the Movement Monk and Lilian Sjøberg

Prepare to dive deep into Lilian Sjøbergs groundbreaking findings that have the potential to revolutionize how we approach and heal conditions like PTSD, Parkinson’s, trauma, chronic tension, and pain. Get ready for a mind-blowing journey that could change your life.

Enlightening interview with the brilliant researcher and
mind-body connection expert, Lilian Sjøberg

Benny Fergusson from the MovementMonk.xyz​

I had the pleasure of sharing an enlightening interview with the brilliant researcher and mind-body connection expert, Lilian Sjøberg. Prepare to dive deep into her groundbreaking findings that have the potential to revolutionize how we approach and heal conditions like PTSD, Parkinson’s, trauma, chronic tension, and pain. Get ready for a mind-blowing journey that could change your life.

About Lilian and Mind-Body Therapy

Lilian Sjøberg is an expert in mind-body connection therapy, has dedicated her career to exploring the intricate relationship between the mind and body. Through her extensive research and practice, she has discovered that by nurturing this connection, individuals can achieve remarkable healing outcomes. Lilian’s insights have the potential to revolutionize how we approach and treat conditions that have long been considered difficult to address..

Lessons Learned

During our conversation, Lilian shares a treasure trove of lessons that will leave you pondering the true potential of mind-body connection therapy.

Here’s a sneak peek at some of the mind-bending insights you can expect:

  1. Observing Healing in the Present Moment: Discover how cultivating awareness and mindfulness can tap into your body’s innate ability to heal itself.
  2. Bridging the Mind-Body Gap to Heal Chronic Disease:
    Lilian exposes the hidden emotional and psychological factors that
    underpin chronic conditions, revealing the keys to lasting healing and
    well-being.
  3. Links between Stress, PTSD, and Parkinson’s Disease:
    Prepare to have your assumptions shattered as Lilian unveils the
    surprising connections between stress, trauma, and the development of
    Parkinson’s disease. It’s time to rewrite the rules.
  4. Defragging Stress to Regulate the Nervous System:
    Master techniques for defragmenting stress and taking control of your
    nervous system, a crucial step towards unlocking peak performance and
    vitality.
  5. Body Memories and Trauma’s Links to Physical & Mental Disease:
    Brace yourself for a mind-blowing exploration of how trauma can
    manifest as both physical and mental ailments. Lilian shows us how
    mind-body connection therapy holds the key to unlocking profound healing
    potential.

Conclusion

That wraps up this mind-blowing conversation with the remarkable Lilian Sjøberg. We’ve ventured into uncharted territory, redefining our understanding of mind-body connection therapy and its potential to heal conditions that were once deemed untreatable. It’s time to unleash your own healing power and rewrite the rules of what’s possible.

(Below you see a list of content in this hour long video)

Body memmories

4 minutets from the above long video.
What are traumatic body-memories? Can childhood trauma be affecting your body today? And how can we get back into a parasympathetic nervous system state, so the body can heal? In this interview with Lilian Sjøberg we explore her research and findings of improving conditions like PTSD, Parkinsons, Trauma, Chronic tension and pain through mind-body connection therapy.

Fight flight freeze

4 minutets from the above long video.
What happens when the nervous system is stuck and triggered into a state of fight, flight and freeze? And how can we get back into a parasympathetic nervous system state, so the body can heal? In this interview with Lilian Sjøberg we explore her research and findings of improving conditions like PTSD, Parkinsons, Trauma, Chronic tension and pain through mind-body connection therapy.

Time to break the myths -
Ofcause you can become better

17 Lessons On Healing Trauma & Chronic Stress With Mind-body Connection Therapy

In this interview with Lilian Sjøberg we explore her research and findings of improving conditions like PTSD, Parkinsons, Trauma, Chronic tension and pain through mind-body connection therapy. 00:00:00 Introduction to the power of mind-body therapy
00:00:35 About Lilian and mind-body therapy
00:05:02 Lesson 1: Observing healing in the present moment
00:07:08 Lesson 2: Bridging the mind body gap to heal chronic disease
00:10:08 Lesson 3: Links between stress, PTSD and Parkinsons disease
00:13:41 Lesson 4: Defragging stress to regulate the nervous system
00:15:57 Lesson 5: Body memories, trauma links to physical & mental disease
00:20:40 Lesson 6: Intellectualising trauma as a self protective mechanism
00:23:27 Lesson 7: How to start healing trauma and the nervous system
00:27:40 Lesson 8: Working with different types of trauma
00:29:39 Lesson 9: Stress vs stressors: How trauma can form
00:35:41 Lesson 10: What is trauma really?
00:40:00 Lesson 11: The effects of trauma and stress build up on the body
00:42:01 Lesson 12: Triggers, trauma and body memories as a survival mechanism
00:44:20 Lesson 13: How to mindfully navigate self protective mechanisms
00:48:51 Lesson 14: Somatic Therapy: How I healed my body
00:51:58 Lesson 15: The embodiment path to healing the nervous system
00:54:47 Lesson 16: Moving forward in the face of fear
00:58:18 Lesson 17: Self expression & societal conditioning
00:59:40 Outro

Follow Lilian here

Follow my facebook group

Client after 3. sessions

How overthinking is not going to help a person who has a disease

Becoming Aware of my Overthinking Mind
and Making Friends with my Inner Four-Year-Old

HOPE shortcut

The method where people with chronic diseases such as Parkinson’s can reduce their stress-related symptoms and, with persistent work, break free of their diagnosis

One week after third session with Lilian and the Hope Shortcut

My Overthinking Mind
During my third session, Lilian and I talk about the inner dialogue, thoughts, the voice or voices in my head.

