Last week when I wrote Fighting Parkinson’s, and change is always happening, I was not anticipating a part 2. However, a question in a comment and my response to the question catapulted me into today’s blog post.
Our fellow warrior Ruthann commented as follows:
“Ruthann says:March 2, 2021 at 9:35 pm
I find the variability in symptoms difficult to deal with. Does this happen to others?
One day you feel great: energetic, fluid, limber, coordinated. The next day you lack any energy, feel stiff, rigid, and are experiencing new symptoms. There seems no logical reason for the disparity in symptoms from one day to the next. I cannot tell what brings a great or bad day for symptoms.”
My response was:
”Howard says: March 3, 2021 at 7:28 am
Hi Ruthann,
You state, “There seems no logical reason for the disparity in symptoms from one day to the next. I cannot tell what brings a great or bad day for symptoms.” That is the whole point of acceptance, surrender, gratitude.
Acceptance. “I accept that symptoms will change for no logical reason.”
Surrender. “Nobody owes me an explanation why.”
Gratitude. “I am grateful for the healing that is causing the fluctuations in my symptoms.”
Free will. “I will take it from here and continue doing the Recipe. Thank you for my healing. I am grateful.”
Trying to discover a logical pattern for changing symptoms is trying to control what they are doing. Please know that you are doing the Recipe, so every day you are healing and are one step closer to your full recovery. Be grateful.
Parkinson’s symptoms arrive at the surface as diagnosable symptoms when energy is stagnant and deficient. Changing symptoms is proof that energy is moving and is alive and well for healing. Be grateful.
And…please let go of the notion that you have to control the outcome. Do your best efforts and know that your best is good enough for you to be blessed with the outcome you desire. Be grateful.
Love and blessings,
Howard”
Ultimately, it comes down to faith and letting go of control. Faith is saying, ”I know I am getting better, so it does not matter what my symptoms are doing because I am getting better.”
Letting go of control is saying, “The reason why I am trying to find a logical reason for why the symptoms are changing is because I want to know what to expect and then I can control the situation. I am accepting that changing symptoms is a good thing, always, and I am letting go of control. I am grateful.”
If you are doing the soul, mind, and body parts of the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery, then you are healing…always…and learning to tolerate the changes in the symptoms without fear and without trying to control the changes will carry you peacefully down the path to your full recovery.
Thank you Ruthann for the question. You have helped us all clarify a very important point on an often asked question.
Okay everybody, let’s chant together for the whole world to hear:
“2021…the year of faith.
I am feeling alive in the heart.
I am feeling awake in the heart.
I am feeling aware in the heart.
I am so much more than Parkinson’s symptoms.
I am a beautiful soul.
I am special simply because I exist.
I am slowing, halting, and reversing my Parkinson’s.
I am recovery.
I AM WORTH IT!!!”
Yes you are! Each and every one of you is worth it!!!
All my best,
Howard
Thank you Howard and everyone for your feedback and comments as I
find them very helpful! Now at 3 months into my recovery and I’m finding I have more energy! Left arm still shakes when I over think or my adrenaline is pumping but my speech is better in short bursts. Love to everyone and a big thank you Rick from Australia
I am so grateful to read this blog. I have been dealing with the same thing. One day I feel really great and the next day I am really struggling. It helps me to know this is not unusual. It helped my husband to read it, as well. Thank you, Howard for keeping this roller coaster ride in the positive direction. Your words and encouragement keep us all on the path to healing.
Thank you, Ruthann for sharing.
Bless you.
I am 18 months in to the Recipe and there is nothing better in the morning, afternoon and evening! My life is changing a lot to the better. Occasionally I can feel the taste of my full recovery. Thank you all!
As the saying goes, ‘Faith is the bird that feels the light and sings while the dawn is still dark’. Love to all. Keep going x
I call it hitting a wall. All it takes is two or three minutes and I go from being mobile to feeling stuck to the floor.
Hi Patricia,
Please take a look at this post from a couple of weeks ago. It offers a suggestion for feet stuck to the floor, https://www.fightingparkinsonsdrugfree.com/2021/02/18/fighting-parkinsons-and-increased-symptoms-and-being-excited/.
Love and blessings,
Howard
Thank you Howard,
For me when I get new symptoms, I try to keep a positive attitude about them and I know they’re only temporary.
