#160 Translating Cancer’s Language: Empowerment Through I-SPIE Health

How can we transform the overwhelming journey of cancer into one of empowerment and holistic healing?

In this enlightening episode of the Healing Through Love Podcast, host Sharlene Lynch engages in a profound conversation with Madhavi Parikh, PA-C, the founder of I-SPIE Health. With over 20 years in oncology, Madhavi has pioneered a holistic approach that addresses the multifaceted challenges faced by cancer patients and their caregivers.

Madhavi introduces us to the I-SPIE model—an integrative framework that encompasses Spiritual, Physical, Intellectual, and Emotional health. This model transcends traditional medical treatment, recognizing that healing extends beyond the physical body. By incorporating complementary therapies and fostering emotional resilience, I-SPIE Health empowers individuals to navigate their cancer journey with clarity and confidence.

Throughout the episode, Madhavi shares insights into how her personal experiences have shaped her compassionate approach to care. She discusses the importance of patient advocacy, the role of caregivers, and the transformative power of addressing emotional and spiritual needs alongside physical treatment.

Listeners will gain valuable knowledge on:

• The significance of integrating holistic practices into cancer care
• Strategies for effective communication between patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers
• Techniques to build emotional resilience and maintain hope during challenging times (ISPIE HEALTH - Cancer Coach)

This episode is a must-listen for anyone affected by cancer, healthcare professionals seeking a more compassionate approach, and individuals interested in the intersection of medicine and holistic healing.

Tune in to discover how the I-SPIE model can redefine the cancer experience, turning a daunting diagnosis into a journey of empowerment and holistic well-being.

✨ CONNECT WITH MADHAVI

Website: https://ispiehealth.com/

Facebook: https://facebook.com/ispiehealth

LinkedIn: https://linkedin/company/ispiehealth

📍 PROMOTION

https://calendly.com/mparikh-ispie

♥ ♥

Transcript

Voiceover | 00:02
Welcome to another episode of Healing Through Love. Each week, we share ideas, experiences and resources to increase the awareness of domestic and family violence and to empower survivors to grow and thrive. We talk with experts who share their advice. Or with people who have experienced abuse, no matter where they are on their journey. This is all about healing through love. And now, here are your hosts. Sharlene Lynch and Rose Davidson. 

 Sharlene | 00:42
Hello and welcome to the Healing Through Love podcast. I'm Sharlene Lynch and together we're shining a light on hope, resilience and transformation in the journey to end domestic violence. Each week we bring you inspiring interviews with changemakers, survivors, advocates and experts who make the difference in the lives of those affected by domestic and family violence. Whether you're healing or you're helping others heal, supporting people on their journey. This is our space for powerful stories. Practical tools and heartfelt inspiration to help you heal at the speed of love. Let's heal through love together. I'm excited today. We've got Madhvi Parikh. I hope I've said that right. She is a PA, which is a physical physician's assistant who has combined her love of medicine and meditation to help her on her own journey. But it all started with her own personal experience. 
 So let's dive in. And if it's okay with you, let's get started. Okay, to talk about what happened in your childhood to result in the challenges that you had. 

