Bowel Cancer and a Positive Attitude

We've all heard about the power of positive thinking. Having a positive attitude and so on.

Some of us will have found that these clichés are indeed true. Positive thinking can change your life dramatically. For many people their positive attitude has carried them through many adversities. For some, its made them rich believing in themselves and what they can achieve by being positive and pushing on regardless of what's put in their path. There are many paths in our lives where a positive attitude has triumphed over what might seem insurmountable obstacles.

In case you were wondering what this has to do with bowel cancer and indeed any cancer, it's this same positive attitude of the patient that's important in the recovery process and in fighting the disease itself. The mind plays a significant part in the healing process of cancer and time and again its been shown that patients with a positive attitude fare better than those that give up or are overly pessimistic.

The power of the mind can be demonstrated by such occurrences as the pointing of the bone by Aboriginals at a member of the tribe, who has done something wrong, and is to be punished. There have been authenticated cases (1953) where this has occurred and the victim has simply died over a short period of time with no medical explanation. (Sources: John Godwin, Unsolved: The World of the Unknown, pp. 163-76; Ronald Rose, Living Magic, pp. 30-36):
Even though this is a somewhat morbid demonstration of the power of the mind it does show how powerful it is. Powerful enough for a person to believe he is cursed to die, and does so.

Could it now be argued that you could use the power of the mind to not die and to survive your cancer despite the odds? My research has shown that you can't afford to take this literally. I don't think it can be said, that if you have a positive attitude you won't die from cancer. That depends on a number of other factors but what I do think you can say is, having a positive attitude helps enormously in surviving.

The cancer patients I interviewed for my book, who are long term survivors, have all taken a positive attitude toward their treatment and outcome. None of them were ready to lie down and die just because they had cancer. They had the courage and the fortitude to take on this disease and beat it.

I don't think many of us can say how we would feel if diagnosed with bowel cancer. It would certainly take the wind out of your sails primarily, but having talked to these people who have survived I think, after my initial shock, I would be doing the same as they did. I would be positive about the outcome and would let nothing stand in my way in beating this terrible disease to live a long and happy life.

Roger Cuff is a freelance writer living near Sydney, Australia. He has currently just finished his book about long term survivors of bowel cancer and the strategies they used to survive. http://www.survivingbowelcancer.com