Count me in on that up and down feeling in the journey back to balance. But I do feel the energy moving. The rhythm of the recipe is working. These blogs and everyone’s comments make my faith stronger and every now and then I know what recovery tastes like too!
In my darkest moments I often turn to Emily Dickinson’s poem
Hope is the thing with feathers….I hope that it helps others who struggle with both faith and fear
“Hope” is the thing with feathers –
That perches in the soul-
And sings the tune without the words-
And never stops-at all-
And sweetest -in the Gale-is heard-
And sore must be the storm-
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm-
I’ve heard it in the chillest land-
And on the strangest Sea-
Yet-never- in Extremity,
It asked a crumb-of me.
Wow, some of you guys actually have fluctuations in how you feel? Cool!!
Love to all,
Stagnant Old Chris
Love the affirmations .
Thank you Howard so much.
Best wishes to all
Alison
Like Ruthann, I experience variability in symptoms as well. Invariably, whenever I think something is getting better, it gets worse. And this better/worse pattern continues for some time before there is a turning point. The best way I can explain it is that it’s a process. Howard’s ‘acceptance, surrender, gratitude’ formula can be hard to embrace in the face of repeated setbacks but those three things comprise the process and I’m sticking with it in the hope and expectation of ultimate recovery. It takes a long time to heal. I lost my sense of smell in 2006 and wasn’t diagnosed with Parkinson’s until 2015. A disease all those years in the making can’t be undone in a moment. Thank God for Howard and his Recipe. I would never have come up with a plan on my own.
Thank you again Howard for helping keep my fears away. Keep the faith folks. I am really enjoying doing the recipe and I am grateful that I found Howard after several nightmare months. Slow and steady wins the race.
Like someone said the other day: we need to embrace what is not so pleasant with what is without expectations but knowing that healing is occurring at a deeper level. Haola.
Thank you Ruthann for raising the question, and thank you Howard for your powerful remedy of ‘acceptance, surrender and gratitude.’
I used to be hypervigilant and attached to my PD symptoms … and I still can be if I allow my mind to take my moment/day over! When I am mindfully practicing acceptance, surrender and gratitude, for the moment I am not even aware if I have my symptoms, then the mind drives me again and I am back being extremely sensitive to my symptoms. I am practicing not to ask why and instead just be grateful that because of my symptoms I am changing and discovering simple joys of life and love!!
I am Worth It!!!
We are Worth It!!! … and we are all closer to be free of PD!!!
Much Love,
Ola
Kevin, thank you for capturing something I have been experiencing but not seeing it. I feel so good doing the recipe and meditating. It is peace I feel and I did not realize it. Thank you. Karen from Wisconsin
Thank you Howard. Ruthann is not alone in her questioning of the change of symptoms. Beginning to accept is the first step to quiet the mind. Surrendering and being grateful redirects the mind to positive thoughts with Faith. It is not always easy, but the reward is peace regardless of the outward symptoms. It sounds almost mystical, but hey, life can be a mystery. I am grateful Howard can be a guide through this part of our journeys.
Almost mystical? I think you’re on to something, Kevin!
Best regards,
Chris
Respected Howard sir,
The 3 pearls given by you are surrender, acceptance and gratitude. When I am at low position of my PD symptoms, I try to practice surrender and acceptance. It requires a lot of efforts. When I am at a normal position, I practice gratitude. It helps to keep going with the recipe. It feels great to connect with fellow warriors and share experiences. Thanks for providing the common platform. Regards, Mona.
Thank you Howard for helping all the warriors keep their spirits high!
Acceptance Surrender and Gratitude is the master key to Final Recovery in my opinion. Practicing it leads to freedom from up and down of symptoms and brings to a steady smooth Recovery Phase. PD symptoms mainly controlled and governed by by mind, creating obstacles to Recovery.
Practicing Acceptance Surrender and Gratitude just cools, calms and quiets mind totally, opening doors to full Recovery.
This is what I believe experience under HOWARD’S coaching
WITH MUCH LOVE AND APPRECIATION AND GRATITUDE TO HOWARD AND OUR LOVELY COMMUNITY
MAYANK PATEL
I similarly have experienced the high and low of the symptoms, but my FAITH in the Recovery Exercises keeps me going. It is also the Acceptance, Surrender and Gratitude that driving me towards recovery.
Thank you for the question and Howard for providing the positive response.