Fighting Parkinson’s, and the Recipe in-depth, part 15, final part

I intend to take each part of the Recipe, physical, mental, and spiritual, and explain why it is in the Recipe and what it is doing for you in your recovery, deeply drilling down to the how and why it is helping you recover from Parkinson’s. Today is the fifteenth part: reconnecting with the soul and opening the heart for dopamine flow, third part.

For those of you new to the blog, when I say “the Recipe,” I am talking about the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery®. Click here to review the full version of the Recipe.

The Recipe is a soul, mind, and body recovery methodology. Two days ago, in the first part of reconnecting with the soul and opening the heart for dopamine flow, I stressed the importance of:

Faith and Acceptance. Close the door to the past.
Faith and Fear. Close the door to the future.
Faith and Joy. Living your life in the present moment from your heart.

Yesterday, in the second part of reconnecting with the soul and opening the heart for dopamine flow, I discussed how I closed the door to the past, helping me transform from my judgmental mind into my compassionate heart.

Today, in the third part of reconnecting with the soul and opening the heart for dopamine flow, I will discuss how gratitude helped me bring my life back into balance and helped me reach my cure from Parkinson’s.

GRATITUDE!

Parkinson’s is a symptom of life out of balance, physically, mentally, and spiritually. It is a progressively degenerative disease for which there is no cure ONLY if you accept it that way and do nothing about it.

Since you are here with me, I know that you want to do something about it. Since you are here with each other, I know that you want to do something about it. Since you are here with me, I know you want to bring your life back into balance and rid yourself of the symptom called Parkinson’s. I am grateful to all of you for being here with me and with each other. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Click here for more on bringing your life back into balance.

GRATITUDE!

A story of a life out of balance. In the years leading up to the fall of 2009 when the tremors appeared with all the other things that had been going wrong with me and the neurologist pronounced “you have Parkinson’s,” I had been running from the lion. My Adrenaline-mode-fear-based-mind was always running. This brought me completely out of balance in life.

While working on my recovery, I realized just how out of balance I truly was. When things occurred that I did not like, my habitual stress, anger and frustration surfaced. I did not express it on the outside. I held it in. I did not know that that I was harming my liver by doing this, but I was harming my liver just the same. I realized in my recovery that I was refusing to accept reality, and with stress, fear, anger and frustration when something occurred that I did not like, I was constantly “trying to undo what had just occurred.”

I was not dealing with life as it was rolling out in front of my eyes because everything was not occurring the way I thought it should be occurring. So, I was trying to undo what had occurred instead of dealing with life, accepting the situation and creating a solution. Ultimately, this would cause me to turn the anger at me: “you should known this was occurring, you could have put things in place to have prevented this from occurring, I can’t believe how stupid you were for not being prepared….” Simply put, I lacked acceptance of the things I did not like in life. Mentally and emotionally, this brought me out of balance.

On the issue of gratitude, there was no gratitude. This is not because I was not happy about good things when they occurred. It was because I did not expect them to last. I realized in my recovery that I felt so unworthy and so undeserving of the good things lasting that I could not bring myself to a point of gratitude…it would only hurt that much more when the good things went away. Why give gratitude for something when it won’t last and thus cause yourself more pain later when it is gone? Simply put, I lacked gratitude for the things I liked in life. Spiritually, this brought me out of balance.

To bring balance back to my life, which would lead me to my Parkinson’s cure, I had to adjust the imbalances described above. To mentally and emotionally bring my life back into balance, I needed to learn acceptance. This is the discussion from Part 11, four days ago. Click here to review it again.

To spiritually bring my life back into balance, I needed to practice gratitude. This seems like an easy task. Think about things for which I was grateful and give thanks. My problem was bigger than that. How was I to give gratitude when I did not feel that I was worthy and deserving of the good things that had occurred in my life? I had the most wonderful wife and we had been blessed with three magnificent children. And I had Parkinson’s. How could I have done this to them? This was so unfair to them. And, having done this to them, how could I be worthy and deserving of anything!

