The rehabilitation clinic Schönberg is about 45 km away from the Inselspital Bern, located at a beautiful spot on the northern side of lake Thun. There is a fantastic view of the Bernese Alps, especially of Mount Niesen lying on the opposite side of the lake. Very often, I absorbed this breathtaking view changing in the course of the days – with the change of weather from brilliant sunshine to fog, storm or chasing clouds.
However, I was not here for holidays but for rehabilitation. I had to re-learn keeping balance while walking, not losing equilibrium while quickly turning around the corner or moving the head, walking up the stairs or ascending the path to the beautiful park behind the clinic.
On the day of my arrival I came to know that the health insurance had granted me three-weeks-stay. In a first medical assessment the doctor-in-charge defined together with me the goals of my stay: regaining strength and perseverance, improvement of balance, secure and painfree movements.
My program consisted of physio-theropeutical exercises, massages, esp. of the feet, and using training devices but of a soft kind. While these were individual exercises, I rarely was alone during this time: I always shared my room with another patient. The first colleague had very serious health handicaps which made me feel grateful of not having to endure such difficulties in handling my body. I also saw many, mainly elderly, people most of them either with crutches or in wheelchairs.
The normal length of a stay in the clinic is two weeks, partly three weeks, rarely longer. To have a good and regular exchange, we were arranged to sit together in a group of four men during lunch and dinner; for breakfast, we could chose our places ourselves. It was interesting to have some looks into other lives and destinies. Most of the people were 75+, so I felt quite young.
I was sleeping much more than I normally do, quite often about 10 hours/day. But the body required a lot of rest. There remained little time for “normal” meditation, just early in the morning. It is another kind of inner alignment during these days of intense inner withdrawal.
Tomorrow morning will end the three weeks’ stay at the clinic Schönberg, and I will return home again. I have been living in a kind of cocoon the last eight week; another phase of life will now start again, after a profound time of inner and outer transformation work.