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 thirteenth part: reconnecting with the soul and opening the heart for dopamine flow.
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.
I began my recovery journey with faith in my full recovery. I considered this to be the beginning of healing my soul, which really was a reconnecting with my soul, or the essence of my being; reconnecting, that is, with the essence of who I was before I started making changes to the essence of my being. I feel we are born with a purity and innocence that we adjust and change and lose somewhere in life, and it is the return to that beginning, the re-connection with that beginning, that re-purifies us and helps up re-connect with our soul. Parkinson’s is toxic, and it is the Recipe’s re-purification of the body, re-purification of the mind, and re-connection with the purity of the soul that purifies us entirely…and then there is no Parkinson’s…it only can reside in a toxic environment…it has to leave. And we are liberated!
Your body is an accumulation of food and drink, etc. over the course of your life. Your body has Parkinson’s symptoms. You are not that body. Your mind is an accumulation of thoughts and ideas and emotions and fears, etc. over the course of your life. Your mind has Parkinson’s negative emotions and fears. You are not that mind. Your soul, the essence of who you are, remains pure. However, as a result of being so focused in life on what is going on with your body and with your mind, you make adjustments to the pure and innocent essence of your beginning, and your soul gets buried deep inside you.
But It is there, and always has been with you. And It remains pure and untouched by Parkinson’s. So, whatever is your belief system, the Recipe healing of the soul can work for you. It does not matter if you believe in a soul or essence. It does not matter if you believe in a Higher Power or God, or Greater Consciousness or that we are just here in this world — there is something inside every one of you — that something deep inside that when you have faced insurmountable odds in life, you have reached down deep inside and felt that something, and you have defied all logic, and accomplished whatever it was that nobody thought was possible.
Trust. You trusted in yourself. And you had faith that you would do whatever needed to get done. And you dug down deep and found whatever It was inside you to give you the ability to reach the end.
It is that spark inside you. That spark you used to go to when you needed a boost of energy or a smile on your face in hard times or that sense that there was a greater purpose in why you are here. Some people call that spark soul; some call It essence; some call It a part of God or the Higher Power or the Divine; some call It part of the Greater Consciousness; some call It an electrical charge. It does not matter what you call It, It is there, and you need to re-connect to It and know It will help you in your recovery. It is the basis of faith.
In the previous post, I wrote about calming the mind. Two important components of calming the mind, acceptance and getting out of the fear-based Adrenaline-mode mind, have a basis in faith.
Faith and Acceptance. Here is a level of acceptance that requires a strong amount of faith in the importance of your existence: “I accept that everything that has happened in my life right up until now has had to happen exactly how it happened for me to be where I am right now.” Say this with me: “I accept that everything that has happened in my life right up until now has had to happen exactly how it happened for me to be where I am right now.”
What makes each and every one of you special is not your achievements or degrees or performance. What makes you special is that you exist. You exist as a human being. Let that soak in. Okay, now say it, “I am special just in the fact that I exist.”
So, everything that has happened in your life right up until this moment was part of your existence. If you extract judgment of yourself from your mind, then you can accept that everything in the past had a purpose whether you understand it or like it…it is in the past…just accept that it had to happen exactly how it happened and you never have to look back and judge yourself again. This is an important part of freeing your mind and liberating your life.
The past is exactly that: THE PAST! Let it go and you let go of self-judgment, self-criticism, self-loathing over what should have, would have, could have been.
Say this again with me: “I accept that everything that has happened in my life right up until now has had to happen exactly how it happened for me to be where I am right now.”
To assist you with achieving this level of acceptance, think of someone or something that exists right now for which you are grateful. If there are things in the past that you do not wish to accept had to happen exactly how they happened, how do you know that the changing of one thing to negate those things would not have had the result of setting off a course of action that the “someone or something for which you are grateful” ceases to exist in your life right now.
Accept the past without judgment of yourself. If you woke up each day without a memory of the past, you would be prepared to accept the day as it rolled out in front of you. There would be no judgment of “now” compared to “the past” because the past would cease to exist. There would be no “my symptoms seem worse today than yesterday.” There would be no “I should have done it this way instead of that way.” There would be no self-judgment, self-criticism, self-loathing over what should have, would have, could have been because the past would not exist in your mind.
Acceptance that the past had to happen exactly how it happened closes the door to the past and puts you a step closer to being in the moment. This level of acceptance requires a large amount of faith. This is the faith that says, “I am special just in my existence. Everything has happened just as it needed to happen in my life journey.”
