I began working on a post listing miscellaneous ideas I have come to see as important. It became clear though that each idea was worth its own post. So here's one of them.
Consider this quote from JWH (RFP, 2020):
At first, a person with no habit of regular prayer or communication with an invisible friend, who wants to change his mental habits in order to turn off pause, might have to surrender anew every few minutes, in the beginning. But this surrender might become easier over time...
So we want to keep the feeling of surrender (it can include physical feelings, by the way) going steadily. During this time, when I have recently had the experience of turning off pause, I've come to see this as centrally important. And I believe the same holds true, to one extent or another, for other feelings involved in the protocol — for instance, the feeling of the presence of the “other,” the feeling of being comforted by the “other,” the feeling of heart expansion, etc. I think there is real benefit in being engaged with one or more of these feelings as much of the time as possible.
Book seller China Books has conducted a recent webinar featuring Janice Walton-Hadlock. Titled “The mysteries of Parkinson's disease,” it's oriented somewhat toward practitioners of Chinese medicine, but is accessible to others as well, including those with PD. It ends with an interesting Q&A segment.
This is a highly instructional webinar, almost like a very condensed version of the 2020 edition of Recovery from Parkinson's. So you might use it as an introduction to the JWH approach to Parkinson's or as a nice review.
Since I posted about turning off self-induced pause, then slipping back into it, I've been continuing to work toward going back off pause and, as I'm able, to try to reactivate sympathetic mode. In recent weeks certain distractions have slowed the process, but I continue to work in the same direction. Having twice turned off pause, I'm confident I will do so again. And I will of course report back.
Having posted, in a general way, what the experience of coming off pause felt like for me, I want to try to describe here some of the detail. I hope it might provide readers with something to look forward to as well as a large dose of confidence in the Janice Walton-Hadlock (JWH) protocol.
First I should make clear that not everyone following the protocol comes off pause in the same way. JWH writes in RFP, “Although some people turn off pause immediately and lastingly following a mindshifting epiphany, most people with Parkinson’s recover slowly. They chip away at their old mental behaviors, slowly modifying their thought patterns until they notice recovery symptoms occurring.”
Our friend Emmy at Gezond met Parkinson, who has fully recovered from PD via the Janice Walton-Hadlock protocol, recently made available an interview she conducted with Janice. This is a valuable interview with discussion of ideas found in the new 2020 edition of Recovery from Parkinson's. Included are spiritual considerations and many personal and moving observations. Janice also answers questions submitted by interested readers. Participating in the interview as well is Ted who is himself working toward recovery with the protocol.
Before I continue documenting the latest twists and turns in my journey, I thought there might be some potential value to others in an update on my daily regimen with regard to the Janice Walton-Hadlock protocol. In particular, I want to mention a few things I had added to the regimen in the weeks and months prior to coming off pause.
It's been months since I mentioned here the basics of my daily regimen. When I last did, a typical day included: (1) a single dedicated session of something like 15 to 50 minutes in length, devoted to the two core exercises, (2) a walk of perhaps 30 to 60 minutes similarly devoted, and (3) efforts to keep the dialogue going throughout the day. My success at that last one was usually spotty. And the walk was typically a dog walk with our wonder girl, Poppy.
At some point I had to ask my wife to take over the dog walks so that I could walk without distraction. Poppy is just too lively, two interested in other dogs, etc. For me to walk with her and stay well engaged in the dialogue.
On Wednesday, November 18th, at approximately 10:40pm, I went off self-induced pause! In other words I managed to turn off the process that drives Parkinson's. What an amazing feeling!
Of course things aren't always as simple as we might hope, are they? About 36 hours after going off pause I slipped back on pause (in response to a minor stressor), managed to get back off the next day (!), and later slipped back on again.
So as I write this I am back on pause (though seemingly not as deeply so as before), not enjoying the feeling, but feeling content in the knowledge I can and will turn it off again, probably soon. In the meantime I need to add in some focus on preventing a reversion to pause the next time. If you're familiar with Janice Walton-Hadlock's writings, you know that requires reactivating the long-dormant sympathetic mode to be able to deal normally with stressors.
To me, the Cat Stevens version of “Morning has Broken” comes closer than any other song I can think of to capturing the feeling of coming off pause all at once. Much more later!
Previously I addressed some of the common criticisms of Janice Walton-Hadlock's (JWH) work. It is usually clear the critics have little knowledge of the work, especially the more recent writings. So I'm tempted just to ignore them. But in this post I want to address one of the common complaints I haven't touched on previously. That is the notion that JWH “blames the victim.” Some folks feel either that JWH blames them for having caused their PD, or would blame them for not doing enough if they didn't recover.
I have to wonder if the idea that JWH blames the victim reflects the stigma our society attaches to psychological disorders. Perhaps some people, told that they triggered their PD with their own mind, take as criticism the observation that they have a psychogenic condition. Perhaps they would feel differently were it not for that stigma.
Perhaps because of my training as a psychologist, I take as a given that we all have our psychopathologies meriting no more shame than a sprained ankle. And the great thing about psychological disorders is that they're generally amenable to psychological intervention carrying zero risk.
The 2020 edition of Recovery from Parkinson's contains a good deal of discussion on the key concept of surrender. I've written about surrender previously here and here. Like so much of the new edition, the new material on this topic helps to fill in the gaps.
In one take on the topic JWH suggests surrender can mean:
letting go of the mental habit of listening to one’s own negative thoughts and instead choosing to mentally be communicating with someone or something that brings joy. ... One is 'giving up' or 'surrendering' his option of choosing the inner monologue with its negativity, bitterness, or a self-serving, twisted rationality.
Surrender in recovering from PD might involve making a new, conversational duologue habit to replace the old internal monologue.
So a part of surrendering to the “other” becomes surrendering or letting go of our default dialogue, surrendering to the new dialogue with the “other.” Rather than trying to force ourselves to focus on the new dialogue then, perhaps we might think about allowing ourselves to engage in it. For some this “letting it happen” approach may be easier than one based on pure willpower. Everyone's recovery is different, and I'm not yet certain how helpful this idea will be for me. But I suspect it will be of benefit to some. Contact me to let me know if it works for you!
I doubt that when they wrote this song Joe sample and Michael Franks had in mind the relationship with the “other” had by someone working to recover from PD. But you can hear it if you listen to the words! Perhaps you'll find some inspiration here.
Way back in the 2013 edition of Recovery from Parkinson's self-administered cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) figured fairly prominently in the protocol. Over time though, it seems Janice Walton-Hadlock came to learn that CBT of the well known variety would not directly turn off pause. And so conventional CBT faded from prominence in Stuck on Pause and in the previously available eight chapters of Recovery from Parkinson's.
I refer to “conventional” CBT because the new exercises designed to stimulate the striatum and thalamus, introduced in Stuck on Pause and elaborated on in the subsequent edition of Recovery from Parkinson's, may themselves be viewed as a type of CBT.
In the 2020 edition of Recovery from Parkinson's, however, the more conventional variety of CBT makes something of a comeback (see pp. 126, 236). I was thrilled to see this as I had been, and still am, using a simple CBT approach to address the anxiety that I discovered has tended to drive my fatigue. In the dialogue with the “other,” I look for irrational beliefs that might underly the anxiety, and seek to replace them with rational beliefs. For me this has been extremely helpful. But I wasn't sure if it might, in any way, conflict with the core process of the new exercises. My takeaway from its return to the protocol is that it is just fine to use as a supplement to the core exercises.
For a couple of examples of how I have used a simple CBT approach in this way see this prior post.