Last week I started working for Chai Cancer Care as an acupuncturist over in their South Woodford branch, in East London. I've also recently had a family member diagnosed with cancer. It's not unique in my family and I know many other families that have been touched by Cancer.
The Chinese Medical understanding of Cancer is a form of violent stagnation. In Acupuncture there is understood to be a psychological and/or emotional content to all diseases and sometimes people are uncomfortable with the idea that feelings can lead to disease. How can we 'be blamed' for what we feel? 'Why am I being punished for…'? But the medical understanding of feelings is not so judgemental really. We can all be aware of tension in our bodies. And, unless we're sitting on an Easyjet flight with our knees by our ears, often the cause of the tension is psychological or emotional : we may be outside of our comfort zone, facing down a challenge, or expecting an adverse situation. For some of us our home or work environments mean we experience these tensions everyday.
For young people who are in conflict situations, the dangers are even worse. In terms of chlid development, before a strong ego is formed, it is natural for children to embody the feelings of those around them. If those feelings are negative (perhaps given to their parents and carers in their childhood) the child is confronted by strong and violent emotions that they have never experienced first-hand. because they are not actually his or her feelings, this can lead to feelings of helplessness, and loss of control. Furhtermore if the expression of these emotions are censored (by school, friends, or parents and carers) then the feelings that go with they can be supressed. They can be internalised. They can create physiological and even cellular change.
Recently I read an article by Rabbi Arthur Waskow a rabbi associated with the Jewish Renewal movement. I came across Arthur in my Uni studies and have been fascinated by him ever since. Firstly he looks uncannily like Santa Claus and, as I have never seen him and Santa in the same room, I have my suspicions… Secondly he speaks with quite the passion about the religious responsibility to act on government and our surroundings with conscience. He is untiring in his motivation and facilitation of groups that do so and has been writing, teaching and preaching since the 60s (although only became a Rabbi in '69). Rabbi recently wrote in his own blog that he has been diagnosed with a cancer in his throat. Of course, being Arthur Waskow, he has used this experience for reflection and teaching. What follows are a few excerpts from his post, 'Healing Earth's Cancer, Healing My Cancer':
Dear folks,
Ever since Bill McKibben announced the 3-week wave of civil disobedience at the White House to stop the Tar Sands pipeline from Canada to Texas, I had planned to take part on August 29, in an interfaith aspect that The Shalom Center and I helped initiate. But for medical reasons, I can’t be there. In July, after months of a persistent sore throat, I was diagnosed with a Stage 1 very localized cancer right next to my larynx. So I began a six-week regimen, to end September 30 (making for a slightly weird Rosh Hashanah!) The doctors all assure me that there is a 95% likelihood that these treatments will solve the problem.
But first, a plea: The 3-week wave will end on Saturday, September 3. That day will include both nonviolent civil disobedience (expecting arrests) and a legal vigil/ demonstration with speakers, etc. I have my own qualms about doing this on Shabbat, but after brooding I have come to this: Vigils, prayers, and nonviolence are the nearest cousins to Shabbat — “praying with our legs,” as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said. And we are calling for America to pause from frantic Doing/ Making/ Producing/ Exploiting to make a moment of reflection, of calm, of rest.
The regimen includes radiation aimed at the trouble spot in my throat, six treatments a week (one very early a.m. each workday plus an extra on Friday afternoon) – plus once a week, a chemo treatment with a very cancer-targeting chemical called Erbitux. The radiation takes fifteen minutes. They have fit me for a strong and rigid plastic face mask to hold my head in the right position for the rays to reach the right spot. It has a number of holes to see and breathe through. I lie quiet for 15 minutes, listen to classical music or Sinatra, and that’s it. My daily moment of Shabbat. Not bad. I have also begun doing acupuncture, to keep my immune system vigorous. Since September 3, Saturday, is NOT a day I would be getting treatments anyway, I feel more free to go, if I am not by then exhausted from the continuing treatments.
Shabbat keeps coming into this story in strange ways: One way of thinking about cancer is that it is made up of cells that refuse to pause, to rest, to make Shabbat. Our society’s mania for Doing/ Making/ Speeding/ Never-Pausing is the society-wide equivalent of cancer, of refusing to make Shabbat. That is why I feel called so strongly to join in this call for a decision to refrain from Speeding-Up our poisoning of the Earth and each other.
With blessings of love & shalom, salaam, healing —
The Chinese Medical understanding of Cancer is a form of violent stagnation. In Acupuncture there is understood to be a psychological and/or emotional content to all diseases and sometimes people are uncomfortable with the idea that feelings can lead to disease. How can we 'be blamed' for what we feel? 'Why am I being punished for…'? But the medical understanding of feelings is not so judgemental really. We can all be aware of tension in our bodies. And, unless we're sitting on an Easyjet flight with our knees by our ears, often the cause of the tension is psychological or emotional : we may be outside of our comfort zone, facing down a challenge, or expecting an adverse situation. For some of us our home or work environments mean we experience these tensions everyday.
