We humans are all creatures of habit. We get into a pattern. Our daily lives follow much the same form. Rise roughly the same time every day, do our bathroom ritual, whatever private details that may include, in probably much the same order day after day. Commute to work. Starbucks. Work. Commute home. Cocktails. Dinner. Read. Work. Watch TV. Bathroom routine. Bed. Make love with the spouse or lover - or not. Sleep. Dream. Rise several hours later and do it all over again. This is if you're lucky enough to be working and you're not mindless and living on the street. Then your pattern is much closer to the pavement and it's bare bones survival.
If you're trying to break a habit, like quitting smoking, the resolve must be there, and it's easier if you break the life pattern too. If you get up in the morning, do the bathroom ritual, with a pack of cigarettes smiling at you next to the sink, or sit down to your usual breakfast, sipping the coffee and nearing the time you'd usually light up a smoke, chances are you probably will grab one, because the strong resolve you had last night has vanished this morning amidst your normal daily pattern.
But, if you get up and immediately go to the gym without the coffee and breakfast pattern, you're out of your normal mode. Your body reacts differently and your mind is occupied with other activities other than inhaling nicotine. Now, if you can continue to break your daily pattern until sleep, you may just be on the path to finally becoming a non smoker.
So too in dealing with COPD. Or perhaps better said, coping with COPD. COPE with COPD. You have to break your pattern. If you live your life like you always have, your breathless meanderings, from breakfast to lunch to dinner to bed, the disease will progress and eventually you will be dragging an oxygen tank around with you.
I'm a classic example - A prime rib roast and garlic 'n butter mashed potatoes loving guy with a penchant for chilled buttery tasting Chardonnays stuck in a pattern. The deeper I get into the pattern the worst my breathing becomes and more disability is established. A few years ago my meanderings were bearable and doable, I could get around, even tromped all over Moscow one winter. But now, even getting around the house is a difficult journey. As promised by Western medicine, my disease has progressed. So, I can either accept the progression and wait for the inevitable, or I can change my pattern and halt the onslaught.
I'm resisting the terminology "fighting for my life." Or "battling the disease." Sounds like a CNN broadcaster, "fighting the insurgency," winning the "war on terror." I prefer the mind set or the disposition of intelligent inner healing. Utilizing a new strategy on time, space, sound, and new action to bring about the desired result of better bodily functioning.
Step 1. Eat very lightly for a couple of days, no meat, just maybe rice and some lightly steamed vegetable, lots of water.
Step 2. Do a cleanse. I chose the Wild Rose 12 day cleanse. This will clean out any toxins in the system and empty the upper and lower intestine.
Step 3. Simultaneously with the cleanse I'm drinking only herbal teas, diluted fruit juice, and broths. That will give my body a rest from ingesting, digesting, and eliminating food, all of which takes over 60% of the body's energy. Now the body is relieved of this normal daily function, it can turn it's wisdom to healing. Step 4. Begin to practice the Buteyko breathing method. Google Dr. Buteyko. Better yet work with a knowledgeable seasoned practitioner.
I highly recommend Christopher Drake. His practice is in Thailand, but he works beautifully on Skype. It's like you're in the same room and is wisdom on breathing and physiology is, dare I say, breathtaking. http://cpdrake.googlepages.com/christopherp.drake
Very subtle changes are already beginning to occur. A few days ago my feet and ankles were swollen, today they're not. Why? I'm not sure, less work for the liver and digestive system creates more blood flow to my extremities? Could be. Whatever the reason, I'm grateful.
If we rate my morning cough on a scale of one to ten, the last few weeks have been ten, today it was seven and one half. I still have lots of mucous, my energy is still low, but there are some positive changes that in all likelihood would not have happened had I still been in my meat and potatoes, Chardonnay rhythm.
So, the body is weak but the spirit is willing. I used to say to my doctors as long as I can walk and make love I'll be fine. Well... walking around ain't great, and if it wasn't for the nitric oxide opening up my blood vessels and capillaries I'd be hooped.
Thank God for Dr. Konstantin Buteyko and Mr. Pfeizer, I'm still in the game. Ernest Hemingway killed himself when he couldn't write or make love any more. I think the famous blue pill would have saved him.
I love the image in this post. The guy looks tormented. I image he used to be able to run like a friggin' horse, but now with his COPD he can barely walk. Poor bastard. I can relate.
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