658 thoughts on “Breast cancer: does medical research really bring us the truth or just a part of it?”

1. Ariana, you make a great statement, ‘we do not need scientists to confirm what we can feel in our bodies’. We are own walking, talking living science, let’s live it from that source that’s within us all.

2. Julie, you have posed so many questions, just like the three year old who constantly asks the ‘why’ questions and rightly so. I cannot fathom how scientists link diseases to a particular thing, when each person’s lifestyle is different.

   Another interesting question about breast feeding and whether it prevents breast cancer or not, is not a question that fits all women. How does this affect men getting breast cancer then?

   There is a deeper cause to any disease or illness and one thing researchers are not fully willing to explore, are our lifestyle choices. This is no different to how we care for our cars. Trash it, put the cheapest petrol, forget about the oil and water, or wash it, it eventually will give – our bodies are no different.

   It’s about time for the real research, researching the people who have made lifestyle choices, and live in such a way, that everything is everything, nothing is a miss.

3. Agreed. It is not enough to address the symptoms, we need to be getting underneath to the kernel of the behaviours that lead to the symptoms. Currently the norm is to live in a very functional way in denial of the body, its processes and its communications, but if we start to acknowledge that there is much more to life that we can access through the body, which offers a richness that function misses completely, we can begin to acknowledge just how very precious and sensitive we are. In doing so we begin to make choices that honour this and so our journey of awareness deepens and our lives grow. The improvement of our health is simply a by product of this, which in truth is our natural state and birth right. The current physical and mental ill health is just an indication of how far from this precociousness and sensitivity we are living.

4. So true – if we look at the research results that link certain lifestyle choices to certain disease and decide to let go of the choice but without looking at why we were making that choice in the first place, we are most likely to develop another behaviour choice still coming from the same root cause, and our list of things to avoid will keep growing.

5. Thank you Julie, you raise many great points here including the broader realities of the impact of how we are living on our health, alongside established research linked to illness. Without a relationship to the body that listens to and respects how the body feels as a result of our choices it may be that we hold a mental idea that illness is random, genetic or simply bad luck. I also appreciated your focus on self nurturing as a woman as we know how much nurturing of those around us can support their bodies to thrive, yet we may not allow this same nurturing for ourselves.

6. Great sharing Julie, that deeper level of responsibility where we look at our honest reasons as to why we are not loving ourselves and living in a way that is honouring this, every second of every day. The quality we live in determines the quality of our body and what it represents and then this is what we take around with us to every relationship. A bigger responsibility than just being honest with ourselves and acting on it for sure.

7. Our bodies are highly tuned instruments that can detect the slightest disharmony if we are careful to not numb or bludgeon them in any way. If we develop a way to listen to them we can avoid much of the illness and disease we are plagued with.

8. Medical research either ignores the role of the doctor in healing or reduces its measurements to the management capabilities of a doctor. The healing ability of a doctor (a big part of the placebo effect?) is simply not part of medical research.

9. ‘True Julie ‘It is time to question and become our own researchers with our body. The ‘Why or What?’ of our choices is what counts.’ We can do research about all aspects of life but when we don’t have an honest look at the quality we choose in the first place research will only add to better our life, to try to make it work.

10. Research in to medicine and medical practice is so important, and so vital. And There is a lot of potential I am sure for great people to make real change in this field of work.

11. “Breast Cancer does not ‘just happen’” With the understanding of the Ageless Wisdom when we take an honest and deep look at the way we are living we become aware of the cause and effect of what our physical body is revealing to us.

12. Yes it is the reason driving us to do something that needs attention not so much the behaviour itself for when we get to the why we can choose to continue, knowing the consequences, or not. We can also see how the why works in other areas of our lives and allowing ourselves this awareness we can clock what we are doing to our body. We begin to realise we actually do have an inner wisdom and the body communicates that to us. We can heed the little nudges or wait till they become roaringly obvious in symptoms that we would rather not have and that, in effect, bring us to our knees.

13. What if we embraced medicine, living science and our own choices and responsibilities towards our healthcare as one and the same? Perhaps then we would be living the answers to all our problems.

14. I’ve only known Universal Medicine to bring in the whole picture of a person rather than blaming the things around them that are out of a persons control for the source of illness or disease. It is very empowering (if at first confronting) to know that the way I live, the energy I live in, is the source of my state of health in my body, my mind and my relationships. Because then I have a say in what happens.

    1. Yes this is true Leigh Matson how it is empowering to know we are responsible for our all that occurs in our lives, and even though this is the case my own default is usually to find a reason outside of myself why my health is like it is. More and more though through Universal Medicine and applying the principles of The Way of The Livingness to myself I have to look at my choices and how I am living and the source of energy I am choosing first. This so much more supportive for my body in clearing the illness than blaming or settling for an explanation away from me in the outside environment, which only fuels the issue, and keeps me stuck.

    2. I agree Leigh, I feel that the self responsibility is very empowering and yes, confronting at times, but we always have the option to make more caring choices for ourselves.

15. “Our lifestyle choices do make a huge difference to our health and wellbeing, but these have to come from the place of choosing to self-love and self-care rather than because I am living in fear of developing a terminal illness or disease” – such a great point. We could be doing all the ‘right’ things but still become ill. I agree – there’s lot to gain from looking beneath our lifestyle choices and asking why questions. It’s a process of deepening honesty, and that in itself is a way of loving ourselves.

16. This is taking research to the next level, one that asks us to consider more than what we do, but in fact how we do it, our quality in it and how we stay connected to that quality and feel any changes that are required … it’s so much more than just doing things or not, but how our bodies speak ever and always and how in that we are offered a constant feedback loop which supports us to live more true to us and our bodies.

    1. It is making research about people, rather than about the intervention.

17. It’s very beautiful what you have brought to the table here Julie. It is not necessarily what we do but why we are doing it, what is motivating us? In the case of breast feeding I have known women who have breast fed their children because it gave them a feeling of comfort and security when the relationship with their husbands/partners was not going well. Women can use this activity for all sorts of ‘reasons’ that can lace the true nurturing of their babies/children.

18. Science doesn’t have all the answers, they can be quick to label a discovery without taking account of the deeper human factors, the emotion or stress that we live with, yes we can say alcohol is a factor yet science doesn’t get into the detail as to why people live certain life styles and maybe it is in the detail of what is behind the choices that the answers lie.

19. I love this powerful statement: ‘Our lifestyle choices do make a huge difference to our health and wellbeing, but these have to come from the place of choosing to self-love and self-care rather than because I am living in fear of developing a terminal illness or disease.’ The quality of making the decision from fear is a different one than the choice to self-nurture and not only say NO to things that aren’t loving, but be very precise in what our body does need at that specific point in time.

20. I understand going through the motions of self care is very different from estsblishing a relationship of self love that truly cares about our bodies, and so our experience of life. We need to build a relationship of understanding and responsiveness with our bodies.

21. It is so true, how there is often the celebration of one destructive behaviour, which only creates a blindness to what all else there is which is the same behaviour just going unnoticed because perhaps it is not as extreme.

22. The statistics on illness and disease are telling us that despite more research and more health information being available than ever before people are still making lifestyle choices that are harming their health (even when they know they are not good for them), so there must be something else going on here and Julie you make a great point that we need to look deeper into why we are making these choices not just restrict and reduce it to a list of dos and don’ts.

23. Medical research brings us part of the truth. It has a very incomplete understanding of the causes of breast cancer, apart from the genetic aspects.

24. What an amazing and life-changing revelation this must have been for you Julie. “I have come to learn how breast cancer was a gift”. It is in total contrast to what we hear from most women who, when they are diagnosed with this disease, talk about fighting and beating it. It almost feels like this aggressive way of facing breast cancer would bring even more tension and stress into a body which is already struggling to heal itself, but accepting the gift as you have feels like the first important step in the healing process.

25. ‘We don’t have to wait for scientists to confirm what we know in our own bodies’ – yes, and we don’t have to wait until we get a deadly disease or illness before we start making the lifestyle changes and choices that we know our bodies are asking us to make. Sometimes, even after having made those choices, we still get a disease because of our past choices – but if that’s the case, we still have a choice: to beat ourselves up for our own choices and their consequences, or see it as a moment to stop, to clear and heal: the body’s natural process of discarding an energy that we took on or lived in that was against our natural way of being,

26. We can follow all the rules of a healthy lifestyle, diet and exercise and what they can offer us and yet still become sick or ill. So it would make sense that we go further and consider aspects such as stress and emotional levels and the quality of our relationships and movements through life

    1. True, we often live with a level of stress and exhaustion that we call normal while not considering the debilitating impact it has on the body long term.

27. We need to get out of that way of thinking that disease and illness simply just happen out of no-where and we are just victims of it. Illness and disease are there to teach us something about the way that we are living and should we dare to listen there is a huge amount that we can learn.

28. I know from when I have had any illness and particularly getting my breasts checked that the result that we are given is of value and something we can work with. There has always been an underlying understanding that this is never it, that there is more the whole understanding of what is going on. Thanks to Serge Benhayon I have been able to truly understand the underlying core issues on an energetic level and have been able to make changes by the choices I make to live my life and the quality of what I am living to heal my body.

    1. Becoming aware of the energetic levels of healing through the teaching of the Ageless Wisdom is the missing ingredient that has us questioning why is this happening and why can’t it be fixed.

29. ‘So what is the purpose of all this research? Is it just buying time away from Truth? And if we keep believing and accepting the latest research this and research that, is it possible that all we are doing is delaying finding the truth of why breast cancer, or any other disease, is on the increase?’ I am with you Julie, it takes us away from truly looking at how we are living and have been living and to take responsibility and change our ways from inside out and not because such and so did research and all of sudden we follow the last results and think we have found it. All part of the illusion of research as it is practised at the moment.

30. I love how you have taken the time to take this to the next step that it needed to go to.

31. It would be ‘encouraging’ to know that the scientists would read this article and stop to take a deeper look at the understanding of a woman who is presenting her own case study.

32. “I have come to learn how breast cancer was a gift.” Amazing statement one that is super super inspiring. I would love your experience here to be shared around the world so everyone learn from your inspiration and feel the gift of true healing that cancer can bring.

33. Self nurturing and self care are the foundation for living the truth of who we are, allowing us to express the sacredness within.

34. There is so much that we have to learn about nurturing, and how profoundly it affects us.

35. There’s so much information out there telling us what is good/bad for whatever. I agree – research raises our awareness, but in letting it take the place of our self-responsibility, we lose our power.

36. ” So what is the purpose of all this research? Is it just buying time away from Truth? And if we keep believing and accepting the latest research this and research that, is it possible that all we are doing is delaying finding the truth of why breast cancer, or any other disease, is on the increase? ”
    The thing about research its that it wants answers but truly the research is not looking for truth.

    1. I agree John, wanting answers is not the same as looking for the truth, wanting to find out about the root cause and our own part in it all.

37. Lifestyle choices definitely play a huge part in our health, yet often we fail to take responsibility for our choices, or see the damage that we do to ourselves.

38. I am sure if you were to analyse research papers on Breast Cancer over a 20 year span I would expect we would find that many of the papers contradicted each other as they decide what the causes are. What you showed about your own experience made sense Julie, and that statistics don’t look at the whole picture, they take one aspect such as alcohol and say you shouldn’t drink when you are pregnant but this is only a small part of the equation and is mis-leading to anyone hoping to avoid getting Breast Cancer. For us to truly heal any illness we have to be willing to look at every aspect of how we are living and listen to our body, for it really is our best guide to all our sickness and illnesses.

39. Such a great point you make here that intention behind our lifestyle choices is key – if we are making changes to our lifestyle based on fear or anxiety around possibly becoming another statistic are we not just adding to the stress, tension and unease in our bodies which may be contributing to illness and disease in the first place! If we do this we are also forever at the mercy of the latest research findings or information from outside of us to give us the latest solutions. However if we come from a place where we connect to our preciousness and fragility as human beings first and can really appreciate our divine qualities then we will naturally know what to do to deeply care and nurture ourselves and each other.

40. When we see a headline such as, ‘BREASTFEEDING REDUCES CANCER RISK’, is this saying all women should breastfeed for many years and that this is the ‘answer’ to breast cancer? Could it be that although the statement may be true in part, and something to definitely consider, as you’ve shared Julie it doesn’t cover the whole picture of how a woman might develop cancer and how we can look after ourselves not in prevention for getting cancer but to truly love our bodies so that we don’t need/call on a stop moment like cancer to occur.

41. Julie clearly what you highlight for us is the real importance of not only considering the medical side of any condition but also the energetic side, the root of the issue. When we do we get to truly heal, if we don’t in my own experience i’d simply repeat the same thing.

42. We repeatedly look at the end effect and are happy to discuss changing this. But we habitually avoid the real ‘why?’ underneath – and resist embracing the power of our connection. It’s easy to talk about issues but the true answer is right under our nose – thank you Julie.

43. It goes to show the pictures, ideals and beliefs we become attached and hold on to as a way of life determine our movements and these pictures, ideals and beliefs are passed on to our children. It is no wonder that illness and disease runs in the family! What if we looked at our behaviours and where they come from instead of blaming our genes?

44. A wonderful informative sharing Julie. What a shame so many women will never get t o share this information and thus unable to put it into practice i.e. self nurturing in the many ways you share is so important as is the fact of our body’s intelligence and our need to honour that.

45. Do you remember years ago, many years ago, when smoking was cool, even doctors would smoke publicly, news readers would smoke on television… And now course it is seen as the curse that is. One day alcohol will most definitely be seen in the same light and will not have the public support that it does now.

    1. And we will see the same with sugar, will take some time though.

46. By being presented with such questions similar to what you’ve posed here Julie I have gained much richer understanding of my health than I ever could just from conventional medicine alone. ‘Random’ or ‘Genetics’ doesn’t fly with me.

47. What is highlighted here is the importance of looking at why we are making the choices we are making. I for one have caught myself replacing a seemingly ‘bad’ habit with a ‘not so bad’ one. And in that is an opportunity for discerning why I am making the choices I am making and what is it I don’t want to feel.

48. I heard on the radio the other day that new research showed that drinking three to four cups of coffee a day was good for you and reduced the risk of cancer due to the anti-oxidants and other healing properties in the bean. Where does this research really come from and how much money was wasted on it or more to the point how much was paid for the outcome? We do not need all this expensive research when it comes out with so much nonsense, when our bodies can tell us straight away what is or isn’t good for us.

    1. This is a really good question kevmchardy – where does this research come from and at what cost – not just financially but also to the bodies of everyone buying into this i.e.. the researchers, the believers, the manufacturers etc. – so much harm is done along the way- when it is very simple as our body already knows the answers, so why do we overule this again and again? This is a question worth asking.

49. ” it is time to question and become our own researchers with our body. The ‘Why or What?’ of our choices is what counts. ” This is very true Julie , trusting what one feels in their body is one of the best indicators to the answers to why or what.

50. No matter her profession or status in life and whether she has children or not, a woman’s true role is to nurture others – a role that comes very naturally to her. However, if she is not first nurturing herself then she offers a cup that is half full in the sense that while it may nourish others, it will leave her depleted and through this the body will make known that such an event has occurred. This is the blessing of breast cancer – an opportunity for us as women to pause and reflect on the quality with which we live our life and whether we give to ourselves in equal measure to that which we give to others.

51. There is far more to the inner dynamics of the human body and its manifestation of disease and illness than meets the eye and we have much to learn about this fact. For every disease or illness does not just occur over night, there is a lead up to it. It also means something significant to that individual and the subsequent unraveling within their healing process is something to truly appreciate and continually learn from.

52. ” Could there more at play than all this research is showing us?” Lifestyle medicine is gradually gaining acceptance in the medical field – and the energetic factor is showing us there is more to illness and disease than just genetics.

53. Research is inevitably fraught with limitations – for in its current state it cannot possibly consider every factor in ‘why a person get’s this or that disease’. It has its place of course but in my view it is not healthy to give our power to it completely negating our own innate sense of what is happening in our bodies. There is a lot we do not know on an intellectual level and we must always temper what science discovers with this awareness.

54. Long before there is a physical symptom, there is a series of movements (behaviours) in place that predetermine the course we are set to follow, if we do not alter the course by way of choosing to move otherwise. Therefore in terms of health and disease it serves us well to follow the path back to that which has taken root that has caused the dis-ease to flourish. Discussions such as this and all that is so beautifully presented by Julie in this article and by way of her personal experience, allow us to open the conversation right up and see what is truly happening below the surface of our ever sky-rocketing rates of ill health and disease.

55. “And even if it is not prevented and we are diagnosed, we are more likely to understand what is happening and feel equipped to heal ourselves in full.” This is the key for any illness and disease. If we understand the underlying energetic reasons as to why it has occurred in the first place we can truly heal. Focusing on cause and effect in the way we generally do ie. if I drink alcohol I’m more likely to develop breast cancer, is just a small part of the picture. Important yes, but on it’s own is purely about increasing function not offering the body healing.

56. It is interesting that we look to blame the obvious – ie alcohol is the cause – when really we have to look at what is behind drinking the alcohol? I know I started drinking because it was cool and then I discovered it made me numb, so it was the numbness I was seeking, the effects not the taste. So it does make me consider that there is so much else there before I choose alcohol, and perhaps, as is shared here, there is a lot more to consider about how we are living, before we reduce it to one thing.

57. Universal Medicine looks at the whole, the complete picture, and brings much understanding and simple revelation to health and wellbeing.

    1. Rachel so true its the whole picture that is presented by Universal Medicine that has supported me to look at the whole of how I am living and not simply want a fix, in fact as a result I’m now taking far deeper care of myself on a daily basis.

58. The overwhelming amount of often contradictory research is astounding. For someone to change their life according to the study’s results could lead them astray from what is actually true and as you say leave them in resentment should they get sick regardless. With all the medical advances of the day, we have seemingly given our power away to the outside studies and forgotten the depth of wisdom that is available when we listen to our own bodies and allow it to guide us in our choices.

59. I agree Julie, Medical research brings us an understanding, yet not the truth of what is going on, even though it is expressed by them to be an answer, as you beautifully express our own body holds many of the answers we are looking for, and it is through our own connection that we will learn how we play our own part in getting an illness or disease by the choices we make.

60. Great question what is the purpose of this research and how come we spend zillions looking for answers that avoid us taking any responsibility for our life, body and choices?

    1. I love it Nicola, you have just answered the question, we spend zillions to avoid taking responsibility for our life, body and choices. That’s a lot of money we invest to avoid responsibility.

       1. Seems irresponsibility is mega expensive in more ways than one!

    2. strange because when we start to become aware of that it makes even LESS sense?!

    3. One part of the reasons for avoiding responsibility may be that not everybody embraces it when we behave more responsibly as it shows up their lack of responsibility and many then react.

61. This is a life changing blog, it sticks it to all that bogus information out there about cancer. It also shatters the concept that women should breast feed their babies until they are sucked dry, literally. It is even more powerful coming from a mother that has been through it all and has come out the other side and can now fully see the fact that self care and self nurturing are the key to reducing the risk of cancer.

62. ‘…we have a body that is giving us feedback all the time’ This is the best research we can have everyday to check our health and the origin of its changes in it

63. ‘We all have a body, which very clearly shows us the result of what we choose’. Each of us have our own way of being in the world and this shows clearly in our body. If we were asked what being loving towards self was like we know the answer for we know what love is not. It makes so much sense the way our body chooses to get our attention when we consistently over ride its call for a ‘stop’ to the way we are living. This blog is a great place to start discussion around illness, disease and its relationship to self care. Thanks Julie.

64. One of the many powerful aspects revealed in this article… One of the many I might add, is that it is our choices that contribute enormously to our well-being and health, and that as the wisdom firmly embedded in our ancient history reveals, it is essential that we view everything as a whole when it comes to health and our body.

    1. I agree and beyond that it is how every choice made contributes to every part of our lives, so the accidents we encounter, the state of relationships, the work we do, the food we eat, activities and hobbies we undergo…the list is endless. Nothing ever just happens or to be accepted as ‘that is just how it is’ we are always responsible for the outcomes we experience.

65. It’s fascinating that prior to becoming a mother we don’t even realise that there are many ideals and beliefs of what it means to be a mother, and then it feels like we are at the mercy of all of those once the child is born. So it is no surprise that we have a tendency to look after our babies more than ourselves, and often at the expense of our own health and well-being.

66. The pressure women are under to perform when they become a mother, perform the role that they need to be everything to their children. That they need to give so much of themselves and not keep enough for them. This causes disharmony in the body and then can lead to other types of illness and disease.

67. I am learning that all illness and disease deserves our focus and attention when it comes to self-responsibility. Previously I was in the belief that if it won’t kill me then don’t worry. But that attitude in itself is accepting a lesser quality of life. Saying thank you to my body, however it presents helps drop the reaction to my condition and start to understand my part in all of it.

68. Your comment about making lifestyle choices from self-love rather than from fear of being ill, or from a dogma of doing the right thing is huge. No two bodies are the same, and so the foods or exercise needed by one person might not be what the next person needs. The only way to truly know what is right for each person is from the inner knowing, which is fostered by self-love.

69. The Guardian and Daily Mail are terrible sources for information on Breast Cancer. Try:
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=%28+%22Breast+cancer%22+%29+AND+Review%5Bptyp%5D+AND+free+full+text%5Bsb%5D+AND+%22last+5+years%22%5BPDat%5D

70. A powerful blog and reference to research buying time when the truth is waiting patiently for all to see. I have been to a number of funerals where the cause of death has been breast cancer and the comments from the family and friends always comes back to the selfless actions of the deceased and how they always put everyones needs ahead of their own.

71. ‘The question that came to mind was “Ok it’s good these links are being made as we need to know this, but isn’t the next and real question: ‘Why do we choose to drink alcohol in the first place’?”’ Great question Julie but how many people are willing to undertake this kind of self-examination? Not many, at this stage I suspect: even cancer is often not enough to provoke a thorough appraisal. The impetus, if the cancer isn’t terminal, is usually ‘just get me back to my old life’ – in which case the body will need to conduct another clearing via another illness at a later stage, be it in the current life, or in a subsequent life.

72. It is worthwhile regularly reviewing every aspect of our life, much like an audit on a business, to check in to see if what we are living is actually working or if there are signs from our body that it is not.

73. Great points made here, that research alone into a disease, no matter what it is, isn’t going to cure people on its own. Knowing that genes are affecting an organ in the body, also isn’t going to cure a cancer. But understanding the medical side in collaboration and coordination with how we are living, now that is where were will finally see some results.

74. I think you raise a really great point here that we can just switch one harming behaviour for another if we don’t heal what the drive was behind the original behaviour…

75. This is true, I remember as a new mother how it was only the signs of postnatal depression that were looked for and there was so much else that was accepted as ‘normal’ like exhaustion, feeling emotional or unsure and questioning and or not enjoying breastfeeding or the baby being stressed with feeding. These were all accepted as parts of being a mother and no support was given or talked about in regards to being a woman first and reading what the baby was actually telling us and how I was feeling.

76. “By living in a True Way, we are our own research and every day can be an experiment.” And hence we can resume responsibility for our health through the way we live each day, trialling the effects of every choice and observing the effects on our bodies, living science that in time will provide us with the most awesome answers about the purpose of disease and our responsibility within it.

77. I like how this article puts cancer research into perspective and offers to the reader to use it not as gospel, but as a part in the pathway to understanding cancer and our relationship with this and other diseases.

78. Love it Julie! We know our bodies better than anyone else – all we need to do is not block it out.

79. i do love how you are including in depth lifestyle about how women have actually lived in this study. It is crucial we make the connection between how we live and our health outcomes. The spiralling rates show us its needed, as what we are currently doing isn’t stemming the tide that is becoming ‘normal.’

80. We sink so much money into Cancer Research, yet very little into researching how the quality of our lives impacts on our health and creates cancer in the first place. The way we live, what we eat, drink and how we treat ourselves and one another holds such rich clues as to how not only treat cancer successfully, but prevent it occurring in the first place.

81. Ticking all the boxes, that is not smoking, not drinking, breastfeeding etc, yet still women get breast cancer. Looking more deeply at how we are living has to be key. Taking responsibility for our own health issues, rather than blaming our genes or family history. How are we truly living in our world today? Are we continually feeling stressed and overwhelmed, putting care for ourselves last on our to-do list? Or do we live harmonious loving self-nurturing lives? Which life is more likely to be cancer-prone?

82. Waiting for the next scientific research papers is never the answer, true power lies in bringing awareness to the way we are living or have lived.

83. Most answers to our problems are simple, so too it would make sense the answer to healing breast cancer is simple. So the fact that medical research has not found the true answer and healing for breast cancer shows they might be looking in the wrong way… Indeed what about the way we are living as women? Could this indeed have an effect in the end on our bodies? Breast cancer is a very intense disease so it would be at least wise to consider that this could be the case.

84. The answer to the headline is that medical research can measure quite precisely what percentage of truth it can bring and what percentage it knows nothing about. That could be 1%, 16% or 90% – it depends on the circumstances. Technically that is known as the R-square statistic.

85. Absolutely agree Julie, it is not the fact of whether we breast feed or not or how long we do so but what makes us choose that in the first place. When we come to look deeper at our ways of behaving and what leads us to them we can get to a new level of honesty and see ways that we can look after ourselves. We can give our power away to self help books and people we consider know more than us without having a heartful dialogue with ourselves and actually letting our own deeper wisdom inform us.

    1. Great point you make here Elaine. We can far too easily rely on self help books or someone else’s opinion or even advice to make us ‘feel better’ or to convince us that we are doing the ‘right thing’. But if we were to really open ourselves up and connect to what we are really feeling inside, then we would learn that we have all the answers we need on how to take care of our bodies within us.

86. What you describe here Julie, puts me in mind of a school student sitting exams, and getting back ‘bad’ marks – but then just re-sitting the test and repeating the same answers that they gave before. What is it about us that thinks this will work? For looking at the bigger picture – getting a ‘bad’ score, grade or assessment, or an illness if you will, is not a ‘bad’ thing at all, if we are willing to see what we need to learn. For in this situation lives the springboard to correction and correct alignment. To ignore our report card and blindly hope for ‘better luck’ is to arrogantly dismiss and willfully misunderstand the education and learning on offer to us.

