For the last few weeks, I have been nudging you toward a new outlook in life…hope, faith, plus action…being guided by your heart. I have been nudging you toward seeing things from a positive perspective instead of a negative perspective, and not just seeing some things this way, but seeing everything this way. Today is the next installment of seeing your life through positive eyes…it encompasses a look at abundant gratitude.
Gratitude was a big part of my recovery, and it remains a big part of my daily life. Ultimately in my recovery, I became so grateful for the daily opportunity to be alive with my soul in a human body (even one with Parkinson’s), that the Parkinson’s simply did not matter. I have expressed that it was like my mind and body watched as my soul got on the train and left the station. Eventually, my mind and body had to jump on board.
Some people struggle with looking at their present life with Parkinson’s and feeling gratitude. Here is a new way to look at the situation and to fill yourself with abundant gratitude.
If you can think back to a happy or joyful event in life, get a clear picture of it, and then give gratitude for having had that joyful event take place in your life, something in your brain captures the event, finds it inside you, and releases dopamine as if you were experiencing the joyful event in the present moment.
Since I have been told over the years that many people have difficulty with visualization, I have modified this form of gratitude as follows:
Get out an old photo album, or go to a digital photo album on your computer. Most of the time, the pictures depict happy occasions (birthdays, anniversaries, vacations, graduations, nature). Find a picture where you have a clear memory of the joyful event. Then, give gratitude for the event. Do this repeatedly, picture after picture after picture…day after day after day.
Do what feels right, a certain number of pictures, a certain amount of time. It does not matter. What matters is that you are taking action and that you keep doing it. Why? It is your dopamine flowing on a regular basis again that will help bring you to your full recovery.
It is not a competition or a race. It is a way to reflect on life and give abundant gratitude. Most of the time in life when wonderful things are happening, we just enjoy the moment. This new gratitude practice is a way to go back to so many enjoyable moments, stop and reflect on the joyfulness of the moment, and then give gratitude for having had that moment in your life.
You now have something simple to do that can have overwhelmingly positive results in releasing your dopamine and enhancing your recovery.
I am abundantly grateful for all of you.
You can do this!
You are worth it!!!
All my best,
Howard
ps Happy Birthday, Sally! I love you, and I am abundantly grateful for you!!!
Hi Howard, lovely post. I am grateful for the gift of your words of wisdom each week. Thank you thank you thank you for being you. Big love to my fellow bull, I can’t believe I’m 54 on Sunday. I thought I would be well healed at this stage, I was diagnosed at 47. Please God it will take a hike this year 🙂
Big love to all warriors.
Karen xx
Hi Karen, God bless you and may you have many more birthdays to celebrate! Happy Birthday!!!
Have a Very Happy Birthday Karen! You’re just a Spring Chicken! I’d love to be 50 anything again haha 😁
Berni x
You are almost there, Karen! You can do this! Happy birthday, Karen, and I am confident that you will have many good healthy and strong birthdays!
Karen xxx
Hi Karen wishing you a very happy birthday!!
Hi Howard , Yes yes and YES! In Hawaii, there is a system of healing called Ho’oponopono — be grateful if you can figure out how to say it — and even more grateful if you can remember how to spell it! ( Ha ha ) but gratitude is a big component. So, being a systems analysis person, I wanted to know, what IS gratitude. Like what is gratitude from an energy standpoint. And what I thought about was that gratitude is like the back end of the arrow on the compass, which is touching west, when you are looking east. Gratitude lines us up with our feelings, about where we want to go in the future, not just why we feel stable and safe in the present, it has a huge component of being a guide line into the future – When you find something in the past, that touches your heart in the present, it is also where you want to go into the future. So, like, when you face something that is troublesome, with gratitude, such as my painful feet right now, the only thing I could find gratitude for, was that I would truly understand how another person who stands on their feet all day, would feel. And that connection of compassion, is something ( the only thing ! ) that I could feel gratitude for. Yet, its pointing me to exactly where I want to go, which is to be a person who can help others carry their problems. You are such a person, and your efforts here in this struggle against a disease called Parkinson’s, are wonderful…Keep up the good work!
Hi Jennifer, I like your compass analogy! And got a good laugh trying to pronounce Ho’oponopono!
Thanks!
Hi everybody. Aren’t we all Grateful for this blog??
I often think of being grateful as connected to things that are given out of the blue.
Like when I was struggling with Parkinson’s symptoms, and found Howard on the Internet!
How magical. That is a HUGE GRATITUDE that keeps on giving!!!
From Howard, I learned the importance of Gratitude and it was an big component of my recovery, shifting from focusing on what is wrong to focusing on what is right just as it is.
Not denying what is difficult and challenging, but making room also for genuinely feeling really good about all the things that are fine and even wonderful as they are.
