By: Dr. Manny Alvarez / Source: Prevention

In 2009, Kristi Russo was diagnosed with stage III colorectal cancer. But the then 40-year-old didn’t take the news as a death sentence: Instead, she adopted the practices of health and wellness guru, Deepak Chopra by changing her attitude, deepening her spiritual practices, and eating healthier.

Now, almost four years later, Russo said she is cancer-free. She and Chopra recently sat down with Dr. Manny Alvarez, senior managing health editor of FoxNews.com, to share some tips on how anyone can help heal themselves from the inside out.

“When I was first diagnosed, I asked if they could fix it; they said yes,” Russo told FoxNews.com. “I went through chemo and surgery, came back for a test and found that it had now metastasized to my lung. Now, in my mind, all of a sudden, it’s really serious, it’s moving. I need to make some changes to my life.”

Russo, a wife and mother of four boys from Grand Rapids, Mich., said it was important for her to stay positive.

“First, we have to recognize that self-repair is, of course, innate to our biology,” Chopra said. “We call it homeostasis. People do repair their bodies. I think the best thing we can do today is combine the best treatments in medicine, biological treatments that are getting better day-by-day, with these integrative approaches.”

Chopra, who did not treat Russo, said staying stress-free is important for any treatment, because if you are stressed, your adrenaline goes up, your cortisol goes up—and therefore, your hormones go up and it interferes with your health.

Here are Chopra’s six tips to maintaining wellness:

1. Set goals and priorities. “Set goals to establish a baseline health status and decide where you want to be, and what it’s going to take in terms of lifestyle, also in terms of standard treatment,” Chopra said. “That’s the first thing.”

2. Get rid of processed foods. “In very simple words, get rid of anything that is processed, refined or manufactured. By large, anything that comes in a can or label. You know, she (Russo) did that,” Chopra said. “She planted her own garden and went to farmers’ markets.”

Russo said her husband and sons dug up miles of sod in the backyard and planted a huge garden—now they enjoy fresh tomatoes, lettuce and carrots. “We make our own salsa, and we planted fruit trees,” Russo said. “We eat very little red meat, but the red meat we eat comes from the cows down the road. I watch those cows.”

3. Practice meditation and visualization. Russo said when she got sick, she would sit outside and visualize the sun, with all her kids home and a big swimming pool—and this is what they would do when she was healthy.

“Visualization actually changes your behavior,” Chopra said. “It motivates you to do all the things. If you visualize a healthy, energetic, joyful body, and a quiet, restful mind, then that in itself will influence how you do other things.”

4. Express your emotions. “It’s not that you have to think positively all the time,” Chopra said. “You have to get in touch with your emotions. You have to share them with somebody that you love, like (Russo) did with her husband. You have to release them. You have to express them, because if you repress emotions, that creates its own biology, too.”

Chopra said you have to talk about your problems—tell people if you are happy, scared, sad or angry.

5. Resist alienating yourself. Chopra said you need to connect with peace, harmony, laughter and love—it’s as simple as that. They are healing emotions.

“My husband and I walk every night, especially before I’m going to have a blood test,” Russo said. “(I’ll ask) ‘Do you think I’m going to be OK? I’m nervous, do you think everything is going to be alright?’ He’s like, ‘Yes, it’s going to be fine.’ I always have somebody to talk to.”

6. Learn the science of self-repair. Russo said she is a different person now—she’s more tolerant—and she does not believe her cancer will ever come back. “I believe that your mind has a lot to do with healing your body,” Russo said.

By: Angel Chernoff / Source: Spirit Science and Metaphysics

The wisest, most loving, and well rounded people you have ever met are likely those who have known misery, known defeat, known the heartbreak of losing something or someone they loved, and have found their way out of the depths of their own despair. These people have experienced many ups and downs, and have gained an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, understanding and a deep loving wisdom. People like this aren’t born; they develop slowly over the course of time.

Angel and I have worked with thousands of these incredible people over the past decade, both online and offline, through various forms of coaching. In many cases they came to us feeling stuck and lost, unaware of their own brilliance, blind to the fact that their struggles have strengthened them and given them an upper hand in this crazy world.

Truth be told, when hard times hit, and the challenges you face are great, you can either let your situation define you, let it destroy you or let it strengthen you. The choice is yours to make.

