60. Survivor Science Soundbites: Curiosity in Recovery: The Questions That Drive Us

In Survivor Science Soundbite #3, I’m diving into something that’s been on my mind all weekend—curiosity. For me, curiosity might be the most powerful driver in my stroke recovery, pushing me to ask deeper questions, try new things, and shape a path that feels right for me. But is curiosity really the key to recovery, or is this just my own way through?

Join me as I explore why curiosity can shake things up, especially when standard approaches fall flat. I’ll share my perspective, and I’d love to hear yours too—how does curiosity shape your recovery? I hope this episode gives you something useful, even fun, to think about as we kick off the week together.

Hey there! If you’re a stroke survivor, caregiver, or someone navigating recovery, I want to invite you to check out The Center by Survivor Science. Head over to center.survivorscience.com and join a community that understands what you're going through.

And if you’re not quite ready to join, that’s okay! You can still access free resources at survivorscience.com 

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Medical Disclaimer: All content found on this channel is for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The information provided, while based on personal experiences, should not replace professional medical counsel. Always consult with your physician or another qualified health provider for any questions you have regarding a medical condition or treatment. Always seek professional advice before starting a new exercise or therapy...

Transcript

0:01

Welcome to number three. Servers on sound bites. Today is Monday, November 18th, 2024. And I have been thinking about a lot of things this weekend. I hope you had a good weekend. I enjoyed myself. I am fired up out the gate because I just finished the gym has I'm recording this. And I literally got home and spilled my smoothie. All over the floor. Thankfully, I have a plastic mat underwear. I'm sitting, filming this recording. And that caught most of it, but summit got on the carpet. So I am really fired up to start this little episode of. Survivor science soundbites, which are 10 to 15 minute discussions. This one in particular on Mondays is to kind of kick off the week. What have I been thinking about over the weekend? I really. Think about a lot of things. That's why I enjoy running. It's a good time to clear my head. Sometimes those ideas that fumble around in my head while I'm running, they get lost in space. They don't make it to a notepad or more, more likely my phone. I have. 10,000 thoughts a minute. And yeah, so. In preparation for the week, I was really thinking about what is. What's going on, what's kind of a theme. What am I thinking about? And then I realized last night. I get the question a lot. How do I do it? How have I done it? And I was reading a newsletter by Erica Schneider, who is a fantastic writer and editor. Really like her stuff. And it got me thinking a little bit differently. Now I know. The load Bulsara was started because I'm a stroke survivor or living with Ms. I, I still feel like the it's a good name. It's a good brand. It was a good start. I think, you know, a lot of the beginning was just me telling my story and I always going to tell my story, but it's share my perspective and share my journey. Survivors science is kind of that next step where I'm transitioning. And I was thinking about that this week. So now my son is officially done with his first year of football. And the week, day nights are a little more calm for the time being until we headed into the next sports season. So I am working on transitioning the entire brand to under the survivors science umbrella. So keep these episodes on Mondays and Fridays where I do the quick little sound bites. But anyways, and then the main show middle of the week, similar idea. Again, everything will kind of morph under the server science brand. Hopefully this week, definitely by the end of Thanksgiving. Everything will be transitioned. It hopefully will be smooth, but more than likely we'll be a little bumpy. We'll get there. We'll get through it. I'll get through it. We all served a stroke. It's not the end of the world. When it comes to things like this, it would be nice. And it would be lovely if everything was just super easy and smooth, but I suspect that will not be the case. Anyways, back to the question. I get a lot as a stroke survivor and you probably do too. If you're a stroke survivor out there, sharing your story. Talking with other survivors. I get it a lot. How do you do it? Well, there's a lot of reasons. It's pretty nuanced. I, you know, I have three kids. I have a wife I've been fortunate to be able to. Spend a lot of time on my recovery. But I was thinking about it. It's not, I can't pinpoint one specific thing. There are definitely things that have been very helpful. That I didn't think it would be helpful. There are moments in time looking back over the last five years and I'm sure another five years I'll have the same feeling and look back. There's always going to be things we learn along the way. There's things that we all know internally, inherently. Sometimes we don't. Or at least I didn't, I didn't think to, you know, like somebody will tell you something and you'll be like, oh my God, I forgot that. That's so obvious. Like, I should have thought of that sooner. And it's not that you didn't know it, you just forgot or I forgot, or, you know, these things happen. There's a lot going on stroke. Stroke is unfortunately just, it becomes part of your life. You kind of have to deal with it. You could not deal with it, I suppose, but. The majority of us are trying to deal with it. Life doesn't slow down. So it's you know, I think it's natural. We're going to forget things we're going to. Somebody will have said something along the way will have forgotten it. Just like I was