Here is a short video by Christopher Westra, the author of “I Create Joy” on how to transform negative emotions into joy.

For more information, go here: I Create Joy

A friend, who now lives in Amsterdam, was in town and the five of us got together for dinner. We hadn’t seen each other for a few years and we spent the evening catching up as well as reminiscing our good old days at university. Two of these friends live alone (not in a relationship either) while the other two have partners but no kids. At some point I wondered aloud what would have been my lifestyle if I hadn’t become a wife and a mother with three children. If I were still single, I am certain, I would still be living with my parents. I doubt I have the guts to live on my own; going home after work to an empty quiet place. Before I could muse further, both these women replied that if I had their kind of relationships with their mothers, I would relish the idea of living on my own.

We parted ways and once I got home, after spending a bit of time with my two older children (who were getting ready for bed), I decided to check my emails quickly. I thought the youngest (aged three and half years) could wait. While I was running through my emails, one of the women I had dinner with invited me to chat online. She wanted to talk about something she wasn’t comfortable to share earlier with the group.

Just then, my boy came up to me and said softly, “Give me a hug please.” Immediately I felt guilty for not putting him first. As I held him close, he whispered, “Thank you so much.” That touched me tremendously. When I shared it with my friend, she replied: “That’s what you don’t get when you live alone.”

I have given up working full time since having my daughter a decade ago. Sometimes I feel very sad when I see how much ahead my peers have gone ahead in their careers. To compensate for this, I try to find the little bits of joy from being with my children in their growing years. Five years ago, when my daughter learnt about occupations at kindy, she was asked by her teachers what she would like to be. Without any hesitation, she said, “I want to be a mommy.” I felt very honoured and humbled that a five-year old could understand what it meant to her to have a mother around most of the time.

Below is an email forwarded to me by a friend. I thought it might be worthwhile to understand why some people get cancer while others are living life to the fullest even in their eighties and nineties. A good friend of mine just lost her mentor, aged 41, to cancer recently. My friend finds it extremely hard to understand how her mentor, known to be a health freak, could succumb to this dreaded disease. I have read a lot on the connection between our emotional wellbeing and physical ailments, particularly cancer. To sum it up, I believe, point no. 15 (of the following article) is the most important bits we ought to remember - for life.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, un-forgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

We all have had experienced powerful emotions such as anger that feels hot in the stomach and grief/sadness that pains the heart. My friend’s mentor was a social activist who worked tirelessly and selflessly within a male-dominated society. Prior to her diagnosis, she went through a bitter divorce from a 15-year marriage. I comforted my friend by telling her that her mentor’s untimely death was not in vain. We could all learn from her experiences and live a happy and spiritual life.

Cancer Updates from John Hopkins Hospital
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After years of telling people chemotherapy is the only way to try (try the key word) and eliminate cancer, John Hopkins is finally starting to tell you there is AN ALTERNATIVE WAY.

1. Every person has cancer cells in the body. These cancer cells do not show up in the standard tests until they have multiplied to a few billion. When doctors tell cancer patients that there are no more cancer cells in their bodies after treatment, it just means the tests are unable to detect the cancer cells because they have not reached the detectable size.

2. Cancer cells occur between 6 to more than 10 times in a person’s lifetime

3. When the person’s immune system is strong the cancer cells will be destroyed and prevented from multiplying and forming tumors.

4. When a person has cancer it indicates the person has multiple nutritional deficiencies. These could be due to genetic, environmental, food and lifestyle factors.

5. To overcome the multiple nutritional deficiencies, changing diet and including supplements will strengthen the immune system.

6. Chemotherapy involves poisoning the rapidly-growing cancer cells and also destroys rapidly-growing healthy cells in the bone marrow, gastro-intestinal tract etc, and can cause organ damage, like liver, kidneys, heart, lungs etc.

7. Radiation while destroying cancer cells also burns, scars and damages healthy cells, tissues and organs.

8. Initial treatment with chemotherapy and radiation will often reduce tumor size. However prolonged use of chemotherapy and radiation do not result in more tumor destruction.

9. When the body has too much toxic burden from chemotherapy and radiation the immune system is either compromised or destroyed, hence the person can succumb to various kinds of infections and complications.

10. Chemotherapy and radiation can cause cancer cells to mutate and become resistant and difficult to destroy. Surgery can also cause cancer cells to spread to other sites.

11. An effective way to battle cancer is to starve the cancer cells by not feeding it with the foods it needs to multiply.

