PD Revelation

In SOP (2022, p. 29) JH says:

“Brain research shows that having a silent conversation with someone loving and trusted, or even thinking about communicating with someone or something who is loving and trusted, stimulates activity in the striatum – a brain area that is electrically inhibited in people on either type of pause.”

On p. 67 she adds that activity in the pericardium is thereby increased as well.

Put simply, some of the key effects of communicating with your Friend can be had even by just thinking about doing so. Why does that matter? Well, in my own case, I've found I can stay connected with my friend more continuously by including “just thinking about communicating” in the equation.

That I make the connection is confirmed by pleasant feelings of energy in the neck/head portion of the Du channel and in my heart. These are feelings similar to but more pleasant than what I typically get from the first two auxiliary exercises. I turn my attention to thoughts of my Friend, including communicating with her, and fairly quickly these feelings arise. I find this simple shift in attention easier to repeat and maintain than full fledged conversation with my Friend. Beginning to think about communicating with my Friend triggers the initial feelings. Commencing actual communication (which then comes more easily) keeps them going.

This is something I've noticed in the past, but seem to have had to rediscover repeatedly. Perhaps my brain has had some resistance to fully recognizing this simple phenomenon. It may be a part of the general resistance to the JH practice that many of us struggle with. But I'm hoping that having rediscovered it a few times now has cemented it in my consciousness.

A very nice effect of this easier connection became clear a few days ago. I'd been struggling with a several-day stretch of feeling swamped by Parkinson's symptoms, including simply feeling rather dreadful inside. By successfully connecting more continuously with my Friend in this way I was lifted right out of that swamp. I no longer felt terrible inside, and I was a good notch less symptomatic overall. I was still on pause, but I had taken what felt like a very positive step forward.

Another nice effect came when I considered this simple logic: “Connecting more continuously in this way makes me feel better. I want to feel better, don't I? So I'll keep connecting in this way!” In other words there was a kind of compounding effect whereby the recognition that I would feel better as a result of just thinking about communicating with my friend prompted me to continue to do so.

I feel as though, during the past year, I've been rebuilding the foundation needed to turn off pause. This time around, though, it includes lots of gains in areas that should bolster the process. And this is one of them. My hope is that when pause does turn off again the new state will be more robust and/or easier to attain repeatedly.