The Alimond Show

Sorena Saffarpour - Author

• Alimond Studio

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Every scar tells a tale, and Sorena's is a saga of resilience and hope that he's turned into a beacon for countless others. Waking from a coma with a traumatic brain injury after a devastating accident, he faced a world dramatically different from the one he knew. On our show, Sorena details the therapies that helped him reclaim his life, the importance of cherishing every moment, and how his journey from diary entries to a published book has become a lifeline to people traversing similar paths. His story isn't just about overcoming adversity, but about the power of personal connections and the unexpected silver lining that comes with relearning the world.

Then, meet a modern-day Renaissance individual, melding the worlds of modeling, writing, and heartfelt work with children with autism. Their narrative weaves through the balance of chasing modeling dreams, educational pursuits, and the profound impact of their role as a behavioral therapist on both their life and those of the children they support. Discover the intricacies of self-publishing and how this guest uses fitness and poetry to fuel their passions and help others find their voice. Join us as we uncover the stories of those who remind us to keep chasing our dreams, value every second, and share the memories that shape us.

Speaker 1:

So my book is called this. Two Shall Eventually Pass December 2020,. I got into a car accident. I was in a coma, had a traumatic brain injury, stroke. If counting all my disabilities, including the common stuff, I had more disabilities than you have fingers and I did physical therapy for two years, occupational therapy for two years in a week. Speech therapy I did, but I stopped speech therapy and picked up neurofeedback therapy. That's a new therapy and that was pretty good too.

Speaker 2:

Okay, going to the accident that happened. What all did it affect you and how many ways?

Speaker 1:

In everything my value for life. They always say I wrote about this in my book. If you're eating like steaks every day and then someone gives you a slightly better steak, so what? But if you're eating McDonald's every day and then someone gives you a steak, that's like wow, okay, this tastes different and it's the same thing. Like you only value something when you're about to lose it. You know, like that song, only know you love it when you let it go. Like that's my life, only know you love it when you were near about to let it go. When you're about to lose it.

Speaker 2:

My gosh. Before this accident, what was your life like and what is the complete difference now, since that?

Speaker 1:

My life personally. It was this might sound like a bit off-putting, but it was a bit like meaningless. You know, like people would ask me what do you wanna be? Oh, I wanna be a radiologist. So like, why do you wanna be a radiologist? I'm like, oh, I like money. And that's literally what I did. I went on Google top 10 doctors that make most money number one radiologist. That's what I'm doing for the rest of my life. That was. I was like, okay, whatever, I don't care. And like I talked to people without like any meaningful, I didn't care about people. And like it's so funny just that I have short-term memory loss. That's when I started caring about people. It's just because I can't remember you as much, you know, and my quote of my mantra one of my mantras now is like make memories that never turn into histories.

Speaker 2:

That's great. What inspired you to write the book after your accident? Cause you could have just not written a book. You could have just done other things or just move on from it. Why did you wanna write the book?

Speaker 1:

Writing a book. Originally, like it was sort of like a story of me, like originally I didn't wanna write a book. Originally it was my short-term memory loss affecting me, affecting my life so much I wanted to keep a diary. I wanted to keep a diary of, like everything that happened and help out my short-term memory and like sort of unlock, like my furthest memory back after my accident, Like do I remember rehab?

Speaker 1:

The thing about rehab is like I remember my speech, therapist's name and remember like one or two things she taught me. Don't remember anything else and that's a lot of things. It's like I remember bits and pieces, like I remember the name of the hospital on rehab. I say that I don't remember if it was a tall building, if it was a short building, if it had two floors, 20 floors. I don't remember anything and wanted to keep this as a diary. But then after a while I saw like I met people in person and they were reaching out to me. I'm like, wow, okay, this can like actually help people, like this can help people. I'm like I've personally seen so many people, so many people like every day.

