Ian Gawler Blog – Love and its Conditions

Christmas is the time when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. Christ quite literally represents the embodiment of pure love, unconditional love.

Now there are many forms of love in this world of ours. There is love for a parent, for a child, for a lover, an animal, a thing, a cause etc.

These worldly loves often have an element of the relative about them. Relative in the sense that there are conditions: I will love you if… (you love me back, make me laugh, look after me...etc). I will love you when… ( you have a better job, loose some weight, do not get so angry…etc). I will love you if…etc, etc.

It is easy to observe many people are confused by these different aspects of love. This was often apparent after people came to any of the Foundation programs, particularly the residential ones.
The fact is that these programs reliably bring out the best in people. Participants quickly come to really care for each other. The staff consistently put their own issues aside and really care for the participants, People begin to feel something of that unconditional love.

As an aside, it is my sense that it is just this, the experience of unconditional love, that often explains the wonderful, positive and often profound transformations that occur during the programs in the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual health and wellbeing of participants.

But then, as these people  head home, often they experience the confusion that many others feel independently of attending such a program. If pure love is unconditional, and I want to love all, how do I manage the difficult people in my life?

The key resides in understanding the difference between relative and absolute. This is one of the great gifts of examining our minds. When we do so, we realise there is relative and there is absolute. On the absolute level we all have an intrinsic goodness, an intrinsic purity. In Christianity we say we are made in God’s image. Cannot get much purer than that. In Buddhism we say that in their essence, everyone has Buddha nature – again that notion of fundamental goodness and purity.

Yet on the relative, worldly level it is clear peoples’ actions, emotions and thoughts can be complex and often problematic. The fact is some relationships can be very difficult, even quite toxic and there may well be a need to discriminate about whom we hang out with!

Now it is true that difficult relationships can teach us so much about ourselves, about patience, tolerance, compassion etc. And enduring some relationships can lead to healthy outcomes for all. However, in some situations it can be clear that to remain in a relationship will only create more problems and it may well be the loving thing to avoid such a relationship.

Personal awareness requires discrimination. It is not about suffering endlessly, it is not about neglecting the treatment of illness or the working on difficulties. It is about right action. Working as much as possible from a position of unconditional love, recognising the fundamental goodness in all and so having a deep respect and real compassion for all, while at the same time recognising the limitations of others and ourselves. Doing the best we can and making every effort to continue to learn and to be a better person. To be increasingly comfortable with our own capacities and those of others.

Christmas then is a perfect time to contemplate the place of love in your life. To consider when for you love is unconditional, when it is more like a deal with its conditions, and when it is better avoided. Christmas often brings families together in a way that these issues are brought to the fore, so be gentle on yourself and others, take time to contemplate and meditate and may you experience something of the true meaning of Christmas – unconditional love.

Next Blog: I had pre-empted writing something about 2011 for this post, but love just took over! So there will be a short break until the New Year and then, all being well, some thoughts on the year to come.

May you have a joyful Christmas and a meaningful 2011.
  

Ian Gawler Blog - MINDFULNESS REVISITED

This week we have two guest contributors – Dr Craig Hassed and Paul Bedson. Both are friends and colleagues; Craig lectures at Monash Medical School and has regularly presented at Gawler Foundation cancer programs for around 10yrs. Paul and I worked together for many years and co-authored "Meditation an In-depth Guide". Both are experienced authorities on mindfulness and meditation and have responded to my blog: “Go with the flow or intervene”(see the blog below of 16/11/10), where I suggested there was potential confusion in the way mindfulness was being currently defined and used as a word.

But first some practicalities. Next week we are upgrading the database for my blog and website so it becomes easier for you and more efficient for us. You will receive email notification of this. If you choose to be removed from the database do nothing. However, importantly, if you choose to continue to be on it, you will need to confirm by simply clicking on the link provided.

