Parkinson's: Find Joy

A Journey into Parkinson's with Nancy Mellon 
   Coordinated by my wise Buddha friend Corrine Bayraktaroglu

At our online journal writing session today Fran gave us this prompt to write about “How would you like to see yourself in 2022. What activities will fall out of that?”  Then later she added “distill it down to 1 or 2 words that you can easily remember.”  That's where my title for this post “Find Joy” came from.  I started with “Be Joy” then went to “Find Joy.” 

I choose to see myself as energetic, alive, grateful and Joyous!  A tip that Fran gave us, is, instead of saying 'I want' to see myself as energetic etc., change the wording to 'I value and choose' to see myself as energetic, alive, grateful and Joyous.  She said 'I want' suggests that you don't believe you can do it.

I choose to see myself as happy and enjoying life.  I choose to be active and involved with others.  Most of all, I value and choose to reach out and spread fun and goodwill and happiness.

Two ways, I will do it: I will study this year to become a contemporary street clown. And once a month I will write a gratitude letter to someone.  I had been thinking about both these ideas for the last couple of weeks. And doing some research into clowning.  It's not as odd as it sounds, I was tempted to join a clown school before.  And I saw myself as an actress and trained as an actress for all of my youth.  But I haven't performed in many years. And I do mean MANY years. I often think “I can't do it.” Fran says “you can do it.”  Corrine says “you can do it.”  Steven says “you can do it.” That's my 3-time limit. I can do it.

You may be thinking why is she writing this on her Parkinson's blog?  Because it is common for people with Parkinson's to have anxiety and be depressed.  And I have been there many times in my life.

Today I felt very down.

But after writing about this in my journal I feel splendid and hopeful and peaceful.

1. One way for me to find joy is to write about it.

Now it is about a week later from when I started writing this post.  A week of feeling pretty blue some of the time. I have to laugh.  Every time I write about a positive moment, I seem to have to battle to get back there. This time, I Skyped with Corrine and that helped me to get balanced again.

2.     Talk to a good friend

How to hang on to the joy in life?  Well maybe you can't hang on to it. Maybe it is a constantly reiterated statement of an intention to look for joy.  I value and choose to look for it.  And sometimes you can't even look. 

3.     And then I pray for help.

 What do you do to find joy?  In this tense time of pandemics and worry and sickness, how do you keep yourself looking for joy? 

Cheers,

from Nancy and the Snark

P.S. I just had a mental giggle of creating a 'lovie’ (what my tiny, granddaughters call their soft, cuddly toys) of the Snark.  Hmmmm, I have never been very successful in making stuffed toys.  But I do already have a black, red beaked, vulture.  He is wonderfully ugly and has soft, velvety, enveloping black wings. I call him Ted.  Maybe he can stand in for the Snark.  I don't think he would mind.

May you Find Joy this week.

Footnotes From Buddha the Brit

Not sure about the wise buddha bit but I have the belly for it.  Since I am trying to follow the  new self care approach and talk to myself like I would a pet I say to myself , "hey sweet girl, look at that beautiful belly, want a treat." I won't complain about my belly ;)

I'm glad skyping over a cuppa helps. Chatting with you every week is my joy Nancy. 

Sometimes when I need to feel grounded and relaxed I put on my earphones, close my eyes and listen to the sounds of nature.