For young people who are in conflict situations, the dangers are even worse. In terms of chlid development, before a strong ego is formed, it is natural for children to embody the feelings of those around them. If those feelings are negative (perhaps given to their parents and carers in their childhood) the child is confronted by strong and violent emotions that they have never experienced first-hand. because they are not actually his or her feelings, this can lead to feelings of helplessness, and loss of control. Furhtermore if the expression of these emotions are censored (by school, friends, or parents and carers) then the feelings that go with they can be supressed. They can be internalised. They can create physiological and even cellular change.
Recently I read an article by Rabbi Arthur Waskow a rabbi associated with the Jewish Renewal movement. I came across Arthur in my Uni studies and have been fascinated by him ever since. Firstly he looks uncannily like Santa Claus and, as I have never seen him and Santa in the same room, I have my suspicions… Secondly he speaks with quite the passion about the religious responsibility to act on government and our surroundings with conscience. He is untiring in his motivation and facilitation of groups that do so and has been writing, teaching and preaching since the 60s (although only became a Rabbi in '69). Rabbi recently wrote in his own blog that he has been diagnosed with a cancer in his throat. Of course, being Arthur Waskow, he has used this experience for reflection and teaching. What follows are a few excerpts from his post, 'Healing Earth's Cancer, Healing My Cancer':
Dear folks,
Ever since Bill McKibben announced the 3-week wave of civil disobedience at the White House to stop the Tar Sands pipeline from Canada to Texas, I had planned to take part on August 29, in an interfaith aspect that The Shalom Center and I helped initiate. But for medical reasons, I can’t be there. In July, after months of a persistent sore throat, I was diagnosed with a Stage 1 very localized cancer right next to my larynx. So I began a six-week regimen, to end September 30 (making for a slightly weird Rosh Hashanah!) The doctors all assure me that there is a 95% likelihood that these treatments will solve the problem.
But first, a plea: The 3-week wave will end on Saturday, September 3. That day will include both nonviolent civil disobedience (expecting arrests) and a legal vigil/ demonstration with speakers, etc. I have my own qualms about doing this on Shabbat, but after brooding I have come to this: Vigils, prayers, and nonviolence are the nearest cousins to Shabbat — “praying with our legs,” as Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel said. And we are calling for America to pause from frantic Doing/ Making/ Producing/ Exploiting to make a moment of reflection, of calm, of rest.
The regimen includes radiation aimed at the trouble spot in my throat, six treatments a week (one very early a.m. each workday plus an extra on Friday afternoon) – plus once a week, a chemo treatment with a very cancer-targeting chemical called Erbitux. The radiation takes fifteen minutes. They have fit me for a strong and rigid plastic face mask to hold my head in the right position for the rays to reach the right spot. It has a number of holes to see and breathe through. I lie quiet for 15 minutes, listen to classical music or Sinatra, and that’s it. My daily moment of Shabbat. Not bad. I have also begun doing acupuncture, to keep my immune system vigorous. Since September 3, Saturday, is NOT a day I would be getting treatments anyway, I feel more free to go, if I am not by then exhausted from the continuing treatments.
Shabbat keeps coming into this story in strange ways: One way of thinking about cancer is that it is made up of cells that refuse to pause, to rest, to make Shabbat. Our society’s mania for Doing/ Making/ Speeding/ Never-Pausing is the society-wide equivalent of cancer, of refusing to make Shabbat. That is why I feel called so strongly to join in this call for a decision to refrain from Speeding-Up our poisoning of the Earth and each other.
With blessings of love & shalom, salaam, healing —
Arthur
[Shabbat, for those of you unfamiliar with the concept, is the Jewish Sabbath. The Old Testament suggests that it is the day that God rested from Creation and saw how good it all was.]
In this modern world where more than 382 and a half FB friends is rumoured to drive you mad with jealousy, and even super models wear lash extensions for mascara adverts, it is perhaps natural to feel we're operating a little under par. Haven't made your first million by the time you're 19? Rihanna is actually crying in her soup for you.
However, it's a simple fact that we all totally rock. Resting can allow us to realise that whatever we have done, whatever changes we have made, whatever growth we have embarked upon (even if it is none at all or in a backwards direction), RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW, IT IS VERY GOOD. Often I see clients whose main method of recuperation should not be diet, nor exercise, nor qi gung, nor meditation, but simply stopping! In Chinese cosmology Yin (rest) and Yang (activity) are the (pro)creative female and male impulses. One leads naturally and without effort into the next. So the next time you are struggling to fit it all in - to get the essay, and the job, and the kids, and the partner all taken care of, feel free to simply rest. To paraphrase Yoda "Do or not do, there is no try".
Shabbat Shalom (Sabbath peace) to everyone.
P.S. This post is thanks to my muses, bloggers extraordinaire: Danya Zohar Simons and Vered Simons!
P.P.S. Chai is a registered charity. It does not charge its clients for any of its services. If you would like to donate or support Chai in any other way please visit their website
Shabbat Shalom (Sabbath peace) to everyone.
P.S. This post is thanks to my muses, bloggers extraordinaire: Danya Zohar Simons and Vered Simons!
P.P.S. Chai is a registered charity. It does not charge its clients for any of its services. If you would like to donate or support Chai in any other way please visit their website
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