S9E5: Raise your self-awareness post stroke.

0:00 Hello my beautiful survivors. This is Karina, the host and creator of Stroke Surviving the Arts of the podcast. 27 years ago I suffered a brain stem dissection that led me to coma Interlochen syndrome. But I'm here today talking to you. My show is all about moving forward past the stroke and I'm sharing all my tricks, hacks, and how to how I got to survive this world as a survivor.

0:27 Guys, grab yourself a drink, a pen and paper. The fantas of ink is better than the best memory and come and join me here as we're recording to this episode. Before I start the show, I would like to do a little bit of clean house. Make sure you like and follow the podcast on any platforms that you're listening to.

0:46 That way you will not miss any episodes. I am also on YouTube where in my description I am going to give you my YouTube page. Make sure that you subscribe and you ring that bell in order to not miss any episodes. Guys, I'm a very firm believer in paying it for work. That's why I suggest that you go ahead and you share the podcast with the world, with whomever you're around.

1:16 You never know who needs to hear this. And you know what? Let's do this guys, I'm excited. Today I'm going to talk about raising your awareness about the world post stroke. How do you view the world? Is it different than when pre stroke? I know your life has changed, your priorities have changed, probably, but do you still view the world as the same?

1:46 And do you still view yourself emotionally, not just physically, emotionally and psychologically the same way as you used to before? Or what has changed? What has shifted? We're going to talk about that and I'm going to tell you why you should be raising your own awareness. What is awareness and how to go about it? The episode layout is as such, why you need to raise your awareness?

2:20 What do I mean when I say raise your awareness and how to go about it? That's the layout of the land. I'll start by saying that raising your awareness is gaining information, and information is power. You can better life in general in public, but you can also better your own personal being, your own world, the world at home, the world you live around, the people you see on a regular basis. That is your world.

3:00 That is the view of the world that I was talking about just a few moments ago. In a public standpoint, I can say that increasing knowledge about a cause or an issue example when we see a raising stroke awareness, that is something that means that it's empowering people to take action to know what what's going on, what are the facts, but also how to go about it, to take action. And when I talk about self-awareness, well, that's enhancing your personal growth.

3:37 That's really taking action and accountability through mindfulness and a lot of introspection. We learn a lot about ourselves when we do, but we also learn a lot about ourselves when we don't do. Does that make sense to you? If you follow my work here in my podcast or on my social media platforms, which I hope you do by the way, you know that I'm always talking about self.

4:11 It could be self love, self-awareness, self compassion, but it all starts with you. It's not selfish to talk about yourself. It's selfish not to put yourself first, not to show up in your best form. Whether it being physically, mentally, spiritually, it doesn't matter. People deserve the best of you just as you deserve the best of people.

4:43 Yes, but you can't have control over other people. You know who you have control over? Yourself. And in light of today's episode, Raising Your Awareness is taking inventory of the way you think of the words you use to express yourself. Do you use any words to express yourself? Usually what we think about, we talk about.

5:15 What we talk about, we bring about. So what are you thinking about? Are they positive thoughts? Are they positive twist? Life is full of negatives, guys. I know first hand life is full of negative after stroke, but we have to think that we have a lot more than a lot of other people. You're going to say yes, Karina, but I also have less.

5:51 But you can't focus on the less you see. That's the difference that I found I got after stroke. I realize how lucky I am. I may not be the richest person, I may not have a lot of things figured out, but I do know in my heart and in my way of speaking and thinking that I am better than a lot of people out there. And it takes a strong person.

6:26 And I know you're a strong person. I know you can develop. If you're telling to yourself, I'm not strong, I'm not capable of seeing the good in the world, seeing the good in my world. Maybe that's something that you could work towards because now you're aware of how you feel. That's amazing. That's a good thing.

6:55 You're aware that you're a little bitter and you can't think straight because you've been disappointed time and time again and the stroke was just another one of those big disappointments. But I assure you, it doesn't have to be again. Think about it as another feather in your hat. Another accomplishment, if you will. What have you accomplished from having had the stroke? Hmm.

