Mind Healing Body?

[Michelle]

As we seem to have a habbit of digressing I thought it a good idea to start this thread.

Happy Thoughts

Michelle

[Michelle]

Me and my cat are both practising Buddhists. It is quite simple to have compassion for the criminal. I have to suffer from his actions just once, while he has suffer from himself continuously. To deter him from stealing my badge is beneficial for both of us.

 

I must say that the above really spoke to me. Forgive my ignorance...How can a cat be practicing buddism... Is it something to do with the belief that your cats have been here before?

A few weeks ago we watched a documentary about buddists monks who ran a tiger sanctuary. It was truly fascinating. Plus I adore Tigers.

Michelle

[Michelle]

Hi Michelle,

its a good job you're a moderator as otherwise we would be getting told off for being off topic and discussing religion.

 

However, as spirituality and philosophy relate to mental health and mental health is an important issue with MS I suppose it must be OK. I am not sure I can twist this subject to include Bladders though.

 

You ask "how can a cat be practising Buddhism?" It would be more valid to ask how can a human practice Buddhism? Our minds are so cluttered up with ideas and delusions about ourselves and we carry so much baggage in our minds about how things are supposed to be. Thus it is very hard to see how things really are. For a cat its easy. Cats live in the moment. People have to meditate for hours to learn to do that. Mind you, it is tricky explaining to a cat that the moth she just killed will probably bring her some bad karma in the future. However, I learn a lot from my cat. I have been thinking of writing a book about it.

 

I think my buddhist philosophy has helped me accept my disabilities and my MS.

But then I think this is probably true of any belief system if it provides some solid ground on which you can drop an anchor while being tossed about by life.

 

Ah! Bladders! Now there is something that brings your attention back to living in the present moment.. excuse me, got to go.

 

Regards

 

John

[Michelle]

John,

As you can see I have started a new thread... This is incase we digress even further We can now leave the bladders in peace

Michelle

[Marina]

Hello?! When did Michelle have a sex change and turn into John?

[Gaynor]

funny , I was wondering what had happened there too !

 

Gaynor

[Michelle]

I fancied a change John leads a much more exciting life than me... Gawd! Trust me

Michelle aka John...Or is it John aka Michelle Help

[Heste]

Hey, this is the real John.

 

It

[Michelle]

John,

You make me sound lovely To all the new members that might be reading this thread. I have hidden my teeth under the bed in a glass...So don't be worried.

Michelle

[Heste]

Sorry Michelle, I am sure you are a pussycat really.

 

But then considering some of the murderous pussycats I have here I think I prefer Tigers. I have one, an American Snowshoe named "the brat", who if you tried to stroke him will take half the skin off your hand.

 

Regards,

 

John

[Michelle]

Ref Spiritually intact after MS. Yeah, I'm intact

Michellle

[Heste]

I am heppier now I have a name for this demon. It is very depressing to go blind in one eye for no good reason or to start stumbling without a reason and then being unnaturally tired. I knew something wasn't right and Alexandra was secretly thinking Cancer.

 

Living with that was raising my level of background stress. It plays on your mind.

 

When my Neuro first first said MS I was so hugely relieved. I didn't know what MS was, but it was a name. Suddenly everything was explained.

 

MS may be full of uncertainty but given a name it sort of puts all that uncertainty into a container. It may not be predictable but it operates within the scope of a known condition. It's not cancer, I am not dying.

 

So next comes the coping mechanisms. For me it's looking for positives. This can be quite annoying to the wife as it ends up giving the impression that I am actually glad I have the condition. I brought myself a new car (automatic Toyota Yaris T-Spirit) and taking up whatever concessions are going. Rather than fight against it I seem to take ownership of it. I stuck a flag in that limboland place people talk about and started to charge rent. Well if you're going to have to live with a condition you may as well make it work for you.