 Madhavi | 01:52
First of all, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here. So growing up in India, I didn't have the happiest of backgrounds. I had parents who were very dark. Dominating, domineering, to kind of just tell me exactly what it is to do. And the big message that I always got was that you have to be perfect, but you will, but know that you will never be perfect enough. And the other part to that was that you have to always be seen, do things that you are going to be seen, but never be heard. 
 So with that and being the oldest, there was always pressure on me to be a certain way, to do a certain way, to do things a certain way so that constant pressure was something that got into my psyche. The other part was that my parents themselves didn't have the closest of relationships. They were constantly bickering, fighting, and I was always the reconciliator. 
 Like I had to be the one to break up the fight or make sure that my mom didn't run away or something or the other like that as a kid. And so observing that was I think. It ingrained in me a lot of fear and the fact that You never know when things are going to go away from you. 
 So that was one part of it. And then growing up, I saw quite a few deaths from the very beginning. I lost a sister when she was about two months old. My mom had to, she had severe thyroid disease, was told she wouldn't carry the pregnant term, but she did carry the pregnancy to term. But our sister passed away when she was about two months old. 
 And then when I was about seven or eight years old, saw my nanny kind of have an asthma flare up and suffocate pretty much. To her end. And that is a very vivid memory in my, in my, psyche. 
 And then when I was about 18 or so, my dad had a stroke and he was paralyzed from neck down. He was taken care of at home. My mom became the caregiver. I became the breadwinner. And Trying to put food on the table month to month, making sure that we had enough, was something that was a part of my life. When I was about nine years old, I was sent to a boarding school and I grew up in a religion where nonviolence is like. There's a lot of emphasis on nonviolence. 
 So there's always guilt and there's always penance to do. And then I went to a Catholic boarding school where guilt was further a part of my life. 
 So I could never, ever get away from it. From the fact that I was never enough, that I would never be good enough. And I just had to keep on working so hard all the time to better myself. And I think that was what led me to get bullied in school. A lot. 
 So that was part of how I grew up. But I knew that I had to go through this. I just had to be an observer up to a certain point until I could find a way to heal myself. 

 Sharlene | 05:20
And that brings you to the story that you got diagnosed with cancer. Is that right? 

 Madhavi | 05:26
No, I did not get diagnosed with cancer. I work in the field of cancer, but working very intimately with the field in the field of cancer, I began to see how patients were being. I was just seeing who healed and who did not heal. What role did love play in it? What role did isolation play in it? What role? Independence and control played in it. And so I was kind of observing that as well to help me along on my journey. 
 And then I found the practice of but along the way, I became a parent and I wanted to break that cycle in which I grew up in. And I needed to find a way but I couldn't. Couldn't be that better parent I wanted to be until I healed myself. I can only be so kind without all the frustration bubbling up inside me to... To then share it with the world, and especially my children. 
 So that is where my own healing journey came into play. 

 Sharlene | 06:31
So this is regardless of where it is that we come from and what we've experienced, that we can live with a level of curiosity for others and help make that, you know, draw the lines between the dots and figure out what's happening for other people so that you can help them heal. But it needs to start with healing yourself so that we can break the patterns of the general trauma and so that we can, you know, live the life that was intended for us, but help our children and help others. 
 So let's break down a little bit of what it is that you do with people to help them work through their challenges, cancer or anything else in between, so that they can move forward. So let's talk about the process that you use and the modalities that you use. 

 Madhavi | 07:22
Of course. So for that, I had to first discover that process, right? 
 Like I did not know how to do it. And so I came across the practice of insight meditation, which is a very scientific sort of practice as well. It is complete, you start with going to a 10 day retreat, that's complete silence. 
 So there's no talking, reading. Looking around watching TV, nothing, it's just 10 days of complete silence where you're meditating. But through that process, and using your breath, you're observing how the mind is connected to the body and how the body is connected to the mind. And you see how you respond to the thoughts that come across your as you're sitting and meditating and slowly you unravel to the point that you start understanding what loving kindness is, which is complete acceptance of the self. And one of the big ways that I understood was that in God's eyes, whoever that God may be in God's eyes, I'm perfect. Why am I not perfect in my own arms? And so how do I accept myself to that level that no matter what I am enough? Yes. And so when I started to understand it and then experience it is when I started to utilize it for my patients like in my work as well towards my patients explaining to them that look we whatever we have, we can either be angry or we can kind of learn to figure out a way to move through this regardless of the outcome in a way that helps us find more peace and healing. 
 So one of the ways I do that is utilizing the breath and helping them become aware of the breath, because when we are one with the breath, there is no room for thoughts. So when that allows... Or some stillness within ourselves that we can then experience whatever we can look at things a little differently and then experience it a little differently and not have to be so angry or afraid of whatever it is that we have to face. 