87. I agree, More research needs to be focused on the way we live, and the relationships we have with ourselves to see the impact and how this affects our lifestyle choices

88. Among all of the amazing advances in medicine, and knowledge which we have to date, there is still a huge lack in the medical system, it is still not enough and is leaving a lot of people scratching their heads.

    1. And perhaps the main challenge for medicine at the moment may be how to deal with the behaviour of people that makes us more and more obese and acquire more and more lifestyle diseases.

89. I agree Mary there is everything to be gained or at least observe for ourselves and possibly accept another Way of being with ourselves as I reckon we can safely say that the way most of us have been or are with bodies in how treat them and the relationship to our selves hasn’t worked, as seen by the continual increase in health statistics. Nothing to lose really?!

90. “Would some true research be, to look at the lifestyles of the women who have had breast cancer as well as those who have not”. Given that we know that how we live directly affects our health, I completely agree that more focus should be spent looking at this side of things, not just the day-to-day actions but the quality in which those movements were made.

91. I have just read Rebecca Briant’s blog: The prevention of breast cancer – the answer is in our bodies’ in which she explains how epigenetics is starting to reveal evidence that the environment of a cell affects the functioning of the cell which suggests, as you say Julie, that ‘Our lifestyle choices do make a huge difference to our health and wellbeing’.

92. How we live plays out in our bodies. We may choose to make lifestyle changes but if we have lived a life of disregard and recklessness it’s unsurprising that an illness may arise. I too have had breast cancer and now recognise the gift it gave me – the opportunity to seriously reconsider my lifestyle choices and the way I operate in my daily living. It isn’t just what I do but how I do what I do.

93. In regards to the research the question that arises for me is, why are we so beholden to research. It’s like we won’t make a move without being backed up by research, and experience has told us that such research will tell us often what we want to hear. The real power lies in not ignoring what we know, like we all knew already that alcohol and cancer go hand in hand. For really how could they not when we consider what alcohol does in our bodies.

94. Science is only aware of parts of the reason why we develop breast cancer (men can get it too). Science is even able to calculate quite precisely what percentage of breast cancer incidences it can explain (the technical term is through a regression analysis) and that percentage is typically low, under 20%. It would make a huge difference if there is a way to explain even another 20%, still leaving 60% unaccounted for.

95. There are questions here that feel hugely pertinent for all women, Julie, opening up this conversation and understanding how vital this relationship with ourselves is, for as you have already said its imperative that the decision to self care comes from our own will and not from external factors such as fear or fashion.
    What does nurturing mean?
    What does breast care mean?
    How is their self worth on a day-to-day basis?
    Their connection with themselves as a woman?
    The quality of their thoughts?

96. Research can easily be manipulated to tell a convenient truth, and this is actually known and accepted as normal. And so we pay millions for something we know is not true, crazy really.

    1. If we knew it was not true, it would be simple. The issue is that the information is low quality, i.e. often wrong and, under certain circumstances like trials sponsored by interested parties, even lower quality but the worst part is that we and therefore science think that there is no other way.

97. It’s a great point Julie, we can easily accept research that say this or that, and change our habits to be in line with that, thinking we’re doing the right thing, and hence will gain the benefit. And to some degree we may, but if we don’t address why we do that in the first place, then we will just find another way to do the same thing. In your example of giving up alcohol, if we don’t address what the alcohol did for us, then chocolate, or eating more for dinner, or a bigger serving of dessert or a longer, harder stint at the gym after work etc will be a worthy substitute.

98. Extremely wise words that our choices need to come from a place of self-care, self-love and nurturing, rather than as a stance laden with fear to avoid illness. Self-love has been touted by the spiritual new age as a goal to be achieved, an almost unachievable goal at that, but in truth the development of love within the body and the nurturing of the inner being is available to anyone. This is the wisdom offered by the Ageless Wisdom teachings and Serge Benhayon.

99. I love the point about not waiting for science to tell us what we already know in our bodies. This for me debunks my tendency to irresponsibility and victimhood in the accepting that I do know what constitutes responsible, loving, supportive choices.

100. Fantastic blog Julie, opening the door to an aspect of breast cancer research that could reveal so much …”Breast Cancer does not ‘just happen’ – it has a history and additional research and discovering the possible similarities in women’s behaviours may start to unravel what is really going on and be the beginning of then living in a way that reduces the incidence of the disease…”

101. Julie you raise a great point here – the fact is alcohol is the end result of a relief of tension in our bodies, so would it not be more true to say ‘numbing our bodies contributes to breast cancer’ – that makes so much more sense as I know that when I stopped drinking, I found other ways to escape and became a master of experimenting. But all the while I am letting the same energy run through my body, and yet to the outside it looks like I am making better choices. How poisonous.

102. Hi Julie, what is true for me is that whenever I lived my live (or do live my life) focused on one part and forgetting the all, then I am or quickly become completely lost. It is only when I am open to the all with the all that life makes sense. For me this is the same as cancer and medical research – if it is viewed in part then it misses out on the whole truth and that is why the conditions are on the rise.

103. Good question.. Does research look at the emotional state (stress, self care practices, personality traits) of a woman and breast cancer as well as the lifestyle choices of drinking, smoking, diet, socioeconomic or family history?

104. Breast cancer is so prolific in our society today, when is it that we are going to say all the research that is being done is just not working. There must be more to it. Only when we are open to this, will those statistics come down.

105. “we have a body that is giving us feedback all the time.” The end result of statistics depends on the data that is used for the study. Our own body is not selective but gives us feedback on every aspect of the choices we make in life.

     1. It is astonishing how our intelligence ignores the feedback and prompting from the body that we live in and which is with us 24/7, yet we pay so much attention to facts and figures that often have no bearing or immediacy to our experience of life, and at times even state what is opposite to our awareness.

     2. The point you make here, Mary is so true -“Our own body is not selective”. The results of our choices are always there. Is it that the shock we often feel upon receiving a diagnosis is because inside we know we have been caught out and can no longer keep ignoring ourselves? For many this ignoring does happen but only till the next time. Lovingly we are constantly offered the opportunity to pay attention and stop in our loveless choices.

        1. So true Julie, it’s devastating to feel a momentum of lovelessness, as a mother of 3 I am constantly checking in with myself: for example is it more important that the kitchen is spotless or that I soak in hot bath?

106. We’re so quick to listen to the Internet over what we feel in our bodies it’s untrue… It’s not difficult to prove that not everything out there on the web is correct, valid or trustworthy, whereas no one can tamper with our own personal, intimate experience of how our body feels, and only we can address the below-the-surface causes of our illness and dis-ease.

107. On the one hand we have a tendency to use statistics to avoid our responsibility and on the other hand statistics themselves are often presented in a false way and are very easy to manipulate. At the end of the day any messages we receive from our body is always a very personal message for each of us to connect to and learn from.

108. Self nurture, self care and self love towards our body as a woman would be great variables to measure or analyse in a qualitative research related to breast cancer.

109. Knowing that the answer is within is deeply empowering.

110. I very much like how this article explores the behaviors we have as women and how it is this that pushes us to live in ways that disregard our body and its very natural needs to maintain health. Clearly showing that it is not just what we do, but why we do it that needs to be addressed if we are going to make changes to the rate of deaths from breast cancer. An article that holds another way, are we ready for the responsibility?

111. A wonderful expose on Breast Cancer Julie! Much food for thought and action too. I agree with your recommendation that “It is time to question and become our own researcher with our Bodies”

     1. Great point Roslyn, as Julie shared it’s now up to each of us to take equal responsibility. For us to be the ones that build a deep connection with our bodies and not abuse them to get through life.

112. What you expose here is our ignorance to look in detail to how we live, and if cancer has to do with this. It is a great topic to discuss and see that there could maybe be more to our illnesses than that what research on numbers has to say.

113. The conclusion that breast cancer does not “just happen” and that lifestyle and personal choices contribute to ill health is an empowering view that can assist anyone to live with more responsibility and wellness.

114. Julie when I looked at this blog again the question popped up, Do we really want to know the whole truth or just part? It’s something that I would have battled with yet when we have to face the full truth many times we/I have not wanted to do this. When it comes to current medical reserach there is already so much evidence about our personal choices in our health that we have to ask ourselves why don’t we want to listen to what is already known and focus on a magic cure, when the truth is simple, consistent choices in how we live based on listening to our body are what is deeply needed throughout society? This is why I have no doubt that what Universal Medicine present will be part of everyday life for everyone in the future.

115. Research attempts to control many variables to determine what effects a particular variable has on something. Considering that many of the variables in breast cancer research are external to the woman, perhaps the breast cancer research itself needs to focus on the woman herself … her attitudes and relationship she has towards herself, self-nurture, self care, self love, honouring her body etc, which all affect her choices. Researching this part I feel would have a huge impact on the whole understanding of what’s behind the mechanism of breast cancer development.

116. As if this isn’t a clear indication of where we are heading that an article in the Guardian last year in 2016 can say, “Alcohol is a direct cause of seven forms of cancer, finds study” and few take in the enormity of what is being said. I can highlight the obvious here, but what more needs to happen for us to see we are asleep at the wheel. Not only the fact of what is being said but even when you repeat this people appear shocked and dismayed and yet don’t make a change as a result. It would seem we have given up almost to a point where words alone don’t change the scene. People need to see things lived over a period of time before they will engage it fully. For me it is clearer, live what you see needs to change, heal it for yourself and then get back into the world so others can see and feel it as well. Change can’t alone be spoken or rallied about as it’s not true anymore, live it consistently and from there people will feel it and make the choice.

117. There was a time when I would take heed and listen to everything research made. I never doubted or discerned where the information came from. I just thought it was ‘right’ and something to listen to and try for myself if it was appropriate. While I still listen to what research has to offer and it is rightly needed I do question it sometimes especially when a fact is presented and then a few years later this fact is no longer valid. This does concern me. I have come to accept that it is my responsibility as to whether I choose to listen or not, to the claims research makes and not to accept it as it is without first discerning the information for myself.

118. “Our choice to love, nourish and cherish ourselves and our bodies first, takes care of the answers.” It does indeed Julie, it is the antidote to support us live and find purpose in this world.

119. While we have fundraising programs for breast cancer that involve walking all night, marathons, extreme sports events etc, we are missing the point – and that not honouring and respecting the preciousness we hold in our bodies does not allow them to support us in the way they are truly able, and so it is inevitable that harming choices we make will have inevitable consequences in ill health conditions down the track.

120. It strikes me that so-called scientific research seems to always focus on one small detail and thus, headlines like “alcohol is good for you” sit side by side with “alcohol increases the risk of breast cancer”. And then there is the fact that a lot of reserach is sponsored and thus the outcome already pre-determined. On top of that there is more than enough evidence that corruption is rife in research; no wonder we haven’t found the answers to some of our most pertinent questions yet.

121. Yes looking at just one aspect of an ill, won’t lead to a total understanding of what has caused the ill in the first place. The fullness of everything that has occurred needs to be fully registered, so a true understanding can develop simply.

122. i love how much more insightful it is to cease behaviours not as a ‘rule’, but as a way forward for her in examining the reasons she was breastfeeding for 9 years, not just doing what the research suggests around BF to reduce risk. The driven-ness, the lack of self-worth, the pushing herself no matter how her body felt about it…. all of these ways of being seemed to have formed the energy which then led to the cancer developing. It’s incredible when you consider the implications and makes sense that the way we go about things has to be addressed, otherwise changing behaviours as a reaction to the thought of getting cancer simply doesn’t work. So many things make sense now.

123. Sometimes research discovers something but man’s intervention because of ulterior motives holds us back. There was research available that smoking was bad for our health discovered in USA many years before it was finally admitted this was true. The cigarette companies did not want to lose their revenue. The best form of research we can do is our own research experiments within ourselves, observing how we feel after certain foods or discussions. We have the ability to monitor our own health, and when we get ill, there’s another message to observe and appreciate the wisdom of the body.

124. If we apply the very simple principles of self-love and self-care based on how our body really feels in every situation, then we may be surprised at what is truly supporting our health and wellbeing and what is not. It also means we can be our own scientist experimenting and observing our own bodies. We don’t have to wait for research to come out to show what we already know intuitively.

125. Wise words of understanding and of putting things in perspective. How our bodies respond to how we live is the ultimate research that is needed in our world today, as until this is understood and widely accepted, how we live is challenged by few and our bodies are suffering from this irrepressible reality.

126. Julie, thank you for describing the limitations of our current research and outlining an alternative, which includes lifestyle and attitude or relationship with the body. This is the only way forward for medicine.

127. ‘How deeply do I care for myself?’ is a great question, and one that we can revise constantly as there is always a deeper aspect of love to honour within ourselves.

128. We are our own best practitioner, all we have to do is live by our own inner impulse.

129. Every day can indeed be an experiment Julie, well said. I started to build a much healthier relationship with my body and my understanding of my health when I stopped relying on science for answers and instead looked more discerningly at the research offered and what its motives may be. Science is not pure in its current approach, with much corruption influencing the results we see, and we don’t actually need this research anyway as it is incredible how telling the body is in guiding us to look after ourselves.

130. Julie you have clearly demonstrated there is far more going on when we understand the entire body in its reaction to the way we live and the choices we make. When we are shown a different way it makes such common sense to nurture ourselves as women, before we can nurture another. Such simple wisdom that supports the body to support us back.

131. ‘Our lifestyle choices do make a huge difference to our health and wellbeing, but these have to come from the place of choosing to self-love and self-care’, absolutely, this means looking at everything in our lives, all of our choices, am I stressed, how are my relationships, am I nurturing and caring for myself, am I connected with my body and honouring its messages-or numbing myself in the many ways possible? Bringing back self-responsibility into our lives is essential.

132. I am loving the way that you have asked the question – ‘why do we choose to drink alcohol in the first place’. This is very astute because how often do we just look at the illness, the end result of our choices, and completely ignore how we came to be ill in the first place. I would consider that this is not a fault of any one particular person or institution, but that it is merely a byproduct of the way we are all in general educated to be with ourselves and our bodies.

133. It is worth reminding ourselves that each and every single choice we make impacts on us, and on our health and well-being – so we can stop and feel in each moment is this a true choice, or is harming to ourselves and others.

134. What’s notable in your blog is the level of personal responsibility you advocate for managing our wellbeing, rather than waiting for research to give us the answers to what we can then adopt as our ‘five point prevention plan’ equivalent. Your own history of breast cancer is a must-read for any woman serious about her lifelong wellbeing and what you say about the imperative behind making choices out of self-love and self-care rather than from fear of developing a terminal illness or disease, is pure gold.

135. What you share here is gold because none of it negates the research, it has its place but it is not the be all and end all. We are a crucial factor in every situation and “we have a body that is giving us feedback all the time.” Interestingly in much research humans are the confounding factor because there are so many influencing factors that can skew the results. So being our own health researcher every day and adding that to the melting pot of decisions is highly recommended!

136. I really appreciated reading the part in your blog where you associated the researched risk factors of not getting breast cancer and demonstrated how the research just did not stand up or correlate to your personal life experience… indicating that there must be something else that was not researched .. the factor of the relationship a woman has with herself is a factor well worth studying in relation to women’s health issues.

137. This highlights the importance of looking after ourselves and feeling what’s right for us e.g. if alcohol is supportive or toxic for the body and how long to breastfeed for, as the statistics out there may not offer the be all and end all preventative solution to getting cancer or any other illness/dis-ease, especially if we don’t look after ourselves.

138. There is so much to consider when we broaden our understanding of what might have contributed to our illness and disease rather than just focusing on treatment.

139. Quite true Julie, if we pin our disease on a scientifically ‘proven’ cause then we rob ourselves of looking much more widely at the choices we make and how they are part and parcel of our health. This pushes responsibility away and we dis-empower ourselves from coming to a deeper understanding of the illness our body is communicating to us with.

140. Once all the facts and figures are revealed, this is really, only the beginning of research because this is just a part of the whole picture in terms of the human aspect of the relationship a woman has with her body, the reasons behind the choices, behaviours, social and psychological factors that accompany the facts and figures. Research has to go further and ask the question ‘Why is this happening?’ And accounts like yours Julie, is the missing part to research that needs to be included to extend and expand where breast cancer research is currently at.

141. Julie, more people should be asking the same questions as you do. The only way anything ever changes is when enough people ask for the true answers and the questions are seeking the truth.

142. The reality of medical research is narrow and limited and cannot be used alone with out true responsibility and the way we are living taken into consideration. A brilliant sharing and presentation of what is really going on .”By living in a True Way, we are our own research and every day can be an experiment.”

143. ‘Our choice to love, nourish and cherish ourselves and our bodies first, takes care of the answers.’ By choosing to honour ourselves we in fact allow our true nature to emerge. This can only support our health and well being and every time we do this we are supporting on an energetic level the evolution of humanity.

144. I have never been the least bit interested in medical research until recently. Despite all the rigorous procedures put in place, I find the whole industry quite tricky, for example, the way the question is asked often affects the results of the research. It doesn’t appear to me that researchers are particularly interested in finding truth about their subject, the people funding their research have an agenda for what they want proved and it appears to go from there. Sometimes research can actually cause confusion to people by finding that something is acceptable when it is in truth harmful. The way forward in the medical world at the moment seems to rely on its evidence base through research before it is accepted but often when studies clash, it shows that truth has not been in the foundation from the start.

145. “Alcohol is a direct cause of seven forms of cancer, finds study”. Julie this is really shocking, but great that it is the mainstream media. But how much of this are we taking on and asking ourselves about our own everyday choices? Unfortunately there are the other articles in the media that say 1 or 2 glasses is good for us. How do we know which is true? Our bodies are clearly presenting the truth to us on this, honestly listening is that next step.

146. Julie, you have raised some brilliant questions for us to ponder, ‘So ok, I can be responsible, and listen to what the research tells us and choose to not drink alcohol, but does this mean I change any other behaviours in my life?’ When we listen to outside sources for example to eliminate an addict without first healing what drives us to seek these craving in the first place often means we can easily fall back into our old addictions or find other things to replace our original addictions.

147. It is very interesting how there is a definitive link between how we think about ourselves as women in relation to the roles we play within the family and the health of our breast tissue.

148. Your response to the report on the link between alcohol and cancer is inspiring: “Ok it’s good these links are being made as we need to know this, but isn’t the next and real question: ‘Why do we choose to drink alcohol in the first place’?”. The observations in this blog show the wisdom of the choice to keep expanding our understanding of what is at play and to keep deepening our relationship and responsibility with what we are observing in life.

149. A great article Julie thank you, there is so much we need to learn about what underlies this condition. What you have outlined is what each woman can take responsibility for, regardless of whether she has breast cancer, lumps or not. What you are talking about is what it means to live and express as a woman in a way that is true to our essential nature. Anything else, and we are on our way to breast cancer.

150. There is such a difference between following recommendations and feeling what’s true from our body. I know that when I’ve been really disconnected from my body, starting with recommendations like go to bed early, no caffeine, has supported me to get back in touch with my body and from there then feel whether they are true for me.

151. Absolutely Julie, talking together honestly is the tip of the iceberg and soon the medical world will acknowledge that connection and expression is medicine.

152. “This new report is claiming that for every year of breast feeding the risk of breast cancer is decreased by 4.1% (in 2002 the Lancet used the figures 4.3%) and the Lancet also claimed for each child born the risk is lowered by a further 7%, though this one claims 8%.” Its interesting to consider the intention of these reports and how this information can be made to look a certain way. In fact they feel quite dangerous to me, for if we simply interpret this in a way that suits us then we are not be asked to take responsibility for all our other lived choices and the impact these have on our well-being.

153. It stands to reason that if you narrow your focus, you narrow what you can see. And thus, if you study the part, and not its relationship to the whole, you will limit your understanding of what you observe. And sure, the modern approach to medical research is very needed. At times, you need to cut out the white noise around you, and zero in to gain an intimate understanding of a single part. However, once you have done that, you need to sit back, and consider it again in relationship to everything else, and it is the failure to do this that is letting us down when it comes to modern science. Take for instance red wine. Sure, there are anti-oxidants in red wine, and we all know the benefits of anti-oxidants thanks to science. However, what is the point of that when red wine also contains alcohol. And whilst one may again argue that alcohol in moderation is found to relax the body and thus supposedly reduce the risk of heart disease, if one looks at alcohol in its totality and looks at the total picture – in terms of what it does physically, psychologically, and the cost it has on society, then one cannot defend its use in any way shape or form, despite what minor benefits there may be, in consideration to the whole, they are nothing. But reduce one’s focus once again to one small portion, and one can argue its benefits till the cows come home.

154. The we compartmentalise things it is easy to come to a ‘conclusion’ that is totally off track. If we don’t consider first and foremost the way, and quality in which we live and why this effects us – in every detail – there will always be a missing component in our research.

155. ‘Our lifestyle choices do make a huge difference to our health and wellbeing’ – Absolutely, all of our choices, how we feel about ourselves, the expectations we put on ourselves, the level of care and nurturing we do or don’t offer ourselves all directly contributes to the state of our health.

156. Research can be a fantastic thing. But often it seems that can be used to present an agenda or take us down a path that leads us away from the Truth.

157. You ask some great questions here Julie and if really looked into in depth by all of us especially the medical profession, I feel the truth about not only this disease but many others would be exposed.

158. There is so much more being said about how lifestyle affects our health, in particular what we eat and drink, but there are other factors too: how we are in all our relationships, the toxins we create in our bodies when we judge ourselves and others, what happens when we fail to truly nurture ourselves and honour what we feel, and there is the depth of knowing who we truly are and where we come from.

159. Reading your blog Julie, makes me see that life experience and observation are key in supporting true research.

160. The problem with research and the stats it produces is that it is founded on an intent of putting money ahead of people .. perhaps not consciously in many cases. A classic example is seen with the cigarette companies of the past and how they marketed cigarettes. Research that is done with true love and care of people in mind would never come from manipulation to try and justify something that is simply not true.

161. This is a much needed conversation, especially as more women are being diagnosed with breast lumps and breast cancer, and there is a message there waiting for us to pay attention to. The increase in cases each year is an indication that there are some questions we need to be asking ourselves, such as – What is the relationship we have with our breasts and our bodies? What is our version of self care and is it truly supporting us? How do we see ourselves as women and the roles we play?

162. Julie you raise excellent points for discussion in your article, but what struck me today is how we can give up something that is known to be harmful, such as alcohol, but if we do not understand the underlying reasons why we drink in the first place, ie the the problem we are trying to resolve by having it, then we will inevitably seek a solution in another way. I certainly did this with cigarettes; I substituted them with strong coffee and biscuits on the side and putting more food on the plate, but did not address the cause of the pain that I was madly trying to suppress. Breast cancer is now common in women from varying backgrounds and lifestyles – it is time to look to the deeper underlying cause, and investigate the woman’s relationship with herself.

163. “I had to be nurturing and caring towards myself before I can truly nurture another”. People often project their need for self-care into caring for others and they get caught up in other people’s issues which distracts them from feeling what is not working in their own life. Were we all to take responsibility for ourselves there would be a lot less ill-health and no need for people to be rescuers or do-gooders.

164. It’s odd that research studies such as that published by Sir Richard and his team are held to be the answer to the problem for, as you say Julie, they have shown a possible link but have not asked the obvious question, “‘Why do we choose to drink alcohol in the first place’?”

165. Brilliant line: ‘We do not have to wait for scientists to confirm what we can feel in our own bodies.’ evidence based medicine dismisses anything that is not evidence based and hence the innate and immense wisdom we hold within our bodies that cannot be measured or controlled is dismissed and ignored. No different to when there was a staunch defense that the world was flat.

166. Your blog demonstrates that research is not exclusive to academia alone, but simply, common sense, an inquiring mind and personal experience are the ingredients of true research.

167. While there is no doubt that alcohol is one of the major causes of cancer, we would be wise to include the other factors you mentioned; stress levels, emotional state, etc. It seems to me there are so many factors of our lifestyle that lead to cancer, we could list them all in order of significance, or; is the best indicator self love and self care?

168. Maybe every pub and bottle shop needs a sign that says “alcohol causes 7 forms of cancer”. Would it change the choices of people to drink, possibly not, but at least they would be more aware of the potential consequences.

169. I wonder if research can always study the whole of a situation to observe the truth of things? Rather that it is more orientated to focus on a part of things and isolating the parts to seek an understanding which might not allow the full truth to emerge.

170. To see breast cancer as a gift is huge. I also made the observation in my life that if I accept the illness as my teacher, I can take huge learning out of it, beyond the process that the symptoms go away. This for me is healing to deeply understand the purpose of the illness and what the body wants to communicate through it.

171. The current trend of science and medicine seems to be heading towards a greater and greater specialisation, which always risks the likelihood of becoming more and more blinkered to the whole. Also it is a sad truth of our times that research tends to be funded by parties who have a direct interest in the outcome of the findings. But even if neither of these scenarios affected the result of a research and we found ourself with pure unadulterated facts, ‘Truth’ is never static. It unfolds and deepens as our understanding, awareness and level of responsibility deepens. It is the grossest error of our time that we think we can limit ‘truth’ to a handful of textbooks or research periodicals.

172. I love how you’re asking us to look deeper at our behaviours here Julie – to be willing to uncover what’s making us choose them in the first place rather than fix a habit and end up displacing the root cause into another expression..

173. ‘Do I look at my stress levels? My emotional state? The quality of my relationships? Does it mean I will then deeply care for myself?’ This is the true way to look at the causes of our illnesses, going to the point of how do I express and in what quality do I make every movement during my life. This changes the playing field on which we have assumed the answers lie to something far more magnificent and universal.

174. “Breast Cancer does not ‘just happen’ – it has a history and additional research and discovering the possible similarities in women’s behaviours may start to unravel what is really going on and be the beginning of then living in a way that reduces the incidence of the disease.” Julie this is such an important sentence, and actually could be applied to any illness or disease. What you are showing us here is that it is quite possible that the choices that we make in our day to day live could be the precursor to whether or not we get ill. Could it really be as simple as that?

