Cancer Patients Report Easier Recovery, Inner Strength and Renewed Optimism from Inner Engineering Yoga and Meditation Program
Inspired by eager participation in its scholarship program for breast cancer survivors, Isha Foundation is extending its patient scholarships into 2012 and expanding it to include individuals who are recovering from cancer of any kind. The first Isha program to offer the new Cancer Survivors’ Scholarship is a 3-day Inner Engineering Program offering simple, but powerful yogic methods to bring about a deep state of meditativeness. This program will be offered by Isha Foundation founder, yogi and mystic, Sadhguru in Houston, Texas from May 4-6, 2012. Cancer Survivors’ Scholarships offer recovering patients and cancer survivors a scholarship of $60 toward the 3-day Houston program fee. These scholarships can be obtained by e-mailing Houston@IshaFoundation.org.
“Cancer treatment can be very traumatic for patients and their families, both from a health perspective and an economic perspective,” said Kalpana Rajdev, M.D., a family physician and President of Isha Foundation. “We are thrilled that patients and survivors of cancer are able to benefit so much from these scholarships, empowering them to receive a potent internal support system during one of the most physically and emotionally challenging times in their lives. The meditative process they receive in these three days is with them for life, supporting both their recovery and maintenance of health.”
According the American Cancer Society, twenty years of research on meditation indicates that meditative processes offer significant mental and physical benefits for those with cancer. “Research shows that meditation can help reduce anxiety, stress, blood pressure, chronic pain, and insomnia,” reports the ACS website. A 2008 study of those practicing Inner Engineering’s primary meditative practice, Shambhavi Mahamudra, revealed an instantaneous response of nervous system function during just 21-minutes of practice. These results support a direct and immediate impact of Shambhavi in modulating the autonomic nervous system—the involuntary aspect of the nervous system that is responsible for the stress-response.
Derived from the ancient yogic system, an elaborate system of inner technologies over 10,000 years old, Inner Engineering is a powerful program created by Sadhguru to instill a deep sense of inner balance, joy and mental clarity. According to Sadhguru, health benefits attained as a result of Inner Engineering are the by-product of overall balance achieved within the system. “In yoga, when we say ‘health,’ we don’t look at the body or the mind; we only look at the energy,” Sadhguru explained in a recent Huffington Post article. “If your energy body is in proper balance and in full flow, your physical body and mental body will be in perfect health.”
Many cancer patients who’ve taken Inner Engineering (IE) say that the program offered them a remarkable boost in emotional strength and a positive forward-looking perspective when they needed it the most.
“I have been through chemotherapy and radiation with all the side effects imaginable… I strongly feel that if I had not been doing the (Isha) practices, I would not have had this inner strength to deal with my situation the way I have,” explained Chitra Karnani of Bloomfield, MI. “I still have some challenges left to be dealt with, but I remain mentally and emotionally strong and feel capable to cope with whatever comes my way.”
Margie Hudnell of Dayton, Ohio felt that the Inner Engineering program helped markedly reduce the pain of her surgery and boost her recovery from treatment, as well.
“My recovery post-surgery was quite remarkable. Aside from the pain medicine provided in the recovery room following surgery, I did not have the need for further medication and my incision healed at least twice as quickly as normal as per my surgeon. I felt totally healed and so energetic that my family had to remind me to take it easy,” emphasized Margie. “The traditional radiation and chemotherapies were discussed as was the Tamoxifen protocol, however I opted to not accept these recommendations pending my early diagnosis, clean margins from the lumpectomy, established yoga practice and inclusion of neem and turmeric (which have documented anti-cancer properties) into my vegetarian diet.
The medical team supported my decisions, being aware that my yoga practices and dietary regimen supported my immune system and natural healing of the body and having witnessed my remarkable postsurgical recovery. I attribute my continued 11 years cancer-free state directly to my Isha practice and the dietary recommendations provided as part of the program designed by Sadhguru.”
Marcella Lopez, a mother, shares the benefits she experienced from her practice.
“Four years ago, the day after I gave birth to my first daughter, I was diagnosed with Thyroid cancer with metastasis throughout my neck. When my daughter was 2 months old, I went through a right neck dissection and 29 tumors were removed from my neck, the largest was the size of a golf ball. The doctor, from Stanford, told me that this cancer grows slowly and he was shocked that I never had felt anything strange in my neck.
After the surgery, I went through radiation, but within a couple of months the cancer came back again and I had to go through radiation again. Early this year, the same cancer came back and I went through a second surgery, and within two months this cancer started growing back again. After this trend, my doctor reluctantly said that my problem may be related to my mind and he suggested me to take some kind of meditation where I could keep my body and mind relaxed for some time. Somehow, the same day, I received an e-mail about “a meditation technique” (Inner Engineering program) that was starting the following day in the San Francisco Bay area.
Obviously, when I went to the class I had no idea or knowledge of Isha Yoga or Sadhguru. I just went as a hard-core catholic, working mother of two, and with a lot of enthusiasm to learn something that could help me to relax and eventually could stop this cancer. Two weeks after I initiated my practice or meditation, I had a blood test that showed that my thyroid globulin levels, which in my case indicated cancer cells, had dropped for the first time in 4 years! In addition to that, I was able to tell my doctor where in my neck I felt something was wrong. He tried to feel it with his hands but could not feel any lump or tumor so he requested a sonogram on my neck. That sonogram showed a very small tumor (7mm) exactly where I could “feel” it within me.
My doctors are now so intrigued by this sudden health improvement and awareness of my body that they want to know more about this meditation and Sadhguru. This practice has brought me not only health improvements, but also happiness and harmony in my life. I am very grateful for Sadhguru’s teachings and all of the volunteers that made this course available for the regular people, like me.”
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