talking about where I had a million ideas running through my head running over the weekend. Some of them make it to, you know, my phone or a notebook or whatever, some of them don't. And it doesn't mean they're not important. Doesn't mean I don't believe in them. It's just, it's a lot. So when I slow down and I think about everything. I think for me, And this may be the case for you too. I hope it is. Or if it's not, I hope it will become the case for you. The thing that always is consistently helping me get better and continue to progress in my stroke recovery journey. Is that I'm just naturally a very curious person. So. I don't want to make a declarative statement, but I think curiosity is a really big key. To soak recovery weather. And I'll tell you why I think this. So I think this is for a lot of reasons, right? Is I was asking myself last night is curiosity the key to success in stroke recovery. And I think he kind of is. And here's why. We all hear it all the time. Every stroke is different. Every, every, every recovery journey is different. You can point to a lot of things are that are very helpful. Like I think it's pretty common. I think it's, well-known like if you're able to get into an acute facility after your stroke and really start the rehab process. That is certainly helpful. Not everybody's that lucky. So that's where curiosity kind of kicks in in the beginning. You know, Once the initial kind of wave of everything calms down and you wrap your head around the fact that you've had a stroke and that you're now a stroke survivor, not just temporarily for life. Okay. Curiosity kicks in. How do I get better? What role does it really play? And I think it plays a big, big role because why. Because again, we've heard it at nauseum. Every stroke is different. Okay. So, how does that relate to curiosity? Well, you know, for me, and I'm just going to share my perspective. Please try to extract what you can, from my perspective in this chat. You know, how can you apply it to your situation? I knew. Okay. I'm here. I can't walk. How do I start to walk? Like you have to sort of list out the things that you recognize, you know, I always say this too is like, We want to fix everything right. And that's super hard. You can't do that. I believe me. I tried it. You can't fix everything overnight. You're probably not going to fix a whole lot, even in inpatient rehab. It'll probably take a year, couple of years. Um, again, everybody's different. But you sorta have to. Assess where you're at. Be honest about things with yourself, with your family. Make a long ass list. It's going to seem like an endless to do list and it probably is, but it just helps you kind of organize to get started. Then you look at your list and your view. Okay. You know, this is work, curiosity kicks in as the driver. It's like, where do I want to start? Where do I think I can start? What's the most important thing to me. Um, what can I do today? What is maybe a more long term? Again, this is kind of my insight to how I CA attacks my stroke recovery. And listen, I've gotten things wrong. I tried to do way too many things in the beginning. Which actually leads me to another thought, but I'm trying to stay on track with this. Um, yeah, so. You know, I just got really curious cause I worked with my teams. I work with physical therapists, speech therapists, occupational therapists, all the therapy teams. Even traditional therapy. Um, I explored cognitive behavioral therapy. Never actually wound up getting into a program specifically designed for that. For a lot of reasons, because when I came out of inpatient COVID happened. Everything was shutting down. Things were very weird. There were long lists. Just never got into it for some reason. I couldn't, maybe I could have exact re-examined it. But I think by the time I would have. And things were a little more opened up and there was more availability. I had just kind of gotten to a point where I felt pretty good about things. And I'll tell you, curiosity has been a real driver to this whole thing. Cause it's every time. I ask. I ask a shit ton of questions on a normal Tuesday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, whatever day of the week, I'm asking lots of questions to anybody that will answer anybody that will listen for any number of reasons, because I want to know. Why is this happening? Where's this? What is this? How could we do this better? I mean, if you looked at my chat history with the various AI platforms, I just ask a million questions and I ask a million more, how can we be better? How could I dig deeper? How could I. Re-examine this I'm thinking of this. Is there something I'm missing? Where could I look? You know, so I'm a really curious guy. Naturally, it's annoying to some people. To me, I think it's kind of my superpower. I'm not the smartest guy in the room. Most of the time, I try to surround myself with pretty smart people. And I know that I don't know the answer to a lot of the things, but I'm really willing to do the work and dig it and find out. And I'm really good at that particular thing. Have the actual answers. It takes me a lot more work than somebody who's just naturally brilliant. Um, You know, I'm lucky that people like that in my life. And they're always willing to help and answer the questions as long as I do. So it's not just about being curious. You can't be lazy when you ask these questions. In my opinion, I think you have to do a little bit of your own homework. That is getting harder, right? Because Google and other search platforms are less reliable as time goes on, because if you. You do a search in one area, you go to a coffee shop and do another search. Even if you have a VPN, like it all gets a little muddled. So you really have to become an expert at. Piecing together, different things from. You know, you take your curiosity and you do a big search. You almost have to become an investigative journalist