175. There is so much that an illness has to teach us if we are able to step back and observe what our body is telling us without judgement of ourselves.

     1. You make a good point here Naren around not judging ourselves as I found alot of judgement and shame came up for me around breast cancer and if I allow it to it still can however as I bring more understanding to what at the time was driving me to make the choices I was I then just need to hold myself lovingly and see I was driven by my hurts and and then need to get something from others that I wasnt bringing for myself. Stepping back is crucial in our healing.

176. This is brilliant, thank you Julie for sharing your experience as research.

     We do give our power away to illness and disease, often feeling like a victim to ‘this has happened to me’…but illness doesn’t just happen. It is pretty clear now that food, lifestyle choices, alcohol, drugs, environment etc can cause the illness and disease, but as you so cleary show Julie, we need to take it deeper and as what, why beyond the surface possible cause ???? Then we become empowered and the researcher of our own lives.

     As you state, ‘We do not have to wait for scientists to confirm what we can feel in our own bodies.

     By living in a True Way, we are our own research and every day can be an experiment.’ I say ‘Absolutely’!

177. Medical research has still to find the real ‘why’ as to both cancer, and generally to illness and disease. I wonder if it’s looking in the right place… maybe it’s not all about cells and science and there is more to the way we live than we could possibly imagine.

178. It takes great honesty and humbleness to admit that our lifestyle choices are directly related to any illness or disease we are experiencing.

     1. I agree and it is especially challenging when we think we are ticking the boxes with the choices we are told are healthy i.e. healthy food, exercising, good sleeping habits, no smoking, low alcohol etc. However if we are diagnosed with something then is this not exposing there is more going on?

179. I find this quote quite incredible … ““Alcohol is a direct cause of seven forms of cancer, finds study” The Guardian. 22 July, 2016…” and then we see T.V. advertisements and billboard posters promoting alcohol (e.g. beer adverts – especially approaching any holiday period such as Christmas) .. Ummm… What a clash of clans we are surrounded by … Proves just how much one has to take responsibility of their choices and of their own health when there is bombardment on the consumer of unhealthy products.

     1. This is true Johanne we are constantly bombarded with that which does not support our bodies, whether it is advertising, special offers on foods in supermarkets, the latest TV food programme and yes it is easy to be sucked in. I have found as I become stronger in myself and valuing the quality of how my body can feel and claiming what is true for it, it becomes easier to pass these by.

        1. This is awesome Julie and another vital key you share again… “as I become stronger in myself and valuing the quality of how my body can feel and claiming what is true for it, it becomes easier to pass these by….” This proves so clearly how Self Care and Self Love are the key ingredients to true health.

180. Its a mark of a true inquirer Julie when you have looked and considered beyond the boundaries of the fence with what current research presents about breast cancer, to shine the spot light on what seems to be the underlying energetic factor contributing to this disease…. To self nurture, to self love and the relationship a woman has with herself seems to be at the bedrock of what makes the difference for woman health.

     1. So true Johanne there is so much we can do for ourselves to support our health yet we have come to rely on researchers, scientists and doctors to tell us what we should and shouldn’t do with our bodies. As Julie has shown in this revealing blog when we start to look deeper than the physical illness at hand it becomes easier to see the part we have played in creating the illness in the first place.

181. Great article Julie, and very exposing of the fact that we simply cannot and should not rely on what is apparently ‘medical evidence’ to give us the whole truth. At the end of the day it is our bodies that speak truth. The question is, firstly are we willing to listen to them, and secondly are we prepared to be honest about how we have treated them and from there to make different choices as to how we take care of them.

182. One of the problems with health is that many people just want solutions, a quick fix for their lack of health; to be responsible for their health and how they live seems to be too big to fully embrace. What is it going to take for people to fully accept that how they live directly affects their body and their health?

183. Out of all the research and shed loads of money spent on the real cause of cancer over the years, if summed up and made simple, could it all just be that it comes down to the choices we make and how we chose to live?

184. There is so much that we don’t want to understand about cancer, yet your story here Julie really explains so much and more. That there is more than just the physical at play. That there is more responsibility we need to take and be aware of than just us turning up at the doctors and expecting them to ‘fix’ us.

185. It a great conclusion Julie, we can choose everyday to explore all our choices and how they affect our bodies. Yet specifically to breast cancer, the way you have brought your understanding of the importance of ongoing research back to how a woman nurtures herself feels truly important.

186. A cracker of an article here Julie, thank you!
     It probably time for breast cancer research to delve into qualitative research with these questions…” Do I look at my stress levels?” … “My emotional state?” … “The quality of my relationships?”… “Does it mean I will then deeply care for myself?”… with all women, those who have not had breast cancer, with women going through breast cancer treatment and women post breast cancer. I’m sure there would be very interesting and a wealth of evidence that can be correlated showing some insightful trends and relationships.

187. It’s so key that self-responsibility is needed to look deeper than the symptoms into what is going on. As you say, the way we live, the quality of our relationships, our emotional state, all have parts to play in the overall state of our health. How could this not be the case? It’s something that we can tend to avoid, but if we make the time and effort to adopt self-responsibility in this way, it is actually possible to transform our health.

188. The How’s, What’s and Why’s of life, asking questions and observing our bodies….becoming our own scientist….we can become baffled by research, I agree it has its place, and it can support a great deal, however we will always know our own body best if we commit to honouring what we feel.

189. When you think about it, it’s absolutely dumbfounding how we can be told something is bad for our health, or even deadly, and we can feel the negative impacts on our bodies and we still choose to do it. Why do we override our our own knowing and the obvious ill results? Why don’t we love and care for ourselves enough?

190. It is a great point that you make here Julie ‘I know when I stopped alcohol I found other ways to bring stimulation and numbness to my body just as alcohol used to. There was no self-responsibility present in my life to look any deeper.’ Unless we are willing to look at our core issues and the way we live, we will only turn to another form of ‘medication’ and blame that for our illness.

191. ‘It is time to question and become our own researchers with our body. ‘Great question Julie which can be followed by why have we been so happy to defer this responsibility to other ‘authorities’ for so long?

     1. Is it possible that we are giving our power away by not taking responsibility for our choices and ignoring what our body is telling us and relying on outside sources, for example research to tell us what is good for us and what is not? Ultimately, we already know this information and our body is the best guide to what is supportive, nourishing and nurturing for our body. It is pretty intelligent and appreciating and honouring our body is hugely empowering and deeply healing.

        1. Absolutely Henrietta – far more is known in our bodies than research has yet to rediscover and so in taking responsibility we can feel that there is so much more.

192. Medical research has brought us higher survival rates once we are diagnosed with breast cancer. What medical research is still waiting for is a reliable way to reduce the rate of being diagnosed with breast cancer.

193. The research that we read all has to be paid for and so often those making such an investment do not do so without their own interests being served and this should be considered carefully before taking on the results as truth or a balance reflection. Even the subjects and topics of research which gain funding are dependent on those with the power to make such decisions deciding that they are indeed worthy of it.

194. “….we have a body that is giving us feedback all the time”.
     As we develop conscious presence in bringing the mind and body together, the awareness of the feedback messages from our body deepens and that we may have previously numbed or checked out from becomes very clear. Once in communication with the body again, there is opportunity to make new choices that support true health and wellbeing.

     1. True health and wellbeing, joy, harmony, fun, being of service, the list keeps going!

195. As women we can be the authority of our own bodies and actually have a sense of what our bodies need to feel whole and healthy, and science can confirm this, make it a reality and a part of education so that all women everywhere can know and live with self-love. With this, the lived quality of a woman is the science that comes first and the laboratory science comes second, but not to override or dominate, but actually to support and confirm what has been experienced.

196. And yet I read the other day that a beer every night is good for you. So who is right? This the problem with bio-medical science. It is simply not producing consistent results to make it dependable as information on which to base our lives. Much better in many regards to look at the obvious – alcohol has direct effects on us that doesn’t need a scientific study to prove, and it is obvious that if we need such a substance to disconnect us from the reality of life in order to make us “happy”, then are we not better to look at the root cause of our dis-satisfaction with life, rather than rely on a crutch that by all accounts is not actually healthy for us, and whilst it may in a few studies be shown to have some kind of remote benefit, on the whole is a destructive substance.

197. “We all have a body, which very clearly shows us the result of what we choose.” And this statement is an absolute game-changer, with the power and strength of truth of such resonance that could, if understood, felt and embraced, change the path of humanity into a fast track of evolution.

198. We all have a body, which very clearly shows us the result of what we choose. We do not have to wait for scientists to confirm what we can feel in our own bodies.’ Great point Julie. And shows the complexity that we have made, the power we have given away to others, the way we shirk responsibility – when we can very simply start to listen to our own very amazing instrument, our body.

199. Absolutely Julie, ‘Our lifestyle choices do make a huge difference to our health and wellbeing, but these have to come from the place of choosing to self-love and self-care rather than because I am living in fear of developing a terminal illness or disease.’ A great sharing Julie.

200. Why and how is it that the whole world is not looking to improve or at least reflect on their health and well being. Will it take a plague like in one of the zombie movies my teenage daughter watches to wake humanity up? Are we not realizing that we are already in a global crisis with hospitals all around the globe completely overwhelmed… Blogs that hold and ask this type of responsibility of the reader are just paramount in our current climate of ignorance.

     1. Great questions to ask Sarah. The thing is we already have many plagues but are not seeing it or rather maybe we are just accepting this is how it is because choosing ignorance is a convenient way to live because then we don’t have to change anything? I know until I met Serge Benhayon I had no awareness that I was actually not very well at all, not just physically but emotionally and in my relationships, and it took 2 bouts of breast cancer to bring responsibility into the equation for true healing. I remember after the first diagnosis standing in my kitchen and having a ‘tantrum’ because I was saying ‘but I like being a mother and doing what I do’ I was so stubborn I did not want to change or see that how I was mothering was killing me. It wasn’t about being a mother, it was that I didn’t feel myself as a woman first or have any idea this is what needed honouring and nurturing and because I had no connection I couldn’t feel the harm I was doing to my body. Before and after Serge Benhayon I thought I was being caring and responsible towards myself, so all the breast cancer was showing me was how wayward I was. It could bring me back to me if I chose this. The first time I did not but the second time I did and it is because of experiencing this defiance of the part of me that didn’t want to admit the lie I was living that I can see how it may be a while before more people come to admit to themselves (even though they know inside) their choices got them to where they are.

        1. Sometimes in all honesty I miss that ignorance, I crave to be free of responsibility, even fantasize about it. But when you really break it down, it’s like wishing you were blind so you didn’t have to witness war. Regardless of your particular vision, the war will still be happening. Would it not be braver, to stand in truth, lead the way for all that may be watching, be in your power and face all your demons?

     2. Well said Sarah – at first it may seem ridiculous to liken the shock humanity needs to wake up from its self-induced hibernation from awareness to a zombie outbreak in a movie but it really has come to this when we already have modern day plagues; exhaustion, diabetes, obesity, depression and mental health conditions and so on, which do not even seem to have our collective attention for more than a short time, a fleeting headline or passing documentary on TV.

        1. Sometimes I just think I want to shout from the roof tops, what are we all doing! Why are we endlessly consuming beverages and foods that are killing us! I then realise that the only way to wake people up is to live a vital and inspiring life, as much as I want to shout at humanity, I have tried it and it doesn’t work. I would like to make a cool fun short film about it though, now that might be a good outlet.

     3. Are we already at the doorstep and near the tipping point of global pandemics? We have super strains of bugs that are immune to antibiotics and super rats that are immune to poisons. We only just put the Ebola genii back in the bottle and how do you stop a flu that has wings? Country’s have national plans for dealing with Avian influenza. Could the biblical flood to cleanse the world on its way but we choose not to see it?

201. This is indeed an article worthy for a much wider audience to read, as it brings to the fore, just how much more there is to the causes of breast cancer, and that we are very focused and knowledgable on one part of the whole, but there are also other areas that have associations to breast cancer that need to be researched. Our body is not only a functional unit, but one that makes choices related to our capacity to be self caring, self nurturing and self loving, and this is ‘the other side of the coin’ that needs to be incorporated into breast cancer research.

202. I agree absolutely with what is shared here “the one thing they have in common is that they put others before themselves and that they do not take care of themselves nor do they spend time to self nurture.” as this has been the common thread with every woman I have spoken to who has experienced breast cancer as well as not even knowing or understanding what self nurturing is.

203. Why do we need to be told by research what is good or not good for us?
     Why don’t we listen to the wisdom of our bodies? Why are we so ‘sophisticated’ that expensive research is needed to ‘frighten’ us into avoiding substances linked to cancer? In any case, knowing something is bad for us, doesn’t make it easy to choose not to ingest it – every smoker on earth knows they are inhaling noxious fumes into their lungs – the question we need to be asking is WHY do we feel compelled to ingest things we know are not good for us, when we are the most intelligent species on earth, yet no animal lives as we do?
     Hmmm, not so intelligent after all.

204. Great article Julie, one that needs to be published far and wide, as there is so much misconceptions about breast cancer and cancer in general. I have spoken to hundreds of women with breast cancer and the one thing they have in common is that they put others before themselves and that they do not take care of themselves nor do they spend time to self nurture.

205. A great subject, Julie. Ideals and beliefs bring us often in a tension and pressure which is not supportive for the body. As women we can look how those ideals hold us back from whom we really are.

206. It is a great point Julie makes about how breast feeding may contribute to developing breast cancer because of having a picture of being a perfect mother. I too was invested in a picture while I breastfed my three children, putting them before myself. It never occurred to me to question how I was feeling during the nine months as I breastfed them and whether every feed to breastfeed was supporting me. Since being introduced to Universal Medicine I am learning to take care of myself and this is having an impact on my children where I am developing a beautiful connection with them as I build on the connection to myself.

     1. I agree Caroline, the pictures need to be examined and exposed for the adverse pressure they bring and we agree to put on ourselves to fit in with them. Letting them go feels a great release so we can return to how we truly feel to be.

207. Becoming the researchers of our own bodies, playfully and curiously observing ourselves as science experiments can be not only very empowering but also an appropriate responsibility to take – rather than waiting for issues to arise and then expecting someone else to solve it.

208. There is so much that you have presented on Julie, posing many great questions that I feel could be given a lot more air time, in the media, in our homes, work environments and the like. How we live is a huge contributing factor to what presents in our bodies, so what is presenting for women, as you say shouldn’t and can’t just be based on research alone, it needs to come back to how each women is living and the choices she is making.

209. Your experience shows us that there is so much more involved to the disease process. It seems like the very nature of research narrows down or reduces the possibilities to one cause or another when there are many variables… particularly the aspect of how a woman nurtures, self cares, self loves. This aspect is an area that we could graphically and statistically see more correlation with breast cancer and other women’s health issues if it were to be researched.

210. Uncovering the deceitful way we have been living behind our illness and disease by taking responsibility for our lifestyle choices and all the little warning signs our body has offered us along the development of illness and disease in our bodies is key to responsible and healthy living.

211. Great questions Julie for us all to ponder. Being a survivor of Breast Cancer I can categorically say that medical research and western medicine is absolutely only part of the story. Completing the picture is the quality of our energetic presence and living.

212. It’s as though the constant search for the cause of cancer is so we can blame something. With blame comes an avoidance of responsibility. To accept that the way we are living is the cause of cancer is a biggie and it is much easier to find a different cause, than spend time and resources backing that up to prove it so that we don’t have to look at the truth.

     1. Is it we keep looking for something to blame as we don’t want to really change anything, we prefer the comfort of how we are living and there is a part of us that actually enjoys the ‘un-comfortable and struggling’ in our lives? Effort and responsibility comes into play if we really want to make changes and I know for me I tried to avoid full responsibility and what’s true after the first diagnosis of breast cancer. So it is incredible the lengths we will go to and how stubborn and defiant that part of us can be, even when we are faced with the illness or disease.

213. Putting all this effort in research is widely used as an excuse not to look at one’s own life-style choices. Research is needed, of course, but can not lead us anywhere (as statistics are showing) unless we look at our choices and intentions first, honestly so.

214. Your article offers a stop moment for everyone facing serious illness or disease to look more closely at what is playing out.

215. Research does have its place for sure – but if research is tainted by beliefs, a desired outcome, vested interests, drive for recognition then the founding basis of that research must be questioned, and if the majority of our evidence-based medicine is driven by any of these factors then we must be very aware of what we are being offered as the outcomes of such studies. The place of the individual and their observations has been actively diminished by this paradigm, but this is where the true power of discovery lies.

216. There is indeed many things to explore when we consider how the quality that we live in may affect our health and well being. Science is often only trying to deduce the one factor or variable that causes an illness, but more and more I understand that it is simply not just what I eat or how much I exercise or don’t but whether my body lives in harmony and this is an energetic quality in addition to my external environment and influences.

217. It is so common that women see the caring of their children as more important than the caring of ourselves, I have done the same when my son was born. It is an illusion that this is love. The truth is a woman connected to herself does not ever value anyone or anything above or below herself. There is a responsibility as women we do not shy away from this truth and to live it and see it till the end, with lots of re-correcting, reactions and imperfections undoubtedly, but to still be unwavering in expressing what is true.

218. Thank you Julie, your article is showing that the way current science is doing its research is only a small part and is missing the whole. Your sharing of how you were breastfeeding was contributing to your breast cancer is a clear example of this. We give our power away to research, instead of going into ourselves where the truth is to be felt. Like you say; ‘By living in a True Way, we are our own research and every day can be an experiment.’

219. ‘It is time to question and become our own researchers with our body. The ‘Why or What?’ of our choices is what counts.’ The why or what drives our choices that contribute to our ill-health is certainly worth investigating. The more I engage with these questions and unravel what drives my behaviours the richer and more joyful my life is.

220. What you share here Julie is revolutionary. It is not the usual way to look at health care. Anyone reading this will have their eyes opened considerably and will have the choice going forward whether to be inspired or not.

221. It is worth considering that any vice or habit that we have, is a form of addiction. If we were to take this seriously and be willing to look at what it is that is driving us to continue with these habits, we would be well on our way to realising that it is patterns such as these that are what we use to stop us from feeling our hurts. And as long as we hold on to our hurts they will stay in our bodies causing dis-ease and eventually they become a physical manifestation. So it becomes clear why expressing how we feel, in any given circumstance is so important.

222. As a women who has also been driven in life to do what is expected and please others I am fully qualified to confirm what you share. “Our lifestyle choices do make a huge difference to our health and wellbeing”, when coming come from the place of choosing to self-love and self-care. This is very worth studying and researching with outcomes that will support everyone.

223. I love how you have shared about continuing to breast feed may have been contributing to your breast cancer because you put the children as more important than you. There are so many ideals and beliefs around being a good mum and parenting that it is very very common to make everything and everyone else more important than you… and the damage is done to you for making this choice in the first place.

224. Esoteric Medicine brings another dimension to understanding health issues that complements what Western Medicine has to offer. To truly heal and for the alarming rise in cancer, diabetes and obesity to name a few to turn around, requires us to take responsibility for our health by understanding why it is that these are occurring and to take the necessary steps for prevention which means taking a good look at the way we are living.

225. Yesterday I heard a conversation about drinking being the new alcohol. A great step forward. The conversation was along the lines that drinking is not good for us and that slowly the government has a huge financial need for educating people as the tax income on alcohol are lower than the costs of the rise of illnesses and diseases that are related to alcohol.

     This is a great step forward to be talking about in the public arena (which radio is). But how loving would it be to start the conversation about why we actually drink / need alcohol? I was talking to a client yesterday and discussed with him how it is possible that we actually have discussion on a substance that is obviously harming to the body. Could it be that this is because we don’t like to be told what to do or what not to do. What if it’s not about drinking alcohol or not drinking alcohol, but that the true discussion should be on the amount of love in our society and finally how much do we truly care and love ourselves. And alcohol is one of the great substances that actually takes us away of caring and loving ourselves (and so others).

226. “Breast Cancer does not ‘just happen” Thank you Julie the responsibility you have shown in looking into why you got breast cancer is truly inspiring. No illness or disease just happens there is always a way of living behind it that has contributed. When we can look honestly at this with out bashing ourselves or judging ourselves then the real healing has truly begun.

227. The message of this blog is ground-breaking. Whilst much of society is careering ever further away from the truth that our bodies are screaming at us, I do feel that there is a growing groundswell of people who are beginning to have this dialogue, realisations, awareness that there is so much more at play than DNA or genetics. And your article takes it even further…beyond the superficial appearance of the ‘right’ lifestyles to the actual truth behind what we are choosing and why. This is the beginning of the answer.

228. The ideologies around how we should care for our kids are so strong and embedded that many, many mothers and fathers completely lose themselves in the process. I am one of those and have many examples of when I put the kids first – before me. But what I now know is that not only does this not support me it also doesn’t support the children, because whatever is going on for me, affects them. So, actually, whatever it is that I may have chosen is not even good for the kids after all!

     1. Great point. I also know that as a parent when I martyr myself for my kids, that is what they are then learning to do to themselves and the cycle of lack of self-care (responsibility) perpetuates.

229. As a young and newly exploring mother, I was exposed to a culture of thinking about breastfeeding as something that you do until the child says no. So there were mothers who were carrying on feeding their children from their breasts well until the child was in school, simply because the child had not yet said no to breastfeeding. Now, I am firm believer in allowing everyone the freedom of choice for how we all want to live, but what I felt from this culture was that unless you breastfed in this way for this long you were not an adequate mother, you were in fact far short of the mark and were actually harming your child. This was heartbreaking at the time and it seemed that no matter how much I gave of myself and sacrificed my own well being, it was never enough and I was always constantly bombarded with feeling a failure. This, I can see now, is not a nurturing culture for women as we learn how to mother and to take care of our selves. So, in terms of breast cancer, it is very astute here for Julie to look at the whole picture and say that things just do not add up and that there are ways of thinking running through our societies that dearly need to be addressed if we are to bring breast cancer to a stop.

     1. Thank you Shami, it makes sense that our breastfeeding choices are part of a culture. What I can see for myself in hindsight is there was already a great disharmony in my body and lack of relationship with myself, which affected my thoughts and beliefs I held and breastfeeding was a way to make me feel better as a person, which covered up my lack of worth as a woman. What I find interesting now is that even though my children are teenagers occasionally I behave in a particular way and then afterwards realise it was coming from the same place as when I breastfed. So even though I am not actually breastfeeding, I am being driven by the same energy to get something I need. To me this highlights it is not breastfeeding which is the issue but what is that is driving us to make the choice and what is the quality we are really offering our babies if, as you say, we are not mothering and nurturing ourselves first?

230. ‘By living in a True Way, we are our own research and every day can be an experiment.’ Expressed beautifully Julie. Research evidence should never be a substitute for developing a true relationship with self.

231. “I know when I stopped alcohol I found other ways to bring stimulation and numbness to my body just as alcohol used to. There was no self-responsibility present in my life to look any deeper.” There is absolutely another level to this Julie, its madness to quit alcohol and assume we are then delivered ‘wellbeing’ – Our lack of self responsibility wants it to be this easy – wash our hands and its done.

232. “I know when I stopped alcohol I found other ways to bring stimulation and numbness to my body just as alcohol used to.” This is so common Julie, I stopped smoking and consequently increased my alcohol consumption instead because I had not dealt with the underlying dis-ease that I wanted to smother up, in my case an immense grief and sadness. Dealing with the nature of the habit has to include looking at, feeling and exposing the under lying emotional pain that is driving it and in my experience, the Universal Medicine Healing Therapies are the most effective and direct way to do this. Years of trying to give up alcohol in the knowing that it was not good for me never worked. After just one Sacred Esoteric Healing session that addressed the grief held in my lungs completely severed my need for alcohol or any other substance required to numb my body and my pain, a clear indication to me that our emotional diseases drive the way we behave and require our utmost attention.

233. In fact we are all scientist of our own body and we know how to be with it to let it prosper and evolve to a healty body that is void of the ailments we otherwise bring to it if we consider ourselves the recipients of life and at the mercy of what science brings to us.

234. The Universal Medicine Therapies are the only ones I have found that address the root cause of illness in a way that empowers me. The approach of these therapies is complementary to medicine, and something I have appreciated greatly over the last decade.

235. “We all have a body, which very clearly shows us the result of what we choose.
     We do not have to wait for scientists to confirm what we can feel in our own bodies.
     By living in a True Way, we are our own research and every day can be an experiment.”
     Beautifully said Julie. And the more we allow ourselves to honour what we feel, the more confident we become with expressing the truth of what we know deep within.

236. ‘When self-love and self-care are in place, we feel worthy of caring for our bodies and the knowing to not drink alcohol, or eat this or that, whether to breast feed or not, or for how long, is naturally there.’ So this means that the focus is not on what we do to take care of ourselves, but to change our attitudes to our own bodies, to truly feel our tenderness, fragility, delicacy, deep within, and then everything else comes naturally.

     1. Absolutely Carmel, what I have come to learn is that every choice I made along the way was simply down to the quality of my relationship with myself. This is what has needed addressing all these years and it was after I was diagnosed with breast cancer that this is what I then started, by nurturing me first, to develop in myself so I could then feel my natural tenderness and delicacy. As these qualities became a new marker in my body, making choices then became about how my body felt not what my head, a book, an article or a friend was telling me. As my love and appreciation of myself is forever growing, my body has become worth looking after especially as it goes with me everywhere!!

237. Research is great and without the scientific advancements we would not really be a functioning society today. The problem is that we have taken things to the extreme, so no longer have to really face the consequences of our actions. For example we could gorge ourselves silly, as we are super sensitive and cannot handle what we are feeling, become massively obese and then have some form of liposuction or gastric band etc.. so it gets us back to a functioning state but does not address the real issue which led to it.
     Universal Medicine combines the energetic understandings with western medicine and this is what is needed to come at things from both angles, so we can clear and address the underlying root cause whilst also removing the life threatening or debilitating physical manifestation.