Here then is Dr Craig Hassed on mindfulness and meditation:

"In regard to the question and answer, there is a lot in what you say but it would be my view that you have not accurately portrayed mindfulness and have drawn a false distinction. The reason for saying that is because all of what you say about discernment and getting to know our minds ('selves') better is exactly what mindfulness teaches us.
The short and apparently one dimensional definition from Jon that keeps getting cited does not provide a full account of all that mindfulness offers. That is probably why Jon's books on the subject are 500 pages long and not just one line.
Mindfulness meditation is the cornerstone in how to live mindfully - i.e. consciously and with discernment. It is exactly because it teaches us much about ourselves that it helps so much with conditions like depression, and fosters things like emotional regulation and self-awareness.
To say that mindfulness is just paying attention is true on one level - like saying that an elephant is a big animal with four legs and a trunk. It doesn't tell us anything about its functions - i.e. what the elephant can do.
The'non-judgmental' attitude, I believe, nearly always gets misrepresented. The judgments of the ego - e.g. deeply personal, biased and reactive - and seeing the dream-world we tend to live in within our own imaginations, are just the kinds of thought processes that one begins to see more clearly and objectively through the practice of mindfulness meditation. The judgment of inner wisdom, which is impersonal, objective and arises from equanimity, and which we could call discernment (or buddhi in Sanskrit),
and the capacity to be more in touch with the reality of the present moment, are strengthened and stabilised through mindfulness meditation and mindful living. One cannot make rational decisions without it.
The point you make about cocooning oneself from major challenges that one is not yet strong enough to deal with is a valid point. Like weight lifting, leave the heavy weights alone until you are trained to lift them.
So, sorry Ian, I can't really agree with the main theme of your blog. There are, I believe, similar false distinctions made between 'mindfulness meditation' and 'stillness meditation' - as if mindfulness does not help to bring one to stillness - which I have often heard mentioned by various people."

And here is what Paul Bedson has to say:

"In places I have some different emphasis to you:
I don't distinguish mindfulness from meditation, after all we have written a book on meditation using mindfulness. Nor do I distinguish meditation from living in the world ("coming out of the cocoon").
Mindfulness into Stillness meditation connects us with the inner cocoon of awareness, stillness and spaciousness that are our true nature. Connecting with this cocoon actually liberates the mind from some of the distinctions between self and other, inner and outer. The inner cocoon then opens us to the outer world, it travels with us to remind us that we are not separate, it provides us with resources of wisdom and compassion to be in the world.
Formal meditation helps to reconnect us with the inner cocoon which opens into life. The distinction between inner and outer is misleading and can be healed through meditation .
When you say "meditation is a way of getting to know the mind" it sounds a bit like a cognitive process.....I think of meditation as a way of abiding in our true nature. Out of that abiding insight comes as some illusions start to dissolve (healing comes out of the abiding as well). The Masters did not need to learn the wisdom teachings, or to learn discrimination. Their teachings are tools to guide us to the experience of our true nature (not tools for understanding)".

The issue for me remains as one of definition. Words are used to convey concepts. There is no doubt that the word for mindfulness, the concept of mindfulness, falls short of the experience. The best way to know mindfulness, as with meditation, is to practice it. Yet words are important and as linguists know, they change with time and usage. Linguists know that if a word is used incorrectly long enough its new and inaccurate meaning becomes correct through usage.
There is nothing wrong with this; this is how language progresses. The point again is that it does seem to me that mindfulness is being used increasingly as a generic word to cover a whole lot of things that its traditional definition and the commonly quoted one of Jon Kabat-Zinn does not include.
What more traditionally was called meditation, these days is commonly being called mindfulness. While this may be politically useful in arenas where mindfulness is a more acceptable word than meditation, in my view it creates more than just a language problem; it helps to foster a misguided conception of what mindfulness is, and potentially generates confusion in beginners and the experienced alike.
Because words do have power, I believe there may be the need to come up with a new modern definition of mindfulness, or else a new word to describe all this other stuff that goes with it.

Your comments are most welcome.

Next week, some personal reflections on the year as 2010 draw to a close, and some thoughts and plans for 2011.

