48. Grit and Growth: Navigating Stress in Stroke Recovery (Part 2)

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Hey. Hey. Hey. Couple of quick notes before we hop into episode 48 here of the Globalstar podcast, our dime's charm. I'm recording this intro this week. So we're talking part 2 of our series in grid. I don't think I'll do a 3rd episode because it really ties into other things. But, anyways, this part 2, episode 40 perseverance and, really, what I think is that mindset matters, focusing on practical tips, acknowledging things that once seemed kooky. And believe me, I am an East Coast New York guy through and through, things that I thought would never in a 1000000 years work. They have wound up working for me, and that is because I stayed open to the possibility that I didn't know everything. I still don't know everything, and it's been really helpful in my recovery. Again, I've tried a lot of things that a lot of people have tried. Some things work, some things don't. So keeping an open mind and really, like I said, that sounds ridiculous, but when you really explain it and it's just breathing exercises to help you functionally breathe better, it makes a lot more sense and it's a lot more clear to me, and it sounds a lot less kooky. So, yeah, things that are kooky, don't dismiss them necessarily. They may not work for you, but stay open to trying them, especially if you're working hard.

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You have that gritty attitude, that gritty mentality, that perseverance, but, you know, the traditional stuff's not working. So stay open to that there because there's so many things that we just don't know until we until we find out, until we honestly, until you fuck around and try out. So yeah.

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Hopefully, that things that were kooky that still seem kooky actually wind up do working for me. Again, revisiting previous passions that you had, old passions, new passions, just things change. Right? Stroke recovery is a very complex thing. It is different for every individual stroke survivor, whether you're old, whether you're super fit, whether you were out of shape, you just don't know what will work for you until you really get after it, and you keep pushing and you keep going and you keep trying. And, you know, I still don't believe that there's necessarily a 100% recovery, but I believe you can get a 100% of where you want to be because the last 5 years, I've realized things change. My priorities change. My path changes. My thoughts change. Everything evolves and changes over time.

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So there may not be a day where you get back to a 100%, but there might be a day where you feel like, yeah, I am really at, you know, 98%, and I like to always leave a little buffer there.

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And you continue to keep going. It's really important because we're gonna be survivors for life anyways. Check out survivorship.com. Over there, the center, join up.

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Hop on the blog. Join up, and, yeah, let's hop into episode 48 of the Love Boat Survivor Podcast starting now.

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Welcome back to another episode of Lovell's Smart Podcast. This week in episode, we're going to talk about part 2 of grit. I am really excited about grit. It is a topic I love. If you listened to last episode, you know I'm very passionate about grit. I love Angela Duckworth's take on it, and I love just grit in general. It's something that sort of really speaks to me. Takes to recover from a stroke as a survivor. So this week, we'll recap last episode where we discussed the basics of grit, what it is to perseverance in episode 47, and how these concepts are really for me to me, they're essential when stroke recovery. They're not mandatory.

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Everybody has innately within them. Some people do, some people don't. We'll have discussion around that, but it is something that can be developed over time. I think for people that are former athletes that have played sports, team sports, individual sports, even beyond sports, probably, I can my head. But I know we've all had things in life where things come up, life happens. Right? We've all faced difficult times, whether we're strokes or others or not. Stroke may may be a bias here, but it's probably the one of, if not the hardest thing to overcome. But they're they're, you know, that there's a lot of things in life that people have to over overcome, challenges we're faced with, difficulties in life, could be financial, could be family, a wide range of topics and things. But, yeah, grit to me I think some people are born with a little bit more grit. Some people need to learn it over time, but, again, it's something anyways, diving into this week's episode, diving into more of the practical strategies to develop grit. Again, we talked about grit and Angela Duckworth.

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I think she certainly has been the most vocal about grit and what it takes to overcome challenges, life obstacles, certainly. I know a lot of others have as well. And to me, it's really part of a bigger, broader skill set and mindset. I take my recovery very seriously, and I am based as a father of 3 with a wife. I am faced with personal regular life challenges on top of me.

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So my life is no different. I'm trying to squeeze things in every moment I have because, for me, exercise really has been profoundly helpful over the last couple of years. Obviously, in the beginning, there was limitations for me, but now I'm starting to break away and I'm starting to see some term benefits, a lot of things that I wasn't able to do and see in the beginning as a survivor. So that's kinda what's happening on that front. Ver life is very busy doing a lot of things, working on survivor science, of course, working on the blog, working on getting a new newsletter together so that I can share that with everybody once it's get a couple newsletters kind of in the pipeline in at least draft form so they're ready to go.

