What I Am Doing Now to Heal from Parkinson’s – Part I

At this point, I’ve shared a lot with you: 

• My story of healing from two autoimmune diseases
• The secrets to my healing
• My thoughts on changing what I did last time, and
• The role horses have had in my work helping others heal

But what I haven’t yet shared with you is, what am I doing right now to heal from Parkinson’s?

The good news is that given the fast progressing nature of my condition from February to July, it seems to have stopped progressing and there has been improvement! So let’s get to it . . .

Where did I start?

The first step I took after getting diagnosed with Parkinson’s was to thoroughly research the disease to better understand it, look at the research on it, and to see what therapies and treatments were out there.  I think, like everyone who gets a diagnosis like this, I was hoping to find the Holy Grail of cures for Parkinson’s.  I think it’s a natural reaction to want to find out everything you can.

I did consider whether I really needed to do this research.  My doctor told me that there was no cure and I really did doubt that I would be the one to discover a cure.  I also suspected that even after all the research I would end up wanting to put the Western medical conclusion – that my situation was incurable – aside and work on curing myself anyway.  It occurred to me that all this education and research on Parkinson’s might actually reinforce the belief that it’s incurable.  And that’s not something I wanted to do! 

So that’s why I questioned if it might be best for me to skip this investigation step this time and just go immediately to self-healing.  But alas, I am human and I felt the need to do my own research. 

What I learned from my research

In retrospect, I do see there were benefits to my research.   I learned that exercise is probably one of the best things I can do to delay the progression of Parkinson’s.  (I will cover more on this later.)  I also learned about people that had healed themselves.  And I learned of few therapies that might provide some temporary improvement in symptoms, though they won’t cure the root cause of the problem, which is what I am after.  And finally, I learned of new ways to deal with past stressful events and/or trauma in our lives. 

But, I do feel that at some point, once you have done your research, it’s good to pick a strategy and to set all the research aside while you set up your healing practice and begin following it.  In other words, I think it’s healthy to stop the continued stress of trying to find something better.  Pick a course and take it.  Then if you need to, give yourself a time frame for re-evaluating how it’s working. But in the meantime, stop trying to find a cure.

I wanted support this time

One thing I realized I wanted this time around is something that I didn’t have last time I was healing, and that’s support.  I did it on my own last time.  I was by myself.  I was in the middle of a divorce and had just left a job I had been at for 15 years.  All my normal social networks were gone.  I was really alone – and this was before social media and the internet too.  It was quite lonely. 

So this time I immediately began mentally setting an intention that I wanted people to do this with.  And ideally, I wanted someone or a group to go through this with; people that also had Parkinson’s and looked at the disease like I looked at it, believing they could heal too. 

Almost immediately, in fact the next day, a friend of mine told me that she had a neighbor that had had a surprisingly similar experience as I had with my Parkinson’s symptoms beginning in my shoulder.  She got me together with her friend and instantly I knew that this was exactly what I had hoped for – someone that was recently diagnosed with Parkinson’s and someone that believed in self-healing and using meditation as a primary healing agent.  I learned later that she also had years of experience with Chinese Traditional Medicine and Qi Gong – two practices I wanted to explore.  I was delighted to find her!

Mentors

In addition to my new friend, I also discovered people that had cured themselves of Parkinson’s:  Howard Shifke and Bianca Molle.   Again, I intentionally wanted more support and what better way than from someone like Howard who had already healed himself and relied on the same things I did – meditation, prayer, and self-examination?  The only difference is that Howard also used Chinese Traditional Medicine (CTM) and Qi Gong.  

I was fairly naïve about CTM and Qi Gong, but open to the possibility they could be helpful.   So after reading Howard’s book I contacted him and asked if he would coach me. In September, roughly two months after being diagnosed with PD, I began 4 months of bi-monthly coaching with Howard. 

Mapping out a plan.

After doing my research, reviewing notes on how I healed last time and getting some support in place, I felt I had all the tools I need to heal.  Now I just needed to put together a plan to deal with attending to my mind, my body and spirit.  In the beginning it was a little chaotic, but by the end of August, roughly one month after my diagnosis, my routine was beginning to fall into place.

Self-care

Prior to Covid – and my diagnosis – I used to exercise regularly and get a monthly massage and chiropractic adjustment.  These activities were just part of my self-care.  Covid changed all of that.  So one of the first things I did was to get back into a monthly routine of chiropractic care and massage.  I didn’t feel that either chiropractic care or massage would heal me, but I know that it felt like good self-care for me personally.

