Okay everybody, here we go! For the last two weeks, you have been fighting your mind and your fear regarding your symptoms and many people’s minds have fought them back vigorously. Thank you all for your continued persistence in fighting against your own minds and your own fears.
Please know this: Your symptoms are not the problem, and your fear is not real.
I am taking the opportunity today to draw back into a discussion from years ago about your attitude about your symptoms. Since you now are fighting back against your fearful mind, it is critically important that your attitude about your symptoms remains resolute.
For today’s discussion, here is a quote from Jack Sparrow, that is, Captain Jack Sparrow from the Disney movie series Pirates of the Caribbean: “The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem. Do you understand?”
I would imagine that Johnny Depp (Captain Jack Sparrow) had no idea he was talking about Parkinson’s recovery. I will paraphrase so you will understand my point better:
“The problem is not your Parkinson’s symptoms. The problem is your fearful attitude about your Parkinson’s symptoms. Do you understand?”
Your symptoms are happening. Your fearful attitude about what they mean can dramatically change your recovery. If you can view your symptoms with a positive attitude from your heart instead of a negative attitude from your fearful mind, then you have the greatest opportunity to move forward in your Parkinson’s recovery.
Here are some examples of how a shift in attitude changes your recovery.
Event: An increase in tremors while doing the Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery®.
Mind: Oh no, I am getting worse. Better stop the Recipe and look for something else.
Heart: Excellent, I am getting better. I am generating more internal electrical impulses and they temporarily cause me to tremor more while they are opening blockages in my system.
Event: An increase in stiffness while doing the Recipe.
Mind: Oh no, I am getting worse. Better stop the Recipe and look for something else.
Heart: Excellent, I am getting better. I am generating more internal electrical impulses and they temporarily are shocking the muscles more as they look to open new energy passageways, causing me a little more stiffness in my system.
Event: An increase in slowness while doing the Recipe.
Mind: Oh no, I am getting worse. Better stop the Recipe and look for something else.
Heart: Excellent, I am getting better. I am generating more internal electrical impulses and they temporarily are shocking the muscles more as they look to open new energy passageways, causing me a little more stiffness in my system, and this stiffness is making me move slower.
Attitude, attitude, attitude.
The mind views an increase in a symptom as “getting worse, only getting worse.” The mind follows the current medical model for Parkinson’s, you will be “getting worse, only getting worse.” With your mind’s fearful attitude following the “only getting worse” medical model, your Parkinson’s symptoms get worse because your mind is filled with fear, anxiety, worry, anger, frustration, and stress…all of the things that helped bring your Parkinson’s symptoms to the surface in the first place. If you stay in your fearful mind, you defeat your own recovery because an attitude filled with this outlook and these emotions feeds the Parkinson’s symptoms and ultimately makes you stop doing the Recipe and quit your recovery.
The fearless heart views an increase in a symptoms as “progress in recovery, everything is progress in recovery.” The fearless heart follows the Recipe’s model for Parkinson’s, if you are doing the Recipe you are making “progress in recovery, everything is progress in recovery.” With your heart’s attitude following the “everything is progress in recovery” Recipe model, your Parkinson’s symptoms eventually get better because your heart is filled with faith, hope, love, joy, happiness, gratitude, contentment, vulnerability, and forgiveness…all of the things that get your dopamine flowing and rid you of your Parkinson’s symptoms. If you stay in your fearless heart, you enhance your recovery because an attitude filled with this outlook and these emotions keeps you doing the Recipe and ultimately defeats the Parkinson’s and leads to your full recovery.
Attitude, attitude, attitude.
I will finish with another quote, one I have mentioned before. This time from Socrates in Dan Millman’s Way of the Peaceful Warrior: “Sometimes you have to lose your mind before you come to your senses.”
Please remember, your fearful mind is filled with other people’s opinions. To lose your mind, you do not have to fight it. Instead, you may choose to summarily dismiss your mind: “Thank you for your opinion.”
Lose your mind:
“Thank you for your opinion. I am getting better.”
“Thank you for your opinion. I am already better.”
“Thank you for your opinion. This is side effects and withdrawal symptoms I am experiencing.”
Lose you mind…find your heart…have your full recovery.
You are worth it!!!
All my best,
Howard
Clocks are synchronized to the right time for holistic healing.
Dear Howard, Thank You deeply for your invaluable guidance gradually leading to a rebirth!