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So that'll be up on Survivor Science here in a little bit. Remember, you can join the center over at Survivor Science if you wanna be part of that online community. Really great space. I think it's going to it has. It's changed over time already, but to join and sign up right now, it's free. You just go over to center.survivorscience.com, and you'll see where you can pop in your email. You can get a little quick tour, and you kinda see what it's about. Yeah.

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So, anyways, jumping into this episode, you know, again, Angela Duckworth talks a lot about finding your passion, exploring new old passions, using that as fuel for motivation to create a, You know, I think, as survivors, we all really profoundly wanna get back to a way of life that we used to know. I think that is not unrealistic, but I think it changes as a struggle survivor. It's not necessarily I mean, I think using what you remember as motivation to kind of work your way back is very helpful, but I do think things change. Your passions might change or you might find new passions. You might, you know, you might find old ones or rediscover old ones. So, yeah, when it comes to motivation and recovery, I mean, like I've said a 1000000 times on the podcast, I'm a father of 3. I really wanna get back to a way of life that I remember. I was 37 at the time of my stroke, which is fairly unusual by lar by, you know, in large centers, but anything over the last, probably, months. I mean, I've learned it all all through my journey by many survivors, but more recently, I've heard more unique stories. I saw, you know, a mother who had a stroke during childbirth. I saw on livestream Jerry Wald's livestream. He does it twice a week on Let's Talk So we're on LinkedIn. It's on Facebook. It's all over the place on social media. He spoke with a woman who was on birth control, and it wound up leading to a stroke, which is highly unusual. I really would love to have her on as a guest because anybody that has females in their life, you probably know someone is taking birth control. And while I'm I'm sure the research would show that the the possibilities of a birth control leading to stroke is pretty slim, I'd love to find out more about that because I think, you know, you always hear these studies, you always hear these as bugs of various kinds where, like, stroke is a risk, but how often does that really happen?

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The research is there. But as we know, at least I've learned in the last 6 months from being back in academia, there's a very big disconnect between the research being done and the research being shared. But it's not necessarily shared to the public in the way that you would hope, and I don't think that's any one particular person's fault. I think it's the job of every researcher. They wanna get published. They wanna put their work in articles, but it'd be great if they did also able to share it personally on their blog, share it on social media, just get the word out there because I don't think, you know like I said, do you see these ads for various pharmaceutical drugs? I mean, I think I'm on things for stroke recovery from some of the conditions that I had And for in fact, so those medications are potentially having a stroke, which is really wild when you think about it.

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Now I probably should check on that and verify. Obviously, I am still on blood thinners, so that is not something I've been able to escape, but I do think I've done a lot of work on my body and my to really put that at ease. So if I miss it here and there, which happens very rarely, but, you know, blood thinners are great. I obviously don't wanna have a second stroke.

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I'm doing everything I can to avoid that and avoid honestly, I'm trying to help people avoid a second stroke if, you know, that's pretty common amongst stroke survivors. So, again, that's why I'm passionate about this topic and, you know, I know we got a little off track here from grit, but that is the motivation for my recovery. I've had one stroke. I really don't wanna have a second.

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Anybody who's had one probably can attest to that.

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For many of us, it's probably a wake up call. You know? There obviously, there's nothing we can do everything to avoid a second stroke. One of the things I'm gonna share this week on social media is, you know, for people that haven't had a stroke, just hearing these stories lately and recently about people who've had strokes that also were like me, very young. You know? They were on birth control.

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They were a mother who how many thousands of millions of people give birth throughout the year? You know?

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And every you you never think it's gonna happen, and then bam, it happens. You know? It was something I hadn't thought of. But, yeah, as much as I wanna help stroke survivors, sometimes survivors just aren't ready till they're ready.

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Plenty of people who are maybe not in the best shape, maybe doing things that aren't beneficial to their health, they may not even realize.

