Clearly, exposure to toxins is only one potential cause of disease and dysfunction. If you haven’t already done so, I encourage you to review my article on the ten main causes of disease and dysfunction (go to drbenkim.com). Any one of the factors listed in that article can contribute to disease and dysfunction.

alternative cancer therapy which

It’s also important to note that as your body accumulates toxins and develops dysfunction and disease, it’s constantly doing the best it can with the resources that it has to cleanse and repair itself.

body up internally destroying the

So the bottom line on toxins and their ability to affect your health: Toxins can most definitely hurt you. On their own or in concert with other disease-causing factors, toxins can create life-ending diseases over time. But your body is well designed to recognize and eliminate toxins. Your job is to minimize your exposure to exogenous and endogenous toxins, and to provide your body with the support that it needs to clear out toxins that make their way into your system.

cells. Sweating allows the toxins,

Put another way, if you’re looking to overcome any health challenge or just to maintain optimal health, it’s essential that you understand that your body is on your side. Your body is always working to get and keep you healthy. Your job is to consistently make healthy food and lifestyle choices, observe how your body reacts to your choices, and to make adjustments when necessary. F

From Dr. Ben Kim’s Healthy Living blog 5th July 2011: drbenkim.com

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Infrared Sauna

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removes toxins through the skin.

The infrared sauna heats the development of mutated cancer and chemicals to escape from the body. Sweating is one of the most natural means of detoxification of the body. Infrared saunas can bought online and you can easily assemble them yourself.

cooking the peas...

The seeds, or “peas,” can “be used from the time they begin to form until they begin to turn yellow and their shells begin to harden. Only experience can tell you at what stage to harvest the pods for their peas.

Recipes from the

Moringa Tree The Moringa Tree is also known as the miracle tree, the horseradish tree and the drumstick tree! It is extremely fast growing and drought resistant so you could easily grow your own, or you can find it at your local produce market.

Remarkably, The Moringa tree provides 7 times the Vitamin C in oranges, 4 times the calcium in milk, 4 times the Vitamin A in carrots, 2 times the protein in milk, and 3 times the potassium in bananas.

The recipes and information on these pages are from a booklet produced by Alicia Ray in Haiti.

To open the pod, take it in both hands and twist. With your thumbnail slit open the pod along the line that appears. Remove the peas with their soft winged shells intact and as much soft white flesh as you can by scraping the inside of the pod with the side of a spoon. Place the peas and flesh in a strainer and wash well to remove the sticky, bitter film that coats them. (Or better still, blanch them for a few minutes, then pour off the water before boiling again in fresh water.) Now they are ready to use in any recipe you would use for green peas. They can be boiled as they are, seasoned with onion, butter and salt, much the same as the leaves and young pods. They can be cooked with rice as you would any bean.

In India the peas are prepared using this recipe: Ingredients: 12-15 moringa tree pods 1 medium onion, diced 4 cups grated coconut 2 bouillon cubes 3.5cm ginger root 4 T. oil or bacon grease 1 clove garlic 2 eggs, hard boiled salt, pepper to taste Directions: Blanch both peas and pods’ flesh, drain.

Remove milk from 2 1/2 cups grated coconut by squeezing water through it two or three times.

Crush ginger root and garlic, save half for later.

Mix peas, flesh, coconut milk, ginger and garlic together with onion, bouillon cubes, oil, salt and pepper.

Bring to a boil and cook until the peas are soft, about 20 minutes.

Fry remaining coconut until brown.

Fry remaining half of crushed ginger root and garlic in 2 T. oil.

Dice eggs.

Add coconut, ginger, garlic and eggs to first mixture, heat through.

Serves 6

grow your own Moringa Tree

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The Moringa Tree seems to thrive in impossible places – even near the sea, in bad soil and dry areas. Seeds sprout readily in one or two weeks. Alternatively one can plant a branch and within a week or two it will have established itself. It is often cut back year after year in fence rows and is not killed. Because of this, in order to keep an abundant supply of leaves, flowers and pods within easy reach, “topping out” is useful. At least once a year one can cut the tree off 3 or 4 feet above the ground. It will readily sprout again and all the valuable products will remain within safe, easy reach. It responds well to mulch, water and fertiliser.

