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Written by Brenda on Thursday, February 9th, 2012 at 4:39 pm
 And the key question to ask if you find yourself obsessing! First published on Sprout Savvy.
As a blog subscriber you already know the first secret ingredient is to Ditch the Spanx.
Dr. Andrew Weil and I were interviewed for an article in Oprah magazine and we were each asked what best “one thing” someone could do for their health. We both answered, “Breathe correctly.” Our cultural heritage of whalebone corsets, girdles and now Spanx—not the mention the military posture—has created a nation of chest breathers. This pattern of breathing catapults us into “fight or flight” whether or not we are facing any particular problems or adversity. We can be perfectly content and happy but if we are breathing this way...
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Tags: alternative medicine, cognitive behavioral mindfulness, diaphragmatic breathing, healthy living, psychoacoustics, reframing, Sprout Savvy, Wellness
Posted in Beating Chronic Illness, Happiness, Prevention, stress management, Turning Stress Into Strength, Wellness | No Comments »
Written by Brenda on Monday, December 12th, 2011 at 3:23 pm
Editor’s Note from Barbara Lazarony: Be inspired and informed by Brenda Stockdale, Director of Mind/Body Medicine for RC Cancer Centers, as she shares more about the healing power of words. Reposted here from All Things Healing
A first-rate storyteller, Nicholas Hall, PhD, put himself through school wrestling alligators and milking rattlesnakes. While he doesn’t need a cheap trick to hold anybody’s attention he introduces his lectures by reading a steamy passage from Lady Chatterley’s Lover. He says it absolutely illustrates that the mind is connected to the body!
Such is the power of words. Blood rushes to your face at something said in passing. Your mouth salivates at the thought of biting into...
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Tags: ACE Study, Adverse Childhood Experience Study, autoimmunity, Beating Chronic Illness, breast cancer, Happiness, holistic health, Integrative Oncology, mind-body connection, optimum immunity, Prevention, Robert Anda, stress management, Vincent Felitti
Posted in Beating Cancer, Beating Chronic Illness, Prevention, Science You Can Use, Turning Stress Into Strength, Wellness | No Comments »
Written by Brenda on Tuesday, November 1st, 2011 at 1:25 pm
 Dr. Andrew Weil and I were interviewed by Mark Matousek for this article appearing in the November, 2011 issue of Oprah Magazine.
It’s among the most important physical functions our bodies perform. We do it about 20,000 times a day. And still, somehow, most of us get it wrong. “If I had to limit my advice on healthier living to just one tip, it would be to learn to breathe correctly,” says Andrew Weil, MD, a well-known pioneer in the field of integrative medicine.
Chinese and yogic traditions have long extolled the importance of chi or prana—the life forces associated with breath—and science is finally catching up. “Medicine is just recognizing the importance of energy to health,” says Richard P. Brown, MD, an associate clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University. “And our most critical source of energy is oxygen.”
It turns out that getting more oxygen—by simply changing the way we breathe—can...
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Tags: alternate-nostril breathing, alternative medicine, Andrew Weil, breast cancer, breathing, colon cancer, cortisol, diaphragmatic breathing, fight or flight, healthy living, holistic health, inflammation, mind-body connection, O magazine, Oprah, optimum immunity, oxygen, stress
Posted in Beating Cancer, Beating Chronic Illness, Brain health, Prevention, Science You Can Use, stress management, Turning Stress Into Strength, Wellness | 1 Comment »
Written by Brenda on Wednesday, September 28th, 2011 at 1:46 pm
 Ages ago Mark Matousek interviewed me for an article in Good Housekeeping magazine. It finally hit news stands this week and when I picked up my copy it was like opening a present–all this wonderful advice from a variety of experts–and inspiring stories too. For strategies that will help you quickly find your footing — not flounder — when hard times hit read on:
By Mark Matousek, published in Good Housekeeping magazine, October 2011
That’s odd, thought Heidi Gottlieb, a 30-year-old TV producer and new mom, when she woke up with double vision one summer day in 1990. She figured the problem would vanish as quickly as it had appeared, but when it didn’t, her doctor ordered an MRI, which revealed a tumor in her brain. And so began her health saga with cancer, one that has involved surgeries, radiation, misdiagnoses (doctors failed to notice the tumor’s regrowth for 17 years), and more stress than she could ever have imagined....