My mind has several voices running constantly. It is like having a TV on in the background that is constantly narrating, planning, ruminating, rehearsing, arguing, suggesting, doubting. It changes the channel frequently. It practices future conversations, or rehashes past ones. It plans for things that never happen. An overthinking mind can be dangerous – triggering the fight flight or freeze response continually.

One of its most interesting habits of my over-thinking mind is that it intricately plans escape routes. How would I get my infant son and the dog out of the window if the house caught on fire? Where would I hide if a gunman came to the house? It goes over the sequence of events in detail. I don’t sit down and plan these things. My mind just does it on its own.

Lilian tells me that not everyone’s mind is like that. Upon Lilian’s suggestion, I ask my friend what her mind is like. I assume, her mind is like mine constantly ruminating, worrying and planning. She has kids. I am sure she has a lot on her mind. She laughs and says her mind is usually pretty blank; it might have a dancing clown in it like Homer Simpsons’. That sounds peaceful.

“My mind has several voices running constantly.

It is like having a TV on in the background that is constantly narrating, planning, ruminating, rehearsing, arguing, suggesting, doubting”

We think we have a similar way of thinking - but we have not

We ask each other, “what do you think?” and get a story.


Next time ask in detail about HOW your friends are thinking.


Are they thinking in pictures, written text, a speaking voice, or with feelings?
How many voices do they use to think? 0, 1, 2, or more? Everything is ok, but having only 0 or 1 voice makes life easier and healthier.


Around 1/3 of the population are hardly thinking and doing well. The rest are thinking about yesterday’s regrets and the worries for tomorrow, or thoughts that drag your attention away from your body and the constant feedback you get from here.

My inner Four-Year Old
I notice that my freeze ups are often precipitated by internal pressure. There is the internal pressure I put on myself to do the things that I “should” do. I know I don’t want to do it, but I push myself anyways. Or I put pressure on myself to do something at 1000% effort. Somewhere inside, there is an inner protest or maybe an inner wisdom.

Lilian coaches me to have compassion for myself if I freeze up. To say to my body:
Its ok. This is what is right now, you are safe.

I have a profound experience when I have the opportunity to practice this. I sit through a freeze up and just let it be ok the way it is. This experience is profoundly different for me and I feel a shift.

There is the internal pressure I put on myself to do the things that I “should” do.

 

I know I don’t want to do it, but I push myself anyways..

Somewhere inside, there is an inner protest or maybe an inner wisdom.

I realize that I have been practicing relaxation and calming techniques for years. But I didn’t listen. I was just trying to get my body and mind to shut up and do what I wanted it to do.

This is one of the great things that my four-year old son has taught me. He is what people describe as “spirited”. I cannot just shush him. He demands to be heard and understood. Even if his concerns seem inconsequential to me, I have to listen, I have to acknowledge and empathize and then he will calm down. I can’t just tell him: “That’s silly. Don’t be upset about that.”

But I have not been listening to my body, to myself. My inner spirited four-year-old has concerns and is refusing to budge I have just been telling her: “That’s silly, don’t be upset about that” calm down, and do as you are told.

The good thing about spirited children, is that they bust up old patterns. They refuse to just comply with expectations and the “shoulds” that we try to force upon them. Therefore, they force us to evolve, to grow, to learn, to examine the shoulds that we have applied to ourselves and to rethink them.

Lilian is a bit like a spirited four-year-old. She is here to bust up old patterns and assumptions and evolve our way of thinking about stress and chronic illness.

Nicole St. Arnaud
23. march 2021, Alberta Canada

This is the third of a series of blog posts on the progress in Lilian Sjoeberg’s Hope Shortcut program for chronic illness.

You can learn more about her program here

The inner child

The inner child is a metaphor for you having a practical side.
You are maybe still hurt if someone is making comments as the bullies made in your school.


When you get an extraordinary feeling that is somewhat out of proportion with what happened, the “inner child” can still remember the past episode.


It is never too late to get a happy ending to this episode. Never too late to get a “happy” childhood. We cannot change what happened, but we can release the feelings connected to the devastating events

Connect the dots

The Gordian Knot of Parkinsons
and the clues that help us solve it
Parkinson’s disease is very stress-related – that we can all agree.

But are we missing something obvious that might help?

I have gathered knowledge that is already out there and “connect the dots”.
The solution is out there and already proved by science. So join the dots here

The Gordian Knot of Parkinsons
and the clues that help us solve it

Parkinson’s disease is very stress-related – that we can all agree.

But are we missing something obvious that might help?

We need to gather knowledge that is already out there and then “connect the dots”.
It took me 3 years to do so working 3 hours a day. I will do my best to show you the findings and add some of my own insights.

Here is  a man with Parkinson’s. He has problems walking, which is a typical Parkinson’s symptom. According to the current belief, this is a sign that he has a problem with dopamine in his brain, and this is easy to see in the first half of the video

In the second half of the video, you can see him biking without any problem, which is a sign that he has no problem with his dopamine production.