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cooking the pods...

When young, horseradish tree pods are edible whole, with a delicate flavor like asparagus. They can be used from the time they emerge from the flower cluster until they become too woody to snap easily. The largest ones usable in this way will probably be 25cm long and 1cm in diameter. At this state they can be prepared in many ways. Here are three: 1. Cut the pods into 1.5 cm lengths. Add onion, butter and salt. Boil for ten minutes or until tender.

2. Steam the pods without seasonings, then marinade in a mixture of oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, garlic and parsley.

3. An acceptable “mock asparagus” soup can be made by boiling the cut pods until tender, seasoned with onion. Add milk, thicken and season to taste.

Even if the pods pass the stage where they snap easily they can still be used. You can cut them into 5cm lengths, boil until tender (about 15 minutes), and eat as you would artichokes. Or you can scrape the pods to remove the woody outer fibres before cooking.

cooking the leaves...

Of all parts of the tree, it is the leaves that are most extensively used. The growing tips and young leaves are best. Unlike other kinds of edible leaves, benzolive leaves do not become bitter as they grow older, only tougher.

When you prepare the leaves, always remove them from the woody stems which do not soften.

Method The leaves can be used any way you would use spinach.

One easy way to cook them is this: Steam 2 cups freshly picked leaves for just a few minutes in one cup water, seasoned with an onion, butter and salt. Vary or add other seasonings according to your taste. In India, the leaves are used in vegetable curries, for seasoning and in pickles. Let your imagination be your guide.

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Drumstick Chaat Ingredients: 500g drumsticks (Moringa) cut into lengths about 8cm long (This is about a “bunch” from the markets) 1 large carrot, finely diced 1 large onion, finely diced 1 tin coconut milk (or stock) 1/2 teaspoon finely chopped ginger 3 finely chopped garlic 1 or 2 red chillies, roughly chopped 2 teaspoons brown mustard seeds 3 tablespoon of chaat masala powder 1 hand (10) Curry leaves (optional) 2 teaspoon salt 3 tblsp00n ghee (or vegetable oil) chopped coriander for garnish Directions: Heat the ghee in a wok or heavy saucepan, add onion, ginger, garlic, mustard seeds and chilli and fry for a few minutes until softened. Add the Chaat Masala powder reduce heat and simmer for a few minutes until fragrant.

Stir to prevent sticking.

Add the vegetables and stir well. Add coconut milk, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Check that the drumsticks are soft and not falling apart.

Serve garnished with coriander.

If drumstick is unavailable, use snakebeans or snowpeas but reduce final simmering time accordingly.

Eat with your fingers, the outside skins are inedible, so grab a piece and squeeze it in your teeth and nibble it to get the soft and tasty innards.

This is not recommended for a fancy formal dinner!

Recipe by David Taylor, www.abc.net.au/local/recipes

Meeting the Challenge Manjimup CSA’s Meeting the Challlenge facilitator Cathy Brown and Counsellor Mike Sowerby were recently invited to Manjimup to host the Meeting the Challenge Seminar for local people with cancer and their carers.

Mike Sowerby shares his experiences with Wellness news readers...

W

hat a wonderful opportunity and dare I say brilliant success Meeting the Challenge in Manjimup has been this past weekend. Our hearty thanks to Cathie Hordienko… and her team for making possible the time and space to bring the work of the CSA to regional WA. Cathie’s father Mike has cancer, her love and concerns for his and others wellbeing the driving force for her outstanding commitment to ‘Meeting the Challenge’ in Manjie.

We arrived to find a beautifully prepared space complete with facility for local therapists to interact with participants, huge room for our group work and much tasty and lovingly prepared food for lunch and breaks. To top things off, wonderful ‘door’ prizes provided by local community businesses.

Organiser Cathie Hordienko (left) with Mike and Cathy from

CSA.

It was immediately evident that those who attended were eager to engage, to learn, share what it is they could do to help themselves and each other. The carers had an opportunity to share their experiences with each other making links for future support, so vital in the total approach to wellbeing.

At lunch we counted thirty participants, carers, practitioners, those with cancer, engaged in conversation about meditation, nutrition, and the value of coming together in a way that helps to lighten the load. Folks sharing and encourage, swapping ideas for a richer more informed experience of meeting the cancer challenge.