Exercise

While I used to exercise regularly before covid, I decided that now I wanted to exercise daily as part of my healing.  As I have mentioned, exercise just feels right to me.  And I trust that feeling.  Additionally, as one of the founders and the former executive director of the American Council on Exercise, I have read some of the more recent research on Parkinson’s and exercise.  What I have read and learned is in alignment with what my neurologist told me, “Exercise is one of the best things you can do to help prevent the progression of the disease.” 

And it’s not just one kind of exercise.  High-intensity aerobic exercise and exercise that demands focus and concentration, strength, coordination and balance, are indicated.  A great article that  thoroughly looks at exercise and PD is in this blog.

My daily regime includes 30 minutes of high intensity exercise at the gym on a treadmill.  High intensity for me means that I am working out at 75-80% of my estimated maximal heart rate.  I use my heart rate to guide how fast I go, and/or the incline that I use.  As I get in better shape, my heart rate goes down, so I need to speed up and/or increase the incline.

Medical Qi Gong

In addition to the daily treadmill workout, I do ½ hour of Medical Qi Gong as prescribed by Howard Shifke in his Parkinson’s Recipe for Recovery.  And then once a week, instead of the treadmill, I go to a yoga class.  This combination of activity meets the suggestions for exercise that I’ve read from the research.

My personal experience with exercise thus far has backed the claims in recent research.  I just feel good after exercising!  I have to admit that the medical Qi Gong is very foreign to me.  I felt a bit silly doing it at first.  But given the success others have had from Qi Gong and my general assessment that when it comes to Parkinson’s, just about any movement is good, I keep the medical Qi Gong in my routine and use the time to mentally visualize my body being tremor-free, feeling strong and relaxed.  And honestly, I believe that alone if nothing else, has value.

One thing I want to point out is that while exercise is generally categorized as something we do for our physical bodies, it is really hard for me to separate what it does for me mentally and emotionally.  When I say that I feel good after exercise, part of that feeling good is my mental and emotional outlook.

Meditation/Self-examination

In addition to physical activity, the other major block of healing work I do is my time meditating and doing deep self-examination.   Minimally I do at least one, 20-minute meditation followed by time for self-examination and journaling. 

I found that early on, I dealt with a lot of fear and anxiety about Parkinson’s.  The rapid progression of symptoms frightened me and I was worried about severe decline.  I know that it’s almost impossible to heal if you are in constant fear and anxiety, so something needed to be done.  At first I tried to find a few guided meditations that would help me breathe and relax.  Those worked for a short time, but sooner or later something about the meditation would bother me or go against what I believe or what I would prefer to focus on.

I created my own personalized guided meditation

In my quest to quell fear,  I stumbled onto a way to adjust my thinking, calm my nerves, and deepen the personal self-work that I am doing.   It’s become one of the top tools that I use in my healing process. 

Frustrated with the meditations I was listening to,  I sat down and wrote the topics that triggered my fear and anxiety.  And I wrote down things that helped me calm myself.  Then I wrote my own guided meditation.  And it worked!  After writing it down, I read it back to myself and recorded myself using the audio app on my phone.  In the background I had some healing music playing softly.  I ended up with a meditation that’s about 20 minutes long. 

Anytime I start getting stressed I can grab my phone, put some earbuds in, close my eyes and listen and breathe.  By the end of the meditation I am relaxed and optimistic about my healing. To be honest, this has been one of the best things I could have done.  I use my personalized meditation frequently in addition to my regular mindfulness meditation.  I use it most  often before I get out of bed in the morning and just before turning the lights out at night.

One thing I’ve noticed is that as time goes by I might outgrow different sections of my meditation.  It seems that I learn and get better at handling the different mental games going on in my head.  But as life would have it, sooner or later I notice new mind games.  So every couple weeks I rewrite and change out the areas I am done with and add areas that I need to work on. 

It’s been working out really well and I strongly urge you to give it a try if you struggle with fear, anxiety or confidence in your ability to heal yourself.

This is the end of Part I.  Part II will continue covering what I am currently doing to heal from Parkinson’s including  self-examination, lifestyle changes, diet, Reiki and my horses.  And I’ll conclude by providing more detail on the improvements I am seeing in my health!