Category: Mindfulness Challenge for the Week

There is no doubt about it. When neurological symptoms flare we all furiously begin to search for options that offer the promise of quick relief. We furiously engage our minds to understand what is causing the symptoms. We eagerly search for options that provide temporary relief or even reverse the symptoms.

In other words, we are continuously in our minds

• Thinking
• Thinking
• Thinking

Each and every moment of our waking lives.  True healing lies in a place that resides deep inside the cells of our body – not in our minds. How do we access this unique gateway to healing?  Two options are sure bets.

The first is to hydrate your body; to hydrate your cells.  Many people do not drink enough water.  The second is to breath, to give those cells oxygen.

These two therapies are both simple. They are free. They are easy to do. You can activate  each of these therapies at any point in time during the day.  No doctor is required to write a prescription.  These two approaches will potentially yield enormous returns if practiced on a regular basis.

My invitation for you this week is quite simple.  Several times during the day, especially when you are having negative and hurtful thoughts that are rattling through your mind over and over, stop. Take three breaths as deep as is comfortable for each one.

When you breath allow yourself, just for a moment, to become aware of colors, sounds, touches and smells; all of which we are often ignorant of when we are in our heads.  Take three long and delicious breaths, at least three different times during the day.

1. Stop. Take a slow breath in and out.
2. Take a second breath in and out.
3. Take a third breath in and out. 

Then, take a sip of water. I am talking here a simple task that will consume no more than 20 or 30 seconds, three times a day.

Notice how everything shifts. Notice how your awareness deepens; how you reach that place deep inside your cells, the place of true and genuine and profound healing.  This is the place where neurological symptoms are reversed.  No money is required. No prescription is needed. Simply practice breathing and sipping water three times––three times a day.

Robert

© Parkinsons Recovery

My challenge for you this week promises to be totally and completely fun and, at the same time, totally and completely frustrating.  My invitation is for you to begin hearing and acknowledging all of the qualifiers that you use when you talk.  Hear qualifiers when you speak like “uh,” “so” for example.

The most common utterance used in the English language is “uh.”  When you say “uh” or when you say, “so…” or when you say “what I mean is…” you are creating distractions from what it is that you truly intend for the listener to hear. You are distracting yourself from your true intent and you are distracting your listeners.

When I began the Parkinsons Recovery radio program, it took some months to become familiar with how my voice sounded to me when I edited the recordings. What I heard was not what I was accustomed to hearing when I talk.  The true surprise as it turns out was the many, many qualifiers that I use when I talk.  Quite frankly, I was shocked.

I began  counting the number of “uhh…uhh…uhs” that I used when I talked and I was flabbergasted.  What I’d like to invite you to do is to begin noticing as you talk how many qualifiers you use when you speak.

A second invitation which has the promise to be quite fun is to engage a family member or friend in this particular challenge.  Ask them for a day, an evening or an afternoon to catch each and every qualifier that you use.  Of course you could ask them to be very specific and to alert you as to when you use a very specific qualifier like “uh,” or you could simply ask them to raise a finger every time you use any particular phrase that they believe is a qualifier.

Instead of alerting you each time you could ask a family member or friend to make a secret count.  For example, as you begin dinnertime they could see how many qualifiers you have used they can tally up by the end of the meal.

Please don’t be overwhelmed by this assignment, because if this is all you are mindful about, it could potentially drive you nuts.  Again, I was personally shocked by what I discovered when I began listening to myself on the radio show.

Another possibility you may want to consider is to record yourself when you actually talk, even in casual conversations and then listen to the recording afterward.  It is likely you will discover just as I did that you do use many qualifiers when you talk.  This week, then, become mindful of all of those distracting words — those unnecessary words — that add nothing to your true intent. Notice those distractions when you converse with another person.  Include in this challenge certain profanity words that really do not add to the point that you are intending to make (unless of course they help to emphasize your meaning!).

Have fun and please do not be completely frustrated with this. I hope you find it to be an exhilarating assignment which invites to become much more mindful of each and every word that you speak. Your thoughts are precious to others and to yourself. Treat them as such.

Robert

© Parkinsons Recovery