at this point because. You can get a lot of answers, but are they, the right answers are the right answers for you. That's another thing about being curious and saying. Focused with your curiosity. Don't just, you can't be lazy just like you really, like if you really want to get better. As a stroke survivor. You have to be open-minded. I think you have to be curious. You have to question yourself at times and not to a point where you're you're hindering yourself, but you really have to be honest with yourself, like. Okay. And again, curiosity kicks in where. The specifics around your stroke recovery, maybe you have right-hand deficits or right-side weakness your legs, right? Hopefully you're walking, but maybe. You know, your hand, doesn't quite do things. I saw some questions last week on Tik TOK, where people are like, well, I I'm trying to do this thing. And I'm lifting weights or I'm doing like leg press, but then my hand suddenly moves. And like that could be a lot of different reasons. Mike. My suspicion is that that particular question is around like, you know, your, your motor skills and just the misfiring us of things. But again, it's it's about being curious. Okay. Why is this happening? Have other people had this issue? How, how do you get to the answers to the questions that you need? Because stroke is very individualized again, in the early days when you're working with therapists. And whether they're occupational or physical therapists that can give you a lot of good. Practical. General advice that they've seen. Tools and tips to help you get better, you know, but there does become a point in your recovery where. The finer motor skills and the finer, the recovery, the more you put in, the more you're getting out, you do sort of, I hate to use the word pie toe, but you will hit plateaus because. Plateau means you're doing the work and you're you you've gotten to a good point in a good place. But you need some refinement. And so I, again, I think that's where curiosity kicks in and that really helps propel you to that next level for yourself. Because yes, other people may have had experiences. You can learn a lot from that, but you got to be curious. You got to want to dig and to go ask people, you gotta be kind of unapologetic asking people when you see that they've had similar experiences. You know, Curiosity really creates that personal recovery path. And it really, you know, it's the more specific things get, the more curious you have to be. Because it gets harder and you know, a lot of therapists are great. Everybody's great. Generally that wants to help stroke survivors. But they just, aren't going to have the specific answer for you and I'm not sure anybody does that's again. That's why curiosity is really the big connector. When it all comes together and stroke recovery, especially as you go on later in the recovery journey. And so. Um, I know this has been a really quick, I've been really energetic for the most part. I apologize. I just, you know, crazy day. I'm really into this topic. I think it's again like psychedelics last week. It's a very nuanced topic. I don't think there's any right or wrong answer. I do think. I do think I could say with that a pretty good level of certainty that curiosity won't serve you wrong. When it comes to your shirt, covery, it'll only enhance your stroke cover. I think the curate, the more curious you are, the more questions you ask. The more, you're willing to put yourself out there and ask other people questions who seem to have similar experience. You know, curiosity again, it drives. Sorta. It should hopefully drive you to be curious, to figure out how to connect all the dots again. And because nobody's lived your exact life, nobody's had your exact stroke. This is where we, it definitely gets more nuanced. And I think, you know, It's not a quick fix. It's. It's an attitude. It's, it's a, it's a. Sort of, um, habits, the wrong word, but yeah, I mean, it's just, it's for me. Curiosity is the driver. It's the thing that fuels me. It fuels me to become more resilient, to learn more, to grow more, to push more to. You keep learning. It's not an easy thing to get through. As we've said that an awesome. You know, there's challenges. There's a lot to it. I think curiosity will go serve you well in your show covery. So I'd be curious. Jeff. No pun intended to curious, to hear your thoughts, curious to hear. What you feel like if curiosity is helpful, do you think everybody has it? I'm not sure everybody has it. It's something that you can certainly build in you. It's never too late to get curious about anything. Ask questions. ASCA. See what other people doing? What can you learn from other people? Again, curiosity. I think some of us are born with it, more innately. Some of it. Is developed over time and either way there's no wrong way, because the more curious you get starting today, the better you'll become. I think. Um, So, yeah, let's see. To wrap up this quick episode, which has already gone longer than I hoped yeah. This week. I'm trying to try to think about one thing. What's one thing you've been avoiding. What's one thing you have yet to ask. What's one thing you are really curious about, curious about, but have been too afraid to ask whether you asked me on Tik TOK asked me on Instagram, asking me any social media platform. You can email the show. Let me know. We'll it's robber science. Dot com. I'm definitely curious to hear your questions. I want to help. That's why, why I do this podcast. I hope you are. Giving it some thought, see where you could be more curious in your recovery journey and yeah. I hope you are having a great week off to a great Monday. And I will back with a episode on hopefully Wednesday or Thursday this week. And we'll be back on Friday to wrap up with a, another episode of the server side in sound bite series. All right. Have a great Monday and take care and see you later in the week. Bye.