How much more out of balance could I have been than that? I was doing the Recipe every day for them because my Parkinson’s was so unfair to them. Sadly, I was not even on the list of people for whom I was trying to get better. I did not like myself enough, certainly did not love myself, and absolutely felt it would be selfish to be trying to get better for me. I was so out of balance and I was flat out wrong about this point.

I needed to see myself as worthy and deserving of good things in life, including my recovery.
I needed to like myself.
I needed to love myself.
I needed to want to get better for me.
I needed to want to get better for me FIRST! Yes, for Sally and the children, too, but for me first.
AND, I NEEDED TO KNOW THAT PUTTING MYSELF FIRST IN MY PARKINSON’S RECOVERY WAS NOT SELFISH. IT WAS NECESSARY! AND, NOT ONLY WAS IT NOT SELFISH, IT WAS GIVING!!! How can that be? Easy, you serve yourself and others graciously from the joy in your heart rather than from some obligation in your mind.

Once I realized this, I started giving gratitude for my life. “Thank you God for another day of being alive, even in a Parkinson’s body. There is so much I can do with my soul inside a human body. I am grateful.”

And with that beginning to each day, I began working on spiritually bringing my life back into balance.

You see, for me, each time I gave gratitude it was an internal announcement that I was worthy and deserving of good things in life and that the good things in life could and would last. Why? Because I was worthy and deserving and abundantly grateful for them. I know this sounds like circular reasoning…and it is circular reasoning…and it works! Do it!!!

Click here for yesterday’s post, which includes links on learning to love yourself and forgiveness.

The more grateful I became for my life and everything in it, the more accepting I became of everything in my life. “Okay” was my new way of living. For the first time in my life, I was completely accepting life as it rolling out in front of me.

In my recovery, to help me keep a positive attitude, and because I knew it was true, I looked at everything that was happening with me physically as “necessary for my recovery.” I started taking that attitude into my daily life. I realized that by accepting whatever was happening in my life was necessary in my life journey, I was able to reduce stress and anxiety, reduce anger and frustration, reduce worry and fear…instead of being afraid of life, I explored it, one small shuffle at a time, just like the tortoise.

Click here for more about moving through life and recovery like the tortoise, who incidentally, wins the race.

The more I accepted what was happening in my life was necessary in my life’s journey, the more I came back into balance mentally and emotionally. The more I learned to give gratitude for being alive, including everything that was happening in my life as a result of being alive, the more I came back into balance spiritually.

In the link above regarding bringing life back into balance, I conclude with this:

“Am I grateful for having had Parkinson’s? Yes. Through that bump in the road in a life already out of balance, Parkinson’s stood as a bump at a fork in the road leaving me two choices: 1. Fix the imbalances in my life and it would go away; and 2. Do not fix the imbalances in my life and it would stay with me forever. I chose the road less traveled, I had no plan B, and every day I did the Recipe for Recovery to find balance in my life. And every day that I awoke with Parkinson’s still there, it was a reminder I still had more work to do.

However, in the end, when I awoke on June 12, 2010 with no Parkinson’s, I knew it was not coming back — I had re-balanced my soul, mind, and body, and I no longer needed the message or symptoms known as Parkinson’s as a reminder that I had more work to do.

I was finished with that part of my life, and I am grateful for that as well.”

What I do not mention in that post is that when I awoke on the morning of June 12, 2010 and popped out of bed fully awake, fully aware that I was cured of Parkinson’s, I dropped to my hands and knees and cried praise and gratitude. And through my tears of gratitude, I promised God that I would help people with Parkinson’s for the rest of my life.

So, my friends, as we close out 2014, I am honored to express my gratitude to all of you. By you being here with me, open to the message, and working to cure yourselves from Parkinson’s, you are helping me fulfill my promise to God. For that, I am abundantly grateful to all of you. Thank you. Thank you, thank you.

That’s it.

You are worth it!!!

I will be back next year. Have a happy and safe New Year!

All my best,

Howard