Whatever is going on with you right now, it is your experience in the moment. Sometimes the experience in the moment is pleasant, sometimes it is unpleasant. The important thing is not to become attached to the experience as it will change in each moment, and this includes not becoming fearful if it is an unpleasant experience. If you are doing the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery™, then every experience you are having is something that is required for your recovery, plain and simple. Do not be afraid.
Some people with Parkinson’s look at a pleasant experience in their life and recovery and say, “This will not last” or “I should not get my hopes up too high” or “This is too good to be true.” They also look at unpleasant experiences, but have only one thing to say, “Oh no, my symptoms are getting worse.” All of these statements have one thing in common — lack of faith.
Those who have faith in themselves, faith in their Higher Power, and faith in the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery™, fully and fearlessly accept every single thing that occurs, whether pleasant or unpleasant, and they smile and say, “This is just my current experience. It will change moment by moment and then I will have new experiences. Above all, I know that whatever is occurring is necessary for my recovery, so I choose to not be afraid!”
Each time you have a pleasant experience, accept it as part of your recovery, be happy in the moment, and keep doing what you are doing in your recovery. This is how you go moment by moment being yourself, your real self, and feeling the positive experience of recovery. Know that you are deserving and worthy, and do not talk yourself out of pleasant experiences by non-acceptance of them or by surmising when they may go away.
Each time you have an unpleasant experience, accept it as part of your recovery, be happy in the moment, and keep doing what you are doing in your recovery. This is how you go moment by moment being yourself, your real self, and feeling the positive experience of recovery. Know that you are deserving and worthy, and do not become attached to the unpleasant experience by surmising that it means you are getting worse. Think back to how many times you have felt worse than you are feeling today…this alone should prove to you that you are getting better.
So, in the future, if your experience is an unpleasant one, you can know that it is just an unpleasant experience in that moment, but that it is a continuing sign of your recovery. Do not be afraid.
Parkinson’s reality is hitting the wall again and again and again, and having to tell yourself, “I have the power to heal myself” again and again and again. And then you have to walk into your new self and do something in furtherance of your path to recovery. Remember, when you hit the wall, Parkinson’s is the wall…fearlessly chip away at it a piece at a time and you will destroy the wall.
Look inside yourself and have faith in the Recipe and in your recovery. Then, no matter what you face, let go of the usual negative emotions and fears that come to the surface. They only feed the Parkinson’s. Instead, look at the situation and say, “Apparently, this is necessary for my Parkinson’s recovery.” And smile. Your experience in the moment is recovery. You are recovery. Know it, and Parkinson’s will be afraid of you!
You are worth it!!!
All my best,
Howard
Note: My next workshop is in 2 weeks on March 9th in Victoria BC, Canada. For more information and registration, go to my Workshops Page. Looking forward to seeing you there!
Thank you for this post, Howard. Yesterday I got stuck in fear and even despair, and didn’t do my exercises. A little self-sabotage hit out of nowhere. The hardest part for me is prayer and letting go. I’m working on it, but face some resistance. Your previous post was so helpful with that. I appreciate your encouragement and courage and generous spirit!
Hi Jackie, I had some experience along the way to Recovery of not feeling a full supply of faith. I hope this may be helpful to you and others who are struggling. Looking back, I can say that even though sometimes it did not feel like I had Faith in the moment, overall, a more general, encompassing Faith carried me. My mind was capable of coming up with all sorts of tricky little undermining thoughts like, ” how much Faith do I REALLY have?” “How do I know this will work?” My way of getting through that was to not allow myself to get caught up in the question of whether I had “enough” Faith or not, any particular moment because really, my nitpicking mind could say…”oh, look, you only feel 48% faith right now ( or anything short of 100%)how do you expect this to work?”
I made a decision that regardless of how I felt, or what I thought, I would do the Recipe for Recovery to the full extent I could, every single day.
The Faith was always there, helping me along, but I was so accustomed to paying attention to and depending on my analytical brain that I didnt recognize it for what it was or trust it. So for me the practice was to just leapfrog over the stumbling blocks, calm the Fear the best I could , and do the Recipe for Recovery as if my Faith were 100%. The dopamine began to flow..
And my Faith grew and flowered. Is flowering still.
For me, it absolutely worked. Good luck to you!
Thank you.
Thank you Howard n Jackie. I just needed to hear this today and accept how I feel now knowing just to go ahead and do my recovery program and to go let god in
Perfect timing, as always! Keep telling myself, it is worse before getting better but have had to really talk to myself in the past few days.
Much appreciated dear Howard and others.
Thanks everyone for your comments.It helps to know I am not alone with this.I need to keep my attention on all the progress I am making.Now down to 1 xSinemet a day so starting to get an accurate idea of where I am at.
That is very helpful to hear, Marie. Thank you so much for your post.
Thanks to everyone for your comments and Marie ……your comment was tremendously reassuring to me that all this is not in vein and the emotional struggle that we all seem to be going through is only a natural part of the path to recovery
As much as I need it, I wish I can give you all a good hug!
You are loved!
Thank you once again for your encouragements on prayer and faith! A thank you, too, especially Jackie and Marie. I found myself repeating, “Recovery!” over and over then today it became a poem…
Recovery-
Symptom free-
God Almighty,
Let it be!
Laurie
What great posts! Something that was hard for me was realizing that everything I experienced was not PD. Sometimes I had sabotaged myself with poor diet or too much candle-at-both-ends. Sometimes it was just the weather, or catching a cold. fear had made a fool of me. How good it is to recall that healing just comes in its time.
Thanks everyone for the wonderful posts. It’s so nice to know you are there. I’m thinking of you!
Thanks Howard! The part where you talk about accepting good experiences really hit home with me. I certainly have been guilty of not accepting them.
You are welcome. Thanks to all of you for sharing your journeys and stories. If we can stay in the moment of what we are doing moment by moment, there is no place for fear to permeate our being. As a result, like Marie so beautifully explained, faith grows.
Love and blessings to all,
Howard
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HI Howard, Thank you for putting these posts in your email, the timing again was perfect, all these people who share the same thoughts and feelings as I do. what did work for me today was asking God over and over, through the tears – to take the pain away – and He did. With the relief went the fear also and I was smiling and it turned out to be a good day.
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