 Sharlene | 09:39
I love it. But you know, 10 days in silence for a woman who's as chatty as I am, that would be, that would be like, that would be. 

 Madhavi | 09:49
Actually, the not speaking part is not the hard part. The dealing with the me, myself and I. That surfaces as we stay still. That is the harder part. 

 Sharlene | 10:04
Wow, that's fascinating. So can you achieve this level of integration, this level of awareness, this level of spiritual intelligence? Can you reach that without having to go through 10 days of silent meditation? 

 Madhavi | 10:20
I'm sure you can. Everyone has their own journey. Not everyone does. Whoever has found that, not everyone has done a 10-day journey. 
 So it's just like, but there is a... There is a lot of introspection that is needed, I would think, because we have to listen to what is happening on the inside and how are we responding to it. Right. 
 Like if my body is saying something, but my head space, the brain part of it is saying something else versus what my heart is saying. If they are not in synchrony with each other, then I'm going to be one person on the outside and another person on the inside. 

 Sharlene | 11:03
That's fascinating. So, you know, this is useful for people at all levels of their health and satisfaction and leaning into their purpose and moving forward and their expansion and everything. 
 So you've come up with a process that you share with people to help them move forward? 

 Madhavi | 11:23
Yes. So I came across the work of Elizabeth Kubler-Ross that we all know from the five stages of grief, right? 
 Like she's the one who made it popular that if we don't deal with this mind-body connection in a healthy way, then that's where healing is important. Is affected right so she came she has the four quadrants of the body model which is the spiritual physical intellectual emotional and when those the four those four quadrants of our body are in harmony with each other that's when we are at our best And through life's journey, if one or the other is out of sync with the others. Then That's when we are sick. 
 So recognizing that and figuring out how it is that we can come to balance with it will allow us to be resilient. And then we can, even if we are sick, even if we are dying, even if we are very healthy, we can still be the content people, the happy people that we need to be. 
 So when I'm talking to my patients, I'm using that model to understand where are they coming from and where is it that we need to go move through this journey that can be very scary. Because it's mortality in front of our faces. 

 Sharlene | 12:44
So we don't have to leave it till then to pay attention to these four quadrants. So I suppose it starts with having a level of awareness because if we don't know there's a problem, we don't know that there's a problem, and we just keep going on our merry way and perhaps... Living in a place where we're blaming others, other situations, our DNA, our genetics, our family, you know, our lot in life. We're living below the line by blaming everybody and not having that level of realisation. We have, we've got the tools inside of us so that we can move forward and make a difference. I love it. I don't know that I could do 10 days of silence. I love to meditate, but I don't know about 10 days, but I do love the concept. 

 Madhavi | 13:28
I do a little bit of breath work. 

 Sharlene | 13:33
I'd much rather go on a retreat and eat. Big eater. I love it. 
 So fabulous. So you're asking people to give that silence. 
 So for that internal awareness, so that you can make that level of connection between your thought, your physical, your spiritual, and at the core of all of this, is it realizing that we are enough? Is that what's at the core of all of this. 

 Madhavi | 13:58
Work? That we are enough. That, you know, that perfectionism is not a destination anymore. We can always work on trying to be better people, but at the same time, we are enough the way we are. 
 So once we start with that acceptance of who we are, then we can kind of work together. With understanding and then like it allows us to better observe what is happening to us because we are not so emotionally attached to that fear or that anger that has consumed us from such a life threatening, event in our lives. And from that, then we can start trusting and surrendering into that process. 
 And then healing starts happening. So then we can receive treatment better. 
 And then we can be, we can have the fun that we are supposed, we don't stop living along the way. 