238. No research will bring us The Truth. It might supply part of the Truth, depending on the integrity of the people researching. The Truth is forever expanding and forever evolving. So once we’ve got an answer, that is a true answer, that answer is part of the truth. And should be embraced and appreciated deeply as such. Truth is beautiful, but should never be championed into a belief. Rather used as a great step forward to delve even deeper into the halls of Wisdom.

239. Great article! I know when I stopped drinking I found many other ways to numb myself and today, these ways would appear quite harmless to another, like over eating but to me I know exactly why I do them, when I do them and the effect they will give.. so really, they are not much different to drinking the alcohol, other than the fact that alcohol is a poison.

240. “There was no self-responsibility present in my life to look any deeper.” I feel this is the key to the current state of our healthcare system… the old biomedical model has encouraged this lack of self-responsibility and now we are reaping the consequences of it – people have handed their power over to the doctors, when in fact what we now need is to hand the power and responsibility back to each one of us. We each know to the tiniest detail how we have become ill, and therefore have the power to heal ourselves through taking responsibility, being honest and transparent with ourselves.

241. ‘So what is the purpose of all this research? Is it just buying time away from Truth?’ Absolutely, this is an incredible line that when answered truthfully exposes how we continually shy away from truth and will use any form of distraction to do so. The welcomed distraction leads us away from having to take responsibility for our every breath.

     1. The purpose of any research that doesn’t come from our soul is to keep us wandering around in No Man’s Land a bit longer. God only knows how many years we’ve wasted as a result of medical research that has come from a dishonest energetic source.

     2. Delay, delay and a bit more delay.

242. It is very interesting how we need to go to the extreme of proving the negative effects of a substance in order to consider if we should have it in the first place. The fact is our bodies know well before any research what is and is not supportive. The fact that alcohol can lead to an altered state of mind, unconsciousness, addiction and abuse is a pretty key sign that it is not loving. So we have to ask ourselves why are we ignoring our bodies?

243. Julie, thank you for writing this article, I feel blessed to be reading this and it is a wake up call to truly nurture and care for myself to prevent a diagnosis of breast cancer, I can feel in the past how I have been very harsh and not had loving thoughts about myself and have put others before me, this really stands out for me, ”I came to see after the diagnosis how I had to be nurturing and caring towards myself before I can truly nurture another’.

     1. Thank you rebeccawingrave for your honesty. Recognising this behaviour in ourselves is so important and an opportunity to stop and reconsider. I find there are times when I can look back at a situation in my day and if there is an undesired outcome that comes back to me not putting myself first I then see how I simply just need to address something in my relationship with myself.

244. Cancer is a terrible disease. Why is it that we almost wait to be diagnosed with cancer? Or any other form of illness or disease? Why do we accept life to be this way? Because it’s simply not natural and not normal if we would truly start listening to our bodies and from there living ourselves. We’re to admit that there’s something much grander at play. That we’re not just the powerful, individual choice makers, we (arrogantly) think we are – there is more at play. It isn’t normal, actually very sad in my observation, that we poison our bodies in a million different ways. Yet, we call it normal… Medical research isn’t the be all or the end all. It would and could be very supporting if it would come from a curiosity and intention to evolve us all equally. Unfortunately it’s not.

245. When our body and being is our of balance we invite in illness and disease. To bring our awareness back to the choices we are making and how deeply we are caring for ourselves is essential to restoring our health and wellbeing. And maybe something we are not used to taking responsibility for.

246. Great article that totally makes sense and asks us to go beyond the rule book of good for you/bad for you. The difference between choosing to make lifestyle choices from a place of true tenderness and love for oneself, a deep honouring of oneself for the precious, delicate being we are, is so, so different to the hardness I can be with myself doing something/ not doing something because it is good for me; any true healing is obliterated by the should, what is supportive can go unheard. So that’s me thinking a food is bad for me without consulting my body. Or me thinking exercise is always good for me when actually, at that moment, my body needs rest. but it’s the force I can do the good things with that can be harming because that force is itself disharmonious and disruptive to the natural ease a body can live in; that has to register in the body somewhere.

247. This is an excellent blog, and makes so much sense. It is rare that we take truly loving care of ourselves first, easy to see then how issues build up over time because of this. We equally have the capacity to correct this omission which has to benefit all in the long run.

248. How clear does the message need to be about the way we live our life leading to the fact we get sick? Whilst there is still more acceptance of this fact to go perhaps, and as you share Julie, it will only be when we start to address what is driving us to abuse ourselves will we be willing to be more loving with ourselves.

     1. I agree MA what more will it take for us to see this link? That how we live and the daily choices we make affect are health, well-being and vitality. There is so much to learn with this and it may be a bold statement but through what I have experienced there is only one way and one truth and that is the Way of the Livingness … that how we live affects our all/everything within our lives and only we can change this. Our health truly is in our hands. We don’t need to spend trillions more pounds or dollars on research and studies etc we just need to change the way we live ✨

249. It’s so common and so easy to use substances and food to numb ourselves. And often we don’t admit that we do this. Admitting it would mean having to take a deeper look at what we are wanting to cover up. But as you say Julie, this is the way to uncovering what lies beneath illness. Our willingness to do this is actually life changing.

250. You are so correct Julie, when you ask the question what is the purpose of this research and write, “It is time to question and become our own researchers with our body. The ‘Why or What?’ of our choices is what counts.”

251. Believing in research is not much different to believing in God. It is giving our power away. Truth comes from living in connection.

252. “Do I look at my stress levels? My emotional state? The quality of my relationships?
     Does it mean I will then deeply care for myself?” It is the quality of our living that determines our health and wellbeing. If we ignore certain areas of our life such as stress levels or our relationships because life in general is not too bad, we can find ourselves with an illness that when looked at can be related back to an area in our life we have not given enough care or attention to.

253. “I know when I stopped alcohol I found other ways to bring stimulation and numbness to my body just as alcohol used to” – yes Julie, same here, and could also be things too like over-talking, story-telling, over-working or eating or even as I did over-dosing on consuming “healthy foods”… “because they’re ‘healthy'” – it is, and life is, in regards the receiving quality by ourselves, such a refining process that requires continual honesty about why we do what we do; choose what we do; consume what we do…it is the move and desire towards wanting awareness that changes the quality of life for the true better.

254. In the end it’s not our behaviour that causes illness and disease, but the choice to not take care of ourselves by allowing non-loving energies to run (through) our body instead of claiming our love and follow the impulses that come from there. As long as science is based on a tangible outcome, energy is not taken into account. Quite interesting considering the fact that we’ve already accepted that everything is energy. Which means that we are energy too and that energy runs through our body. Could it be that the intelligence of our heart plays a much bigger role than we currently choose to see.

     1. Floris what you have shared is the crux of the matter. Basically there are two camps, truth and not truth, there is no middle camp, no transitioning area. What comes out of each camp will lead back to that camp, something can’t leave the camp of non truth and end up in the camp of truth; therefore when we consider any-thing (medical research for example), then we must ask ourselves one simple question…”what camp does it come from?”.

255. It is so true Julie… an illness doesnt ‘just happen’ – there is always a momentum of the way we have been living up to that point that contributes to any illness or disease. When we say something ‘just happened’ it is really us saying we dont want to look at or take responsibility for creating the illness in the first place.

256. There is a huge difference when we follow an ideal or belief, and when we follow an impulse that comes from the truth of our very being. I remember feeling quite strongly when my son was 18mths old to stop breast-feeding – it felt timely and true, we both felt ready for this at that time. However I overrode this and continued until he was nearly 3 and then it was a challenge to stop – there became quite a dynamic between us that complicated something that could have been very simple – all because I was following an ideal and not what I naturally felt was true for both of us.

257. We see stress and other symptoms in isolation and not as part of cancer or something that confirms we are well on the path to cancer. When we connect to ourselves we can sense these things and address them sooner.

258. ‘We do not have to wait for scientists to confirm what we can feel in our own bodies.’ I absolutely agree with this. Why wait?

259. When you say it as it is Julie, it becomes obvious that the way we live can have a huge lack of responsibility in many areas of our lives. We can look at this and actually appreciate that we’ve noticed what is truly going on, only then can we start to make some changes that will grow and grow.

260. It seems there is much more to becoming ill than we let ourselves see. Joining the dots between becoming sick and what our choices are makes much sense, but perhaps our resistance to making this connection comes from the possibility of what it would mean… a change of way of being…something that we are reluctant to do?

261. I think this is an incredibly important topic Julie and one that so many people can support in discussing openly and with responsibility. When we mention responsibility with health often we are met with incredulousness that we could be so cruel as to mention that we have played a part in our illness. Without an understanding of reincarnation etc how our particles vibrate in harmony or not with the world around us it is easy to think our health on the levels of cancer is beyond our control. But as we are in a total crisis now I feel it is not too far away that people generally start to join the dots and start to look deeper into the causes of illness and disease.

262. Reading your article Julie has made me realise how little responsibility I take for my own health. I know I have underlying health issues which I am choosing to ignore as I prioritise everything else above myself. It is as if I do not feel worth investing in and yet I would happily invest in an asset such as a home seeing it as something more worthwhile. It is as if the security of a home and a job will give me something and yet we know that in truth our health is our wealth. I’ve shocked myself as on paper it looks like I lead a very healthy life, I don’t drink, I don’t smoke, I eat a healthy diet but unless I look at all areas of my life including the underlying stress and anxiety which I live with I am not truly caring for myself.

263. “Do I look at my stress levels? My emotional state? The quality of my relationships? Does it mean I will then deeply care for myself?” Simple but powerful questions we should all be encouraged to ask our selves, not just when we get sick, but in our normal every day lives. If we really made the effort to regard our selves in this way, to focus on the quality of the lives we lead, we could save our selves, both individually and collectively so much distress.

264. Love this eye opening presentation Julie. I consider it a blessing that our body shows us the choices we are making and we are always in relationship with it. As a being we can live very driven by pictures, of being a ‘good’ person, fantastic mother, problem solver etc but if this is not founded on true self worth then undeniably we develop anxiousness, which can be the engine until such time we stop working.

265. Truly loving ourselves in every moment and choosing from this place seems a good place to start. Research is important yet it can be contradictory and the part of us that doesn’t really want to take responsibility can use the limitations of research to justify the behaviours that they want to indulge in. Yet, in our hearts we know the truth and we know what is the best thing for our bodies.

266. In research, one of the most difficult items is dealing with what are called confounders. For example, coffee drinkers have higher levels of lung cancer than non-coffee drinkers. The reason is not the coffee directly but that more coffee drinkers smoke and the extra smokers account for all the extra lung cancers. Coffee seems safe to drink if you are only concerned about lung cancer.

     Smoking is a confounder as it affects both coffee consumption and lung cancer.

     If there is such a thing as energy that influences everything, then you have a universal confounder, driving many, many apparent connections but the true cause may be a change in energy. It would be a simple explanation of much confusion that is prevalent in medical research.

267. What if connecting to our own precious inner-heart would lead to the love we so crave. And if we would make choices from that love, we would support ourselves in the best possible way!

268. In our world where we are still tiptoeing towards the fact that our lifestyle may in fact, contribute in a substantial way towards the cancer that we see, you take these one-off throwaway headlines Julie and blow them away. For if we are honest how often do we look for one reason for an illness or situation, rather than considering everything? What your beautiful examples show is there is a huge arrogance in us that tries like anything to avoid the ‘why’ of what we do and the simple eternal fact that there is a consequence to the energy you choose. This is the missing ingredient we have always known but not wanted to acknowledge and change our attitude to.

269. Whilst research focuses on the symptom and does not look farther afield than the obvious ’causes’, it will not bring the truth but only a part of the picture.

270. Well said Julie, we are so quick to try to find a blame or a reason for something yet so reluctant to actually take responsibility for ourselves and our choices.

271. ‘If I bought into what this research is claiming, I could be left feeling quite bitter and cross,’ This definitely fuels the often asked cancer question ‘why me?’ I have often heard people talk about this in bewilderment as they felt they had done ‘all the right things’ and can’t understand why they still get cancer. It does make you wonder about the usefulness of stand alone research in supporting women who have breast cancer. Bringing in what you are sharing here Julie is the missing link and is so needed, not in the science lab, but in having conversations with women about their lifestyle choices and collating that data for further research.

272. ‘I know when I stopped alcohol I found other ways to bring stimulation and numbness to my body just as alcohol used to. There was no self-responsibility present in my life to look any deeper.’ This is so important to realise that if we simply stop one form of behaviour without understanding and working on the reason why we made those choices then we will simply use a new form of behaviour as a result of the unhealed issue. Our behaviour is the symptom of our ills not the problem in itself.

273. Medical research does bring about some very needed temporal aspects of understanding illness and disease, however, as a stand alone it does fall short of the full picture. It is clear to me that temporal medicine needs to marry esoteric medicine and from here we can then develop an understanding of the responsibility we all hold in the development of illness and disease as individuals and also as a collective society. And again the next step from here is to embrace that responsibility whole heartedly and learn to live it day by day, with no perfection here asked, but with integrity and dedication to the bigger picture and the important role we all play in every small, yet grand, way.

     1. The power in marrying western and esoteric medicine is immense as both offer great support for the illness or disease that is being encountered. Having experienced breast cancer I could not have gone through this experience with only one and not the other as they both had a part to play in my healing. The way I explained this marriage to my consultant was that in the space that lay between us we each brought something, so he brought his knowledge, skills and expertise and the responsibility of knowing there is more than just this physicality that needs addressing. As it all works together, this then brings the opportunity for true healing.

274. There are so many variable (socio-economic, diet, alcohol, weight, age, reproductive history, family history) linked to the development of breast cancer, variables that affect some women and not others… which seems to make it a bit of ‘pot luck’ if you do or don’t develop breast cancer.. yet the emotional health (self esteem, self worth, Do we live in a drive momentum?, whether we self nurture?, self care?, self love?, do we disregard ourselves?, what is the relationship we have with ourself as a woman?) are very much variables that have not yet been included into many research. These variables certainly have an effect on the way a woman lives her day and I feel would have an impact on her body.

275. I know when I stopped drinking alcohol 24 years ago my sugar intake went through the roof. My carbohydrates also increased and when I say sugar I actually mean honey, maple syrup, chocolate, dried fruits and loads of fresh fruit. I am sure my digestive system was turning the sugars into alcohol. Slowly I weaned myself off all sugary replacements and now I do not get those swings from a high to low or from racy to sleepy as I have no instant fix that eventually used to let me down.

276. For much of my life (or pretty much all my life) I’ve had a kind of competing relationship with myself. In the sense that I would take care of my body on one hand and also would see how far I could go without my body protesting too much. Doesn’t this actually sound very unnatural and unnecessary? Isn’t this the seed for illness and disease in the long term? I’ve found that by reconnecting to my body, there’s a lot ‘hidden’ in my body that I’ve chosen to not be aware of, yet these energies are running through my body every minute of the day, one day after another. Wouldn’t it be wise, natural and loving then taking our body just a little bit more seriously in the sense of listening to it on a daily basis. It might reveal a lot about us and could actually be our greatest friend and barometer of where we’re at. The support that our body can give us and the other way around could be worth exploring. I will continue doing so.

277. “I consistently put my children’s needs (and anyone else’s) before my own, as I was so set on the picture I was holding of being a perfect mother to breast feed which led at times to me compromising my own health and well being.” I would say this is true for many many mothers. Generally speaking, we have such high expectations of oursleves to know everything there is to know about caring for our children right from the word go, and if we get it ‘wrong’ we do very well at beating ourselves up. But uf we allowed ourselves to nurture from our inner ability to connect to who we are as women and our innate wisdom, bringing up children and tending to their needs, or indeed looking after anyone, would simply flow naturally, without any need from us to prove that we are doing a ‘good job’. Building this connection with ourselves is key to potentially preventing illnesses and diseases such as breast cancer.

     1. Yes Sandra, these expectations are there as soon as we become a parent and I’m left now wondering why when we have had no direct learning on the subject, we only have our own experience of being parented. We spend many years in school learning many subjects but the one thing we are currently never encouraged to pay attention to is our body and relationship with it. Now having listened to Serge Benhayon in presentations and at workshops this makes no sense as it is our body and quality of self which is performing all the tasks!

278. As you have stated in this blog Julie, it would serve us well to be asking questions and doing studies on how women with cancer live and the choices they are making, and have made. Obviously this applies to men and all types of cancers also.

279. ‘Their relationships, and quality of, with themselves, with their breasts, with their bodies, with others?’ This would be such a fascinating study of women in connection to all illnesses and particularly cancers such as breast cancer. I imagine the results would be quite breath taking, after all is it not the case that if we had a truly loving relationship with ourselves, our breasts and others that the need for other harming stimulants such as sugar, caffeine and alcohol would no longer be needed or wanted? I feel the starting point is how we care and relate to ourselves as this determines how we relate to others and how we feel about ourselves. If we feel connected and love ourselves why would we want to put alcohol in our bodies? We just wouldn’t.

280. I have always felt that when claims have been made through research that if they are true they should apply to everyone without exception however this is not the case, as is seen in this blog. Only through Universal Medicine have I found truth which does not have contradictions or exceptions in that it applies to all equally so all of the time. Would it not make sense to make sense to make this the basis from which we then conduct our research and understanding of health and life in full.

     1. The trouble is that there are no instruments sensitive enough to record what applies to everyone, except the human body but that is not a machine. Hence it may take a little longer.

281. When we study our actions without taking time to understand the motives behind them, we cut out an enormous part of the puzzle and hence the results we come up with will only show us part of the picture. As untidy as they might seem to the scientific world of research, quality studies are the missing part of the picture that offer us invaluable insights into the real causes of disease. Julie, your journey through your breast cancer and the way you have addressed the entire experience is powerful evidence that it is time we start questioning and taking responsibility for the ‘why’ too, uniting the whole picture and our immutable responsibility for our own health within it.

282. It feels to me that medical research can be tricky because it has to be impossible to completely eliminate bias. It is reduced by the procedures that are put in place, but it can be very dependant on the wording of the question getting the desired result.
     For example, it had been well researched that red wine in moderation was good for us by the mayo clinic and now research says it’s a direct cause of seven forms of cancer. It can all be pretty confusing if we depend solely on research. I used to drink red wine but I know in my body now that it feels much better without it. Relying on what we feel in our bodies is the best research project ever.

283. We cannot just look outside for advice in regards to our health and bodies and then make sure we tick all the boxes, we actually have to connect with ourselves first and start to understand the wisdom that is innate in our bodies, from there we will know what is a sound way of living for us. Thank you Julie for starting this much needed discussion.

284. Research is an important aspect of building our understand. But too often its intent is manipulated by those that fund it and over time has begun to diminish the responsibility we all have for listening and responding to our own bodies.

285. What I get from your sharing Julie is how important it is to make true choices rather than so called ‘good’ choices. As the good choices may look good on the outside, yet they’re not made from true responsibility for ourselves and our life. These choices actually end up holding the world and other people to ransom and blaming them for whatever happens. The perfect set-up to ‘prove’ that life doesn’t support us. Where in fact (!!) everything in life is supporting us to be honest and truthful so we’re able to return to live the loving Soul we all are. Not always easy, yet definitely worth it and very needed if we have an honest look to the world (greed, wars, rates of illness and disease etc.).

286. ‘ I know when I stopped alcohol I found other ways to bring stimulation and numbness to my body just as alcohol used to. There was no self-responsibility present in my life to look any deeper.’ Interesting how we can replace certain foods and drinks to keep ourselves numb. That means we are still doing the same thing, nothing is changing. It may look healthier but energetically it’s the same.

287. Top Blog Julie Snelgrove – informative and sharing your own life experience. This bit sticks out for me – “Are we not short changing ourselves when we simply read and take on only what these studies say, rather than coming back to what our bodies have been telling us for a long time?”
     Most of us are in the habit of reading something or hearing another tell us what they have read and take it on board like it is custom made just for us and there is no other way. We tend to shut down and not explore or ask more questions. So in some way we just seem to accept it and this is my understanding of short changing ourselves when there really is so much more as you clearly describe here.
     There is more on this blog to comment on as you raise some great points. Thank You.

288. It’s interesting to see how we have developed our way of understanding from looking at a part of things rather than the whole such as in this research. It is as though it is a relief to find an answer that fits in anyway so that we do not have to keep looking and risking having to look at the whole truth and the answers that would bring.

289. It would seem that some correlations to the cause of some cancers seem obvious and yet we seem to not consider more widely the quality that we live in.

290. How different would life be if we would go to see a specialist or doctor from the fact of self-responsibility in the sense that we would see him or her, asking for support and sharing with them (!!) what we feel ourselves what the (energetic) reason is why we’re having the illness or disease. And in the dialoque that follows we actually lay a foundation of a co-operation on working together in order to support the healing that is taking place. Each doing their part of the job. Wouldn’t this be the same as asking a builder to build your home or a cook to make you a great meal. This isn’t normal yet, but what if we could work towards this. It would take the pressure off the medical system and it would bring us (back) the responsibility that we’re actually looking for – which is sharing our love. First with ourselves and from there with others.

     1. Floris for the first time un my life I have recently shared with my Dr my feelings about why I am having the symptoms that I am. I have negotiated with him a treatment plan that involves me taking responsibility for how I am and also the prospect of taking medication if i am not able to alleviate my symptoms in 3 months. It feels a wonderful collaboration of traditional medicine and energetic responsibility. The other thing that has been reflected back to me is that my relationship with the medical profession has changed because in the past I would have done whatever the Dr suggested, as a result of feeling that they know more than me, even about my own body!

291. A wonderful blog about taking responsibility for our lives. Going deeper to find out what is really going on, not just accepting blindly what the “experts” are saying. Do not settle, ask for truth in our lives. This is how we can change the world.

292. Being our own researcher is deeply empowering and a true game changer.

293. What I am seeing is that it’s not about what we do or don’t do so much as how we are that results in our illness and disease. I mean we could eat the latest healthy diet, exercise every day and be totally angry, sad, lost, checked out, given up etc. How healthy are we really if this is how we are? And this is not often taken into account.

294. Medical research definitely brings us part of the truth. The question is, how big that part is and if important parts are missing.

295. Julie I read another piece in the press about how much smoking causes changes in our DNA, this is science showing the damage that something causes which is great to see, but as you say there was nothing in the article about why hundreds of millions of people still choose to smoke and why.

296. I love the self questioning here, why do we drink alcohol? I know I used to drink it for a myriad of reasons which once honestly felt, empowered me to stop ingesting it all together to the enormous relief of my liver! Up until meeting Serge Benhayon however, I never used to question why, just give myself a hard time for not being able to quit. I was not a heavy drinker but definitely a consistent one. I used alcohol to numb out the immense grief and depression I felt, I drank it because I was exhausted, needing the sugar hit and needing to fill a void. I regularly suffered the consequences and it’s not until I was given a few simple tools, The Gentle Breath Meditation being a very powerful one, that I could take a step back, observe myself and my choices and start to address the real ‘why’s’. And once we have exposed them, we give our selves the opportunity to alter our choices in a positive way, so that the drive behind the habit gets healed and the desire to drink (or smoke, take drugs or consume loads of sugar) simply dissipates. We definitely need to bring all our attention to why we choose to harm our selves with such substances, highlighting their effects is just the first step, asking ‘why?’ opens up the potential to truly heal our selves.

297. “….as I was so set on the picture I was holding of being a perfect mother to breast feed which led at times to me compromising my own health and well being” – how many times or instances of whole life itself including the workplace do we have a similar picture-postcard of the ideal way something should look or be to guarantee [our] success to the outside world. When that success costs health, wellbeing, and senses of worth or value then such success is nothing but of the illusionary kind – short lived, petering away into nothing or depletion in the end. Success i find is the fullness and vitality of an honest and self-respecting body.

298. Julie I agree that it is not just about “getting” a disease, or we’re protected from it because we breastfed our babies for so many years, but as you say there are many reasons. One of these reasons and perhaps the most important one is, do we self nurture? We have learnt through Universal Medicine and the presentations by Serge Benhayon that we must love ourselves first, for without this love we can not love anyone else.

299. How would it be, how would we live and what choices would we make if we would deeply love and care for ourselves?

300. The question is clear, the answer not (yet). Of course we’re ourselves the biggest part of any answer. Everything that happens in our lives is happening because of the choices we make or have made. So when we’re ill or diagnosed with a disease, we could (should?) reflect on the choices we’ve made up until that point in time. Without any judgement, but using the opportunity that is presented to us (yes, opportunity) to reflect on the choices that we’ve made. The life-style choices that is. Sciencific research supports a lot towards understanding any illness or disease. In the end it is up to us to feel why this specific form of illness or disease is happening to us. Any kind of illness and disease has a certain ‘name’ such as breast cancer, but every single person that is diagnosed with breast cancer should on an individual level assess which choices led to the diagnosis breast cancer. Because for everyone this is unique, even though it might seem (syptom wise) to be equal.

301. “We do not have to wait for scientists to confirm what we can feel in our own bodies.” This is very true but we need to develop a relationship with our bodies in order to hear the messages that our bodies are confirming us with. And that takes a level of honesty and a willingness to take care of yourself so you can hear it. Thank you for showing us a way that you can hear what our body wants to share with us.

302. ‘Breast cancer: does medical research really bring us the truth or just a part of it?’ – There is so much conflicting research out there that appears to change as time passes, one minute something has been ‘proven’ to be a cause of breast cancer and then several years down the track another report will say it has ‘proved’ that it is health promoting. There are many variations that need to be considered when we are considering our health and the part we play in this. The most profound learning I have had in supporting my own personal health has been the growing awareness of my own body, how my thinking affects my body, how my movements affect my body and the responsibility I hold in the choices I make. There is energy running through our body all the time and being aware of how this works has had a profound effect on my life and my health. Serge Benhayon has presented that everything is energy and everything is because of energy. Checking in with my body and feeling this for myself has shown me the truth that is in this teaching. It is empowering to know we have a choice and the level of health we choose is up to us.

303. It is so very true that “We do not have to wait for scientists to confirm what we can feel in our own bodies. By living in a True Way, we are our own research and every day can be an experiment.” Even when we have no inclination of listening, our body does speak so loudly at times that we have no choice but to hear – such as throwing up when intoxicated, a hang over after drinking, a cold when we neglect taking care, an accident when we do not pay attention. I have found the more we listen the less loud the messages get, yet they keep coming whether we listen or not. This is quite a blessing, loving prompts from very committed and loving friends our Soul and our body – well worth paying attention to.