Faith and Fear. Acceptance closes the door to the past. Letting go of fear closes the imaginary future.
Here is a quote from the movie After Earth: “Fear is not real. The only place that fear can exist is in our thoughts of the future. It is a product of our imagination, causing us to fear things that do not at present and may not ever exist. That is near insanity. Do not misunderstand me, danger is very real, but fear is a choice. We are all telling ourselves a story and that day mine changed.”
In yesterday’s post, I wrote about the Adrenaline-mode mind. It is fear based, fear driven, fear, fear, fear, fear, fear…and FEAR (False Evidence Appearing Real). Or, as stated in the quote above, fear “is a product of our imagination, causing us to fear things that do not at present and may not ever exist.”
So, how do you get rid of fear? Here is what I did (from the Recipe):
“Fear and negative thoughts are a constant battle with the disease. Although I had a very positive attitude that some day I would recover, fighting the disease mentally and spiritual was a daily war. I learned that God was in a much better position to handle my fears and negative thoughts and that I needed to give them away so I could stay focused on my recovery.
I meditated on this and adopted the following prayer for when I felt negative thoughts or fears coming into the forefront of my thoughts: “Dear God, I have this fear and I do not have time for it to bring me down. I need to stay focused on positive thoughts. You are in a much better position than me to deal with negative thoughts and fears, so I am giving you this negative thought and fear and thank you for taking care of it for me.” The first day I did this, it must have been 100 times I repeated this phrase. After four or five days, the negative thoughts and fears diminished, and then they went away.”
Click here for another way of ridding yourself of fear.
Faith says, “I have nothing to fear in this life. Fear is a creation of my mind…losing my mind and coming to my senses loses my fear…it existed only in my mind. My heart feels faith.”
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.
Faith and Joy. Opening my heart for cultivating positive emotions was the key to opening my dopamine faucet and finishing my recovery. Here is how I did it.
I realized that in my wanting to be liked and loved and accepted by others, I had been achieving my “happiness” in the form of feedback from accomplishments. This self-perpetuated into the adrenaline driven behavior that helped me get Parkinson’s — always thinking of the next scenario, or juggling act, to keep the “I can do anything to keep other people happy so they will give me positive feedback and keep me happy” balls in the air. Quite frankly, I had to admit to myself how lost I was in who I was anymore. And, I had to know why did I not like me?
I would like to say because of Parkinson’s, but that is not accurate. I did not like me before Parkinson’s. Parkinson’s only gave me a new excuse. I needed to get to the root of the problem, so I decided to explore the things in life that gave me a feeling that I did not deserve, or was not worthy, of good things happening to me, including Parkinson’s recovery. Essentially, I looked back at my life to see if there were times when things were said or done that made me feel bad about myself.
I do not know much about the subconscious, but it was my understanding that if I felt bad about myself and left those feelings unresolved, they could grow over time into a subconscious feeling of being undeserving or unworthy of my final recovery. I found some times where things were said and the net result was that I did not feel good about myself, and I worked them through and gave them finality. I did feel better about myself after having accomplished this. (More on this in the next two days).
With this potential blockage out of the way, I was open to the realization that we all are connected at some level and the best way I could start to open my heart and cultivate from the inside the positive emotions of happiness and joy and compassion and gratitude was to share these with other people. However, this was much different than the “doing things for others so they would give me feedback so I could be happy” scenario that helped me get Parkinson’s…this was very much different.
This came from the realization that there was a substantial likelihood that every person I came in contact with was suffering at some level…physically, mentally, and/or spiritually. I sensed that if I could assist people in feeling a little better about their own level of suffering, my suffering would become less because it would open my heart and my dopamine would flow better. It would bring me closer to God and closer to re-connecting with the It inside me. So, I did what many of us do not want to do — I found a place with people and talked to them…really talked to them…introduced myself with a big smile and sincerely asked them how they were doing. And, people were responsive, and my heart opened from the absolute joy of helping other human beings feel a little better about their situations in life.
They knew they were not alone because this stranger actually seemed genuinely concerned with how they were doing and was compassionate over their situation. It was amazing. I started easy — talking to the cashiers and baggers at the grocery store. But it made me feel so good to see the smiles light up on people’s faces, I started talking to anybody I could. Yes, some people looked at me with questioning eyes and walked the other way, but most people warmed up to the idea of having a chat.