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Honestly, I didn't realize how much stress was on me. Obviously, drinking and smoking cigarettes were things that weren't helping. You know, that's kind of what I'm gonna put on a post. It's like, here are 3 things I wish, which I know sounds very cliche. But, honestly, in hindsight, it's like, man, if I knew what a stroke was, how difficult it would be to overcome a stroke, you know, really, I never thought of stroke prior to my stroke. Realizing that I coulda died from it is very eye opening. I mean, for me, it was a need to really rid myself of all my bad habits pretty much as quickly as possible. Obviously, eating has been over time, but, you know, fixing your eating, just little things that you could do now. And, again, you can't always avoid a stroke, but, jeez, I mean, I think you could talk to a million strokes of ours, and you'd find the people that have the most grit, the most passion to get to a place of recovery where they feel great. They feel like they're doing everything they can to really you know, again, we may not ever get back to a 100%, but we're damn sure gonna try, at least the ones those of us who are really passionate about helping others help the trial and error. It's I think it's a user, Lionheart Hope, something like that. I'll I'll put a link in the show notes. But he again, I've only seen a couple videos, but he posts some really good stuff. Actually, it's motivating me to post because I think we have very similar mindsets, very similar journey.

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Like, he's 65 or 70. He definitely looks on the younger side, so I'd love to hear his story, his backstory, you know, if you wanna find him. Again, he looks like a younger service provider. He does appear to be based in Florida.

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He's very into martial arts, which is, you know, great.

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I don't look like it, but 25 years ago, I was a secondary black belt. I haven't really practiced martial arts in 2 or 3 decades, probably since the nineties. I wound up going on to other sports that are on, but I think that mindset that I have from taekwondo back in the day really really has carried throughout my life, and that's an older passion.

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It's not one I'm actively seeking to get back into, but I I did do jujitsu and Muay Thai in the later 2000 early 2000 tens.

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I was big into that. I had a lot of friends in MMA and always been really interested in this. You know, the grand game was not my thing, but Muay Thai and the stand up game was definitely more my passion when it came to that. But, again, exploring new passions, like, for me, running is something I hated my whole life even as an athlete. I didn't enjoy running because I didn't get the yeah. It's weird. I think as a stroke survivor, I literally started running because I thought it'd be funny to be a stroke survivor with MS and running. But I also couldn't go really fast, so I only had one speed, which is slow as dirt. I'm still pretty slow. Still a little awkward, but getting better each and every day, and I've run consistently every day now for almost I missed a total of 4 days in the last 2 years.

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So, again, it's discovering new passions, trying new things. Like I said, trial and error, things that you think might help in variety of ways, whether you have deficits in your hands, your mind, your your legs. You know? I'm distant. And I don't know if this is coincidence, TikTok algorithm or what, but I have been seeing a lot more survivors that are now, I wanna say, 5 5 to 10 years out, maybe even more, that are on social media. Maybe I'm just discovering them, but they've been survivors for a long It does take time. It is painful to hear. Nobody wants to hear it. I certainly didn't wanna hear it. I don't think I'm alone in that journey, But there are things you can do early on when it comes to grit. You do have to push through. I don't think there's any two ways about it.

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But, again, you have to do it in We always say there are steps on a ladder, and you kinda climb your way to the top, not unlike the workforce, but this in this case, we're referring to exactly that, stroke and really getting back on track and getting to the track you wanna be on. So, again, trying new activities, be patient, develop passion right? I mean, you could. It could, certainly, just like you could be one of those rare cases of a stroke survivor that just kinda snaps out of it. I mean, we've all heard those stories too. Stroke leading cause of disability second leading cause of dis disability and death worldwide. So for every couple million people struggling, there's probably one that is lucky. You know? And if you're lucky, great. But if you're not, it takes grit, it takes passion, it takes a whole lot of work. There's really no two ways about it. It takes a certain level of patience. I know I've learned that over the years, but I always remind straight to her past to either slow down, take a breather, push as hard as I can, but also with that, not pushing beyond not pushing to the point I'm gonna hurt myself. So I'm very cognizant of the pushing that I do.

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You kinda learn again through trial and error. Of course, you always wanna talk to your doctors and your team, but, you know, like I said, the running, you know, for me, I found a way to run-in my neighborhood. And there's an area where I could kinda just do I don't mind the boredom. I don't mind the treadmill because to me, the it is exciting enough. Sometimes I watch TV at the gym. Sometimes I watch TV at home if I'm running on the treadmill, if it's raining outside or if it's insanely hot. I mean, I run-in a hoodie all the time.

