In 1991 I was diagnosed with Stage Four lymphoma cancer and liable six months to live. I was 32, and my sons were aged two and six months. I was a writer at Aetna Life & Casualty, Inc, and my wife and I had just built a handsome house on a loch in eastern Connecticut. I had person to live for. I had plans. Tomb was not a part of them.
So I decided to fight for my life. I read and researched item I could about people who, against all odds, had survived terminal illnesses. The common fleece was using the mind to influence the body to heal - - specifically, the arts of meditation and visualization. I learned these techniques, and for the next six months, meditated and visualized while I well-known chemotherapy. Amazingly, in half a stretch The cancer was gone. The doctors couldn ' t make out it.
I logic I was cured. I became a freelance writer for several divisions of Aetna, and was building a successful business. Then a continuance following the cancer reappeared. Because of the roughness of the particular lymphoma cell, the doctors recommended a stem cell transplant ( consonant to a bone marrow transplant ), in which white cells are havested from the blood, high - dose chemotherapy is administered to destroy the bone kernel and all the cancer cells in the body, then the harvested white cells are dripped into the body to rebuild the immune system.
I knew I had to go besides into mediation to withstand the onslaught of this much more powerful chemo, so I did some research and discovered that the Chinese had been utilizing the mind / body connection for thousands of elderliness. They called these internal energy exercies " qigong " which means energy work. Qigong is based on the same theory as acupunture: you have invisible channels and meridians of energy in the body. If these channels become blocked, malady ensues. Qigong practice allows a person to keep these channels unbarred to let on good health.
I found a local tai chi chuan / qigong teacher who taught me several moving sets of Qigong ( Qigong includes moving, sitting, standing and lying down exercises. There are literally thousands of qigong exercises. ) I practiced these sets, and got out of the stem cell transplant room in document time. Despite the potency of the high - dose chemo, I didnt get very sick at all.
Again, I apprehending I was cured. But a lastingness next the cancer relapsed. My oncologists recommended numerous stem cell transplant. They gave me a 10 percent chance of survival. This transplant would be several times more potent than the first. It would last for six months. Every other month would encompass a four - day hospital stay in which high - dose chemo was administered to destroy cancer cells and bring the immune system to partly ground zero. Then the forgiving avowed growth hormone to bring back the immune system. The process culminated in the actual transplant. Then the most powerful, lethal poison was dripped into you to bump off the bone spirit. Then you were without an immune system, and a common cold could crucify you.
I knew I had to go in addition into qigong to help me survive this second transplant. I decided to contact Dr. Yang Jwing - Ming of Boston, world - celebrated kung fu, tai chi chuan and qigong master. I knew of Dr. Yang from my martial arts days. Perhaps it was synchronicity, but a other self handed me a sticker announcing a qigong seminar in a nearby pad taught by Ramel Rones, Dr. Yang ' s top supporter and a master in his own right.
Rami had won gold medals for forms and sharpness in North America, Europe and even China.
I approached Rami after the seminar and surrendered my livid: " You ' re a green medal winner and at the top of the kung fu world. Do you want to take on a bigger challenge, and help me beat cancer? " To my wonderment, he agreed. It turns out he was a little worn-out with winning dough medals.
Rami tailored a qigong program for me designed to unbarred my energy recipe and improve the health of my internal organs. These exercises included warmish - ups and sets from White Crane and Tiger Claw qigong. The most important thing he peaceful me, however, was an exercise designed to edible energy in my body. It is called Embracing the Tree: You predilection with feet shoulder - width lone, knees bowed a few inches, sacrum tucked, nib level, with your arms liable in a wide arc in splurge of your chest, palms facing the heart. Then you spotlight on your breathing, and just bent. Energy pours into the top of your cusp from the atmosphere, and into the soles of your feet from the universe. Then this energy is stored in your dan tien, or field of elixir, which is located in the body ' s seat under the navel.
Rami strained the importance of booty the posture for long periods, both to clear blockages and build energy. He recommended I build up to an opening, which advanced practitioners and masters accomplish. At first, I could only do five minutes. But I increased thirty seconds every day, and in several months could stand for an hour.
Standing for an hour a day, with cancer in my bones and chemotherapy in my veins, gave me a great sense of accomplishment. It stark my will and gave me the courage to endure the six - month long transplant process. I defintely was totally sick at times during this procedure, and had to practice sitting and lying down qigong exercises. But I stood whenever I could. And I walked out of the transplant room cancer - free.
I stopped Embracing the Tree. I wanted to take some time off to lick my wounds. The cancer had rarely crushed my shoulders, kiss, and hips. Besides, after all that chemotherapy, even so I was cured.
But I wasn ' t. Six months following the cancer relapsed in my spine. It was eating into my disks and vertebrae. My legs would give out on me, and I ' d collapse to the earth like an accordion. I could barely urinate. This was the most frightening relapse of all.
My oncolosist was at a loss. I ' d had every type of chemo available, and still the cancer came back. It ' s survival of theh fittest; cancer cells that aren ' t destroyed are resistant to chemo. Out of frustration, she gave me one treatment of the chemo I ' d orinally had. And I started Embracing the Tree with a retribution. Sometimes I ' d do it from a seated position when my legs were shaky. But I did it, and the pain went away. I had an MRI and a gallium sweep, and no portray of the cancer existed.
That was twelve oldness ago. I ' ve been cancer - free ever since. My career is gone, my house is gone, my wife is gone. But my sons have grown into men, and I ' m alive to mark them succeed. I Clutch the Tree every day.
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