Mindfulness and Cancer
This webinar event has ended. Please see below for the summary.
Mindfulness-based therapies have been shown clinically to improve immunity and outcomes for various conditions such as cancer. At the very least, extricating the mind from a preoccupation with the past and future can provide significant benefits for sleep, mood and autonomic arousal. Fear and anxiety impairs the immune system’s response to infections and cancer, and mindfulness can help to ground the mind in the present.
By establishing a connection between body sensations and discomfort related to the cancer’s location, the “command and control” organ of immune surveillance, the brain, is directed to where the problem exists.
Also, pain can be dramatically relieved with mindfulness which can lessen the need for pain medication. The difference between closed and open field meditation will be discussed, and a technique midway between these approaches to modify pain, improve mood and improve immune responses to address cancer will be presented. Mindfulness augment other psycho-spiritual approaches such as yoga and prayer and should be provided routinely for patients in all cancer treatment programs.