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Big Mac or a salad?

Is it better to eat a Big Mac and enjoy it, or a garden fresh salad and loath it? Is what you eat more important or the state of mind you eat it in? Is it better to do what is good for you regardless of whether you enjoy it or not; or is it better to do what you enjoy whether it is good for you or not?

Have you read Yogananda’s mind-blowing “Autobiography of a Yogi”? It recounts his years as a young spiritual seeker searching through mystical India for his teacher, his guru. In ancient times, before the days of calling cards and websites, spiritual leaders needed to demonstrate their prowess to validate their capacities and to attract followers. There were different ways to do this, but commonly they developed siddhis or signs of spiritual accomplishment. Yogananda describes many amazing feats he witnessed including “the poison eating saint”. This fellow’s demonstration was to eat poison and broken glass and remain unaffected; that is, as the story goes, until he repeated his siddhi on a day when he was in an agitated state of mind and unceremoniously died.

My experience of these matters is that there is a spectrum like in most things. Some people do have strong minds and strong constitutions and can manage on a wider range and quality of foods. However, it is a high level of accomplishment to be able to eat any old rubbish and be unaffected by it – especially long term.

For most of us mere mortals our health and our capacity to heal is dramatically affected by what we eat. Unhealthy eating is linked to six of the ten major things that kill people, as well as MS and rheumatoid arthritis. Healthy eating leads to long term good health and assists recovery from illness powerfully.

The trick with food therefore is twofold. How are you sure of what is good for you, and how do you enjoy eating it so you keep on eating it?!

Easy. You need good information and the right state of mind.

Everything starts with the mind. It is our mind that decides what food to buy, how to store and prepare it, how much to eat and what state of mind we are in when we eat it.

How then to use the mind to good effect? We need to use our mind, our wits, to gather good information; then we need to train our mind to serve us – to follow through on our good choices and lead the way in deciding what we eat and how much we enjoy eating it.

Here is the kicker. Here is the real secret so many people I met in the past were not aware of, but who on learning of it changed their lives dramatically for the better. Here is the secret to enjoying what the theory says is good for us:

Anything you do often enough you get used to. Nothing is difficult once you get used to it. Anything you choose to, you can put your mind to and enjoy doing it. It is not such a great accomplishment to decide upon the state of mind you will do something in. With just a modicum of willpower, most people can do it.

So use your intelligence. Choose the salad and choose to enjoy it!

Happy, enjoyable, healthy eating.


COMMENT OR A QUESTION?

Click on "Comments" below


RESOURCES:

Previous Blogs:

• What fuel goes into your tank?
• Eating for recovery.

Mind Training 2 CD set by Ian

Cancer nutritional information from Ian:

• Book: You Can Conquer Cancer
• CDs: Eating Well, Being Well, and Eating for Recovery

MS:

• Book: Overcoming Multiple Sclerosis by George Jelinek

Lifestyle-based programs and counselling for cancer, MS disease prevention and wellbeing:

• The Gawler Foundation: www,gawler.org

It only has to be done once

This weeks blog is written in two parts. The first part is my weekly blog and the second is an article that I wrote and was published in Australian Doctor this week that is referred to in the blog.

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Part A

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There has been some discussion recently in the medical press regarding my case history; its accuracy and its relevance to others with cancer. It seemed to me that the matters raised had been satisfactorily answered but then Linda Calabresi, medical editor for Australian Doctor (the journal that goes weekly to all Australian GPs) suggested the record needed to be set straight, so my response has been published in AusDoc and is reproduced below.

The issues of contention revolved around the timelines for my illness and the dates on photos taken of my cancer, as reported my Dr Ainslie Meares way back in 1978, and the 30 year follow-up of my case in 2008; as well as me being described as having followed a vegan diet during my recovery.

The reality is that I was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma in January 1975, had metastases confirmed in December 1975 and was found to be cancer free in June 1978. What happened in between was quite complex. I tried most things you could think of and probably a few you would not!