In today’s article I want to remind you of a few powerful, yet easily forgotten truths that will help you choose wisely and grow stronger even through the hardest times…

1. Pain is part of life and love, and it helps you grow.

So many of us are afraid of ourselves, of our own truth, and our feelings most of all. We talk about how great the concepts of life and love are, but then we hide from both every day. We hide from our truest feelings. Because the truth is life and love hurt sometimes, and the feelings this brings disturbs us.

We are taught at an early age that all pain is evil and harmful. Yet, how can weever deal with real life and true love if we’re afraid to feel what we really feel? We need to feel pain, just as we need to feel alive and loved. Pain is meant to wake us up. Yet we try to hide our pain. Realize this. Pain is something to carry willingly, just like good sense. Because you can only learn how strong you are when being strong is the only choice you have.

It’s all in how you carry the things that don’t go your way. That’s what matters in the end. Pain is a feeling. Your feelings are a part of you – your own reality. If you feel ashamed of them, and hide them, you’re letting the lies of insecurity destroy your reality. You should stand up for your right to feel pain – to endure it – to own your scars – to deal with the realities of life and love, as you grow into the strongest, wisest, truest version of yourself.

2. Mindset is half the battle.

It’s okay to have down days and tough times. Expecting life to be wonderful all the time is wanting to swim in an ocean in which waves only rise up and never come crashing down. However, when you recognize that the rising and crashing waves are part of the exact same ocean, you are able to let go and be at peace with the reality of these ups and downs. It becomes clear that life’s ups require life’s downs.

In other words, life isn’t perfect, but it sure is good. Our goal shouldn’t be to create a perfect life, but to live an imperfect life in radical amazement. To get up every morning and take a good look around in a way that takes nothing for granted. Everything is extraordinary. Every day is a gift. Never treat life casually. To be spiritual in any way is to be amazed in every way.

Do not let the pain of a situation make you hopeless. Do not let negativity wear off on you. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Even though others may disagree with you, take pride in the fact that you still know the world to be a beautiful place. Change your thoughts and you change your reality.

And mindset is especially powerful when it comes to accepting that…

3. Your biggest fears don’t really exist.

When times are hard it can be difficult to follow your heart and take another step, but it’s a tragedy to let the lies of fear stop you. Although fear can feel overwhelming, and defeats more people than any other force in the world, it’s not as powerful as it seems. Fear is only as deep as your mind allows. You are still in control. So take control!

The key is to acknowledge your fear and directly address it. Fight hard to shine the light of your words upon it. Because if you don’t, if your fear becomes a wordless, obscure darkness that you avoid, and perhaps even manage to briefly forget, you open yourself to future attacks from fear when you least expect it. Because you never truly faced the opponent who defeated you.

You CAN beat fear if you face it. Be courageous! And remember that courage doesn’t mean you don’t get afraid; courage means you don’t let fear stop you from moving forward with your life. (Angel and I discuss this in more detail in the “Adversity” chapter of 1,000 Little Things Happy, Successful People Do Differently.)

4. You are growing through experience.

Over time you will find that life isn’t necessarily any easier or harder than you thought it was going to be; it’s just that the easy and the hard aren’t exactly the way you had anticipated, and don’t always occur when you expect them to. This isn’t a bad thing; it makes life interesting. With a positive attitude you will always be pleasantly surprised.

When you stop expecting things to be a certain way, you can appreciate them for what they are. Ultimately you will realize that life’s greatest gifts are rarely wrapped the way you expected.

Experience is what you get when your plans don’t go as planned, and experience is the most valuable commodity you own – it builds your strength.

You have the power to turn your wounds and worries into wisdom; you just have to do something about them. You have to accept what has happened and use what you’ve learned to step forward. Everything you’ve experienced has given you the upper hand for dealing with everything you have yet to experience. Realize this and set yourself free.

5. You can’t change situations you don’t take responsibility for.

Sigmund Freud once said, “Most people do not really want freedom, because freedom involves responsibility, and most people are frightened of responsibility.” Don’t let this be you. When you blame others for what you’re going through, you deny responsibility – you surrender power over that part of your life.

Make no mistake, in the end, the price of happiness IS responsibility. As soon as you stop making everyone and everything else responsible for your happiness, the happier you’ll be. If you’re unhappy now, it’s not someone else’s fault.

Ultimately, your happiness depends on your self-reliance – your unshakable willingness to take responsibility for your life from this moment forward, regardless of who had a hand in making it the way it is now. It’s about taking control of your present circumstances, thinking for yourself, and making a firm choice to choose differently. It’s about being the hero of your life, not the victim.

