My long time friend and mentor Anita Pernell-Arnold has a deeply moving and inspiring chapter in ‘Pathways to Vibrant Health and Well-Being’ — another excellent reason to read it!
Her story is expanded in her book soon to be published “Paths through Despair to Gratitude and Faith–A Guide for Facilitators of Bereavement Groups and Grieving Spouses/Partners.” More details coming.
In anticipation of the publishing date of the book ‘Pathways to Vibrant H
ealth and Well-Being’, my story was recorded and made available for others to hear.
Now it’s on live-itup.com for you to listen to any time you’re ready!
Feel free to share it with others–especially those who may be going through the trauma of cancer or other dis-ease. I believe they will find it inspiring, help solidify their faith that they too can become a miracle, and give them strength to take action.
A little over a year ago, I was looking for any and everything that could possibly help me live through my potentially deadly dis-ease. A friend referred me to an on-line meditation — Creating Perfect Health — how perfect! That 21 day meditation (free) was so powerful, so healing, so inspiring, so centering, so strengthening — I sought out the next ones that followed. Whether or not you’ve benefited before, a new meditation has just started. You can still start from the beginning. Just go to oprah.com and register for instant access to Finding Your Flow. I’m certain you’ll be glad you did.
Here’s some strengthening words from Creating Perfect Health: Being thankful for what we have in our lives is an important part of our journey to perfect health. Gratitude helps clear away the noise of our egos and allows us to connect more deeply with our inner wisdom.
As we move forward on our individual paths, remember how important it is to spend time with friends and family. Sharing what we learn also enables us to build a supportive community, which is essential to creating a positive lifestyle.
Our centering thought for today is:
I create my perfect health.
Let me start with some context: Soon after I was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, I was increasingly experiencing pain and the inability to think. I called a friend Anne Bullock to come over to help me make some decisions about health insurance. When she arrived, she saw that I needed much more than that. I had just undergone a chemotherapy treatment and was in bad shape. This treatment had caused me to totally reject food of any sort. I was weak, drifting in and out of sleep and barely functioning.
Anne helped me in so many ways, I hardly know where to begin in describing her critical contributions to saving my life. She persuaded me to drink liquid protein and other nutrients, bringing me items from her long-time kitchen of healthy foods. Nearly every day she was by my side, keeping me positive, focused, resolute in my will to live and to do the changes in my lifestyle that it took to help my body heal itself. She encouraged me to jump on my rebounder for a little exercise. She took me to appointments with doctors and cancer education counselors. Anne helped me design and follow a discipline that resulted in my recovering–even more rapidly than we had imagined! Within two months, I was bouncing back with energy. She was ‘confirmed’ that what she had been learning and doing most of her life to keep healthy–was also bringing me back from disaster.
Here’s the origin of ‘Live-It’
Anne, who is conversant in the Rastafari tradition as we know it in Jamaica, overstands the importance of positivity in our lives, including the sounds in our words. For example, typically people might ‘dedicate’ a building–the Rastas would ‘livicate’ the building. Hear the difference! When we examined at the standard American diet that many consume and the resulting incidence of dis-ease and cancer, Anne suddenly exclaimed ‘LIVE-IT!’ She said ‘Cheri, you’re no longer on a life threatening di-et (sounds die-it), you are experiencing a healthy way of eating–let’s call it ‘Live-it!’
I loved it and we expanded it even further to ‘Live-It Up’ encompassing all of the lifestyle changes that I was making and that contribute to a healthy, happy, peaceful way of living. Enjoy! It can be your positive phrase now too!
Did you notice the greens in my photos are curly kale?! I juice and drink a big bunch of it everyday to help keep my body flourishing. And what about chia–do you remember those little chia pets we got as children? We sprinkled water on them and they grew a green ‘fur’ covering. I learned there’s way more to chia than being a child’s toy.
When I was diagnosed with cancer, I started taking medication. Increasingly I was feeling more and more pain and I took more pain killers. It got so bad, I ended up in the hospital for pain management. I was not functioning well however I did notice that the nurses were giving me anti-constipation medication. After four days, they gave me an enema — and miraculously the pain disappeared! It wasn’t the cancer causing the pain, it was the constipation caused by the medication. That’s where chia comes in.
I learned from friend Anne Bullock that two tablespoons a day of tiny ‘tasteless’ chia seeds, soaked or ground, keeps the constipation away. This was such great news! My sister Kriss Avery started calling me Chia Cheri. I liked it and chia too. I put chia in soup, on salads, in my green smoothies, on my sweet potatoes–chia goes with anything–even frozen black cherries and coconut milk yogurt. Read on, there’s more!
It turns out chia seeds, super food extraordinaire, have become known as one of most nutrient-dense foods on the planet. Chia seeds were once a staple food of the Aztecs and revered for their ability to give energy and endurance to whomever ate them. They are arguably the best survival food for emergency preparedness – you could live off them if you had to, since they have almost the complete protein spectrum (19 out of 22 amino acids) and the right kind of fat ratio (high in omega-3) necessary for the human body, and no cooking is necessary.
To eat, just add cold water, wait 5 minutes and the seeds become soft and expand. They contain more iron than spinach and more antioxidants than blueberries! They help with diabetes, insomnia, weight loss, constipation and nervousness. A little goes a long way – they are small in size but big in nutrients.
My close family and friends were vital to my victory over dis-ease (stage 4 cancer) – or more accurately – my victory over the build-up of acid, sugar and other toxins overwhelming my body’s healing defenses.
Two angels in particular were especially instrumental in helping me to get my body back in balance — friend Yan Huo, founder of the 5 year old www.artofwellnesscenter.com and Susan Silberstein, founder of the Center for the Advancement of Cancer Education at www.beatcancer.org. Therefore, I’m gratefully donating the proceeds of my book sales to these two organizations and encouraging you to also let others know about these amazing resources.
Amazon declared us a best seller by 5 pm March 20, 2014, the day our book was launched!
That’s really cool! However it’s more about this being a helpful means to reach our ‘end’ goal of impacting thousands in our networks, causing endless ripples of positivity.
Thanks for your help!
Each of the 40 amazing authors of the anthology ‘Pathways to Vibrant Health and Well-being’ were interviewed and ‘aired’ live from March 10-19, 2014. My interview was on the evening of March 12 and available for replay through March 16. I plan to get a copy and post it on this site soon.
(I’ve updated this post and removed the link to the schedule which is no longer listed.)
I’m so excited to be published in my second best-seller — this time telling how I moved from experiencing devastating cancer to an energetic grateful cancer-free miracle in less than 4 months — by helping my body heal itself!
I’m looking forward to hearing from you about the miracles in your life as well.