Keeping your good attitude

Of course it is Christmas again,and of course we are busy. Parties, friends, lots of family, people in my house, lots of cooking, wrapping, schmoozing-- a little more activity than usual along with less chance to exercise and classes that are on hiatus. It is difficult to avoid being stressed. And as my symptoms are clearly more significant (to me)  it is difficult to keep that positive attitude. But I have tried to remember my own words .... This is something I can live with. I don't apologize for my slowness getting out of a car. That is just how it is. No apologies needed or expected.  I ask for help when I need it (usually ... This is a hard one.) And truly there are still a lot of situations where others don't notice my poor movement quality. So I just get exercise where I can and live with it! (Next week .. New Years resolutions!)

My attitude

I am aware that I have a few new readers so let me give you some basics. I am 55 and female. I was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1998 at the age of 39. I exercise a lot. This is my story, but I avoid using other folks' names. However I want  to tell my story to inspire others ... Especially when it comes to exercise!

I have mentioned before the importance of a positive attitude. The past week or so has been an interesting exercise in this. My symptoms seem to be more apparent in the past week. Notice I don't say that I am getting worse or that I am suffering a bad period. It simply is more difficult to move these days. (I am slow, my toes curled three times this week, my balance is way off to the point that I am more comfortable  sitting down --- just a few examples.) But I find myself thinking .... I can live with this. That is so much easier than thinking I have a degenerative disease that needs to be treated by whatever it takes to get me as close to normal as possible. The meds I am on now work sometimes. Sometimes I feel as if it is harder to move well so perhaps the meds aren't fully effective. But I am not in pain and I am not going to damage anything by just putting up with it.

Another benefit to the I-can-live-with-this attitude is the living part. I am not suffering from PD . ..  .I am living with it. As the symptoms progress slowly, I seem to be able to adjust to each new stage , making it straightforward to just live with it. So I will just live with it.

 And it is not going to go away. I can live with that.

Doing what you can

One of the questions I was asked by a PT student when I visited their class was what activities that I used to do, but that I can no longer do. This was tough, because I try to concentrate on what I can do, not what I can't. It was good to realize this. But it is true that I am limited. The one that popped out at me was no longer instructing in tai chi. I must admit that as a loss and mourn it. And move on. In all my activities and exercise classes, when people apologize for not being able to complete some task, I tell them NOT to apologize. We all do what we can, and that is all we can do. If we are limited, that is the way it is and we don't need to apologize.

So what I can do is take a hike in the glorious wintertime mountains with my husband ... and that is what I did yesterday. The view was grand!