Susun S. Weed, Author of
Breast Cancer? Breast Health! the Wise Woman Way
"Here is the information and spirit that that our hearts and breasts have needed for a very long time." - Christiane Northrup, M.D.
This website is a virtual journey through Breast Cancer? Breast Health! the Wise Woman Way by Susun S. Weed. This invaluable book is for women who want to maintain breast health and for women diagnosed with breast cancer. This information is shared with understanding that you accept complete responsibility for your own health and well-being. Explore and enjoy!
USING THIS BOOK • xvii
The remedies gathered here are generally considered effective ways to promote breast health, reverse in situ cancers, and moderate the side effects of orthodox cancer treatments.
• To maintain breast health, read Section One. If you’ve recently been diagnosed with breast cancer, read Section Two. To prevent recurrence, go back and read Section One. To help you take action on the remedies discussed in each section, most chapters conclude with a section of resources.
• The remedies are presented in the framework of the Wise Woman Tradition and the Six Steps of Healing.
The Wise Woman Tradition offers a view different from that of both alternative and orthodox medicine. In the Wise Woman Tradition, illness is viewed as an opportunity for greater health/wholeness. Death is seen as an initiation, a graduation, the last act, the climax. While death is acknowledged as the ultimate outcome of all lives, accepting this does not mean relinquishing the desire to stay alive. The Wise Woman Way offers us prevention and treatment options that benefit us and help maintain the health of our families, our communities, and the Earth.
The Six Steps of Healing give us a way to use all available healing options as safely as possible. (See chart opposite.)
• All Step 0 suggestions are interchangeable for all problems.• Steps 0, 1, 2, and 3 can prevent and help you deal with breast cancer. Daily doses of deep relaxation (Step 0), varied intellectual and sensory information (Step 1), energetic engagement (Step 2), loving nourishment, and adequate exercise (both Step 3) are important parts of maintaining or reclaiming breast health.
• Remedies from Steps 0, 1, 2, and 3 are considered safe even if you are using orthodox treatments. When Step 4 and 5a remedies work well with orthodox treatments they are called complementary medicines. Seek expert advice before using Steps 5b or 6.
• The Six Steps of Healing can be used incrementally and globally:
Incremental Approach: Start with Steps 0 and 1, setting a time limit for yourself. (It can be three seconds or three months or . . .) When the time limit is up, you can extend it (and continue with Steps 0-1) or add on Step 2, setting another time limit. Again, when time’s up, you can extend it or add Step 3. Continue this way, adding remedies from Steps 4, 5a, 5b, and 6 as needed. When the problem is resolved, don’t stop. Go back through the steps, in reverse order, letting go of each one before returning to Step 0. (When you return to Step 1, it becomes share information.)
Global Approach: If you know you are going to use orthodox treatments such as surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy (Steps 5 and 6), use all six steps together: Surrender to the mysteries of life and death (Step 0), collect information (Step 1), explore energy work (Step 2), nourish all aspects of yourself (Step 3), stimulate your immune system (Step 4), and take supplements for a brief interval (Step 5a). Healing from surgery is amazingly rapid when the global approach is used. Side effects of chemotherapy and radiation are kept to a minimum with the global approach.
• Consult the Materia Medica for cautions, dosage range, botanical name, and other helpful information about the herbs mentioned most frequently in this book. Consult the Herbal Pharmacy for instructions on making specific preparations such as infusions and infused oils. Different preparations of herbs can produce very different effects. Unfamiliar word? Look in the glossary, page 327.• The ' indicates remedies recommended by many women.
• Trust your own sense of what’s right for you. Seek second and third opinions. Respect the uniqueness of your body, your intuitions, and your feelings.
May it be in beauty; may it be in a sacred way.Excerpt from
Breast Cancer? Breast Health the Wise Woman Way by Susun S. Weed
