For those of you who have not read my previous post, Fighting Parkinson’s, and Parkinson’s is curable!, or who read it prior to the 25 comments, this would be a good time to go back and read it. Today’s post is a continuation of the fact that Parkinson’s is curable, and it focuses on the importance of compassion..
Compassion. Learning to have compassion toward others and yourselves is a huge step down the spiritual path in this soul, mind, and body cure for Parkinson’s.
Let’s begin with the easy ones.
1. Take a moment of silence and feel the suffering of the 10,000,000 people with Parkinson’s. As one with Parkinson’s, you know how they feel. Please have compassion for their suffering.
2. Repeat number 1 above with the realization that you are one of those people with Parkinson’s. Please have compassion for your own suffering.
3. Around 5,000 people come to this web site every month. That means that of the 10,000,000 people with Parkinson’s, approximately 9,995,000 are probably having additional suffering because they are hopeless in their Parkinson’s and lacking in faith that they can improve their situation, let alone be cured. Please have compassion for their suffering.
Now the harder ones.
If you looked at the comments posted in the previous post, John’s support group thinks we are in denial, Judy says, “just don’t want to see the looks on the faces….you know, the ‘stop being in denial and accept this diagnosis’ looks,” and Sam wrote, “This weekend I ran into woman who works for the Parkinson’s foundation. She asked me if I had Parkinson’s and I said yes. I said but I’m off my medications now and she asked me how I felt. I said I feel the same. She couldn’t believe me and asked how and why I was off my meds. I told her about the recipe. She looked at me like I was crazy! We’ll see who’s crazy!”
Have you ever stopped to think that the people who respond to us in these manners are suffering? Yes, they are suffering. If somebody was not suffering in their own soul, mind, and/or body, why would our decision on how to treat our own personal disease be so threatening to them that they have to resort to name-calling and mean looks? Clearly, they are suffering. They do not need our anger and frustration. They need our compassion.
In Fighting Parkinson’s, and three years symptom free, I wrote, “For example, if somebody has an unkind word for me when I have not been unkind to them, I have compassion for their suffering — if they are being unkind for no reason at all, I look beyond their words and realize they are suffering from something in their soul, or their mind, or their body. If I choose to be angry at them, it does nothing to relieve their suffering and it creates suffering in me. So I choose to have compassion for them, try to help them ease their load so to speak, and then I let it go.”
Your emotions are a choice. Anger and frustration are a choice. People being negative toward you is their choice. How you respond to them is your choice. Please choose compassion.
Think about it. You have a disease and you say, “I am working on curing myself.” Clearly, anybody who does not say, “Good for you, I wish you well,” is suffering. When the people are negative toward what you are doing, did it ever occur to you that many of them are mean and discouraging because they are afraid you will succeed. To non-believers, your success upsets their “knowing that Parkinson’s is not curable.” It makes them wrong. And, of course, they do not want to be wrong, so they try to discourage you from doing what you are doing because they are afraid you may be right.
They need your compassion, not your anger and frustration. This is why these are the harder ones.
1. When your family, friends, or support group tell you that you are in denial (or give you “the look”) because you tell them you are curing yourself of Parkinson’s, feel their suffering and do not be angry or frustrated. Please have compassion for their suffering.
2. When your neurologist tells you that you are being irresponsible to your family, or stubborn, or selfish because you refuse to take medications, feel his or her suffering and do not be angry or frustrated. Please have compassion for his or her suffering.
3. When your neurologist tells you that you are being irresponsible to your family, or stubborn, or selfish because you refuse to increase your medications, feel his or her suffering and do not be angry or frustrated. Please have compassion for his or her suffering.
Compassion will liberate you. Anger and frustration will destroy you.
In the introduction to the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery®, I list the three causes of what brings the Parkinson’s symptoms to the diagnosable surface. Cause number one says: “1. Qi and Blood Deficiency, which is caused by emotional stress, anger, frustration, and resentment.” Since anger and frustration are strong enough emotions to be among the emotions that helped bring your Parkinson’s to the surface as diagnosable symptoms, certainly they are strong enough emotions to exacerbate your already-existing symptoms.
Compassion will liberate you. Anger and frustration will destroy you.