     1. I agree, Golnaz. The more we listen, the more messages we get and they don’t have to be uncomfortable at all.

304. History shows us that medical research can either confirm the truth, or depending on the agenda behind it, it can also hide the truth.

305. Great article Julie. We can give our power away to research yet research is there to indicate problems. Research is a powerful tool but how we use that tool is the key.

306. As we get all these research findings from the outside which tell us what is right or wrong for our body, I am wondering why we do not research on our own and find out what is working for us well? Since I am studying with Universal Medicine, me and my body is in focus and I become more and more aware of what choices bring in what kind of results in my body and into my living. A official research can maybe confirm my realizations – but not more. We are all scientists of our own way of living. If we claim that, we get our power back. The power we’ve given away to others. This is a real revolution for me.

307. Cancer is a big scary word, and the less we talk about it the more scary it is. It is worth looking into every aspect of why a disease may materialise. It is worth talking about it and considering everything there is to consider. The fact that research may not be accurate can point us in the direction of taking a really good look at whether this is true for us or not. It can open the way for discussion and contemplation. It’s better to have everything on the table than nothing.

308. We definitely are our own experiments and research. I look forward to research being able to support a deeper level of questioning.

309. “Alcohol is a direct cause of seven forms of cancer, finds study” How long will it take us to respond to this fact? The fact that the Government still regards alcohol as a high earner in the tax revenue stakes exposes the immense level of disregard that we have accepted as the norm in our societies. What is so crazy is that the tax revenue raised by alcohol sales just gets spent on propping up a bankrupt health system that is overwhelmed with treating people who are developing cancers due to alcohol consumption. It really is time to start exploring the ‘why’ behind the ‘what’, because until we do, it seems we are very willing to continue “robbing Peter to pay Paul” and kill our selves in the process.

310. We are in dire need of a change in perspective, a change to what we research. We know that illness and disease is increasing rapidly, but we seem stubbornly resistant to look at how we live. It is still about fighting illness when this is a battle that can’t be won. We need more humbleness in discerning how we live, and what we react to, what we absorb and how this affects us. Our dietary recommendations are corrupt and our ability to form relationships with ourself and with others is shallow particularly in men, and I being one of them, do not have deep and meaningful support networks, and we see that in the suicide rates, and the lack of willingness to be on the front foot with our health and actually be open and transparent about our lives.

311. The best research is as you have said Julie, us and our bodies! The outcome of our research has no predetermined outcome other than to question the choices we have made and the effects they have had on our bodies.

312. Just to look at stress levels can already be a great reflection on how we are living and what kind of ideals and beliefs we foster which in the end are robbing our life energy and leaving us empty and sad.

313. “It is time to question and become our own researchers with our body”- So true. Our body doesn’t lie, and reveals the way we have been living even if we choose to override or numb the messages we are getting.
     Unfortunately, it is often only through serious illness or cancer that stops us in our tracks, to really look at our lifestyle choices and emotional status/ thoughts, and then begin a process of true nurturing and healing.

314. I think medical research is super important, but only brings part of the truth. If it brought it all general world health would be in excellent shape instead of the devastatingly declining state it is in.

315. We have always known that our bodies are an amazing reflection of how we live our lives but we don’t usually consider this until something goes wrong and stops us in our tracks – and even then sometimes we continue in that drivenness that you speak of Julie. It is amazing to feel the love and support that is there when we begin to reach out and accept that maybe we haven’t been living life so well (pun intended) after all and as we allow ourselves to open up we can begin to feel the grace we are offered as we learn to let go and become more self loving and nurturing.

316. Julie, it is really helpful to read your article, I can feel how I have always put my son first and still do. I love this, ‘It is not that women should or should not breast feed, but rather that the consideration is what is true and supportive for them and their own self care and nurturing, not just their babies.’ There is so much pressure on women to do what is ‘best for their babies’ and very little consideration about what is best for the women themselves and as you say we can’t fully care for and nurture our babies if we are not first caring for and nurturing ourselves.

     1. You are right Rebecca there is a lot of pressure on parents to do the best for the children, but what if our best is taking care of ourselves first and our best is being ourselves and offering them this as a reflection rather than a run down overstressed, always trying to please, need to feel needed and exhausted body that then develops a serious illness or disease. Where does this fit into the ‘good parenting’ book?

317. When we look at how we are living, it doesn’t take much to see that we have gone astray from a loving way that we could live with everyone, and people often might think that’s not possible. But Serge Benhayon teaches that it is very possible and perfectly feasible to live more harmoniously with each other when we accept it’s our responsibility and choice to live by listening to what we know inside. Illness gives us an opportunity to stop and return to this way by listening to the body.

318. Perhaps more qualitative research is needed to expand and get underneath the underlying common themes so we can get to the core of the emotional health issue that’s driving dis-ease.

319. By living our true way it is the only answer to our health and illness and disease and we all know this deeply inside and our bodies are telling us everything we need to know. The art of listening to our bodies is something to nurture and claim back for ourselves and this is being shown to us by Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon leading the way for true responsibility for ourselves and humanity.

320. Great article, really getting to the bottom of the role research has in our society. It is so fickle and as you describe, if you had bought into what some of the research was saying about breast feeding and the direct link to cancer, you could have ended up bitter and resentful for your choices. But there is so much more to it and research makes these bold statements and then just leaves them hanging out there in society. It is time we listened more to our bodies and ourselves, less about what ‘research’ tells us we should or shouldn’t feel.

321. What I have noticed about a lot of medical research particularly about major illnesses, is that they are based on trying to find the holy grail – the one environmental factor outside of us that is causing it all. A lot of money and time on research is dedicated to trying to search for this missing piece outside of us. However what if the missing piece was inside of us all along? There seems a reluctance to look at our emotional state and the way we are living energetically on a daily basis. Is this because it would be more convenient to find something outside of us, because it would mean we don’t have to look at how we are living and feeling on the inside?

     1. This is true Andrew there is a constant search for the answer to the causes for this or that. And I used to do this all the time – it always felt a relief when I came to see or be told it was because of x,y or z. Life could make sense again. However now I am left wondering if this ‘relief’ was because yet again i was off the hook and not having to take responsibility for myself and choices. What I am feeling is there was one part of me that knew taking responsibility was the answer but another part of me was always trying to steer me away from this as an option because then as you say ‘the missing link’ would be found.

322. Julie you bring up an important point when you share “I know when I stopped alcohol I found other ways to bring stimulation and numbness to my body just as alcohol used to.” For most of life we are taught to make changes for the better, the problem is: what is the quality of those changes and do we then settle for what is better. I’ve heard about this a lot in the past year but not really connected to it in the same way as when reading your blog today. The whole world is set up to improve our lives, yet if we do a different activity and it has the same effect on our body, what has really changed?

323. There is such a responsibility in reporting on medical research. Everything that is written is going to be read or heard by people who will be directly affected by it. To receive partial information on only one aspect of a disease can be extremely harmful, and people can act on it without a complete understanding. Unless the whole picture is presented it is a dangerous game to play with people’s health in this way.

324. Our scientific research into cancer and indeed all other illnesses is quite awesome but is only part of the picture. When we begin to research the reasons why, which is extremely possible, we will then empower ourselves to see the whole picture – the big question then is: “Are we ready to go there?”

325. Julie you have exposed here the ‘missing link’ in all the discussions of health and well-being and making life-style changes. Yes true health is founded on making specific life style choices and giving up addictions, but without a self-loving relationship with ourselves, this may not be enough. The missing link is ‘developing a relationship with self’ so profoundly expressed here Julie and a simple message to all: love, take care of you, nurture yourself first above all else and your true and lasting healing will follow.

326. “The question that came to mind was “Ok it’s good these links are being made as we need to know this, but isn’t the next and real question: ‘Why do we choose to drink alcohol in the first place’?” ” This is such a great question Julie, and as you say one that is so frequently overlooked. And the same can be said for so many things that we do in life – why do we we choose to eat so much sugar, salt, processed foods in general, drink excessive amounts of coffee, smoke cigarettes, take drugs etc, etc. The list goes on. There is indeed so much medical research that suggests that all ofthe above aren’t good for us, and that we need to pay attention to how much of anything we consume, but never are we asked, ‘so why do you eat/drink xyz in the first place? What is it about your life that you are avoiding by filling your body with these substances?’ There is so much more for us to understand about illness and disease if we really want to find some true answers as to why they occur, and your blog is definitely bringing a new and very valid approach to how this can be implemented.

327. If I bought into what this research is claiming…yet still I developed the disease” – quite Julie, which shows that one could well feel bitter about this [not that you were yourself, as you share], which indeed indicates that there is something more to things, or than meets the eye. An open eye is the eye of responsibility; a closed one that of its abdication…how many of us do do this, and at times deliberately so under a banner of ‘research’ that we hold to ransom, to not see the life[style] we’re leading/its quality, and what that’s amounting to in regards to our body’s stasis of harmony.

328. Epigenetics is an amazing area of science which begins to show how our choices affect the expression of our genes and in the development of physical characteristics including disease and illness and yet this is repeatedly overlooked by such research into possible causes of diseases such as cancer.

329. “If I bought into what this research is claiming, I could be left feeling quite bitter and cross” as many people do Julie. What is astonishing here is that your blog is completely free of any bitterness towards your cancer, in fact quite the reverse. This in itself is extraordinary, not because you are resigned to it, but because you claimed responsibility and chose to look deeper than these surface factors and in doing so, discovered that there is a whole new level of taking care of one self you had never dreamed of and one you had not, up until this point in time, ever ventured into.

330. It is natural for any woman diagnosed with breast cancer to ask the question ‘why me?’ The questions at the end of your article Julie, not only would support research, they offer great support to women by asking them consider their relationship with their body. With honest appraisal we all can open up the possibility of healing at a deep level.

     1. This is an interesting point that there is value in these questions in another way, in that yes it could wipe out the ‘why me?’. A woman could consider the questions then possibly start seeing a picture for herself. It would be a supportive step in her healing. However the challenge is always whether someone is willing to take responsibility. Thank you Jane for bringing this to the conversation.

331. It makes complete sense that taking care of ourselves, honouring and listening to our bodies is the foundation of our own responsibility in health care. What a difference this must feel like when we do require support by a medical practitioner – the doctor can then support a deeper understanding of the cause because both parties aren’t trying to deal with or avoid the life style choices that are blocking true healing.

332. A great question that you raise Julie that needs much deeper study and consideration. I have observed that although many relate lifestyle stresses to causing illness and disease in general, they stop short of linking it with cancer. And yet it is scientifically proven that that how we are affects the hormones and chemical structure of the body.

333. What is the point of research? That is a great question. It is an exploration by the mind of the world. If it is combined with intuition, it can be very powerful. Otherwise it is quite expensive.

334. ‘I was absolutely absorbed in this role and paid no attention to my own well being through the process nor had any relationship with myself as a woman.’ – It is very interesting how we identify with our roles, as if they were carved in stone. Why is it that we in our society have never been encouraged to honour what feels right for ourselves, as opposed to copying that which, in this case, most women (mothers) have done before us?

335. This is perhaps the wakeup call we need to no longer be a victim of illness but say ‘well how am I living to provide a body that can get to this state?’ Wow – even grazing a knee gets sympathy from someone, but what if we turned that around and said ‘the grazed knee is just a result of you choosing to run fast and not be careful – so it is a message to slow down’ – This turns health and sickness on its head and puts us in the driver’s seat.

336. Self-empowerment is the answer to our current health system. It is beautiful to be educated as such here on this website. Thank you.

337. The way most view illness is that it is a dirty word, often something to be ashamed about and frequently a thing to be fought and overcome. Yet in fact with stories like yours Julie it is easy to understand how illness presents itself as a result of choices, whether we have been making self loving choices or not so responsible, it can occur, yet it is always an opportunity to bring a deeper homeostasis to not only our body but to life in general, the way we are with ourselves and with all those around us.

338. Being responsible can be interpreted in various ways. There is the level of responsibility that we all know about, and that is eating a healthy diet, not drinking ourselves into oblivion, or not drinking or smoking at all, taking care of our children and families, working to support ourselves financially etc etc. But there is a whole other level of resposnibility that comes with taking true care of ourselves and the choices we make in our day to day lives that has a much bigger impact on our own health, and also on those around us. And it is to this level that we really need to start looking if we are really to begin to make a difference to all illness and disease and how and if it affects us. With this deepening awareness and understanding of our own part in why we get sick, it is possible to address the underlying causes of diseases such as Breast Cancer, and to begin to make some real breakthroughs in how they are approached and treated.

     1. And it is a blessing to have the opportunity to know about this deeper level of responsibility and to know how to live it and, especially, to be open to this opportunity when it arises.

339. ‘By living in a True Way, we are our own research and every day can be an experiment.’ Beautiful! It inspires me to take responsibility and understand, every day is a gift and an opportunity to learn, deepen our relationships with ourselves and with others.

340. It is a beautiful way to look at life and one’s own body as being a scientist observing what is going on and step by step understanding the language of the body and what our bodies want to teach us.

341. Through your experience Julie you have much to offer women in terms of bringing understanding as to why we might develop breast cancer. My understanding is that looking at life style in terms of self-care, self-nurturing, the quality of our thoughts, our relationship to ourselves and to others is not something generally discussed with doctors…perhaps it needs to be, as an overall holistic approach in treating the disease alongside other treatments.

342. It’s interesting what you’ve shared about what happened when you stopped drinking alcohol in the first place Julie, that you then discovered other ‘vices’ and means to distract or numb your body which could equally contribute to the eventual illness, in the same way alcohol may have by damaging your body.

343. It is so important to understand that whatever we do, the energy from which we do it is key. What you share here on this Julie is paramount. We can do everything ‘right’ but from a place of fear or using discipline and in doing so are still feeding the very thing we seek to heal. To make a real change it has to be a shift in energy so that we are sourced by our connection to love and hence are acting in truly self-loving and self-caring ways. As you state here – ‘This is what matters’.

344. This article adds to my developing clarity about the true meaning of responsibility – not a burdensome duty but a loving relationship with myself as an integral and essential part of the whole. Appreciating and accepting responsibility is changing my perception of myself from a victim of circumstance to a purposeful, respectful and endlessly inspired member of humanity.

345. Thank you Julie, you have given us an insight into the true underlying causes of cancer as there is more to meet the eye when it comes to considering the quality of our choices and movements in life as being contributors to any disharmony in the body. Anything that compromises our bodies will eventually create a disharmony that can result in an illness such as cancer, so self-caring and self-loving choices as you have shared is the way forward to true health and wellbeing.

346. Julie, you certainly bring another facet to the way we look at illness and disease and how we can take true responsibility for things. There are many things that we can take on board thinking they are part of something that actually supports us or heals us, yet in the end they are a distraction from what truly heals us and form a delay from us actually learning from the illness and disease. But even this distraction is a choice, which in the end we must come to terms with. And so it pays to be astute and feel things step by step, keep things simple and practical and always feel from the heart what is needed next.

347. I love reading this quality of research into how we can live so in tune with our bodies way beyond what the ‘statistics’ are revealing and also showing how we do have the choice to not be part of them. Universal Medicine you rock!

348. Your blog shows us very clearly how the way we live on a day to day basis (our choices, our emotional health) can either be medicinal or poison for the body.

349. In a world where governments, the media etc tell us what they want us to know, is it not indeed time to start looking to the wisdom within our own bodies, to really feel and make choices based on what is true for us and society at large?

350. Julie, the way you speak about breast cancer with so much clarity and awareness is incredible. It is a real testament to the way you have addressed the illness and dealt with all aspects of it. Listening to you talk takes away the layer of fear that I have lingering beneath the surface.

351. ‘So what is the purpose of all this research? Is it just buying time away from Truth? And if we keep believing and accepting the latest research this and research that, is it possible that all we are doing is delaying finding the truth of why breast cancer, or any other disease, is on the increase?’ – Superb questions Julie – is it time we start looking at the wider causes of breast cancer or any kind of cancer, as opposed to pouring money into a huge money making industry that is stuck in the old ways and that keeps looking for the so called answers in the laboratory?

352. There is a great need for medical research yet I would say there is an even greater need for people all over the world to become their own scientist so to speak by learning to observe and listen to their body and respond to what it is telling them. That way we can get onto things much quicker and also come to see that the way that we live does have an effect on the body.

353. As we are the authority on our own bodies it makes sense to be our own researchers and the experiment itself. It costs nothing and could actually be fun. We would have a body that thanks us as we start to become more aware of, and eliminate, those things which have a disharmonious and destabilizing effect upon us.

354. I have a huge interest in science and research, but it seems for too long have we been merely seeking out and finding correlating patterns between scenarios, then assigning a causative relationship between them, giving it a label and think we have gone as far as we can go. Yet the more we look at the universe that we are part of the more we observe that there are intricate relationships with a grand order that blows apart anything we have managed to even imagine. Why are we so arrogant in claiming the small picture view we have through our research is the full answer? It makes sense for us to be forever open to expanding our understanding about what is going on, especially when we can get insights from our bodies. Thank you for this blog.

355. Some great questions you raise here Julie, there is a level of responsibility you are asking women to take for the choices they make, and the underlying reasons for them. It is great to have research that shows a link between things like alcohol and cancer, but it is just scratching the surface of what we are needing to understand about what it is that eventually becomes breast cancer, or any other cancer. What you shared about your own life and choices around breastfeeding, the underlying reason you did so for that long, and the lack of true relationship with your breasts and yourself as a woman are fascinating factors we need to be paying attention to.

356. When people are faced with a terminal disease or serious condition it is very shocking, because we are led to believe if we live a good life, If we do well financially or identify with some aspect of society then we have succeeded, but are always devastated at the face of illness and disease which is simply presenting that perhaps there is another way to live.

357. ‘When self-love and self-care are in place, we feel worthy of caring for our bodies and the knowing to not drink alcohol, or eat this or that, whether to breast feed or not, or for how long, is naturally there.’
     This is so often the missing link in much of the research to date. Thank you Julie for this brilliant article.

358. The numbers around the risk of cancer are interesting and it is beneficial to look at them and to consider making changes in our life. But these risks are only part of the story, as we don’t get 60% of cancer – we either do or don’t and if we don’t, it may be something else. If we then get cancer, there is a huge amount we can do to deal with this cancer in a supportive way.

359. Often the research is a convenient reason to not to look at the whole picture to the point that we believe things which simply do not make sense until they are later disproved in a conflicting study.

     1. A great expose of our ‘use’ of research to avoid taking responsibility for what we innately know from the wisdom of our bodies.

360. “There is now enough credible evidence to say conclusively that drinking is a direct cause of the disease…” This is a massive statement which should by rights be plastered over every newspaper, billboard and the internet every day. How can we still endorse the consumption of alcohol if it is now conclusively agreed by our scientific experts that it causes cancer? What this tells me is that our addiction to this sinister poison runs very deep, if we are so willing to push aside this statement and continue to endorse the consumption of alcohol without batting an eyelid. Even more reason then to examine the ‘why’ behind our choices and habits, because it is evident from this behaviour alone that we have some very deeply ingrained self harming attitudes that need owning, exposing and healing if we are to have any hope of effectively dealing with this devastating disease.

361. Imagine buying a health magazine with an article like this in it, imagine if the conversation around health was all about the quality of the way we think about ourselves and from here how we then treat ourselves? As women we are so critical of ourselves and yet it is something that is rarely if ever discussed.

362. Interesting sharing and very honest sharing. I have the feeling in breastfeeding children for too long is like draining oneself in not wanting to let the child gain independancy. And this pattern if not healed could support disease as it drains the mothers energy level, as breastfeeding becomes an indulgence for herself and is not anymore supporting the development of the child. There are so many ideals and beliefs around breast feeding, which we need as women to honestly look at in order to regain our true power as a woman.

363. From our care and love of ourselves comes the clarity about the choices we make – this is a really beautiful consideration, Julie – and it takes all the struggle and convoluted mental gymnastics out of our decision making. Thank you

364. Great questions you pose for us to consider here Julie, so relevant taking us to a deeper understanding of the causes of breast cancer; in fact all cancers. I agree with you wholeheartedly it is time for us to become the researchers of our own bodies.

365. Our lifestyle choices do matter. They are our own personal choices within our own lifes. They are either connected to life or rejecting / against life. Isn’t it actually ‘logic’ that we have a responsibility towards life to connect to it? Isn’t our life precious enough? What I’ve always found quite amazing is how sad we are when people die, but actually never (or rarely) have celebrated or appreciated these people while they were living. We’re worth taking deep care of ourselves. And of course our chances of a serious illness or disease are lower, but if we happen to become ill, we’ve been living a quality of life much more joyful, simply we’ve been much more of ourselves. We might be worth it to be responsible. Not for everyone else, but because it’s lovely and natural to forever increase our responsibility.

366. What you’ve described Julie really highlights how we can tick all the boxes in terms of doing what is medically advised to reduce the risks of conditions or illnesses, such as breastfeeding or vaccines, but our choices and how we look after ourselves still has a huge impact on our health.

     1. Susie, that is very true.

367. When we take the time to ponder ‘our body is the marker of truth’ (Serge Benhayon), we will deepen our relationship with our body and the feed back it gives us. But without this understanding all the other medical advice, surveys and statistics is building information that does not relate to the root cause of dis-ease in the body. When we finally connect Esoteric Medicine and Traditional Medicine, will we begin to see the complete relationship and the responsibility we hold for our own well being.

368. Your blog Julie, highlights the fact that we tend to look at anything but ourselves to blame our mishaps on and so we feel a victim of a disease, a rape, an accident. Research also tends to point the finger at some outside cause like ‘alcohol’ but if we examine who drank the alcohol and why, we might then get some more profound insights into what is actually going on. To do this though we need to be prepared to take responsibility for our actions and this is what stops many of us from looking beyond the surface.

369. We most certainly are short changing ourselves if we hand over our knowing of our body’s wisdom and natural homeostasis to be harmonious with everything around it, when we override this knowing and just accept the current day’s thoughts on illness we reduce ourselves so massively it is criminal. We rob ourselves of love.

370. Excellent medical article Julie. One that certainly should get published beyond just this blog.
     It makes way too much logical sense to take into account the lifestyle of the person when diagnosing an illness or disease. Why on earth we over look this is beyond me. In fact, I know the reason to be because we simply don’t want responsibility for the choices we have made, but ultimately it is us who loses in the end, when we leave our bodies, our lives, up to others to deal with.

371. It is like there is a big resistance to us looking at why we drink alcohol, it is always joked about that it’s fun and for many they couldn’t bear that fun being taken away, for many years I couldn’t have. And to consider more deeply the why we need it would require us to look at feelings and emotional reactions, and so often this is considered ‘psychobabble’ though really it is just a reality we avoid. And of course it is not just alcohol, but any behaviour that deep down we know isn’t good for health, why is there not open discussion and media on why we behave the way we do, tv programmes, news articles etc. Human intelligence needs to be questioned much more deeply, I was ignorant to these important factors until I heard Serge Benhayon talk on them, and then it was very much, well of course that makes sense, we do act out of protection and hurt, and its rather obvious, and only by acknowledging it can our health behaviour change, and we might stand a chance of stopping this out of control rise in illness and disease.

372. There is so much research that conflicts and causes confusion for people with what one week is definitely confirmed and almost the following week is negated. If we only rely on what research brings us, we will always be left unsure. It does bring an aspect of where we are now about a certain subject, the medical research is simply a marker of our present day understanding, not the full picture.

373. Perhaps we don’t like to hear what our body is telling us. Perhaps it is too revealing for us to feel the reality of the way we are living. It is always fascinating to me to feel the level of presence in our body at any moment in the day. It is not often talked about but one of the worst patterns we can have is escaping from the body into our head by losing our presence with it to not feel in full what it is showing us.

374. Thank you Julie for posing the questions that ask us to feel deeper into what is at the root of our illness and disease. Our bodies are here to support us all the way in asking these questions.

375. You raise so many good points here Julie. If we listened to the research alone we would be very confused if we adhered to it and still got cancer. There are so many facets of life to consider when we look at the cause of illness and disease. It is best to look at our own lives, our own behaviours and follow the signs and feelings from our own bodies.

376. “So ok, I can be responsible, and listen to what the research tells us and choose to not drink alcohol, but does this mean I change any other behaviours in my life?” Great point Julie, the researchers only give us a small part of the picture, they focus on one thing but not the whole. Stopping alcohol is a great start but it is only the beginning, there is so much more that creates the picture of our illnesses, each one of us has our own patterns and behaviours and go to ‘remedies’ to avoid feeling what we really do to our bodies on a daily basis.

377. “Alcohol is a direct cause of seven forms of cancer, finds study” i see what you mean Julie, this provides us the truth but also doesn’t allow us to go further on what is driving us to drink in the first place, I would drink every night and sometimes in the mornings as well (when on holiday) so why did I do that? In simple terms I thought I enjoyed it? But in real terms it was because I really felt like my life was meaningless and I did not know how to fix the whole that was missing.

378. Important to understand that information presented in the media is often motivated by greed and a desire to attract the reader’s attention, increase sales, or ratings. Rarely is it offered to genuinely serve and inform. It may be unwise to change how we live purely on what we are told about survey results and statistics. Far better to have a close connection with our bodies and let that be our guide. There is so much and conflicting information out there, it is up to us to discern between what is true and what is not.

379. You know, so often when a women has breast cancer, or any kind of cancer you can feel how the disease has almost owned her life. It’s truly inspiring to read from a woman who has not allowed that to happen, but instead empowered herself to learn more about who she is and what may have caused the disease in the first place, and used this as a leap board into a different and much more nurturing way of living.

