S10E0: HOW TO BECOME ALIGNED & WHY ?

0:00 Hello beautiful survivors, how are you? This is Karina, the host and creator behind Stroke Surviving the Odds, the podcast. The mission of the show is for you to regain strength both physically and mentally, but also emotionally. The mission is also moving forward past the events of the stroke.

0:22 It helps you reclaim your identity now. Reclaim your life now, you deserve the very best. I survived a brain stem Section 28 years ago. It led me to coma in the locked and syndrome and I remember back then there was no support, no social media, no podcast. But all I had was a will and I said, if and when I get out of this major pickle, I am going to be there for my community because it's not fair that I had to deal with this by myself, me and my family. So I made sure that I created a podcast that I'm present in the community that I share with you each and everything that I learned over the last 28 years, things that helped me survive this world as a stroke survivor.

1:18 So I'm not keeping it to myself. It's all yours. Grab a pen and paper. Come and join me as we are recording today's show. Just a little bit of clean house guys. You have the audio podcast on Spotify, Apple iTunes and Google Podcast. Make sure you download. That way you can listen to it as you are going through your own rehabilitation and like and follow. Of course, that way you're not going to be missing anything. Video podcasts are offered on YouTube on the same channel, the same name.

1:54 Stroke Surviving the odds. Make sure you subscribe by hitting that bell. It's one little touch. What's great is that downloading, following, sharing, subscribing is all free. It's all something you can do to pay it forward. The way you can do that is by sharing that podcast. Like I just said, even if people don't have a stroke, they are going to find something in there because I'm not just a stroke survivor.

2:26 I'm many other things, many other survivors. I'm a lot of people in me. Yep. So make sure you share with Sugar Bear because we never know who we can help. And in the talk of helping the podcast now is top 4 worldwide guys. So long is the time that I was thinking 28 years ago, how am I going to help my community? How am I going to be there?

2:59 Well, I am there. I'm not finished, I'm just starting, but the fact that it's top four, it's beyond my own comprehension. I am so, so happy and proud, but not just for me, for all of you. Evidently, I helped more than one person around the world and that's my only mission. I don't, I speak to the masses, but my heart is with one of you at a time and it's proof. So thank you for that, guys.

3:32 Thank you immensely. I suggest you take that pen and paper out because today we are going to talk about how not to stay misaligned. I'm going to be talking about what it means to be aligned physically, mentally, emotionally. I am going to talk to you what's going to happen if you are not aligned and I'm going to teach you how to be more aligned. You're not going to want to miss today's show. So go ahead, get what you need.

4:09 I'll wait for you. Pause the podcast. I'll be here when you come back. Bah. For stroke survivors, being aligned is more than what I've been talking about over the years, where your mind, your body and your emotions. We're going to go a little deeper today for stroke survivors. It's less about being perfect, less about perfection, and more about bringing life back into harmony.

4:43 Yep, harmony after everything that has been disturbed. Because back a few years ago when I started the podcast, I would describe it as a tornado. The tornado, what happens is that it shuffles everything that's around you. Finances, relationship, work, health, everything is disturbed. Well, now you're going to be bringing it back together.

5:17 So also being in line is being in the process of reconnecting who you were with who you are. You can't be 1 without the other. And it's also about building a life that supports exactly that. OK, who you are today, that's very, very important. If you listen to my other episode, I think it's actually my previous episode, I talk about acknowledgement, acceptance, and action.

5:57 Those are called the 3A's. That's my personal methodology of doing things. OK, Once you do that, you're ready to reconnect who you were with who you are and complete the puzzle. So the very first thing, being aligned physically, what does that mean, guys? Align physically goes, not just doing your physiotherapy and your occupational therapy. It means aligning the body, yes, but how do you align the body? By being supported by your different therapies and going and being a willing participant.

6:40 You can't just go there and say, all right, I'm not in the mood. Come on, let's get this over with. Once in a while. It's possible you go there and you really, really don't feel like it, but you have to be that willing participant and give your your 100% all of you. Another way to heal that physical alignment is by being able to recognize the fatigue signals.

7:12 I'm going to give you an example. When there's a a toddler or a child and they're scratching their eyes and they're being a little girignya, they're a little bit temper tantrum and they're crying for nothing and they're rubbing their eyes constantly. Usually it means that they need to go for a nap or they need to go to bed. You also know that in my previous episodes, I explain how when we have a stroke, me included. That's how I figured this out, guys. We revert a little bit to childhood. So when you start yawning a lot, when you start rubbing your eyes, having more brain fog, being crankier, well, maybe it's a sign that you need to go for a nap. I apologize.

8:11 That's my dog, Einstein. That's in the back. He's a vocal little Terry Yorkie, and he's got a lot to say. So he wants to make sure that I'm not neglecting him. And I don't forget him amongst all the blankets. Yeah, he's actually in the in the middle of all the sheets on the bed that I washed. He's buried under that, so let's just go back to physical alignment for a moment. Last but not least, physical alignment means that you're not going to fight with your body anymore. What you resist persists.

