S10 E4: Tips to avoid OVERSTIMULATION after stroke.

Hello my beautiful stroke survivors, how are you? I'm Karina, your host and creator of this top two podcast worldwide. I suffered a Prince and this section in 1999. I was 25 years old at the time. It led to coma Interlochen syndrome. But lucky for you and for me, I'm here today. My show is all about empowerment, living your best life post stroke by adjusting, adapting, growing in this new reality of yours and your loved ones.

Make sure that when you're listening to my show, you have a pen and paper at proximity because I'm always saying the faintness of ink is better than the best memory. And let the transformation begin. Today I'm going to be talking about overstimulation after stroke. Yep. What is overstimulation? How I how we can identify it?

And thirdly, what can we do about it? So before I continue, I want you guys, I'm telling you right away. Don't give up on me, OK? Spotify has this new way of recording. I'm not quite familiar with it right now, but it was extremely important for me to come here and communicate with you guys. That's all I care about to make one person around the world feel better about their situation and evidently it's happening.

We not me. We are a team, you and I. This show is making it guys. Our message is coming across so don't give up on me if I go from one thing to the next. I'm just learning how to work these new features, these new features on Spotify. OK, sounds good. So let's today begin. Now I want to talk about how color effects plants. There's many elements in a room.

Specifically when I talk environment today, I want you to know that I'm talking about the room you're in, your house, your humble abode. I laugh, but when people walk into my apartment, I always tell them welcome. Welcome to my humble abode. Always, I always try to enlighten the to make light of the situation.

But you know what? This is my humble abode and this apartment represents me, exactly me. And I'll tell you what guys, having had two houses before, 2 marriages before and now finding myself by myself, knowing myself post stroke, knowing exactly what over stimulates me and and how my body reacts to what's going on.

That's why today I'm so comfortable talking to you about this particular topic. Now when I walk into my apartment, just like when you walk into your place, your home, do you feel like you have creative juices to survive? When I'm talking about creativity here, I'm not talking about you becoming a Picasso or a Van Gogh.

I am talking about you developing your own ways. Is your environment at home conducive to you developing that new personality? I'm always talking that we have a prior self pre stroke. We have a new self post stroke and my job here, the job that I put upon myself because I've done it to myself, it was my very first client, my very first, if you will. OK, So what I talk about is because I know what this is about.

So when you walk into your place, do you feel like you have room to grow in this person that you are today, that you can learn things, adapt, and whether it be holding your fork in a particular way, whether it be going to the bathroom in a particular way, is your house making you feel like you can grow? I'm going to be talking about color and the impact that color has on quality of your life because it's a proven fact that color therapy has properties that help the quality of life of stroke survivors.

So along the way, we're going to talk a little bit about that. For those of you who are new to my show. Well, welcome, first of all. Second of all, well, I am a stroke survivor, guys. So I jump from one thing to the next, but at the end, everything always emerges and works out great. OK. So bear with me. Like I told you before, when we have children or when we play with children, what are the things that we use to stimulate children?

You see, we have to be all under the ovary. Stimulation tires the brain and when your brain is tired, your body is tired. When your body is tired, your emotions, when I and you become tearful and you cry when you see a dog on TV. I've been there. OK, but what happens with children? We want to overly stimulate them because we want to make them grow, right? So work with the primary colors, We work with shapes, the squares, the round.

We want them to learn as much as they can. Let's rewind a minute. I often mention to you guys that when we have a stroke, we kind of regress, Yep, we become children again, we sometime become infants again, all depends again where the stroke happened, how intense it was. But no matter what you are going to be regressing to infant and childhood. So that's stimulation.

As you are starting to recuperate, you need to be stimulated. But when you're a year in two years, my kid, 26 years in, we easily get ovary stimulated and there has to be a limit. There has to be a limit. What is over stimulation? Obviously it's making the brain go 150 miles an hour. I'm going to give you stimulants, bright lights, noises.

When I go to Costco, it's like even now sometimes if I'm not in the mood, if mentally I am not capable of handling this, I will be overly stimulated. The talking of the people is going to be too much caffeine. Are you someone that has one or two coffees a day or are you having 5678910 coffees a day?

Caffeine also overly stimulates stress. OK, we live in a life that we all have stress. We have different stresses, but having too much of it when too many things happen that could also overly stimulate and Whoopi, social media, TV, radio, all these things are what Fantastic, they're great tools to evolve in the world.

