When I wrote my previous post, “Fighting Parkinson’s, and surrendering the ego mind,” I was not anticipating a part 2. However, a lively conversation on Wednesday is the basis of today’s post with another explanation of surrendering the ego mind.
On a Wednesday morning coaching call, the questions from last week’s post were, “How do I know I will be having a full recovery?” and “Can you explain more about surrendering my ego mind?”
My response was the “knowing” looked like this: Look into the palm of your hand and say, “I know I will be having my full recovery one day in the future.” Then take that statement and throw it into the future. At that point you have sent your future full recovery out into the Universe and the Universe can start working on it. You do not have to think about it again.
The surrendering your ego mind at that point is not trying to control when your full recovery will occur. Instead, you surrender that to the God and you focus on “what you can control,” which is “What am I doing today to support my future recovery?” Since you are the soul, mind, and body healing of the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery®, you are doing what you can control to support your future recovery.
To say it mildly, the look back at me on the screen was one of still a bit of confusion. I paused for a moment and surrendered, “Okay God, she looks confused, and I could use a little help here. I am grateful.” And then, this is what occurred.
“Have you ever bought anything on Amazon?”
“Yes.” (It was the kind of “yes” that said, “Are you kidding. I am a human being on planet Earth, so of course I have bought something on Amazon.”)
“Have you ever gone to purchase something and it said that it was temporarily out of stock, but if you made the purchase, Amazon would send it to you when it was back in stock.”
“Yes.”
“Okay. So when you clicked the button and made the purchase, wasn’t that like saying, “I know I will be receiving my product one day in the future?”
“Yes.”
“So, essentially, you surrendered to the Amazon gods when you would be receiving your product, right?”
“Yes.”
“And what did you control?”
“Making the purchase.”
“I need to add in something here about the ego mind. Your ego mind does not want to surrender to the Amazon gods and wants to feel like it is in control, so it sends you to your Amazon account 20 times a day to look at the order status report to see if the product came in stock and if it has been sent to you.”
“After a bit of laughter, she said, ‘Oh, you know me.’”
“After a bit of laughter on my part, I said, “Of course, I used to have that mind.’”
Then I added, “Can we agree that checking the order 20 times a day does nothing to make the product get shipped quicker?”
“Yes.”
“Can we also agree that the only reason for checking the order is because your adrenaline-driven ego mind wants things faster than they are happening and somehow has convinced you that checking the order 20 times per day will make it get to you faster?”
“Yes.”
“This is why we need surrender. With surrender, you leave the ‘when the package will arrive’ to the Amazon gods, and you do not worry about it because you know it will happen one day. Instead, you focus on living your life every day. You resist the ego mind impulse to check the order status. Then one day in the future, there is a knock at the door, and you find a package from Amazon. You do not remember having ordered anything recently, and you wonder what is inside. You open the package, and there it is, exactly what you knew would arrive one day. Minus the Amazon box, this is how your recovery arrives. You know it will arrive one day, you surrender when that will happen, and you do what you can control each day while living your life in a healthy manner.”
Then her smile grew, and she said, “But Amazon sends me ‘track and trace’ so I know when the package is on the way.”
And I smiled right back and responded, “People tell me that every now and again they will ‘feel normal for 30 minutes’ or ‘wake up with no symptoms for 10 minutes’ or ‘have a moment of feeling like everything is peaceful.’”
“Yes, this happens to me, too.”
“That is God’s ‘track and trace,’ giving you a glimpse of your full recovery while letting you know it is on the way…keep doing the Recipe each day, the one thing you can control in your recovery. Your full recovery is out for delivery.”
So, to all of you, let’s do this together:
Look in the palm of your hand and say, “I know I will be having my full recovery one day in the future.” Then take that statement and throw it into the future.
Now say, “What am I doing today to support my future recovery?” “I am doing the Recipe.”
Let’s keep the momentum, “Will staring at my symptoms all day (checking the Amazon order status 20 times per day) do anything at all to make my full recovery arrive faster?” “NO!”
“Will staring at my symptoms all day do anything at all to disrupt my recovery by disrupting my daily life and interjecting fear based upon changing symptoms?” “YES!”
“It is time to surrender my ego mind and stop hurting myself each day by staring at my symptoms and giving myself unnecessary fear. I am too precious of a being to continue to hurt myself this way.”
“Instead, I am making a change. Today, I am throwing my full recovery into the future, I am controlling what I can control in my recovery (doing the Recipe), I am living my life to fullest with a smile on my face, and I am surrendering to God that my full recovery will arrive exactly when it is supposed to, on God’s schedule, not on my ego mind’s schedule.”
“I am my Parkinson’s cure and I KNOW IT!”
