How Relaxation Techniques Helped My Mum Live with Cancer
By Kimberley Jones
Article for Fundraising Newsletter – Lodge Cancer Support Centre, Torbay Hospital, Devon, UK.
(They are always very grateful for donations!)
When my Mum was told in 1986 that she had cancer, she embarked on the biggest battle of her life. Initially she felt rage, why her?! What had she done to deserve it?! She was angry and resolved to fight, fight, fight! So fight she did, until she became exhausted. She began to wonder if she was actually fighting against treatments as well as cancer.
Over time Mum’s oncology sister, Nicky, began to offer deeper levels of support. As well as administering chemotherapy she began to offer weekly evening sessions teaching relaxation and visualisation techniques to people with and affected by cancer. I would go along with Mum, as would my Nan, and right from the start we remarked on how much better we all felt as we left the sessions.
We would sit in comfy chairs with soothing music playing & essential oils burning. Nicky would slowly & gently talk us through every muscle in our bodies, relaxing each one, breathing & releasing tension bit by bit. It was amazing to notice how much tension we were holding in our bodies without realising it. Then we would be guided to take ourselves off in our minds to a special place, real or imagined, a sanctuary of peace, somewhere beautiful. This place, which was to be imagined, surrounded by light, was to be our ‘inner healer’ a place we could return to at any time. After about half an hour we gradually returned to the room and to full consciousness, stretching and yawning.
Even just a few minutes of this a day has been shown to directly affect the involuntary nervous system and adjust the waves of the brain to an alpha state. This state is connected with deep levels of relaxation and releases therapeutic endorphins into the blood stream. These chemicals have been connected with a ‘high’ boosting the mood, strengthening the immune system and aiding restful sleep. The extra oxygen absorbed through breathing properly helps to flush toxins from the body.
Of course we didn’t know any of this at the time, we just knew we felt better and most importantly Mum didn’t seem to feel so overwhelmed by the cancer. She began to lose the rage and replace it with a feeling of ‘girl power’ and hope. For me it provided a much needed tonic, I felt less helpless and stressed and could let go and give Mum space to follow her own healing path. I stopped trying to save her and began to support her instead.
Mum often practised the techniques at home and chose the visualisation of a miniature Bruce Willis running around in her body shooting the cancer cells.
I am sure that those few moments a day she took to sit & relax & breathe meant she began to enjoy her life again.
Mum passed away in 1997 and the memory of her gorgeous bald head singing & dancing up the aisles of Tesco will thankfully stay with me forever.
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If you'd like to make a donation to The Lodge Cancer Support Centre at Torbay Hospital, Devon, UK please contact them. They are amazing people working incredibly hard (above & beyond the call of duty) to help others.
(UK TEL: 01803 617521)
THANK YOU.
Blessings,
Kimberley Jones
LIGHT COACHING
0788 402 1995
kimberleyjones@lightcoaching.co.uk
www.lightcoaching.co.uk
NB: Discover the work YOU were born to do.Cut & paste this link for a FREE e-course from Nick Williams: www.inspired-entrepreneur.com/yours-for-free
This article was posted by Kimberley Jones
