The Power of Meditation
When Janis L. Silverman would return home from radiation treatment, she'd apply an ice pack to her breast. Her recovery routine didn't involve resting in her favorite chair or sprawling out on the couch. Janis would go to her office, where she'd sit at her computer, one hand clutching the ice pack and the other pecking away on her keyboard, writing.
Janis was chronicling her thoughts of staying positive, while fighting the angst that comes with the territory for those diagnosed with breast cancer. For about four months, Janis composed meditations that she applied to all phases of breast cancer, from diagnosis to recovery.
"I was getting rid of the physical pain and getting my head together at the same time. And it worked," said Janis, whose cheery demeanor is quickly detectable, even through a phone conversation from her home in Matthews, N.C.
Janis didn't stop at self-healing. Instead, she was eager to share her stress-reducing techniques with other women who faced, or who are facing, a similar journey. More than a year after her April 2011 diagnosis of stage I breast cancer, Janis' meditations were published in a book titled: Relax, Reflect, Restore, and Recover: Guided Imagery Meditations for Women With Breast Cancer. Her collection of books total 12, dating back to her first, entitled Read to Study, published in 1987.
"I watched her as she was going through radiation," said Janis' husband, Dick Silverman. "I was amazed she had written over 100 of these meditations. She stopped at 101 and figured out what she wanted to do with them."
Janis' book that focuses on meditations for breast cancer patients can be found on Kindle and in audio format. They are broken into four separate books, representing four stages (relax, reflect, restore, recover). The books can be sampled and purchased on Amazon.com, Audible.com and iTunes.
"The people who have used this, who have had breast cancer, have given me very good feedback," said Janis, whose cancer treatment was limited to radiation. "They are comforting, and help reduce stress and fear levels and relax them. That is the whole point."
A follower of meditation teachers Andrew Weil, Emmett Miller, Jon Kabat-Zinn, and others, Janis' meditations, poems and prayers use a lot of guided imageries. "Sometimes I'll visualize the light surrounding me, protecting me. I can do a body scan mentally."
She also relies on nature as a healing platform. "Visualize yourself in a beautiful place under a canopy of green, trees or vines. And visualize yourself in a protective space. Meditating in that environment is very protecting," she said.
Janis' provides the voice for the meditations, while her son, Yadi Alamin, reads the introductions.
The photographs on the covers have a familiar look, as they were taken on Hilton Head Island. Janis and her husband frequently vacation in the Lowcountry since moving from Chicago to just outside of Charlotte, 12 years ago.
Long before Janis was diagnosed, she had other reasons to nurture herself. She explained how she contracted rheumatoid arthritis soon after receiving a four-dollar flu shot about 30 years ago. Janis said the medication used to treat her debilitating disease also caused toxic damage to her eyes. For the past 20 years, Janis has been legally blind and uses a magnify program on her large computer screen.
Because of her chronic health problems, Janis said she began practicing meditation for pain and stress about 25 years ago. "Rheumatoid arthritis is a command you have to take care of yourself. I nurtured myself as much as I could. I started writing about that time; the writing was nurturing to me, too," Janis said.
Janis' first project was writing about a subject in her expertise: Children with learning disabilities or highly gifted. Janis earned an undergraduate degree at Penn State University in elementary education and a Master's degree in special education at Northeastern Illinois University. Her first job was as a fifth-grade teacher. For many years, she had a private tutoring practice for people of all ages, focusing on basic core subjects and study skills.
Earlier this year, Janis gained personal achievement when her publisher sent a case of her books, Help Me Say Goodbye: Helping Kids Cope when a Special Person Dies, to the Sandy Hook, Connecticut library. It was given to the families and children affected by last year's elementary school shootings.
Today, two years cancer free, Janis continues to work on other meditation books. She is writing a toddler series of interactive meditations, and also working on adult wellness meditations. "When I get inspired, I write. It's my way of giving back to the world."