It courses through your body like a lightning bolt strike, activating a “Fight/Flight/Immobilization” response in your nervous system.

It is strongest when it occurs in the Dark.

The Darkness can be at night, when the lights are out; in the middle of the night when you cannot sleep; or in your mind and body when you do not speak about it and it morphs into anxiety or panic attacks, anger directed towards your loved ones, avoidance of normal tasks, or dread of cancer treatments, surveillance tests, test results.

On the deepest Inner level, cancer brings the fear of death.

The goal of Holistic Cancer Recovery Hub is to help you to see Fear in the
Light of your Awareness.

I want to explain how Fear is interconnected with your body and your brain.

Frightening emotions set off the body’s Sympathetic Nervous System – which generates a Fight, Flight, Immobilization physiological reaction:

Stress cortisol and adrenaline automatically flood into your blood stream, to give you the ability to fight or flee from perceived danger. Your heart beats faster, the pupils dilate, blood is pumped to your extremities to give you super human strength, your breathing becomes shallow.

In turn, the brain’s Limbic system – located in your midbrain – becomes hyper-aroused and concerned with basic survival. It joins the Fight/Flight/Immobilization response. It flashes an internal message of “DANGER, DANGER, DANGER.”

The Cerebral Cortex – located in the prefrontal lobe of the brain – is the “master computer,” concerned with Executive Functioning. It evaluates all the information sent from all parts of the body, and is tasked with determining the best, logical course of action. It has the ability to “turn the switch off” of the Fight/Flight/Immobilization response and “turn on the Parasympathic Nervous System” – which calms the body, establishes deeper relaxed breathing, releases Dopamine and Endorphines and returns the body to a resting heart rate.

At times of great danger, relentless stress, or extended illness and treatments, however, the Cerebral Cortex can easily become overwhelmed or short circuited.

With this knowledge, it is easy to see that a constant state of FEAR is not good for cancer patients. In a hyper-aroused state of FEAR, your body can never rest, your immune system becomes depleted, your body produces inflammation, which in turn allows cancer to continue to proliferate. It is important to learn how to tolerate or “turn off the switch” to FEAR.

Blind-Sided By FEAR

For most of my adult life I have been a decisive, “take charge,” fearless individual:

I was divorced at 26, raised 2 young children while putting myself through graduate school, followed God’s leading to move to California without so much as a job or a home – confident that everything would work out.

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