If you are doing the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery®, you are heading toward your full recovery. Know it. When others look at your external symptoms and think you are getting worse and cannot keep it to themselves, you have to know that you are heading toward your full recovery, and you have to politely ignore them. That is called self-preservation on your path toward full recovery, and it is a critical component of this recovery. You can do it!
Your symptoms are a reflection of imbalances inside you. That is all. Your symptoms are on a path toward degeneration only if you help them go on that path. That is all.
There are three ways to help your symptoms along the path to degeneration:
1. Doing nothing. Doing nothing is still doing something. We all were doing nothing when we degenerated to the point where we went to see a neurologist.
2. Taking medications and doing nothing else. This is what your neurologist means when he or she tells you that Parkinson’s is a progressively degenerative disease for which there is no cure, and here are some medications that will not cure you.
3. Taking Parkinson’s-specific supplements, powders and formulas and doing nothing else. This is what your naturopath means when he or she tells you that Parkinson’s is a progressively degenerative disease for which there is no cure, and here are some Parkinson’s-specific supplements, powders and formulas that will not cure you.
Here’s the hard part. To get off of the path toward degeneration and on to the path toward full recovery, you have to do something more than the three above-listed things. The Recipe provides a whole lot of something to get you on the path toward full recovery and keep you there all the way to achieving your full recovery.
So, what is in your way…the flying monkeys. A couple of months ago, I wrote a post referring to The Wizard of Oz, but I did not say anything about the flying monkeys. For today’s discussion, we need to address the flying monkeys.
The scariest part of the Wizard of Oz for me as a youngster was not the Wicked Witch of the West…it was the flying monkeys. It did not matter what the other characters were doing, at any given moment, the flying monkeys could swoop down and wreak havoc. For me, they perpetuated an edge-of-my-seat anxiety throughout the movie. They were unpredictable and uncontrollable…just like your “monkey minds.”
The Buddha described the human mind as having the equivalent of a bunch of drunken monkeys clamoring out of control, with fear being the loudest, most continuously forceful monkey in the bunch. You all know this monkey. This is the monkey who looks at your symptoms and says, “Come on, why are you doing this Qigong and chanting and meditating and praying…weren’t you paying attention…there is nothing you can do about Parkinson’s…what’s this Recipe…who is this Howard guy…face the facts, you are heading toward the walker and the wheelchair.” However, that is nothing more than the loudest drunken monkey screaming fear into your head.
So, now comes your choice. Do you listen to the drunken monkey and run right into fear’s hands, or do you have faith and quiet the monkey and continue on your path toward full recovery? This “monkey mind” is what Socrates is talking about in Dan Millman’s Way of the Peaceful Warrior when he tells a young Dan, “Sometimes you have to lose your mind before you come to your senses.”
It is time to lose your mind and come to your senses; that is, lose your monkey mind. You need to break the habit of fear. That’s right, the habit of fear. The habit that any time a symptom changes in a way you do not understand, you think you are getting worse and then you fear the worst. That’s the habit of following the marching orders of a drunken monkey in your head. Come to your senses and create a better, more useful habit in your recovery.
How to quiet the monkey mind:
I am recovery.
I am doing Medical Qigong. I am recovery.
I am chanting. I am recovery.
I am Standing. I am recovery.
I am eating healthier foods. I am recovery.
I am doing Jin Shin Jyutsu. I am recovery.
I am doing near hand/far hand. I am recovery.
I am replacing negative habit thinking with positive habit thinking. I am recovery.
I am meditating. I am recovery.
I am praying. I am recovery.
I have nothing to be afraid of because I am on my path toward recovery doing the Recipe, the same Recipe that six people already have used to reach their full recovery. They did it and I am doing it. I am recovery.
For my mother, in the end, after two decades of heavy dosages of Parkinson’s medications and doing nothing else, she lost her mind…and it was not her monkey mind…it was her cognitive mind. There was no opportunity to come to her senses, and all the fears were realized…immobility, frozen face, loss of voice, wheelchair, Dementia, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s. You see, that is what I was afraid of…the known path. Nobody should have to be that way with this disease, not her, and not you.
So, please lose your monkey mind and your fears that are raging in your head, and please come to your senses while you still have your senses to come to. You need to do something. You have the Recipe at your fingertips…do not let it slip away. It took me to full recovery. It took Marie to full recovery. It took Pratima to full recovery. It took Betty to full recovery. It took Helen to full recovery. It took Tony to full recovery. It has taken hundreds of you to partial recovery and it can take you the rest of the way to full recovery. Do not let your monkey mind tell you otherwise.
You can do this.
You are worth it!!!
