I want to be upfront about something before I write this post. I am not a spiritual person by nature. I am a science-backed, show-me-the-evidence kind of person. So when my reflexologist Gayle first suggested I look into meditation and healing, a part of me raised an eyebrow.
But I've learned over this past year that raising an eyebrow at something costs you nothing, and dismissing it out of hand might cost you more than you think. So I looked it up.
How Joe Dispenza came into my life
Gayle pointed me towards Joe Dispenza — a doctor and researcher who has spent years studying the relationship between the mind, the body and healing. I watched a couple of his YouTube videos just after my three month scan in January, not really expecting much.
What he was saying made sense to me. Not in a woo-woo, mystical way — in a logical way. The idea that the brain and body are connected in ways that conventional medicine doesn't always fully account for. That the mind has a measurable, demonstrable effect on physical health. That people have, in documented cases, experienced remarkable recoveries that science hasn't been able to fully explain.
I take all of it with a pinch of salt. People saying they've healed themselves through meditation alone — I'm not going to stake my life on that claim. But if it's not going to harm me, why wouldn't I try it?
What I actually do
I looked into what most of the people reporting positive experiences were meditating to, and it kept coming back to the same thing — the blessing of the healing centres. In simple terms, this means focusing conscious attention and intention on the body's energy centres, which in various traditions are called chakras. It sounds more esoteric than it feels in practice.
What it means for me day to day is this — usually when I wake up early in the morning, before the house is moving, I sit quietly and centre my thoughts on the areas of my body that are affected. The tumour that sits in the space where my kidney used to be. My bowel. The back muscle that has been involved. I focus on them. I think about them being healed. I tell myself — quietly, deliberately, repeatedly — that my body has the power to heal itself.
I meditated every single day for three months after starting. Daily, without missing a session.
Why I actually believe this might matter
Here's where I want to be careful, because I don't want this to sound like I've abandoned rational thinking. I haven't. But I do genuinely believe something that I think the science increasingly backs up — that the body is more than capable of producing the chemicals it needs to fight cancer. It does it all the time. Microscopic cancers arise and are dealt with constantly. The question is why, in some cases, the body stops doing that effectively.
I think the mind plays a role in that. I think chronic stress, anxiety and negative states measurably affect immune function — there's solid research behind that. And I think the reverse is also possible — that deliberately, consistently directing calm and positive intention towards the body might help it function better. Might help it do what it's already designed to do.
I'm not saying meditation cures cancer. I'm saying that if your mind can make your body worse through stress — and it can, that's established science — then it seems reasonable that your mind might also be able to help your body heal. The mechanism runs both ways.
Training my brain
The way I think about it is this — I am trying to train my brain and my body to look for the cancer. To focus on the affected areas not with fear or anxiety, but with intention and healing energy. To make what it needs to fight back.
Whether that's doing anything measurable, I genuinely don't know. Only time will tell. But three months of daily meditation has done something — it has given me a greater sense of calm, a feeling of agency in a situation where it's very easy to feel like everything is being done to you rather than by you. That alone is worth something.
And I have a scan update coming. I'll be writing about that very soon. Make of that what you will.
Meditation is not a replacement for conventional medical treatment and I am not suggesting it is. This is my personal experience only. If you are living with cancer please continue to follow the advice and treatment plan of your own medical team.
— Nick