Written by: Raeesa Mahomed, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
The only way to heal yourself from a dreaded disease like cancer is through surgery, radiation or chemotherapy, right? Wrong.
There are other alternatives. I found this out the hard way. October is Breast Cancer Awareness month all over the world and a good opportunity to tell my story. I want to share it again because it has helped many people who are experiencing or have experienced the same challenge.
Eight years ago I had a busy life, juggling a successful broadcasting career, being a wife and mother to two growing children. I thought I was doing pretty well and had everything under control after having gone through many challenges. I also paid attention to my health – eating correctly and exercising. And then I found a lump in my breast. I didn’t think much of it and dismissed it as benign, as previous lumps had been, but after a few days when it was still there I decided I had to check it out. I still wasn’t concerned but had (thankfully) heard enough information over the years to know that one does not ignore a lump. I contacted my GP and she told me to go in as soon as possible. When she examined me and said I will need further tests, I protested as it was an inconvenience in my busy life. She crossly told me that I will do as she says and I did. It was only during the ultra sound, when the radiologist said ‘this is worrying’, that the first needles of fear began to prick. After that it was a biopsy and a tense time of waiting for results.
To cut an already long story short, the results were positive for cancer. I crumbled. It was like the bottom of my life fell through. Thankfully it was early stages and very treatable with no radical surgery needed, but that didn’t make it much easier. I was scheduled for a lumpectomy the same week and a course of radiotherapy a few weeks later. I actually coped well with the physical aspects of fighting with the diseases and the support of family and friends played a huge part.
But the emotional aspect was much harder. The first terror was ‘What will happen to my children if I die’. That was the hardest thing to deal with. Then all the fears associated with illness and mortality. Thankfully my faith in God is strong and that helped immensely. I kept questioning why I had got this disease. Granted my mother had breast cancer and that made me high risk but I also knew the genetic cause is relatively small and I had always led a healthy lifestyle. I was consumed with thoughts that cancer had a habit of returning and what could I do to prevent it given that I thought I was living a healthy lifestyle when I got ill. I was in turmoil.
Then a friend gave me the book ‘You can Heal Your Life’ by Louise Hay. I started reading it the same day and couldn’t stop. I was transfixed. What I was reading was not only mind blowing and revolutionary to me, but it was changing my whole way of thinking. Here was the answer to all my questions.
The core message of Louise’s book is that we cause all disease ourselves, through negative thoughts and emotions. Louise explained how this works and the mind body connection. She explained what had happened in her own life and how she had to face a lot of unresolved negative emotions related to sexual abuse in her childhood and how she had to heal from this first in order to heal herself from vaginal cancer. This book led me to do more research on the mind body connection and I was further inspired by Deepak Chopra’s theory of quantum healing. Chopra proved that we have neurons throughout our body. This means that your brain can communicate with any part of your body instantly and it also proves scientifically the mind-body connection. So your thoughts and emotions (subconscious mind) have a direct effect on every single cell in your body. So if your thoughts and emotions are all negative and dark, all low vibrating doom and gloom messengers, can you imagine the effect on your body? No wonder they cause disease.
I realised then that I also had a lot of emotional baggage that I hadn’t dealt with and I embarked on a journey of healing. It was long and difficult and I explored many wonderful paths to self help, growth and transformation. My journey led me to the field of life coaching and this was the ultimate pinnacle of my journey. It opened a whole new pathway of wondrous knowledge. I got certified as a life coach and then a Master life coach and decided to practice and share these wonderful gifts that I had received. What a journey! I realised that our biggest challenge can actually be our biggest blessing and I was immensely thankful for my learnings and healing.
I’d like to clarify that I am not advocating foregoing medical treatment when faced with a life threatening disease. It is just that most people see this as the only form of healing. Once the treatment is over, the same old negative thought and belief patterns continue unresolved and then lead to more disease. What I learnt is the immense power we have to heal ourselves through taking control of our thought processes and outlook on life. This then affects our emotions which affects our body.
I have passed on my learnings to countless clients in the last few years practising as a transformational life coach and it has been incredibly rewarding seeing people heal and do so long term. I have been disease free for eight years with the grace of the Almighty and I cherish every day of health I have. No one knows what is going to happen in the future. But the important thing is to take responsibility for one’s health on an ongoing basis A lot of it is in our control – far more than we think.
Want to learn more from Raeesa? Follow her Facebook, Instagram, Linkedin, and visit her website. You can also email her at info@raeesamahomed.co.za.
Raeesa Mahomed, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Raeesa Mahomed is a transformational life coach, and her tagline 'Be the best you' aptly describes the results she gets with her clients. Raeesa has helped hundreds of clients remove negative programming from the subconscious mind and take them to a place of positivity and empowerment and, in so doing create the life they want. She comes from a decades-long award-winning international career in radio, TV, and film, and her path to deep self-reflection and life coaching began when she faced a life-threatening illness a few years ago. She now also helps others heal from disease by addressing their emotional health and spirituality. She is also a writer and motivational speaker.
