In my previous blog post, I talked about acceptance, surrender, and gratitude. At the end of that post I explained that I would be providing real life examples of how we engage in acceptance, surrender, and gratitude in our every day life to be in the flow of life.
Here is the main concepts from the last blog post:
Acceptance. Surrender. Gratitude.
1. Acceptance. I accept what is happening in my life. God’s will.
2. Surrender. I surrender. Nobody owes me an explanation why whatever is happening in my life actually is happening. God’s will.
3. Gratitude. I am grateful for my life, so I am grateful for what is happening in my life. God’s will.
Combination of the three. “Thank you, God. I am grateful for my life, so I am grateful for what is happening in my life. I will take it from here.” Your free will. You decide what to do next, what solution is needed if any, where to take it from here.
Okay, let’s put this into a real life scenario. Let’s say COVID-19 is over and things have gone back to the availability of getting together with your friends at your home. And, it is your birthday.
You invite ten friends to your home, and even though the invitation said to not bring gifts, each one of your ten friends brings you a gift. At some point in the party, one of your friends says, ”Oh, wouldn’t it be great if you opened up all of the presents now.”
You sit down in the chair and someone puts the first gift in your lap, you open up the box, look inside and love what you got. You look at the person and thank them. Someone puts the second gift in your lap, you open up the box, look inside, and love what you got. You look at the person and thank them.
Someone puts the third gift in your lap, you open the box, look inside, and love what you got. You look at the person and thank them. Someone puts the fourth gift in your lap, you open the box, look inside, and you do not like what you see.
Your mind says, “I do not like this gift. Why would anybody get this for me?“ However, instead of saying this to the person, you look at the person and thank them.
Acceptance. You did not like the gift but you accepted what had been put in your lap. God’s will.
Surrender. Even though you did not like the gift, you did not question the person as to why they gave it to you. God’s will.
Gratitude. You thank the person for the gift you did not like. God’s will.
After the party, you get to choose what you will do with the gift that you did not want. Your free will.
When you exercise your free well, you can choose to exchange the gift, you can choose to re-gift it to somebody who you think might like the gift, or you can decide to take the gift and donate it to a charity such as the Salvation Army.
Let’s say you take the last choice and head over to the Salvation Army to make the donation. You go in, hand the gift to the clerk, and you explain that it is brand new in the box but just not something that you want, and you are making a donation.
As you are leaving the Salvation Army, you hear from behind you somebody very excitedly exclaiming, “I can’t believe this is here at such an incredibly low price. I have been wanting this for years, but I simply could not afford it, and now I can afford it. I am so grateful.”
At that moment, you turn around and you see that all of the excitement is over the gift that you just placed on the counter as a donation. And you feel joyful!
As you can see, when you live your life following the concept of acceptance, surrender, and gratitude, you put yourself in the flow of life. What you thought was the worst gift became a cherished treasure for another human being, bringing both of you joy.
In my recovery, when I was doing the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery®, as part of my spiritual healing, I learned to start to live my life with acceptance, surrender, and gratitude. What I realized about myself was that one of the things that helped me get Parkinson’s was that I was out of balance and not living my life in the flow of what was being offered in my life.
Ultimately, this came down to the understanding that my lack of acceptance was creating resistance with what God was offering me in my life. Essentially, lack of acceptance was the functional equivalent of trying to impose my will over God’s will if something occurred that my mind told me I did not like.
When I finally realized that everything that had occurred and was occurring in my life was nothing more than the flow of my life, I was able to willingly and joyfully accept, surrender, and be grateful for everything that was occurring in my life. I removed the duality of good/bad, right/wrong, favorable/unfavorable, like/don’t like, etc.
I decided to look at everything in life as “just what is.“ This attitude brought balance back into my life because it put me squarely into the flow of life as life was rolling out in front of me in the moment.
And Parkinson’s? It turned out to be the best gift wrapped in the worst looking paper. However, through the experience of Parkinson’s I was able to re-balance my life, return to the natural flow of life, and be cured.
I am forever grateful for the experience and for being cured. Additionally, I am grateful for our world-wide community of warriors holding hands, supporting each other with kind words, all working hard to re-balance your lives, to return to your natural flow of life, and be cured as well.
2021…the year of faith!
FAITH!
Feeling Alive In The Heart!
Feeling Awake In The Heart!
Feeling Aware In The Heart!
With acceptance, surrender, and gratitude, you can choose to be in the natural flow of your life.
You can do this.
You are worth it!!!
All my best,
Howard
Middle of the night here in UK and I have just read your post. Howard, your analogy of acceptance, surrender and gratitude is brilliant – so clear and easy to understand and so true! Bringing it all together in this way gives such a clarity. Thank you so much – because you have walked the walk you know exactly how it is. God bless you.