6. The present is all you really have to deal with.

Life is not lived in some distant, imagined land of someday where everything is perfect. It is lived here and now, with the reality of the way things are. Yes, by all means you can work toward an idealized tomorrow. Yet to do so, you must successfully deal with the world as it is today.

Sometimes we avoid experiencing exactly where we are because we have developed a belief, based on past experiences, that it is not where we should be or want to be. But the truth is, where you are now is exactly where you need to be to get to where you want to go tomorrow. So appreciate where you are.

Your friends and family are too beautiful to ignore. Take a moment to remember how fortunate you are to be breathing. Take a look around, with your eyes earnestly open to the possibilities before you. Much of what you fear does not exist. Much of what you love is closer than you realize. You are just one brief thought away from understanding the blessing that is your life.

Happiness is a mindset that can only be designed into the present. It’s not a point in the future or a moment from the past; yet sadly, this misconception hurts the masses. So many young people seem to think all their happiness awaits them in the years ahead, while so many older people believe their best moments are behind them. Don’t be either of them. Don’t let the past and the future steal your present. (Read The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment.)

7. There is always, always, always something to be thankful for.

Life is better when you’re smiling. Being positive in a negative situation is not naive; it’s a sign of leadership and strength. You’re doing it right when you have so much to cry and complain about, but you prefer to smile and appreciate your life instead.

What if you woke up tomorrow with only the things you were thankful for today?

Think of all the beauty that remains around you, see it and smile. Be thankful for all the small things in your life, because when you put them all together you will see just how significant they are. At the end of the day, it’s not happiness that makes us thankful, but thankfulness that makes us happy.

8. Great things take time.

Instant results are rarely the best results. With patience, you can greatly expand your potential. If your desires were always fulfilled immediately, you would have nothing to look forward to. You would miss out on the joys of anticipation and progress.

Remember, patience is not about waiting; it’s the ability to keep a good attitude while working hard for what you believe in. It’s the willingness to stay focused, confidently staking one small step at a time, knowing that the way you move a mountain is by moving one stone at a time. Every stone you move, no matter how small, is progress.

Bottom line: You deserve more than mere instant gratification. Value that arrives in an instant is often gone in an instant. Value that takes time and commitment to create often outlives its creator – YOU.

9. Other people cannot validate you.

When we’re struggling to achieve something important, sometimes we look to others to validate our progress. But the truth is, they can’t…

You are not in this world to live up to the expectations of others, nor should you feel that others are here to live up to yours. Pave your own unique path. What success means to each of us is totally different. Success is ultimately about spending your life happily in your own way.

You don’t have to be flashy to be impressive. You don’t have to be famous to be significant. You don’t have to be a celebrity to be successful. You don’t need to be validated by anyone else. You are already valuable. You just need to believe in yourself and what you wish to achieve.

You can be quietly humble and still be amazingly effective. Just because people don’t fall at your feet and worship you, doesn’t mean you are a failure. Quiet success is just as sweet as loud, flamboyant success, and usually far more real. Success is how you define it, not what everyone else says it must be for you. (Read The Gifts of Imperfection.)

10. You are not alone.

In the midst of hard times, it’s easy to look around and see a bunch of people who seem to be doing just fine. But they’re not. We’re all struggling in our own way. And if we could just be brave enough to open up about it, and talk to each other, we’d realize that we are not alone in feeling lost and alone.

So many of us are fighting the same exact battle alongside you. We are all in this together. So no matter how embarrassed or pathetic you feel about your own situation, know that there are others out there experiencing the same emotions. When you hear yourself say, “I am all alone,” it’s just your worried mind trying to sell you a lie. There’s always someone who can relate to you. Perhaps you can’t immediately talk to them, but they are out there.

If you’re feeling desperate right now, hear me: I often feel and think and struggle much like you do. I care about many of the things you care about, just in my own way. And although some people do not understand us, we understand each other. YOU are not alone!

By: David James Lees / Source: Waking Times

‘The sun will always set whether you watch it or not’…

This is a wonderful spiritual teaching that I received from my wise Taoist Master in China on the ‘Tao’ or ‘Way’ of the Cosmos and its fundamental relationship and interaction with all our lives.

The teaching serves as a reminder that if you choose to disconnect from the flow of love and energy all around you, perhaps because of fear or distrust, the Cosmos will never judge or punish you, nor will it withhold its abundance and blessings from you. It simply keeps on flowing and giving even if you (consciously or subconsciously) choose to reject or close yourself off from all it has to offer.