All my best,
Howard
Wonderful, Howard!!! Your support helps not to lose faith and give all of us gratitude and hope!! Your time-consuming advices and hard work for us we appriciate very much, thanks!!!
Howard I think this is the most direct hitting truth blog you have ever written. I hear you friend, powerful words. The drunken monkey has met his match, his days are numbered. 🙂 . Cheers Howard, you Rock.
Big love to all warriors. Margit how you doin? 🙂 Talk to me friend!
Karen xx
I am experiencing partial recovery.
And, it is nothing short of wonderful.
And, I am nothing less than forever grateful.
Love to you all.
Thank-you, Howard, my incredible friend.
Fantastic Judy! Oh well done you! xx
Fantastic news Judy. .. you all are such big motivation. Happy to know about you. 😊
The best post so far, brought me to tears, ty!
Thank you so much for everything, Howard! I appreciate you so much.
Deanna
Hi Howard and Warriors. I just wanted to share that this is a great post and please do persevere. I am happy to report that I am experiencing more partial recovery of my symptoms everyday so a big thank you to everyone.
Ĺove and blessings to all
Fantastic Waseema, you go girl ! xx
That’s a great news Waseema.. happy for you. . Keep it up.
Thank you, Howard, for your persistent encouragement. Every time your blog arrives here my heart gets excited. Thanks for keeping up your great work and not giving up on us!
Love
Christiane
Howard, Wonderful post!
I choose faith and I’m headed toward my full recovery. i gave my fear monkey an eviction notice.
Thank you and blessings to all
Thank you, Howard for this post, and for shining your light on the path of hope and recovery and showing us all that it was and is possible.
Like so many on this blog, I am eternally grateful. Thank you for offering a voice in my head that put down those flying monkeys …a voice that was more powerful than my fear and that showed me the way to my full recovery.
So true! I woke up with milder tremors than I once had and I did some Jin Shin Jitsu…instantly gone!
All God’s blessings upon everyone!
xoxox
Hi Howard this post is a gem in itself, very informative full of wisdom, hope and not giving up the fight I am so appreciative for what you are teaching us. Be Bless and your family members
Thanks Howard !! This came at the perfect time. The monkeys were quite busy.
Thank you Howard for your dedication to our wellbeing. You are like a guardian angel sitting on my shoulder nudging me every time the monkey mind tries to take over. There is a saying ‘ there comes a time when we have to choose to turn the page or close the book’. I choose to close the book and read another one that has a recipe in it. One grows tired of turning pages which doesn’t promise anything of value. I will continue to read your book Howard. Thank you for this no pull punches blog which we need from time to time.i believe there is always someone wiser than me in the room. So I listen to them. God bless you for your wisdom.
Love and blessings
Veronica 🌱🌺
Superb post Howard!
Thank you!
”who is this Howard guy” He is our sense of Hope that the medical
community says is hopeless. He is the most caring, loving, dedicated
person I know…………….Thanks Howard
Thanks Marie for your continuing support.
I couldn’t agree more with you Howard, those flying monkeys were not only scary they were also creepy! I remember watching them as a little boy and then running underneath my living room dining table. This is what fear does, it makes you run away to a safe place, it controls you, it tells you all the things you cannot do, it strips you from your life, your hopes, your dreams. And that’s exactly what PD does until that one day when I said enough is enough, and I got out of my pajamas and got dressed to face the monkeys. You see, you can’t fight fear underneath the dining room table. You have to let fear take you to places unknown so you can burn the witch and watch that fear melt away. Love to you, Howard, and all the Warriors!
Thank you Tony.
Thank you Howard for your such wonderful support and love. I am blessed to have you in this lifetime.
I am very happy to know about Judy and Waseema’s partial recovery phase… great going.
Thank you so much Tony and Marie for your encouraging words… It is huge support for us.
Tony I stick your comments on wall these days.
Big hug to you all
Gratitude
I am so much impressed your positive thinking and using only holistic method which brought light and very happiness with Parkinson’s free achievement. I am diagnosed with Parkinson’s and taking only Ayurvedic medicine and keeping positive attitude and need full support and help from Howard.
Thank you so much
Thank you so much Marie and Tony and of course Howard for reminding us warriors that we all have the power to heal ourselves. We love you!
I am refusing to be defined by my changing symptoms. I am not that. I am my recovery. Monkeys go away.
This is such an inspirational blog and I enjoy reading it. It gives me so much hope. I too am in partial recovery and didn’t realize it until I spoke with Howard and he directed me to an older blog on partial recovery. I’ve been doing the Recipe for almost a year and a half. All I can say is Thank God for Howard because I don’t know what kind of shape I would be in now had God not led me to his website. What a blessing! Over time, I’ve conquered fear, my issue now is patience. That’s harder for me.