Last year, I issued a 30-day challenge for the month of November to those new people to the blog and to those who have been inspired about recovery, but who are still thinking about whether or not to do the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery™. It turned out really well last year for those who decided to accept the challenge and begin an abbreviated version of the Recipe. So, here are some thoughts, followed by this year’s challenge.
As we head into the last two months of the year, this is a time filled with the additional stress of the holidays, balancing family, work, friends and extended-family during the holidays. Stress exacerbates Parkinson’s. Fear and worry exacerbate Parkinson’s. Wouldn’t you rather head into the holiday season with less stress, less fear, less worry, and physically feeling a little better? Wouldn’t that make you and your family and friends actually see that you are on your path to recovery?
My 30-day challenge to you: Embrace the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery™ for 30 days and make this your November to Remember!
There are some parameters to go over for my 30-day challenge 2012, and here they are:
1. The body. At a minimum, perform Medical Qigong for Liver, Clearing Liver Wind Qigong, Standing and Balance Qigong, Brain Vibration Chanting (these are numbers in Mandarin Chinese in a sequences to stimulate vibration activity in the brain). There are videos of each of these in the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery™. Also, add the Neck Exercises and the Medical Qigong Sound for Kidney Health (there are not videos of these).
2. The mind. a). At a minimum, stop doing research on Parkinson’s remedies and “cures.” This will start to reduce being in Adrenaline Mode, and it will send a message to your Parkinson’s that says, “I am committed to the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery™. I believe in the Recipe and I believe in myself.” Commit to the Recipe for 30 days, and during the 30 days, stop looking for something different. Use your extra time reading a book, watching TV or a movie, talking to friends…get back into living life; I am certain if a new miracle cure turns up during the 30 days, somebody you know will tell you about it. b). Getting rid of fear. When fear arose, here is what I did: I gave it away to my Higher Power, and recently I provided another way of giving away fear by bailing fear from your boat.
3. The soul. a). At a minimum, for 5 minutes, one time per day, sit in a quiet spot, close your eyes, and count your breaths from 1 to 10 and start over counting 1-10 and start over again, etc. b). Practice acceptance. When something occurs, instead of visiting it with a negative emotion, just look at it and say, “Okay, I accept what just happened.” And then deal with it without the negative emotions. Stress is caused by the mind’s refusal to accept reality. Accept what is occurring, create a solution, and reduce your stress. c). Practice compassion every chance you get…compassion for others and for yourself. Practically everybody, including you, is suffering at some level, physically, mentally, and/or spiritually. Practice compassion and unburden some of their load, and unburden some of yours.
Not only is this the November to Remember 2012, but it also is No Excuses November 2012!
1. Objection to doing the Recipe, “I do not want to go on a vegetarian diet.” My response, “Don’t.” However, during the 30 days, see if you can add a little more fruits, vegetables, greens, and whole grains into your diet, and see if you can reduce a little your fried foods and sweets.
2. Objection to doing the Recipe, “I cannot do the Qigong exercises because, a. I do not understand them, b. I am physically unable, c. Both a. and b.” My response, “I will help you.” (See my “My Commitment to All of You” below in this post).
3. Objection to doing the Recipe, “I cannot do the Qigong perfectly, so I know it is not worth my time because if I cannot do it perfectly, I know I cannot recover.” My response: “The only “perfect” Qigong is the one your body is allowing you to do in the moment you are doing it, and it is good enough.”
4. Objection to doing the Recipe, “It takes too much time.” My response, “You are worth the time it takes to recover from a disease from which the professionals say there is no recovery. Plus, for those of you doing daily Parkinson’s research, once you stop doing daily Parkinson’s research, you will find yourself with extra time to do the Recipe and many other wonderful things.”
5. Objection to doing the Recipe, “I am currently taking medications and I do not want to reduce them.” My response, “Don’t.” I feel that you will benefit greatly from doing the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery™ even if you are currently taking medications. I do not believe that you can reach full recovery while on medications, but doing the Recipe and cleansing your liver will help your body process your medications better and help you function better, and maybe some time in the future you will decide that reduction makes sense to achieve your recovery.
For those of you who already are doing the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery™, I want this to be your November to Remember as well. Please re-commit yourselves to doing the Recipe. Also, I welcome your comments at the end this post as a way to encourage and inspire those who are new to the blog or undecided in accepting the 30-day challenge 2012.
My Commitment to All of You
People have expressed to me that they feel I was successful in my full recovery because of my confidence in what I was doing and my commitment to doing it, the “it” being the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery™. I am just as confident in all of you, and just as committed to all of you being successful, so I make this offer:
If you feel that you are unable to do any of the things outlined in my 30-day challenge above, let me know, and I will provide you with a 30-minute conference in person, by phone or by Skype at no charge. Send me an email at howard@fightingparkinsonsdrugfree.com and I will coordinate the conference with you.