 Sharlene | 14:53
I love it. I love it. And just having that level of enoughness just changes everything. I am a recovering perfectionist. And I say recovering because I'm still in process. But as a survivor of family and domestic violence, the... That me not enoughness is one of the things that facilitated me being a victim because I, you know, I lived that. I leaned into others being more than me and just didn't know how to create the boundaries. I didn't see the red flags. I didn't. I just didn't put myself first because I didn't think that I was enough. 
 So I love this, that at the core of the work that you do is asking people to have a look, you know, you are enough and work with that box being ticked so that you can move forward and make a difference. So now do you work with people with programs or do you work one-on-one with them? How do you do your magical work? 

 Madhavi | 15:51
It's mostly one-on-one right now because I'm still trying to figure out how best to go about moving into this world. And I, too, had to learn how to be. An entrepreneur to do it on my own. 
 So I'm doing one-on-one and I feel like that because every person's story is different, even though the model is the same, every person's stories and thus every person's needs and how every person responds to it is different. So I can't use one size for everybody. I could use breath awareness for one person, but then for another person, it may make them very anxious. Some people may be doing too much of a good thing and some people may not be doing enough of a good thing so how do you bring that balance when there are two different people so that is why i think working one-on-one allows for that space as well where they don't feel threatened or they don't have to compare themselves to somebody else so it's one-on-one and it's by Loom that i do it and When we meet, I introduce myself for like 30 seconds or less, and then I'm handing it over to them to tell me their story. And as they're telling me their story, I'm kind of just understanding where they're coming from. But I'm getting the medical information that I need and then try to weave it all in as we go along. 

 Sharlene | 17:16
I love it. I love it. This is this conversation is resonating with you. Reach out the links will be in the show notes and in the show description so that you can have a chat moving forward. I love it. I love it. You're listening today and you're a survivor of family and or domestic violence. Reach out to Healing Through Love. We have pamper days. 
 So think day spa on steroids, where we you come along and it's all free. You come along as a survivor and you have 25 different practitioners. 
 So I think hairdressers, makeup artists, we have chakra linings, you have neck and shoulder massage, pick the therapy, it's in the room. And we've got these lovely little sections quadrant off and you get to experience a day full of love, really. These women want to pay it forward because they've had their own experiences. They're now running their own businesses, their own practices, and they want to pay it forward to show you what's possible for your life. If you're listening today and you are a practitioner and you want to lean into creating an environment like this or volunteering and assisting us with one of our events, which are now global, 2023 Healing Through Love went global, and we have these beautiful pamper days all around the world. 
 So reach out to us if you're a practitioner or a survivor. And we'd love to connect you with the right people, put you in the right proximity for growth. I love it. This has been a beautiful conversation. I love the work. I'm a huge fan. I'm a recovered holistic psychologist. 
 So I do get the breath work. And I look rebirthing is one of my favorite tools to use. I can knock you for six, but it really it's quite magical. And I start my day with breath work. For me, it just helps me get rebirthing. On to you know it actually helps me just get tuned into the right frequency so and for me breathwork is my self-care so it's how i take care of myself it's how i regulate and it's how i up level as well so when i'm ready to do something next level i usually you know i go to my breath work because it is like it's my go-to for everything and everybody can do it's awesome I love Absolutely. 

 Madhavi | 19:19
It. Anyone can do it anywhere. It's free. 

 Sharlene | 19:23
Especially if I'm getting on stage to do a big keynote. I'm in the green room doing breath work. That's where I'm doing. And hoping that my microphone's not turned on while I'm doing it. I love it. 
 So look, just in closing today, I'd love you to share your final words of wisdom to our listeners today. 

 Madhavi | 19:41
Know that you're enough and be kind to yourself. 

 Sharlene | 19:44
Short sharp and shiny i love it thank you for joining us today it's a goodbye from us healing through love and a goodbye from you bye for now. 

 Madhavi | 19:52
Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure. Thank you. 

 Voiceover | 19:59
Thank you for joining us for this episode of Healing Through Love. You can get further resources See the show notes or simply reach out to us via our website at htlaustralia.org. Thanks so much for joining us and we look forward to your company next time on the Healing Through Love podcast.