I can’t explain to you the mysteries of spirituality, faith  and the divine, but I can personally share that this life after a cancer diagnosis can be very hard. Fear, uncertainty, pain, grief, anger, and are awful and not the life I wanted for myself! I’ve also discovered that when I give up the burden and fight to something unseen and bigger than my own strength guiding my life, it makes me feel better and lighter. Spirituality can help with coping with the challenges of cancer.  

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Having cancer can leave one searching for answers as to how such a terrible thing could happen, often inexplicably. Kate Bowler, theology professor, young Mom, stage IV cancer survivor and author of the insightful memoir Everything Happens for a Reason and Other Lies I’ve Loved (Amazon affiliate link) writes and wrestles with the question of "Why?" Her answer is, “The most I can say about why I have cancer, medically speaking, is that bodies are delicate and prone to error. As a Christian, I can say that the Kingdom of God is not yet fully here, and so we get sick and die. As a scholar, I can say our society is steeped in a culture of facile reasoning.” 

In searching for spiritual answers, we limit ourselves personally and globally when we add labels to spirituality by create fences around certain religions. Why can’t you believe in the divine, energetic interconnectivity, Christianity, Buddhism, Indigenous spirituality, Hinduism, Muslim, or Deism? Cancer knows no religion. You are human and I am a human. Let us work together in peace and harmony and be kind to one another while we walk this beautiful Earth. We can have our own opinions and all believe that something greater than our own will and power is holding us up and that there is a greater plan, even in the darkest times. Tune into spiritual intuition, embrace healing energy, and commune with the Divine to propel you forward aligned in the vision of the life you want to create. This looks like getting still to listen, reflect, pray, and meditate.

Praying to or calling on a higher presence connects us to the long line of ancestors who wrestled with the same questions, felt the same emotions and recited the same words for thousands of years. This powerfully reminds us that we are not alone in our suffering and that many others have walked a similar path and somehow bore the hardship too. In Greg Braden’s The Wisdom Codes (Amazon affiliate link), he delves into different prayers, meditations, mantras. We see and acknowledge others’ struggle not to feel like we should be able to get through ours, but to find a common strength, a bond of fortitude. He shares examples including the Native American Beauty Prayer which reminds us that we can find beauty in all things even despite the difficult experience in which we find ourselves. Seeing, living by, and basing your life on beauty is a spiritual practice. 

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The human physiologic response to spirituality is challenging to study. Research has shown that healthy persons with active participation in religious services have greater overall health and less suicide, depression, substance abuse, and greater longevity. In one study, secular vs spiritual meditation was compared. The subjects either learned to meditate with the words “I am love” or “God is love” and then meditated 20 minutes a day for two weeks. The spiritual meditation group had lower anxiety and stress, more positive mood, and they were able to tolerate pain (ice bath hand immersion) almost twice as long as the secular meditators (1). Furthermore, the way we view our relationship with the Divine matters. A study of medically ill, elderly, hospitalized patients showed improvement in health when they used religion and viewed God as a positive, benevolent, co-collaborator than those who viewed God as punishing or had spiritual discontentment (3).  A recent systematic review of spirituality in serious illness recommended that spirituality be incorporated into healing serious illnesses and for optimal patient-centered overall health (2).

The act of prayer and the human physiologic response has been measured and shown to lower heart rate, breathing rate, muscle tensions and promotes brain tranquility by altering brain waves. Prayer can turn on the body's parasympathetic state (resting and digesting) and turn off the sympathetic state (fight or flight). Studies have shown that particular prayer types may be more helping in calming anxiety including devotional prayer (thanking God) and prayer expectancies (whether God answers prayers) while others may increase anxiety such as prayer efficacy and prayers for support (6). 

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Neurotheology is the field of the relationship between the human brain and religion. Research has shown that intense concentration on meditation or prayer increases frontal lobe brain activity (executive functioning area for planning, coordinating movement, initiating language, interacting with others) and that the oneness and connection found in spiritual transcendence is associated with decrease in right parietal lobe (where we find our sense of self) (4,5).  It is encouraging to think we can use our brain’s ability to change (neuroplasticity) and become more adept and stronger at prayer and finding oneness in order to mitigate the challenges of life after a cancer diagnosis and to help find meaning in struggles. 

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Scientific information can be useful, and I share a lot of research on this website. However, our human understanding of this complex universe is limited. It's dizzying to consider how our beautifully intricate and fragile human bodies elegantly interact with our surrounding vast, magnificent world. In attempting to categorize, reduce, examine and tightly control this cancer life, we leave no room for miracles, awe, and blessings to interrupt our "perfect" plans. Sometimes trying to think through it all can frankly induce more stress. My reasoning can only take me so far and I simply need to take a leap of faith and believe.

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Finding a spiritual practice may be a new practice or a reconnection from a younger self. Give it a try and see how it feels. Use spirituality to guide you, walk with others and give the burden of cancer to a greater power.