Last week, I posted Fighting Parkinson’s, and your fear, your faith…your choice. I have gotten very good feedback. However, one question people keep posing is, “How am I supposed to keep my faith and not have fear when suddenly my symptoms appear worse.” Today, I will address that question.
Part of understanding your recovery while doing the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery® is understanding that there are times when you may feel worse while you are getting better. It looks like this:
Parkinson’s pollutes your body and that is why the Recipe has a large focus on healing the liver and getting the toxins cleaned out. It is a double edged sword, though — first you have to break up the toxins and filter them from the blood, which causes them to release into your system, and then you have to flush them out, primarily with respiration, perspiration and urine, not primarily from bowels, so you have to make certain you are drinking enough water.
Quite frankly, this is one of the hardest parts of keeping your faith because when you are succeeding in breaking down the toxins, you feel the worst of it because of how much toxicity is floating around in your system which then enters your body. This is where people have a healing crisis and wonder, “Am I getting worse? I am doing this Recipe to get better, but I simply feel worse and my symptoms look worse, and people roll their eyes at me and tell me whatever I am doing it is failing.”
This is where you have to be strong and have faith that what you are doing is correct. I know, this is contrary to everything you have learned in life. Here, the better you are doing at breaking up toxins, the worse you feel, but then you get better. It is why I did not feel better for nearly the entire time I had Parkinson’s, and then when I started feeling better, 2 weeks later, I was better.
So, when you are feeling worse, give yourself a joyful hug, some empathy, and some compassion…and keep doing the Recipe. The “feeling worse” and “looking worse” will subside in a few days. Recently, I have had a number of people tell me they are confused by what is happening. Their symptoms have not changed or may even appear a little worse, but everybody is telling them how good they look or how healthy they look.
This is because the Recipe is working. As you are cleaning more toxins from your body, your face looks better and healthier, your eyes look bright and clear, and this change is so profound that people who previously stared at your symptoms with dismay are now looking beyond your symptoms at your face and in disbelief are telling you the truth about how healthy and much better you look. At that point, you are the only one looking at your symptoms. So, stop looking.
Instead, look in the mirror and give gratitude for how much healthier and how much better you look.
Here is the deeper explanation of what is occurring during these periodic healing crises times:
I know it is hard to believe that the better you are doing the worse you will feel for a while, but think about this: suppose a pool looks like it is filled with sparkling water, but the walls are completely covered in algae. If you scrape every wall from top to bottom, what will the sparkling water look like? Completely polluted, right? But aren’t you making progress in cleaning the pool? Don’t you need to get all the algae off of the walls to clean the pool? And, if somebody had seen the pool but did not notice the algae covering the walls, they would have thought it was a perfectly clean, sparkling-water pool. After you scrape the algae and before it is flushed out, the same person would look at the pool and wonder how it suddenly became so polluted.
And such is the case with you. You have worked hard doing the Recipe and were starting to feel a little better. However, this hard work released many toxins into your body, and this will make you feel “worse” or “more polluted” until you can release the toxins from your body.
Further, when the pool water looks clear and the algae is stuck to the walls of the pool, how hard are the pool pump and pool filter working? Hardly at all — there is nothing toxic or polluted in the water, so they are on low and using very little energy. Once you scrape every wall in the pool and the water is completely cloudy with toxins and pollutants, how hard are the pool pump and pool filter working? Very hard, and overtime! They are turned up to their maximum power and do not relax until the pool is clear again.
Let’s apply this to your Parkinson’s body. When you first start doing the Qigong, particularly Medical Qigong for Liver, initially people report an energy boost, bowel function improvement, and return of sense of smell. This is because you are cleaning toxins already floating around in your body, so you get an initial positive impact. However, as you work harder at the Qigong in the Recipe, you start to get into the deeper parts of the toxicity in your body (like scraping the algae off of the walls in the pool), and you put a load of new toxins into the mainstream of your body. Much like the pool pump and pool filter, your body then must devote a large amount of energy to getting the toxins cleaned from your body.
Since your Parkinson’s brain already is low on energy, and since you have been so successful in pulling these toxins out into the mainstream of your body, you suffer slower movement and sometimes fatigue, and the Qigong becomes a bit harder to do — your body is prioritizing the use of its energy, and priority number one is not your tremors or rigidity or slowness…priority number one is eliminating the toxins from your body. This results in your symptoms appearing worse. However, you are not getting worse. It is just a shifting of energy to a higher priority. There is nothing to be afraid of. You are getting better, and continuing the Qigong assists your body in cleansing the toxins more effectively.
As I have mentioned before, when you fight Parkinson’s, it fights you back. When you are diligent with the Recipe and you have been feeling like we are making progress, it is a blow to your faith to suddenly feel like you are physically going backwards. Parkinson’s tests your faith. Parkinson’s tests your resolve. Parkinson’s tests you to the core of your being.
And you fight back. You start at the core of your being and chip away at Parkinson’s day after day after day until you recover. You have to be strong and you cannot lose faith in yourself.
You are doing the soul mind and body parts of the Recipe, so you have nothing to fear. Keep your faith strong!
Faith is the correct choice for your recovery.
You are worth it!!!
