Hello and welcome to Inside the Healing Journey.

There are two kinds of people in this world. There are those who accept a diagnosis of a life-threatening, debilitating or chronic dis-ease (hyphen intended) and choose to stay on the same path and learn to live (or die) with it. And there are those who take the road less-traveled and make the conscious choice to stand up against the diagnosis, to fight and defeat it.

My name is Marilynn Vanderstaay. I am one of those people who decided to fight a diagnosis of life-threatening cancers and then a severe disability. To not let discouragement in what I saw, or heard or felt move me to quit. To do whatever it took to overcome.

Twenty-four years ago I took the first step of faith on what was then a basically uncharted path inside the healing journey. I had no idea that in addition to traditional medicine I would become a coureur des bois who would learn about and even define the how-tos of divine healing and pioneer complementary and alternative medicine.

A few weeks after I was diagnosed with stage four ovarian cancer, a friend asked me if I had only a year left to live, how would I live it? I told her emphatically I did not have just one year left, but if I did, I would spend it living, not dying. And if I did happen to die, I would have died living life to the fullest.

A new way of living
That answer, along with four life-directing quality decisions I made at the time of the diagnosis, set the course for my path inside my healing journey. That road less-traveled would take me not only to health and wholeness, but also to a new way of living; spirit, soul and body. My life has even improved socially and financially. Wholeness…a new way of living that is more meaningful, more focused, more fulfilling and more satisfying than I could have ever imagined. A life worth living.

What Inside the Healing Journey is

Mine is the story of a woman who not only overcame stage four ovarian cancer but went on to defeat a metastasis to the lung and then two more to the brain, and a second primary in the bladder, and then successfully climbed up and out of the long and often treacherous mudslide of extreme brain damage, using the tools, resources and strategies that are all available on this site.

I wrote this site for you, my fellow travelers. Through these pages I candidly share with you the how’s not just the that’s I did to overcome. This site is a GPS (global positioning system) which when set up properly will guide those dealing with life-threatening, debilitating or chronic diagnoses and their care givers to navigate through the labyrinth of the healing journey back to health and wholeness. And as with any good GPS program, when you come to an unexpected detour or road block, will help you reset your itinerary so you can continue and not turn back.

I have pulled together the tools, the strategies, the attitudes and the positive realignments of my lifestyle, under the umbrella of a Judeo-Christian perspective I personally pioneered to overcome five life threatening cancers and subsequent challenges. 

A new way of eating
Inside the healing journey you will eat, and perhaps taste for the first time, some of the most delicious and healthy food… yes the two can be synonymous… and have access to easy recipes to create tasty meals. You and your care givers will learn how to rework your most favourite comfort foods, including peanut butter and grilled cheese sandwiches, soups, macaroni and cheese, and yummy got to have them vegetables. And yes desserts. You will learn how to make health-happy meals filled with nutritious ingredients.

I also share with you the health-building healing supplements I took to give my body the tools it needed to heal.

A new way of thinking

Inside the healing journey you will discover a new way of thinking… about yourself, your life,  your raison d’etre, what is truly important to you, and what is not .  You will learn, perhaps for the first time, how to pamper yourself with Wow! by wrapping around you the people, the activities and those things you really enjoy that make you feel special and loved… all elements of healing.

A new way of laughing

This new way of living is more focused, more peaceful and more fun… yes fun… than you have ever experienced. You will discover the power of laughter, to laugh yourself healthy and many ways to put more fun in your life.

A new way of being

You will have an opportunity to feed your spirit with the healing food of the Word of God that will  heal you spirit, soul and body, as you focus on what is really important in life. You will learn how to take healing scriptures from the Bible and apply them as a salve to the diagnosis and your personal situation, just as you would an antibiotic ointment to your body. And you will learn to trust, perhaps for the first time, that God has a plan for you, a plan for you to succeed in everything you put your hands to.

This is the site I wish had been available when I was diagnosed. In those pre-Internet days there weren’t any mainstream books published about how someone could overcome battles with life-threatening cancer and brain damage, and other debilitating or chronic dis-eases.

This is written to encourage all readers to understand that whatever the diagnosis, or if you are the caregiver of a loved one, the diagnosis is not the first nail in the coffin. However believing that it is, is.

From the first decisions made at the diagnosis in 1988 to being called healed, not in remission, by my doctors in 1994, to a new career as a journalist, speaker and trainer,and community investment specialist , I have included what I did and used to successfully find my way through the healing journey. To encourage you with the attitude “if she could do it, I can do it!”

I have pulled together the tools, the strategies, the attitudes and the positive realignments of my lifestyle, under the umbrella of a Judaeo-Christian perspective that I personally pioneered to overcome those five life-threatening cancers and subsequent challenges.

As with any good GPS program, when you come to an unexpected detour or roadblock, this site will also help you reset your itinerary so you can continue forward and not turn back.

To receive a free download of my report Fire Drill; How to Get Out Of Crisis Quickly and Effectively contact me.

 

 

 

 

Faith Worm
On the healing journey I met Faith Worm, a chic little worm with teeth and the fearless attitude that she could roll up her sleeves and chew through any challenge, while maintaining her dignity and grace to get the job done, no matter what it takes. Faith and her friends will accompany us on all the pages of this site to encourage you that with Faith all things are possible. 

“Do not fear, you worm Jacob, I will help you,” declares the Lord, “Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I will make you to be a new, sharp threshing instrument, which has teeth. You will thresh the mountains and pulverize them and beat them small, and will make the hills like chaff.”
Isaiah 41:15

So put your hand in mine and walk with me inside the healing journey. Support and encouragement are just a read away. Brew a cup of tea, sit back and read through these pages and develop the confidence that you are going to complete the journey. Make the quality decision now that you will do whatever it takes to overcome any circumstance you might meet along the way. Choose to live in the now and to enjoy every day, year after year, to the fullest.
Regards,
      Marilynn

Hocma
“What we need to match the science of human health is what the ancient Israelites called ‘hocma’ – the science of the heart… the capacity to see… to feel… and then to act… as if the future depended on you. Believe me, it does.”
Bill Moyers January 2005

Hocma is Hebrew for Wisdom… and is also feminine in gender

 

I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants.
Deuteronomy 30:19

Disclaimer: There are no guarantees, of course, that by following the path I took you will be completely healed or restored. But I can guarantee, however. that if you do take the road inside the healing journey, and make the quality decision to live and not die, if you do happen to die, you will die living and not dying.