Tag: resilience

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Navigating My New Normal: Embracing Post-Stroke Clumsiness

Hello Dear Readers,

Life has a curious way of teaching us empathy and understanding. It’s often through our own experiences that we gain a deeper insight into others. After experiencing a stroke, one of the challenges I faced was an unexpected decrease in my dexterity, especially in my left hand. This unexpected turn of events forced me to grapple with a new clumsiness, unlike anything I had known before.

 

Before the stroke, I prided myself on my excellent balance and coordination. My hands were always sure and steady, effortlessly performing tasks. However, my left side became noticeably weaker post-stroke, with its response time not as quick as it used to be. This change surprised me, resulting in moments where I’d bump into objects or drop items. One incident that stands out vividly is an ordinary lunch at the hospital cafeteria. While attempting to take a sip from my drink, my left hand faltered, causing the drink to spill. It was a moment that was as puzzling as it was embarrassing.

 

These instances made me confront an unfamiliar reality. There was a pronounced disparity between what I anticipated I could do and what I was actually capable of. The once-taken-for-granted coordination became a daily challenge, requiring me to adjust and relearn. Thankfully, with persistence and rehabilitation, I started to bridge this gap over time. The gap between my anticipated abilities and my post-stroke realities gradually diminished.

 

Before this, I confess that my understanding and patience for those who might have been labeled as “clumsy” or “accident-prone” was limited. It’s not that I lacked compassion, but I lacked the lived experience. Now, with my own experiences of dropping things without apparent reason or unintentionally bumping into objects, I possess a newfound empathy for those facing coordination challenges.

 

In retrospect, it’s apparent that we often base our perceptions and judgments on our personal experiences. It takes a significant event or shift in our lives to broaden our understanding and allow us to see through another’s lens. For me, the aftermath of the stroke, with its challenges and revelations, became a significant event. It taught me the importance of patience, both with myself and others and highlighted the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity.

 

In embracing my new reality, I’ve learned to navigate through physical challenges and deepened my compassion and understanding for others. We all have our battles, seen or unseen, and it’s crucial to approach every individual with kindness and patience.

 

In closing, my message to all reading this is simple: Let us not wait for a transformative event to teach us empathy. Let’s embrace understanding and compassion as core tenets of our daily lives, making our world a little kinder, one interaction at a time.

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Turning Setbacks into New Beginnings: The Art of Maintaining Streaks

Hello Dear Readers,

As you strive to build successful routines and habits, there will inevitably be days when obstacles throw you off course. The weather, unexpected emergencies, or simple fatigue disrupts your meticulously planned performance. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I recently faced such a challenge when I could only complete one set of exercises instead of the scheduled two. While you can’t rewrite the past, you can control how you navigate the future.

A Chinese proverb wisely states, “The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the second-best time is now.” This aphorism reminds us that although we can’t undo our failures, the next best thing is to act immediately to rectify them. Resilience isn’t just about avoiding loss; it’s about your recovery speed. Dusting yourself off and getting back on track is what truly counts.

Losing a streak can be disheartening, especially when you’ve invested significant time and effort into maintaining it. For example, I’ve consistently practiced Japanese language exercises on an app for over 250 days. Although I take immense pride in this achievement, I must acknowledge that this isn’t my first streak. It is, however, the longest one I’ve maintained. While I aim to continue without interruptions, life sometimes cooperates with our plans. Sometimes, unforeseen circumstances can disrupt even the most entrenched habits.

When setbacks occur, the key is not to dwell on them but to take them as learning opportunities. The first step is to evaluate the reason behind the break in your routine. Once you identify the root cause, you can develop strategies to prevent similar interruptions in the future.

The art of maintaining a streak lies in its renewal. A broken streak isn’t a dead end; it’s a junction that points you toward a new path, offering you a chance to build a longer, more robust streak. It’s like planting a new tree in your garden of habits; the more you nurture it, the more resilient it becomes, capable of withstanding future storms.

So, the next time you find your routine interrupted, don’t see it as a setback but as an opportunity for a fresh start. Learn from it, adapt your strategies, and continue your journey toward self-improvement. Plant that new tree today, and watch it grow more potent than the last one. With this mindset, you transform every end into a new beginning, turning setbacks into setups for future success.

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From One Step to 10K: How Small Choices Built a Resilient New Me After a Stroke

People can be characterized by the sum of their habits.