7:31 You became a more resilient person, maybe a more understanding and patient person. Maybe you're kinder because you know what it is to be left perhaps on the other side of the track for a little bit. You know how it feels to maybe not have the people you want tell you what you want. That way you now are expressing yourself in a way that is beautiful and people know exactly what you feel and what you're thinking at the pin's drop. Those are immense qualities.

8:14 And if you're saying, again, I don't have them, guess what? The fact you just told yourself I don't have them is awareness in itself that is opening the door for you to do something about it. All right, where are we at now? We talked about the why you should be doing and working towards self-awareness because you want to better yourself, whether it be spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and even body and what is awareness or self-awareness?

8:53 It's personal growth. You are giving yourself that chance to have introspection and really talk to yourself and dig deep. I had to dig deep many years ago, guys. I had to tell myself my shitty story, my shitty childhood, my beautifully fucking traumatic childhood. I had to talk myself about that and see that yes, it was really disgusting and bad, but at the same time, it built me to have I not lived through what I lived through in my generational trauma in my younger youth, I probably would not have been able to go through the stroke the way I did and understand and forgive that.

9:48 Those are things that came from me sitting down with my diary and really digging deep and telling myself my story. It's a scary thing, guys, but it's a necessary thing if you want to move past. And by doing that, it helped me better communicate with others because I learned how to communicate with myself. And then it comes to the how.

10:22 And I'll continue my story with the how I know that you've heard in my previous episodes because I often talk about the 3A's, what helped me move past all those events in my life. And I've had, I have about 7 different chapters of my life and the common denominator of the three was the first A, which is acknowledge. I acknowledge that everything happened, that the stroke happened, that I also accepted.

10:56 Accepted doesn't mean you give in or you give, you're giving up. Accepting doesn't mean you like it. Accepting means that you have the capability of understanding. It is what it is for the moment, not forever, because you have the possibility to change it. And the third one, which is the how to change it, is my ultimate favorite. It's taking action.

11:25 The third A is taking action. Well, now I'm going to give you those ideas of how you can take action. You know, I'm a very big advocate of talking therapy. I'm I've had a therapist myself for 20 years before becoming a coach. And I learned everything I know today through my personal growth that's I'm sharing this with you guys, not just for you to hear me and listen to me, but also know that I've, I've been where you're at and I am still where you're at at moments. So for me, talk therapy, journaling has been immense. You know, I'm a coach, I'm a life coach specializing in stroke survivors.

12:22 Why? Because I know exactly what you think, what you have thought and what you're thinking. Mindfulness. I know you hear a lot of mindfulness. What the heck is that? Well, I talked about your thoughts and feelings. Mindfulness is being aware is doing everything with intention. Doing everything not with an ulterior motive, but with a simple motive. You also heard me talk about meditation. You're probably saying shit.

13:01 Karina, give me a break with this. I told you a million times I can't meditate. Well, I am here to give you the benefits of meditating. The world is full of noises. When I talk about the world, I'm not talking about at the other end of the planet. I am talking about your world, where you are presently, your life, your family, your work, your bickerings and arguments with your siblings and everything.

13:31 I know that's what I'm going through right now. When I meditate, it gives me time to quiet the mind. Meditating is not necessarily sitting down alone. That's not meditating. Meditating could be you taking five extra minutes in bed, don't reach for your phone, don't talk to anybody, and have a moment of silence.

13:57 Be intentional and in that moment of silence it doesn't matter if you think of 1000 things, you will slowly quiet your mind and recharge. I have a lot more house in all of my episodes. I talk about house all the time. Please. Again, this is what I have for you guys today in the episode. However, you can like, follow and subscribe on any platforms that you're listening to your show. I'm also leaving in my description my my YouTube link where you can see a couple of videos of me and have the podcast.

14:45 Make sure you ring that bell so that way you don't miss any of my upcoming episodes when I post. And at the same time, don't forget to take some notes. Guys, I'm not kidding. I'm dead serious here, because the faintest of ink is better than the best memory. What do I mean? Well, you. You might forget, You might say I'll remember, I'll remember, but you'll forget. But if it's written on a piece of paper, you'll always have a reminder.

15:18 That being said, I love you immensely, and I'll talk to you soon. Bye.