Does that even make sense? Let me explain. I am slowly and surely feeling a little less swallowed up by the grief of my diagnosis. I am getting on with my life, working, socialising and doing many of the things I did before my diagnosis.
How am I doing that? By being proactive and focussing on my Parkies in a positive way. Focussing on getting up every morning and doing my exercises. I tell myself that there are many, many people who get up before work and go for a run. At least I am inside in the warm and out of the wet on rainy days! I know that exercise helps to short circuit Parkies’ tendency to smallness and reduced movement. So, I focus on that when it’s hard to get up in the morning. When it’s hard to do my exercises after a busy day. When it’s hard to do my exercises because my body and my brain say ‘enough’, I carry on because I am determined to still live my best life.
So focussing on my Parkies – as you would challenge any adversary – is in a positive way. I am trying less and less to look at the negatives of this condition and remove my focus on them and look at what I am achieving every day.
So yes, Parkies is – in a way – taking over my life, but every shake, every bit of fatigue, every time I find exercise difficult – and sometimes it feels almost impossible – it reminds me why I am doing this. I am in a battle, a fight for my life. This means I will take every opportunity to read about Parkies, to attend Conferences about it and to meet others with Parkies. The more I learn, the more I feel empowered and hopefully the less power Parkies has over me!
As soon as I lose focus on Parkies, I feel I will become complacent and complacency will undo all I am achieving and I refuse to let that happen!
My journey with Parkinsons 