Got insomnia? There's a simple, safe and free prescription.

It’s called meditation. I occasionally get bouts of insomnia, either not being able to fall asleep within about the first half hour of going to bed, or staying asleep. It’s a real pain, especially when you have to get up early the next morning. The anxiety over getting a restful nights sleep can make getting your ‘zzzzz’ even harder.

I’ve tried various prescription and over the counter remedies and the best I’ve come across is still meditation. This way you’re using your bodies own natural capabilities to promote relaxation and then sleep. New studies are proving that I’m on the right track.

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Being Mindful of the Moment

Although I used mindfullness and meditation daily as I was going through a year+ of treatment for Stage IIIa breast cancer, I still use it today - and almost every day - as a way of decompressing and reminding myself of how the small things of life can make a huge difference.

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The Science of Place and Well-Being

“Esther Sternberg is a rare writer—a physician who healed herself by going back to ancient truths known by the Greeks, and proving them. With her scientific expertise and crystal clear prose, she illuminates how intimately the brain and the immune system talk to each other, and how we can use place and space, sunlight and music, to reboot our brains and move from illness to health.”

I used to blow off this type of stuff prior to my cancer diagnosis. Just nonsense. Then on my second trip to the University of Texas, M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, I was sitting in the airplane next to a doctoral student who was studying the mind-body connection. He set me straight on why my mental attitude was essential to beating cancer, and with exercise, meditation, and some serious self-reflection I’ve never looked back… and it’s coming up on seven years from my diagnosis with stage 3 breast cancer.

If you have a chronic illness, and even the best treatment doesn’t seem to be working, I suggest two things:

get away from your home area and get a qualified second opinion at a medical center that specializes in your illness, then take a good honest look at how you - both your mind and attitude - are working with or against your illness. You may need to challenge some fundamental assumptions, but to get well, that’s often how it works.

How to really help a sick friend

From OncoLog, March 2009, Vol. 54, No. 3

House Call: How You Can Help a Seriously Ill Friend

When a friend is seriously ill, what are some practical things that well-wishers can do? It’s a question that many of us struggle to answer. We sought advice from a group of experts on the topic—the Anderson Network, an organization of cancer survivors who volunteer their support for cancer patients and caregivers.

Here is a small sample of the suggestions offered by Network members:

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