Sometimes your misguided and harmful Ego mind may try to convince you that this is not the way of the Cosmos. Any negative thinking and self-talk such as ‘I’m not worthy…’, ‘I’m a bad person…’ ‘Life/the Universe is against me…’, ‘I’m a victim…’ , ‘I’m being made to pay/suffer’… etc. will only disengage you even more from the ever-present, positive and nurturing energetic flow of Qi or spiritual energy available to you.

Just as the sun sets without fail, all the while the Cosmos lovingly and peacefully goes about its business. It patiently waits for you to readjust any extreme Ego thoughts you may have so that you can return to a more balanced and neutral Wu Wei mindset. When you do this you reactivate what I refer to as your ‘Spiritual Contract’ with the Cosmos.

This Spiritual Contract is your birthright. From the point at which you energetically manifested into human-form at birth, your contract remains your connection back to your spiritual Source. It’s a reminder of the place of divine energy and love that you came from and the same divine energy and love you are today. This contract can serve as your spiritual compass and steadfast guide through good times and bad, and it’s also your connection to the abundance the Universe has to offer.

An essential part of your Spiritual Contract with the Cosmos is your free-will as an adult to take responsibility for managing and balancing your human-centred thoughts, words and actions. The Cosmos will always support you if you want it to, but you alone must take personal responsibility for navigating your unique life journey so that you may reach your true spiritual potential and fulfillment.

It’s your choice whether or not you align yourself with the Way of the Cosmos and receive or reject the flow of love and abundance. The Taoist Masters call this harmonising and balancing of your spiritual connection: ‘Supreme Success’. They teach that when this is achieved the ‘Cosmic Helpers’ and blessings will flood into your life. The modern interpretation of this teaching on the flow of cosmic energy would be ‘The Law of Attraction’.

If you choose to rebalance and reconnect to the Cosmos, it has no interest in any past misunderstandings or indiscretions and it cannot judge you ‘worthy’ or ‘unworthy’. Such matters only have the value and importance that your human centred Ego mind places on them.

My Taoist Master taught me that the past should be viewed as a ‘walking dead person’ – this profound analogy reflects the spiritual truth that we only ever have this present moment and so we should always seek to live in the here and now.

Remember, you are a beautiful and divine child and spirit of the Cosmos. You will only learn spiritual lessons on your unique human journey by making ‘mistakes’ and then learning the Universal lessons from those misunderstandings.

The Taoist principle of Oneness teaches that this same process of learning and enlightenment applies to everyone. This means no one is exempt from making mistakes, no one is superior or inferior, no one is special – we are all the same, yet all fabulously unique!

Of course your human centred Ego mind loves to view your spiritual journey and Cosmic connection in a totally different way. It mistrusts and doubts the unknown and unseen flow of Universal energy or Qi all around you. Your Ego’s ultimate fear is of being emotionally exposed or hurt so it will always strive and manipulate in order to protect itself from being vulnerable, confronted, found out, or embarrassed.

It craves security and gratification from a narrower physical and material world: one that is more immediate, tangible, predictable and controllable. In doing so your Ego steers you further from your Spiritual Contract and truth as it diverts you onto its misguided journey of seeking perfection, approval, praise and superiority.

So the eternal human challenge (and one which keeps me very busy in my work as a spiritual therapist and coach!) is about finding what the Taoist’s refer to as Wu Wei. This is your unique ‘sweet spot’ of harmony between your human and cosmic energies.

Finding this point of inner and outer balance in your life allows you to survive and thrive in human form within the collective Ego of society today, whilst remaining fully connected with the Cosmos and your spiritual truth, so that ultimately you may create your unique spiritual experience here on earth.

Next time your Ego’s self-talk starts criticising and nagging at you to achieve perfection… or complaining that situations are not moving quickly enough… or even that you’re not ‘enough’… pause, breathe deep, and reconnect to the beautiful sunset of your inner truth. This is the Tao nature of you and all things that can NEVER be destroyed or withheld from you.

When your Ego shouts loudest this is absolutely the time to take-control, calm and rebalance your thinking, reaffirm your connection with your Spiritual Contract, and then open yourself up to receive the helpers and blessings the Cosmos has waiting for you.

The sun sets whether you’re watching or not… but why not pause and reflect on its magnificence with the understanding that you came from the very same place and are on the same magical Cosmic journey of transformation!