All posts by Heidi

How do you celebrate your cancerversary?

Events

Do you throw a party? Cross something off your bucket list? Buy yourself something special?

Heather Von St. James, who had terminal malignant pleural mesothelioma, writes her fears on a ceramic plate each year and smashes it in a bonfire.

Riley Castro, diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer while pregnant, got an adult-sized T-shirt for her daughter and takes her picture in it on every cancerversary.

Lindsay Ronnau Hildebrand, with stage 3 Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, hiked a 14,000-foot peak with her friends.

Find out more about them in the Spring 2019 issue of Cancer Wellness.

And my story was featured as well on pg. 26, written by Bethany Kandel.

How do you celebrate your cancerversary?

Watch Thriver Soup on Local12 WKRC and enter to win a free copy!

Let Food be Your Medicine, , , , ,

“What’s Happening in Health” with anchor Liz Bonis featured Thriver Soup on Sunday. It starts around minute 16.

https://local12.com/health/whats-happening-in-health/whats-happening-in-health-november-11-2018?fbclid=IwAR26OaY-pqg55iemxeuvmD7dNjMsgRPmNRdZKc5BgwQ9s05Vbx_oMZL0H-U

Be a lucky winner! Like and share Caitlin Wells’s Facebook post about her drawing to win a free signed copy of Thriver Soup! Saturday join Caitlin Wells and me at the Healing Inspirations Center booth at Victory of Light, Sharonville Convention Center. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1123398107784978&set=p.1123398107784978&type=3&theater

Photo by James Harrison

 

How to tackle your bucket list

Mapping the Emotions, , , , , , ,

If you have a bucket list of things to do before passing away, how are you doing on getting through your list?

Are you stopping yourself from fulfilling your dreams because you think you can’t do them?
 
Maybe you think you don’t have the funds. Or you feel like crap because of treatment and don’t want to leave home. Or you don’t have anyone to travel with.
 
For most of us, those are just excuses.
 
They are our fears trying to frighten us back into our old patterns.
 
Patterns that keep us stuck.
 
Yet your excuses and your fears can be faced and dealt with.
 
There are work-arounds to get your bucket list accomplished.
 
You have to have the courage to press forward.
 
And you can.
 
There are organizations and websites you can access for bucket-list funding. Too proud to ask? What fear is that pride arising from? Perhaps not wanting to be seen as needing something to help you fulfill your dream?
 
Or too humble to ask? Is that maybe a fear that we aren’t good enough to reach for our dreams? When my mother passed from breast cancer, I was surprised how many people were angry because they were not called upon to help her out. I have learned when we have cancer, people want to help us. Give them that opportunity.
 
If you can sit in a wheelchair for a decent length of time, it should be possible to travel, even if it’s on a cruise ship. In 2010 I scheduled my chemotherapy treatments around a cruise and took my anti-nausea medications with me. I had a fantastic time and checked one trip off my list.
 
And you can request assistance in meeting your goal. If you want to travel, perhaps put out a call for a companion, or if you feel up to it, travel alone. I just returned from an amazing trip in France—traveling solo, driving a rental car with no GPS (I couldn’t get it to work on my phone), and only able to say “Bonjour,” “Merci,” and “Parlez-vous Anglais?”
 
Why France? I wanted to pay homage to a woman who provided a template for healing my life. Her name? Martha of Bethany. Yes, the woman repudiated by Christ in the Gospels for her anger toward her sister, and for “doing” too much.
 
Martha healed after her contact with this Master Teacher. She changed her attitude from resentment into peace, and later served alongside her sister Mary. According to “The Golden Legend,” Martha later changed her behavior by refusing to die a victim on a rudderless boat adrift on the Mediterranean Sea. And she made a major life choice of focusing on “being” more than “doing.”
 
I love this woman and what she represents for me.
 
Why pay homage to her in France? According to the legend, Martha ended up in a small village in what’s now Provence. The community was being terrorized by a “dragon.”
 
