S9E1:Finding your purpose after stroke.

0:00 Hello beautiful survivors. This is Karina, your host, creator, but also your fellow stroke survivor. 27 years ago I suffered a brain stem dissection that led me to coma Interlockton Syndrome. But as you can see, I am right here with you. My show is all about moving forward past the stroke. What I would like is for you to grab a pen and paper because the faintus of ink is better than the best memory. Come and join me here as we are going to be recording today's episode on how to find your purpose after stroke. As per usual, before we commence today's episode, I would like to do a little bit of clean house like. Follow and subscribe on any platform that you are currently listening to your podcast.

0:50 Make sure that you download the episode. That way you can relax, listen to today's show, listen to what's going on, get your mind going, and next time we'll go into your downloads and maybe take some notes and also answer some of the questions that I ask you in there. Of course, the rhetorical you're going to answer them without me being able to be there. But guess what?

1:20 Spotify has this new thing where you can leave me a comment directly and I get notified right away. And that way you can share with me your thoughts on the questions that I've asked for you. And for those of you who are very independent, who are ready to get the show on the road, get your new life, you have a subscription here in my podcast. It's only $4.99 and it allows you to have 41 of my best episodes.

1:55 Those are the episodes. Those are the things that I've implemented in the last 27 years that has helped me grow into the person that I am today. So go right ahead and make sure also you send me your e-mail, you communicate with me in the description. I'm going to leave you my Facebook group and my e-mail. You communicate with me and you give me your coordinates so I can offer you some free sessions. Sounds good.

2:25 All right, let's do this. One of the things that could stop you from finding your purpose, finding what you meant to be doing, is listening to other people and not listening to yourself enough. You have to March at the beat of your own drum. I've told you that before many times. And you also have to try new things. You have to be open because the stroke has changed your persona has changed the way you view things, you want to do things, and if you don't try them, you'll never know if they're good for you or not.

3:16 I'm going to give you a brief example. Just just go with it. Just go with it, guys. Let's say that you're a stroke survivor that went back to work to your previous job and you have been contemplating, you've been thinking that you want to change jobs. And you mention it to your family or your friends or whomever and they're like, Oh no, John, don't change your job.

3:46 No, no, no. It's not going to work If you try to go and become something else. It's just not going to work. My question to you is how do they know it's not going to work? Better yet, how do you know it's not going to work? But if you listen to them, you'll never find out. Does that make sense? We all know that having gone through a stroke, it's probably 1 of the biggest traumas, if not the biggest trauma, traumatic incident that has happened in your life and it has forever changed it.

4:34 But I've told you before, change doesn't have to be bad. Change doesn't have to be negative. Change is good. Think about it, There's Four Seasons everywhere in the world. There is Four Seasons. Isn't that one of the most obvious changes that we've, we live through? We, we, we go through it. It gives us something to look forward to in those very cold 40 months here in, in, in Canada, we're, we're saying, oh, I can't wait for spring to be here.

5:17 And when spring is here, oh, I can't wait for the summer to be here, for the water to be warm enough so we can go swimming and camping. It gives us something to look forward to. But because your, your body, your brain, your life has gone through this traumatic event, it kind of stops your will to want to see the change.

5:52 And you're only bitter about change because you just went through the biggest one from the past you to the new you. But finding the purpose. Let me ask you this before your stroke and this you're going to want to write down. Guys, this is a question that I would like for you to reflect on before your stroke. Did you know what your purpose was and can you tell me a little bit more about it?

6:29 So it's a two-part question that in either my comments or you can send me a personal message and you can talk to me and we can do this together and I can listen to you. I just finished telling you that change is good, just like changing of the seasons. Now as time progresses for people, for humans on Earth that didn't even have a stroke, as time progresses, it's, it's only normal to have different likes, different desires. So you that has had a you, you have had a stroke again, it's only normal that you would want to try something else because you've changed and not necessarily for the worst. I'm going to open up here, talk to you guys and let you know what's going on and let you see that change is not necessarily bad.

7:39 And my purpose, I found my purpose. I told you in 2021 when I started my podcast, I was in my late 40s. So if any of you are there saying. Oh my God, I don't know what I'm going to do I don't. I don't have. You know what it is. OK, guys, it's OK. We'll figure it out. You're not alone here and I just finished telling you that things are different.

8:10 You are different now. Something has happened in the last week that that's one of the reasons why I took a moment back again. You see, I'm a stroke survivor too, guys. I take a moment back. I don't have producers, I don't have a team behind me. I do everything on my own. Whatever I do here on my show, I do it alone. In the past week, Bella passed away, and Bella was my sidekick over here in the podcast.

8:53 You guys heard her often in the background scratching her little ear and all that. After 16 years, she passed on. So the change of going from having someone or rather something in the house with me 24 hours a day. There when I walk in, there when I go to bed, there when I go to the bathroom, there when I sit on the couch and I have a bite to eat, and there when I'm recording my show.

9:25 And now I'm sitting alone in my living room and she's not there. So what happens? My life has changed from being a pet owner and a pet mom, a pet parent to being me. It's a hard thing to go through. Just like when we lose a loved one, when I lost my mom, I still, she passed away in 2018 and I still think, Oh my God, let me call mom and tell her about this. But I can't do that.

10:05 I have to remind myself that she's gone. So we adapt. I think that's what I'm getting to right now. We adapt to change. We adapt to new ways of life and my show is all about moving forward past a stroke. It doesn't mean you are forgetting your stroke. It doesn't mean you are forgetting who you were. It's actually finding who you are. It might piss people off that I say this right now because some people are very, very bitter still. And I understand.

10:46 And you can be, and I want you to be if that's how you want to be. Just don't be like that forever, OK? But change is. It is what it is, guys. Change is like accepting, you know when I talked to you about acknowledging that we had a stroke, accepting that our life was different and we had a stroke and it is what it is. We are not in denial, but then we have to to do the actions that make our lives better.

11:22 So when you listen to other people and you don't follow your heart and follow your, maybe you are going to make a mistake by by by changing jobs like I had mentioned before. But in all mistakes, there's a lesson in there. But if you listen to other people in anything that they say, you're never going to find out.

11:50 And if you live in the past and live in your traumatic and events in your life, and you're reminiscing and constantly reminding yourself of the pain that you've suffered and this and that, guess what? These two things that I just mentioned are a recipe for disaster, a recipe for continuous suffering. And haven't you suffered enough?

12:18 Isn't it time to just find a new way to move on? I'm here for it, guys. This is what I have for you guys today. It's a very short episode, but it's full of love and full of intent. And I really just want you to really, really concentrate on you, OK? I love you immensely. Make sure you like, follow and subscribe on any platforms you're listening to. I'm going to leave you my coordinates, all in my descriptions, in all my different Facebook groups and everything.

12:58 I have now designed a Group, A private group for that, for people that are ready and ready, willing and able to go and change their lives and reclaim their identity. If you are listening to this right now and you say yes, damn it, I'm ready to move on. This has taken enough of my time and energy. I'm ready to learn the steps to move on and become me again. Send me Adm and I'll make sure that you can be into my private group of reclaim your identity.

13:35 Otherwise, remember that I love you immensely and I'm here for you at any time that you need me, and I will see you in the next episode. I love you. Bye.