Attitude – Get Yours Right!

Since the day I was diagnosed, my attitude keeps me sane.  It keeps me moving forward, it keeps me focused, and it keeps me healthy.  This doesn’t mean I did not freak out when Dr. DeMarcaida said, “You have Parkinson’s disease.” on that beautiful Spring day.  I left in a fog, cried for two months, sometimes sobbing so hard while driving down Rt 2 that I would have to pull over to the side of the road.  I also have days now where I lose it, and my lip starts quivering, and I know it is time to let out that big cry again.  But, for 99% of my days, my attitude is great.

As I look back on my life, I think I have always been a pretty positive person with a good attitude.  I wasn’t perfect, but overall, a happy, confident and successful member of society.  So, when diagnosed, my past helped me deal with my new unknown life with PD.  The trigger to my positivity was a little book that a friend gave me. I am not a self-help book person usually, but this one hit me.  Its title is “The Secret,” by Rhonda Byrnes. It is a little table top book, but with a lot of power.  It talks about thinking positively by changing the way you look at things.  It talks about “saying” in your head repeatedly what you want to happen, and it will happen.  I started to do this, repeat in my head that,” I am healthy and strong.”  I “believe I am healthy and there will be a cure in my lifetime.”  This was a blind faith, like religion.  Something in my gut says that I will be fine.  No data, no evidence, just a feeling in my gut that I will be fine. Believe became my life Mantra and still is today.  I have 76 Believe words throughout my house that I have collected and been given from friends. 

That was 12 years ago.  Today, visualization and mindfulness are buzzwords everywhere.  Every school, fitness gym and health club offer classes to learn to be mindful and present.  Research shows that mindfulness can change the plasticity of the brain.  I am in a clinical study for visualization at Yale that measured my brain activity during a visualization segment and gave me instant feedback if it was positive or negative (the coolest thing I ever did).  I have consciously kept positive people and things in my life and removed the negative.  I believe, and I suspect, that my positivity has helped me to remain healthy.

I tell you this because I want to share a simple thing that everyone can do to improve their life. It may not be simple for everyone I know, but it is doable.  It is free and takes no special tools or techniques.  Just decide to do it, turn your thoughts around, and get rid of the negative ones, inhale deeply the positive ones.  Even if it’s not true, think it is! If you want, I will even send you a copy of The Secret.  Contact me, and I will be sure to get you a copy!

Keep smiling and Believe!

Michelle