By Steven Johns MA – The Writers’ Coach
Paula and I were about 8 months into the writing of this book when the final title popped out on one of our coaching sessions. The original title we’d come up with was Cancer Evasion and I’d had an idea for the front cover: I wanted to put Tax Evasion with the word Tax crossed out and substituted by CANCER in a bold red handwritten font. We were discussing – no, wrong word – dissecting beliefs, together with our thoughts and perspectives on them, when we both came to a simultaneous conclusion that the cause of many beliefs and predicaments in a person’s life can be stripped down to a single start point.
In the case of cancer, if it were possible to go back to the very moment the first mutated cell divided and replicated its tumescent self, you would find the cause or causes of that individual’s disease right there all around them. The environment they were in, the stresses they had to deal with, the trauma that was hurting them, the family genes they possessed, the abuse they were suffering from, all played their part at a certain moment in their life. By the time there are any symptoms it’s usually considered to be developed so far that drastic toxic treatment or radical surgery seem to be the only options available. Also, by then much time has passed, often years, and the real cause is disguised, hidden and buried by a great many layers of life that have grown around it, like a callous around a splinter.
We ploughed on after our Eureka moment and soon, within a few minutes, we had developed this most elegant metaphor – Onion Therapy. Peel an onion, keep removing the layers, layer after layer and what do you have? Right there in the middle of an onion? Nothing!
In the case of a belief (which, by the way, is usually limiting the holder from moving on in their life) there’s a single event, influence or experience which is nearly always hidden from the conscious mind and in itself is apparently unrelated to the later problem. Paula and I know this from our training in behavioural neuro therapies. (EFT in Paula’s case and NLP in mine – see the resources section at the end of the book for more details.) Phobias, fears and aversions all stem from our past and often begin when we are children. The cures that release us from these burdens engage therapies which strip away the layers of false evidence and the misguided sub-conscious protection that is holding us back. Once the start point is exposed for what it is, the whole (holistic) mind understands and progress is usually very swift thereafter; in the case of phobias it’s most often instantaneous.
We then made the connection with cancer and the work and observation that Paula has done with the self-help group (see below). We discussed the tantalising possibility that in many cases it could be belief that is driving and accelerating the progress of many diseases. How many times have we heard of the friend who has been diagnosed with a cancer which the consultant oncologist has labelled as TERMINAL? Our friend, and everyone around them, believes that to be and thus their death sentence begins. But what happens when you turn that belief on its head?
We have all heard of a miracle happening, and Paula has seen cancer sufferers who have recovered after all other conventional hope is lost. In all these cases, a positive belief in being able to overcome the illness and to live on was powerfully present.
Once we had got this far, we started to look at many aspects of life and how a positive change can be effected by going back to a core point and then moving on from there. We looked at diets, fitness, health and well-being, careers, relationships, nutrition and all manner of worthy subjects many of us struggle to get right, maintain and to fully understand…
Paula Reed BSc (Hons) MBPsS is a holistic and complimentary therapist who runs her own practice from her home in Barrow Upon Soar, Leicestershire. For ten years now she has helped to run The Loughborough Cancer Self-help Group, and has discovered how alternative treatments and therapies can offer help and hope often after conventional medicine has failed. She also knows that the very best way to evade cancer is through living a healthy and positively mindful life. She knows too, that is also the very best way to live life even without the threat of cancer.
I have read many books and studied a good deal about what makes people become better at whatever sport, profession, discipline, technique and so on that took my fancy at a time in my life when I had the time. They have often been written by some worthy author of note who grew up in a land of plenty with the benefit of a loving family and paid-for education and training that didn’t involve having to work for a living too early in the third decade of their time on this planet. This is not so for Paula Reed. I’d say that all she has learned has been learned on a very hard road and you need to read her story first to see how she has come to know what she wants you all to know.
So, in the true spirit of Onion Therapy, we’ll get back to the very core, the essence and the start point of what may well be the most valuable and life-enhancing book you have ever read.