Everybody has habits, but not everybody chooses their habits. Every choice you make is a step toward forming a life-long habit. As such, making choices that lead you toward your desired destination is critical. So, the first step toward developing good habits is deciding where to end up.

 

After my stroke, I wanted to regain my lost mobility and lessen the burden on my wife I had become. The first step along this journey was to be able to take more than one step between resting. My wife helped immensely with this, and we went on daily walks around our Portland neighborhood.

At first, it was challenging as I had to concentrate on moving my legs. One of the things I lost from the stroke was unconscious control of movements. Walking required concentrating on activating the right leg muscles in the proper order, and doing this for more than a couple of steps resulted in neuro-fatigue, a term I learned during physical therapy.

Neuro-fatigue might be something you’ve experienced if you’ve ever spent a long late night studying for an exam the next day and felt exhausted despite being largely sedentary. This used to happen to me just from walking due to the concentration and mental effort this once simple act demanded. Counting my steps helped me maintain my focus on walking, and it also gave me a way to track improvement.

Initially, I would need to sit down and rest every 50 steps. Still, eventually, I was able to last the hour-long walk until we got home again. Now, I can run 10 kilometers without having to sit down midway. In my next posting, I’ll provide a more detailed description of how I built up to a 10k run.

 

If you want to achieve something, you’ve already taken the first step toward accomplishing it, but you need to take the next step. As I see it, the next step is to subdivide your path into small portions. In my walking, this was easy to determine; I just needed to try and put one more effort than I did on the previous walk. If I failed, I had to try that number repeatedly if necessary. Eventually, I would succeed, and I could increase my goal again.

Eventually, I discovered that what was once all I could manage was now merely halfway to my current goal. If you’re stumbling and trying to take your next step, try making your step smaller.

 

Remember the fable about the tortoise and the hare: slow and steady will win many races.

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A Dive into Dystopia: Four Must-Reads for Your Summer

Hey there, fellow bookworms!

Today, I want to take you through a few riveting yet chilling books I recently dove into. After I read Mistborn, I decided to explore 4 Dystopian books, which are 1984, Fahrenheit 451, The Brave New World, and finally, the Hunger Games. Some books scared me a lot because similar conditions may exist in some parts of the world. These novels fall under the ‘dystopian’ genre, which means they paint pictures of imagined worlds where things have gone wrong. These stories can be dark and depressing but are thought-provoking and offer incredible insights.

To kick off our exploration, we have George Orwell’s classic “1984.” Imagine a world where Big Brother always watches, and freedom is a dream. That’s the haunting reality in 1984. Orwell’s mastery in creating a world where individuality is crushed, and truth is manipulated had me gripping the book tight. It’s scary to think how his dystopian vision feels almost too real at times.

Next on our list is “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury. In this fiery tale, books are banned, and ‘firemen’ burn them! Sounds crazy, right? Bradbury’s world made me appreciate our freedom to read, learn, and think. But it also made me ponder – what if knowledge and creativity became a threat? This book is a wake-up call, reminding us to cherish our intellectual freedoms.

Our third stop is “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. This book is a cocktail of science and society gone wrong. Huxley presents a world where humans are bred in labs, conditioned to conform, and happiness is achieved through a drug called ‘Soma.’ The dystopia here is disguised as a utopia – a perfect world. But is it perfect if we’re stripped of emotions, relationships, and the essence of being human?

Finally, we have “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins to lighten our mood slightly. Yes, it’s a dystopian novel with thrilling adventure, resilient characters, and a glimmer of hope. Set in post-apocalyptic North America, the story revolves around Katniss Everdeen, a young girl forced to participate in a deadly televised game. Katniss’s bravery and humanity shine through despite the grim setting, making this an engaging read.

Each of these novels serves up a feast of thought. They might be set in fictional worlds, but they hold up a mirror to our society, forcing us to reflect on our values and choices. And that’s what makes them both terrifying and fascinating. They remind us that while dystopias are places we wouldn’t want to live in, we should still learn from them.

I hope this peek into my recent reads encourages you to explore these remarkable dystopian tales. They might not be the typical light-hearted summer reads, but I promise you, they’re worth it. So, get your hands on these books and let the reading adventure begin!

Remember, as you journey through these dystopias, feeling down is okay. After all, these are worlds where things have taken a wrong turn. But also remember to look for the lessons and the hope that often hides in these stories.

Happy reading!