What’s going on? The answer to this strange phenomenon is that something gives him a limitation in the dopamine while walking, but not while he is biking. Other people can have problems driving or they might have no problems driving but difficulty with something else. Every person has their unique combination of symptoms and unique scenarios as to when they are having particular symptoms or not having them.

Here is an exciting shoe design that lets Parkinson’s people with freeze symptoms walk with “ease” due to a beam of light on the floor. So here you see that a visual sign that can catch your attention and help you. The person that has problems with freeze episodes will, with these shoes, be able to walk.

BUT how can a chronic disease be helped by light.
Because it helps the person to walk mindfully.
(They could make you clumsy… so learn to be mindful without them)

Here you see a man with Parkinson’s who needs a walker to make his way across a room but who can easily walk down stairs. This is because he is focussed on the task, rather than his regular distracted thinking routine, because he knows that the stairs need attention if he does not want to fall. It is not the time for distracted thinking when your next step can cause you pain if you do it wrong. It is time for focus and attention. So our standard flat floor and pavement are not stimulating our brain in a good way. The brain gets “lazy” and gives you time to think about challenges that are NOT in front of you.

If you combine the above strange observations with the videos below, you are close to solving the mystery about Parkinson’s disease. Like I did.
It is a shame science is not looking in this direction. But they are coming closer.
Popping pills is not the solution to this natural biological phenomenon.
Find more information about this via the links to the right.

Listen to this video, dancing helps people with Parkinson’s disease. So after dancing for an hour, these people feel better. On YouTube, you can find numerous videos talking about the benefits of dancing.

Boxing is also good way to reduce Parkinson’s symptoms.

You can find a lot of videos about other ways you can improve Parkinson’s symptoms (and these activities will help with a lot of other diseases as well.)

What is happening? The answer is that we are actually going in and out of our survival instincts all the time and this is causing symptoms. We can not help it. It is our body trying to keep us alive.

Here is the theory explained. Your body goes into fight flight and freeze and this give you all sort of symptoms. 90% of diagnoses and symptoms is due to a body in long-term stress

We all know how animals behave: run when they are in flight instinct (=exercise), fight when in the fight instinct (=boxing, as an example), and have an intense tremor when coming out of the freeze instinct. The last half of this video shows the freeze instinct which animals use when they cannot run or fight and are close to death.

I help people with Parkinson’s to find their way OUT of instincts because that is the culprit in Parkinson’s disease and many other diseases. I am a biologist, coach, and therapist, so I have a good perspective to see these similarities between humans and animals, and I have worked for several years with Parkinson’s clients. (One client has been rescanned and is now free of his Parkinson’s diagnosis. Usually this is a process that takes a long time)

Freeze is a Parkinson’s symptom. But if you consider it a natural symptom caused by stressors, your life will become easier.

 

Here you see the most dramatic stress response. Close to dead. See also how the body react to get out of that startle and how tremor and deep breathing is natural when getting in and out of instincts.

 

Below there are different videos that hopefully can convince you about the nature of instincts.

 

The day the world accept that most diseases are due to instincts is the day we can do something about it.

I help people with Parkinson’s to find their way OUT of instincts because that is the culprit in Parkinson’s disease and many other diseases. I am a biologist, coach, and therapist, so I have a good perspective in seeing these similarities between humans and animals.

I have worked for several years with Parkinson’s clients. (One client has been rescanned and is now free of his Parkinson’s diagnosis.)

I have made a six-week online course about this theory and how you can get better systematically. See more here

Over several years I have studied Parkinson’s people who got better or healed and also have a handful of my own clients that are slowly improving by the systematic concept that I call the HOPE Shortcut.

You can use the ideas you see here to help reduce symptoms, but the most effective way to improve is to STOP yourself from going INTO these survival instincts, and that is how I can help you.

Join my course and get the knowledge you need to find a more systematic road to better health.

A client talking about his new view on Parkinsons

I help clients from all countries.

Here Jeppe who now understand his symptoms and has reduced them to 50% during 10 sessions, due to reduction of some severe traumas from eg. accidents – a sort of PTSD.

A client talking about herimprovements and new life

Here is a woman that integrates everything I tell her, and works dedicated.
Here she tells us about her improvements. She is not using her cane anymore, she is not freezing anymore, and she is getting her life back.
She is even integrating my techniques into her business.

Below extra videos about activities that can help you out of instincts states. But most people must remove the triggers via trauma theapy

Big and loud? This behavior also drags you out of instincts. No one wants to be big and loud when a tiger is close but it also works the other way around which can be used to your advantage. You become relaxed when you make noise and move with self-confidence when no predators are around you.

Here is a search with articles about Tai chi ... it also works on Parkinson’s. You can find similar articles with yoga, Qi Gong, meditation… But the story is the same: EVERYTHING that makes you relax improves Parkinson’s.

 

And here’s a link to the The American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA) which sums this up without giving the full explanation about why you get diseases and how you regenerate back to own health: The relationship between stress, anxiety and Parkinson’s disease

This page suggests some of the many things you can do to reduce symptoms. Just choose an activity, believe in it and be persistent. The hardest part is to step out of medication as dopamine stimulates your mood but can often give you side effects similar to your Parkinson’s symptoms. And dopamine is degraded to adrenaline, a stress hormone that kickstarts the fight, flight and freeze reaction in the body…

 

Complicated?

Yes, that is why you need help from the HOPE Shortcut course.

Subscribe to my email list here and be the first to know when the course is on sale so you can benefit from this information. It will not be expensive, and the course is for everyone.

