The Role of Determination and Persistence in Recovery from Chronic Disease

Introduction

Here is the second part of my interview with Anne Helevik, who has helped herself recover from a Parkinson’s diagnosis.

Anne has done all the right things in order to recover:

• Healing herself is the highest priority. It is easy for her as she has her husband that provides for her.

• Celebrating the small successes - if you succeed in reducing symptoms for just 5 minutes, then it is a signal to you that you did something right just before.

• Patience with yourself and the result, it will come.

• Mindset changes were her strongest tools.

  
  If you want to get a fully equipped toolbox on how to start, and why it works, then you can take my online course.

There is one thing that is key to know:

If you do not prioritize your health, your health will decide for you, and you will have to stop what you are doing, such as your stressful job, months or years later, and then it may be more difficult to reduce the stress.

So what is more important? Your health or your current lifestyle, for example, if your job is a big part of your stress? It is a difficult decision. If you do not decide to retire or find another job, your symptoms will stop you sooner or later.

Reality has shown this time and time again, and I can see and hear it in my clients. The guys who are still working or have kids at home are struggling to get better.

In fact, this is what the symptoms are trying to tell you: Do something different than you are doing now!

Transcript

Lilian:

How did you get that faith?

Anne:

I don't know. I felt, of course, I felt a bit sorry for myself. "Why me" and so on.

But I also felt some strange, love for myself. Down inside me, I wanted to live and be healthy.

Lilian:

In my ears, it sounds like it's a big commitment you made that you had to find out this in two years. So during the two years, you would do everything and you had to commit to that.

Anne:

Yes. I did a lot of things. I also promised myself that if I'm going to be better, I must help others and so on. It was almost like a ritual. It was very dramatic, actually.

Lilian:

And that's what you're doing, making these interviews, to spread the word that you can become a lot better, and stress reduction is one of the most important ways.

Anne:

I also felt a bit excited, actually, because if I can do it, most people can do it, I thought.

Lilian:

I'm always interested in the small thoughts here. So I can see you started to realize that when you were more stressed, you got more symptoms. When you were less stressed, you got less symptoms. It was maybe even before you started doing all these things. Just by reading that this was the connection. Is that true? So just reading, and thinking about it, you connected some of the thoughts that this is stress. Then you observed yourself.

Anne:

Yeah, it's correct. When I get scared, I have more symptoms. It is like that. I started to meditate as well and do a lot of things, and I noticed that it helped, because I could for some very short time, perhaps some seconds, some minutes get rid of my tremor. It was calmed down a bit. And then that was all I needed. Then I got excited.

Lilian: And just a tiny reduction. Was it proof enough for you?

Anne:

Yes, it was. I was so happy. Then I realized I had to work with my body as well. I limped a lot, and I have two dogs. I couldn't walk with them almost. It was very annoying not to be able to walk properly. I've decided to do what was most difficult for me and do that a lot, and think like I was healthy. So I walked and walked and walked and walked. Now I'm walking, I'm not limping. I mean, I fought it all the time. I swing my arm. I didn't swing my arm, but I tried to force myself to swing my arm, and I did it a lot.

After a couple of months, something started to happen. My arm was swinging a little bit and I cried with happiness. It worked. I think within a year, I didn't limp anymore and my arm swung a lot more. So I don't know what's happening in my brain, but I think I had created some new connection because I learned how to walk again.

You have to be very determined because it's not a quick fix. You have to do it for a long time, but it worked. I haven't limped since then. Nothing, and my arm is perfect.

That's where the fun started.

Lilian:

So I guess, when you started right after diagnosis, you didn't notice your symptoms so much. It was maybe just a blur, but then you start to focus that sometimes the symptoms are bigger than other times. Then it sounds like you celebrate it. "I have a better arm swing today. I'm a little less stiff".

Anne:

One thing you have to do, I think, is to really realize how bad a condition you are in.

So you have to take that in, without feeling sorry for yourself, but you have to take it in. “This is the reality. I can't walk. Oh my God. I can't walk. This is terrible. I want to walk.”

You have to take that in, but then, because then you can do something about it. I took it in. Really. I mean, in my heart, how bad it was not to be able to walk.

Lilian:

You created a "burning platform", as you would say if it was a business, you have a burning platform and then you need to do something to get off.

A burning platform is a business expression telling that you MUST make huge changes to save the company/yourself. Anne created this in her mind and body so she does not doubt that she MUST change.

Anne:

Then you have all the motivation you need. I could have walked for hours. I wanted to walk again, to be able to walk again. I wanted to have my own life back.

And, oh, it was so emotional for me. Emotional. It was not thinking it was feeling.

Lilian:

I can hear that you had two years and it was a matter of life or death, so you created this burning platform. That this was serious. Not just let it happen and not put a plaster of positivity on top (Which is the mantra in most forums).

Anne:

If it's the real thing, you can do something about it. I mean, you can do it just a little, little bit faster.

Lilian:

In that period, after you had studied on the internet and picked other people’s brains on what to do, - when you started to become active - how many hours did you use a day?

Anne:

Several hours. I mean, six, seven hours a day. I spent, I work out. I train my hands. I train to observe my own thoughts. I meditated twice a day, one hour, two hours a day because I thought I needed it actually. It was a lot.

It was a lot of work, but it was easy to do. It was necessary. So it was very easy. It was not difficult for me to do it. I just did it.

Lilian:

So it was the highest priority for you.

Anne:

Yes. It was my only priority.

Lilian:

Yeah, and that's a big difference because I guess if people have an eight-hour job and they take maybe half a whole hour to go back and forth. Then there's not a lot of time.

Anne:

I had the time. I was at home at that moment.

Lilian:

But I think your quick result, it's due to the massive effort having this as your

priority.

So how long time from when you started to get active to today?

Anne:

How many years? I don't know. I think it's been five years. Five years now. Now I don't need to do all the things that I did in the beginning.

Now I have it in my body. I have the feeling in my body and I'm a totally different person now than I used to be. I can have problems, but I don't take it so seriously because I know I can't do that. I don't think so much negative anymore.

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