But guess what? Too much of it is not good. You again, visually pollute your eyes. There's too much. The brain waves and the stimulation in your eyes suck. And what happens when you're overly stimulated? Very often you lack sleep. Yep. So a lack of sleep. Maybe you haven't had a good sleep in, in, in a week, in three days, in two days. Again, think about children when they don't have a good nappy, when they don't have a good night's sleep or they wake up every hour or they're not they're teething, they're not feeling good, they have tummy aches. They're their their brains, everything is happening there. They have a lack of sleep and when they don't sleep well, they're cranky.

So then if you as don't don't sleep well, it's only normal. You're going to be cranky again, right. As I mentioned before, colors have a lot to play with our moves. Imagine if your bedroom is the walls are red and every single surface of your dressers and your chairs and whatever you have in your room is covered with clutter. Not garbage, clutter.

Meaning things are not put away, they're just there so you wake up. The first vision you have might be the ceiling fan on the ceiling going round and round. That's overly stimulating. The red walls bring aggression. You might not going to get up and say Jesus Christ, you start being you know it doesn't. But inside, I trust me, you're going to feel a little pinch and the visual pollution is going to make you feel uncomfortable. Shit, I'm up again in this environment. Well, that's your brain right now as you just open your eyes. This morning you woke up and you already have too much, too much information.

You have an overload of stimulation. Think that if you start a new job or you're starting a new project that you are not familiar with, example like me working on Spotify right now with their sister company. It's very nerve racking and it is now I'm feeling calm because I'm talking to you. But before I took, I did the bullet and I, I and I decided to come and visit my little friends here on my laptop. It took me 3 weeks.

I had that pinch in my chest that I was telling you about. So like many of you out there, I was doing the exact same thing, but I did the bullet and I did it. Now I want you guys to write this down. This is how you can notice that you're overly stimulated. OK, If you notice that you're easily, of course there's many factors that are going to make you irritable if you dab and perhaps snappy and have a little bit more of aggression.

But that's when you got to take a step back mentally and say, OK, what have I been doing? How is my environment? When I walk home is when I go in the house. Is there too much going on in front of me? Another thing, you might be fearful. Everything frightens you. We're not talking about being afraid of a spider here. Everything.

I'm afraid of doing this. I'm afraid of doing that. You might become more tearful because of that fear. Again, think of children. Don't be upset if I'm saying this. You might be thinking I'm a grown ass adult. I don't need to think of children. I'm not a child. Well, excuse me, damn it. You're a stroke survivor.

So when you understand it, you understand that you regressed into childhood. And until you accept it and until you face this shit, you're always going to feel that turmoil that you have inside. So I want you to be easy on yourself. You are a stroke survivor. Don't say what's wrong with me, what's wrong with me, baby, you're a stroke survivor. But if you notice that you cry at the at a pin drop, if you are afraid of everything, you have headaches and muscle dense. I know me when I start talking about stuff that I that bothers me, everything goes on my neck, on my traps, just above my shoulders.

Is that where you feel the pain or is it in your lower back? Joint pain, huh? I didn't know that overstimulation can affect our joints. And guess what? Last week I felt seriously my joints and especially in my arm and in my hand. But I had a lot of things going on the last week that makes sense. Poor concentration.

If I went to work last Saturday and I couldn't put a full sentence, I'm not kidding, guys. I made a joke out of it. My clients are super understandable because I know my my job so well that I know how to save myself, if you will. But I could not keep my focus, I could not be concentrated. Does that happen to you? And again, sleepless, how many times can we be in bed and turn over one side, turn over the other side? You just can't sleep, just sleep. So just just look around.

What's going on around you right now? One of the nights a couple weeks ago actually, like I told you, my apartment is there's nothing on the floor because I know I trip over everything. So there's nothing on the floor. I have a lot of plants because I need that, that that's, that's like having my dog. I need my dog and I need my plants. I need to clean them and nurture them and I went to bed and I exactly did what you what I just told you. I turned on one side the other just couldn't sleep. What did I do?

What did I do? I turned to TikTok. Why the hell did I do that right? Talk about over stimulating. So I go and I land on the page on TikTok about propagating plants. I just finished telling you how much I like plants and propagating. You take plants, you get them to boot and make other plants. I particularly have a couple of them in my place that do need to be propagated, meaning they need to be trimmed down and they need to be be rooted.