 

The Ebony Tower

I would recommend everyone to read the book by Prof. Gerald Pollack “The 4th Phase of Water”

A Shadow at the Heart of University Science.

“I think in future years, people will look back on this time as one of total shame for academia. The very people in academia who should have been leading the charge to question what governments were telling us and to pursue the truth, have actually been the ones most prominent in censoring any attempts to pursue the truth. It has been largely academics who pushed the government into the extreme restrictions and lockdowns. These include psychologists who were prominent at promoting the campaign of fear, which is well documented in minutes of meetings, a campaign to force people to comply with increasingly harsh restrictions and infringements of civil liberties, and then to close down any dissent against that” ~ Prof. Norman Fenton

A very revealing exploration of some of these background issues, which I would recommend everyone to read, is provided by the Prof. Gerald Pollack in the introduction of his book “The 4th Phase of Water”, and a more in-depth analysis of everything which may be wrong with modern University science is expanded on by Dr Iain McGilchrist in his new book “The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions and the Unmaking of the World”. My own observation is that academia is self-selecting and re-enforcing of certain “personality types”. Later, through Dr Laurence Heller’s work on Developmental Trauma, I came to know that these traits are actually trauma Survival Styles, and I could map what I saw in academia, and indeed, how I personally was manifesting in the world, almost perfectly onto these . After all, it takes a certain way of attending to the world to be able to spend decades hyper-focussed on an ultra-specialized area of science.

I have to agree that specific individual [by no means all] University based scientists or “academics” are far from being the heroes in the story of what has happened to us globally over the past two years. However, to my mind, this confluence of events only revealed a darkness which was lurking all along in the halls of academia, for I believe there is a hidden shadow of trauma which pervades University science. This is something I noticed and encountered first hand myself during two decades as an academic, although I didn’t have the words or concepts to describe or explain what I was seeing, and partaking in, at that time.

“The Ebony Tower” in the title is a play on words on “The Ivory Tower”, the latter being a metaphor often used for University life: a state of privileged seclusion or separation from the facts and practicalities of the real world, in favour of mental and esoteric pursuits. I make the case, in agreement with Prof. Fenton above, that the opportunity provided by the global situation emerging from china, produced a nightmarish version of this, as the trauma survival styles were unleashed without the usual checks and balances inherent in the system. Thus the Ebony Tower is the metaphorical place, the dark spire, from which certain academics, even more cut off from their peers than before, shielded from the civilization-level impacts of their words and behaviours behind Zoom screens, and utterly corrupted by the immense power to control peoples lives, have touched us all with the shadowy tendrils of the total authority granted to them by governments.

By Gary Sharpe

Humanism and De-Humanization, and Their Impacts on Health

In my own healing journey, I have found myself changed. Actually, the healing and this change were necessarily connected.

In my own healing journey, I have found myself changed. Actually, the healing and this change were necessarily connected.

I couldn’t learn to have compassion for myself, when I had not cultivated compassion for others. I couldn’t forgive myself, when I couldn’t offer forgiveness to others. I couldn’t care for myself, if I didn’t care about others. I couldn’t hold self-respect, without being respectful of others. I couldn’t be redeemed, when I didn’t extend redemption to others.

The arrows also put the other way too, and there are many virtuous cycles and positive feedback loops. So all of these things are needed and necessary in order to heal.

Indeed, when I now feel in to, and touch, the disdain, despite and contempt I used to have for fellow humans who did not think like me, I can viscerally feel the tensing, the contraction, the holding, the rage, the violence, the sickness. I am diminished.

I am noticing a rising tide of anti-humanism in the world, a belief being held by more and more people that humanity is irredeemable, a scourge that should be wiped from the planet, and the Earth would just be better off without us. This is a pernicious form of collective self-loathing. These feelings, chronically held, about our fellows, block the healing.

This is why I keep, and will keep on, speaking out about the dehumanization, demonizing, name-calling, scapegoating, blaming, shaming, castigating that is going on. This is terrible for us, a significant detriment to our individual and collective physical and mental health.

We are all, whether the purveyors, or those on the receiving end, diminished by it. It will be our undoing.

Yes, I agree collectively, we are prone to very stupid and self-defeating behaviours, actions and deeds, capable of atrocities and evil. Yes, we are very much on the wrong path right now, and doing enormous damage to ourselves and the planet. Yes, there are also amongst us, a few individuals who are totally irredeemable and lost.

Yet, I now see that a lot of people, perhaps the majority, are capable of change, have the capacity for acts of kindness, are striving to be good in terrible circumstances, are seeing the folly of our current path, and who are wanting and yearning for something better for everyone.

Indeed, I encounter more and more people who have seen the error of our ways, both on a personal and collective level, who are speaking up and speaking out, who are also striving to change, heal, improve, to become and be better.

More and more, everyday.

Here.

You.

You fill me with hope that better days are still possible.

By Gary Sharpe

Tending the Garden

Love, courage, kindness, giving benefit of the doubt, receiving gratitude, humour, the natural world, simple pleasures, social groups, metaphor, dancing, music.

Love, courage, kindness, giving benefit of the doubt, receiving gratitude, humour, the natural world, simple pleasures, social groups, metaphor, dancing, music – these are the flowers of healing – water them, fertilize them, and make room for them.

