Breathing and Pilates Class – Cancer Treatment – Eat | Pray

I have been practicing Pilates and Breathing exercises for a while in Singapore, but I was a little surprised initially to see that the clinic also incorporated these lifestyle elements into my mum’s treatment plans.

The health benefits of exercise is irrefutable for all of us really.

“We confirm that there is irrefutable evidence of the effectiveness of regular physical activity in the primary and secondary prevention of several chronic diseases (e.g., cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, hypertension, obesity, depression and osteoporosis) and premature death…There appears to be a linear relation between physical activity and health status, such that a further increase in physical activity and fitness will lead to additional improvements in health status.” – -CMAJ, 2006 issue

Exercise also helps to get more oxygen into my mum’s system so I definitely encourage all cancer patients to do some light exercises! My mum will probably enroll in Pilates and Taiji class when home to stay fit and healthy.

Mum doing a push-up stance

Because there are often psychological factors linked to cancer, the clinic also encourages breathing and stilling of the mind. Some people name this meditation but I want to move away from this terminology because the breathing that I am talking about does not have a religious slant. The exercises done in the clinic are used to focus the mind on the breaths themselves, to slow down and calm the parasympathetic nervous system.

Meditation is one of several relaxation methods evaluated and found to be of possible benefit by an independent panel convened by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). — American Cancer Society [1]

Personally, I have always found it a challenge to calm my mind and still my spirit. Usually, I try to do breathing exercises and meditate on the verse “Be still and know that I am God”. Like many things, proper breathing that bring oxygen fully into the lungs and expands the diaphragm is a conscious habit to develop, so I think I am slowly improving now after doing it for sometime. I try to do it in the mornings to also introduce more oxygen into my (non-morning person) body.

For all who are reading this article because someone you know have cancer, I want to share from my experience of watching several cancer patients’ recovery journey. A huge part of the recovery is emotional – letting go of past hurts and burdens, and being able to forgive and forget. And slow exercises like Taiji and breathing exercises help to calm individuals and to be able to achieve an optimal emotional and mental state, so that we can let go and be positive! Our emotions and words can even affect water molecule formation – see below a video that amazed me – what more ourselves and our health!