All my best,
Howard
I love the way you explain and use your analogies Howard.
I am recovery I am worth it and I trust your process!
Love and gratitude❤
Just when it feels like scraping the bottom of the barrel in this recovery, it’s the toxic algae we’ve been scraping!
Thanks for the reminder,
Tom
Howard has been coaching me for almost 2 years now, and I am happy to say that I am close to my recovery. I have never taken any drugs for Parkinson’s and I trust and believe everything Howard says as nobody knows Parkinson’s disease better than him.
Wow Tony! That’s a profound statement, and we’d love to hear your story as you progress! WELL DONE so far, and we salute your successes!
Good for you Tony. I believe the way is to live from our heart, not from mind, as Howard already sad to us many times. Best wishes…
Congratulations, Tony, for being close to your full recovery. I agree with you 100% on trusting Howard! That, and trusting myself and my power to heal, is how I recovered. Best wishes to you!
Thank you for your post here Marie! I for one hope you will post more details about the obstacles you surmounted en route to your wonderful recovery. I think others will agree that reading about those things you and others encountered and eventually conquered give us hope in facing the challenges we meet on our sometimes extremely difficult journey to recovery. Much love, hugs and admiration.
Tony, that’s true, Howard is an expert we too are very, very happy about!! It’s big luck that we have met him and we are so grateful!! We know Howard too for nearly two years and learnt a lot from him. Werni is drugfree now for 17 months after taking pills during 3 years and he looks healthy!!! Howard is such a kind person, he always takes the time to help us immediately and we can trust him totally! Thanks Howard!!
Happy for You and Werni, Tery.
I’m impressed on how could Werni go to zero drugs after 3 years taking pills.
This is be a positive example for some of us and help to easier face and manage the difficulties of our long lasting journey.
Thanks and blessing to You and Werni.
Carlo S.
Thanks Howard….I needed that!
I guess it is Easter in most parts of the world for our companions on the journey under Howard’s guidance. When I reflect on this Easter season I would like to think I could take my fears, doubts and frustrations and bury them in the tomb for good. Then step out into the Light and walk towards a new life of recovery. So I hope I can make a resolution to walk in faith this Easter with Howard towards a new life without PD. I wish all my fellow travellers a happy and holy Easter.
Love and blessings
Veronica 🌱🌺
Veronica beautifully said my friend, simply beautiful.xx
That’s really great to know that I am feeling worse now after 1 and half month into the recipe. . I am breaking the toxins and it started floating in mainstream body.. I am moving in right direction. This was much needed post Howard. Thank you for always being there for us. I love you. You are the only person who is helping me to keep my faith and motivating me to continue doing the recipe. Big big hug. And yes I will come to meet you one day 😊😊😙
Yes dear Tony I so agree with you nobody knows parkinson disease better than Howard. You will recover dear. We all are walking on the path of recovery. 😊
Dear Tery, yes Howard is so kind to help us immediately. We are very lucky to have him in this lifetime. Great to know Werni is drug free. Cheers 😊
Howard I am going to fight this and win. Thank you for being there for us.
Gratitude..
Smita😊
Hi Howard, powerful post. Great to hear Tony so close and Werni off the meds. Greatly encouraging for the rest of us. Happy Easter to all my warrior comrades and big love to you Howard and your family also.
Karen xx
Dear Smita and Karen,
Thanks for your kind words and the joy for Werni!👍😘 You have the power to do it too and we wish you all the best! We know it’s not an easy way and we had and still have hard times, but together with Howard we got the faith to follow his advices. Have a wonderful Easter. Love and big hugs
Tery and Werni 💕
Add me to the gratitude list, Howard, for your enlightening coaching, your inspiration and research, your generosity in sharing the entire recipe and your love for us all. And gratitude, too, to all in our evolving community for your courage and companionship in sharing your own journeys …it’s so wonderful to know you understand and that I am not alone.
Thanks Howard! This post came at the right time. I have been feeling a lot worse for the past few days, but your post has made me feel better. It helps me keep up the hope and faith of my recovery. Happy Easter everyone!
Thank you Howard for your trust and keeping on!
Thanks, Howard, and everyone here is so encouraging! Thanks so much!
The thing that I notice is that the improved attitudes carry over into every part of my life!
All God’s blessings be upon everyone! xoxox
Happy Easter, everyone! I am right there with you, in Gratitude for the loving guidance and support Howard provides. The Recipe for Recovery and the wisdom of the blog posts are such wonderful gifts to us. I don’t know where I would be now if I had not found Howard and had his example of recovery, and the Recipe for Recovery, but most likely not where I am, happy healthy and strong, living my life to its fullest, and free, year after year, of Parkinson’s. You can do it too! Have faith and know that with everyday you are doing the Recipe, you are moving towards your recovery.
Sending best wishes and love , Marie
Thank you Marie! It is wonderful hearing from you. I hope some day to be able to help others as you do having recovered. Happy Easter and love…
Thank you Marie for your unselfish support for those of us on this journey. It would be so easy to think that now you are free you could forget about us all. I am moved by your humility to be there encouraging us all with Howard. Be blessed.
Love and peace
Veronica 🌱🌺