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Tags: challenge and control, Charles Raison, crisis, fight or flight, Happiness, Journaling, Mark Matousek, mind-body connection, optimum immunity, Prevention, Radiotherapy Clinics of Georgia, RC Cancer Centers, relaxation, Stockdale, stress management, Vantage Oncology
Posted in Beating Cancer, Beating Chronic Illness, Guest Bloggers, stress management, Turning Stress Into Strength, Uncategorized, Wellness | No Comments »
Written by Brenda on Monday, September 19th, 2011 at 2:31 pm
 Many thanks to Colleen Walsh Fong at Eve Laments–a site devoted to women–for a great interview.
Brenda’s extraordinary book, “You Can Beat the Odds,” details the program she uses for sufferers of autoimmune disorders, chronic fatigue and related syndromes, high blood pressure and diabetes. She chronicles her use of tools and techniques to deal with her own life-altering and catastrophic illness.
CWF: I am thrilled to have the opportunity to bring your valuable knowledge, and your story, to Eve Laments readers. Thank you for joining us today. To begin, will you tell our readers about your education, degrees and professional background?
BRENDA: First I would like to say how important the work you are doing is. It’s easy to get overwhelmed with all the information that’s...
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Tags: Anti-depressants, autoimmunity, Bernie Siegel, cardiovascular disease, certified wellness practitioner, CFS, Colleen Walsh, Colleen Walsh Fong, Depression, diabetes, diaphragmatic breathing, Eve Laments, fibromyalgia, Hambidge, hypertension, Imagery, lifestyle, ME, mind/body medicine, Psychoneuroimmunology, REACE, stress, Systemic Lupus
Posted in Beating Cancer, Beating Chronic Illness, Book: You Can Beat the Odds, Guest Bloggers, Happiness, Prevention, Science You Can Use, stress management, Wellness | No Comments »
Written by Brenda on Tuesday, August 30th, 2011 at 3:31 pm
 Shaking ourselves up, every now and then, is a fabulous idea.
We can do some productive “interior designing” when we take stock of an aspect of our lives that could use some changes and “have at it.” Turning everything related inside out and backwards, while remaining mindful of how our radical changes will affect others, can have huge benefits.
The experience of making big changes feels great, exhilarating even, when we are in control.
There are times, though, when earth-shattering havoc tears our lives apart, and that doesn’t usually feel so great! The sudden death of a loved one, the destruction of a tornado, or the ravishing of a disease can often send us spinning into dark spaces in our psyche where we see nothing good about what’s happening.
Even so, there is promise when disaster strikes . . .
When the dust settles, and we begin to regain control of our lives, there is the chance to reflect and learn from what...
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Tags: alternative medicine, Beating Chronic Illness, Carolyn Graham, challenge and control, Happiness, healthy living, meditation, mind-body connection, stress management, Wellness, Writing
Posted in Beating Chronic Illness, Guest Bloggers, Happiness, Prevention, Turning Stress Into Strength, Wellness | No Comments »
Written by Brenda on Thursday, August 11th, 2011 at 3:36 pm
 This article was published in “The Futurist,” magazine, by Rick Docksai
Music may have charms to suppress the savage gene.
One ancient therapy has been gaining increased currency among health practitioners in multiple fields of medicine: music. Doctors and nurses increasingly credit music with demonstrable healing powers and anticipate that it can play a major role in treating or preventing many health conditions.
“Sound was really overlooked as a healing modality for a long time. But more recently because of the amount of studies—and because it’s a low-cost intervention—we’re seeing it being used more in medical centers,” says Brenda Stockdale, director of mind–body medicine at RC Cancer Centers.
Stockdale’s cancer center incorporates music into a six-week program for patients who are recuperating from—or trying to prevent—heart disease, autoimmune conditions, cancer, diabetes, and other illnesses. The program dedicates...