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People always make fun of me because I'm always wearing a hoodie in Florida, but, honestly, it's helping me sweat even more. So maximizing my for me, I like it. It works for me. It doesn't work for everybody. But just knowing that I can run-in a you know, today, I'm not wearing a black hoodie, but a lot of times I am wearing a black hoodie, black leggings, black shorts, usually white sneakers. But, you know, I like doing hard things. I think running in a hoodie is hard. I don't think every think when you challenge yourself and you push yourself, you you make it easier on yourself when things are really tough. That is also part of grit.

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You know, I think yeah. I'm seeing my son now play football. My youngest is playing tackle football, and he's, like he sort of sees me, and I think it's rolling off on him. He's, like, oh, I could do it. I could do it. I could push myself. I mean, it's hot. It sucks. But, like, there are worse things and it's cool to see. And I think it's funny. We'll talk on the way home and I'll talk about some of his teammates and how some of them kinda sit out sometimes and they're a little bit and he's I'm not saying he's the greatest. He's pretty lazy sometimes too, but he, like his dad, picks and chooses his battles, and he knows when he needs to step up and when it's time to get to work.

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And when it's really hard and it's really hot, he's prepared for that because he's similar to me. He just kinda keeps pushing himself. We'll see that maybe some of the things are finally rolling off that I I've kinda showed him by example.

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But, again, beyond passions, it's also about staying curious. The importance of curiosity, you know, is something's not working. Like, recently, I've gotten back into some hand exercises because recently noticed some stickiness and I'm not really loving it, but I'm staying curious. I'm always curious. How can I improve this? How can I fix this? How can I warm up my hands a little faster? You know, I have a whole routine that I do on a regular basis, but when things are weird or something feels like it needs to change, you know, I'm pretty aware of that.

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Really be accountable to myself and be more cognizant of when I need to change up routines. I don't think that's uncommon. And even in the last week or so, I've noticed a big change in my running where I think I've talked about this, the Tibia Machine by Titan. You can find it on I am Tibia Tibia machine works the front leg muscles a little bit more than the back because my calves are pretty well developed. I mean, they could definitely use some work. Obviously, still 5 years out from stroke, but the tubing machine has really helped with the front of the legs and really helping with balance, I find, and just kind of the you know, some of that toe curl. It's really, I don't know, dirt is still out, but I think it's definitely doing a lot of things because I noticed it's improving my walking. I noticed it's improving my, obviously, the door seat flexion of the the ankle foot, which I have some trouble with. So it's really been helpful there.

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I know there's some get for kinda correcting that without you know, and I'd love to explore that myself. Honestly, I've really never heard of it until a couple months ago.

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And the great thing is you can work both legs at the same time with this particular machine. It's a bit more expensive. And they have some basic ones, but I really like this one. It worked. You're able to do both legs at the same time.

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So, you know, you're not over developing one side or the other. And since I've never really had this machine or did this machine before, it is helping strengthen both sides, which I think is, for me, being affected on the right side from stroke and left side with my initial in a couple years ago. I was trying to find a balance to harmony there, so I'm always trying to work both sides simultaneously anyways. Plus, it's probably good for you in general because you don't wanna get too big on one side.

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But the last thing I'll say on staying curious is one of the big things I've been thinking about recently too. Things like meditation or breath work, which still feel like if people just said breathing exercises would be much better. I think we would gravitate toward it much more than they do, myself included. But things that I found kooky or weird or unscientific, perhaps, It just seemed like nonsense.

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And I was listening to a podcast with, Andrew Huberman and one of his guests recently, and they said the same thing. It's like these things that you think are kooky. They may be kooky, but they might also help. So being open to that stuff is really important, I think, especially in stroke recovery because trying so many thing things well, this worked for Bob, and this worked for Tim, and this worked for Marie, and, you know, and Suzanne figured this out for her, and and, like, you you hear these things. And and, really, the only way to know if it works for you is honest to god trying it.

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Especially in the early days, I do think your therapy teams, whether you're a patient, I think, you know, get the most out of your therapy teams while you're at therapy and then explore things on your own and bring back questions to your therapist if you have them.

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Certainly, you wanna try new things with your therapy team where you're in a safety environment. Always wanna practice safety.

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When you push it, be in control. You need to have the proper support in place, whether that's a spouse, family, whatever. You don't wanna overdo something to where you hurt yourself more significantly. I know a lot of us as survivors have this thing where we think we're good and we push it a little far, and sometimes that backfires. And you're trying new things, and you're doing trial and error, and you're trying all these different practices. Just be smart about it. I know this sounds really cliche again, but you wanna be able to take action and try new things, but you'll still wanna inadvertently set yourself back by accident because that's a pain in the ass. We're off pricing daily, slowly adding over time, reinforcing those behaviors over a period of time, and adding a little bit more each day.