Hi Howard, in all the years I have followed you, you have always mentioned Dan Millman’s “Way of the Peaceful Warrior “ and I know that is why we have always referred to ourselves as “warriors “. You have quoted Socrates wisdom etc and I can’t believe that I never thought to actually read the book, as I find the quotes to be wise and inspirational, any time you have quoted from the book.
Then last week, my fellow Irishman, Ray, posted a link for a free audio of the book.
I absolutely loved it. So easy to listen to, in fact I finished it in three sittings. Lol
In my humble experience it is a book, that gives the reader such a thorough understanding of the workings of the human mind. So thank you for introducing me to his wisdom all these years and thank you Ray for being the means by which I got to read it. What is it they say “ when the student is ready, the teacher appears.”
Big love from this warrior to one and all warriors. xx💕
Hi Howard. Thank you so much for another one of your always enlightening posts. I really appreciate all of them and I’m sure they benefit us all. Can we be honored again with the continuation of the recipe videos? Qi gong is much more potent when we follow along with the master and I look forward to the near hand far hand mountain exercise, in addition to the tuina and so forth
Dear Howard!
Your great posts work like best ever medicine to fight PD. I am confident, with your help and ongoing support, all of us will recover, sooner or later.
Please keep motivating us.
Howard! This week’s message makes me want to jump up and start singing and smiling, parading about the room chanting Recipe!
A friend told me she was going to drive to London today, to join the queue to see the Queen lying in state. My friend came to live in the UK from India when she was 18. Now in her 30s, she said she wanted to express her appreciation for all that this country had offered her.
I was thinking about this during the brief meditation following the qigong exercise for clearing liver wind, and feeling a bit left out, when I was struck by a strong sense that I would one day be taking part is some sort of walking pilgrimage, without Parkinson’s.
I actually see parallels with The Queue and Howard’s discourse on staying in the fearful mind and defeating your own recovery, versus allowing your fearless heart to take the lead and view every increase in symptoms as progress in recovery. Those pilgrims who have already made it into Westminster Hall couldn’t be sure they had the mental and physical resources to reach their goal, but their fearless hearts drove them on. The ones joining this weekend may face 24 hours of queuing in the elements and some of them don’t even know if they will make it inside before the cut-off point, but they are doing it anyway. It is as if they are already there, simply by focusing on being there.
I think it’s the same for us warriors and why Howard often refers to us having our ‘full recovery’, because, in some way, we have already recovered by joining the queue and doing the Recipe to complete the journey, much as it is sometimes tempting to drop out.
Karen, I’m impressed that you’ve already listened to the whole of the Way of the Peaceful Warrior; I seem to remember you have worked your way through A Course in Miracles as well. My reading this week has all been on the Queen, with every day bringing a newspaper supplement to add to the already extensive coverage. I hope you noticed that ITV sneaked in an episode of Coronation Street on Thursday. I think the Queen would approve, as she was reportedly a fan of Corrie.
What with national mourning and Volodymyr Zelensky’s amazing ‘Without you’ speech, it’s been an emotional time😔.
Dear Howard,
Thank you for your inspiration and guidance. It is indeed a matter of losing the mind and finding the heart in our pursuit of recovery. We need to repeatedly reinforce this understanding and your posts are precisely doing that. Thank you & God Bless!
Hello Everybody,
I just started the program in January and find the results although slow are coming. But I remember the asian bamboo tree, they plant the seed and water it for five years, and nothing happens. Then, in the fifth year, it grows 90 feet. That’s how I look at the Recipe program I am on. There will be a few defeats, but remember Napoleon lost the battle of Marengo at four o’clock and won it back at 7.
Hello Mr Howard. Hope your family and your self are doing well. The message is very well written. The positivity that you provide is what keeps me going and hopefully the fellow warriors too. Blessings.
🙏🏼🙏🏼💕🙏🏼🙏🏼
Dear Howard, I am really lagging lately in following you and my fellow warriors on the blog; the post are always so good and encouraging, thank you. Some days I do my recipe well and other times I don’t because somedays I can focus better than others but I forgive myself and keep on going. The only improvement is in my sense of smell but it’s getting better and that’s all I need to know. I am recovering. I like what you say Scott about the bamboo tree. I love to read all the comments of my fellow warrriors. Love you all! Many blessings.