 

My second coping mechanism is making changes to my lifestyle and plans that negates the effects of the condition. For example, we had a plan to extend the house by converting the attic into a main bedroom. I have now revised this plan to convert the attic into a bed/sitting room with ensuite bathroom. The plan is actuially much the same but now it's not me going up all those stairs. We will rent it out. The first occupant will be my brother-in-law who lives with us already but should I get worse and stop working it will be a rentable room.

Then I am planning alternative home working ideas. Having already thought these ideas through it would be less scary if I get worse. If I don't get worse, and I might not, then its comforting to know that have a plan anyway.

 

My third coping mechanism is spiritual. I have been Buddhist for many years and I find this helps. As a Buddhist I don't have to worry about finding answers to questions like "why me?" or "what did I do deserve this?". It's not my fault. The condition wasn't given to me by anyone (good or evil). so there is not blame, no guilt and nothing to be attoned for.

 

And lastly, I can support and be supported by anyone and everyone who can be bothered to listen. The internet is a terrible place to look for a cure but a great place for support.

 

Thank you for listening me waffling on, sometimes it helps just to talk about it.

 

Regards,

 

John

[Michelle]

Dear All,

For Christmas I was bought 'uplifting' aromatherapy oil to use in the oil burner that I have. I must say that I have found it to be quite invigorating...

Give it a go...You never know it might help.

Michelle

[Michelle]

The Surviving Self

 

This might seem a very tall order,but I have seen music of the right kind serve to orient and anchor a patient when almost nothing else can. Music 'therapy',formal or informal,can succeed with deeply demented patients because musical sensibility, musical emotion and musical memory are deeply embedded in the brain,and they survive long after other forms of memory have disappeared.And yet the perception of music and the emotions it can stir are not solely dependent on memory,for I have seen very demented patients weep or shiver as they listen to music they have never heard before. Once one has seen such responses,one knows that there is still a self to be called upon,even if music,can do the calling.

 

Oliver Sacks is author of 'Musicophilia: Tales of the Music and the Brain'

[Shirl]

Honestly, you lot - I thought I was going mad at the beginning of this topic! But discussing spirituality - yep, good idea, Batman/girl.

 

I am a Christian - the future holds no fears for me but getting through the days between now and the end, now that's sometimes a problem! I have eternal peace but find that MS and its treatments can leave me feeling very 'down' even though I am a naturally cheery and positive little soul. Particularly antibiotics...am on them at present but can't talk about it as it's the off-topic bladder thing again.

 

John, I hold my hat out to you! For having the foresight to think life through. My career was taken away from me in 24 hours...I had an accident in school, the worst of a line of mishaps that showed my GP I could no longer function as a teacher. Once on my pitiful retirement/ill health pension, I am not even allowed to teach privately from home. Hence the writing...

 

I would like to start a new religion...it's called Adaptability and it's an exclusive sect for MSers only. As always, for me, you take one day at a time. You are always prepared to change your plans at a moment's notice. And you must live with disappointment in your heart but the antidote to that is HOPE.

 

I think I know what I mean.

[Heste]

I would like to sign up to your new Adaptability religion. However I would immediately form a splinter group called the

[linds]

WOW I just came on to say Happy New Year. Very intense conversations have been taking place here.Food for thought as they say We all need love in our lives to help us cope - both giving and receiving. Human or animal or any other kind. All I think is that MS stands for massive stress so I try to deal with that the best way I can. You forum friends help with this.

 

Happy New Year LIndaxx

[mayb]

I was brought up as a Roman Catholic and was very taken by that when I was a young girl - the answers were all there and you knew right from wrong and you could help the poor etc and feel good about that - simple stuff. As I grew up I began to feel that was all too easy - plus all around me I could see a lot of people going through the motions but not living the life if you know what I mean.

 

Of all things though I hold on really hard to my conscience and truly believe the worst thing I can do is go against that. Never do something to someone else you wouldn't want done to yourself. Unless you are really strange you can't go to wrong with that one. I don't 'practice' my childhood religeon but in some ways it is still with me and supporting me. Looking for the motives for people's actions rather than the action itself helps too. That is certainly one that helps with my mum Shirl, whatever she does she doesn't consciously set out to hurt me.