Hate, chronic fear, othering, dehumanising, lack of frivolity, anhedonia, staying indoors, addiction, isolation, loneliness, literal mindedness, immobility, discord – the weeds of dis-ease – don’t cultivate these, mind they don’t flourish.

By Gary Sharpe

Calm States For Health and Restoration

A few terms and definitions which I thought may help folks feel into the states of being, required for health and restoration, detoxification and anti-inflammation.

A few terms and definitions which I thought may help folks feel into the states of being, required for health and restoration, detoxification and anti-inflammation.

  • Placid – not easily upset
  • Tranquil – free from disturbance
  • Serene – untroubled
  • Restful – having a quiet and soothing quality
  • Pacific – peaceful in character or intent
  • At ease – free from worries or awkwardness
  • Content – in a state of peaceful happiness
  • Comfortable – physically relaxed and free from constraint
  • Resilient – able to withstand or recover quickly from difficult conditions
  • Equanimity – calmness and composure, especially in a difficult situation
  • Respiring – recovering hope, courage, or strength after a time of difficulty.
  • Contemplative – looking thoughtfully at something for a long time

Since many of the symptoms of many chronic illnesses have one-to-one correspondences with ingrained stress symptoms, all my studies point to the key for reducing these symptoms is in the ability and willingness to put the brain and body in such states of calm for prolonged periods.

Indeed, these states of calm are known to be the conditions under which the body can self-repair, detoxify and address inflammation. Being under chronic stress, psychological stress, or chronic fear effectively exiles us from these states, and hence necessarily results in increasing toxification and inflammation of the brain and body.

Here are a just of few of the very many conditions we have found there is good scientific literature for which supports the case that chronic stress is causal, triggering, and/or exacerbating, and hence for which stress reduction will be vital for recovery:

[If anyone finds other examples, let us know and we can add to the list – maybe google the name of your own diagnosis together with the word ‘stress’].

By Gary Sharpe

Gary Sharpe

Dr Gary Sharpe, Phd, is a scientist, diagnosed with Early Onset Parkinson’s Disease. After six years of dying inside, he started “Out-Thinking Parkinson’s” in order to pursue pragmatic and practical solutions towards progressive symptom reduction

Gary Sharpe

Dr Gary Sharpe, Phd, is a scientist and engineer by background, diagnosed with Early Onset Parkinson’s Disease in 2009.

 After six years of dying inside, he started “Out-Thinking Parkinson’s” in order to pursue pragmatic and practical solutions towards progressive symptom reduction for people with Parkinson’s Disease.

 Today, Out-Thinking Parkinson’s has become a major resource, where Gary and colleagues from around the world, who also have an insider’s perspective of PD, share their knowledge, philosophies and experience of living well with PD, and, also, record their stories of recovery.

strongly science backed, focused on pragmatic, practical and applicable research
Out-Thinking Parkinson's Progressive Symptom Reduction Strategies for Parkinson's Disease

Stress, Situations, Symptoms and Parkinson's Disease

It is in the nature of chronic diseases, such as Parkinson’s Disease, that symptoms manifest most when our survival instincts (fight, flight, freeze) take over our body’s function. This is why the severity and range of symptoms can vary moment to moment, hour to hour, or day by day, according to how stressed or how relaxed we are in that moment, for most chronic diseases

The Nervous system

Right now I am preparing an online course that explain diseases in a detailed perspective.

NORADRENALINE, ADRENALINE, DOPAMINE AND PARKINSON'S DISEASE

We explored a myriad of ways in which the various biochemical steps of the internal production of Dopamine could break down, leading to the Dopamine deficiencies in the body (including the gut and the eyes) and the brain, as is the case for people with Parkinson’s Disease

Real Life Improvement for People Affected by Diseases, from an Insider’s Perspective

Why Do We Do It?
Simply to help stop the suffering of People with Parkinson’s and their families as quickly as possible.

Who Is It For?
We are focused on providing information and knowledge for everyone, including People affected by Parkinson’s and those involved in their care, therapy and treatment, as well as education for the general public, students and the media.

What’s In It for People with Parkinson’s?
Significant reductions in both symptoms and drug-induced side effects. Significant reduction in health and care costs. Improved quality of life.






Why not use yourself as a study case

Gary Sharpes review of online course

The course provides the evidence that PD and many other diseases are significantly affected by stress and trauma, and instead of focusing on “curing” the disease, helps people to reduce any stress in their life, and explains how taking this biological perspective, one can do a lot to minimize symptoms.

ONLINE COURSE REVIEW: HOPE-SHORTCUT

The author behind the blog http://www.outthinkingparkinsons.com/ shares his thoughts about HOPEshortcut online course
HOPE shortcut
The method where people with chronic diseases such as Parkinson’s can reduce their stress-related symptoms and, with persistent work, break free of their diagnosis
  1. Review of HOPEshortcut online course
  2. Background: How this review was born

Review of HOPEshortcut online course

 The course provides the evidence that PD and many other diseases are significantly affected by stress and trauma, and instead of focusing on “curing” the disease, helps people to reduce any stress in their life, and explains how taking this biological perspective, one can do a lot to minimize symptoms. It is the pragmatic outcome of five years of collected knowledge about people worldwide improve their health, combined with the knowledge of Lilian’s theory about diseases.
 