Speaker 1:

So many people messaged me. Serena, you gave me so much motivation, serena, you made me rethink suicide, serena. You helped me with my depression. Serena, you did this. And then every day I get messages Serena, my brother-in-law's in a coma, serena, my brother's in a coma, serena, my sister, my mom they're in a coma. I had a brain injury. They all talked to me about that. Serena, I had a spinal cord injury, everything about that, and that's what I do it for now. Just keep getting messages like those Cause. One message like that to me is worth 100 book sales.

Speaker 2:

It's amazing that so many people have related to this book or found comfort or peace in it and reach out to you. That's amazing, especially since this happened to you when you were 17,. Is that correct, correct, my goodness? How are you with marketing, like? How are you getting the word out of this book, like online? How else? Word of mouth?

Speaker 1:

My Instagram and word of mouth Word of mouth is is honestly like one of the most accurate ways, because once I tell someone about it, it's almost like a good chance that they're going to buy it. Instagram, yeah, I have a decent following and I have a bunch of viral videos and People always talk to me on Instagram. But Instagram I try to form that personal connection. When people message me, are they common something? I take that comment I talked to you tell me about, tell me more about your story. I want to hear more about yours. And there's so many times like People tell me like sorry, and I had a spinal cord injury. Spinal cord injuries are way harder to recover than a brain injury and really, I have it reversed.

Speaker 1:

Like it was so funny. I've a video. The first day I walked in physical therapy, my mom, I was sitting in a wheelchair and my mom was patting me on the shoulder like sir, and I told you, I told you, you can still walk. I, she was like tearing up. She's like I, like I was just sitting, still like I didn't have any reaction, I wasn't there, not many response to stimuli. And she's like sir, and I told you. I told you, and then I, because I didn't remember that I asked my mom I'm sorry, my mom, why were you so like? Why were you like, so like wanting to tell me everything's okay? She's like because you kept saying is my spinal cord broken, as my spinal cord broken and am I never going to walk again? And like my, I couldn't even talk. So yeah, my goodness.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, it really impacted you in so many ways. I think I saw online somewhere that you were supposed to like not recover from this, but somehow you did. Definitely that's wild. Was there any special treatments that help for any listeners who maybe are in that situation and they feel like they don't have any hope?

Speaker 1:

Definitely, definitely. And whenever people message me, I hate it when I ask someone something and they give me something general like oh, do therapy. Okay, what kind of therapy? Where, what time? How much is too much. As soon as someone messages me, I tell them okay, get the Pons device, go exactly to this clinic, talk to this doctor, say you know me, say this, say that, If they ask you this, say this.

Speaker 1:

The Pons device might not work for this, might work for this. And the Pons device, it was actually this interesting device. It's Pons stands for portable neuro stimulator device and it goes around your neck and there's a mouthpiece that goes on your tongue and the tongue is a conduit to the brain and that mouthpiece sends electrical impulses from your tongue to your brain and what that does is it claims to cause neuroplasticity, but you just don't put it in your mouth and sit down. You have to do physical therapy six times a day for 14 weeks and that's exactly what I did Twice gate, which is walking, and twice static balance, which is just standing with my feet together. Semi tandem, full tandem, all that stuff, one leg balance, static balance, and and two, two sets of meditation. So 230 minutes meditation, 230 minutes gate. 230 minutes static balance, and that was that. That was. Without it, I'd still be in a wheelchair.

Speaker 2:

Oh my goodness, how did you find out about this? Like when you were like where do I go? What do I do?

Speaker 1:

Right, it was so like and like it's so funny, everything I felt hopeless about. As soon as I felt hopeless about something, it was like three months of pain and then, just out of random, someone say, hey, have you ever heard of this? There? And we're like, what's that? So I was just like, so hopeless, I was like I'm never walking normal again, I'm never running again for the rest of my life. Then my aunt, out of nowhere hey, sir, have you heard of this device? And she tells my mom and dad about it. And we actually had to travel to Canada twice, once the Montreal, once the Toronto or Markham, and then it's near Toronto and to get the Ponds device and that's. It was just so interesting Because, like it was, I was hopeless and then, just out of nowhere, it just the solution is happened, just happens.