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Tags: Elena Mannes, epigenetics, genes, mind/body, music, psychacoustics, Rick Docksai, sound, The Futurist
Posted in Beating Cancer, Beating Chronic Illness, Prevention, Science You Can Use, Wellness | 2 Comments »
Written by Brenda on Wednesday, June 29th, 2011 at 4:48 pm
 Paying Attention by Sharon Bray
I discovered this beautiful post by writer and educator, Sharon Bray. I hope you enjoy it as much as I have. Thank you, Sharon!
There’s a book of poetry I love, one I return to from time to time to read in its entirety. Written during his recovery from cancer treatment, Ted Kooser’s Winter Morning Walks: One Hundred Postcards to Jim Harrison was inspired by his postcards sent to colleague and friend, Jim Harrison. Simple in format, eloquent in word, I’m captivated by the poet’s observation and reflections on life. Kooser describes how the book of poems came to be in his preface:
“In the autumn of 1968, during my recovery from surgery and radiation for cancer, I began taking a two-mile walk each morning…hiking in the isolated country roads near where I live…During the previous summer, depressed by my illness, preoccupied by the routines of my treatment, and feeling...
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Tags: Beating Chronic Illness, Creativity, healthy living, holistic health, How writing heals, Journaling, meditation, mind-body connection, Narrative Medicine, stress management, Wellness, Writing
Posted in Beating Cancer, Beating Chronic Illness, Creativity & Health, Guest Bloggers, stress management, Turning Stress Into Strength, Uncategorized | No Comments »
Written by Brenda on Tuesday, May 17th, 2011 at 5:36 pm
 After working at a cancer center for more than a decade weight loss isn’t something you’d expect I’d hear a lot about. But it is. We joked in one group that if you were a fly on the wall you’d think we’d gathered for a diet convention.
The missing ingredient in weight loss isn’t knowledge: we already know what’s good for us. It’s no mystery, for example, that we should be eating at least five daily servings of fruits and vegetables but according to a study in the Archives of Internal Medicine, the great majority of us aren’t taking that kind of care. According to their research only 3% do. And we’re not much better when it comes to exercise either. According to the Harvard School of Public Health less than 22% of us work out regularly.
Given the statistics it’s time to reconsider our approach since knowledge alone isn’t enough to reprogram our behavior. But pausing, in a particular way, can. A healing interlude can interrupt an automatic...
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Tags: ACE Study, alternative medicine, Beating Chronic Illness, breast cancer, childhood experience, Depression, diet, DNA damage, Exercise, family dysfunction, Happiness, holistic health, mind-body connection, Narrative Medicine, relaxation, story telling, stress management, weight loss
Posted in Beating Cancer, Beating Chronic Illness, Book: You Can Beat the Odds, Happiness, Nutrition, Prevention, stress management, Wellness | No Comments »
Written by Brenda on Sunday, May 1st, 2011 at 7:10 pm
 Dedicated in honor of Tracy Fletcher Ellis– and the large army of women she represents
There are warriors and then there are warriors. The term Amazon literally means “without breast” and legends of removing the female warrior’s right breast to better handle weaponry spread throughout the ancient world. While it appears to be just that—a legend—female warriors earned their place in history. From naked Celtic conquerors (consider Boudicca—taller than many men, flaming red hair to the knees, adorned with sparkling armor and a spear–the sight might give new meaning to the word awesome… step aside Laura Croft!) to the entire female army of Dahomey (now Benin) during the 1700 and 1800s–the idea of woman as warrior is nothing new.
The battle being fought today by my friends, family, colleagues and clients, while more insidious, often requires the sacrifice of a breast. But more than that is at stake. While ancient warrior women weaved war...
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Tags: alternative medicine, Amazon, Beating Chronic Illness, breast cancer, challenge and control, Gratitude, Happiness, Integrative Oncology, mammograms, mind-body connection, Resilience, stress management, Survivorship, Telomeres
Posted in Beating Cancer, Book: You Can Beat the Odds, Creativity & Health, Happiness, Science You Can Use, stress management, Turning Stress Into Strength | No Comments »
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