When I recovered Ainslie Meares, who had introduced me to meditation, reported my case in the Medical Journal of Australia. While he acknowledged many of the things I had done, he felt the most significant factor may well have been intense meditation.

It is true he reported I had more severe disease when we first met than I did, however, he had not shown me his article before submitting it and this error seemed to me to be of no material significance. If a woman has a pregnancy confirmed, but the dates are wrong; unless there is major intervention, she will still have a baby. I certainly had a very poor prognosis when I went to Dr Meares; if there had been no major intervention, all the experts were sure I would have died within a few months. As it was, I did recover and I too felt the meditation was crucial.

The main photo in contention was of the rather large mass of cancer on my chest that was enlarged many years ago and then mis-labelled as being taken in July 1977. In fact it was taken before I began chemotherapy in October 1976. This again seemed of minor importance but I do have the complete series of photos taken once each month from then until the chest had cleared completely towards the end of 1977.

Because my history is so complex, when it came to having it told in book form, I decided not to do it myself as an autobiography, but to agree to a journalist, Guy Allenby writing it. Guy had full access to my medical records, the meticulous diaries I kept, and he interviewed my medical staff, family, friends and colleagues. In my opinion, the timelines in The Dragon’s Blessing are accurate, so anyone interested will find them there.

Regarding what I ate during my recovery, it was mostly vegan. If you eat meat once a week, you are not strictly a vegetarian but you certainly are not a rabid carnivore. It is hard to characterise diets in a few words, and anyway, I do not recommend people do exactly what I did. What I do recommend has been readily available since “You Can Conquer Cancer” first came out in 1984. Anyone really interested could come to the residential or non-residential programs I established, come to a workshop or listen to my CDs on food. I have also written some blogs on food and will do more soon, particularly on why it makes good sense to avoid dairy and adopt a relatively low protein diet.

The good thing about all this discussion is that it has provided another opportunity to present the merits of a therapeutic lifestyle for people with cancer in a medical forum.

Cancer is a lifestyle disease and the value of a therapeutic lifestyle needs to be discussed early for people diagnosed with cancer just as it is for people when they are first diagnosed with heart disease or diabetes.

If we really want to treat cancer best, we need to prevent it and the soundest way to prevent it is through a healthy lifestyle.

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Part B - Taken from Australian Doctor 17th Nov, 2010

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The case for lifestyle

Well-known cancer survivor Dr Ian Gawler presents his side of the story.

One of the good things about being described as a high profile alternative treatment story is that you are alive to engage in the discussion.

In referring to my recovery from metastatic osteogenic sarcoma and my work over 30 years with lifestyle-based self-help programs, Linda Calabresi’s editorial [i] “Providing hope comes with a duty of truth” (27 October) suggests “the record be set straight”.

First then, the term “alternative”, as used in some reports of the case, is misleading. Cancer management falls into three broad categories: conventional medicine, complementary and alternative medicine, and lifestyle medicine. My personal recovery involved all three, while my work focuses on lifestyle.

The facts of my case were thoroughly documented in 2008 by Guy Allenby [ii] in “The Dragon’s Blessing”. So while back in 1978 (psychiatrist) Dr Ainslie Meares [iii] reported that I had more severe disease when I first saw him than I actually did, and these timeline errors were carried over into the 2008 follow-up [iv], this has little material relevance to the important facts. On meeting Dr Meares, I did have metastatic disease. I did have a prognosis of 3 to 6 months. I am alive more than 30 years later.

My personal story has direct relevance to people with osteogenic sarcoma. It changes the landscape of that disease. The fact is at least one person has survived metastatic disease for over 30 years. It only has to be done once to show that it is possible, so my story offers real hope.

However, it is my work that has the most relevance to the wider body of people affected by cancer. The lifestyle I teach now goes well beyond what I did 35 years ago. Research and experience leads to ongoing development. While my story may inspire, I have never recommended others do exactly as I did. This was clearly documented in my book “You Can Conquer Cancer”[v],first published in 1984.

