Welcome to the CAN Talk, CAN Thrive podcast where we examine how to shift our mindset around cancer from fear to freedom and joy. Join me and my guests as we explore reclaiming, reframing and renaming cancer. Today I introduce my ideas for renaming cancer My name is Elisa Audo-Beliov and I am a joyologist and holistic cancer coach. I help people step out of fear and into joy. I'm not a medical doctor, I have a PhD in transformation, and my mission is transforming our current cancer paradigm, how we talk about and think about cancer, as well as helping to make our environment safer so we can conquer cancer and thrive, and I believe there are many ways of doing both of those. So thank you for joining me and hopefully taking on this mission as well. I recently gave a TEDx talk about how Pac-Man can conquer cancer. In it, I introduced my personal journey with cancer as both a thriver, diagnosed in my early forties with an incurable type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and as the spouse of someone who also survived cancer. And then I turned to the main topic of the talk, which was the term cancer and how I believe it is an archaic, nonsensical word that is a leftover from, can you believe it? Hippocrates time. So more about that talk soon, but for now, why is this important and why should anyone care? a word is just a word, right? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. My dad has always reminded me that the mind is a very easily tricked, by saying,"don't think of an elephant." And of course you think of an elephant immediately, right? There is a theory that we are only able to successfully hold one thought in our head at a time. So if that thought is about being sick or having an illness, then our energy is directed to the sickness and we are not able to comprehend the possibility of having health and healing at the same time. So every time we think and say the word cancer we are reinforcing the disease and moving further away from what it is we actually want, which is being a healthy and not having cancer. Our thoughts are like the capital of our minds and we choose how we want to spend that capital. Do we spend it on the sickness or on the healing. Focusing on the disease could lead to unsettling feelings, such as worry, fear and general dis-ease. Which one could argue, might even increase disease in our body. Whereas when we focus on our healing, we can imagine a very different outcome. One of hope and possibility. And our feelings change from unsettling to grounded. Peaceful, grateful and joyful. And one could suggest that those feelings may help us manifest the outcome we desire. Does disease lead to disease? Think about when you are at dis-ease for example, fight or flight mode, your body releases adrenaline into the bloodstream. Or other stress hormones like cortisol. Your body is actually changing based on your mindset in that moment. So I think there is some credence to it. We could argue that viewpoint successfully, probably. But instead of thinking about that topic and dissecting it with our analytical minds, I invite you to drop into your senses and really feel the impact of a words. Particularly the word"cancer." If you have been personally impacted by cancer, do you recall the first time that you heard the word cancer associated with yourself? Or with a loved one? I remember with my husband, my heart dropped. I was beside myself. I was afraid for what the future would hold. I was afraid of losing my husband and raising the baby alone. I couldn't say the word cancer without choking up or tearing up. Even years after my husband recovered, I had such a hard time talking about it because when I thought about it, When I thought about it, I thought about the possibility of losing him. And that scared me. Even though it isn't what actually ended up happening. So what happens when we talk about cancer is our attention goes to our memories of that word. And often it is when we were learning about the word cancer when we were children, because someone died of cancer, and we remember that term as we grow up, associating it with sickness and dying. And we begin to fear cancer. We know we do not want cancer. And we know that we don't want our loved ones to have cancer. So in my TEDx talk, I suggest that we reclaim the word cancer. Even suggesting that we host a renaming contest. And I offered a two suggestions. We can reclaim it by shortening cancer to can, which is the basis for my website can thrive.org and all of the programs I offer, like this CAN Talk podcast and CAN Breathe the free meditations and visualizations I offer. I love the word"can" because it focuses on what we are able to do, and future possibilities. And we're also infusing the word cancer with action and strength. So after the word can next, I submit my personal preference for a name make-over, which is PACMAN. And I explained the meaning, both the clinical acronym, which has prolific adverse cellular mutational accumulation network. But also the symbolism of the yellow Pac-Man emoji gobbling up dots. And also the medical association with this term, since it has been, Pac-Man has been used to describe our own killer T-cells and gobbling up cancer cells. So I propose Pac-Man can become cancer's, new mascot representing our killer t-cells and in general, our incredible immune system. That naturally targets and destroys cancer cells. After my talk, something amazing happened, some of the other speakers and attendees started calling cancer"Pac-Man" when they talked to me or when they messaged me. And immediately, I noticed how my brain evoked images of my killer t-cells doing their Pac-Man thing, vigilantly patrolling my body and gobbling up anything that doesn't belong, like cancer cells. Which is what I want to be, healthy and healing with a strong immune system. Whereas when I, or someone else says the word cancer, my attention seems to be automatically directed to the nefarious disease multiplying in my body, which is what I don't want. I don't want to have this. I don't want to think about this. And yet I'm constantly being reminded of this and giving energy to this through my language. So let's drop into your body again. Where does your focus ago? When someone says."Hey, how are your cancer treatments going?" Where is your focus? How are you feeling? Are you thinking about cancer? Or about the healing treatment side of the equation. Now, imagine you are talking to someone who has listened to this podcast and they ask you,"hey, how is your Pac-Man treatment and going?' Okay. So it sounds more like something a six year old would ask, but