I will help you understand the Recipe better, and I will modify the Qigong exercises so you can receive the same benefit as those people who can do them just as they appear in the Recipe.
If you are in the Tampa area, I will meet with you or have a call or a Skype. If you are outside the Tampa area, but in the United States or Canada, we may have a call or Skype. If you are outside the United States, we may have a Skype.
I am committed to all of you. I am committed to assisting you to accept my 30-day challenge, and I am confident in you being able to do the Recipe. Also, I am confident that the Recipe will work for you, and at the end of the 30 days you will see enough positive results in your recovery that you will know you are on your path to recovery and you will know the Recipe is right for you.
I am committed to you and your recovery from Parkinson’s.
Why not accept the abbreviated Recipe challenge, get on your path toward recovery, and commit yourself for 30 days to the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery™!
Why not make this your November to Remember!
YOU ARE WORTH IT!!!
All my best,
Howard
Dear Howard
I am so very grateful to you for your generosity of spirit in offering to help people recover from Parkinson’s Disease as you so fully do….and for the support you have offered me personally. I am absolutely committed to the recipe through November and for as long as it takes to recover.
As a way of celebrating the value for me of your recovery recipe and your support, I’d like to share some of my experience this past Friday with Nathan, an experienced practitioner familiar with energy work and an RMT (registered massage therapist). I’m imagining that many of you wouldn’t have the benefit I have of independent feedback as to the efficacy of the “Recipe for Recovery”. Nathan’s been working with me for a couple of years …. I presently seek his treatment once a month. Most exciting for me are the encouraging changes he is noticing in my body … this despite the fact that my tremors have become more active recently.
First a little personal history: I’m presently 71 years young. Though I was referred to my neurologist in the year 2000 with tremors, my Parkinson’s diagnosis wasn’t confirmed by her until 2005. I’ve never taken traditional Parkinson’s meds (mainly because I had witnessed the negative effect they had on my Mom who also had PD). Instead, I maintained a healthy diet and exercise routine, and explored and practiced alternative methods including Janice Walton Hadlock’s work (no significant improvement after a year and a half). Then looking for more support for a drug free approach to PD, I stumbled across Howard’s website last year. I’ve been diligently following his “Recipe for Recovery” and benefiting from his coaching for the past 15 months. I am blessed with the loving and very empathic support of my husband, Ray. His wonderful presence in my private life frees me to continue with public work that is very meaningful to me as a communications and personal development trainer.
When Nathan spoke to me this week, he revealed some information he hadn’t previously fully shared with me…. that when he first began to treat me more than 2 years ago, he really doubted that he would be able to assist me much at all (beyond the usual comfort a massage brings). He told me that when I began with him, my internal energy was significantly stuck and that the base of my brain (he also does cranial sacral work) seemed to him “like sludge”. Nathan began to notice some positive shifts in my internal energy when I was about 3 months into Howard’s recipe. I remember him asking me at the time whether I had changed anything in my routine. I replied “I’m doing Medical Qigong exercises” and he said, “Well keep it up…you couldn’t be doing anything better for yourself!”
When I arrived for my appointment last week, Nathan asked how I was doing. I replied that it had in some ways been a trying month…. that my tremors had been noticeably more active and that my emotions were all over the map…high….low… and everything in between. My left leg had been dragging too….kind of a “bummer” month. “Well,” Nathan replied, “Sounds like you’ve been stirring things up a bit!”
After my hour long treatment, Nathan was visibly excited…really animated. He told me my energy was opening up as it never had before…. that the previously stuck energy in my left leg was releasing…that there was much more space in my entire body to move energy, including in my brain. He said that even though my outward tremors seemed more active, that my inner energy was noticeably more calm. Then he said that it was no wonder to him that my tremors and emotions were activated…. there was such significant inner change and energy release into previously untargeted areas, that it would be natural that the body would react as it did.
You know, for me, it was wonderful to hear this message ….to know that someone independent from Howard was also echoing the same message that this recovery work is very much like chipping away inside a giant iceberg (very little visible on the surface of things) until the last vestiges of this condition release….until I am symptom free. I’m learning the value of persistence, even and maybe especially through PD flare-ups. So I’m more inspired than ever to continue Howard’s recipe faithfully, tortoise-like, and singing Pete Luboff’s song, “I have the Power”. And as to symptoms sometimes appearing a little worse…. oh well… okay! Must be doing something really good, huh?
