The Ginkgo Leaf - Issue 4, SS2025
Founder’s Note …
Hello, CPSP2023 Friends! Hope you and your loved ones are having a beautiful spring so far; and with each passing day, YOU are feeling better, getting stronger! Briefly, on the personal-health front: recent scan shows the metastasized cancer in the lungs has stopped spreading—thanks to the ‘mighty little pill’! Those ‘innumerable nodules’ are now suspended in number and size. For now, day-to-day objectives involve increasing energy level (due to persistent low chi!) and managing drug-induced arthritis. Some days, and nights, are better than others, depending on the level of bodily-joint pain, the number of muscle spasms (particularly in the toes!) and overall sluggishness from inflammation, which keeps me in slow motion off and on. Nevertheless, another little pill has been keeping my body functional. In addition, lots of spicy foods and bananas have helped, too; please see the fall-winter issue for more info. Altogether, I’m extremely grateful to be able to share The Ginkgo Leaf with you again!
In this issue, cancer and health related information continue to be of interest and import. Also moving forward, healing methods will be a resonating theme. As many of us know, cancer recovery is a journey. Every path to full recovery is different and unique to the individual, from diagnosis to the various methods and phases of treatments. Sometimes the road is unexpectedly harrowing, while other times joyously fruitful. For those who have reached the five-year mark and beyond (since diagnosis), cancer is less of a burden. That is, cancer no longer takes up the bulk of one’s daily activities, or define one’s weekly routines, such as having medical procedures, getting drug treatments, and meeting with care teams. On the other hand, for others, cancer continues to be invasive—in more ways than one. Regardless of stage or path, helping fellow sojourners heal and create their own Virtuous Cycle of Healing continues to be my focus and the work of CPSP2023. Because each ‘positive health event’ fosters and piggybacks onto another. The cumulative, cascading effect of feeling healthier signals the body to get better—sooner!
When I was first diagnosed with stage4 cancer, I would not have been able to tell you that healing, first, required me to feel better. Lying in my hospital bed, during my initial hospitalization, I was too weak and frail to do anything other than lie in bed—well, other than listen to music (with my eyes closed) and practice breathing exercises. When I focused on breathing, the pain from my tumor jutting against my tailbone slowly subsided; moreover, my brain began to relax. Breathing consciously, intently kept it from overthinking; and I was able to reject many of the what-if’s that came to mind. So, I continued this routine until I was released. Then the entire year following, through every round of radiation and chemo treatments, I practiced breathing exercises regularly. I allowed myself to imagine and embrace a positive, healthful future (like being able to run long distances again—in Speedo bike shorts!). Basically, intentional breathing marked the beginning of my cancer-recovery journey. It is truly in hindsight, with two years of survivorship, that I’m able to share this with clarity; that over time, it is possible to feel better sooner—using breathwork to help the body heal.
By the way, aside from being effective, breathing exercises are complementary to medical procedures and treatments from your care teams. So I urge you to take personal healing days, or evenings or both, to re-claim you for yourself, even on those not-so-strenuous days of treatments and hospital visits. Imagine yourself by a sun-drenched ocean, in a lush-verdant forest, or on a snow-top mountain, all the while you’re listening to music (of course), seeing yourself being your healthiest. Allow the music to take you to your special place; engage in that moment that makes you feel right and healed.’ Also, perhaps you might like to imagine yourself as a cloud (above your ocean), a butterfly (flitting about in your forest), or an eagle (circling your mountain)—see yourself as anything, as anyone other than a cancer patient! Explore who you are as a cancer survivor!
Last summer, I had to put ‘the videos’ on the back-burner because I was still recovering from surgeries and receiving immunotherapy; now, as I write this note to you, the healing methods series is being realized. Healing Together is being produced in its entirety. This series is designed to help you launch and build your personal virtuous cycle of healing—to sustain you on your journey from being a patient to being a survivor, to full recovery. The first videos are focused on breathwork, different yogic breathing exercises derived from various lineages. Over the next couple of months, they’ll be posted on the website and made available to cancer patients, survivors, caregivers and anyone who is interested in healing methods and practices. Following, there will be interviews with health and wellness experts about healing methods relative to cancer recovery. Other types of related practices and techniques will be featured as well. Please stay tuned; and be on the lookout for upcoming emails! Also, if you’re interested in learning more about the healing methods series, sharing your expertise or submitting a brief article for the Ginkgo Leaf, please drop me a line by using the contact form on the website (www.cpsp2023.org)!
