Passion Beyond Pain (Hardcover)

by John Inzerillo

 List Price: $29.95 (Available from Amazon for $25.76)

Hardcover: 232 pages

Publisher: Humanics Publishing Group (July 2, 2008)

ISBN-10: 0893344532

ISBN-13: 978-0893344535

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Reviewed by Yank Elliott, MBA

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The author represents what some would call an unconventional approach to cancer treatment, especially the aspects of major pain so often associated with this disease. I have had personal contact with him, as he treats one of the four most significant members of my family. A few days ago we remarked about how comforting it is to have a session with him; no matter what happens, we always leave with positive feelings. Now I know why this is.

 My research into his background led me to an article in the December, 2006, issue of The New Physician. It was “EYE CONTACT: Disengaged doctors and the death of hope,” by John Inzerillo, M.D. It is about a frightening experience the author and his family suffered while searching for treatment of a serious medical condition affecting one of their children. At the end of the article he had this to say, in part:

 Referring to one of the doctors treating his son, “His attitude is one reason I decided, well before my son’s illness, to move from my busy oncology practice to one where the pace is more human; where I can look my patients in the eye and shake their hands before I sit down to listen. It is a place where I have time to review the chart before I walk into the exam room, giving me the freedom to look at the patient and others with whom I am sharing space and experiences. I can get a better feel for where my patients and their family members are coming from, and where their minds may be taking them. Then I can do my best to reassure them.

It seems strange when patients tell you, just after you’ve broken the news about their stage IV lung cancer and what that means, that they feel better after talking to you. I believe it’s because they’ve found a way to walk away with at least a little hope.” And this is exactly how he is; his patients always feel encouraged, regardless of their condition.

The author proposes many unique ways to reduce the pain and stress associated with various forms of cancer. Writing is one way anyone can approach pain management. Even extreme pain has been shown to be helped by writing about it. Patients who wrote experienced much better sleep habits and better function when awake.

Our breath is a useful tool for pain control. Breathing in may emphasize pain, but it also increases blood flow carrying oxygen which helps overcome pain. While inhaling tell yourself you are receiving from the universe what you need for total healing. On the exhale, imagine you are releasing all your problems back into the universe to be destroyed.

Pain management is, in some sense, similar to other demanding problems of our daily lives. We all force our bodies to do things we really don’t want to do, none of which are healthy for us when done over long periods of time. Making ourselves get up and go to jobs we hate, often requiring huge amounts of energy, sets our minds up to accept a pain-racked body. We all have places in our physical constitution where we store tensions all day long. These are sick places of pain that will only heal when we take measures to discharge these tensions from our bodies.

The book describes a little-known technique of balancing one’s Chakras so as to bring life into balance. Chakra is Sanskrit for wheel; our “wheels” are near certain ganglia in our central nervous system. You will see how to accomplish this in the book.

Another way to gain control of pain is to go to some quiet place and get rid of all the noise in your mind. This allows focusing on getting rid of fatigue, even after intensely hard work. You can now try to reduce the effort in anything. Try to  develop a relaxed and easy attitude about everything, including pain, and often you will generate an unimpeded flow of energy that feels good. At this point recheck your body to find some place that is entirely pain free. It may be very small, such as a little toe or a finger nail. Determine how big an area is pain free, then imagine expanding it to cover areas with pain—make it big enough to cover the entire area.

Some form of meditation is required to accomplish many things described here. Use it to choose keeping things the way they are and just accept what you have, or you can decide to try and change the situation. This requires venturing into unknown areas which often generate fear of not knowing whether we succeed or fail. Fear of failure is a big obstacle to our ability to heal. Pain generates chronic fatigue; since there is tremendous energy stored in pain, if it can be redirected from dread and agony to hope and excitement a whole new world opens with new dreams. To help with your meditation use the Internet to find many different ways to do this. Choose one and try it—if it works, fine. If it does not work, try another. Many experienced counselors say, “Start where you are. Things will unfold as you sow these seeds of emotional release.”

These methods help to rearrange the concept of pain so it isn’t perceived as the enemy, but as a point of possibility and transformation, not necessarily to become pain-free, but rather restoring a sense of balance that allows coping with pain. Do not blame anything beyond your control for your pain. This just says you have to accept things as they are and there’s no way to ever change anything. You do need to accept things as they are right at this moment; this allows you to escape emotional involvement in your pain. You can now make the conscious decision to just allow what is happening to happen and not burn up all the energy trying to change present reality.

A very effective way to help yourself is to go into your community and help other people. Seldom is there a situation where there aren’t people much worse off than you. Helping these people takes you away from dwelling on your own problems. You will still have pain, but you will realize you did not cause your pain and you will get a great amount of satisfaction from helping others work through their own situations.

This book discusses many other methods of Yoga, Meditation, exercise, and more. Many of the  ideas discussed can be applied to other situations like career problems or business and financial situations. This is a read well worth your time.

Tags: cancer, career problems, chakras, financial, hope, meditation, oncology, pain control, positive feelings, reduce pain, unconventional, yoga