Well what do you think I did? Couldn't sleep. When the TikTok became overly stimulated I got up and I decided to propagate some of my plants. It was 12/30 at night. Yep, I did that. But I did manage to go to bed afterwards and I felt like I did something. I did something I like. You know what's important? When I had a my burnout and my chronic depression. So my social worker had mentioned how it's important to surround yourself with things you love. And at the time where I live in the condo I lived, I had a walk in closet.

And for some funny reason, when I would go into my walk in closet, I started putting everything that I like. I started putting pictures and hanging hats or my favorite jewelries or bags, you know, or scar thing. Not not part of the things that when I go there, I look around and there's things that that bring me joy.

Oh, I went there at this time. Oh, I wore that at that party. Or, you know, do you know, that's how my brain works. So this is a trip that I also recommend to you guys. Surround yourselves with things that make you happy. Who cares if other people think it's garbage? Who cares if other people think it's clutter?

If it makes you happy, it makes you happy. We're going to talk about maybe clutter and how to regroup stuff later, but right now I want you to focus on your environment at home. Does it make you grow? Does it help you feel at ease to grow and become the person you are? Are you surrounded by thinking of or crap? Are the colors around you energizing you and soothing you? When you come home, you have all stress outside, but when you come home, are you are you more relaxed? You have at least one room in your home that makes you feel that.

Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to give you 6 tips on sensory overload and how to manage it. You guys ready? Write this down. Well, the one thing number one is over removing yourself from the situation. Yep. So the environment is conducive to your growth, but right now you are feeling extremely stressed.

What we talked about before, you're feeling tense in your neck. I mean, it's hurting and you're becoming more irritable because you're annoyed with what's going on and the person you're talking to and the situation you're talking about. Just remove yourself of that situation, guys. Give yourself a time out again.

What do we do with kids? We give them time out. What do we do with ourselves? We gotta give ourselves a little time out. Go to the bathroom, run your hands underneath cold, cold, cold water. Yep, trust me, that one works. Run. Run your hands up to your wrists in cold, cold water. It's as if you're snapping out of it.

It's as if you're snapping in the elastic without the pain #2 Find a quiet place. I told you that when I was at work. I couldn't focus. I couldn't concentrate. I, my joints were hurting. I, I just was not at a good mental place at on Saturday. Well, we have an office in the back and there's no, there's nothing there. It's a dark color.

When you walk in, the lights are dimmed. So what did Karina do? I went in the back for 10 minutes and I, I, I got myself out of the situation. I told the girls where I was, and I went in the back and I sat close my eyes and I took deep breaths. Yeah, again, I'll show you how to breathe. Breathe in by the nose, inhale in four counts, hold, 2 counts, exhale. In four counts, Inhale by the nose 4 counts hold two exhale by the mouth 4.

If you can do that five times in a while, you're definitely going to be calming yourself down. And if five times is not enough to keep going until you until you get back to yourself, OK, mindfulness, relaxation could be taking a bath, be walking in the forest, going for a little mini hike in the back would be going for a drive. But again, the drive is not a good idea because it's stimulating.

You gotta be cautious. You gotta look around you. Driving is good, but it's also not good. I would rather that you stick to something mindful. Is it journaling? Is it having a hot tea? Is it turning out like what I just did right now and just be in the moment? Just be in the moment, OK. Another thing, sunshine, I don't know where you are in the world.

Sunshine is a very crucial part of our well-being as stroke survivors and I started taking vitamin D Vitamin D is the sunshine vitamin. It helps. You cannot have too much vitamin D. You can have your glass of orange juice which is vitamin D. You can go out in the sun, spend the day outside doing whatever you do that's vitamin D, and you can take your vitamin D pill.

You got it. And number six, we talked about it. It's reducing technology. I started actually, it's so funny, guys. You know how my cell phone is always on? I'm always ready, willing and able to talk to pretty much everybody. And if I can't, I'm still going to answer. Then I'm going to call you later. That's how I am.