It was my realization that we all are connected in this life, but that we spend so much time disconnecting ourselves from the other people. In re-connecting with other people and helping them feel a little better about their lives, I began to re-connect with my soul, the essence of who I was, and it felt great! And my dopamine began to flow. One day when I wasn’t paying attention, I walked down the stairs and back up without holding on for the first time in 8 months. On another day, I was pushing a shopping cart and it felt like it suddenly got turbo-charged and we flew down the aisle — I had not walked like that in 8 months.
These things were one-time events, but they were real and they signified the blessings of a full recovery on the way. So I kept up with the full Recipe, and on June 9, 2010, I had a large change for the good in my symptoms, and I was excited. A couple of days later, I was staring at what I had written on my blog about my recent partial symptoms relief, and I noticed that I had written this: “I am not out of the woods with fighting Parkinson’s. It will be a life-long battle, but I am making progress. On a sliding scale, I am on the plus side, beyond the 50% mark, between Parkinson’s and not-Parkinson’s.”
And then it hit me…in staring at these words, I asked myself, “Where is the guy who knows he will be fully recovering from Parkinson’s? How is he now the guy describing his Parkinson’s as a life-long battle?” And it came to me — many people had been so negative and so disbelieving of my fighting Parkinson’s without medications and saying I would have a full recovery, that I had fallen back into my old “safe-place” habit when faced with potential disapproval…I had become willing to keep Parkinson’s to my detriment just to make other people happy because if they were already negative toward me just with what I was doing in my treatment, how would they act toward me when I fully recovered.
And in that realization, I knew what I had to do. Put me first in my recovery and not care what other people thought, what they would say, whether they would like me or love me or accept me…it would not matter because I would be the happiest guy in the world, from the inside, because I no longer would have Parkinson’s Disease. I announced it to Sally at breakfast on June 11, 2010, like this: First I told her I know what I need to do to complete my recovery and what I was about to tell her might sound like the most selfish thing ever to come out of my mouth, but it was not selfish, and then I said, “There is no person on this planet worth me continuing to have Parkinson’s Disease just to make them happy.”
That night, when Sally came to do the Governing Vessel Acupressure as she had every night for nine months, I told her things were okay and it would not be necessary. If you scroll down to the bottom of the Recipe, you will find the following, which was done at the end of my usual meditations and prayers before going to sleep on June 11, 2010:
“Near the end, I added the following one night before going to bed: “Dear God, I surrender my ego to you. I surrender my attachment to my Parkinson’s Disease to you. I am not afraid anymore. I no longer fear Parkinson’s. I no longer fear the scorn I may face by being cured from a disease the experts say there is no cure. I no longer fear the people who may say I was misdiagnosed or that I faked having the disease. I am surrendering my ego to you, that part of me that felt I needed to remain attached to Parkinson’s because the experts say once you have Parkinson’s you always have Parkinson’s. I am forgetting about my old self (Parkinson’s) and stepping into my new self (No Parkinson’s).” I awoke the following morning with my remaining symptoms gone.”
That was five and one-half years ago. I have not been doing the Recipe, and I remain symptom free. I am cured. It was in my moment of realization at the end that I was able to connect my soul, my essence, my inner spark, to God, the Higher Power, the Universe, the Greater Consciousness, the healing electricity flowing around us and through us, and feel that I was a part of everything just as I was when my soul and my heart and my essence first were inside me. And my old-self Parkinson’s was no longer there…just I remained…symptom free, fully recovered, cured.
The Recipe helps you reconnect with the soul and open your dopamine faucet for full dopamine flow and finalization of full recovery because in order to even embark on this journey, at some level, you have to believe in yourself, you have to believe in “I have the power to heal myself.” And where did that belief come from? Your soul…your essence…that old-reliable spark deep inside you that helped you believe in yourself in the past to do the things others thought could not be accomplished…I do not care what you call It, but whether you have recognized It or not until now, the only way you could have jumped into this Recipe with both feet in the face of what others say is impossible was to have re-connected with It, that something deep inside you that said, “Yes, I can do this. I will recover!”
And you have not let go of It. Now, it is time for you to explore within yourself what may be holding you back from your full recovery. If you do not feel like you are deserving or worthy of this recovery, then you need to explore why, and get it resolved. The next two posts will assist you with this part of the journey.
It starts with faith, and It ends with faith. Faith is a choice, and it is the choice that leads you on your path with the Recipe toward your recovery from Parkinson’s.
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.
That’s it.
You are worth it!!!
I will be back soon.
All my best,
Howard
For those of you who may have missed my previous post about the fifth person to have recovered doing the Recipe, click here to read the details of “Fighting Parkinson’s, and Helen Gill in Australia is symptom free!!!”
