"Keeping them all in will clog your 'mind pipe' and prevent you from feeding yourself positive thoughts." According to Soh, the onset of cancer is usually after a traumatic encounter.

"Most cancer patients would have had traumatic experiences, six to 18 months before the onset. The first thing cancer patients should do is trace the experiences they've had in the past two years.

"When they have identified the cause, they should accept the situation.

"It could be a financial problem, or a death in the family." Unfortunately, many terminally ill patients don't want to be cured, Soh says. "They say they do, but deep in their hearts they don't mean it. Many don't have the will to live, and that attitude is enough to kill them.

"If you're dying and want to be cured, you'll break all other appointments and do what it takes to be healed. When your mind doesn't want to get better, your body releases enzymes that make that thought a reality." Soh says that the more you reject the reality of things, the more you attract it. "Cancer is not deadly if you take precautions in the beginning.

"People should understand that the mind is the first tool they should use to overcome cancer." Clinical psychologist Leong Huey Mei says: "When you adopt a positive attitude you find that everything is possible. Having positive thoughts mean giving yourself a choice.

"Too often, we hear those sick or in trouble say they have no choice.

When they say that, it becomes something that cannot be resolved.

"A positive attitude gives you energy to move on. Those who waste their energy on negative thoughts are killing that energy.

"But, if they think positive, although the situation seems impossible, they'll find a solution. It's all mind over matter." Leong says illnesses and bad situations befall anyone. "Things don't always go the way we want. But if we keep complaining and living in the 'whys', we are digging a deeper grave.

"We have to learn to adapt to the new situation and find ways to remedy the problem or we won't be healthy. Adjust to the environment.

"Deal with the issue instead of exploding.

Don't let it accumulate.

Don't dwell. Let other people help if you can't deal with it. Talk to positive people and surround yourself with positive thoughts." Being aware of your negative thoughts, she says, is a very important part of recovery.

"Each time a negative thought crosses your mind, you must challenge it. If you keep telling yourself it's useless and you can't do it, then that is what will materialise.

"Even if you think there's only a 20 per cent chance of getting through this tough time, work on it. Stop focusing on the other 80 per cent.

"That's wasted energy." First, she says, one must be able to identify the negative thoughts in order to change them.

"Recognise those thoughts and then push them out of your mind, each and every time. Replacing negative thoughts with positive ones is another way of doing it." She says some people claim that positive thinking is just a way of cheating yourself. "Maybe it is. But, if it's helping the situation and making you feel better, why not?" As the words of the poet John Milton go, "the mind is its own place, and in itself, can make heaven of hell, and a hell of heaven".

New Straits Times/Asia News Network