Cancer: Using Energy Medicine to Help with Treatment Side Effects

Answer:
I've been gratified to learn that one of my students, Patricia Butler, has introduced Eden Energy Medicine into the Mind/Body/Medicine Program of a prominent cancer hospital in Central Florida. She has used it as a complement to conventional care and has found it to be very effective in easing the anxiety, nausea, and fatigue that often occur with chemotherapy. When she's been able to provide energy medicine for patients during their chemo infusions, many have reported fewer reactions to the medicine. Here's more of what Pat has shared:

When I use energy medicine with cancer patients, I end up working with nearly every dimension of the energy anatomy that I learned about from Donna. It's so gratifying to do this work and to be able to teach patients and families how to use these tools when they're at home.

Among the many techniques I use over a period of time with cancer patients, the ones I listed below will provide you with some great tools regardless of the type of cancer you have or the chemo you're receiving. You can do each technique yourself, but it's such a benefit if someone is available to do them for you. During your chemo regimen, it's more important than ever to reset your energies on a daily basis, but I've learned that it's also very helpful to use EEM techniques while you are actually being infused, so I encourage you to try these techniques and find out which ones help the most. You can be sure that it will generate interesting conversations and it will also introduce energy medicine to other patients and to hospital staff.

• While you are receiving chemo, unscramble your energy field with the Daily Energy Routine because, as you have likely discovered, chemo throws your energies into a tizzy. If your vitality is low because of the treatments, do the routine in segments without even getting out of recliner. For example, do the 4 thumps and then rest a few minutes; then work in a little modified cross crawl even if it's in 10 second increments, and rest. Simply move your opposite arms and legs simultaneously (or even opposite hands and feet) to help cross your energies from side to side and to light up both sides of your brain. Move through the routine at a pace that you can handle. [See note regarding the neurolymphatic system below.]

• Calm your Triple Warmer (TW) meridian by holding your sedating acupuncture points or by holding your TW neurovascular points. In fact, do both. True to its nature, TW gets pretty worked up when it senses chemo, and this is your way of telling it to stand down and let the chemo come on in to do its job. I have found that this is good to do even if you feel weak and tired. As long as you have a strong life force, you can benefit from calming TW. If someone's life energy is very, very weak, I would not do this.

• Strengthen your Spleen (SP) meridian not only to help your body metabolize the benefits of this energy work, but to help metabolize the chemo, too. The message you're sending to your system with this intervention is, "Can we all please get along and work together?"

• If possible, have someone clear your biofield from head to toe during the infusion; then clear it once or twice a day throughout your entire chemo regimen. If no one is around to do this for you, clear it yourself as Donna has taught. The biofields of people receiving chemo feel very dense, very murky, and downright uncomfortable to my hands, but once the fields are clear, patients typically report feeling 'lighter' and 'better'. I just use my hands to gently comb through their fields starting close to the body and then working further away from the body until the chemo resonance has evaporated. If you can't do this, or have it done during chemo, do it later in the day or as soon as you can get to it. Remember to shake the energies off your hands as you do this. I clear mine often because, depending on the toxicity of the chemo and the amount that's built up in your body, it can take anywhere from a 5 to 15 minutes to clean out the field.

• Ideally, you'd clear all of your seven basic chakras, but if limited by time or fatigue, I'd make sure to especially clear the solar plexus because it includes your body's filters (liver, spleen, and kidneys) which are all working hard to process the chemo. I'm a big fan of keeping the heart chakra cleared, too, because its energies influence so many others systems in and around the body. As Donna says, "It's the conductor of the orchestra!" 
• Hold your neurovascular points (NVs) or have someone hold them for you when you feel scared, angry, or discouraged. If they are held while you think about what's upsetting, you'll feel the emotions soften. You have every right to these feelings given what you're going through, and you need to be heard by those who care, but if they are not relieved from time to time, they have the potential to weaken your immune system. To the best of your ability, feel the emotion, express it, and use NVs to let it go. Repeat as needed.

• If you feel nauseous, hold both of the ST 1 points below your eyes with the thumb and middle finger of your right hand, and place your left hand lightly on your stomach. Hold this position for as long as it takes to ease the nausea -- which could be several minutes. Switch hands and repeat, if necessary. Another way to ease nausea is to clear your throat and/or solar plexus charkas to release the energy that seems to build up in response to the chemo. Remember, it scrambles your energies, but you can coax them to flow in more optimal ways again by using these EEM techniques. [Medication helps to prevent nausea for many, but some find the need for additional help, and these tips should help.]

• Regarding neurolymphatics: In general, oncology is more accepting of massage than it used to be, but there are certain medical conditions for which it is not appropriate, so it's best to check with your doctor about this subject. Donna teaches that massage is a great way to work with neurolymphatic reflex (NLR) spots, but has also taught that you can move these energies with light. If massage is not advised, you can shine a little light over these NLR spots for a minute or two, moving it in circular or figure 8 patterns. If you know about chromotherapy (light therapy), you can use specific colors of light to do this. It's a large field of study but, in general, green is known to be cleansing, blue is soothing, and red is activating. Energy testing is always best, but you can use your intuition, too

• Finally, once you have completed your chemo regimen, stick with Eden energy medicine and other good lifestyle choices to help yourself rebuild and feel great once again.

Along with Donna and David, I wish you the deepest and gentlest healing. Pat

Patricia Butler, LMHC, EEM-AP, DCEP

[email protected]

(407) 237-6352