I learned to find things to be grateful for, and then to stay with that feeling and let it really sink in, let it permeate my cells.
Now I can find reasons to be grateful in any just about any moment when I pay attention. Grateful for the smell of a peony.
Grateful for the rich taste of my coffee. Grateful for the way the light comes streaming into my living room.
I weave little gratitudes throughout the fabric of my day.
Your last sentence is golden! Thanking God for you, Marie, and your continued encouragement ❤️
💕💕💐💐thank you for that Marie
Dear Sally,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY, dear Sally 🎂🎈🎉and all the best together with your Love Howard🌹
Howard, what a wonderful idea with the pictures and the gratitude, we soon start with it!!! Thank you!!
Hi Howard
Tell Sally, Happy birthday from Stacie and I
Great post!
Negativity seems to be everywhere, but I’m Learning that a grateful attitude can override negatively
I’ve been looking at pictures playing on my iPad, for about two weeks and it really helps. Seeing myself playing my bass guitar, making balloon animals for kids,, holding my grand baby’s, seeing my beautiful wife,,, makes me smile! I can also feel The energy from the pictures
I’m also learning to laugh again !
I’ve been learning clean jokes from Joel Osteen and telling people
I also bought/wear a red clown nose from Red Nose Day
Which raises awareness and funds to help children in need. People laugh when They see you wearing a clown nose, which makes me laugh which releases dopamine.
Praise report: this week i’ve had some moments of walking better and moving the Computer mouse with my right hand , I was so grateful I kissed my right hand
I am very grateful for this blog and all you warriors
Love and blessings
Thank you for your birthday wishes! I spent the day with Howard and our daughter from Maryland. It was very special indeed. I was grateful for the love of my family and being part of this courageous Parkinson community. Best wishes for a spectacular birthday Karen!
Happy Birthday Sally. There’s no better gift than spending time with your family.
Berni x
Hi All,
Our friend and fellow warrior Tom from Ohio sent this gratitude video to me for all of us to absorb and enjoy. Thank you, Tom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpkEvBtyL7M&sns=em
Love, blessings, and ABUNDANT GRATITUDE to all of you!
Howard
Beautiful! Thank you for that Howard and Tom of course.
Berni x
Thank you Tom, beautiful, just what the doctor ordered. I didn’t miss the little girl playing hopscotch. 🙂 xx
Thanks, Howard! In my eyes, you are a genius! Thanks for the gratitude video.
Happy birthday, Sally! I thank you for your wonderful work on diet, all the support, and everything else that you have given to further this cause.
Thanks to each person for their beautiful and most welcomed responses.
Today, even before I read this fabulous blog and the caring responses, I was looking over my life to see if I could find any remaining negative-whatever. I believe that I stepped back from the last remaining toxicity that lingered in my life. I don’t believe there is more; however, I am asking our Great Supreme Creator God to look me over and to gently show me if there is more.
Today, I am grateful for my husband, Don, and everything else that I have. I am grateful for each person here. I am grateful that my body sends me a signal so if I get too excited or if I give too much place to something I can back off. I am grateful that the symptoms are farther and farther apart and that they become less and less intense when one does occur. I am grateful that instead of the symptom going on all day and longer that it quickly settles down. I am also grateful that on the 31st I will be 67. It is a privilege to live on this beautiful earth for this long when some people do not get this much time. I am grateful to know that all of our bodies are capable of self-healing. I am grateful for this wonderful solution.
Love and hugs to each person.
Karen
xx
I do believe attitude is everything. IT is not what happens to you , it is how you respond to what happens to you. I was diagnosed with Parkinsonism over 5 years ago and am so grateful for all the good times since the diagnosis. I [have continued to do everything I always did except play tennis and will be 83 years old in June. I believe that living in the Dominican Republic has helped me because I see on a daily basis how the wonderful people here handle their difficulties with grace and a positive attitude. I have learned a great deal from them.
Beautiful Phyllis
Happy Birthday Sally!!!!
May you and Howard both enjoy eternal peace, happiness and prosperity.
Cap
Hi all, thank you for all the birthday wishes.
Loving all the wisdom in this weeks posts.
Big love to all warriors old and new.
Karen xx
Hi Howard
I would like to give gratitude for your Survival Guide . I have had 2 shocking days barely able to function and struggling to physically perform the Qigong or Brain Chanting and was beginning to despair. The Survival Guide helped me refocus particularly the section about Fear so thank you so much. I got ‘ back into the groove ‘ today and feel positive again. Also feeling the connection to the rest of the Community is a wonderful scource of support so I am grateful to all of you
Berni x
Glad you got through it Berni. Must be in the water lol I had a few horrific days but mine was all emotional. First birthday since my mom passed away in November and hit me really hard which OFCOURSE sent my symptoms into orbit. Hey ho, back to usual again and Toms video helped me refocus again.xx