WHO DO YOU WISH TO BECOME?

My journey through cancer in 2012 led me to meditation, and Joe Dispensa’s book, Breaking the Habit of Being Yourself: How to Lose Your Mind and Create a New One.

Recently I read James Clear’s Atomic Habits. It’s not surprising to me that many of his ideas revolve around how to break and develop good habits, an idea that syncs with Dispensa’s guided meditation techniques.

When I was diagnosed with cancer 84% of my bone marrow was cancerous. Five chemotherapies failed to get my cancer to less than the 10% level, required to qualify for a bone marrow transplant (my last chemo had only brought it down to 42%). My infusion doctor at Physicians Clinic of Iowa, Dr. Hosne Begum, told me, “There comes a point where you need to choose to let things go. Make the most of the time you have left and spend as much as possible with those you love and care about.”

Dr. Begum's negative assessment helped me realize the one step in my meditation process I’d failed to adequately follow. This step is to imagine your outcome.

In Atomic Habits, James Clear shares, “Many people begin the process of changing their habits by focusing on what they want to achieve. This leads us to outcome-based habits. The alternative is to build identity-based habits. With this approach, we start by focusing on who we wish to become.”

Dispensa’s meditation formula is similar. You are to imagine you’re the person you wish to become. It’s the last step in the process, and I had failed to do this to any extent, where I would actually feel it.

After Dr. Begum shared her belief, that my situation was hopeless, I was angry. Before getting my infusions that day, I thought about what I might be doing wrong. What did I need to do or get better at? I’m not sure if the realization occurred before, after, or during my meditation, but it seemed clear to me I was not identifying with the outcome I wanted. I was not the person I wanted to become.

Once I focused on this during the meditation, my miracle occurred. When I got back to the hospital for the clinical trial, challenges arose including pneumonia and a 12-hour stint in ER. I’d begun imagining my outcome so thoroughly when I came out of my meditations several times the first week back, I was crying.

These were not tears of sorrow, but tears of joy. It was surreal. I was in Hawaii preparing a speech about my miraculous recovery. My wife and my three sons were there, and I imagined my happiness, the beaches, and the audience. It felt overwhelming.

Who do YOU wish to become? Change your identity first, and your outcome will arrive.

My new book Cancer Cured intends to help people with all types of challenges, specifically cancer-related medical conditions. It will be published soon, detailing my journey and miraculous recovery from Acute Myeloid Leukemia despite having less than a 2% chance of survival. My hope is to give you and those you love a belief system of faith that you, too, can survive and thrive, despite a cancer diagnosis.

Next Cancer Cured Blog: Why Don’t We Believe in Miracles Anymore?