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Because let's be honest, even if you push it one day, you're not gonna wake up the next day and suddenly be magically perfect. So just something to keep in mind. You know, SMART to build perseverance. Again, SMART goals are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time bound.

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This is a really good framework. It's kind of a basic framework. You use a lot in coaching. It sounds basic, but not everybody knows it, and it's just a great way to set small relevant goals to your goals and breaking your big goal down into smaller things that are bite sized. I think that's for more more often than not for most people, breaking big goals down in small steps, it is achievable, and you're able to build that momentum quicker, I think, and it's it's generally helpful.

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And if you're at a big goal and do it all at once, that's great. But I I think there's nothing wrong with breaking things down into smaller tasks and really building your your self esteem up, building up your mental esteem to kinda motivation.

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Really, when you break down big goals and small goals, it just it just helps keep everything rolling, if that makes sense.

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You know? Like me, I don't currently have a specific smart goal that I'm working on, but I think, you know, I think with running, that's always a thing, and I'm always trying to slightly improve. And that has been true over the last couple of years. Now I'm trying to add a little bit of kettlebell workouts into my workouts. I'm moving back on the running and a little bit more on the weight lifting side. It's super able to see that weight lifting is fine. It's it's actually not too bad. I'll tell you what, basketball. My son's, like, playing basketball now. They're, you know, 8 and 10. And basketball for me my life for most of my childhood and, really, my entire life. I love basketball. I love playing basketball.

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I really used to love playing basketball, especially after college. I had lost a lot of weight, and I was able to dunk on a regular basis.

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And now I get out of the court, and I've done a lot of run. So this podcast, 10,000 Miles, well over almost 11,000 now.

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Running side to side, pretty sad and awful. Running around a basketball court, very humbling. Shooting the basketball is surprisingly difficult because my arm is not used to those movements any out there with the boys and practicing a little bit and, you know, I really wanna get out there more and practice more because I really wanna be able to dunk by the end of this year. And I think, honest to god, I think the TVA Machine is really helping with a lot of those movements. So the lateral movements, a lot of just everything loosen up in a way hasn't been loose in the last 5 years since my stroke. So that is all very promising.

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Will I be done here at the end of the year at age 42? I don't know. But I am really pleased with the progress that I'm making and the headway there. And, you know, honestly, I don't need to be playing best, but it's just a good exercise.

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It it's good. I wish I had thought of it sooner.

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I think the dribbling, the coordination that's involved in basketball can really help in a lot of ways, whether it's typing, whether it's just another form of exercise. And I think getting out there and being able to practice and shoot and try to really it's really I was pretty good. I wasn't, like, amazing amazing, but I played pretty high level basketball for a long time. And then, you know, growing up in New York, New Jersey, there's always great pickup games at every park. He just really enjoyed the game, and I took it for granted. And now trying to even just good enough to beat my sons is, like, it's work.

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And there's a real reason for it, but I do think it it's it's helping me. I'm sorry. It's twofold.

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Playing basketball is fun. It's helping with court me with movements I wasn't doing on a regular basis for the last four and a half years. Overcoming the embarrassment of sucking at basketball now after not sucking at it is really humbling. I think stroke in general is pretty humbling. I think a lot of us have talked about that. I've heard a lot of stroke survivors talk about just how humbling it is. You know, if you're inpatient or outpatient, you know in the beginning, either way, it's very humbling. You have to ask for help. It's difficult. You sort of have to acknowledge that you're not helpless, but you definitely need help. One of the cool things about doing something like basketball is that I'm strangely motivated, not be great at it. I'm never gonna play in the NBA at 40 turning 42 later this year, but it's, you know, again, it's working the arms and muscles in my body and my arm just different body parts in different ways that you may not have used in a couple of years.

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And so atrophy is a real thing.

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You loo or don't use it, you lose it. And, yeah, it's just it's humbling. And it's but because I love basketball so much, I am able to sort of overcome any resistance to to the fact that I've been humbled by my stroke when it comes to basketball. And because I love basketball, it's really helping me push through that initial discomfort and sort of figure out how to re reteach myself basketball at a level that I'm accustomed to playing.