380. We hang so much importance on breast feeding, without appreciating that yes while it is a very natural thing to do when raising a baby, the emphasis we place upon it actually causes a great deal of stress. Either a new mother can feel extremely pressured by the expectations placed upon breast feeding, or women who have never breast fed for what ever reason then feel the stress of what this means biologically in later years. What your experience demonstrates Julie is that it is not the act itself that matters, you breastfed and this did not prevent you from getting cancer. What you have shown us here is what truly matters are the nature and quality of the relationship we have with our selves first and foremost. Once we really clock this and make deeply loving choices to nurture our bodies, our self esteem and inner worth first, everything else we do sits on a toxic foundation that sooner or later will manifest as a disease in our bodies, whether that be breast, ovarian or uterus based issues or a myriad of other illnesses we are so prone to contracting.

381. Julie, thank you for writing this article, it is very much needed, what is often written about breast cancer seems to be that it is just something that happens to women, there is some information about diet and exercise and how this relates to cancer, but until reading your article I have not read other reports about how we feel about ourselves and the relationship we have with our breasts can also affect whether we get breast cancer or not – this makes sense and experiences such as yours Julie are really important to support other women with breast cancer or as a preventative for women.

382. It’s so simple when you present it this way – listening to what our bodies say – some could say this is airy fairy and not hard quantitative research, but I for one know my body tells the absolute truth about every situation and everything it needs, right down to every decision I make, as to what best supports me. This has been in medical conditions and diagnoses too, I’m not saying support from doctors and medical staff is wrong, far from it, they are a great support, but my body spoke and speaks very loudly and clearly as to what would help it and me, return to its natural rhythm and cycle, so I listened to it. And my outward medical issue has gone, though there is more I can be deepening with how I live each day to support myself and my body even further.

383. Julie, you make many key points but one in particular that felt very relevant to me was what you shared about getting to understand the original impulsing reason why we do something in the first place. I spent years replacing one thing with another only to come to what, for me, was a startling revelation and that was that my pot smoking, my exercising, my yoga and my meditation were all interchangeable, as I used them all in exactly the same way, which was in an attempt to not feel my bubbling anger and gnawing irritation. Of course none of them worked and eventually I had to address what was actually causing my anger and irritation. It’s like a weed, you can’t just keep pulling the heads off, there comes a day when you have to dig up the root.

     1. “It’s like a weed, you can’t just keep pulling the heads off, there comes a day when you have to dig up the root.” I love this Alexis – it is so true and this behaviour of continously pulling the heads off also meant I stepped further and further away from the core issue. I am learning that what is presenting on the surface is always just the symptom. Addressing ‘the weed’ is necessary but is always my willingness to go deeper and grab ‘the roots’ that actually clears the issue.

384. Julie, what’s fascinating to feel is that although what you have shared about cancer is what many would describe as written in ‘layman’s’ terms, it actually feels way more scientific than articles written by research scientists.

385. Your experience and insight into this topic is critical Julie, I would love to see this research come to fruition and would willingly take part. What you have presented is key for a whole host of illness and disease – research is doing its part but there is a missing piece and this has to be the lived experience of each person.
     For example your line “Interestingly the mastitis flared up most in the breast with DCIS.” this kind of information needs to be logged and observed and through this information we can form a truer picture of what is really going on.

386. When I look at what is going on in the world today I am being asked to become more active in taking responsibility, in growing up basically.

387. How strong is the patterning of so many of us as women, to put the wellbeing of others before our own? It’s not that we cannot truly express nurturing and care for others, but clearly we are being called to deepen the relationship of nurturing and care we have with ourselves, first and foremost. We seem to have lost an essential piece of the puzzle here – that of this self-care and the depth of love we actually hold ourselves in. We have made it ‘purposeful’ to give ourselves away to others to our own detriment and that of our bodies – we even champion this as ‘noble’.
     Can we not see that such a paradigm and culture is hurting us, and hurting us deeply so? Thank goodness for the work of Esoteric Women’s Health and Universal Medicine in alerting our awareness once again to the missing element of the puzzle – that once embraced, actually removes the ‘puzzle’ altogether, restoring us to a simplicity of being which can found our everyday lives, and yes, all the activity therein.

388. Julie, through your pertinent questioning and willingness to look at your own choices and behavioural patterns in life, you are piercing some huge bubbles here – ones that I would say very much need to be pierced.
     For all that women are going through with breast cancer and other illnesses, we are as a rule not taking these deeper, self-exploratory steps and recognising our own contributions to the scale of what’s occurring. Discussions such as you’ve opened up here, simply cannot be had enough. Thank-you for sharing so openly.

     1. Thank you Victoria, and what I am realising from the comments is how as women we have so much more to open up with to expose these choices and behaviours we have held dear to ourselves for so long. This is where the value and power is in Esoteric Women’s Health as the modalities and events provide a space for women to continuously explore their relationship with themselves and these behaviours more deeply. Breast Cancer and other womens health issues are showing us the necessity of this.

        1. We have placed so much upon a pedestal, haven’t we… failing to fully dismantle what is not actually true for us as women, largely due to the pay-offs we get from being on that pedestal, or doing our darnedest to get up there (at our own expense).
           Absolutely agreed Julie – we have so much to explore and dismantle in this, and so very much to embrace in the way we live as women.

389. The ‘blame’ or ‘victim mentality’ is big – especially when people feel as though they have done everything right according to what we are told we need to do to avoid certain illnesses. However, what you have exposed Julie, is that no amount of box ticking will ever replace a connection to our own body, and thus living from a truth, rather than a rule or belief of what is right.

390. “Are we not short changing ourselves when we simply read and take on only what these studies say, rather than coming back to what our bodies have been telling us for a long time?” This is the next step Julie as you have shown. Questioning as to why we choose the behaviours, such as drinking alcohol, that lead to the illness is the key to addressing the underlying cause. If we don’t, is it possible that whatever the reason we chose to drink alcohol will drive another behaviour that we will discover in time may be just as harmful? If we address the underlying issue, we can address the source of the ill rather than the observed behaviour.

391. ‘So ok, I can be responsible, and listen to what the research tells us and choose to not drink alcohol, but does this mean I change any other behaviours in my life?’ if we do so in ignorance of what we can learn from the consequences of our own actions then in truth we are not being responsible, rather the opposite.

392. It is time we did research with our lifestyle choices and how they affect our health, because before any form of medication/treatment this is where we need to truly look. And through students of Universal Medicine I have seen how many many people have turned around both their health and lives for the better through changing the way they live and bringing in more self-care and self-love for themselves.

393. Great topic to share and discuss Julie, true medicine with looking at the why. As we have seen throughout history it does not pay to discount our bodies and go with the latest research findings… take cigarettes for instance, once upon a time this was promoted as being healthy by research and it was advertised that doctors light up as well, now we look back on it and see how ridiculous this notion was but at the time the truth of ones body was often ignored. Now breast cancer is through the roof, and research has not got ‘all’ the answers. Bringing to the fore how we live, who we are, how we speak, work, care, what we think about our bodies, how do we feel with being a woman, wife, daughter, friend, how we are in relationships with other women and men etc. etc. and all the questions you asked Julie is a definite step in exposing the real cause behind many of our ills and diseases.

394. “Our lifestyle choices do make a huge difference to our health and wellbeing, but these have to come from the place of choosing to self-love and self-care rather than because I am living in fear of developing a terminal illness or disease. This is what matters”. So true Julie when we choose do things lacking in self-love and self-care and only be motivated by statistics or the latest fad diet ect., to do the ‘right’ thing, then we are not truly listening to the messages our bodies are constantly telling us and we are choosing to avoid self-responsibility.

395. It is very clear to me that our scientific research only is a partial view, a partial understanding of this disease. And its important to remember that we are not at the mercy of our scientific approach, we have a voice and part to play in uniting all the factors involved such as self nurture, relationships, life style, beliefs and ideals, chemical, physiological, environmental influences; they all matter and to attempt to isolate just one of these factors and put it forward as the cause is failing us miserably in our quest to truly heal this devastating disease.

396. “Does medical research really bring us the truth or just a part of it?” This is a great question Julie… and added to this, do we as a humanity want the full truth, or are we happy to accept half truths or only part of the truth?

397. Research is often an intellectual game that tries to box us in, when in fact each body is unique, and each person’s experience is unique… the research of one person will never be the same as another. There is no research greater than our personal lived experience – it absolutely cannot be denied.

398. It is indeed time, and in fact well overdue, that we become researchers of our own bodies. Our body has lived with the consequence of our every choice, which makes it the absolute expert in regards to our health and well-being. It knows how an illness or disease manifested – the signs were all there whether we chose to take notice or not, and through bringing awareness to those signs and to our bodies we can bring about true healing – which may not necessarily be a cure but we learn never to go down that pathway again.

399. How often is research based on curiosity and / or wonderment with a pure intention to research a certain topic that (might) benefit the greater whole – all of us? Many, many studies, researches are sponsored so we could say that this is sponsored science. Science where is worked towards an end result that is needed in order for selling a product, a medicine etc. We’re to also study the people that are healthy in life. What could we learn from them? How do they prevent themselves of having breast cancer or any other form of illness and disease? Could it be joyful to look after ourselves? Really joyful? On a daily basis…

400. This is an important point Julie – women are notoriously good at putting their needs on a back burner in order to attend to the needs of others, making oneself lesser in the process and setting oneself up for illness and disease later down the track.
     “I would say continuing to breast feed was actually contributory to developing the disease, not because of the breast feeding itself but because of my reason driving me to continue. I consistently put my children’s needs (and anyone else’s) before my own,…..”

     1. Putting others’ needs before ourselves as women is very common and as I consider this more deeply for myself I wonder if this was all part of a plan on my part to not have to take responsibility for myself as a woman. Caring for another and their needs has actually always been a justified excuse not to bother with myself, making it easier to confirm the belief I was running of not feeling worth it. This may sound harsh but as I observe my behaviours and I listen and attend to presentations by Universal Medicine this starts to make more sense. I am grateful there are the Esoteric Women’s health modalities to support us back to reclaiming the true women we are so these games can stop.

401. I enjoyed the beginning of a far deeper level of self-love and self-care when I introduced self-breast-care into my life on a daily basis. Using this technique that has brought an awareness of my body as never before.
     http://www.foundationalbreastcare.com/self-breast-care.html
     “Our lifestyle choices do make a huge difference to our health and wellbeing, but these have to come from the place of choosing to self-love and self-care rather than because I am living in fear of developing a terminal illness or disease”.

402. “I would say continuing to breast feed was actually contributory to developing the disease, not because of the breast feeding itself but because of my reason driving me to continue.” Science tends to diminish the importance of such anecdotal evidence and relies mainly on the ‘evidence-based’ view which tends to isolate the person from the living situation. As you say Julie, if we observe ourselves and stay aware “we are our own research” – we are like scientists observing ourselves in a living experiment with our experience as proof.

403. Your story Julie, makes an interesting case study and it certainly makes one question the merits of breastfeeding if it is done out of a sense of duty and compromises our own health and wellbeing. So to say that breastfeeding helps reduce the risk of cancer is a very sweeping statement and though the study might have been ‘evidence-based’, not all the evidence was taken into account. A story such as yours shows the need to look at the whole instead of just the part.

404. This blog is so inspiring and has stirred something deep within me – an invite to further honour and celebrate myself as a woman and to enjoy a deeper level of connection within through an exquisite, tender and delicate touch with the self Esoteric Breast Massage.

405. “When self-love and self-care are in place, we feel worthy of caring for our bodies and the knowing to not drink alcohol, or eat this or that, whether to breast feed or not, or for how long, is naturally there.” – making self love the focus and then trusting what the right thing for you is rather than doing something from a belief or ideal.

406. “We all have a body, which very clearly shows us the result of what we choose.
     We do not have to wait for scientists to confirm what we can feel in our own bodies.
     By living in a True Way, we are our own research and every day can be an experiment.”
     Thankyou Julie for bringing such clarity to this ever increasing disease. Your words here are so simple and confirm to us all that we do know what is going on in our bodies, all of the time. The key is whether or not we choose to listen to what we are feeling and act on it, or do we continue to sweep it under the carpet and pretend there is nothing happening. That may seem like the easy option, but in the long run it is far from easy.

407. It might also be that breast feeding is even more protective because the calculations would include cases where women do it longer than may be warranted. If the latter is harmful, then breast feeding would have to be very protective to more than make up for those cases or, those cases may not be very common in comparison to all cases.

408. The more I observe my life the more I realise that how I live affects pretty much everything I experience. It is becoming very clear that assigning cause or blame to one factor or another as most of research tries to do is neither useful nor wise.

409. ‘Breast cancer does not just happen’ I love the way you have explored deeply the possible root cause of your breast cancer Julie and given every other person who reads this blog the opportunity to examine their relationship with themselves and to be honest about how well or not we truly honour our bodies. Awesome reflection thank you Julie.

410. At a recent Women in Livingness meeting we discussed the irony of how many cancer charities raise money through cakes sales and coffee mornings without clocking that the consumption of such foods can actually contribute to the disease they are ‘fighting’ against. There is so much to consider in terms of our lifestyle choices, why we make those choices and what we override. Whilst we may feel we are ticking the boxes there is so much more to uncover if we are willing to go there. Julie this blog really is incredibly inspiring as it cuts through that tendency we have to override to say it how it is.

411. When we start to connect with our bodies from the inside out, noticing what we feel rather than what we look like, there is a whole world to discover, one of delicate balance, one that is seriously affected by absolutely everything we do. Learning to love our bodies in this way leads to a life of tenderness, respect and equality, understanding that we are all the same, and we need to take more care of ourselves and each other.

412. It’s taken me many years to start paying attention to my bodies messages. The next step has then been to take loving action. This action does not always follow swiftly on from the realisation. We tend to ignore what we know until the body has to shout loudly with an illness or disease. We certainly need an overhaul of our priorities, because our failure to pay attention and act is causing our bodies serious damage. I feel we must make our self-care a priority over mere function, and this needs to be introduced early on.

413. Research does mean little when it is not applied to life, tested in life and expanded on in life. Like with the alcohol example, yes great to have this confirmed and researched but we do have to look at all the aspects around drinking alcohol in life. We are not machines, we have reasons for drinking alcohol, a product we actually all know is not healthy for us, so therefore it is wise to look more at why we drink alcohol than saying it is not healthy and can cause breast cancer.

414. “Our choice to love, nourish and cherish ourselves and our bodies first, takes care of the answers.” Such a profound, true and solid basis upon to build and live life.

415. What great research topic for scientists, the effects on the body by the lifestyle choices we make. But, we already know the answers and the findings to that topic!

416. Yes, Julie, if someone lives life ‘by the book’ (ticking all the right boxes according to current research findings) and they still get ill, it would be very easy to feel powerless and question what they did to deserve such misfortune. Universal Medicine takes us deeper, to look at the emotional responses we have avoided taking responsibility for, that cause disharmony in the body.

417. The problem with the scientific studies is that they are often sponsored by organisations with a vested interest in the topic being researched. How is it that we have one study saying alcohol is linked to cancer, and another that says red wine is good for you? It makes no sense. But if you look at what alcohol consists of, I know which study I’d be listening to.

418. Great read Julie, whilst reading it occurred to me that we are given the advice to not smoke because it causes cancer, and we may give it up but then take up eating more because we have not dealt with why we smoked in the first place, which then as we know leads onto getting obese and diabetes, and other health problems. So it really gets down to how we feel about ourselves, which will reflect the relationship we have with our bodies and to the extent we will truly nurture it.

419. Only the truth can bring the truth and so if any-thing is not born from truth then it will not be the whole truth and if something is not the whole truth then it will prevent us from accessing the whole truth and if we are prevented from accessing the whole truth then we shall be kept in separation, which means being kept from being the whole truth of who we are.

420. whilst ever you seek to understand the part and not its part in the whole, you cannot understand true medicine.

421. It seems we prefer to look at life as a series of incidents, isolated and separate, that sit apart. ‘Oh Cancer what is that?’ we say and go out and research. But seldom do we stop and start to see the interlinked, interrelated chain of events that play out in our lives. For surely just as 1 and 1 add up to 2 so there is a correlation between our health and the way we do the things we do. It is high time we stopped pretending life is apart when it’s clear it is actually joined up like a sphere. Thank you Julie, for joining the dots here.

422. Julie, your sharing absolutely demonstrates there is more going on ‘behind the scenes” with breast cancer. The relationship we have with ourselves and self care certainly are factors behind all that we ‘do’.

423. I have learnt so much more about my body since studying with Universal Medicine and applying the simple and practical principles as presented from the ageless wisdom (which is common sense really).
     This has lead to me embracing our health systems and the tremendous support they offer and to equally not discount or disempower myself when dealing with issues that my body present.

424. Julie, what a fantastic blog, and very interesting points you raise, there’s a lot to comment on here. The quality a woman holds herself in…is, and also is what founds everything that she is, and anything less than the baseline of respect or honouring, is going to generate some level of disharmony, and at times make illness like breast cancer so common as it’s increasingly becoming. Which shows indication that the quality held by many women is in the dishonour not true joy or value of herself. So forget pay inequity or the 19-22% pay gap for women, let’s talk about self-respect and self-worth first. For it is without this, that such inequity and abuse is accepted and allowed to flourish.

425. Julie, it’s great that you have high lighted that ‘ breast cancer does not just happen ‘ the awareness you have gained, with the support of Universal Medicine, brings great insight into a disease that affects so many. To not be a victim and look deeply at all aspects of the way you lived empowered you to true healing. Thank you for sharing your experience.

426. Julie, I love how you have broken down this whole process and nailed the fact that there are many things we can ‘do’ to fight cancer, but how many of them actually work on the true cause.
     As an example, there are many people who find out they have cancer and then suddenly decide that it is time to eat organic foods. It seems that they seek solace from focusing all their energy on ‘doing’ something like finding and preparing and eating organic foods. I am not saying there is anything wrong with the decision to eat organic foods, however, I do feel that they are being distracted from taking true responsibility for how and why their condition or disease developed in the first place. It is still so common to say that cancer or another illness came out of the blue, that it happened randomly, that the are victims of something beyond their control. Essentially we need to stop looking at it that way, stop seeing ourselves as helpless victims that are at the mercy of some random diseases that we then have to fight and soldier on with. This approach is not helping our health, it is only contributing to the cause of more illness and disconnection. It is time to look more deeply at our relationships with ourselves for herein lies some answers, not solutions, but answers in understanding how these things escalate and turn into illness and disease. Once we stop seeing illness and disease as an enemy, but come to realise that it is the body’s way of clearing any disharmony we have lived and embraced erroneously so, then true change can take place and true healing can occur. A healing far deeper and more lasting that just ticking the box of eating organic or not drinking alcohol out of fear of cancer.

427. Giving up alcohol is a very caring and self loving choice to make, but what you bring here Julie is the deeper, more self reflective questions that we can ask ourselves relating to so many other aspects of our lives. Aspects that could equally contribute to such self care and improved health.

428. Could there more at play than all this research is showing us? A great question Julie, from what you say here this research is only looking at part of the picture instead of at the whole and when we do this we only get a partial result biased towards the hypothesis that is postulated. Taking anything out of context distorts it so how can you study something like the cause of cancer without taking into account the lifestyle of the people concerned?

429. Julie, your blog, and the testament of many others, confirm to me with out a doubt that there is much more at play at causing breast cancer than we are focusing upon. The way we live provides major risk to developing cancer and there is significant research to back this. What we lack is a dedicated focus of our research on these factors which is why anecdotal evidence like yours, and the many others recorded on the various Universal Medicine sites, is so important. On behalf of humanity, thank you for sharing.

     1. Indeed it has become evident, from the comments made on this blog that we need to shift our focus when it comes to researching any illness and disease and yes there is plenty of anecdotal evidence already there on the many Universal Medicine websites. Serge Benhayon has been presenting for many many years that how we are living and the choices we make in regards to ourselves is what affects our health. This Way of Living though equally effects everyone else so because of this we all have a responsibility to take notice of our bodies and its feedback.

        1. I think responsibility is the key word here Julie.

430. It is very well worth the discussion – ‘how much do we set aside our bodies innate knowing for the published research.’ This is then another layer of disregarding ourselves for the sake of other’s opinion. Our bodies have their own understanding of what is needed but when we listen to all the noise of external information it seems we drown out our own. The outcome is very costly to our health.

431. Brilliant article with so much to ponder. What leapt out at me today was the research saying that women who do not have children are more likely to have breast cancer. But why is this? Is it because there are women who struggled to conceive because the harsh treatment of their bodies has impacted their reproductive chances? Is it because they fit the stereo typical image of a career woman having little regard to listen to her body, favouring her drive to succeed in the work place? From being inspired by women who take deep care of themselves I can see it is this dedication to love that matters, how they are with themselves and others whether they have children or not. It is this love that supports them if they do have breast cancer. Loving ways are deeply inspiring to behold whatever a woman’s circumstance.

432. ‘We all have a body, which very clearly shows us the result of what we choose. We do not have to wait for scientists to confirm what we can feel in our own bodies. By living in a True Way, we are our own research and every day can be an experiment.’
     Beautiful said Julie.and it never stops as we deepen our relationship with our body.

433. Do we rely (only) on the outside, providing information what to do and not do, what is healthy and what isn’t. Are we then not giving our power away constantly? During all our lives? And what if we get then any kind of illness or disease? As Julie is sharing, chances are that we blame either things outside of us or ourselves. Without realising, let alone willing to accept that the illness or disease is simply the result of not living a responsible life. That is, honouring the connection with ourselves from deep within and follow the choices from there. Love doesn’t judge, but is firmly reflecting to us that we do belong and hold an enormous responsibility. Joyfully so.

434. You raise some really key issues here Julie – much to be considered. It is very perceptive of you to see that drinking alcohol is not necessarily the ultimate cause of health problems but a symptom of something deeper still. Why do we drink alcohol? If we stop drinking alcohol, do we simply replace alcohol with another means of numbing ourselves to our feelings? Is the absence of self-love and self-nurturing the real issue here? I also agree that research is important but it must not become our ‘be all and end all’ in regards to our understanding of our health. I feel that researchers must understand the limitations of their own understandings and couch whatever findings they come up with a caveat that makes this clear. Any day now we could make another discovery that moves the goalposts completely – like ‘everything is energy’ – and then research would have to reframe what it thought it once knew in an entirely new constellation of probabilities.

435. It’s so important to never discount or devalue what we feel for ourselves, our own experiences and observation/sense of what’s going on. Anecdotal evidence is looked down upon by researchers, scientists and other professions who heavily rely on the ‘hard facts’ and stats without asking people what their lived experience is of a certain thing, which is just as important as it represents how humanity FEELS compared to representing them as single numbers making up a statistical figure.

436. “I have come to learn how breast cancer was a gift.” Not a common appreciation of cancer by any means Julie and one that should by all rights make us all sit up and take keen notice. So often our attitude to cancer is that we have fallen victim to an external curse, something to ‘fight’, to ‘battle with’ but never to surrender to, to understand, appreciate and learn from. Your experience and attitude towards your cancer is proof that when we choose to surrender to our body, to really take responsibility for how we have treated our selves and all the reasons and excuses why we have not truly, deeply loved all of us, then we can begin to make real and very lasting changes in how we regard our selves, how we respect our bodies and how we nurture our health and well being.

437. Yes, Julie, all the information we are given is confusing and often conflicting. It was not until I studied the Universal Medicine modalities that the link between our choices/how we live to illness and disease became explicitly clear.

     1. That is right because there is a compounding factor – energy. Without awareness of that factor, things can make little sense. We can amass enormous knowledge but we lack the underlying understanding.

438. The best form of research is the research we do with ourselves. I love how this brings it right back to a level of simplicity that we can all apply. Our body literally provides all the non-biased data we need.

439. Thank you Julie for bringing to the fore that there is more to us than statistics and that it is very important to always look at the bigger picture, we cannot single things out and then come to a conclusion as this does not provide us with the whole of what is happening.

440. Julie that was really interesting to read your blog as I got a deeper understanding why a woman can get breast cancer. I love that you highlight the point that most mothers forget that they are first women before they became a mother and also how important self-love and self-care is as most of us are aware of this fact. Therefore I like what you have shared: “When self-love and self-care are in place, we feel worthy of caring for our bodies . . . “

441. Hello Julie I totally agree with the issues you have raised in regard to scientific research, judging by the ever increasing cases of illness and disease world wide, we certainly do have to start questioning the accuracy and depth of the research and start considering how our lifestyle choices impact on our health.

442. Our first reaction is usually one of shock when one of our quite strong ideals and beliefs are shattered – particularly by a serious illness. If we take this as an opportunity to stop, look and listen to what our bodies have been communicating to us all along then we may come to understand and appreciate that we have actually been given a blessing – an opportunity to make changes in how we are living.

443. Thanks Julie you highlight something important here, we cannot wait for outside sources to confirm what we already know in our bodies, yes those sources can support but why do we ignore what our bodies tell us in the meantime? And I love the questions you’ve posed, we need more of this type of research which asks how we all as women live and care for ourselves, and takes it beyond disease to truly look at the ways we can live and the quality we bring to our bodies and our lives.

444. It appears to be our preference to continue to suffer the effects of our choices, looking outside of ourselves in hope rather than surrender to what we already now and learn the true path of return to a quality of life we know within.

445. The words that stood out for me today were ‘deeply care’. What does it mean, to deeply care for ourselves? It doesn’t mean the occasional bath or a five minute sit down when we can squeeze one into our busy schedule, it means deeply care 24/7 – care about our bodies and what we put into them, what we eat, how we move, even being aware of our thoughts and what they are doing to our bodies. And being careful about going to sleep in good time for a true rest. When I look at it this way, I am fully aware that I do not deeply care for my body and that needs to change.

446. Modern research is very much based on reflecting on illness and diseases. It starts with many pre-conceptions about what the root cause can be. Rather than coming from a point of curiosity and wonderment, without wanting to proof their pre-conceptions. I love the approach of Julie, reflecting from her inside of the diagnosis of breast cancer. If research would contain more of these honest sharings, we could actually learn from each other and build on each other’s experiences. Without comparing or competing, but simply to understand and learn from one another what it means to care and nourish ourselves. How different would this be?

