For the past few months, I’ve been accompanying my dear friend, Judy, who is having, as she calls it, chi-mother-therapy, better know to others as chemotherapy. Wow, has this ever been a learning experience for me. I don’t mean learning about cancer and medicine. I mean learning about health and life. While we sit together waiting for the medicine to work its magic, Judy helps me heal by giving me a deeper understanding of the connection between mind, body and the energy that is within and all around us.
You have to understand, Judy was not recently diagnosed with cancer. She first met her multiple myeloma about 13 years ago. She was in a brace then, because her vertebrae were so badly damaged. She could not even sit or hold a glass of water. Yes, she was so very close to death. She had other ideas though. Through a positive and proactive mindset she faced the challenges and stages of cancer.
I didn’t know Judy then. I met her about 6 months ago at Biodanza where she was dancing with so much energy. She is an amazing story of how thought work, creative self-expression through writing and art, and healing energy work, along with conventional treatments can make the difference between life and death.
Judy Erel wrote about her experience with cancer and the way she is healing herself in an inspiring book Dancing with Cancer https://www.amazon.com/Dancing-Cancer-Transformational-Meditation-Challenge/dp/1786781190
I highly recommend this book to everyone, because it not only offers guidance and inspiration to people with cancer, and those supporting them; it also gives valuable guidance and practical activities in mind–body empowerment that will help everyone facing a challenge, including stuttering.
For instance the term “fighting cancer” reminds me of how people who stutter fight to be fluent. Fighting doesn’t help, it only makes the opponent more determined. Judy doesn’t fight her cancer, she plays with it and with her mind diminishes its effect on her body. In the case of stuttering, fighting against stuttering makes you stutter more. Becoming mindful of what’s going on inside you in thoughts and behaviors as you speak can lead to making proactive changes.
Subconsciously, a lot of energy goes into creating stuttered speech. Working through your thoughts and fears doing the exercises that Judy writes about in her book can be so helpful in transforming misplaced or negative energy into empowering energy that will help you to speak freely.