Love Cynthia x
Thank you Howard for the lovely message. Having Parkinson’s has been very humbling for me and has bought me back down to earth. Two months into my recipe now and getting closer to my recovery! Yahoo, can’t stop smiling 😀😀😀 Also, thank you for everyone’s messages. It’s very encouraging. Love to everyone.
Keep up the good job Rick! I am only a few weeks ahead of you. Not every day is good, but every day has good in it. With Howard’s help we will get back to where we belong.
Dear Howard
What a unique explanation!! This is such a big help to go forward with your clear words!! Your wisdom is fantastic to support us in a way we can understand, thank you!!
Thank you Howard!
Excellent post! We have always been encouraged to “go with the flow!” but as a person with Parkinson’s (PWP) I think I chose not to go with flow so very often. Here I am in recovery re-learning how to live my life going with the flow and not being so hard on myself and those around me. What a sweet relief and surrender ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!
I am very grateful xoxox
We can do this!
I don’t get it. At what point is it God’s will and at what point is it my free will? How do I donate Parkinson’s (to the salvation army)? I do get to stop asking why. That’s very helpful. But I don’t get at what point I decide what to do next versus acceptance. ♥️
Hi Lynn,
If something arrives in your life, whether expected or not, that is God’s will. What you decide to do with whatever arrives in your life, that is your free will.
Love and blessings,
Howard
Hi Howard, such a great post. I think I love your analogy posts the best as they are so cleverly thought out, you have a gift. My favourite is the iceberg, but this one now is a contender for the title. 😃. When you were in the charity shop I was thinking “oh no, he’s going to bump into the unwanted present giver,“ 😊 and that shows how well you painted the picture Howard (AND we could equally say that Karen imagines the worst scenario lol ). You Rock Howard.
Big love to you and all the warriors.
Karen xx 💕
Thank you so much Howard!
Very vivid example of acceptance, surrender and gratitude. I have very clear images in my heart!!
The last few days physically were very difficult and my ego mind is trying to get to my authentic self and convinced me that I am getting worse! The more I fight by accepting, surrendering, being grateful, practicing self loving and knowing that I am the special person, and I am worth it, the more my body is acting out!!! But with your help and help of all PD warriors, I have loads of hope and I am staying strong!
Much love and thanks to all,
Ola
Thank you Howard! Just like Forest Gump’s mother, you explain things so that I can understand them. 🙂
Your explanations are such a big help in regaining balance in our lives so that going with the flow (and living in the moment) can become natural again. Here’s to FAITH!
My GAS limerick (Gratitude, Acceptance, Surrender)
It’s the energy my soul runs on!
Sorry my UK friends, petrol just wouldn’t cut it…
GAS
All my problems now have my acceptance.
I work with them, surrender resistance.
For I now see they be,
A needed part of me,
And give gratitude for their existance!
Thanks, Howard, for the wonderful story about presence!
Love and blessings to all,
Chris
I love it Chris-very cute and true!
Beautiful Chris. You are definitely going with the flow…
Thank you Howard. Just starting my 3rd month of the recipe. Also extra qi gong like healing sounds, lachi, lift qi up pour qi down. 3 hrs daily. 5 weeks since I stopped the meds. I have faith with your help.
Ray
Great job explaining it so well, even though I need to work on the concept of gratitude, I’m trying to put my anger aside when my symptoms worsen thru out the day. In the end I know that gratitude will prevail because all and all I feel like I am improving. Thank you again for everything you do.
My beloved Howard
I loved the post, it’s so effective and works like miracle. It has power to just cool down all the anger, frustration, worries, stress and life becomes very much easier happy and joyful.
THANK YOU SO MUCH
WITH MUCH LOVE 💘
Mayank
I love your worldview Howard. I found that I am committed to this path of acknowledging the positives this journey has brought me… and there are many.
Thank you dear friend
A fantastic message on acceptance, surrender, and gratitude and the message “go with the flow!”
In the recent months, I have been struggling with acceptance of the condition but with this message I have to re-learn how to live my life going with the flow and not being so hard on myself.
Thank you for having faith in us.
Wonderful! Thank you so much Howard for giving us a great example of this concept. I have been struggling with understanding the acceptance and surrender. This is very helpful to me to put it in practical terms. You are the best!
Marie in S.C.
Beautiful Howard. I’m going with the flow here too. My life is more balanced and I’m grateful for every moment and Hello! my symptoms are down. Tough to get to the “Thank God for PD” mind set, but I’m getting there thanks to you and others. I can say that PD has truly blessed me.
You are all commendable on this journey. I’m glad we can go it together.
Love and blessings to everyone,
Bob