Step 2; Step 3

Oddly enough I just had deja-vu sitting in my house, in the office with the sun streaming in, the train whistling in the background, my cat cleaning her paws beside me.. Like this is where am I supposed to be right now. There's comfort in that feeling.

Step 2 and Step 3 were quick reads for me, but non-the-less important and worth documenting.

Back to my analogy, again my way of making this idea more relatable for me...

Influence 2 on the will is the Body
2. Body-- this is generally where most of my patient's are most influenced... The hemiparesis (paralysis of one side of the body)  often occurring after stroke, the gait abnormalities, and the list goes on and on.  And then patient's engage in hours and hours of therapy and are asked to do more home exercises on their own time to influence their body... Like I said this category is huge for me...  

James Smith Bryan further made this analogy for me on page 27 of his book... He said "People who undergo physical therapy engage in exercises such as stretches and limb lifts to improve their ability".  This is where I  can influence my patient's... I can set them up with exercises and lead them through repetition after repetition of exercise and influence their recovery. 

AHA... This is where I can influence my spiritual recovery... 
Spiritual disciplines, or spiritual exercises, are also meant to have a therapeutic effect. James Bryan Smith says the way we practice these soul training exercises should be the same as PT (or OT!) exercises, "We do these things (even if they hurt a bit) because we want to improve how we function"... 

Travis' made mention in his sermon  9/15(get it here ) to the concept of neuroplasticity (okay so he didn't call it that but he was hinting at it! The OT in me knew it!)... Neurolplasticity is the idea that our brains are capable of re-organizing, making new connections and adjusting to new situations. One principle of neuroplasticity is repetition, repetition, repetition. He alluded to this with a study about finger tapping, that the area of the brain responsible for finger tapping became larger in a group of people who repetitively finger tapped. 
Like that I got it... If I want to change I have got to engage in these spiritual exercises repetitively... repetition, repetition, repetition. I tell my patient's that constantly, and now my pastor is telling me that! Neuroplasticity makes sense to me, he was speaking my language. Find words that make sense to you, it makes it an all new sorts of real! 

Influence 3

Community!

My analogy... 
3. Social Context-- my patient's recovery is influenced by the family that surrounds them, the medical and rehab staff that surrounds them, and the community the patient's build among each other.   

Recently I've had discussions with co-workers on the influence of family members on patient's motivation. We've looked at research and it's important. In turn, a patient's motivation is a huge piece of recovery. Thus, family support influences recovery.

How does this relate? Community with church and one another supports spiritual growth. 


I'm so grateful for the Holy Spirit who works in all 3 of these influences and arranges all 3 of these to coincide to nudge me towards Jesus.