Mindfulness Challenges

There’s no question about it.  Our bodies need live, nutritious organic food to maintain health and wellness.  Many people tell me,

“I don’t have the resources to purchase organic food.  I can’t buy all of that live food that you say is so good for me.  My budget simply won’t allow it.” 

That’ is a choice. it is a choice that many people make.  It is also a choice to incur the costs of hospital visits and the consequences of illness as we age.  You can choose to incur the costs up front when you are younger and maintain health and wellness throughout your entire life, or you can accept the consequences of medicines and hospitalizations.

I’ll say it again. It is a choice.  No additional studies are required or needed to show people who eat healthy, nutritious food each and every day will be far, far healthier and vibrant and less depressed than individuals who eat food that they may love, but is not the food that their body needs to maintain health and wellness.

I’m not really telling you anything that you do not know.  You know that eating healthy food will make a difference.  But let me offer to you another choice that many people, including myself make.  This choice is to say,

“Hmm, I believe that I’m not getting enough calcium and pantothenic acid.”

Don’t ask me to say what those reasons are. Sometimes I just get hunches. Sometimes a healthcare provider tells me,

“Huh, you’re looking a little pink these days.  What you really need is more vitamin C or pantothenic acid or calcium, or … 

And, I say to myself,

“Oh, my heavens, I think you’re right.  Pink means …”

I rush to the supplement store and purchase these specific supplements”. I begin to take them. After a while I say to myself,

“Huh, I believe the pink is fading!  Look at me, look at me.  I’m so happy I made such a good decision.”

Now, these particular choices can also be quite wise and instrumental in helping us to return to health and balance.  I’m certainly not arguing against supplements.  Let me make, however, another argument.

Supplements are simply food.  Food is a way that we can obtain all the nutrition that we actually need.  If we eat nutritious food each and every day – I don’t mean every week, I mean each and every day – you, nor I, nor anyone, would actually need to take any supplements whatsoever.  No follow up is required. No consultations with healthcare providers are necessary.  No one needs to look at us and say,

“Hmm, you’re looking a little pink today.  Everything okay?” 

The reality is that if we set into motion a habit of eating fresh, live, organic food each and every day, we have an excellent chance of not only maintaining health and wellness, but also of reversing disease states.   Am I saying that you will be able to reverse the symptoms of Parkinson’s by eating healthy food?  Maybe. Maybe not.  Some people are accomplishing just that.

Some doctors argue it will still be necessary to take supplements because the overall quality of food that is available to us today (as compared to 100 years ago) has been seriously depleted because of pesticides and the overall deterioration of the soils.

I do know however that it will make a huge and significant impact on how you feel each and every day if you eat organic food that is fresh. I also know that more and more people are coming out with announcements that they were able to heal seriously debilitating conditions by simply changing their diets.  These are people that went to all the best medical doctors and received all the best and cutting-edge treatments and found that none of that really seemed to help.  What really helped was to change their habit of what they put inside their body.

As an end note to this discussion, I just want to plant a seed of an idea that you may find to be useful.  I personally find it sometimes difficult to eat a lot of greens, a lot of salads.  It has never been something that I find is enjoyable.  What I have discovered is a new approach.

I go to my local co-op. I purchase lots of fresh vegetables that have many, many different colors.  I put them in my bag.  The purchase cost at our co-op is very, very modest and reasonable; far less than what I would have to pay at a regular grocery store.

I come home and on a regular basis we juice these vegetables, usually combining them together with some fruits that make the juice so yummy and tasteful.  We put lots of things into this juice every day. It is live food. I can simply drink this yummy energy drink that we make ourselves everyday.  I can then be sure that every day I am getting the live food that I actually need.

One of the challenges of juicing that I have had previously is to wash all the parts of the juicer.  It tended to take 20 or 30 minutes. Since I had books to write I was not taking the time to wash my juicer, so I stopped doing juicing for a year or two.

We’re back to doing it and have purchased something called a Vitamix which is a juicer that is easy to clean.  Yes, it does cost a bit of money, but the truth of the matter is, my choice is to pay the money up front now so that I can maintain my health as I age, rather than pay the money later when hospital visits would be required.

As you continue to consider the difference between eating food that is yummy to your tummy but not good for your body, versus food that is required for your body to maintain health and wellness realize we always have a choice about what we put in our body. Every bite is a choice as to how we want to live and feel; the next hour, the next day, the next month and the next year and for the rest of our lives. Each mouth full is a choice.

I invite you to consider making new choices about what you eat if in your own estimation some of what you are eating is not in your best and highest good.

Click on the horn below for an audio presentation of this week’s mindfulness challenge:

Robert

© Parkinsons Recovery

I have no doubt that you have been very curious for the last several days about what in the world is the big deal about noticing wind.  After all, wind has been a part of your life since you were born.  Here is what the big deal is all about.  When we look out our back window, we don’t see the wind.  We also do not see or acknowledge the progress that is being made toward recovery.

Some of you might think that it is an overstatement for me to say we do not notice when we are feeling better.  I beg to differ.  I have interviewed many individuals who are showing evidence of significant progress toward healing. Yet, when asked the responses are ones that fail to recognize the incredible progress that is being made.  Responses say,

“Oh, I’m feeling okay now.  I suppose about as well as before.” 

No acknowledgment is actually given.  No celebration is made for the incredible progress that is being made.

This is why I think it is important to track symptoms across time.  Of course symptoms do change.  Some get a bit worse. Some get a bit better.  There is a lot of jostling that goes around and around inside the body when it is returning to balance, health and wellness. The road to recovery can be rocky and full of pot holes.

We don’t see wind, but part of us always knows that it surrounds us wherever we are. We can see evidence of the wind through the rustling of the leaves on the trees, through the sailboats that are able to sail across the waters, through the feeling on our skin when the wind sends its shivers up and down our spine.  We know that recovery is present somewhere deep inside our heart as it flutters with excitement that progress is in fact being made.

It is helpful in the recovery process to celebrate each and every improvement in symptoms however slight they may be.  Focus on how much better you are feeling and you will begin to feel better much more quickly.

There is of course a second very important component to paying attention to wind.  Many people will feel significantly better when they start breathing.  You are probably thinking,

“Oh, that’s pretty silly.  We all breathe.” 

Yes, this is true, but many people (or perhaps I should say most people) do not breathe deeply.  Insufficient oxygen is getting to the cells for nourishment; so many cells are dying second by second.  The more you breathe, the deeper you breathe; you’ll find you will feel better.

Breathing doesn’t cost anything. It is free.  It is one of the best therapies you can adopt.

Why do people not breathe deeply?  The curiosity is that when we stop breathing deeply we are able also to stop all feelings.  It’s a little trick we learned when we were children.  When we get scared we literally freeze everything including our breath and the feeling of fear subsides.  This also includes all feelings whatever they might be.  Stop breathing and you cut off the feelings.

I invite you to begin breathing more deeply and you will discover you will not only feel better physically, but you will begin to feel more of the fullness of all that can be experienced in life.  When we breath deeply we also are able to experience our feelings – whatever they might be.

Place no judgment on whatever feelings emerge. They are not bad or good. They are simply an offset of your life force. They’re simply feelings to be honored and treasured.

• Breathe deeply.
• Feel the fullness of life.
• Celebrate all that is happening in your body that is making recovery possible. 
• See the wind as it is manifesting recovery at the cellular level in your body. 
• Know that recovery is happening now.

Robert

© Parkinsons Recovery