The evidence for lifestyle factors enhancing quality of life and cancer outcomes is growing steadily. Compelling examples are Dean Ornish et al’s [vi] randomised lifestyle intervention for prostate cancer and the evidence suggesting regular exercise halves the risk of dying for women with primary breast cancer [vii]

And consider that spontaneous remissions - improvement or recovery without clear medical cause [viii] - are thought to occur once in every 60,000 to 100,000 people [ix]

During a period when 8,400 cancer patients attended Gawler Foundation’s lifestyle programs, 43 people who fit the description of “spontaneous remissions”[x][xi] have been recorded. This equates to one in 195, which is 300 times more than the average.

While this data may be crude, it points to why the public is so interested in lifestyle programs, and surely warrants more research.

Lowenthal [xii] says “the speciality of psycho-oncology and the more recent development of 'integrative oncology' arose to some extent out of the work of Gawler and his followers.”

The next step is lifestyle medicine needs to have the same prominence for cancer as it does for heart disease and diabetes.

Dr Gawler OAM, BVSc, MCounsHS is retired founder of the Gawler Foundation.

References:

1. Calabresi L. Providing hope comes with a duty of truth. Aust Doct 2010: Oct 27:
2. Allenby G. Ian Gawler - The dragon’s blessing. Melbourne: Allen & Unwin, 2008.
3. Meares A. Regression of osteogenic sarcoma metastases associated with intensive meditation. Med J Aust 1978; 2:43.
4. Jelinek GA, Gawler RH. Thirty-year follow-up at pneumonectomy of a 58-year-old survivor of disseminated osteosarcoma. Med J Aust 2008; 189: 663-665.
5. Gawler IJ. You can conquer cancer. Melbourne: Hill of Content, 1984. Revised edition: Melbourne: Michelle Anderson 2001.
6. Ornish D, et al. Intensive lifestyle changes may affect the progression of prostate cancer. J Urol 2005; 174:1065-70
7. Irwin ML, et al. Influence of pre- and post-diagnosis physical activity on mortality in breast cancer survivors: the health, eating, activity and lifestyle study. J Clin Oncol 2008: 26(24): 3958-64.
8. Bakal. DA Minding the body: clinical uses of somatic awareness. New York: Guilford 2001.
9. Jerry LM, Challis EB. Oncology. In Rakel ED (Ed) Textbook of Family Practice, (3^rd ed., 1061-1081). Philadelphia: Saunders 1984.
10. Gawler IJ ( Ed). Inspiring people – stories of remarkable  recovery and hope from the Gawler Foundation. Melbourne: The Gawler Foundation, 1995.
11. Kraus P. Surviving cancer – inspiring stories of hope and healing. Melbourne: Michelle Anderson Publishing 2008
12. Lowenthal RM. Snake oil, coffee enemas and other famous nostrums for cancer – a recent history of cancer quackery in Australia. Cancer Forum 2005; 29: Issue 3.

Ian Gawler Blog: THE BRAIN, THE MIND AND RELATIONSHIPS

The Brain, The Mind and Relationships: Why Presence and Mindfulness is Good for all Three!

Dan Siegel is a psychiatrist, neuroscientist and author. His internationally acclaimed bestseller The Developing Mind has been used by educational programs all around the world. He also wrote the highly recommended The Mindful Brain and co-authored the exceptional parenting manual Parenting from the Inside Out.

So what was this illustrious neuroscientist recently doing up a tree in a Melbourne park? Well of course he was speaking to hundreds of people, mostly health professionals about his favourite subject Interpersonal Neurobiology (IPNB). The Hotel we had been in caught fire; 1500 people were evacuated and Dan shinned up a huge Moreton Bay fig to make the most of the circumstances.

IPNB is the term Dan uses to bring together a wide range of factors to do with relationships and biological systems. He links them through the use of concilliance. Concilliance is the capacity to find the commonality from within a wide range of different disciplines.

