As we head into the end of the year and the joyous holiday season, I want to provide you with more tools for repairing your Parkinson’s, which I see as a symptom of a life out of balance…physically, mentally, and spiritually.
Today, I am re-posting my explanation of how Parkinson’s is a symptom of a life out of balance, and the subsequent posts until the end of the year will provide additional tools to enhance the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery® as it leads you on your journey of recovery…from your Parkinson’s and in your life.
From Fighting Parkinson’s, and tremors three years ago (originally posted on September 21, 2012):
“Three years ago today {September 21, 2009}, I got my final wake up call, my body’s final notification to make me sit up and take notice that there was something dreadfully wrong with me…tremors. As I pointed out recently, for the previous 7 or 8 months, I had received polite, and not-so-polite, notifications that my physical body was falling into disrepair. I chose to ignore these. Tremors got my attention. I have discussed that the symptoms are not the problem, but instead, they are the messages that there is a problem, so we have to look behind them as to why we have them. This morning I realized that Parkinson’s is a symptom…a message that says, “your life is out of balance.”
Parkinson’s…the symptom reflecting a life out of balance. Physically, you are off balance. You move slowly and cautiously, often looking down instead of forward. What does that do? It puts your body in a posture that makes it virtually impossible to walk balanced. Your neck is bent, your spine is bent, the fluid in your semicircular canals is moved, and your visual frame of reference (important for balance) is your legs or the floor, and you acquire what is often referred to as a Parkinson’s gait. Mentally, you then become off balance because you are afraid of falling or freezing, and you are afraid of the future with Parkinson’s. This is right where Parkinson’s wants you…not living in the moment, but instead living in the past (getting Parkinson’s) and being fearful of the future (life with long-term Parkinson’s). Spiritually, you give up hope that you ever will get better. At that point Parkinson’s is winning.
Essentially, when you stare at your legs and feel unbalanced, you are looking at the past. When you feel unbalanced, you fear the future. How can you move forward in life in a balanced manner if you are staring backwards and it makes you fearful of where you are going? Faith.
Faith in yourself that you are the cure to Parkinson’s, and that you can see your recovery through to the end. Yes, that carries a lot of responsibility, but you have help. You have the Recipe for Recovery. The Recipe for Recovery is your road map to bring your soul, mind, and body back into balance.
Over time in my recovery, I came to see Parkinson’s as a grand opportunity to fix the things in my life that had gone out of balance. The Recipe provided me with the physical tools to re-balance my body, the mental tools to calm my mind and re-balance my emotions, and the spiritual tools to re-balance my soul and find again the essence of who I am.
Am I grateful for having had Parkinson’s? Yes. Through that bump in the road in a life already out of balance, Parkinson’s stood as a bump at a fork in the road leaving me two choices: 1. Fix the imbalances in my life and it would go away; and 2. Do not fix the imbalances in my life and it would stay with me forever. I chose the road less traveled, I had no plan B, and every day I did the Recipe for Recovery to find balance in my life. And every day that I awoke with Parkinson’s still there, it was a reminder I still had more work to do.
However, in the end, when I awoke on June 12, 2010 with no Parkinson’s, I knew it was not coming back — I had re-balanced my soul, mind, and body, and I no longer needed the message or symptoms known as Parkinson’s as a reminder that I had more work to do.
I was finished with that part of my life, and I am grateful for that as well.”
Here we are, over eleven years since those tremors appeared, and ten and a half years since my symptoms left and the realization of being cured came to fruition. Thank you, God. I am grateful!
You can do this, too. I know you can. Grab onto the Recipe with a full faith and confidence, and fearlessly continue down this path to your cure.
You are worth it!!!
All my best,
Howard
Gradually getting back into the fold after a difficult 2020- still working on the guidance from Howard and reminding myself that PD wants to keep me locked into FEAR – it wont win however hard it tries to tipple us from our healing journey! Love and peace from Jan UK
Thanks so much Howard, as usual, very timely post. I am continuing the fight against Parkinson’s and am so grateful for the road map that you have given all of us! As you point out, it is the body, mind and soul we are working on. I am working very hard to keep the faith at all times. When the doubts creep in, we have to push them away!
Happy Holidays to all my fellow warriors, never give up! The only one who can defeat you is you!
Oh yes, our bodies do let us know when things are not going well and vice versa! The key is paying attention to those little and big cues and gratefully using the Recipe to bring us back into balance! I’m so grateful for having the gift of the Recipe and the opportunity to work on getting back into balance!
That part of our over active mind that gave us Parkinson’s in the first place would love nothing better than for us to forget about the comprehensive nature of the Recipe! The Recipe obliges us to say, ‘bye bye (said with falsetto)’ to fear, anguish and suffering, and become a permanent joy to ourselves and others.
That’s one heck of a deal! It’s enough to get my attention right now and every now…
Thanks, Howard, for this reminder.
With love and appreciation for all the wise souls I read on this blog every week,
Chris
Howard, how blessed we all are to have your help. Thank you for the Recipe, the “road map to bring your soul, mind, and body back into balance.”
Sharon in North Carolina
Howard, you have no idea how much reading your writing helps me overcome my fears. Whenever I feel down, I go back and read your postings and recipe book and I feel a lift in my spirit. Thank you for being there, sir.
Dear Howard, without you and your special advices we could not live our life as it is… even with the up and downs it is better than staying in a home filled with medis… we are very, very thankful to have met you in our life to be still at home around with good friends, thank you very much🙏🙏
My life is out of balance physically, mentally, and spiritually but with your Recipe for Recovery together with your support and blogs, I will continue to fight Parkinson’s with full faith, commitment and with confidence.
The Recipe will bring the soul, mind and body back into balance and Recovery.
Thanks Howard. I chose faith. It keeps my joy up. Or maybe it’s the other way around. Faith and joy seem to go together. I’m blessed to have found them through doing the recipe. It’s a commitment I’ve made to myself. To get my life, my whole self back into balance.
Bless you for blazing this trail and for teaching us how to navigate the road less traveled. It brings me joy to travel with you and the other courageous souls who are on the journey. I am grateful to be healing in such good company.
Thank you for your support, advice and reminders like believing and having faith. When I am having a bad day from tremors I remind myself that this is a temporary condition and it will only get better from here. Between your recipe for recovery, your coaching and your blogs I am progressing on healing myself. The comments on your blogs makes me feel like I am not alone here and that is a good feeling.
Happy Holiday!