How to Change Your Mindset: My own experience; Mind-body connection
It is important to note just how powerful our minds are when it comes to manifesting illness in the body.
It is equally important to note just how powerful our minds can be in times of dealing with illness that has manifested in the body.
There is a powerful truth to the power of our mind and how it directly links to our bodies and our health.
My own personal experience of this was when I was diagnosed with melanoma skin cancer.
The word disease actually breaks down to dis-ease. What dis-ease was I experiencing at the time?
I had often wondered how this disease came about for me and looked at how it could have been triggered by the most obvious cause: stress.
Stress itself could also be described as feeling a form of “dis-ease”.
One thing that is clear to me, is the importance of our feeling state, first in our minds, and then in our bodies.
This is the first step in how you change your mindset; is to change your feeling state.
To change your feeling state is to change your mental state.
How can this be accomplished?
My own experience of this includes both manifesting illness and being healed from it.
At the time, I was a healthy 26-year-old, I worked out 3-5 times a week, ate extremely healthy and yet I got skin cancer. I ticked a lot of boxes for the risk factors associated with contracting this disease, having pale skin & moles, had been sunburned in the past, & family history.
At the time, I had recently moved to Canada. Beginning a new life, in a new country, has stresses of its own. It comes with leaving your comfort zone, trying to find work, meet new people, find somewhere to live etc.
Looking back at that entire experience, I realised exactly how powerful our minds can be.
When I look at the mental state I had throughout that experience, I was in shock but always remained positive. At the age of 26, it felt very surreal and I was so oblivious to what was ahead of me. Being oblivious was a blessing to my mind because it helped to prevent the fear that would have been there otherwise.
The mindset and outlook I chose to have throughout that entire experience was one of gratitude over feeling fearful of the fact that I had cancer. This is key to changing your mindset on what could otherwise leave you being consumed of fear, which feeds the illness. I know for some this might be easier said than done, but it is crucial to the healing process regardless of the illness you may be faced with.
Hanging onto the fact that I caught it early was always at the forefront of my mind. If I were still in Ireland, I would not have gone to the doctor to get checked, and melanoma can be deadly if it is not caught early. What turned out to be a tumor, to me looked like a red spot on my right upper arm. A colleague saw it and advised me to get it checked and for that reason alone I did.
If I were having a bad day, I would remind myself of this fact and that I was lucky to be in Canada, as the healthcare here was like getting private healthcare in Ireland, if not better and at no cost to me.
When I look back, perspective was always key for me throughout that entire experience.
I always had a very positive outlook no matter what was said to me in terms of my diagnosis, I always chose to be grateful over anything else.
Throughout that experience, I always had reason for feeling grateful. Focusing on gratitude in times of hardship, is a powerful way to change your mindset.
There is always something to feel grateful for, no matter what you may be faced with, and it is a simple exercise that can be made part of your daily life to help get you into a feeling state of wellness.
Both my mindset and outlook were always predominantly positive. No matter what was said to me, I was always in a believing state knowing I would be okay.
An example where I chose to have a positive outlook over what was been said to me in terms of my prognosis, was when the dermatologist called me to advise that the biopsy came back as melanoma skin cancer.
She told me she had been doing this work for 10+ years and I was the second person she had seen like me, in terms of the tumor that was on my arm.
When I asked what she meant by that, she explained that for the little time I had the tumour on my body, and for the size it had grown, people would normally have something like that on their body for two plus years. I was then to have a second surgery to see if it had spread.
When I think back, despite what was said to me at that time, I did not panic or worry and was not consumed by fear.
Instead, I worked daily on changing my mindset to a positive one.
There is a lot to be said for gratitude and positive thinking, it really does go a very long way. I always did believe I would be okay and did everything in my power to remain positive and reduce stress throughout that journey.
If were having a bad day, I would write down what I had to be grateful for, read books, go for a walk, listen to a podcast along with meditating every morning, I would do whatever I had to keep myself in a positive and grateful mindset.
Doing this daily really had a positive impact on changing both my feeling state and therefore my mindset.
That was the mindset I chose to have over the fact that I had been diagnosed with cancer.
I changed my perception and mindset from one of panic to being in a state of gratitude always, and in turn my body healed itself. In less than four months, I was cancer free.
Our thoughts, beliefs, feelings, and attitude can positively or negatively influence our bodies.
The key to changing your mindset is to have the awareness to be as mindful as you can in your daily life, particularly in times of stress. Something as simple as making meditation part of your daily life or focusing on what you have to be grateful for can positively affect you, so much more than you know. It not only helps to eliminate illness but plays a crucial factor in the healing process of illness that has manifested.
Love always,
Sharon.