And it's two weekends now that I actually barely use my phone. I keep it closed and I'm enjoying this silence. And I'm laughing because my coworker, who's also my friend, called me and Karina, I can't join you. I can't, I can't reach you. Why don't you ever answer your phone? I decided to spend a weekend with no tech, no phone. Girl, you watched the TV, you watched a little bit of YouTube with my boyfriend and spend the day outside because I like to be outside.

I in the garden and the plant. I like that. I'm a girl. Girl that likes to get very messy with the dirt, like a little bit of a tomboy. OK, so those are the tips to help manage your sensory overload. I talked about colors before. How is there a room in your house that feels a little more restful than the other ones that allows you to fill your cup?

Yeah, so look around you right now. I talked about eye clutter. Is every single surface around you full of stuff? You know, guys, there's a way to manage that. Regroup likes, foot likes. Put your very favorite things in the room. It's like me, I have skin care galore because that's what I do for a living, right? But I only have in my little platter in front of me the 4-5 items I absolutely love and use every day. The rest are in the cupboards.

It's important, guys, I'm serious. Eye clutter is a very big pet peeve of mine and I've only developed it after the stroke. So one trick, try to regroup everything likes but likes. Keep what you like, put the rest away in drawers or covers. OK, so out of sight, out of mind paint is the very least expensive way that you can actually upgrade or change the mood completely.

Maybe you have a spouse that doesn't want you to do that, that doesn't. They're comfortable with their environment, but it doesn't mean you are. So they also have to adapt to how you are. I have a good listener and friend of mine who is a he works in construction and he has tons and tons of tools.

Well his tools are not all around the house. We talked about that his tools are all big root. So his wife has a nice environment to to be in and he has his own like instead of a man cave. Well, it's a tool cave that makes him happy whenever he's stressed and he's he's, he's a pain in the butt to himself.

Guess what? He goes in the room with all of his tools and he finds his happy place. I told you I like plants. Plants are also inexpensive guys. Some of them are super expensive, some of them are not. You can also, I'll give you a trick that I found out on TikTok many years ago. If you want to not spend, you can go in the plant section at Home Depot or whatnot and find parts that are fallen or the rooted or maybe you have something at home.

Maybe when I go to my friends and they have plants that I don't have, I'm not shy to ask them. You know what can I have a little a little piece of that I'll root it. Plants it are amazing not only to oxygenate the the area, but the textures that it has. Some are thin, some are thick, some have a lot of nerves, some have a big trunk, some have a little trunk that's different greens, different colors. And one last factor, smell.

Yep, Yep, smell. Guys, I've known people in my life that they lived on a farm, on a cow farm, OK, when you walk in their house, it did not smell like manure. It smelled good fresh, clean Outside is the manure outside is a different and also it stimulates. Did you know that when it smells good, something good smells.

Oh, you know that commercial that we see, they smell. I think it's fleecy or tire. I'm not sure which soap it is, but this gain maybe I think it's gain the smell and it revives. And when you go into a room that stinks off, never mind the appetite is not there, but it brings back a lot of good, not good stuff. So all of these factors that I talked about today, are they helping you grow into the person you are Now you can make it a project of yours with your survivor. You could help paint.

Maybe you can't go up on a ladder. Maybe you could actually sit at the table with newspaper and put all the light switches on and paint the light switches. What do you do with kids? That's what we do with kids. I just feeling finished telling you guys that we regret for a little while. So that way you have a sense of accomplishment. You did, you helped out.

So it doesn't have to be a big gigantic room. It could start off being a little teeny weeny room. But is your environment conducive to your growing? Alright guys, this is what I have for you today. Thank you so very much for your patience. I love you guys so much. Like follow, subscribe on any and all of the platforms you listen to your podcast.

Follow me on Facebook at Strokes of the odds the podcast or on Instagram at STO under score the podcast. And the best free gift you can offer is to download the episodes in order to refer to them as you are recuperating yourself. So go right ahead. Do that. And also, well, there's a nice feature that Spotify is offering right now.

I have a notification that constantly tells me when people comment, I get to interact with my audience immediately. I love that feature. So you know what, let me know what you think. Maybe send me pictures of of your, your room, of your house, of your growth. But you know what, you got this. I totally, totally, totally believe in you. Google and YouTube are full of health. I'm a resource, but they're also a resource. Keep that in mind, OK?

I love you immensely and I'll talk to you soon. Bye.

S10 E4: Tips to avoid OVERSTIMULATION after stroke.

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