Greg Flaxman, LCSW, began working towards mindfulness in 2007 as an undergraduate scholar at UC Berkeley. By the point he got here to UCLA for graduate college a couple of years later, he was main mindfulness periods for classmates.

“I used to be studying concerning the analysis about meditation and it was simply form of blowing my thoughts that this was no more mainstream,” Flaxman says. “Now we have now apps and even commercials for it however again then, there was nonetheless numerous new science popping out that was actually affirming the advantages of it.”

These scientific findings motivated him to begin meditating. And as soon as he noticed the constructive affect mindfulness apply was having on his life, he was impressed to share it with others.

Now, amongst his different duties as a medical oncology social employee on the Simms/Mann-UCLA Heart for Integrative Oncology, Flaxman leads a mindfulness meditation group for individuals with most cancers.

Mindfulness is the apply of deliberately being attentive to moment-to-moment experiences as they come up, with curiosity and with out judgment. This cultivates a way of ease and stability, permitting for considerate response somewhat than computerized response to life circumstances.

Dealing with most cancers

Mindfulness apply “permits individuals to have the ability to stick with an expertise that’s already there, that’s already current for them,” Flaxman says. “So if there’s something difficult occurring, maybe due to the most cancers — like ache, or emotional misery, anxiousness, unhappiness — what I’ve seen is that it permits of us to have the ability to be with that in a means that brings in some self-compassion.”

As soon as individuals develop some familiarity with mindfulness apply, they’ll name upon that feeling of groundedness at will, he says. Somebody going into remedy, for instance, may tune into their breath, the feeling of listening to the sounds round them, or something that feels impartial or calming. Mindfulness meditation builds the power to seek out an inside anchor, he says.

Flaxman additionally continues his private mindfulness apply as a means of staying current along with his personal emotional panorama.

“I like considering of it as a type of psychological hygiene,” he says.

As a social employee with the Simms/Mann Heart, Flaxman additionally sees particular person sufferers of all ages at any stage of their most cancers journey.

Receiving a most cancers prognosis brings a couple of vary feelings for many individuals, together with anxiousness, melancholy and shock, Flaxman says. On the Simms/Mann Heart, which gives psychosocial take care of individuals with most cancers and their households, dealing with the psychological and emotional challenges of the prognosis is as important as another medical remedy.

“Some individuals don’t even have an emotional response within the second as a result of they’re so targeted on the remedy and so targeted on simply taking the following step,” Flaxman says, including that he generally accompanies his sufferers to their chemotherapy appointments or physician visits to supply assist.

Want to assist

Flaxman says he knew from a younger age that he “needed to be in a serving to occupation.” He was near his grandparents when he was rising up and noticed the challenges they confronted as they obtained older. He was moved by the care a hospice employee offered their household on the finish of his grandparents’ lives.

“Being on the opposite aspect of the assist that was wanted and seeing what may very well be beneficial and useful to individuals — I needed to be a part of that resolution,” he says. “There’s one thing that feels good about with the ability to give again on this means. It appears like a means of honoring their recollections.”

Flaxman was drawn to the Simms/Mann Heart due to its integrative strategy to treating most cancers, past the standard medical mannequin. Apart from mindfulness, its choices embrace artwork remedy, qi gong, breathwork and chaplains who present religious assist.

“It’s actually caring for the complete individual: thoughts, physique and spirit,” he says. “To be a part of a group that has all these totally different specialties — that actually might be such a assist to individuals and permit them to seek out their house, in a means. I really feel just like the Simms/Mann Heart creates a spot for individuals the place they really feel a way of belonging and group.”