Martha faced down that monster while barefoot, using only holy water and a cross. Can you imagine?
 
That’s not the behavior of a victim.
 
She courageously subdued that dragon.
 
Then the villagers killed it.
 
Through her transformed life, Martha demonstrated that I, through my own inner transformation, also could possibly tame the cancer dragon in my body. I could use her example of changing my attitudes, reconstructing my behaviors, and making major life choices to help subdue my own cancer dragon. Then medical treatment could kill it.
 
Since this is my seventh year free of evidence of cancer and free of cancer treatment, I felt it was high time I made my pilgrimage to The Collegiate Church of Saint Martha in Tarascon, which purportedly houses Martha’s relics. It was the third most popular pilgrimage site during the Middle Ages. And it became my biblical Year of Jubilee cancer pilgrimage site.
 
I feel deeply gratified for the experience.
 
Do you want to feel gratified for having accomplished things on your bucket list? Do you still have things to do, activities that are waiting for you to take up the baton and start directing your own life?
 
Or are you making excuses?
 
Sometimes we have to face down our fears before we can take the leap into the dark.
 
Into the unknown.
 
Into joy.
 
Think about each one of your fears.
 
Write each one down.
 
Take a good, hard look at your list.
 
Are there ways to work around what scares you?
 
Are there ways to make your dreams come true?
 
Only you can change your life.
 
Make the most of it.
 
Get on your bucket list.
 
You’ll be glad you did.

Blog update, “7 Ways to Cope with Loss,” “READER’S DIGEST” feature, & cancer hotline

Resources, , , , , ,

You now can find about 200 informative and inspirational blog posts on http://thriversoup.com/blog, in addition to more than 250 healing solutions in the book Thriver Soup.

A new weekly blog for those who have lost a loved one to addiction will begin in January in preparation for my upcoming book, Grieving an Addict. A cancer patient who became opioid-dependent will appear among the first blogs, so at times the cancer theme will still run through these new blogs.

This means your Thriver Soup blogs will now arrive on an occasional Thursday basis.

If you or someone you know would like to receive the weekly Grieving an Addict blog, please visit http://grievinganaddict.com/ and add your email address in the frame on the right side of the page.

Because of the epidemic nature and social stigma of the disease of addiction, there might be people in your life for whom this resource could prove invaluable. Please share this new blog.

As a thank-you, you will receive a checklist of “7 Ways to Cope with Loss,” which can assist with any bereavement experience.

You also will receive through the blog:

  • Reflections to assist with the grieving process,
  • Stories of those who have lost loved ones to addiction,
  • Information about addiction and the drug situation in the United States,
  • Excerpts from my son’s life story, and
  • Ideas for how to help stem the flood of this mass-casualty event.

Reader’s Digest feature includes Thriver Soup

I’m excited to share with you that Thriver Soup has been included in a Reader’s Digest feature!

Other upcoming Thriver Soup interviews will include HerStory and Brain Hackers. I will share them through this blog.

LMS Helpline: 888-264-4670

In the meantime, the new free oncology counseling support helpline in the United States is 888-264-4670, a collaborative effort by the National Leiomyosarcoma Foundation and Cancer Support Community.

Digital Vacation

From now until mid-October, as I let go of blogging weekly and take a break, I also will be taking a digital vacation, so I won’t be online much.

A Little Chocolate a Day

Let Food be Your Medicine, ,

A little chocolate a day keeps the doctor at bay.

~ Marcia Carrington

 

If only…

While the health benefits of chocolate have been touted in recent years, the added sugar and other ingredients can turn a good thing bad.

My answer? Make my own. Then I know what I’m putting in my mouth.

I bought some food-grade cocoa butter and raw organic cacao powder, then hunted down a recipe online for making chocolate.

Before making my own, I was inspired when my friend Laura and I toured Chocolate: The Exhibition at the Cincinnati Museum Center. The displays tell the history of chocolate from the Mayans to now. It included a tasting area (on special days) with a few samples of different types of chocolate.

