The Kindest Cancer App

Kindness defined

At Natia, our aim is to create the ‘kindest’ app for people diagnosed with and living with cancer and for their families and caregivers.  But what does kindness mean?  According to the Cambridge Dictionary and the American Dictionary ‘kindness’ is defined as the quality of being generous, helpful, and caring about other people, or an act showing this quality. And according to Wikipedia, ‘kindness’ is a behaviour marked by ethical characteristics, a pleasant disposition, and concern and consideration for others.

Kind people; kind companies

We all know kind people and certainly many people who purposefully embrace kindness in their day-to-day living. The Dalai Lama commented ‘My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness.’ And not so far from the Dali Lama is Lady Gaga, who said ‘I've been searching for ways to heal myself, and I've found that kindness is the best way.’  If you happen to be from Pittsburgh (or depending your age, anywhere in America), you will certainly know of ‘Fred Rogers’.  An article recently told a story that Fred was described by a woman who worked for him as ‘Christ-like’ in his kindness and that ‘he was going to like you if you liked it or not.’ [1]

It is likely that we also know at least one kind organisation. One example is the company called ‘Audible’. Donald Katz, the CEO, is as interested in helping the city where Audible is located, Newark New Jersey, as much as he is the business of Audible.  Through a lottery, twenty Audible employees are selected to receive one year of free rent if they sign up for a two-year lease within the city of Newark. This helps the Audible employees and the city of Newark.  There are many examples of corporate kindness and the trend for conscious companies is growing.  A personal example for NatiaCares can be seen in our recent collaboration with Maggie’s Centres. Maggie’s Centres, a cancer charity, is supporting NatiaCares’ development by, among other ways, providing us with the findings on the acceptance of certain phrases and words by cancer patients and their families and caregivers.  Maggie’s has also included us in Maggie’s media and other events.  They have done so without expectation of benefit in return.  We are grateful for their kindness, and proud to be working with them.

But what about an app?  At NatiaCares, we are passionate about creating the ‘kindest’ cancer app available.  But how do we that?  Can an app be kind?

Kind apps start with purpose

We believe it starts with our ‘purpose’, or intention.   Our purpose is to reduce cancer-related suffering.  This means everything we do should move us in the direction of reducing cancer-related suffering, including creating a kind app.

 One of the discussions between Bodhipaksa, a Buddhist teacher and author, and Lesley Howells, a cancer specialist clinical psychologist, included in the NatiaCares Mediation Foundation Course is regarding our shared human condition.  This means that at our core, every one of us has issues and problems that we deal with from time to time.  As Albert Einstein said: “Our separation from each other is an optical illusion”.  We are all struggling beings and this is a shared human experience. Pausing and recognising this in ourselves and in others is a great place to start to begin to develop individual kindness.  With a regular practice of mind body techniques, such as mediation and yoga, this recognition of a shared human condition can help guide and lead us through the continuum from personal consciousness to corporate consciousness and, eventually to becoming core to the essence of our app.

 There already exists substantial research and literature stating that companies can be operated as conscious organisations. And when done so, all stakeholders of such a company benefit.  I recently met with Timothy Henry, co-founder of Conscious Capitalism Inc., and the co-author of The Conscious Capitalism Field Guide.  According to Timothy, the four core principles underpinning the Conscious Capitalism approach to building and leading businesses are: higher purpose, stakeholder orientation, conscious leadership, and conscious culture. Already many companies worldwide are engaging in this approach and this has formed the basis of NatiaCares since our inception.

 So, what can we do to include ‘kindness’ within every aspect of the individual-to-company-to-app continuum?  Some of what we are doing is mentioned in this article, but there is much more to do.  Reflecting back to our purpose of reducing cancer-related suffering, perhaps one of the key things we can do to be a kind app is to deliver on our intention to advocate and share best evidenced ‘integrative’ oncology’ practices.   Although there are several definitions of integrative oncology, one accepted definition is as follows: “Integrative oncology is a patient-centred, evidence-informed field of cancer care that utilizes mind and body practices, natural products, and/or lifestyle modifications from different traditions alongside conventional cancer treatments. Integrative oncology aims to optimize health, quality of life, and clinical outcomes across the cancer care continuum and to empower people to prevent cancer and become active participants before, during, and beyond cancer treatment.”[2][3]

 Quite openly, we do not yet have the answer on how to be the kindest cancer app.  We do, however, commit to the learning behind this and to the spirit of kindness.  Another quote from Albert Einstein highlights our intention:

 “The ideals which have lighted my way, and time after time have given me new courage to face life cheerfully, have been Kindness, Beauty and Truth”

 In this spirit, we invite you to share your thoughts on ‘app kindness’ or ‘kindness’ generally with us either by commenting or writing direct to info@natiacares.com . 

We would love your thoughts on this.  We need more kindness in the world at the moment!

NatiaCares

[1]Chris Rodell: Fred Rogers was the kind of weirdo we should all aspire to be; Pittsburgh Post Gazette

[2] Claudia M. Witt, Lynda G. Balneaves, Maria J. Cardoso, Lorenzo Cohen, Heather Greenlee, Peter Johnstone, Ömer Kücük, Josh Mailman, Jun J. Mao, A Comprehensive Definition for Integrative Oncology, JNCI Monographs, Volume 2017, Issue 52, November 2017, lgx012, https://doi.org/10.1093/jncimonographs/lgx012

[3 ] Note that notwithstanding the definition of ‘integrative oncology’ cited above including ‘natural products’, NatiaCares has not and does not include the use of natural products within the techniques offered on the app.