Great and inspiring news, Penny! I have been doing the recipe since Howard’s 30 day challenge last November. I too have felt some breakthroughs recently on the inside. When my outside symptoms seem worse, I tell myself that my PD fighter on the inside is chipping hard at that iceberg. I expect to fully recover and will work on the recipe until that time! Thanks for sharing your experience.
Congratulations, Penny! So happy to hear this good news!
Excellent. Howard your blog and Pennys experience both are very encouraging. i am fully inspired to take the challange. i will reach you Howard in a day or two. keep itup and may GOD bless you both.
To all of you who are considering Howard’s 30 day challenge, I can tell you that Howard is more faithful to our recovery than anyone I’ve ever known. I’ve been doing the recipe for one year now and Howard has been extremely helpful and encouraging every step of the way. Why wait any longer? Just do it! You are worth it! It took me a long time to realize that, but I now truly believe it!
Blessings~
Teri
Dear all,
I have been doing parts and all of the recipe since September last year and will continue to do so until “I am done”. Although some of my outer/inner symptoms seem a bit worse lately, I have more energy and feel improvement in other areas. Howard has been great at always writing the right blogpost at the right moment. His incredible inspiration and generocity helps to fuel my own will to recover. More and more people tell me these days how well I look (better than before I became ill!). I also take inspiration from Penny’s story, thank you. Dear people out there, don’t hesitate but take charge yourselves. It is so empowering to be able to act instead of waiting to see what might happen. If Howard, Mary and Pratima could do it, we can do it, YOU can do! I take comfort in the knowledge others are out there doing the recipe too. Don’t wait and join us. We are all worth it! Love, Margriet
Dear All,
i daily pray to god thanking him for sending Howard to me. he is a god sent blessing. i consider myself very lucky to have found him . keep reading his blogs and sincerely do what he says and you will get excellent results. all i am asking you is “DON’T GIVE UP”. because you have the power and you all are worth it.
i am sure after 30 days lot more names are going to be there with Howard, Mary and Pratima.
all the best
bhavna
I ditto all of the comments that others have made. Today, I decided to reduce my pills again. The recipe is helping me recover; it really has helped me on the road to recovery.
Thanks Howard!
Sincerely,
Joe
Penny, What an inspiring story! Thank you for sharing it. I’ve had a similar experience.
Previous to hearing about Howard or the recipe I had visited a sacral-cranial practitioner who told me my cerebral-sacral fluid wasn’t moving. I returned to him several times but it didn’t seem to get flowing.
About six months after starting the recipe (I started slowly, adding more bits as I thought I could manage.), I remembered about what he said and went to see him for a check-up. He said the cerebral-sacral fluid was moving just fine; he wondered why I had come to see him. I told him about Howard and the Qigong exercises. I thought he would be thrilled to know, but it seemed in the too-hard basket.
Finding the recipe gave me real hope … for those of you out there wondering if it could be true …. you can keep reading these posts …. or join in, and find out for yourself. Laurie
I remember last year when Howard issued the November 30 day challenge and I realized that I did not need to do it…..all my symptoms had gone! And they have not returned. I am happier, healthier, more balanced now than I was before I started the Recipe for Recovery, and know that the changes I made to rid myself of my symptoms gave me so much more than that! One of the biggest changes is that the free-floating anger I used to feel is gone. I am not continuously on the verge of losing my temper like I used to be and I think that is mainly because I do not allow myself to remain in stress mode for long stretches. And on the occasions when I do feel angry, now I am so aware of it. I apologize to my liver and ask it to let the feeling go, and not to be damaged by it.
So much of what seemed ” out there” to me when I first began the Recipe for Recovery, like having little chats with my brain and my organs, is now part of my everyday life, and I am so much the better for it. You have everything to gain and nothing to lose by committing to yourself and accepting Howard’s challenge and offer of support. It worked for Howard, it worked for Pratima, it worked for me….and it CAN work for you. I have faith that it will. Hope to see you here in Recoveryville soon.
Pingback: Fighting Parkinson’s, and inspiration for my 30-day challenge 2012 | Fighting Parkinson's Drug Free
Thank you to all of you for what you have shared with all of us. Your journeys are so inspirational that I have re-posted them on my November 1st post so anybody who may have missed them will be able to see them and be inspired to accept the 30-day challenge. Thank you, thank you, thank you!
With gratitude and love,
Howard
Thank you all for your inspirational comments.You have encouraged me to continue reduction of medication without fearing withdrawal symptoms.(Nearly down to one a day.) People tell me I am so much better than I was a year ago.I take the worsening tremor as a sign of improvement!Thank you Howard for the November challenge.
Pingback: Fighting Parkinson’s, and keep believing in yourself | Fighting Parkinson's Drug Free