For us as CSA facilitators a wonderful opportunity to meet and hear the voice of those experiencing cancer in regional WA. To know that the work we do in promoting a holistic approach to wellbeing, to meeting the challenge of cancer is much appreciated and that there is a great desire to further and strengthen those links It is very satisfying to see 100% of participants rated the Meeting the Challenge experience as ‘highly beneficial’ in their feedback forms and all wished to make it an annual event.

Our personal thanks and appreciation to Lesley and Alex Polley at ‘Kettle B&B’ for their generous hospitality and to the many hands ‘behind the scenes’ working to bring this great event to fruition.

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.

Healthy, nutritious lunch prepared by Maxine and Meg

The CSA Wellness Team is ready to bring Meeting the Challenge Seminar to your community. If you feel there is a need in your town for a cancer wellness program and you are willing to help organise the event contact Cathy at CSA on (08) 9384 3544.

Thankyou...

The Meeting the Challenge Seminar in Manjimup came about through a huge community effort co-ordinated by Cathie Hordienko.

Lesley and Alex Polley of Kettle B&B with Roo the Dog

and Cathy Brown.

Cathy Brown presenting the Meeting the Challenge seminar at the Manjmup Equestrian Centre.

Meeting the Challenge Fundraising Appeal Support CSA’s Meeting the Challenge appeal to help us take our services to rural and remote Western Australia.

Make your donation online at www.cancersupportwa.org.au (select Meeting the Challenge Appeal) 29

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Many local businesses got involved through donations and we would like to thank them too.

A big thanks to Maxine and Meg who did a fabulous job catering for the day and the Manjimup Equestrian Centre for donating their beautiful venue.

We are deeply grateful to Cathie and the Manjimup community for making this event possible.

Your generosity and community spirit is an inspiration!

CSA would also like to extend our thanks to Lesley and Alex Polley of Kettle B&B who donated 2 night’s accommodation for Cathy and Mike. Their hospitality and home cooked meals were very much appreciated!

about Wellness News Wellness News is unique in that it is an extremely positive, uplifting, intelligent and beautiful publication focusing on wellness, healing and the environment. Wellness News is designed to offer hope and life-enhancing wellness strategies for people who may be seriously ill, and a broad spectrum of information for people interested in maintaining good health.

mind-body healing integrative therapies lifestyle & environment inspiring personal stories current news & information nutrition & recipes inspirations

Wellness News articles are commissioned or sourced from highly regarded international journals, publications and websites and are divided into seven key areas for complete cancer wellness and healing: mind-body healing; integrative therapies; nutrition and recipes; inspiring personal stories; lifestyle and environment; current news & information; inspirations.

Topics covered are spirituality, healing modalities, complementary therapies, integrative medicine – balanced with inspirational stories, recipes and the latest nutrition and wellness trends, and also information on how the environment can impact on health and wellbeing. We place great value on personal cancer stories for their insight into how people manage in challenging circumstances. Also important to our balance of content is poetry and art for the healing potential of words and images.

Visually, our magazine is harmonious and pleasing – designed to inspire the healing spirit. And because we care about the environment all print editions of Wellness News are printed with vegetable based ink on 100% recycled, oxygen-bleached paper.

In fond memory of those who have shared part of their journey with us...

Christopher Withers Lorelle Cargeeg

Henry Patterson Tanya De Souza

Do not stand at my grave and we ep. I am not there. I do not sle ep.

I am a thousand winds that blow. I am the diamond glints on snow. theSupport sunlight on ripened grain. I am the gentle autumn rain...

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Membership is $50 per year and you can join easily online or use the form below...

Membership of the Cancer Support Association entitles you to many benefits including: • Subscription to Wellness News (12 online issues, 1 special printed edition every year) • A place on the life-changing ‘Meeting the Challenge’ Cancer Wellness Seminar • Members’ prices on all CSA activities including yoga, qigong, reflexology & seminars • 15% discount on all items from the Wellness Shop • access to our world-class wellness library

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www.cancersupportwa.org.au The Cancer Support Association of WA Inc is a registered charity and non-profit organisation, formed to help people affected by cancer. The Association relies on donations, bequests and member subscriptions to continue its services.

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