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Again, I don't know if they're great, but I'd love to just get out there, jump better, move side to side, be able to play a pickup.

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I'm pretty good shape now, but not amazing shape, but I, you know, I could get there. And it's silly things. Like, yeah, like I said, I could run thousands of miles, but side to side lateral movement is something I haven't really done this on, but best well, it's certainly a great way to help me get there.

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Like I said, it helps with coordination, helps balance. I think those are really key factors, so don't discredit using sports. If you're into sports or finding similar activities that can help you overcome resistance or just rebuild in a way that you hadn't previously thought of. So that's, again, that's and see in that routine, which has also been really helpful for me. Now I run every single day, couple hours a day, probably to the point where it's actually becoming unhelpful at this point, but I feel very lucky to be able to run at all. And I don't wanna I owe it to myself and my family. I enjoy it. And because I'm able to do it, I want to do it every day because I also get great benefits from running.

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It's time for me to get out of the house. It's time for me to get out in the sun. It's time for me to go to the gym. Even if I have to run at home for some reason, you know, on the treadmill, it's still I'm lucky to do it. I'm not a I'm really not about to waste a second chance of life, and I re believe that, you know, for me, running at all was funny in the beginning, and running slow really helped me build back and have it. So whether it's running, whether it's woodworking, whether it's knitting, you know, these are knitting is a thing I haven't really thought about it. Or but, like, video games. My kids play video games, and I've been playing a little bit with them. And, actually, it's quite helpful with your hand, your dexterity, and just moving. Sorry if you can't see me. I'm moving my hands on camera, but it's a they're a great you know, it's weird because I remember when I was in therapy, they were doing a lot of it was more of Wii Sports, which was great in the beginning because I couldn't really I I wouldn't have been able to hold the controller back then, but it hold the Wii can roll over, which is a little bit more, you know, bigger movements. And so that was great for that. And, yeah, it's just, you know, there's a ton of different things that you could try. Like I said, video if we have hand coordination issues like I do, you know, I I do a lot of different exercises. Some of them are better than others. Some are very boring.

00:32:28.628 --> 00:33:15.505
I hate the I really hate that I'm back using the what do you call it? The putty, Sarah putty. Got it right here. I can combo it. But it's been really great. It's been helpful. And, you know, so beyond building all those consistencies and routines and and finding those passions, again, creating a supportive environment, finding supportive environments, whether it's the community here or with Survivor Science at the center or your local community. I think there are there's room for both as survivors. I think that the gym going to your local gym, expanding your network beyond family, beyond friends, beyond other survivors. Go to meetups. Go find things in your community that you enjoy doing. You know?

00:33:15.565 --> 00:33:26.970
There's the the meetup.com is a great place to find new activity. I mean, I know as an adult, it could be tough, but it is there are plenty of activities. Pickleball is a big thing.

00:33:26.970 --> 00:33:58.579
Actually, that's something that I honestly, pickleball seems kinda lame to me, but I did buy a set of pickleball stuff trying to play with my kids because I think that's a great way to probably for me, basketball is a little bit more exciting with pickleball, but even my kids, they're 8 and 10. Right? They don't have full coordination yet. They're still learning, so that's a great way for all of us as a family to do a little bit of an activity that helps. And, again, it helps with lateral movement. It's a little easier probably than tennis.

00:33:59.599 --> 00:34:58.125
So the and then you can work your way up. It's all about building up to the things you want to do. For me right now, it's playing basketball. Dunking is obviously ridiculous, but at 6 foot 8, it's not that ridiculous. Like, I only really need to be able to jump probably a foot and a half. Yeah. It's gonna take some time. It might not be the end of this year, but the reason why I couldn't get back to it, it's you know? And it's a good test for me in my forties to make sure I'm keeping my legs and my knees in good health, my body in general in good health. You know, not for everybody. But, again, that's something that I worked really hard to do back in the day, and I'd like to be back to it. I just dunk so they can, well, frankly, I wanna be able to dunk before they can dunk because I'm sure they're gonna be tall enough to dunk one day, but maybe not as tall as me. So, yeah, there's some my ego is a play there, but I'm not really in a rush to do it. I got plenty of time before they're gonna be able to dunk if ever.