CANCER CELLS FEED ON:
a. Sugar is a cancer-feeder. By cutting off sugar it cuts off one important food supply to the cancer cells. Sugar substitutes like NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, etc are made with Aspartame and it is harmful. A better natural substitute would be Manuka honey or molasses but only in very small amounts. Table salt has a chemical added to make it white in color. Better alternative is Bragg’s amino or sea salt.

b. Milk causes the body to produce mucus, especially in the gastro-intestinal tract. Cancer feeds on mucus. By cutting off milk and substituting with unsweetened soya milk cancer cells are being starved.

c. Cancer cells thrive in an acid environment. A meat-based diet is acidic and it is best to eat fish, and a little chicken rather than beef or pork. Meat also contains livestock antibiotics, growth hormones and parasites, which are all harmful, especially to people with cancer.

d. A diet made of 80% fresh vegetables and juice, whole grains,, seeds, nuts and a little fruits help put the body into an alkaline environment. About 20% can be from cooked food including beans. Fresh vegetable juices provide live enzymes that are easily absorbed and reach down to cellular levels within 15 minutes to nourish and enhance growth of healthy cells. To obtain live enzymes for building healthy cells try and drink fresh vegetable juice (most vegetables including bean sprouts)and eat some raw vegetables 2 or 3 times a day. Enzymes are destroyed at temperatures of 104 degrees F (40 degrees C).

e. Avoid coffee, tea, and chocolate, which have high caffeine. Green tea is a better alternative and has cancer-fighting properties. Water-best to drink purified water, or filtered, to avoid known toxins and heavy metals in tap water. Distilled water is acidic, avoid it.

12. Meat protein is difficult to digest and requires a lot of digestive enzymes. Undigested meat remaining in the intestines becomes putrified and leads to more toxic buildup.

13. Cancer cell walls have a tough protein covering. By refraining from or eating less meat it frees more enzymes to attack the protein walls of cancer cells and allows the body’s killer cells to destroy the cancer cells.

14. Some supplements build up the immune system (IP6, Flor-ssence, Essiac, anti-oxidants, vitamins, minerals, EFAs etc.) to enable the body’s own killer cells to destroy cancer cells. Other supplements like vitamin E are known to cause apoptosis, or programmed cell death, the body’s normal method of disposing of damaged, unwanted, or unneeded cells.

15. Cancer is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. A proactive and positive spirit will help the cancer warrior be a survivor. Anger, un-forgiveness and bitterness put the body into a stressful and acidic environment. Learn to have a loving and forgiving spirit. Learn to relax and enjoy life.

16. Cancer cells cannot thrive in an oxygenated environment. Exercising daily, and deep breathing help to get more oxygen down to the cellular level. Oxygen therapy is another means employed to destroy cancer cells.

(PLEASE FORWARD IT TO PEOPLE YOU CARE ABOUT) CANCER UPDATE FROM JOHN HOPKINS HOSPITAL, U.S. A.
PLEASE READ
1. No plastic containers in micro.
2. No water bottles in freezer.
3. No plastic wrap in microwave.

Johns Hopkins has recently sent this out in its newsletters. This information is being circulated at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as well. Dioxin chemicals cause cancer, especially breast cancer.Dioxins are highly poisonous to the cells of our bodies. Don’t freeze your plastic bottles with water in them as this releases
dioxins from the plastic. Recently, Dr. Edward Fujimoto, Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital , was on a TV program to explain this health hazard. He talked about dioxins and how bad they are for us.. He said that we should not be heating our food in the microwave using plastic containers.This especially applies to foods that contain fat. He said that the combination of fat, high heat, and plastics releases dioxin into the food and ultimately into the cells of the body. Instead, he recommends using glass, such as Corning Ware, Pyrex or ceramic containers for heating food. You get the same results, only without the dioxin. So such things as TV dinners, instant ramen and soups, etc., should be removed from the container and heated in something else. Paper isn’t bad but you don’t know what is in the paper. It’s just  safer to use tempered glass, Corning Ware, etc. He reminded us that a while ago some of the fast food restaurants moved away from the foam containers to paper. The dioxin problem is one of the reasons.Also, he pointed out that plastic wrap, such as Saran, is just as dangerous when placed over foods to be cooked in the microwave. As the food is nuked, the high heat causes poisonous toxins to actually melt out of the plastic wrap and drip into the food. Cover food with a paper towel instead.

When I first saw this poster on someone’s wall, I thought it was the most beautiful advice for parents. Thank you Julia and Diane Loomans for your wonderful insights. I hope you will be inspired as well.

What All Children Want Their Parents To Know

Teach me to love and care for myself
Through your positive example
I will learn much more from what you do
Than anything you could ever say.

Tell me more about your life
Your hopes, dreams and successes
So that I come to know you as a person
And can call you as my friend
As well as my parent

1996 by Julia Loomans and her mother Diane Loomans