Step Fourteen: Embrace Your Passions

Make Recovery Happen Now

We have all finally arrived at the final step of recovery – Step Fourteen. Your journey down the road to recovery has been successfully launched. Healing is a lifetime process for everyone.

Interested in connecting with others who are also journeying down the road to recovery?  Subscribe to become a Parkinsons Recovery member. The cost is minimal – only $10 a month. We connect with one another on the last Monday of each month. Many other support resources for recovery are updated daily on the 12 Parkinsons Recovery member websites. To learn more visit:

https://www.parkinsonsrecovery.com/parkinsons-recovery-membership

As you reflect back on the steps covered in Giant Leap for Recovery ask yourself …

Did the steps cover therapies that are focused on …

  • Suppressing tremors?
  • Improving gait?
  • Enhancing ease of mobility?
  • Preventing falls?
  • Or … ?

Of course the answer to all of these questions is no.

Sufficient to say, we discussed some of these topics as they came up in discussions or questions, but the steps do not focus the illness. They focus on how to maintain wellness.

Of course I have addressed and discussed how to quiet symptoms in my books, radio shows, blog and newsletters. These are the type of questions I am asked. So, I answer them. The methods I have identified are undoubtedly very useful and appreciated by many people across the globe.

But, they are all temporary. Medicines only last several hours for most. Surgeries often have to be repeated. Supplements have to be taken every day. What is wrong with finding therapies that help you feel better temporarily?

Obviously – nothing.  But in the end, what really makes a difference for a successful recovery program to sustain itself in the long run? The answer has to do with a shift in focus.

Focus on the illness and you “feed” the illness. This depletes your energy and life force.

Focus on health and wellness, and you “feed” health and wellness. This focus energizes and supports your life force. This focus is what helps your body heal from the inside out – little by little, day in and day out.

Long term success does not depend on finding ways to suppress symptoms but rather on supporting your body’s own intrinsic ability to heal itself.

  • The natural state of the body is to be in balance and healthy.
  • The unnatural state is to be out of balance and ill.

So …

What is the bottom line to recovery?

What is the secret to making it happen?

Most people hold near and dear to their heart the beliefs that recovery has to  …

  • Take years to unfold
  • Requires medications and supplements
  • Happens for only a select few
  • Involves expensive therapies
  • Happens only when you find the right therapist, health care practitioner or doctor who has the “secret” answer to recovery
  • Calls for outside interventions of one form or another

I too once believed all of this was true, but not now. I hold a much different belief that recovery is possible for

  • Anyone
  • Anywhere
  • Anytime

Anytime Means Now
Anytime means you notice improvements in how you are feeling every day

Why do I embrace this seemingly outrageous belief?

Many people who experience symptoms of Parkinson’s have told me about unexpected blocks of time (a few minutes, hours, days) when their symptoms disappeared completely.

You have heard people in this class report the same experiences!

Such reports surprisingly involve situations which cannot be explained by taking (or not taking) medications or supplements or turning on or off a DBS battery connection

Is this a familiar circumstance for you? Have you celebrated the quieting of symptoms unexpectedly?

If it has ever happened once for you, why I ask you cannot this happen for you all the time?

What usually happens in such situations?  The secret to recovery is …

  • Embrace Your Soul’s Longing
  • Devote your energy, time and money doing what you have always loved to do since you were a child.
  • Follow your “bliss”

And this my friends is Step Fourteen in a nutshell.

Meditation on Finding Your Pathway to Recovery

What gave you the most joy when you were a child?

How did you love to spend your days?

Recall a happy memory when you were a child.  What were you doing that day? Were you with other people when you were the most happy or were you alone?

What did you do in secret because you were afraid you would get in trouble?

As a child did you love to …

  • Cook
  • Sew
  • Do crafts and art work
  • Play sports
  • Help other people
  • Invent
  • Create
  • Experiment
  • Ask questions
  • Find answers
  • Perform well on tests
  • Give your parents grief
  • Play with you friends
  • Make up new games to play

Do what you are supposed to be doing with your life and symptoms become inconsequential.