00:34:59.085 --> 00:36:14.085
But, again, what looks like is is up to you. You know? Maybe it's family. Maybe it's beyond family. Maybe it's just friends, different social networks. You know? Social media is great when you're social. Everybody's different ways. You if you find it helpful, sure. Hang out there. If you don't find it helpful, don't hang out there. Do the things that you want. We've earned that right as a survivor to do things you wanna do, but also make sure you're pushing yourself outside your comfort zone because if you stay stagnant, not gonna remain flexible and open, and that's where you're gonna miss opportunities as a survivor to get better or to learn something from somebody else. And, again, no counselor yet, but, you know, we'll see what happens a couple of years. Obviously, I do coaching, but I'm not actually a licensed therapist. But seeking out the guidance of professionals, specifically professionals maybe that have worked in your local area with other Shoksaeras, you know, they may have more insight than so, I mean, you do. The problem with therapy is you gotta kinda talk, reach out, and see what works for you and find the right therapist. Sometimes people get lucky on therapist number 1, and they love their therapist, and they're a great help to them.

00:36:14.483 --> 00:36:17.704
And sometimes it's not a great fit, and you gotta try a few more.

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So, you know, don't be afraid to see a lot of insurance companies cover it now, you know, so you may have to do some homework there.

00:36:25.525 --> 00:36:36.630
Obviously, as a stroke survivor, we're all pretty familiar with the at least here in the US, we're pretty familiar with the ins and outs of the health care system. Sometimes it's frustrating.

00:36:36.690 --> 00:36:40.070
Sometimes it's great. It depends on the day.

00:36:40.849 --> 00:37:06.030
I remember to always stay flexible and open adapting to those changes? I think we all know that as survivors, life changes isn't instant, and we become pretty good at adapting to change. Again, it could take a while to be especially in the beginning. And, honestly, 5 years out now, it can take a you get so used to this change that's it's weird when you don't have to change right away and you're like, wait. Should I change things up?

00:37:06.030 --> 00:37:31.784
Because things feel like they're working so good. Or maybe this is me. Sometimes I get in my own head, but yeah. Just a reminder, it's okay to adjust your approach if something isn't working. Like I said, adapted to continued progress as a stroke survivor, keeping an open mind, keeping that gritty mental toughness. Hopefully, some of these tips resonated with you. Every stroke survivor talks about somebody else today. When am I gonna be better?

00:37:32.585 --> 00:38:10.724
I don't know. Honestly, it's a it's a terrible answer, but the fact of the matter is I don't know if I'll ever technically be that that person was asking in a way I'm thinking about it right now. But I know for me, it is going to be a lifelong process that I have accepted that sort of responsibility on my part. And I'm just continuing to explore my passions and motivations and just coming out. I like staying curious. I like digging for new information, and not everybody's that way, unfortunately, but I think that's a good mindset to have.

00:38:12.144 --> 00:38:51.849
You know? As far as the topic of grit overall, I do think we got I'm gonna go back to through this episode and the previous episode and see if there's any other things that I wanna mention or if I could just kinda tie that into something in the next episode. But I do think we're coming up on episode 50 here in a couple episodes. So again, before we wrap this up for good on this episode, I do really be doing this as much lately, so I wanna kinda recap what I've been watching, listening to, reading this week in particular, kinda transition to a lighter topic before we wrap up the episode. So what am I watching?

00:38:51.909 --> 00:38:55.425
I have gone back to the vault that is signed off.

00:38:55.664 --> 00:39:43.550
I know it's not everybody's favorite show, but I just kind of I'm doing a lot of work the survivor science front, a lot of work on some other things, and then a lot of schoolwork. So having Seinfeld play in the background is really great for me because I still feel like it resonates. I feel like it's a great show. I just I kinda really miss it. I mean, there are some shows similar to it now, but nothing quite as timeless. I mean, it is a little outdated, I guess, at this point, and I'm not suggesting anybody do a remake. I don't see anybody needs to remake that, but I do think it's kind of just a great show to have on in the background. It's still pretty funny, I I think. George, Kramer, Jeff you know, you can't go wrong with them. That's my take.

00:39:43.550 --> 00:39:50.989
I mean, I know Seinfeld is always known for working clean. The show is pretty clean for the most part. Not a lot of weird things there.

00:39:50.989 --> 00:39:54.554
I mean, very minimal, and if they are, they're very innuendoed.