Speaker 1:

And then one thing I've learned is that so many things I worry about I always think. Whenever I start worrying about something, I always think of the feeling after that worry is over and after, like after I started walking and running, I now run seven days a week, non nonstop. In the past year I've run seven days a week, never had a break, oh my goodness. Well, actually to one day I had COVID. One day my ankle was messed up, but beside that, beside, that beside that, beside that seven days a week, never skipped a day.

Speaker 2:

Wow, that is intense man. But you really don't take it for granted. You're like I can run again. I'm gonna do it every day. Yeah, that's wild. Tell me about the process when it comes to publishing a book, like how did you go about finding a publisher where you could sell it, the illustration, all of that?

Speaker 1:

So illustration done by Johnny over there it was. It was amazing. We sat down his his skills were amazing on Photoshop Like as I was like hey, johnny, can we fix it? But like I don't want to say it out loud because I didn't want him to put another two hours into it and then say and then I'm like, hey, johnny, can we fix it? Oh, he's like done. I'm like, okay, what that was simple. And yeah, and he, there we go. That was fall.

Speaker 2:

But you can hold it or put it down, it's okay.

Speaker 1:

Let's see it's gonna stand. Yeah, but it was just for author, for authoring. I self published it.

Speaker 1:

Oh wow, yeah, and I had some editors who they didn't actually put their name in the books, hence why it's only me. And it was actually this one person. I call him an angel. He literally saved my life and I was working at Mission Barbecue and this man comes up and he orders, and then I was talking with them and we had a good talk at the cash register and then back then my short term memory loss was really bad and I was really hopeless.

Speaker 1:

While he was sitting down and eating I went up to him like, hey, hey, like I loved your story, I loved how we talked, but I'm not going to remember your name Because back then I was very negative. I'm like, I'm not going to remember your name because I have short term memory loss. And I gave him the whole spiel like I was in a coma brain injury, stroke and he said Wow, sir, no, that's really good, he's actually write a book. I'm like oh, actually have written a book, is not published yet. And it's like do you want me to take a look at it? I'm like and he saw it, hesitated a bit he's like no, it's fine, I was an editor for this magazine editor for that he's like. He's like let me take a look at it.

Speaker 1:

And he takes a look at it and about a week and a half later he gets back to me and we had like a three hour long conversation and back then my short term memory loss was bad, but he like I completely remember that that's how important his words were for me. Like I completely remember that three hour conversation. Basically, what he told me is like so, don't publish this book, you have to do a lot of editing. And after, after that call, we hung up and for the first three days I was like he doesn't know what he's talking about. But then after a week I read my own book and I was like, yeah, this, this is not like I don't want to publish this. This is so bad.

Speaker 1:

And and but I went back and edited it and I talked about it in my book and some people said I was like downplaying, I was getting everyone's hopes down just because my book can leave a bigger impact. But no, the reason is I talk about change in my book. Like the book changed, I changed everything around you changes. Change brings so many good things, you know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's wild. That's kind of inspiring that you had met somebody who was an editor before and kind of gave you their advice, Like what were the chances of that, and then you had a book just written that needed some tweaking but that's really impressive and amazing. Thank you. Where do you see yourself in five years?

Speaker 1:

Five years. Let's see five years Set to graduate. Get with my associates in about a year or less. By then I probably have my bachelor's.

Speaker 2:

I heard you talk about modeling. Tell us about that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah modeling, yeah, yeah, modeling, definitely modeling. I want to do it on the side and I've had so many people talk to me like, certainly you should definitely model, certainly you should definitely model, and I've had a few photo shoots. I've talked to some model management companies not model agencies, model management and they were all interesting. They were all very pleased with what I had and it's just me finding out who to choose and who to go with there. If I want to freelance modeling, that's, modeling is definitely a thing, but my mom's going to kill me for saying this so I have to keep it on the side just for mom and dad for now.