Please note: I will be posting a post per day for the remainder of the year. If you subscribe to receive email notifications when I post new blog posts and you would prefer to not receive those daily email notifications, simply send me an email at howard@fightingparkinsonsdrugfree.com, and let me know that you do not wish to receive a daily email with a link to each post. I will remove you from the list for the rest of the year, and add your email back to the list at the beginning of 2016. However, I still would recommend you checking the blog on a regular basis as it will contain very useful information for understanding and doing the Recipe more effectively.
Thank you, Howard….such a vital post for me…I was able to remember times in my life when I was most present…times when I absolutely let go of my past and had faith in myself. These times were those in which I most contributed in life…to myself (because I knew I was making a difference) and to others….Essentially, I realized the importance of standing in my own knowing. Now I am working on what many might interpret as my greatest challenge…but PD is my greatest gift for it is asking me to dig deeper…and to really stand in faith and in trust with what I know to be true. Thank you and our dear PD community for your enduring support and love.
Gracias Howard por este maravilloso post , muy revelador , me hizo rodar lagrimas en mi cara ,pero al mismo tiempo hace despertar esa fuerza interior (ESPIRITU) para darnos cuenta que el poder esta dentro de nosotros y que somos fuertemente apoyados por la INTELIGENCIA UNIVERSAL. para conquistar cada uno de nuestros desafios , somos afortunados porque gracias a este gran desafio llamdo Parkinson estamos siendo guiados a una mayor conciencia espiritual, a una verdadera transformacion interior , que nos hara libres , un despertar a nuestras capacidades naturales que son parte de nuestra escencia y promover algo que ya esta ahi dentro de cada uno de nosotros, pero permanece oculta tras las nubes del miedo y desesperanza. Toda acción emprendida desde el estado de resistencia
interior (al cual podríamos llamar negatividad) generará más resistencia externa y el universo no brindará su
apoyo; la vida no ayudará. El sol no puede penetrar cuando los postigos están cerrados. Cuando cedemos y
nos entregamos, se abre una nueva dimensión de la conciencia. Si la accion esta en resonancia con la vida , la acción estará en armonía con el todo y recibirá el apoyo de la inteligencia creadora, la conciencia
incondicionada, con la cual nos volvemos uno cuando estamos en un estado de apertura interior. Entonces las circunstancias y las personas ayudan y colaboran, se producen las coincidencias, descansamos en la paz y la quietud interior en actitud de entrega; descansamos en Dios
recuerda siempre que el amor ,la felicidad ,la alegria son parte natural de nuestro espiritu , cuando tu sientes el aroma de una flor , eso que tu sientes ,”ESO ERES TU” , cuando tu sientes en tu interior un bello atardecer, eso que tu sientes “ESO ERES TU”entonces cultivemos el amor por la vida, nosotros somos el amor amemonos a nosotros mismos, merecemos lo mejor. no tiene porque ser de otra manera, repite
” yo merezco ser sano por derecho divino me corresponde y tengo el poder de sanarme ”
Translation:
Thanks Howard for this wonderful post, very revealing, rolled me tears on my face, but at the same time awaken that inner strength (Spirit) to realize that the power is within us and we are strongly supported by the Universal Intelligence. to conquer every one of our challenges, we are fortunate because thanks to this great challenge of Parkinson are being led to greater spiritual awareness, a true inner transformation that will make us free, awakening our natural capabilities that are part of our essence and promote something that is already there within each of us, but is hidden behind clouds of fear and hopelessness. Any action taken from the state of resistance on the inside (which might call negativity) will generate more external resistance and the universe does not give his support for; life does not help. The sun can not penetrate when the shutters are closed. When we give in and we give a new dimension of consciousness opens. If the action is in resonance with life, the action will be in harmony with everything and receive the support of creative intelligence, consciousness unconditionally, with which we become one when we are in a state of inner openness. So the circumstances and people help and collaborate, coincidences occur, rest in peace and inner stillness in attitude of surrender; we rest in God Always remember that love, happiness, joy are a natural part of our spirit, when you feel the scent of a flower, so that you feel, “that’s you” when you feel inside a beautiful sunset, why you feel “that’s you” then cultivate a love of life, we are the ones who love ourselves, we deserve the best. need not be otherwise, repeat “I deserve to be healthy by divine right is my duty and have the power to heal”
hello jimmy too and all
oh how true
i had a major collapse brought on by fear and lack of faith and gave into what felt like enormous pressure to take the drugs against my heart felt wishes, Now with Howard will find the way out and forward. I didnt realise what was happening, and now am still knocked sideways and gradually reaching for help within and without.
