Healing

Healing can be defined as "to make sound or whole", "to restore to health" or be synonymous with "cure". Healing can also refer to the body, mind, spirit or all of these things.

Physical healing can be unexplainable - such as a miraculous recovery, spontaneous remission or spontaneous regression. These are very rare occurrences but they do happen. In these instances of mysterious recovery, although the body-mind-spirit connection is very poorly understood, it is taken very seriously - witness the evolution of the field of psychoneuroimmunology - which studies the connection between psychological processes and the nervous and immune systems.

Cures in ovarian cancer, defined as being cancer-free for a period in excess of five years, are generally limited to those fortunate enough to have been diagnosed at a very early stage - usually stage 1 - or to those lucky enough to be the 1 in 100,000 patients who experience a miracle.

Ovarian cancer is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage - stage 3 or 4. Healing, in this case does not necessarily mean cure, but by involving the mind and spirit - creates the grounds for all possibilities. Healing truly demands that you take charge of your disease. It requires changing your diet and lifestyle, increasing your physical activities, learning relaxation techniques, making peace with friends and family, finding serenity within yourself - in essence restoring your mind-body-spirit equilibrium. Healing also involves acceptance of life as it is in the present moment, forgiveness and an optimistic outlook. Healing can occur by helping others in their journey, trying to love people you don't even like and by being compassionate with yourself and others. Healing, therefore, involves not just surgery, not just chemo but doing everything.

Here is an extremely helpful website for patients, friends and family: http://www.Healingandcancer.org/

The following are The Healing Affirmations from The Chopra Center:

1. Everything that has brought me to this moment in time and space has occurred. I recognize, embrace, and connect with the web of synchronistic events that has brought me to the here and now.
2. All interwoven events that have brought me to this moment have occurred and are now in the past. I permit myself to relax, release, and allow my life to unfold with grace, freedom and love.
3. I allow complete healing to occur in those places of my body, heart, mind and soul that have been holding resistance, resentment, regret, fear or pain.
4. I apologize to anyone and everyone I have hurt as a result of my constricted awareness, resistance or fear. I wish them unconditional love, healing, happiness and peace.
5. I forgive anyone with whom I associate pain, anyone who has caused me sorrow or anguish (including myself), and wish them unconditional love, healing, happiness and peace.
6. I, like everyone, deserve a life abundant in unconditional love, healing, happiness and peace.
7. I commit to a life abundant in unconditional love, healing, happiness and peace.