In a recent Clear and Vivid podcast with Alan Alda, he sits with Michael J. Fox, sharing their experience of living with Parkinson’s disease. Diagnosed with early on-set Parkinson’s in 1991, Michael notes that he spent 7 years with the disease before going public with the news; the sharing of which brought him into a community in which he could draw from their strength. I especially resonated with his words on acceptance: “Acceptance does not mean resignation. When you accept the reality of something, you accept it as tangible………….what I don’t do is project. To project is to think about where its going; you need to understand where it is today but I don’t have to spend a lot of time on where its going to be tomorrow.”
This seems like pretty good advice for any challenge we may have in our life. When we move into the worries of tomorrow, it can throw us into thought loops that keep us anxious and actively fretting; a reactive position. If we concentrate however only on today, on one thing at a time, we can break down our moments into ones that feel proactive, making us feel calmer, more accomplished and more accepting of our situation.
To listen to the full podcast: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/clear-vivid-with-alan-alda/e/57201087?autoplay=true&fbclid=IwAR3UasQtAdT5ns-KLjbkoiYAvijFgwN5TljlAVYo0L3xG5xCneiGYL_tQ3A
Photo credit: http://Photo by Marcus Wallis on Unsplash
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