447. This blog and the comments set a wonderful example for how it is possible to keep deepening our understanding and awareness, by asking questions, observing our bodies with honesty and staying open. We have access to the greatest form of wisdom right here 24/7 if we but choose.

448. Excellent presentation Julie, the quality of how we attend to ourselves has such a lot to do with the quality of the energy that is then in our bodies. I have been cavalier with my body in the past and paid for it with pain, injury, chronic conditions, breast and menstrual problems and exhaustion. To have an understanding now of looking after myself with love and care and nurturing, such a different quality to be felt in each, has had all of those conditions evaporate and at 63 I feel more vital, younger and more engaged in life than ever before. I deeply value Universal Medicine and the wisdom it offers us here.

449. Having research that alerts women to the possibility of how important nurturing and self-caring are to our reproductive health, would be incredibly supportive. It could start to shift our awareness of this relatively invisible problem and start to reduce our tendency of being run by ideals of how to be a woman, mother etc

450. One of the big problems with research is that it can tell us when there are relationships between specific choices and health conditions e.g. alcohol and breast cancer but our health is a cumulative sum of all of the choices we make in our lives. We need to look at the whole picture, including the energetic choices we make to fully understand what is going on with a particular disease.

451. I was speaking to someone about this blog the other day. They were so interested that they found the blog themselves to read the whole thing. What was interesting was they came back to me to discuss part of it and could relate to some of the things you had mentioned Julie with your diagnoses. They spoke about the similarity in their life with you and breastfeeding, alcohol etc. It was like I could almost see them saying that this could happen to them. They were almost diagnosing themselves with “Ductal Carcinoma in Situ (DCIS)” because of what they had read and felt from your blog. It was like they were in disbelief or possibly denial that this could be possible. I will follow them up to see if they are going to take any further action to the feeling they have had but this shows the power in how you shared your story which clearly shows the link between how you were, the quality you lived and then how you body reacted to that quality. I feel when we share from here, from a place of a lived experience it supports others to stop and feel how they have been. That is possibly one of the most significant parts for me. I loved reading your blog but to have another person read it and then have a conversation with you in this way took it to another level. I could see this person processing what they had read, not from how it was written but because the quality it was written in allowed them to feel themselves. Thank you Julie and I look forward to seeing the next thing you write.

452. Such a brilliant yet simple essential point you make Julie: “Breast Cancer does not ‘just happen’ – it has a history”. Letting go of the random mentality to illness and disease would go a long way to be open to understanding and appreciating the signs and messages from our body’s natural intelligence. It’s surely time we opened up the possibility, focusing on the treatments isn’t supporting the prevention.

453. Great Julie – I totally hear you and I also see each day as an opportunity. Our bodies talk to us all the time and there is no reason why we can’t explore this ourselves. Yes research is a support, but the research is based on people and people vary so very much because each choice and movement will be different to the next person. We split people by gender and health and age but there is so much more to a person than this.

454. Thank you for such such an honest piece of writing, it highlights some of the fundamental flaws we have when we try to compartmentalize our lives and point the finger of blame at one thing.

455. A powerful account and a very needed discussion Julie – thank you. You say ‘We do not have to wait for scientists to confirm what we can feel in our own bodies.’ – To take responsibility for my own health and wellbeing by starting to listen to all the signals from my body, has made amazing changes in my life – changes that I would not imagine possible. It is deeply empowering to feel in charge of my own wellbeing.

456. Great calling for our researchers and scientists alike to bring in responsibility to their studies, however I can’t see this happening when they too may be living less than is responsible for their own choices (and their impacts) in life. Unfortunately as a society of people, we do like to make things about playing the victim and acting ignorant when it comes to the root cause of any ill condition affecting us, but that’s just the point, it is playing a game and one that we can choose to stop when we want to claim our awareness back again.

457. It is a great first step when a person realises that they need to change the way they eat, or change the way they exercise or look at life style factors in general. This is indeed a step to be celebrated, and then from here of course implementing the change is another great step. But what I like about what Julie has presented here, is that it is far more than just these changes that actually have a true impact in our lives. It is the motivation behind the change that needs to be looked at – has this been done out of fear, or a need to simply tick a box and not take real responsibility for what is happening on a health/body level?
     As a human race there is a huge level of complacency and comfort that we can live in and with, and never even question. And this is one of our greatest downfalls to watch out for. What we have learned to accept as acceptable may be such a far cry from a grand truth we could be living – it is worth pondering on the glory that we are then saying ‘no’ to, by accepting a much lesser way of living. Julie, thank you for highlighting this very trick that we can so easily fall for which is to just tick a box or do something out of fear, rather than making a choice because we know deep within how precious we are.

     1. Yes, indeed Henrietta. Responding from fear does not bring true change.

458. I remember vividly of my experience of breast feeding, which I would say was fraught with anxiety for getting it right and finding the whole thing quite difficult, but then to put on top of that also that we can reduce our chances of getting breast cancer if we breast feed – talk about adding more pressure to the expectant mother. Sometimes it seems as though these notions are just plucked out of fresh air and then a few years down the road another study will say the complete opposite – is it any wonder we, men and women, are confused as to what is the best thing to do for our health. Maybe it is just time to start listening to our own bodies, as let’s face it what we are doing at the moment isn’t working. Great blog Julie.

459. We love statistics, we seem to put a lot of faith in them, we accept them as facts, and we are more willing to rely on the researchers and scientists, than we do our own body. As you show Julie you have had children and breast fed both of them for longer than the usual period and yet you got breast cancer, so this already shows that the statistics presented are not the whole truth and shows there has to be more going on than what the scientists currently offer. I love that you were able to see how breast feeding was a contributory factor to your breast cancer because of your need to put your children before yourself. How we live in every moment and the choices we make contributes to either a healthy and vital body or an illness such as cancer, this is something the scientists should add to every stat they publish.

460. A great expose that even if we think we are doing the ‘right’ things but not truly nurturing and loving ourselves then illness and disease are going to manifest.

461. ‘By living in a True Way, we are our own research and every day can be an experiment.’ This is living science and once we choose to take responsibility for how we are living and have the willingness to make ongoing changes we can be supported by outside research to confirm this. However it has to start with us – we are not the victim of what happens to us – we are the architect and can start to re-build our life at any point.

462. What a huge inspiration it has been listening to Julie Snelgrove sharing her story of lived experience at a Women in Livingness group in London last Sunday. From studying the Ancient Wisdom Teachings as presented by Serge Benhayon, and being deeply inspired to live life from the esoteric way of living, Julie is a living testimony to the power of developing a deep and intimate relationship with oneself as a key to true healing. This is not an ‘exclusive club’, but very much possible for all who choose to live in a natural way. (http://www.esotericwomenshealth.com).

463. We often make the mistake of studying our actions for the clues as to why we get sick, but repeatedly fail to address the real ‘why’. It’s the ‘why’s’ that hold the all the answers and although this may seem overwhelming to start with because on the surface there are many ‘why’s’, when we keep questioning we will find that they all boil down to some very common emotions: self loathing, self disgust, deep grief, poor self worth. When we get to the nitty gritty truth at this level, I feel we will finally understand the root cause of breast cancer (and all cancer) and address it at its core level and thus empower us to heal these corrosive emotions and to restore connection to our innately warm, loving and tender essence.

464. Why read (statistics, other people’s opinions) ourselves through cancer when we can feel into the way we are living and have a truer representation for why we have illness and disease. It is a responsibility.

465. Breast cancer used to be a rare disease. My grandmother died from it in the 50’s…now it is so prevalent in our lives. It is most common to know more than one women in our lives either through work, family or friends who have had the disease. I know of at least 8 people in the last 10 years who have had this disease. Modern medicine is great at tackling symptoms and treating them, but it has stopped short at asking the questions: How are we living through our choices? What impact does this have on our bodies?

     1. Thank Rachel, this sharing makes the rising figures for breast cancer more real when you say how many you’ve known in the last 10 years. And we mustn’t forget its likely that all of these women’s friends and family are affected in some way too.

466. Massive re-education is needed. My own observations reveal that people are drawn to and seduced by over-hyped media reports of supposed medical ‘cures’. Publishing the research evidence irresponsibly gives people false hope and sends them down a fruitless trail by presenting articles that suggest stopping an addiction or continuing with a particular practice (like breast-feeding) will prevent the onset of a particular illness and disease. I have witnessed the excitement that follows each time a person reads an article that claims a cure has been found for pancreatic cancer. When asked if they would prefer family members prevented the onset of the disease in the first place or waited to be cured of the illness, they were confused by the question. The possibility that it was possible to prevent the onset of cancers by changing the way we live and our relationship with ourselves was completely alien to them. Their response was to choose cure. Mass media has a golden opportunity to act responsibly and has the means and power to change the trajectory of the nation’s health by simply choosing to publish articles that raise public awareness and understanding of true health and preventative medicine.

467. I love the point you make that our lifestyle choices need to come from a place of self-love and self-care and not from a fear of illness because one bad habit will only replace another if the gap hasn’t been filled with love.

468. I see how disconnected we have become (by our own choices) from our body, our connection to true wisdom and true understanding. Now we try to understand life and the trouble we have, like cancer, from this disconnected state of being and of course this does not work. As we are choosing to disconnect, being separated, we will always just have a partial view that holds us back from a true and full understanding. We have to change the foundation we stand on to have a research that is able to see all.

469. What a great example of how trying to do the right thing of supporting something outside of our self at the cost of self and one’s body will always be self-detrimental.

470. Very interesting to read about the research you have presented here Julie, suggesting that if we breast feed our children then we are less likely to get breast cancer. As with any statistic, there comes a ‘general consenus’ which then seems to become a reality for many. But how can this be true for all, when not ‘all’ are taken into account? We are all individuals, and all have different reasons as to why we end up with an illness or disease. No two people are the same, and as you say there really has to be more questions asked about the personal circumstances of someone’s life when it comes to a medical diagnosis/prognosis if there is to be a true understanding of how the disease came to be, and then an acceptance of self responsibility for true healing to take place.

471. You have brought to the fore, a fabulous discussion and expanded the horizon on breast cancer with your blog Julie. Yes, medical research seems to bring part of the truth, but the part that is missing is the reason(s) behind the choices that put one in those risk factor categories – such as smoking, consuming alcohol, diet, exercise etc. Research needs to peel back from these associated risk factors and look at why certain choices are made. There has to be a common denominator behind all these choices…

472. The next step in the chain to prevention of breast cancer is to look at what is behind the life style choices – the choice to drink or smoke, to over eat or not exercise, to be stressed etc – how are women choosing to live and could it be far more the quality of choices rather than simply the choices alone that contribute to breast cancer.

473. I find the results of experiments, research and hypothesis interesting and appreciate it when someone takes the care to write it up or share about it in a way that is clear and simple. At times I become aware of areas I had not paid much attention to or I did not even consider related. Yet nothing beats the wisdom we receive through our body if we just listen to it and honour what we get.

474. How many of us would be able to truly say that we love our body and feel vital and joyful on a daily basis? Your statement that: “We all have a body, which very clearly shows us the result of what we choose” is a call to responsibility. The much publicized solutions of cosmetic surgery, excessive exercise or fad diets are not the answer. Having a relationship with our body and choosing food, exercise and a way of being that truly honours and nurtures could be the key.

475. That the honesty and courage to share such an intimate story may inspire many women and men to turn up the level of (self) responsibility. Not as as ‘must’ or another ‘thing-to-do’, but simply to start feeling and listening to ourselves, allowing our body to guide us rather than our (separative) mind.

476. This is so often the case with any medical diagnosis, that it is merely the symptoms that are looked at and treated, and not the underlying cause of how or why the disease came to be present in the first place. If we began to take the kind of care that you are talking about Julie, to listen to our bodies and the messages they are sending us, and act on them by taking self responsibility for how we live, we would potentially prevent many illnesses from developing or at least slow down their progression.

477. The awareness that you bring here Julie is so needed, thank you. We can get lost in making changes that we think will make all the difference and it’s not that we can’t make those changes but the reason or impetus behind why we do what do is super important.

478. “Alcohol is a direct cause of seven forms of cancer, finds study” – this is true, but it may be more accurate to say “Alcohol is one direct cause of seven forms of cancer, finds study”, as there are many others. This is not to diminish the pernicious effect of alcohol but to make clear that dropping alcohol is only one part of cancer prevention.
     The study referenced in that Guardian article “Alcohol consumption as a cause of cancer” is very interesting to read as it also debunks that alcohol is protective of cardio-vascular disease. Yes, moderate drinkers have lower cardio-vascular disease (and more cancer) than abstainers but abstainers do and have many things that increase their risk of cardio-vascular disease compared to moderate drinkers. In other words, being an abstainer does not mean your lifestyle is healthy, but not drinking alcohol is a good place to start.

479. I love the way you have re-claimed responsibility for our health and wellbeing. Research has much to offer but it does not have all the answers particularly when it does not include how we live, think, process and care for our body. This article has opened the way for more discussion and the inclusion of the level of responsibility we bring to the choices we make in our lives.

480. ‘“Alcohol is a direct cause of seven forms of cancer, finds study” The Guardian. 22 July, 20161’
     Yes, but why are we drinking? Why are we not taking care of ourselves? A deeper study is needed here.

481. Some science, such as epigenetics or quantum physics is starting to reveal that there is more to the picture than we have accepted before now but we still wait for science to prove what we innately know from what we feel.

482. If things like this are now starting to hit the papers then what are we doing about it?, ““Alcohol is a direct cause of seven forms of cancer, finds study” The Guardian. 22 July, 20161” We are a race of beings that is uniquely able to turn a blind eye or bury it’s head in the sand when it comes to things like this. Why haven’t we seen this discussed further? Are we too, “She be right” in other words have we not been in enough or seen enough pain to stop and have a real look at what is going on. I am watching around me and I don’t see anything changing. I see a lot of people asking for change but not many in the action of change. It’s one thing to ask but another to actually start to makes steps yourself. There is no need to wait for others to do something let’s start to make the change and have the conversations ourselves. If we wait for government to change well then we will get the answers we always have and then end up going around in circles. This is a message for me as well, time to keep making and taking a stand no matter who we perceive is listening.

     1. True change comes from the lived action of the words that come spoken by us. True change is always simple but not always easy to live – and if we ever experience this as difficult, it is only because of how we have done things in the past, and that is it truly time to re-imprint this once again. Thank you Ray for the valuable reminder to always start with ourselves, even a conversation with ourselves (without of course feeling schizophrenic about it) 😉

        1. Very true Henrietta and always we will need to feel our way in this and keep our head up. If we have walked a road in a perceived way then we can be blinded in certain spots and not truly see we can walk it any other way. It’s only through the feeling we can unlock this walk and as you say if it’s a walk we have done many times before then even the thought of the change can lead us back to itself. Everything returns, no matter what it is everything always comes back. So it is well worth our while to feel every step knowing the quality of that step will support the next one to be from the same place.

        2. Ah..beautiful words from a beautiful man, thank you.

483. I agree Julie, brilliantly presented. The all-important question is about our willingness to be honest with ourselves so that we can ask – where are our choices coming from? As although there is research available to us that supports the truth of the effect that our choices have on our bodies, there is also a huge portion of subjective research available to us whose interest is not the truth, or our well-being, but to make more money for the industry or company that commissioned the research. Our bodies offer us the best scientific research and results from all the choices we make, and there are many reports that support the truth that prolonged use or consumption of harmful substances results in damage of some sort. Why do we feel we need to continue to make lifestyle choices that knowingly affect our health and well-being? Through being honest with ourselves we will bring awareness to the truth of how we feel. Through choosing to build a self-loving and self-nurturing relationship with ourselves we heal and let go of that which drives us to harm ourselves, developing lifestyle, this is simply an extension of the loving connection to who we are within.

484. Thank you Julie for a very informative blog, I can understand the why me situation when we do everything we think is right and then end up with breast cancer. Research does not go deep enough into the very essence of our being and the need to self love and self care, in connection with the wisdom our bodies are imparting to us every moment.

485. Thank-you Julie for sharing your story. Yes our bodies are giving us feedback in every single moment, yet we have generally become so oblivious to this fact that when we sit before a Doctor to explore the origins of a given health condition we seem unable to truthfully nominate the part we have played in allowing our bodies to get to where they are at. The work of Universal Medicine is indeed revelatory in how it supports us to unpack and take personal responsibility for the way we have been living in our bodies.

486. This is a super interesting blog. I love the call out for us all to be our own researchers when it comes to what is going on within our own bodies. The way that we are living is having a huge impact on our bodies and there is a direct link between our lifestyle choices and our illness and disease. I have worked a lot with women who have breast cancer and they will all very willingly tell you that they put others before themselves and do not tend to nurture themselves. This pattern of not nurturing then sets up a certain configuration of energy in the body that gears it towards breast cancer. As a student nurse in the late 1970’s I was already noticing that similar types of people tended to get very similar types of diseases. If I was noticing this then I am sure others have also. The truth of the matter is we do know what is going on but a lot of the time we just don’t want to know. With the rates of illness and disease on the rise, we cannot afford to bury our heads in the sand anymore.

487. It is very easy to be distracted by research findings promising cures and supposedly easy ways out. Truth always comes, not from outside ourselves, but within and self nurturing is foundational to developing a healthy relationship with ourselves.

488. Such important questions are raised here.

     #1. We all know we do things that are less than loving, less than what we would want for our children; we do things that harm our bodies… so why, when we want to cure cancer, do we avoid asking “Could all the many choices we make that we know are not good for our bodies have something to do with illness and disease?… and if so,don’t we need to work toward an understanding of the reason why we make choices that harm ourselves?”.

     The billions of dollars spent on cancer research have given us more time, have given us higher tech ways to fight it if we get it… but I don’t see that it has brought us any closer to asking the questions we need to ask in order to stop creating cancer in our bodies in the first place.

     Science is important and needed but I don’t want to keep waiting for science, at the expense of taking responsibility to look into my part in it now.

     It seems that we as a society do not want to look at the possibility that we are all part of the cause and so we are all needed to find true answers which can bring us out of this escalation of disease.

489. ‘I know when I stopped alcohol I found other ways to bring stimulation and numbness to my body just as alcohol used to. There was no self-responsibility present in my life to look any deeper.’ very true Julie. I stopped drinking alcohol a long time ago because I was concerned about alcoholism which was prevalent in my family and my growing dependence on alcohol to ‘take the edge off life’. But I didn’t address why I was drinking – to numb out what I didn’t want to feel by keeping myself stimulated with alcohol and the sugar it contains. So I then became a sugar monster and put on quite a lot of weight in the process. It was only through the presentations of Universal Medicine that I started to look at why I had been needing to numb myself and to stop choosing the energy that was giving me my sugar craving. My choice, my responsibility.

490. I do agree that true research would also look at the lifestyles of people who have had breast cancer. It would be interesting to see what those who had a recurrence were up to, compared with those who made different choices after their treatments and for whom cancer didn’t return. It’s not just about what we do or don’t do, but how is our quality of life as we carry out lifestyle changes?

491. Gosh this really does highlight how we can manipulate statistics to promote any agenda. “There are three degrees of falsehood: the first is a fib, the second is a lie, and then come statistics” comes to mind.

492. Amazing blog Julie. That alcohol is a poison is very easy to know and has been known for ages. It is great that research confirms that it has a link with cancer but actually why do we need to wait for the research to change our behaviour? Are we being dishonest about the lack of love we actually have for ourselves because of hurts and things that happened in life, if we keep drinking a poison which of course will not be great for the body? Research is very valuable but should never be made bigger than the wisdom of our bodies.

493. Beautiful sharing Julie, a very readable and important piece of research all women should read.

494. It’s interesting how we can latch onto something that is apparently good for us and turn it into something that justifies our needs (turning it from a medicine into a medication) and how it can be literally anything and something that is fairly innocent and apparently innocuous. Yes to a point it’s about what we do, but even more importantly it is how we are in what we do. No-one until Serge Benhayon spoke of this. So your example of breastfeeding is an amazing one Julie, for who would ever raise a question about it?

495. Julie I notice you are a nursery nurse and the research of premature babies thriving more when held and cuddled compared to those less so, has seemed important to me. It opens up the importance of nurturing and love as fundamental to life, as fundamental to healing and to thriving in all ways.

496. I think the drive behind the choices we make reveal so much. We have pictures of what a good mum is, a good employee, good wife etc and can pursue these pictures doggedly with little or no regard for our well-being and what truly feels right for us. Illness and disease don’t just appear over night. It’s a build up of an unloving and disregarding way of living over a long period of time and this is what I feel we need to be looking more closely at. Our relationship with ourselves and our bodies is at the centre of everything.

497. What a great article with so many pertinent questions. When we are ticking all the health boxes and doing the right things its easy to ask ourselves, ‘why me?’ if we get an illness. As you share Julie, we need to go deeper with our questioning and the list you have come up with are ones we could all benefit from asking ourselves even if we haven’t had breast cancer.

498. Sometimes research can cost a fortune to state something that feels very obvious to me but we need to have done a study on it to have the ‘proof’ rather than feeling what we know to be true. It feels like the evidence based route is a minefield with potholes, proofing something only to find later it was not correct. It is not as reliable as it makes out. We all have a wisdom within us that knows Truth.

499. Julie you have nailed it with this one: “Our lifestyle choices do make a huge difference to our health and wellbeing, but these have to come from the place of choosing to self-love and self-care rather than because I am living in fear of developing a terminal illness or disease.” So much of what you have shared here is very poignant and asks us to question our motives no mater which choices we make. We could in effect be ticking all the boxes of what we ‘should’ and ‘should not’ do but in the end it is about what sits true for us, from deep within our hearts.

500. It is time for research to be based, as you have said Julie on the way we are living and Why we are doing what we do to our bodies and Why we are putting those things in our body that we know and can feel are not a healthy option!. This type of new research will be some poignant reading!

501. Thanks, Julie. How long is it going to take for humanity to accept the simple truth you share here, that we all have a body that bears the brunt of our every choice, and in order to understand illness and disease we need to each examine the way that we are choosing to live and treat our bodies? It is not rocket science, but something that requires us to take responsibility rather than being victims of circumstance or our environment.

502. Your article presents us with a huge opportunity Julie, the opportunity to go deeper, to start to delve into the way women feel about our selves and the choices we make as a consequence that then lead to cancer or not. While breast feeding does bring about different hormonal and chemical changes in the body that long term affect the health of our breasts, it does not make sense that you should have been diagnosed with cancer given how long you were breast feeding. What does make sense is to begin to question the ‘why’ alongside the ‘what’ because the evidence you are presenting us with is showing us that the ‘why’s’ are an equally vital part of this whole cancer equation and until we begin to study them too, we are only ever going to get a compromised understanding of the whole issue.

503. Julie reading again what you share here it seems that the fact we only have part of the answer is the reason why nothing changes, it is only when we open up to the whole picture and therefore the complete answer that we are able to truly heal. In the last decade it is become clear this is the same for every condition we face in the world today and with ourselves.

504. “So what is the purpose of all this research? Is it just buying time away from Truth?” These are really important questions and as posed in this article this type of research is actually taking us away from realising the true cause of illness and disease. If this is the case, which I feel it is, then the next question is, ‘Why are we avoiding the truth?’

505. Making choice from the place of self-love, or a fear of getting a terminal illness – this is a great point, Julie. We could be doing the ‘right’ thing but I can feel the enormous difference between the two, and really, this calls for us deepening a very honest relationship with ourselves.

506. Thank you Julie, this is a newsworthy blog. So much money gets poured into breast cancer research and yet it seems there is still little understanding of the woman and the woman’s responsibility to her own body.

507. Our knowing of our body, and all that is incessantly presented by our body reflecting our lived choices is an authority like no other. Our body has lived each and every choice we have made and as such has great insight and wisdom to offer on the effects of such choices.

508. One could tick all the boxes of ways to reduce the chance of developing breast cancer, but still get it. This shows there is more to it than breastfeeding, alcohol, diet, etc. Its not a lottery nor is it just about genetics, but by reading your experience, there must be a connection between breast cancer and the relationship a woman has within her self.

     1. I agree. Not being who you are, living something we are not must put relentless pressure on our body.

509. I’ve found that in being unwell, whatever form or scale it takes, it is easier and the default to not look deeper as Julie states in this piece. Yet it is precisely what we must do if we want to avoid deeper discomfort. The illness does not occur by fate or chance, there is so much to look at in how we live. What I find in this regard is that I will tell myself I don’t know, but what will roll through my head when I don’t try, is a recollection of a range of situations, that tell me exactly how I have been living that meant I got sick. This is sometimes just not saying how I feel to someone, or a build up of tension from not actioning things that needed to be done, whatever the scenario it is always incredible how the situations are always there to recount and use to better care for my future health.

510. I held many ingrained pictures of what being a woman and being a mother is when my son was born and I also felt an obligation to breastfeed as well as take care of him over taking care of myself, which left me in deep resentment towards myself and to him. These feelings have surfaced recently for me to address, and truly heal the barrier they have kept me apart from my son because we did not truly love in our relationship, but the hurt of having a relationship based on needs is too deep to ignore anymore. This became possible because of a deeper awareness from caring and nurturing myself. Not only is this just a personal relationship of being a mother, it also speaks volumes to me in how I have chosen to be in relationship when I am with the male gender, and this awareness is gradually bringing more healing in all areas of life.

511. Our bodies do indeed reflect to us how we have been living and that everything is energetic first before it is physical.

512. We do not have to wait for scientists to tell us how to live. We can listen to our bodies and work with them from there and perhaps learn something valuable and very useful for the rest of humanity.

513. Without a relationship with our bodies it is difficult to link what research is relevant for us. To take ownership and responsibility for the choices that I have made that have contributed to the illness and injury that occurs in my body allows a clearer path towards true healing. Having said this let us research more how our lifestyle, attitudes and behaviours contribute to illness and disease.

514. Julie with all your breastfeeding activity you should have (in theory and according to the ‘latest research’) well and truly defied the statistics. Yet you ended up with a disease closely associated with the activity of breastfeeding not to mention mastitis prior to that. So if breastfeeding is so health-promoting, how could this happen? Your understandings around how your situation came to be makes more sense to me and this is important information you have shared. Thank you for that, on behalf of all women.