8:52 Guys, stop fighting. It is how it is for the moment. It will not be like this forever. Keep your eye on the ball, keep the focus on where it has to be and listen to those signals because rest is a very big part, just as nutrition is a very big part of your physical rehabilitation. I want to briefly reiterate that I know exactly how you feel because I've been there.

9:31 I felt the crappiness and the winter Blues. Yesterday I did a live on my Facebook group of the same name, Stroke Surviving the Odds. The podcast and my life was about The Four Seasons of rehabilitation. Now I also did a podcast on this at the beginning of season 10. If you guys missed it, you got to go back and listen to it or watch the live, OK, And I explained how winter we have brain fog even more winter. We stroke survivors feel the effect, especially when you're brand new survivor, it seems like everything is doomed and you have the Blues of the winter Blues the Blues of the businessman.

10:22 I'm kidding. The Blues of winter. OK, as stroke survivors, guys, we know that we suffer from brain fog, some with cognitive problems, neural fatigue, overwhelmness. Well, I'm going to give you some ways to maybe become a little bit more aligned mentally and work with your body. So before I showed you how to become more aligned for your body, now I'm going to show you how to be more aligned for your mind, OK?

11:01 And at the end, we're going to tie everything together. So the number one thing you can do mentally to help support you is to create a routine. I know some of you are going to say, Karina, a routine means it's boring. Trust me, I think that I feel the same way or I felt I'm really working hard at realizing that routine and stability in my life doesn't mean that my life is stagnant and boring.

11:37 It simply means that it's going in the right direction. In the case of a stroke survivor, creating a routine is going to help you focus and remember, because if you always put things at the same place, your brain naturally goes there when you need some, when you need that thing. You know how I know, too? My mother in But it allows her to live independently in a huge duplex and know how to do everything and find everything.

12:27 And I've never heard her in two years say where did I put this? So if it works for elders, why can it not work for stroke survivors? Hmm. All right, create a damn routine and be patient like that 85 year old woman that goes downstairs every day. She goes down 22 steps in her basement in her cantina and she goes and gets her cans and her bottles of water.

13:05 And if she can only carry a little bag at a time and she goes up the stairs, piano, piano, very slowly, she does it. So if it's good enough to be patient for an old person, why can it not be for a stroke survivor? OK, that leads to my other point. How can you be more aligned mentally? Giving yourself patience is showing yourself compassion and empathy. Very often we are capable of doing that for others, but when it comes to us, we have a hard time, especially stroke survivors.

13:48 Correct me if I'm wrong. Well, you know what? Maybe it's time you start thinking about yourself, taking care about yourself, and last, last what's. Well, last but not least, I love this one. So many stroke survivors compare themselves, yes, but they do that more than me. You know, Jane in my in my Facebook group had the same kind of stroke as me, and after two months she was walking me. It's three years.

14:29 So you feel like shit. You say that to your loved ones, your loved one, then use that information against you at one point when they're pissed. Why can't you be more like Jane and walk? Hello. Not every stroke is the same, so focus on progress and not comparison. How were you yesterday and how are you today? How were you 6 months ago?

15:01 How are you now? Don't compare apples and oranges. So now we healed the alignment of our bodies, the alignment of our mental. Now we are going to heal the emotional. That needs to be for that alignment. Alignment means it's perfectly straight. If one of these are out of whack, you are out of whack.

15:30 You got that. We know that stroke can trigger grief of the old you and the new you. You're grieving everything. It can also trigger anger, unidentified fears. You're afraid of everything. So these are things you can do to help that alignment. You can start by allowing yourself to feel what you feel.

16:00 Yep, I said it. Feel what you feel. There's no right or wrong, it's just how it is. The second thing is to release that pressure from yourself of being the before before before. Was the before you so exceptional that you want to go back to that? The answer is yes, but no. Why is it no? Well, because very often stroke happens and people become better, a better version of themselves.

16:44 So one thing that you can do to help yourself is to accept, except just for now, the new chapter that's going, that's happening. Maybe you don't see it that way, but it is that way. Except don't be in denial. It is what it is for now, only for now, OK? And this is alignment. You've aligned your body, your mind, and your emotions. One of these are out of whack.

17:16 You are out of whack. You are not balanced. And God knows that there's a lot of balance missing when we're stroke survivors, OK? So work hard at that guys. This is what I have for you for today's episode. I hope you enjoyed. I hope you you took notes and you saw yourself a little bit in here. That way, it's going to help you know what you need to do to be more aligned. So make sure you like follow, subscribe, download and share with Sugar Bear.

17:59 Remember how much I love you and I am going to be seeing you very soon.