You are worth it!!!
All my best,
Howard
Ty so much Howard for this very relatable and practical post.
I’m going to look at my palm and believe that the universe has everything under control and release the ego mind.
It’s such a great and simple re-framing of focus.
God bless you
Paul
Dear Howard,
This is a most wonderful post!!!
Thank you so much for this clear, understandable information.
Love to all,
Sharon in North Carolina
Halleluya!!!!
I love it.
Thank you Howard
Dear Howard, a wonderful post, thank you very much.
You should write a book about your wonderful advices we
get through the last years, unique! Thank you!!
WOW!!
Thanks so much your posts are always so timely
Love – Sue
Thank you Howard beautiful analogy !!!
Love This Analogy!!!
I have been having moments of freedom and appreciating them.
Dustin
Nanaimo
A package of full wellness is on order for each of us and on its way!
I’ve been saying, “I’m getting stronger every day!” out loud to my family and myself and the universe multiple times every day. Days come when I have to remind us all that progress is not always linear. “Sometimes it may look like regression but it’s actually progress,” I say and carry on.
Thank you, Howard, for always being there with just the right message!
Wow you mean there are others who are “control freaks” like me (LOL). Howard, thank you for your post and for your honesty and willingness to challenge our ego minds. Whether I throw the belief into the future or allow it to float away in a pink bubble, the only role that I have is to do my part and trust God. If I stay in the Presence of the Spirit, I feel so much better, one day at a time.
In gratitude 🙏
Pamela
Loved the post thank you .. my palms have never done so much gathering and throwing .. hope we can collide with the stars and the universe that made us .. awesome power .. good travelling to fellow warriors .. j xx
Thank you for the inspired and inspiring post. I’ll take it from here. I’m ready for change.
Amen!
Having a fairly light case of Parkinson’s, I’ve been free to ponder the deeper question of will I ever get over the root cause of my PD?
Example: I’m a paperwork-phobe living in a country where any doctor’s visit can elicit a blizzard of paperwork between the provider, insurer and patient. My knee jerk reaction to this is to get real depressed – think Munch’s ‘The Scream.’
So when I look into my hand, I’m thinking, “One day all this mail will be dealt with and I’ll be more skilled at dealing with the subsequent incoming truckloads!” Meanwhile, there’s piddling around with the existing paperwork as best I can – and that’s good enough.
Of course I still do the recipe because I find it so useful both mentally and physically.
Thanks, Howard, for providing us with such wonderful tools for dealing with PD and its underlying causes.
Blessings to all,
Chris
I realized this morning that I might as well just throw my full recovery into the future because it includes both PD symptoms and the underlying causes. So here goes for my full recovery – ZIIIING!
– Chris
Thank you thank you thank you. I am going to throw away my ego mind.😊
OMGosh!! … What a gift to witness Surrender, Acceptance and Gratitude in action and how to squash the ego mind!!
When you write, “to say it mildly, the look back at me on the screen was one of still a bit of confusion. I paused for a moment and surrendered, Okay God, she looks confused, and I could use a little help here. I am grateful.” … and, then Amazon analogy was born!!! Brilliant and heartfelt!!!
LOVE IT and GOT IT!!! … apparently I need to hear the same stuff over and over before I can embrace it in my being, body and soul.
Thank you so much Howard for your vulnerability and thank you to our PD fellow traveller from your Wednesday morning coaching session!
I am ready to ditch my ego mind!! …. Well done me!! lol!!
Love to all
Ola
Thanks, Ola, for the exuberant response! My ego needs to be squashed too. It’s
squash or be squashed… I’d been feeling a little flat and squishy lately so it was great to see your perky attitude. I guess I need a little reminder sometimes too.
Keeping up the good fight in Wisconsin,
Chris
When you know a guest is coming, you clean up your house. So you practice recipe for when Mr. Recovery might come along.
Thank you for this post, Howard. I catch myself stressing that the healing must occur within a certain time frame — or by a certain date. I feel tremendous pressure with that thinking and have to remind myself to ease up and relax. “But the healing can’t happen soon enough, and i feel so vulnerable and sad that it hasn’t happened yet.” Yet the loving part of me says to take a breath – give it over to God and know it’ll happen in God’s time. I like your Amazon example very much – thanks for giving us another way of looking at it. My job is not in the how or when – my job is loving myself enough to allow it to happen. ❤️
Thank you dear Howard. This post is a lesson about faith and faith is like rain. At first it comes in drops but soon it will pour in torrents!
Byron Katie said in her program
There are three businesses: mine, yours, and God’s.
1. practice guidance your (Howard’s) business 😄
2. practicing living the day, my business 🙄💪
3. getting cured, God’s business 🙏