515. We are our own research – everyday the body communicates with us and everyday we make choices that affect our body and our relationships, playing out in our physical health. Your blog makes sense and frees up our way of thinking about life, exhaustion, duty, illness and disease. Our health and the outcome of the way we live is a deeply personal thing as we all hold differing pictures, ideals and belief about what is right but the thing we have in common is that these pictures, ideals and beliefs have been feed to us by what is outside of us and will all eventually lead to a level of illness and disease if what is lived is not true. The body is our true marker of truth and holder of wisdom and health – thank you Julie for prompting deeper consideration of this profound understanding.

516. It is easy to misuse research findings as truth written in stone, rather than seeing it as a statistical trend or guideline only at best. Our body is finely tuned to tell us the whole story about our state of health – we are a finely tuned organism that defies being reduced to a series of tests and questionnaires. As Julie has stated, we can eliminate some behaviours or generally fit within the common guidelines of what appears ‘good’ and still be engaging in activities/foods etc that are creating the same level of disharmony in the body in another form.

517. “Alcohol is a direct cause of seven forms of cancer, finds study”. I just published an article on a very similar topic at http://nonprofitexplore.com/coffee-cake-and-charity/ Here the terrible ill-logic of charities set up for the purpose of cancer prevention using substances with known links to cancer in their fundraising activities was explored. It seems we are good at being inconsistent when it comes to the substances we rely on to get us through life.

518. How often have I heard that question “Why me?” and there it is, the ‘me ‘ constitutes all that we have chosen up until that point in time. All our thoughts and beliefs, our behaviours and habits. We are a package of our lived life or lives. I love that we can trace back to the origins of something if we can be honest enough to go there. Be our own research project and keep staying with it till we find the root of our ills.

519. Fantastic blog Julie, thank you. I really think that taking a deeper look at what’s going on behind our lifestyle choices is the way forward to greater health and wellbeing for all. Building a connection with our body as the greatest marker of truth that we have for all the choices we make is empowering and brings great clarity.

520. Great article Julie, and a great question worth pondering. “So what is the purpose of all this research? Is it just buying time away from Truth?” This calls is all to a greater personal responsibility, as we are the ones living in our bodies and making the choices we do.

521. I had mastitis when I breast fed both my biological babies, I was only able to breast fed them for a total of 7 months due to the pain and fevers. They are now 7 and 8 and I have three other children too. I really enjoyed hearing about your experiences, it was fascinating how you pieced the article together too, I loved that you gave credit to the researchers but without handing everything over to them, its so important that we look at our responsibility with our own bodies, no blame just inquisitively. I haven’t drunk alcohol in over 10 years but I certainly don’t feel at low risk of cancer, I know that my breasts gets sore and my ducts feel blocked when I GO INTO RUSH AND RACE AROUND MODE with little regard for myself. This article is gold, thank you for sharing so honestly and clearly.

     1. Interesting observation Sarah that you share about your ducts feeling blocked when you “GO INTO RUSH AND RACE AROUND MODE” as when I used to have mastitis and especially when it was really bad I used to half heartedly say “ah it’s my barometer to say I’m doing too much”. This shows I could recognise there was a pattern but didn’t change anything. Wow it is awesome to see the similarities once we start sharing. Thank you.

522. This is excellent Julie with such pertinent questions. As one woman with a diagnosis of fibroids, I am very aware that it’s easy to stop and say “Why is this happening?” but where do you go for a point of reference to truly understand why. Another can bring us an understanding and give us the bigger picture as to why we have a diagnosis, but very often we may not see why, we may not be willing to see why or we may be in denial about the choices that we are making in our lives that have caused this. This I know has been true for me, however when we do pay attention to our bodies and take more care to look after and respect ourselves, whatever is not true and supportive of our well-being becomes crystal clear.

523. Great article Julie. What you’re exposing here is humanity’s desperation to find a fix so as to avoid the responsibility that’s being called for.

     1. Yes, Katerina, desperate indeed – looking in every corner of the room to avoid the big elephant standing in the middle!

     2. Yes, Katerina, this is so true – we seek any excuse to not take full responsibility for ourselves. We look on the outside for a solution whereas the answers lie within the whole time, ready for us when we are finally ready to face the truth.

524. Julie there is a much bigger picture than just what research is presenting, research can be quite informative but it’s not the whole picture. The whole picture can come from observing our own body and really feeling the consequences of our behaviours and choices, and understanding that every choice we make has an effect on the body. As you say it’s not about responding with fear or willpower, but by being in partnership with our own body, listening to it, and being motivated by self care and self love to live in a way that is truly supportive for our health and wellbeing.

525. Hello Julie and you are echoing many articles I am seeing saying a similar thing, we are looking for answers or the cure to breast cancer in the wrong place. As you are giving us, the diet you have is only part of the picture as some women can show. The trend appears to be that women and men with cancer choose to clean up their diet as part of their treatment which is a great support. But is this the whole picture, as you are presenting, the answer is no. The ‘how we are’ in the world is growing in support as being a part of everything and there is a commonality growing when it comes to the links with breast cancer as you are presenting. By all means let’s support ourselves with diet and equally look at how we eat and how we are. The quality that we live is at the forefront of the choices we make thereafter, and so it’s well worth the attention and dedication. As is offered how can we truly care for someone or something if we don’t first have a living understanding of how that looks and feels for ourselves.

526. Thank you Julie for opening up a delicate topic that is so often ignored or has been blown away as rubbish. Once I was totally gone and taken by the illusion that I was healthy and okay. It took and still takes daily continuous effort to self-care, appreciate, and honour my feelings inside. I love how you described how in fact we’re our own researchers. How empowering is that! Your whole blog is actually a research in itself. Super powerful to read how by connecting to your body, you were (and are) able to address what needed to be addressed as unloving choices. I trust this honest and very revealing ‘research’ will inspire many women and men.

527. A woman I know had breast cancer and was told by her oncologist that sugar and alcohol were ok to have during her treatment. As a person off the street, I know sugar is toxic so my question is ‘why aren’t our specialists in health care looking more deeply into the effects of food, drink and lifestyle to prevent illness, and to support people during illness?’

     1. Yes agree Sandra, this is a whole other area that could have some light shed on it. I was recently was visiting a critically ill family member in hospital and I was surprised to see the amount of sugary drinks and desserts that were offered. There is a lot more awareness out there these days around healthy food choices and lifestyles affecting our health, and yet this is not what is being seen in some of our hospitals.

528. This is gold Julie “By living in a True Way, we are our own research and every day can be an experiment.” – every day is an experiment for me as no 2 days are the same, just as no 2 days in nature are ever the same.

529. Scientific research has been showing that it is lifestyle choices that are major contributors to illness and disease, but we can look to those in careers such as athletes who eat specially, professionally designed diets from leading nutritionists, their bodies are at the peak of physical fitness – they tick most if not all of the lifestyle boxes, and yet they are not immune to illness, disease of cancer.

     What if prevention through lifestyle choices is more than a tick box exercise, but rather an opportunity to develop a way of living that is true for you and your body, which takes care of all those lifestyle choices. We cannot ask a nation or society to suppress drinking alcohol because we haven’t addressed why people drink it to begin with. When something is pushed down, it inevitably erupts else where.

530. Awesome blog Julie! I love how you put the research into perspective and invite women and researchers to look in the direction of self nurture and care with regards to breast cancer. This makes a whole lot of sense to me.

531. Thank you Julie, an incredible piece of writing. I categorised myself as a militant breastfeeder and did so at a huge expense to my physical and mental wellbeing and ironically this achieves the very opposite of what I wanted with my children. It took a long time to rebuild a relationship with myself as woman, rather than a person hiding behind the role of mother and wife.

532. Issues around breastfeeding abound – how long to feed your babies, on demand or on time, formula milk or breast, there are many images that we try to live up to, often ignoring our own internal wisdom. You mentioned mastitis – in my case, my first born had difficulty feeding and so, when my second was born and latched on straight away, I was so thrilled I didn’t pace myself and ended up with very sore and cracked nipples, but I was so determined to breastfeed that I put up with the agony. Crazy. So far I’m clear of cancer as far as I know, despite there being lots of it in my family, but I do have other health problems that are making me pay more attention to my self-care (or lack of it). Self worth is definitely something we women need to work on. Appreciation of who we truly are and what we bring.

533. I have heard it said that research can prove anything you like, because it depends on how the question is worded and the interpretation of it. The way of this understanding about illness that you describe here Julie, that our behaviour can create illness in the body feels true, and the great thing is that this we can change if / when we decide to.

534. ” We all have a body, which very clearly shows us the result of what we choose. We do not have to wait for scientists to confirm what we can feel in our own bodies.” So true, the more I listen to my body the more wisdom I receive from it.

535. My gosh this blog is outstanding. I love how powerful it is when you use personal experiences in relation to the facts that the research so presents us with. It is the real experiences of life that bring reality to the figures otherwise they are just figures.

536. Not many people would say that their breast cancer was a gift. How many choose to take the stop offered by an illness or a crisis to make new choices for their lives, as you did? Research can offer cold facts, but as epigenetics is showing us, as warm living bodies the choices we make in our lives can make a dramatic difference. It’s not just about giving up sugar etc, but how we are living – the quality – we go about in in our daily lives.

537. Research definitely has its place at this stage in our history however never should it demean or discount our personal experiences.

538. This article is a gift to the world, easily exposing that the accepted belief of ‘ticking all the right boxes’ in our lifestyle is not the whole story. A very large Key here – the re-development of the R E L A T I O N S H I P with O U R S E L V E S on a daily basis, through first stopping and listening to the wisdom the body consistently brings and making the choice to cease overriding it and bring more love and true nurturing back to our bodies.

539. Julie,
     This is a superb article. Linking feelings of resentment and bitterness to illness, especially when the percentages were in our favour, is so telling of how harming the delivery of research is, especially when the research omits to reveal integral aspects of the disease, that is known, but deemed not as big a headline news, so not reported.

540. Absolutely amazing and powerful article Julie. You raise some very important points with regard to our lifestyle and the choices we make, do affect our health in the long term.

541. l love this passage Julie, for me it says it all as I have had these experiences as well. I know what you say here to be true. “Our lifestyle choices do make a huge difference to our health and wellbeing, but these have to come from the place of choosing to self-love and self-care rather than because I am living in fear of developing a terminal illness or disease. This is what matters. When self-love and self-care are in place, we feel worthy of caring for our bodies and the knowing to not drink alcohol, or eat this or that, whether to breast feed or not, or for how long, is naturally there. Our choice to love, nourish and cherish ourselves and our bodies first, takes care of the answers.” The answers then are naturally there within us and not sought after from an external source, this is very empowering.

542. This is very good to point out, concentrating on the numbers and chances that are propagated everywhere doesn’t bring us true health. Looking at our own contribution does give us a good start towards this, listening to our body is what we should take as the beautiful science that is provided to us right there.

543. I totally agree Julie, cancer and indeed all illness and disease do not just happen. You have highlighted simply and clearly what steps may often be missing in people’s lifestyle choices that are the key to turning around the rising trends in lifestyle illness. Our ultimate responsibility is to love and care for ourselves and there are so many benefits of exploring in depth what this means.

544. It’s absolutely fundamental to explore lifestyle leading up to cancer diagnosis… not the normal health/lifestyle questions, but the more deeply probing ones about our relationship with ourselves and how we feel about ourselves as women – and how that impacts on the choices we make day to day. Your case shows there is indeed far more to it than diet and alcohol, it is a cognitive attitude first BEFORE those lifestyle choices are made.

545. This Julie is amazing bringing the real truth to us all to listen to our bodies and what they are telling us and be truly connected and loving in the way we live and also to seek true research and read between the lines of what we are given and how the research is really done,otherwise what we are given can leave us empty fearful and confused. “It is time to question and become our own researchers with our body.The ‘Why or What?’ of our choices is what counts.” So true and so supportive for us all thank you. A very beautiful testament to truth coming from your own experiences lived and known.

546. You really expose here, Julie, current research and what we are being told and ultimately give our power away to. “Could there more at play than all this research is showing us”…absolutely! Clearly if you applied current research principles to your life, the risk of developing the disease was much lower than the norm. What you share about your choices and how you were living then brings much understanding as to why we can develop breast cancer. It seems that asking ourselves why we choose the behaviours we do and changing our patterns is key to the healing process.

547. I agree we cannot rely on research to be the answer we are looking for. We all have a body that tells us what is going on at any point in time – a scientific truth or fact. You could say it’s a bad habit that we constantly choose to not listen to it, when it is constantly providing us what feelings and knowings are there to be honoured. I understand the world is not comfortable to feel or know, and our body is not so easy to listen to sometimes (maybe more often than you would like), especially if we are a part of something that does not feel true as you know it should however, if it has the answers it is good habit and choice to constantly listen to it.

548. Great question Julie, research can provide us with information and part of the picture but it is only when we are willing to look at our part in creating dis-ease in our body that we will be able to come to a true understanding of how we got to this point and make changes and take responsibility for how we are living.

549. A really interesting blog especially looking at research along with what you experienced, showing if the research was true you should have been a lesser candidate for breast cancer. And gosh breastfeeding 2 children for 9 years!!!!!! I bet you were exhausted. This is what I understand so much more clearly than I have ever done before – ‘Our lifestyle choices do make a huge difference to our health and wellbeing, but these have to come from the place of choosing to self-love and self-care rather than because I am living in fear of developing a terminal illness or disease’ -through the teachings and presentations of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine and also feeling and knowing this truth in my body. Something I feel we all innately know but don’t choose to live for whatever reason. It would be great for us to really discuss what is self care as it’s easy to read out the words but what does this truly look like in practice in everyday life? I recently attended a Breast Care event by Foundational Breast Care at a Women in Livingness event hosted by Sara Williams, one at which you were a guest speaker. This was a deeply healing event but also really exposing to me in how I wasn’t caring for myself or listening to my body but instead how I was overriding or ignoring it. It is always good to talk about, but the most important part is lovingly putting this into practice for ourselves.

550. Foundational Breast care Presentations mentioned in the above comment were hosted in London/

551. There is so much asked and offered in this blog to support our understanding of not just the development of breast cancer but all and any disease. Ultimately we have sought to avoid responsibility in holding the links established through research as the path of discovery in total ignorance that the answers to all of our questions are in our own body through the understanding that it holds the effects of all of our choices and decisions.

552. Thank you Julie, what you share is fundamental and something I’ve observed in people close to me yet not fully understood until your recent presentations. (1). A late friend who died of breast cancer aged 39 expressed anger and bewilderment when, after a period in remission, she was diagnosed with secondary stage breast cancer. She believed she was safe, had done all the ‘right things’: ate healthy foods, exercised regularly, did not drink alcohol or smoke cigarettes. The missing link as you share so powerfully in this blog is that making healthy life-style choices is only one part of the equation. The other is the quality of relationship women have with themselves, and if we do not truly connect to and deeply nurture ourselves as a way of being, we run the risk of attracting illness and disease in our bodies.

     Foundational Breast Care presentations: Women in Discussion and Breast Care Beyond Fear October 2016

553. Julie what an important article you write here, for it raises the bar on what true journalism should be about. If we know that alcohol is a direct contributor to cancer then what about exploring why we choose to drink. I know for me it was only after focussing on what is driving me to do things that damage my body that I can actually make changes to truly take care of myself. Before that I had to use “will power” to restrain myself from harming myself in one way but always ended up doing so another way.

554. A great sharing, Julie.
     The more i feel into my body the more i realise that my body is my own research and i don’t really need outside “experts” to tell me how I should live- it is all there fro me to feel.

555. “I have come to learn how breast cancer was a gift”. This powerful statement blows apart the belief held by the majority of humanity that it is horrible disease that just happens to someone and it that needs to be fought and beaten. To see it as a gift is to open the doorway to a new way of looking at the causes of this disease, and to come to know what the initial starting point was, a place where the healing can begin. Thank you Julie for such a great blog.

556. What you write here Julie shakes up so many ideals and beliefs on why women get breast cancer, especially around the research about breast feeding. Research still falls very short at looking deeper into the possibilities of the causes of cancer, and as you say Breast Cancer doesn’t just happen. We therefore have a responsibility as women to do our own research and where better place to start than our own body as confirmed in this line “We do not have to wait for scientists to confirm what we can feel in our own bodies.”

557. Superb article Julie and you offer us some many points to discuss and examine, the opportunity to go deeper and look behind the scenes at the causative factors that contribute to breast cancer, but are not as you say the real source of it. Up until meeting the Esoteric Healing Modalities, I was very hard on my self and my body emotionally, mentally and physically, disregarding in my diet and often pushing my petite body to do jobs way beyond my natural ability and my periods were shockingly painful. That is a very loud message that I wilfully ignored for years. The Esoteric Healing Modalities enabled me to re-build an inner connection with my body and to begin to accept and appreciate the female qualities that as a woman I inherently have. Consequently I began to treat my self and my body with much more tenderness and respect and hey presto my periods improved to such an extent that I actually enjoyed having them. That is a MASSIVE shift.

     I know now without a shred of doubt that the quality of my health rests solidly on the quality of my self care, self respect and self awareness: the quality of my internal thoughts, the foods and beverages I consume, the amount of exercise I take, what time I go to bed, how I start my day and how I respond to my inner and outer needs all in alignment with the delicate woman I am. It is very clear from your article that until we start looking at these factors too, we are restricting our ability to really understand all the reasons why we get breast cancer, particularly if we continue to limit our research to external factors only. By doing so we remain at the mercy of our emotional reactions and coping mechanisms that equally affect our very sensitive, delicate breast tissue and dismiss their true and natural purpose, to nurture firstly our selves and then other people via their delicate warm nurturing energy that radiates out as a consequence of establishing a truly respectful inner connection with them.

     1. You are right Rowena, there is much to discuss and examine and this article only touches the surface. It is expanding for us all (women and men) the more we share around our relationship with ourselves, bodies and breasts. I feel then we will start to expose how tightly bound the web is around ALL cancers. I appreciate what has been shared in your comment and is confirming how there is much more to our health than simply addressing the external factors. These are a fantastic start but there is more and always is.. there is no ‘getting there’ with self care, as I once thought, it is forever unfolding.

558. Research doesn’t have all the answers and yet it is considered, postured and held as if it does and yet depending on a person’s personal stance or investments, research can often be conflicting I have seen. From articles about illness and disease being a case of ‘bad luck’, to the heart foundation recommending that wine supports heart health, clashing with all alcohol being confirmed as the poison that it is. So if we go by research alone we can be tossed around and sent bouncing around all these different opinions and studies that claim that their truth is the truth. But what you’ve brought in Julie is that what if we did our own inner research and explored what is true for our body. And for me, being more gentle and loving with myself doesn’t need a fifty year study to back it up, the moment I change how I walk (if stomping or heavy to a lighter gait) the results are laid out before me and felt within.

559. Very beautiful Julie. Asking to look at the whole way we are living as woman which could cause breast cancer feels a very caring thing to do. The research papers often give a reason for breast cancer but do not go further to ask why women are choosing this unloving behaviour. Going there and asking the question is therefore a loving next level we can go to.

560. Thank you Julie for highlighting how confusing these news articles can be, and how they can give a false sense of security of believing we will be ok if we do x,y and z. There is no magic formula but looking at the relationship we have with our bodies is a great place to start.

     1. I agree Julie they can be confusing as current news articles can contradict each other. Additionally if we choose to accept them in full we are disempowering ourselves as we let go of having to live with self responsibility. Are we then giving ourselves a ‘free pass’ to continue ignoring our bodies?

561. A truly insightful understanding that true research is not undertaken by others upon us but by ourselves upon ourselves (with or without the collaboration of others).

562. Love that comment at the end there Julie – ‘we are our own research and every day can be an experiment’. This empowers each and every one of us. It makes us responsible for what we allow and what we do to ourselves. It encourages us to have a relationship with our bodies, to feel what is going on all the time and if our way of living really supports us, or if it is harming us.

563. How many, not so long ago years, were surveys saying so many units of alcohol per week was good for the body! I was once told that numbers lie and liars will always figure; this fits research well! Your new type of research is what is needed that includes how our bodies confirm what is presented.

564. A truly great article Julie, and if understood and taken on would not only reduce the number of women diagnosed with breast cancer, but all other cancers as well. It just goes to show all the research in the world isn’t worth a carrot if the individual’s lifestyle choices and how much self care and love is there or not there is not in the equation.

565. Thank you Julie. A very clear look at the fact that breast cancer ‘does not just happen’ and a deeper questioning of the underlying causes in how we as women care and nurture ourselves. Our body gives all the answers when we read all our own research findings.

566. Absolutely brilliant article Julie, one that is very much needed in a world that is actually set on busy. The quality of busy is so frenetic and in drive that for so many we eat and drink to just not feel all the energy that is at play around us. There is much to look at and understand.

567. I love the fact you have mentioned self-worth Julie. Behind the decision not to self-nurture or even self-care lurks a lack of self-worth. It takes some exploration of the notion of self-worth – discovery of what it truly means – to begin to understand and live it. For a long time I thought of self-worth as a feminist-empowered stance… now I know it is valuing myself simply for who I am, well before I do a thing. A precious woman.

568. Your contribution to breast care health blows all the research out of the water Julie. An outstanding blog highlighting the precursors of the choices, ideals, beliefs, lifestyle, the lack of self care and lack of self nurture, that are common denominators and contributors to the way a woman lives and the relationship she has with her body. Thank you for sharing, and now true research from your anecdotal evidence can begin.

569. It is great to confirm that there is more to our Bodies than just being part of statistics. Thanks for sharing.

570. Julie your presentation of the facts as you know them to be from your lived experience confounds the research. It is apparent from your story that your choice not to live with total regard for and in harmony with yourself before anyone or anything else was behind the breast conditions you suffered. If our breasts are for nurturing, they’re for nurturing ourselves first and foremost.

571. It feels so empowering to take the responsibility to study our own life instead of relying on the outcome of studies that are seemingly randomly look at only some specific aspects of human life and behaviour.

572. Until we as women truly learn to nurture ourselves, humanity will suffer the consequences of being fed from an empty cup. Hence the excess motion (maleness) that we live in due to a lack of true femaleness (Stillness) being lived. We are thirsty for a balance between the genders and the key to this is found in the body of every woman here on earth. As such, we as women (as do the men) need to honour our physical form and through it allow ourselves to live again our true essence. This is a brilliant article Julie that really puts the responsibility for our health (and that of humanity’s!) back into our own hands, thankyou.

573. Very illuminating article, thank you. Research is important, as you say, but it can easily leave us cold despite the dire warnings. It is only when we connect with our body and become our own researcher and research laboratory that things start to make sense and fall into place; our physical body is, after all, the ultimate reality check.

574. We so often look for one shot solutions, switches we can flick like a light to solve all our problems. Yet no matter what we do or what technological breakthrough we may have, there is no escaping the simple fact that everything matters. You cannot separate one part of life or us on its own and when we try, it really does not go very well. It is beautiful to feel the way you write here Julie with the wisdom of experience close to your heart to show in every moment we live, the quality counts.

575. “And if we keep believing and accepting the latest research this and research that, is it possible that all we are doing is delaying finding the truth of why breast cancer, or any other disease, is on the increase?”

     I loved this line and the way you share here Julie. If we made resesrach king we would be left feeling very confused and I believe not very well because research is often manufactured to support the sale of products not the health of people.

     Your final line is a deeply beautiful clincher. Thank you.

576. I feel like science and the research carried out is still a bit behind in considering the effects of how we treat ourselves on an emotional level, our thoughts as you say Julie, but also the type of lifestyle choices we make other than food and drink, the measure of how we see ourselves has to impact our health positively or negatively, and subsequently if we do or don’t have a positive self impression it will impact on how much we care for ourselves in every action we take, and this has to affect our health, it simply couldn’t not.

577. Julie is right. We may be doing some things that reduce our risk of getting cancer but we may be doing others that are not measured that increase our risk. We may even do things that normally reduce the risk in such a way that they negate the benefit or can even make things worse.

     1. Thank you Christoph – this exposes how we are manipulating life to suit ourselves all the time by measuring and balancing constantly. I remember when my children were younger how they would ask for a biscuit or cake or something similar and I would reluctantly ‘oh ok but you have to have some fruit first”! My thinking was the fruit negated the effects of the cake or biscuit so that made it ok.

578. I love that you are asking people to consider that there are repercussions to compromising your health in the drive to be the perfect mother. Very few women put themselves first and yet it could be said at great cost… but as Universal Medicine has beautifully presented for years, there is a way to nurture yourself whilst you nurture your child, supporting and caring for both equally in a way that can support you from not becoming another statistic.

     1. This is an important point as yes absolutely there is a way to nurture both our self and child with care and love. And as I discovered, through attending Universal Medicine presentations and then through developing a life threatening disease, this happens when we hold a regard and love for ourselves first. I am constantly learning too how this applies to all aspects of my life.

579. The first thing that hit me when I started reading your blog was how sensible and non-emotional your question was and your simple statement that you had been diagnosed with DCIS. It then struck me how emotive many people are around breast cancer and how all those emotions and money raising agendas etc do not allow one to see the simple truths and facts that are so clearly available when one is open to them.

     1. The other thing that struck me was how lovingly responsible what you have written is and how incredibly irresponsibly presented most other things on this subject is. As you say it always starts with us and our choices. To understand, know and live that is actually very joyful and liberating.

580. Thank you Julie, you really shine the light on how we can align with scientific research and not commit as you have to exploring more deeply its relevance in our own lives. No research statistics will ever replace self responsibility,owning our own choices and making truly loving decisions about our lifestyles.

581. There is an overload of information and beliefs when it comes to making choices to breastfeed or not, eating healthy, exercise and caring for our body. I have found, the best guide to caring for our body is in fact our own body. It will continuously guide us and it is sending us messages, letting us know what is loving for it and what is not, but so often we ignore and override these messages, giving our power away to outside sources. Yet, the most powerful source is the intelligence of our body. This is available to us all the time. Caring, loving, nurturing, listening and honouring our body I know is the key to true care for our health and well-being.

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