In the little shop at the exit area, we couldn’t resist trying out a delicious 70% dark bar of just cacao and organic cane sugar. Mmmm. I don’t know if that bar would keep a doctor at bay, but it might help me hold off a visit to a psychologist…

Thriver Soup Ingredient:

Here’s a chocolate recipe that fits the bill for me:

https://eatbeautiful.net/2015/07/04/homemade-chocolate-with-cocoa-butter/

The recipe calls for raw honey. The many benefits of raw honey are on pg. 47 in Thriver Soup. If you believe it’s still too much in the way of carbs or simple sugars, perhaps you can experiment with other sweeteners, like xylitol or stevia, and add other flavorings.

I’m in the process of experimenting with different non-cane-sugar sweeteners and a little flavoring. So far the raw honey is smooth, pairs well with hazelnut extract, and melts quickly. I find the coconut nectar sugar makes the chocolate extra hard. The chocolate sweetened with xylitol is a little crunchy (unless you can find xylitol in a superfine variety) and pairs well with mint, almond, and vanilla flavoring. This way it tastes like a Peppermint Patty candy to me. Mmmm.

What have you tried, and how has it worked?

How 2 Got into Radical Remission

Complementary Therapies, Events, Mapping the Emotions, Soaring with Spirit, , , ,

Marcia McMahon, in radical remission from stage 4 breast cancer, and I talked on her Peaceful Planet podcast recently.

Among our topics were Mary Magdalene, Thriver Soup’s cover art by Margaret and Keith Klein, music by Sunflower, when I had an idea my cancer was over (a dream I had), energy healing, healthy eating, and of course, how to manage emotions. We also did a brief version of the guided visualization, A Conversation with Dis-ease.

The interview starts at 7:55. Enjoy!

https://bbsradio.com/podcast/peaceful-planet-august-11-2018

A Secret to Great Tea

Let Food be Your Medicine, ,

As much as you can eat healthy, it’s also important to remember to drink healthy too. Tea is very healing.
-Kristin Chenoweth, American actress and singer

The healing benefits of green tea are well documented for cancer patients. Do you try to have a cup each day? It would be easier to swallow without the bitter aftertaste. Yet there is a little secret about how to brew it, and other teas, to greatly enhance their flavor.

You’ll spend far less money on your tea, and get better-tasting brew at the same time with this method.

The secret is in the tea-making process, which I learned from my sister, Roselie, who learned it from some Turkish friends.

To get great-tasting tea, start with a double boiler, which is a two-layered pot. Don’t have a double boiler? You can create one with a regular 3-quart pot and a sturdy glass bowl. Place the glass bowl into the pot so it nestles inside but still sits a good inch above the bottom of the pot.

Pour half an inch of water into the bottom pot. In the top pot or bowl, add a few cups of water and enough tea for a typical single cup. Cover with a lid.

I let mine sit overnight on the stove top to begin the process. In the morning, I turn the heat on a low setting and let the water come to a slow boil. This will gradually allow the full flavor of the tea to infuse the water in the top portion.

Your reward—a few cups of delicious tea from one tea bag.

Loose-leaf teas tend to have larger leaves and produce more flavor. If you use tea bags instead, I would suggest removing the tea from its bag. Many bags contain unnatural ingredients that can be released into the tea at high temperatures. The loosened tea can be put in a tea ball or placed straight in the water. Then you can strain your tea through a sieve when pouring it.

With some herbal teas this slow-steeping method doesn’t bring out the flavor as well, so you might have to experiment. For green and black teas, I find I enjoy the flavor more, which means I’ll drink more to get the benefits.

Be tea-totaller. Sip your health-promoting brew with pleasure.

Thriver Soup Ingredient:

Loose-leaf organic green tea has been shown to inhibit metastasis, boost the immune system, reduce inflammation, detoxify the body, enhance the effectiveness of radiotherapy, and increase bone density.