How are you all?
lots of love
hola querida Mayarita, tu corazon es fuerte, permiteme platicar esto a ti.
hace casi un año , escribi aqui mismo la experiencia que en ese momento de incertidumbre y desesperacion, yo estaba atravesando, cuando mi cuerpo se sentia tan debil que yo no podia alzar los brazos para ponerme una camisa , yo sentia tanta debilidad que dificilmente podia dar algunos pasos sin sentir que iba a caer al piso, en esos momentos el miedo me invadio.
comente en el blog que mis hermanos al verme asi tan debil, me pidieron, casi me exigieron que yo tomara medicamento, yo estaba casi convencido de tomarlo, fue algo que comente aqui con ustedes y me quede asombrado de las muestras de apoyo que recibi, muchos comentarios hermosos alentadores, para que yo no ceder a la presion de la familia por tomar medicina ,,estas muestras de apoyo me fortalecieron, y tambien dentro de mi habia algo (MI ESPIRITU ) que me decia no te rindas sigue adelante , tu puedes hacerlo , continua haciendo la receta .
entonces surgio un razonamiento muy logico,que me levanto el animo…… si hacemos la receta con un verdadero compromiso con nosotros mismos ,por amor a nosotros mismos, el resultado final tarde o temprano sera la recuperacion de nuestra salud.
permiteme decirte e invitarte a que veas el aumento en los sintomas con la siguiente optica, . Si tu estas haciendo la receta para la recuperacion, lo que nosotros vemos como aumento en los sintomas, no es mas que la inercia de los mismos moviendose en el tiempo,, pero al hacer la receta ,, la curacion se esta llevando acabo por dentro , hay cambios positivos en nuestro interior dia a dia y por consiguiente esa inercia que llevan los sintomas se esta reduciendo cada dia que hacemos la receta y asi se ira reducira hasta su minima expresion.
y por lo tanto los sintomas desapareceran. la entrega de mis miedos a Dios
todo esto me ha dado el valor para seguir adelante con mi lucha , hoy mi cuerpo no esta tan debil, aunque aun tengo muchos sintomas como lentitud, falta de cordinacion , falta de destreza, rigidez, rueda dentada , fatiga, se que todo con compromiso y seriedad saldre adelante y los sintomas desapareceran, asi que Mayarita mucha fuerza interior , tu eres un gran espiritu y algo que te puede dar mas fortaleza es tu bebe . que dios te bendiga y feliz año nuevo a todos.
Translation:
Mayarita hello dear, your heart is strong, let me discuss this with you.
Almost a year ago, I wrote here the same experience in that moment of uncertainty and despair, I was going through, when my body felt so weak that I could not raise his arms to put on a shirt, I felt so weak that I could hardly give some steps without feeling it would fall to the floor, at the time the fear invaded me.
comment on the blog so my brothers to see me so weak, almost demanded that I take medication, I was almost convinced to take it, was something to discuss here with you and was in awe of the outpouring of support I received, many beautiful comments encouraging, so I would not give in to family pressure by taking medicine ,, these expressions of support strengthened me, and also there was something inside me (my Spirit) told me not to give up continues, you can so, continues to make the recipe.
then came a very logical reasoning, which cheered me …… if we make the recipe with a real commitment to ourselves, love ourselves, the end result will eventually recovery of our health.
let me tell you and invite you to see an increase in symptoms with the following optician. If you’re making a recipe for recovery, which we see as increased symptoms, it is nothing but the inertia of moving in the same time ,, but ,, to make the recipe healing is taking just inside there are positive changes within us every day and therefore the inertia symptoms that lead is shrinking every day we do the recipe and thus reduce will go to minimum.
and therefore the symptoms disappear. the delivery of my fears to God
all this has given me the courage to go on with my struggle, today my body is not so weak, but still I have many symptoms like sluggishness, lack of COORDINATION, lack of skill, strength, sprocket, fatigue, is that everything with commitment and seriousness saldre forward and symptoms disappear, so Mayarita lot of inner strength, you are a great spirit and something that can give you more strength is your baby. May God bless and happy new year to all of you.
Beautiful Howard and much needed. Thank you.
Hello penny and fellow warriors. Howyadoin? Xxx
I have just seen your message to me jimmy THANK YOU dear friend
More when i feel able
MUCH LOVE