If you were to see Cynthia Hardin today she would show you how flexible she is. At sixty-one years-old, Hardin can lift her foot above her shoulder and create a clean line with her lean leg, all while telling you how beating cancer made her a “walking miracle.”
Hardin did not know what to think when she was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in April 2007. The cancer had metastasized to her brain and within days of her diagnosis, she underwent brain surgery. Because of the large size of the tumor in her lung, surgery was not an option.
“The body protects you,” she said. “I went through denial and then shock.”
She doesn’t remember much about her early recovery except how she played the piano in the dining room of “that God-awful home,” a recovery center in Marin County, Calif., and the refuge she found in kind-hearted friends that brought in meals and sat with her while she slept.
What she does remember clearly is her reluctance to begin chemotherapy and radiation.
“I asked the neurosurgeon to tell me why, what are my chances? How long will I survive without it,” Hardin said. “He said six to nine months.”
And then the neurosurgeon told Hardin to picture this: “A beautiful green lawn. All of a sudden, a dandelion pops up, you pluck it. What if seeds of the dandelion sprinkled across the lawn? Within a short time, more will pop up. Radiation kills seeds.”For Hardin, the choice was clear. She had radiation “shots”, as she likes to call them, to her brain and a few to her lung. Terrified of chemotherapy, she used the influence of visual imagery and imagined the IV containing a “rainbow potion” full of rainbow colors, entering her body, cleaning out her system, healing the cancer. Throughout her recovery,
Hardin used meditation and visual imagery to imagine her body improving. She imagined her brain tumor falling into her surgeon’s hands “like a piece of candy." She visualized her inoperable lung tumor shrinking with each dose of “rainbow potion.”
As a former professional dancer, the power of positive thought wasn’t the only entity promoting her wellness. Hardin, through a social worker at the Marin Independent Center for the Living, took up yoga, walking, mediation groups and physical therapy. She describes initially feeling like a colt, fumbling around as her body stretched and healed. She is hard on herself and insists she is learning to be patient. Uninsured, her activities were free through various scholarships, grants, and non-profit organizations.
Hardin finds free yoga classes in Mill Valley, where she lives. She is currently taking a “Yoga for Cancer” class exclusively for cancer patients and survivors. She loves the community of the class and the fact that she doesn’t have to explain anything to anybody. Hardin is also aware that soon her free yoga and pilates classes will be unavailable and is assisting her group to find another location to hold the free sessions.
In March, Hardin's doctors could not find her lung tumor, a tumor once too large to operate on. And in April, they couldn't find it either. Last week, her doctors were thrilled to see her so lively, and sent her away without ordering any other scans.
If you were to see Hardin today she would tell you how grateful she is and laugh that she has an appointment with spring, and must get going.
Cynthia at Disneyland while touring California. 
Or both?
