This episode looks at ways to use your mind to protect your emotional energy and facilitate your physical and emotional well being. 

It contains some ideas for different types of meditations, ways of connecting with yourself and others and mental exercises to improve your health as much as you can. 

These include;

- guided meditational exercises developed by Dr Simonton (psychologist)

- ways in which the use of intuition has been found to be useful in research into Radical Remission by Dr Kelly Turner

- the Buddhist meditation technique called 'loving kindness'

- links to the research into how these emotional and mental states can be beneficial for emotional and physical resiliency, as well as the immune system

- the observation that connecting to a sense of inner calmness or higher power can have a beneficial emotional impact

Please note that this episode does not encourage anyone to 'skip' treatment or put any pressure on anyone to 'heal themselves' or 'only feel positive emotions', all of those perspectives seem to be pretty hard on the person dealing with cancer and ultimately unhelpful and blaming. 

How not to despair is one of the major challenges for anyone dealing with a body that is temporary and will one day die. If you think about it, we are all in this boat.

This episode talks about how to dis-identify from your physical body and work on identifying with a sense of self and existence in the world that is not just your physical form. This is a major way to reduce your suffering when facing ongoing changes to your physical form and functioning.

Most of the major world religions and anyone a little bit spiritual are already well ahead of me on this, so please be patient.

I've recorded this episode because I think it's useful to name this process of dis-identification with the physical form directly, to talk about how serious illness can actually encourage this process, and to talk about why it's useful.

It's one of the gifts of dealing with a serious illness. Not that anyone would choose to be in this situation, but... may as well take the most useful aspects from the experience and share them. 

Nous ressentons tous du chagrin à différents degrés, il est impossible d’être humain sans faire l’expérience de la perte (perdre mes clés, mes cheveux, et peut-être ma raison), et le deuil est un processus naturel et inévitable. La manière dont nous vivons notre deuil lorsqu'il s'agit de cancer est donc vraiment importante.

Il existe différentes étapes et tâches pour traverser le deuil, selon le chercheur ou le modèle auquel on se réfère. Les réactions de deuil varient selon les moments.

Beaucoup de personnes confrontées à une maladie grave éprouvent également un deuil anticipé pour des pertes qui n'ont pas encore eu lieu. Si vous êtes gravement malade, il est probable que les personnes qui vous sont les plus proches ressentent également ce deuil anticipé ; c’est un impact naturel lié à la gestion d’une maladie grave. Il est utile de savoir à quoi cela ressemble et d’avoir des moyens de s’assurer que cela n’affecte pas négativement vos relations.

Je pense que je vais commencer à anticiper le deuil de ce cancer...

S’il vous plaît, soyez doux les uns envers les autres.

Ne paniquez pas (sauf si paniquer est utile)

Le soleil explosera dans environ 3,5 milliards d'années, mais tout ce qui se passe d'ici là reste probablement entre nos mains.

Cet épisode examine notre réaction face à des périodes de stress extrême et comment gérer ces réactions de manière créative et constructive. Il inclu les techniques psychologiques et pratiques pour gérer mieux dans les situations du crise. 

Il examine également comment développer davantage de force afin de trouver des moyens de traverser des situations difficiles ou (apparemment) impossibles

Cet épisode explore comment trouver de l’espoir face à une maladie dont les chances de survie à long terme sont aussi rares que celles de survivre à une attaque menée par une meute de crocodiles sauvages. Si tant est que les crocodiles chassaient en meute… et remercions le ciel qu’ils ne le fassent pas (sauf qu'en Australie ;)...

1. Trouver un plan de traitement efficace rapidement

This episode looks at how to deal with the fear that happens to nearly all cancer survivors, the fear of recurrence. We talk through some ideas about how to tackle this fear so that it can be a motivator for useful personal growth, and not something that detracts from your quality of life.

Christmas and other major holidays can be an intense emotional time, due to past and current situations, grief or anger over past or future losses, performance expectations, and the feeling that it has to be perfect. This podcast is an invitation to an imperfect Christmas, but making sure that is one that suits you and adds to your life, rather than being overwhelming or somehow emotionally or financially damaging.

For the lucky 13 th episode I decided to ask the question online about what were some fun things that people had done during chemo. I was blown away by the replies.

Skydiving, cruises, travelling to other countries, learning new crafts, reconnecting with old friends, hiking around the Grand Canyon and other feats of physical endurance really show that people can do anything during chemo if they have the right context. 

This episode celebrates the many many suggestions that people  had for what to do during chemo infusions, and what to during the chemo season. We also discuss looking at ideas for how to expand your own ideas for what you want to do with your precious time, with the overall goal of activating playfulness, joy, and increasing social connections.