In short, I feel that the material presented in the course is not only unique and extraordinary but also highly empowering for people with PD. Lilian has obviously put an awful lot of time and effort into it. Indeed, in total there are hours of video presentation, together with a lot of other media and supporting resources. The videos are presented in a very clear and well paced voice, easy to understand and accessible, illustrated by Lilian’s own life experiences, and anecdotes of the successes she has had already helped people with Diseases.
 
In addition to the videos, are daily encouragements, a vast library of everything Lilian herself studied along the way, a unique stress test to assess which state (calm, flight, fight, freeze) one tends to spend the most time in, and what to it about, and an English translation of a chapter on feelings from her book in Danish.
The first week is mainly about transferring all the knowledge Lilian has gained, and covers topics including Diseases and New Hope, Placebo Effect, Stress, Exercise, Physical and Mental Symptoms, Our Tribal Nature and Body Memory. The main thrust of this is to undo the damage or nocebo effect of diagnoses of degeneration and hopelessness, and to instil new hope that things do not necessarily need to get worse, and can definitely be improved. Suggested links for further investigation are provided through Lilian’s vast library of background information.
 
The second part stresses the importance of observing symptoms, how they can fluctuate and connecting these fluctuations with lived experiences. It provides a special dairy for observing symptoms, and instructions of how to complete it.
 
The third part covers four main strategies that people around the world have used to heal themselves of many chronic conditions.
 
The fourth part provides information on the next steps and how to use the information learned during the course.
 
In summary, I would definitely highly recommend this course for anyone affected by PD, especially those in the earlier years or recently diagnosed. However, I would (and have) also recommend it to spouses and families with people PD, partially as this might give insight into how they can best help, but also for their own sake too, in terms of managing their own stress, and preventing the situation causing them to also become ill.

Messages from Gary to Lilian

Straight forward and common sence

Fresh eyes

Lilian has a handful of diagnoses herself and can see that diagnoses are not random.
Her husband had a type of cancer, that hit mainly well-educated men… He is a professor in physics and survived Hodgins lymphoma

Background for this review

ONLINE COURSE REVIEW: HOPE-SHORTCUT
I first encountered Lilian Sjøberg when she began to interact in the comments section of my posts. My interest was piqued because she was one of the only other people who were saying some of the same things as myself. In particular, she had also unearthed the dopamine-adrenaline link, and hence had come to the realization that not only does chronic stress exacerbate the symptoms of Parkinson’s Disease, but can even be causal of them.
 
Another example was how Lilian talked about the devastating nocebo effect of diagnoses of hopelessness.
In some ways, Lilian was even way ahead of me in spotting the patterns and joining the dots. For example, she pointed out to me videos of people from WW1 with shell shock, who clearly had movements disorders not dissimilar to PD, as well as novel interpretation of the placebo effect, connecting it to the removal of stress.
 
Lilian is also way ahead of me in terms of turning what we have independently learned into a pragmatic therapeutic programme. While I have self-experimented and shared openly what I’ve learned along the way, Lilian developed the ideas into a strategy which she has applied to helping people with PD directly, that she calls the “HOPE-shortcut” method.

Inovative thinking

 
Lilian demonstrated to me how she had already helped a number of people with PD, who, with the support of her coaching, had become better. This includes a Danish man who, after going back to his neurologist subsequent to Lilian’s interventions, removed his PD diagnosis.
 
The starting point for Lilian’s HOPE-shortcut programme is an online course, which arms participants with the knowledge she had gained after years of study, and that also provides key practical strategies of how to get started on a recovery journey. .
 
When I learned that Lilian was facing having to give up on trying to help people full time, and needed to take an office job, because she had not be able to get enough people to listen the message or take up what she was offering, I was aghast. I set out to help get her message out, not least because it is essentially the same message as my own, albeit couched in much simpler and accessible terms.
 
For example, Lilian largely avoids talking about and getting bogged down by the complexity of brain chemistry, because, and I tend to agree with her, this is so complicated that we will probably never figure it all out, and instead focusses on the real world, lived experiences, of people with PD, connecting stressors to symptoms.
As part of this, I agreed to go through the online course part of the HOPE-shortcut program, assess it for the PD audience, make suggestions for improvement, if required, and to then write an honest review, which is below.
 

Observe your symptoms

In the process of learning the HOPE shortcut you learn how to keep a diary that helps you to connect symptoms and stress in your life.

Initially the reason is to give you a new belief about the disease

Later it becomes an important tool to reduce your symptoms one by one

Follow HOPEshortcut here

Nicoles reflections after 2. therapy session

A metaphor is a good way to get an understanding of a problem. Here: Beating a Dead Horse as a metphor for how a lot of people try to push their body to far

Beating a dead horse
or taiming a petrified mare

One week after second session with Lilian and the Hope Shortcut

“Haven’t I tried everything?”

The computer screen before me contains two rectangular boxes, side by side. One containing the smiling face of Lilian Sjoberg against a dramatic mountain background and the other containing my image, just a blank white wall behind me. There is something about this new virtual environment where I get to observe myself from this vantage point. I get to look into my own eyes and see the expressions on my face. It is very revealing. I am slightly slumped in my chair. My eyes are squinted into slits with my smile. The thought “Here we go again” crosses my mind. I feel a fool. Haven’t I tried this already? Haven’t I tried everything? I have tried so many things, so many therapies, programs, practitioners, doctors. Honestly, I have had enough. I feel like I am kicking a dead horse. But, I know that Lilian is onto something. She has observed the patterns and made the connections. Lilian is sure, determined, generous and for some reason she is steadfast in encouraging me. Some part of me must have hope, because here I am.