Speaker 1:

Okay, yes, yes, If it was personally up to me, it'd be my main focus, but obviously school comes first.

Speaker 2:

But it's okay to put it out into the universe.

Speaker 1:

It's okay, yeah, yeah, it'll be out there. So anyone wants to sign me? You know where to find me, you know.

Speaker 2:

What is your Instagram and?

Speaker 1:

your website. My Instagram is recovering underscore author and my website is recoveringauthorcom.

Speaker 2:

Okay.

Speaker 1:

Yep.

Speaker 2:

And then, who are you outside of being an author, a student? What do you like to do for fun? Any hobbies?

Speaker 1:

So my interests I run seven days a week for 30 minutes. I go to the gym four or five times a week. I'm trying to crease it to three because a lot of bunch of like there was this I've heard a mic mentor how he talks about. There's this bodybuilder he talks about like doing less reps and less sets and going to the gym less. And outside the gym I mean outside all this, the book stuff I do seven days a week running. I'm also a behavioral therapist. I give therapy to children on the autism spectrum. Ages the job application set ages five to 12. I've had like six six year olds, one, one eight year old, one five year olds. Yeah, they're all. They're all around that age of six. That's amazing.

Speaker 2:

Tell us about that job. Tell us, like, how you help kids out and what they usually come to you for, without like saying their names.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, hipaa, hipaa, I can't say their names, I can't say their names, but it's amazing. After, like, I was applying for the job and I saw it and I'm like what, no way. And then I was like this, this, okay, I'll apply for it. And like a week later they contacted me and like I was expecting them to say like ah, sorry, no, you thought you were getting in. You don't have a degree, you don't have a licensee. You really thought he could be one of us and like they. And then, when I really couldn't believe it, I'm like I got paid to do this, like I'll do this for free, you know, it's so much fun, you know, and have so many connections with the clients I work with. It's really amazing. And like the love I get and especially, it's like seeing myself, like it's it's like a mirror, it's like the same improvements I saw myself I'm seeing in the kids, you know, and that really touches my heart and like, personally, I say it doesn't feel like work. It's really amazing to me. It's a great feeling, you know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's amazing that you got into that as well. Now you're helping other people too, so it comes back around like the full circle of people helping you and then you helping others. Um, where do you hope? Um, well, actually, no. Are you planning on writing another book, or is this like it?

Speaker 1:

No, I'm planning on writing another book while I am in the middle of writing another book.

Speaker 2:

Tell us about it.

Speaker 1:

So I want to. I want to put that into a form of a ballad, as I'm really into poetry. I post a lot of poems on my website, recoveringauthorcom, and I post a lot of poems on my website and I kind of want to write a ballad, like Romeo and Juliet, you know, like, uh, write a long, uh long story, but in poem form and a ballad form, and that's what I'm working on. Funny, funny. The name is this is called. This too shall eventually pass. The sequel for the book is called this is not eventually passed yet, so yeah, funny, you put some thought behind it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1:

You know cause it's so true? Cause, in this book it was all about physical disabilities. Disabilities with my vision oh, they're out the way. Oh, guess what? You have short term memory loss now, no-transcript. After every single uphill battle I had, there was always another uphill battle Like I never for a second recovered from physical disabilities Great, I didn't sit down for a second onto my vision, visual disabilities. Every single second I was doing something. Every single second I had a new problem. There was never any time for rest. And that's, that's well. I don't want to say I want rest, because I always talk about staying hungry. You know, if you're full, if you're full, you don't care where your next meal comes from, but if you're hungry, you're always looking around for your next meal, always looking to improve yourself you know that's right.

Speaker 2:

Where can people find this book? Is it available on Amazon or through your website?