00:39:56.375 --> 00:40:59.844
And so, yeah, I just I really enjoy that as a classic weird like, that's now a classic Joe. So that's what I'm watching. Besides sports, you're about to ramp up some football, catching a little little bit of little league little league world series, hopping on and off the trib bell, watching ESPN here. It's a little dry here at the end of summer in terms of so, yeah, doing that, reading some books. I've been listening to the Joe Rogan podcast. There's been a lot of things that I find interesting on his podcast. I I know a lot of people are fans of Joe Rogan. I'm a fan of Joe Rogan. I'm still Howard and Robin are my team. They will forever, but Joe Rogan is certainly kind of the next and best out there, I think. You know, I like Huberman too, but not to the point where you would ever call me a Huberman husband. I really like his podcast for the scientific sort of things and all. He does a lot of brain, heart, and health, which obviously I enjoy. I think a lot of stroke survivors probably do.

00:41:01.105 --> 00:41:11.539
But real quick, I'm hopping back to Joe Rogan's thing. A couple of good things that I like there recently. Norman Oler's books. I'm really interested in those. I don't know if you've heard of them.

00:41:11.539 --> 00:41:18.105
Blitzed, which is drug use in Nazi Germany. Really interesting take on the provocative history of drug use in the Nazi era.

00:41:19.385 --> 00:42:08.630
Not for every it hits on some interesting topics, and I don't know. I'm not a conspiracy theorist by any means, but I do it's just interesting that we're finding out more and more almost almost a 100 years out from from all work. And then, of course, I read Blitzed and now going through Tripped, which I believe is his newest book. And, again, doing a lot of things in school for my master's degree, so I'm reading a lot of research papers, a lot of published papers, peer reviewed papers, papers that I'm working on, papers that I'm reading for the purposes of class, through a lot of the psychology of leadership stuff. Again, this is where that disconnect comes in between academia and real life application.

00:42:09.489 --> 00:42:20.173
I know these are really random topics here that Let's spend the gamut here to to end this podcast. These are all the things I'm watching, listening, and reading. There's a ton of other stuff.

00:42:20.875 --> 00:43:19.034
But, again, those are all great things. If you're into them, happy to share them. Always, you know, I think, at least for school in psychology on leadership, I just I feel like that's something I always been drawn to. Of course, part of the my master's degree is really how can I, as a not only focus on psychology of leadership, psychology when it comes to sports, but also how psychology and some of the research being done? Like, I really wanna help other survivors to stop and say why survivor science exists. A lot of things are written there from firsthand account because I'm writing so many papers for school at the moment that are all of my particular choice of topic, but my eyes have been opened. There are a lot of things on stroke, but I think there are a lot of areas and and areas to study, explore. There's just a lot to it. So, anyways, we'll see where that goes.

00:43:19.355 --> 00:43:40.005
I'm still kinda courses. So maybe later this year, at the end of the year, I'll get into a class where I can really dig in some more of that research because as much as I love going down a rabbit hole, I wind up in a rabbit hole so deep for my class each week for assignments so that I don't generally have a lot of time to go into the other rabbit holes. And when I do, it takes away from other things.

00:43:40.963 --> 00:43:55.969
Or you can all understand that. So, anyways, some so let's just recap before we end this episode. Again, we talked about some practice strategies for cultivating grit, finding passion, building perseverance, creating a supportive environment, those are really important.

00:43:57.869 --> 00:44:05.550
What you do specifically is gonna depend, obviously, your level of motivation, your desire to get better.

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If if you see them over on social media, you have a question, maybe I can help answer. I'm always I love helping other subscribers figure things out or find new things or tips or just sharing what works, what doesn't work, what I've tried. Maybe it'll work for you, maybe it won't. Just reminding everybody, it's okay if your strategy and your recovery is taking time. Some people get better quickly.

00:44:30.510 --> 00:44:34.210
Some people, it takes years years. Some people takes 5, 10.

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Some take forever. Some, unfortunately, don't have the opportunity at all. So I think patience is your friend. As long as you're doing something each and every day to help how can you improve yourself each and every day, I think, is really, really important. I know it can be frustrating at times. I've been there. I'm there. I'm still there 5 years out. I think reflecting back on that times is important. I think when you really look at yourself and and and you are putting in that work each and every day, it's true. You know, you look back and you go, well, I have come a long way. Am I where I wanna be? No. But I've come a long way, and I think that's important to encourage yourself. It's a reminder to yourself that to learn that the truth is it does take time and and how much time is so dependent on so many factors that it would be impossible. We could do an entire show just on the factors that could determine the time it takes to recover. So with that, I think we will wrap up episode 48.