Lilian is appalled at my use of the phrase “beating a dead horse” which I try to explain is just an English turn of phrase.  It is actually quite a gruesome image. She suggests a more hopeful way of looking at things. Yes, the horse has been abused, but we can rehabilitate it. Like Black Beauty, it can trust and be free again. Belief, hope and a positive image is so important for healing. I can’t make much progress if I see my efforts to heal as beating a dead horse.

The dead horse is actually me: my poor abused body that I have been dragging around for years, decades actually, pushing it and forcing it against its will, ignoring it, applying all sorts of remedies, treatments and therapies trying to fix it, and medicating it. The horse understandably, doesn’t want to get up.

Traumatic events are stored in the body

The surviver is the person that react with fear and run away or use the freeze instinct often.

The relaxed person get eaten very fast by the saber tooth tiger.

In modern world the brain is operating in the dark and still collecting information on when to react to survive the next attack from a predator.

If you want to get better accept this biological fact and learn how to get out of your instinct stress

I have felt shifts and changes since I last worked with Lilian over a year ago. My physical condition has deteriorated but I have become so much more aware of the emotional connections to my physical symptoms. My medication is not working as well and my “off” periods have worsened significantly. An “off” is when the medication wears off, or fails and the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease break through. With my symptoms more prominent, I can actually feel what is going on in my body. The symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, when in full force so clearly feel like a full-body panic attack.  Well actually for me, it is mostly the left side of my body that feels the attack. My body is in fear for its life. It tries to stop me by freezing my muscles, stiff so I can’t move forward. My stomach tightens into knots, my throat closes, my eye gets wide dart from side to side. My jaw clenches, my body heats up, and my limbs begin to tremble. It is so clearly a deep terror, panic, all-encompassing fear, like the climax of a horror film when the victim lets out the blood-curdling scream. 

It has also become so 100% clear to me that often my physical symptoms are worsened, or are preceded by a fearful thought or an emotional response, even something seemingly benign, like my son making a mess in the kitchen, my inner critic judging me, or a perceived slight from my husband.  I have also talked to other people living with PD and some of them have confirmed their own experience that emotional upset can trigger an “off”. This not to say that I can control my symptoms, they still come and go on their own schedule holding me hostage for longer periods of time and leaving me with smaller and smaller windows of respite.

Interoception - the forgotten sense

Your skill to interpret what is going on in your body is together with balance and coordination very important skills.

We do not learn about them in school. But the ones that instictivly can feel and use their sence interoception are the ones that fast can do something fast and stop the decline in health.

The ones that understand the language of the body can avoid longterm stress and longlasting  stress symptoms

It is actually hard to really admit this observation. I feel so weak and frail. Is my constitution so fragile that the smallest upset can throw me into a frenzy of whole-body fear? Surely it is not that simple. There are layers of genetic and environmental factors that led to the damage in my brain that causes this intense reaction.  Lilian assures me that it is actually evolutionarily appropriate that survival of the fittest would have favored a heightened fear response. So, in fact, I am an evolutionary survivor. She assures me that this is not my fault.

It is difficult to accept the responsibility that my habitual thoughts, emotions and beliefs may be contributing to my illness that has kept me disabled for so many years. But this is an important starting point- to recognize that physical disease symptoms are linked to thoughts, beliefs and emotions.

This creates a tricky balancing act. There is a fine line that you must walk between seeing the correlation between symptoms and thoughts as an avenue for hope and seeing it as a reason for self-blame. It is not so easy to say, “oh just think differently and your disease will go away”. It is not that simple. There are layers upon layers. It is beneath conscious awareness.

The horse within me perks her ears and opens an eye. She lets out a soft sigh. I am finally seeing her.

I am finally listening.

She is not getting up yet, but there is hope.

Lilian is an observer and a trouble-shooter. She has observed the patterns clearly. She has made the correlations. She has noticed that chronic illnesses are grouping of stress response symptoms, Parkinson’s disease being a particularly obvious one. The growing understanding in the world is that 90% of disease is stress related.

Lilian does not base her approach on foregone assumptions about the mechanics of Parkinson’s Disease. The rest of the PD treatment world relies on the assumption that PD is caused by a lack of dopamine and focuses on that. Lilian has looked beyond that. She looks at each person individually and looks at each symptom as an overactive symptom of stress. She has developed a multi-step program to begin to alleviate the symptoms of chronic disease. The beginning point is the recognition that there is hope.

Her method of healing involves several steps.

  1. Adopting a new belief system that the physical disease symptoms are linked to thoughts, beliefs and emotions. (HOPE)
  2. Catching stressful reactions (Observe symptoms)
  3. Other healing modalities that reduce stress.
    E.g. exercise and getting to the root cause of subconscious or habitual stressful triggers and solving them (Pacify stress)
  4. Adding power to your own journey  (Engage)

 

In my first session with Lilian over a year ago, she explained step 1. In that year (this is not a standard length of time between visits, it is normally one to two weeks), I have seen so clearly and experienced the correlation between thoughts, emotions and beliefs so acutely in my body. And so here I am and I begin again. Ready to look deeper, to see if I can address what is keeping my body in a perpetual danger response.

The horse within me perks her ears and opens an eye. She lets out a soft sigh. I am finally seeing her. I am finally listening. She is not getting up yet, but there is hope.

