Walking on Pins and Needles

A Memoir of Chronic Resilience in the Face of Multiple Sclerosis

by Arlene K. Faulk

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Pub Date Feb 22 2022 | Archive Date Mar 15 2022

Greenleaf Book Group | River Grove Books

Biographies & Memoirs

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Description

Tai Chi is not about trying harder; it’s about letting go, being in the moment, feeling balance, and the fluidity of energy. When you’ve been voted as “most likely to succeed” as a senior in high school with a bright future ahead, you set challenging goals and move forward to fulfill expectations. And as far as Arlene Faulk—accomplished businesswoman, storyteller, and Tai Chi instructor—knew, multiple sclerosis wasn’t going to get in her way. At the age of 22, in the middle of working the busiest shopping day of the year, Arlene loses all feeling in her body from the waist down. Her mobility returns but she’s given no diagnosis, and one question pervades her thoughts: What is happening to my body? In this moving and illuminating memoir of one woman’s years-long struggle to understand and conceal her debilitating symptoms as she ascends the corporate ladder in a major airline comes a story of perseverance, rediscovery, and hope in light of multiple sclerosis. As she jumps into the unknown, Faulk finds comfort and healing through Chinese medicine and Tai Chi. Her inspiring story demonstrates how a chronic and debilitating health condition lacks the power to control our lives and stop us from moving in the direction of possibility.

A Note From the Publisher

ePub file to come

Advance Praise

“I have known Arlene since I started my integrative medicine and neurology practice at the Heartwood Center in 2013. I know firsthand the healing effects of Arlene’s Tai Chi classes through the experiences of our mutual patients and clients. After reading her memoir, I am honored to know such a truly exceptional individual. Her book documents her journey as she navigates the highs and the lows of life with multiple sclerosis. More importantly, it’s an inspirational account of the power of self-healing. I highly recommend this book to anyone going through their own personal health and healing journey.”

—Rowena Chua, MD, Integrative Medicine and Neurology

“In Walking on Pins and Needles, Arlene Faulk delivers a gripping memoir of her exciting professional trajectory, first interrupted, then ultimately flattened, by chronic neurological disease. Hitting a dead end with western medicine, she explores other healing modalities, including the ancient, low-impact movements of Tai Chi. Slowly, steadily, her health returns. A powerfully inspirational story, exquisitely written.”

—Christopher C. Cinnamon, JD, MS, head instructor, Chicago Tai Chi; author of Tai Chi for Knee Health: The Low-Impact Exercise System for Eliminating Knee Pain

“This is an amazing story of resilience. Arlene finds a way to reinvent herself, obstacle after obstacle. Along the way she finds the healing powers of Tai Chi, and as typical for her, uses this to help heal others. This book is a living example of the impact exercise and a positive attitude have on health. It is also a reminder for those of us in the medical field to be persistent in finding positive solutions for our patients and acting as their partners in health. An excellent book to read and share with others who need inspiration!”

—Lisa Kokontis, MD, neurologist

“With a quiescent calm and intimacy, Arlene takes us on her journey from getting off the couch to teaching Tai Chi in response to a debilitating disease. When western medicine offered no or unsatisfying answers to what she later learned to be multiple sclerosis (MS), Arlene listens to her body and embarks on the world of eastern medicine and changes her life. This is an inspiring read for acupuncture and Tai chi students & practitioners and for those with chronic illness who are bold enough to look outside of the box.”

—Dr. Lori Howell, L.Ac., DAOM, associate professor, Pacific College of Health & Science

“This riveting book tells the astonishing true story of Arlene Faulk’s reshaping of her life as she reclaimed it from multiple sclerosis. From her start as one of few women climbing the corporate ladder, she movingly takes us, step by step (literally), through her wrenching descent into a nearly immobile existence—and then her miraculous rise into an active, happy life grounded in the practice and teachings of Tai Chi. Like its author, the book conveys deep truths with deceptive simplicity, straight from the heart. Along with her many other students, I’ve found inspiration and healing in Arlene’s approach to teaching Tai Chi, a gentle way of re-orienting those of us with physical challenges whose echoes resound through this compelling narrative.”

—Elizabeth Mertz, JD, PhD, long-term Tai Chi student

“Arlene Faulk’s memoir of self-healing shows two decades of ignoring symptoms, burying suffering, and refusing to quit. Her succinct, unadorned chapters read like eating popcorn. No woo-woo, no religious visions, but powerful, simple ‘steps’ that change her illness to life energy.”

—Nancy Beckett, founder of Beckett & Company, Creative Writers’ Collective Chicago

“Arlene vividly shows how perseverance, changes in lifestyle, and daily commitment to healthy exercises can lead to health. She lives out what I’ve learned through my years of clinical research. Be inspired and get ready to begin your healing journey, a step at a time!”

—Terry Wahls, MD, author of The Wahls Protocol: A Radical New Way to Treat All Chronic Autoimmune Conditions, and clinical professor of medicine at the University of Iowa