what is your reply? Did you smile? Did you think of your killer T-cells. Or did you think of the disease? We've all heard the popular saying"where your attention goes, energy flows," so what we focus on multiplies. And there's another popular saying as well,"what you resist persists." You may have even heard the story of when a mother Teresa was asked if she would attend an anti-war protest. She responded,"when you have a peace rally, I'll be there." So shifting the focus from what you don't want: antiwar don't want war to what you do want: peace. I will go to a peace rally. Instead of focusing on cancer, that's what I don't want, to focusing on health and healing. That is what I do want. Saying and then thinking about Pac-Man didn't cause me to think of the acronym. But of the mascot in my body, working hard for me. I thought about what I could do to help my Pacman. And how I can nourish them. Give thanks to them. And who knows if this thinking and appreciating and nourishing will actually increase the amounts or effectiveness of them? But my mind switched from thinking of the bad to thinking of the good. And how can this change other areas of my life. How can this change? How can this improve the quality of my life? Focusing on healing, and not the disease. Now some may think it would belittle or even lesson of the severity of a grave disease to name it something as a silly, childish, playful as Pac-Man. But that's exactly what you don't have dealing with cancer: the magic, the light-heartedness it seems stripped away. For parents who are navigating cancer, who have young children. We continue to create magical moments for our kids. A world filled with tooth fairies, secret holiday gifts, silly songs and stories, painting with fingers and running through sprinklers. But we don't give that gift of a whimsy to ourselves at, what might possibly be, the most critical time in our lives? When we are the most scared and dejected. We need laughter and fantasy and child hood wonder, like magical mops that clean our kitchen on their own. And we don't have that available to us at a time when we need miracles more than anything else. And miracles happen every day. Like rainbows. I saw three rainbows today. And sure, there is a scientific explanation for rainbows. They are still miraculous. And miracles, abound. So why can't they happen to us? Why can't they happen inside our bodies? And if you are living in a place of gratitude, You might be more likely to wake up, seeing miracles in each moment and each breath. Let's live in a world of magic. Let's focus on our healing, our Pac-Man cells, let's thrive! Maybe we should have our own fairy godmother, like, a cancer fairy that sneaks into our rooms after each treatment session and takes the cancer from our bodies and leaves us a shiny silver dollar in return. Could this actually help us? I mean, this has the placebo effect written all over it. If you start doing this, please let me know how it works for you. The bottom line is. We don't need to be constantly reminded of our fragility of life. We need constant reminders of our blessings and our strengths. So I say, we need a mascot. A champion, an archetype. Sure we have the warrior, the fighter. But that is a war we are waging inside of ourselves against parts of ourselves. And we can lose. Is the archetype of the warrior the only one? What I love about the mascot of Pac-Man, is that regardless of, if you are a fighter, and what tools you use, like in a battle, everyone has killer and cytotoxic T-cells that are working tirelessly for your own wellbeing. So let's reinforce that the good in us, our silent strength, our inner champion. And let's bring that to mind. Let's rejoice in our abilities. Instead of bemoaning. what we are losing. Because focusing on the loss can quickly turn us into a victim. And we want to be the hero. It is a mindset shift that is slight because the thing is it's already there It's just a matter of seeing it, of believing it. Of spotlighting it. And, perhaps in so doing we are able to write a new story, Not one of fear and destruction but of creation and possibilities And how to become our own champion. The next podcast we'll really dive into the topic of a victim versus hero So please stay tuned. In the meantime I encouraged you to try to stop saying an even thinking the word cancer because I truly believe that this word subconsciously brings with it A dark cloud of doom I suggest you create your own term an empowering term that brings to mind your body's healing ability And of course i invite you to use pac-man or can and if you find a great term that works for you please share it with me in the comments section. Now let's take a few minutes to ground our bodies in this idea with a visualization. I offer an uplifting free 15 minute healing pac-man visualization on my website canthrive.org, but here is a quick mini version Sit comfortably And close your eyes Take a few deep breaths And thank yourself for taking A few moments out of your day to focus on your health and healing One more slow deep breath in and out through your nose Now imagine there is a radio dial in front of you And You turn the dial until you hear a song that makes you feel strong excited happy Basically a high vibe song that elevates your frequency Once you are settled on the song You can feel your body vibrate with the music your body you might even start to move or sway Maybe you lift your shoulders with the beat. Imagine the area of your body that you're focusing on healing Enjoying the music like a party's taking place inside of your body Oh yeah your body's relaxing now feeling good feeling light I imagine my killer t-cells the pac-man cells the yellow pie shaped emoji is just dancing and bobbing up and down under a disco ball Yours are enjoying themselves buzzing around through your body and keeping you healthy And you smile knowing your body is having so much fun See the part of your body that you're focusing on as sparkling with light You feel so grateful for your incredible body. Place your left hand on your heart and your right hand on your lower abdomen. Internally thank your body parts as you see them celebrating and singing inside of you. Say I love you to your body as it continues to dance to the song Thank you for health Thank you for being there for me and every moment Thank you Take another slow deep breath And smile an actual smile And when you are ready you can open your eyes Please check out the full Pac-man meditation and others on canthrive.Org Sending you so much love and healing on your journey And thank you for letting me be part of it