This is akin to the traditional story of the blind people who were all asked to investigate an elephant and report. One swears to have found a leg, another a tail, then a big stomach and even a huge stomach and a trunk. All true, but not the full story. Concilliance is taking all the pieces and developing a unifying framework or paradigm. It is seeing the whole elephant rather than each of the separate parts.

This principle is directly relevant to holistic or Integrative Medicine which has the aim of considering the health, the healing and the wellbeing of a person’s body, emotions, mind and spirit; and works in a co-operative, interdisciplinary field.

Dan Siegel spent many years applying these same principles to the study of attachment and resilience in children. His work has shown that the best predictor of how children will end up, is their relationships. And when it comes to developmental trauma that impairs a child’s development, relationships have more impact than physical realities.

Scientist Dan said that relationships involve sharing energy flow and information. (Now there is a sentence worth contemplating! Really. Sit down and dwell on it; it says a lot).

He then went on to question the audience, most of whom were mental health professionals. Like over 90,000 others he has asked, 95% of our audience admitted that in all their training, whether as psychiatrists, counsellors, psychologists, nurses etc, they had had not one lecture on “the mind.” They all studied it for years. Yet, no one even defined it for them. So what is it?

In 1992, Dan began a 4 and a half year discussion group with 40 scientists from a wide range of disciplines, Their aim? To define the mind. Nearly 20 years later, Dan still regards his definition as a work in progress. But with all he has asked over the years, no one has improved upon this:

THE MIND IS DEFINED AS an embodied and relational process that regulates the flow of energy and information.

With this definition, the mind is a verb; not a noun. (Now contemplate that one). Also, Dan like most other neuroscientists these days, is firmly of the view that the mind is not confined to the brain, but involves the whole body.

He then explained that in broad terms, the mind experiences three states: Chaos, Integration and Rigidity. In his fairly logical view, mental health involves a mind that is integrated. Integration is the heart of health. Whatever leaves you feeling or acting in a more integrated way is good for you, it is healing.

What happens when integration is impaired? There is the opportunity for healing the chaos or the rigidity through utilising the brain, the mind and relationships.

Dan explained the principles of neuroplasticity, that exciting new field of neuroscience that validates how our brain changes its structure and function according to how we use it. The key point? Neurones that fire together, wire together. The more we do something, the more it develops our “mind’s muscles” and the better we become at doing it the next time.

In the mind, integration is best facilitated by focussing our attention. To be more specific, according to recent research, mindfulness seems to lead to integration better than most.

So for a parent, a teacher, a therapist, a friend, a lover, a therapist; the most useful thing you can do in this sense is to give your full attention. Attention is the mechanism that drives the energy flow that carries information via the neurones to stimulate activity and growth, and in so doing, leads to integration.

Attention, used in this context, is another word for presence, and presence promotes integration. So how to develop presence? Mindfulness is one reliable way of becoming more present with one’s self. With that comes the heightened possibility of being more present with others.

The practice of mindfulness may well be a way of integrating the functions of the brain and the mind, along with enhancing relationships.

RESOURCES:

1. Dan Siegel’s excellent website:  www.drdansiegel.com
   
2. The Miracle of Mindfulness: Thich Nhat Hanh.  Practical, profound yet accessible guide to mindfulness practice.
   
3. Wherever You Go, There You Are (link to Borders online store): Jon Kabat-Zinn. One of Jon’s excellent books on mindfulness.
   
4. Meditation - An In-Depth Guide: Ian Gawler and Paul Bedson – our guide to Mindfulness Based Stillness Meditation. Has accompanying CDs to support your practice.
   
5. Residential and non-residential mindfulness and meditation programs : The Gawler Foundation: www.gawler.org

THANKS to all who have been commenting on the blogs. Remember to click on comments if you have experiences to share, questions or observations.

NEXT BLOG:
Meditation- how much is enough? And what meditation I did during my recovery, what I do know and what experience says is recommended for others at different times in your life.