by Jeannine Walston
In 1998, at 24 years old, I was working in the U.S. Congress with intentions for law school when a shock changed my direction. The diagnosis of a brain tumor turned my world upside down. My new journey began.
Falling on my knees asking for guidance, I began a profound conversation with God. After awake brain surgery, I learned the cancer could return and I no longer felt invincible.
While recovering, I used integrative cancer care for my body, mind, spirit, social, and environmental health. I also felt tremendous fear and spoke with God about mortality. God listened with presence. I still often felt alone. Changes can take time.
2004 brought more shocking news. A major cancer hospital where I had frequent MRI scans for many years told me I had a brain tumor recurrence, and it had been visible on my scans since 2000. In the confusion, I didn’t know what to do or who to trust. I studied more about spirituality and what happens after death, examining my own belief system. My soul’s existence and process for evolution further emerged.
My healing involved highs and lows. Over five years, I had hundreds of integrative therapies, including at three clinics in Europe. Sometimes I felt improvements in my quality of life and sometimes only pain. In 2011, I became extremely sick and absolutely needed a second awake brain surgery. Since then, my healing continues with more insights about spirit. Over time, I’ve felt spirit everywhere, though not every moment. My relationship with God has strengthened.
My massive distress evoked me to see through my eyes and feel through my heart that life is a spiritual journey. I‘ve learned on all levels that life experiences are opportunities for the soul’s evolution, and disease opens gateways to go deeper into the soul.
Over the fifteen years in my cancer journey, my relationship with my soul and spirit has intensified, bringing me more into the light, which is home internally and externally. As I root in my core, I further know the most significant truth: We are eternal. The being continues when the physical body dies. My commitment to continue as a cancer survivor remains the priority in my life. And I know that when it’s time for me to go, I’ll continue. My soul remains in eternity.
I’ve come to know that soul and spirit support the innate healing capacity, especially with the combination of passion and purpose. As I work with integrative cancer care for the whole person, and assist other cancer patients, my own wellness is supported in the process.
Bio: Jeannine Walston provides integrative cancer care information through her educational website. Her services include work as a cancer coach, writing, consulting, and public speaking. Jeannine has experience in cancer education and advocacy, health care policy, and conventional into integrative cancer through work for the NCI, FDA, NIH’s NCCAM Clearinghouse, the U.S. Congress, cancer non-profits, and health care practices. www.jeanninewalston.com
