Another angle on surrender
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!