Choose compassion!
When you choose compassion, it is healing for you, and it is healing for the other person.
So, embrace COMPASSION and chant with me:
Parkinson’s is curable.
I am my own Parkinson’s cure.
I am halting, slowing, and reversing the progression of my Parkinson’s.
I am extraordinary.
I am recovery.
AND, I AM WORTH IT!!!
All my best,
Howard
Howard…your words remind me of a quote from the Sufi poet, Rumi:
“Out beyond ideas of right doing and wrong doing there is a field. I will meet you there.”
I believe Rumi is referring to the field of compassion…and yes, that is the field in which I wish to dwell. Sometimes, being human, I lose my way. Your words gently guide me home. I am so grateful for your wisdom, your love…. and your compassion.
Penny,
How peaceful your reply made me feel.
Thank you,
Pam
Penny , your quote sent me scurrying for my much book-marked Coleman Barks:
In your light I learn how to love
In your beauty how to make poems
You dance inside my chest
where no one sees you
But sometimes I do
and that sight becomes this art
Rumi
also page 225-the rust on my soul mirror
thanks howard, we should keep reading about compassion from time to time. your words gives me lot of strength to control my emotions
As always Howard, you verbalise the thought processes that are present in my heart. Only today, was I reminding myself to be compassionate to myself as well as others. That is the only way to be complete.
thanx, Howard…..I needed to be reminded…..
Thank you Howard a great lesson to learn. I aim to give it my best. Compassion what a great lesson to learn and what an amazing feeling to feel in the face of derision. Clap clap to you Howard and us all for giving it our best shot. Cheers Helen
I’m trying to learn as many lessons as possible along this journey. Thanks Howard for the reminder! Another great way to purify the soul.
Just came at the right moment….back in england all friends and relatives pressurising me to go on meds….thanks Howard!
Lovely post and comments for one of the most difficult aspects; others disaproval
And I am crying! Why? Because I can!!! And because you are amazing! You all amaze me… Howard, yes, having Compassion is great! But, Compassion is a feeling and a feeling without action is almost meaningless. That is why you AMAZE me and will continue to AMAZE me for the rest of my days, this I pray. YOU WALK THE WALK my SIFU!!! I once told you that I will not be one of the lucky ones, well let me revise that! I am the luckiest Blankety Blank on the face of God’s Earth. Yes Melinda there is a God and She is not angry, He has Infinite patience for us. Like you did for me H., God holds that space open for us. The space where we are at Peace, where we are loved, lovable and LOVE itself! My fingers runneth over!
Laughing out Loud!
Because I’m strong and I’m proud!
Hope is singing in my heart!
Love is with me from the start!
Healing is working in my Brain!
And
Howard is working his Magic again!
On ME On ME On ME!!!!!!
And I am Not ALONE
Because YOU ALL AMAZE ME!!!
Namaste!
Carpe Diem! Seize THIS day!
Life is not being alive but being well (life is much more than just being alive)
non mihi, non tibi, sed nobis
not for me, not for you but for us!
!Amen!
Donate if you can! That good man will not ask!!!
Mr. McEleavy, you certainly serve as a source of inspiration for all those who draw waters of salvation from Howard’s deep well. But my Michal has inborn poetical gifts and after 2 Skype sessions with Howard and numerous e-mails in response to her questions, she endows the following ode of thanks:
To Howard, first and foremost of those who are extraordinary
I want to send you an ode of praise and thanks that’s not just ordinary
I want to amass every possible epithet and description
To make my ballad fit my intention with utmost perfection
But as the days go by I come to the conclusion
That my perfectionist nature has provoked my resolution
That to submit a simple “thank you” would not be fitting
So then to my own surprise I find myself compiling
This message of thanks just straight from my heart
To reflect my feelings of gratitude doesn’t require any art
As a devoted disciple of the Recipe who declares every day
That I’m readjusting my balance that has gone awry
I can surely say thank you with sincerity
Even though my words may stray from verity
My heart goes with them 100%
Even if they seem superficially meant
My heart is conciliated 100%
That you deserve every syllable 100%
For all that you have done to help me 100%.
Michal
Beautiful and profoundly true!
Thank you