Change your beliefs

You need to have  supporting beliefs on your journey toward smaller symptoms:

Of course you can get better

Mind and body are connected and interact

If just one person in the world can get better, so can I

Here I am ready to look deeper, to see if I can address what is keeping my body in a perpetual danger response.

.

Nicole St. Arnaud
11. march 2021, Alberta Canada

This is the second of a series of blog posts on the progress in Lilian Sjoeberg’s Hope Shortcut program for chronic illness.

You can learn more about her program here

May Evers – Dancing

See this story if you want a better health

May Evers

“I was diagnosed in 2014.

Since then, I’ve been trying to come to terms with Parkinson’s. It annoys me that Parkinson’s and its symptoms are little known in the public and I am trying to change that.

I use a lot of time to find out how I can reduce my symptoms.”

Dance and reduce your symptoms
May found out that dancing 2x 30 minutes reduced symptoms.
She got diskinesia due to overmedication and have stepped down 30% in medication

Who is May

May here introduces herself and her way to smaller symptoms

  • She could feel she needed to move and start dancing 2×30 minutes a day.
  • Because of dancing she got diskinesia due to overmedication and reduced her medications by  30%
  • She has felt that needlework also calms her down. The monotonous work that needs your full attention is mindful.
  • Hiking is also the body’s natural way to a calm mind and body

Stiching helps as well

The many faces of Parkinson’s

A picture of hope May wants to make 185 embroidered portraits of people with Parkinson’s disease, put together, make a big face of hope. People are united by the hope of healing. What keeps them strong is the community.

“Take part in this adventure!

I am still missing a few photos of people with Parkinson’s so that I can reach my goal. I would be very happy if you would support me. Send a photo of you to dererstefisch@web.de, I will delete it immediately after processing.

Here you can see how many portraits I have finished, how many are currently in progress and how many I am still missing.”

Dance down in symptoms

May dance morning and after work.

Doing this natural movements help you to get out of your instincts.
If you are 100% calm you do not have symptoms.
Here you can see a video she has made about her dancing – an example.

The right belief

May try new therapies and excersises and listen carefully to her body to see what she can do to become more calm. This ability is called interoception and is an important sense of ours.

She understand that it take time every day to reduce stress.

Her job takes time from the most important thing to get better. But she is doing her best.
Now she use nearly 2 hours per day and 4-5 hours hiking in the weekent

Why not search for anything that helps and try it​

Tiphanie Gould-Gillespie

Draw – paint – art. The way to better health. It is possible to become better and reduce your symtoms from most diseases that are stress related as Parkinsons

Artwork as way out of stress and symptoms

Tiphanie Gould-Gillespie is one good example of how Parkinson’s is NOT a devastating disease. She used her diagnosis as a transformation to a better life.

Not only are her symptoms reduced to 20%, but she also chose to come off her prescribed medication, and she instinctively knew that she had to change her lifestyle completely.
She drew a line in the sand on her old life entirely. She challenged her own imperfections and learned to live with them through her artwork.
She had never painted before, but during the last year has seen Tiphanie has seen her art develop to a place where she can start to exhibit her works for other people to admire.
What could your challenge be?
She found that painting was a way of reducing her stress and leading to a more mindful life, whilst her Parkinson’s symptoms reduced considerably.

Hobbywork - Painting
- a way to a symptom free life

My past - stress

My world was perfect. I had a fascinating but full-stress job.
I was a high performing speech therapist
I start to have Parkinson’s when I was in the middle of all this, but I covered up my symptoms.
When my Parkinson’s got worse, I have to step out of my job. I had so many significant side effects that I chose to step out of medication, which was very hard.
I now consume zero medication.

"I have made a challenge to see what happes if I painted full time for one year."

tiphanie gillespie
On pause due to Parkinsons

Reeinventing myself

I need to do something to reinvent myself.

I instinctively knew that I must do something radical.

I transformed from being an extroverted business girl to an introverted artist.

I have never painted before as I have many talented artists in my family. I saw the painting when they struggled in life.
Little did I know that making art gives you a break from stress.

Being 100% dedicated to my art has given me confidence as an artist selling my art.

Being a hermit in my house for the last year has been fantastic for my mind and learning new skills.

I only make 2 social arrangements per week.

No one understands this, but my symptoms have been reduced the big time by this calmer lifestyle.
What a difference a year makes

Thiphanie have started to sell her art on posters and t-shirts

When I could not wear high heels, I could paint high heels

I looked at my old wardrobe with lots of buttons and gorgeous-looking decorations that made the clothes difficult when getting dressed.
I left the fashion style and now wear practical clothes, no makeup, and a simple hairstyle. I needed to let go of so many of my previous habits for dressing. I let go of old standards for how I needed to look. I feel a lot calmer, not needing to be the perfect version anymore.

197571659_10216961227537866_5815724315850806757_n
214908783_10217090526370256_1129605522840988479_n

There is beauty in the broken.

I integrate the tremors in my art. When I have tremors and use the waves as an extra element.

Mental Health and the connection to Parkinsons

Mental Health must be truly understood for what it is.
Mental Health is literally at the core of all things mental, physical, spiritual, and political. Mental health is the core factor of every single choice as we move through the world. Every single interaction is shadowed by the state of our mental health.

Why not integrate your tremor into your hobby, and bend your definition of perfectionism