 

I do believe that whatever happens to you is for a purpose, that sometimes you can't know what that is, but there is a reason. This helps with acceptance of your life. My healer friends are not religeous in any way but share this view as they feel this life is only part of the life you are destined to have - you grow you learn and you come back. Sometimes you come back to help someone else grow and learn and you are just part of their path. I find that really comforting and it fits in with the way I feel it must be.

 

Somehow I have always felt that I am here to learn to be patient. Not easy for me as anyone reading my posts must know. Can't think of anything that would stretch your patience more than waiting and wondering what's wrong with you. It is affecting every part of your life and you can't do a damn thing about it. The other thing is to learn to accept help from others - not something I do easily either, yet people like to be needed and helpful. Nothing worse than trying to help and having it thrown back at you.

I have always been the one in charge, the one sorting out everyone else and taking on other people's troubles.

 

That's it really - I think my health issues are part of my learning process or perhaps someone else's and its not over yet, who knows what the reason might be. Through the healers I have met so many people with much worse things to bear and through this site I know that some people are suffering much worse things than I have or probably ever will. Yet it is often the worst affected who are on here helping others like me.

 

I will read this thread again when I am punching my leg to get rid of the pain and wanting to punch my horrible little neuro too and shoot my boss, - whoa where's that patience gone now - haven't quite got the hang of it yet have I? As such a slow learner I must be due to live to a ripe old age. Yet I have often been told that I am a very patient person, and I think if only they really knew the struggle that was. I am fooling some of the people all of the time.

 

Sorry that was a long one - sort of thinking out loud really like John.

[Shirl]

Mary, I agree with you that it is essential to keep a short account with God. Some may call that their conscience but it amounts to the same if we are serious enough.

 

Plus, looking for the good in others - a timely reminder - thanks Mary. At present, I am not sure what to do next for The Parents so I'll await events to present themselves.

 

I do like your style, Mary - again, thanks.

[fishy]

I am a Christian and have been for quite a few years now, for me my faith was a choice I made, not born into. A bit like John choosing Buddism. I agree with John about how transcient life and 'things ' are. My hope in Christianity is that Jesus is perminant and never changes, so when I feel like everything is in a constant state of change and uncertainty, the one who is central to my Faith (Jesus) never changes.It is always good to rely on someone more reliable than yourself (you need that if you are like me ).

Sorry I haven't got any spiritual insights from my pets ...but now I think about it the two second long memory reminds me of me I think...

but then I can't remember...

Fishy

[Michelle]

I agree!

Michelle Mind you! I'm not sure who chose who...

[fishy]

Well said :)

Back to the old semicolon thing as have lost animations again and don't know why!

Fishy

[mayb]

looks like life is not the only transient thing fishy. When I was young my mother used to pray to St Anthony to help her find things and it always worked for her. I can sometimes picture where things are, my healer friends would say that if you visualise something happening and believe in it it will happen - like finding a parking space etc. It is all the same really - it is just faith in something higher than yourself whatever you call it. It is acceptance that you are not the one calling the shots here really.

 

Again an old saying that always comes back to me is whatever is meant for you wont pass you by. That relates to good or bad. We don't know why we have to go through some things, but that higher power does know and we have faith that there is a reason and that brings acceptance and peace. Not all the time, but overall that is what I try to think.

 

I am going to visualise your animations magically returning fishy - why don't you try it too.

[mountainboy1984]

Cool article over on Disaboom website about how your mind can affect your health. Here is a paragraph - whole article can be found here

 

Many people have heard of

[Aldo]

thanks for that, quite interesting. It reminds me of some hearts and minds we used to do in the army, spoon of sugery water in 3rd world countries!

 

intersting web site i find, first time i looked on there was today.