Speaker 1:

It's available on Amazon, on all Amazon marketplaces. Actually, I had friends in the UK purchase it. Oh wow, that's amazing.

Speaker 2:

What was the process like putting your book on Amazon for anybody or any listeners listening and they're wondering how to get their stuff on there.

Speaker 1:

Self-publishing on Amazon is rather easy. It's pretty straightforward. Self-publishing with Dale is who I, who I went forward with. He has a bunch of tutorials, a bunch of marketing tips, bunch of everything. He'd to help you and it was step by step, you know, and everything. And originally it was actually. It was a rocky road because I published the book. I published the wrong version, so I was missing four chapters and there was a. There was an opening words and the closing words, so six sections of my book were missing. But luckily, by the time I changed it I only had like 20 book sales and I just started messaging people on. Like Amazon doesn't say who bought my book. So I have to message people one by one like, hey, did you buy my book? Did you buy my book on the first day? So when people tell me, hey, I bought your book on the first day, I don't know, like I just typed their address in, I send them a new version of their book.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that must have been a little bit of hardware, but I totally appreciated that that was kind of you to do, so yeah, speaking of Donny right here, I have to.

Speaker 1:

he's my artist and even he doesn't have the right version of the book, so he's the next one getting his copy.

Speaker 2:

He's got the original one. Maybe they'll be sold to my board on eBay later.

Speaker 1:

Yeah there's only 20 of those copies.

Speaker 2:

You've got to sign those now.

Speaker 1:

Resell those, Donny. You can resell those in the future.

Speaker 2:

There you go. Limited edition. And then just to wrap things up here, If you could leave us with any inspirational messages or anything that you would like to share with our listeners in regards to publishing a book mental health, your body, anything that's in your heart, what would you like to share with them?

Speaker 1:

So, since I don't have my book, this too shall eventually pass. Every single pain I've gone through, it eventually passed. And the great thing is, whenever the pain passes, I sit down and I'm like why was I worried about this? Why was I crying over this? And that's what I think. Every single pain eventually passes.

Speaker 1:

I can't think of a pain that's been permanent for me, you know, and I had a pretty severe. I told you I had more disabilities than you have fingers and every single thing, one by one, started passing. It will get better, it will. But you need hard work, consistency, progressive overload and the intensity of what you do. To improve has to be good.

Speaker 1:

And what I say is, for example, back when I was recovering, I had like nine apps for purchasing used cars. I couldn't buy a car, I couldn't drive, I couldn't do it. But that dream of me like one day picking up all my friends in my car, I was playing on. I was playing on getting a highlander with the third row, I was playing on stuffing eight of my friends into it like a bus and going on a road trip, and that dream I had it's. Some people said to me don't be delusional, don't just sit there and say I have a dream. I have a dream, yeah, have a dream, but get up and chase it. You know, if you have a dream, get up and chase it, and this too shall eventually pass. Like I said, every pain is going to be over eventually. And in my book I write even though this too shall eventually pass means bad things shall pass, which, after a member's good times, will pass. You know, eventually that friend is going to move away. You'll find a better job, you'll transfer schools, everything eventually passes. Good times, bad times, everything. So enjoy the good times when they're around, enjoy them, cherish them.

Speaker 1:

Memories that never become histories that's what I say Every time I go with my friends. I'm like, hey, I don't want my short-term memory loss to forget about this. Let's take some pictures, let's do this, let's do that. I'm going to remember this night and there's a bunch of memories I had where, before my accident, I had post trauma amnesia and pre trauma amnesia, so about two months before getting into the accident and about two months after waking up. I have zero memories and there are these particular days where they just sparked in me, like I just remember them, even though they're in the two months of Formax and for some reason I remember those memories that never become histories. Like I did this oil change with my friends and we spilled five quarts of oil on my driveway and like, even though we messed up, it was like, it was a great event.