At the relatively young age of 41 I was diagnosed with advanced cancer. The profound healing I discovered was not about surviving physical illness. It was about discovering a spiritual reality separate from and much greater than the body. It was a bigger picture perspective of healing - not just the cessation of symptoms, but the deep spiritual healing that can come whether we leave this body or remain with a more expanded awareness.

Early in my journey I began writing a book, Dying Well to help navigate the journey ahead. It included 12 steps to dying well. After fully recovering, the book was published as Profound Healing. I had found that the steps to dying well were the same steps for living well.

While I see more clearly the underlying beauty and grandeur in all aspects of life, I also see the greed and violence and immaturity that threaten to overtake the collective health and longevity of our species and our planet. For whatever duration we are here, we can choose to express kindness and compassion for ourselves, others, and for all life; as we focus on the beauty all around and within us, we come to a place of deep inner healing and peace.

My book, Profound Healing, The Power of Acceptance on the Path to Wellness, is an account of my journey as I confronted a diagnosis of advanced cancer more than 30 years ago. Turning down proposed radical surgeries, I focused my attention on attempting to come to a place of peace before dying. In the process I experienced complete healing and a return to radiant health.

Subsequent reflections on physical, emotional and spiritual healing are summarized into twelve self-help practices so that others may use these insights as a source of hope, inspiration, and practical advice. The story is offered as a resource for therapists and individuals interested in personal growth and healing. I am grateful to Joseph Chilton Pearce, who wrote the foreword, and to Wayne Dyer, Caroline Myss, and Gerald Jampolsky, who endorsed it.

I have been a Wellness Counselor since 1993 and an instructor at the Hypnotherapy Training Institute in Corte Madera, near San Francisco, for 15 years. It was an unexpected honor to have Profound Healing  win an award for excellence in professional literature at an American Council of Hypnotherapist Examiners conference in 2011.

As a founding member of the non-profit organization, Friends of Peace Pilgrim, I am the compiler of Peace Pilgrim’s Wisdom, a collection of 365 of Peace’s thoughts on the attainment of inner and outer peace, and co compiler of Peace Pilgrim, Her Life and Work. I met Peace in 1976, when my prayer was to meet an individual who was  actually living the spiritual principles I believed in but didn’t seem possible to achieve. Peace became my beloved mentor and friend. 

What I learned is that we cannot know with our five senses that we are more than our physical body or that there is more than the physical universe. But we can know when we awaken to the divine nature within. That is the beginning of a journey that opens us up and aligns us with an amazing inner guidance and wisdom that is always there.

When we are born into this life we retain awareness of our spiritual essence. Then the veil of forgetfulness sets in as we align with the physical world. We take in all kinds of beliefs from our environment and the authority figures around us that influence how we think and what we feel. Around the age of seven these early trainings and beliefs become automatic programs.

Becoming consciously aware of our patterns is the first step to changing those that are not in alignment with our authentic self and spirit. Then, like turning the channel or radio station, we can direct our attention to an inner knowing and potential that allows us to find and align with our purpose. We are all here on purpose, for a purpose.

Choosing and living good beliefs is the ultimate in conscious thinking. Good beliefs are beliefs that empower us, inspire us, and motivate us to learn, grow and express our authentic selves in the world. They are always in alignment with the higher principles of compassion, truth and peace. Whenever we uncover a belief that does not empower us we have an opportunity to replace it with a belief that better serves our ongoing growth and maturity.

With our rational minds we can reason and decide to change certain patterns and behavior, but without changing subconscious misconceptions and disempowering beliefs, deeply ingrained habit patterns can sabotage our efforts.

As we learn to access our connection to that higher knowing within, we can uncover and uproot disempowering beliefs and gain confidence and direction from our own higher nature within, a source of intuition, inner guidance and wisdom, for the attainment of positive change and transformation.