Parul Thukral is a Breast Cancer survivor, Yogini, and a certified holistic health coach working towards healing others and encouraging individuals to work towards a disease-free life. She was diagnosed with late-stage Breast Cancer at the young age of 27 during 2017 and had a year-long battle against it before she came through successfully. After her cancer journey, she followed her inner calling and became a certified healing coach aimed towards a rounded approach to lifestyle changes with the right blend of dietary changes, exercise and Pranayama.
About the Healing Circle
Healing Circle at Love Heals Cancer and ZenOnco.io are sacred platforms for expressing and listening to each other’s different healing journeys. We give every cancer fighter, survivor, caregiver, and other involved individuals a closed space to engage with one another to listen to each other without any judgments. Our platform is chiefly designed to help several cancer patients realize that they are not alone. It is for every individual that has had an overwhelming journey and chose to heal for themselves. It is for those individuals who consistently fought and are still fighting for their lives. We don’t advise or fix or try to save each other and believe that we have guidance we need within us, and we rely on the power of silence to access it.
Parul Thukral shares about her journey
I was working as a chartered accountant and got married in December 2015. After a year of marriage, I got to know that I had stage 2 Breast Cancer. My mom also had cancer, so it might be in the genes. I got to know in 2017 that I had breast cancer, and I was just 27 at that time. I felt a lump in my breast, but I wasn’t ready to go for any test because I was scared as I had seen my mother going through a lot because of cancer. But somehow, my husband convinced me to go for the tests.
My doctors told me that I have to go through 16 Chemotherapy sessions and 23 Radiotherapy sessions followed by a mastectomy. I was scared of the side effects of the treatment because my mom was on the death bed due to the effects of the conventional treatment on her liver and kidneys. She was struggling for life, and eventually, she left for her heavenly abode.
I started my treatment because of my husband, as he motivated me a lot. I believe that the one thing that is required is acceptance. You need to accept that you have a disease, and only then should you go for the treatment. I accepted everything and shaved my hair because I didn’t want to see my hair falling every day. After starting chemotherapy, my tumor started shrinking, so my doctors were pleased about that. Still, somewhere inside me, I knew that this treatment alone was not going to work; I needed to change something in my lifestyle that can prevent the reoccurrence and reverse the side effects of conventional treatment. Luckily, I got to know about holistic healing and after beating cancer, I chose the path of healing and holistic healing myself. Later, I did courses on holistic healing, and now I am helping others reduce the side effects of conventional treatment and prevent reoccurrence.
I believe that the problems will always be there; you need to find the solution. I am working on boosting my immune system and also helping others for the same. Now, I take things lightly and focus on my health first. I have so much gratitude for the people who have supported me during my journey. I partied a lot during my treatment and celebrated every small occasion as a big festival.
My father and mother were not in a condition to take care of me because my mother was on death bed, and my father was taking care of her. My sister can’t hear and speak, so she also couldn’t help me. There was only one person who could help me at that time, and that was my husband. He supported me a lot. I believe that people should support each other because being sick is just a part of life, and you have your ups and downs in it.
Key elements of defeating cancer
When I accepted that it has happened, I couldn’t crib why it had happened to me but needed to accept it and beat this. We need to have that motivation in ourselves to beat cancer. Your journey would be so much easier if you accept the condition you are in. Go for holistic healing in the future. Stay motivated, watch motivational videos. Many people in the world are not in good condition. Therefore, it’s always better to be grateful for the problems that you don’t have.
For managing side effects, I followed the path of holistic healing. I did detox and worked on my minerals and nutrition intake. We need to change our lifestyle to reverse the disease. I changed my lifestyle.
Our immune system is like a guard. If you have chronic Stress or gut issues, your immune system will only work on those problems. Give time to heal your immune system. Inflammation is the major cause of cancer. It is caused by chronic stress, chronic gut issues, chronic bloating, and chronic infection. You have to heal all these things to avoid inflammation so that your immune system gets better to fight cancer.
Advice as a Yogini
I am a Yogini because I do Yoga and teach Yoga. The most important thing for cancer patients is deep breathing. Cancer patients have to do deep breathing every day. After mediation, it is important to calm down your whole body and give your body time to repair and heal. You need to start with gentle yoga, with some kind of stretching. You can then go for Surya Namaskar, cobra pose, warrior pose, cow and cat pose, and tree pose to calm down the whole body and maintain balance so that your whole nervous system is in position. You can reduce your Fatigue through yoga, deep breathing, and meditation.
Holistic healing
Holistic healing takes you entirely as a person. It sees your mind, body, emotions, and how you are spiritually. It is the blend of moderate exercise, a good amount of sleep, a good diet that is high in nutrients, minerals, values, and vitamins. Eat fruits and avoid juices because they do not have fiber, and our body needs Fiber.
Conventional treatment is similar in most cases, but everyone has a unique cause of inflammation in their body, so you need to work on your cause. In holistic healing, we work on the cause, which is very important. You have to follow everything, including meditation, Yoga and the right nutrition.
Reverse your diseases
You can help your body in avoiding reoccurrence and strengthening your immune system to fight other diseases. If you only take the holistic healing approach, you will never beat your cancer as it multiplies very quickly. You have to keep the combination of conventional treatment and holistic healing together. You need to follow the right lifestyle for life.
Some tips for a healthy lifestyle:-
- Give proper nutrition to your body
- Eliminate toxins
- Detox regularly
- Deep breath
- 8 hrs deep sleep
- Meditation
- Moderate exercise
- Go raw
- Go organic
- Listen to your body
- Limit the use of processed foods
- Fibre is essential
- Heal your gut
- Purified air is necessary
- Good fats are necessary
- Milk should form only 5% of your diet
- Eat all grains, don’t rely only on wheat
- Try fermented food
- Be grateful for the problems you don’t have.
- Be helpful
- There should be a proper schedule for everything.
