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Crafting Survival
Crafting Survival is packed with gripping real-life stories, expert insights, and powerful lessons. We will hear from real people who have faced some of life's toughest challenges and people who have great knowledge to help us craft our survival.
Crafting Survival
Exploring a Survival Mindset
Ever wondered what it truly takes to craft a life of resilience and preparedness? Join us on "Crafting Survival" as we explore the multifaceted concept of survival beyond just cancer, emphasizing the importance of readiness for various life challenges. Kicking off our journey, we share personal insights into daily survival, touching on crucial aspects such as nutrition, exercise, stress management, and the power of healthy relationships. With heartfelt anecdotes, we reveal the strength needed to overcome personal hardships, like coping with divorce and infidelity, and underscore the significance of having an emergency plan inspired by real-life scenarios.
Imagine navigating a treacherous hike to Takowitz Peak without any experience or gear. We recount our perilous adventure, filled with steep, icy trails and heart-pounding rock climbs, showcasing the essence of teamwork and trust. From sketchy hand-over-hand climbing to a dramatic sleeping bag mishap, this tale of resilience amidst nature's challenges promises to inspire and entertain. The journey didn't just test our physical limits but also taught us invaluable lessons about self-reliance and adaptability in the face of unexpected obstacles.
In our exploration of resilience and hope, we delve into the mindset needed to navigate life-altering events like cancer and personal trauma. We discuss how social media has become a lifeline for many on their cancer journeys and ponder whether these challenges are opportunities for growth. With powerful stories of overcoming adversity, including starting a business while on disability and surviving a traumatic assault, we emphasize a proactive approach to life. Wrapping up, we highlight the importance of self-care practices such as hot yoga, ice baths, and saunas, encouraging you to stay strong and hopeful as you craft your own survival story. Connect with us on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook, and join us weekly for more inspiring tales of resilience.
I will be your shield in the fiercest battle. I'll defend you from all these arrows and the sword. I will will keep you from danger.
Speaker 2:Let me be your shield this is crafting survival a podcast that is not just about cancer. It's about the challenges in life. It's about surviving, overcoming, developing plans, speaking with survivors, people who have dealt with cancer, dealt with other challenges, experts in the field of medicine, science, innovation anyone who has dealt with life's challenges. This podcast for you. Sit back and enjoy Crafting Survival. You won't feel no pain.
Speaker 1:I will take your place, I will be your shield.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're talking about our journey, our journey together, surviving this life coming together crafting survival, you know.
Speaker 3:So what we think makes us fit to host this yeah like why are we doing this?
Speaker 2:we have so many stories to share. We meet so many interesting people. I think that's the hopeful thing that we'll get to share all of that and the people we meet and the survival stories we hear.
Speaker 3:Do we want to talk about the meaning of crafting? Have we touched on it? The meaning of crafting, survival.
Speaker 2:What does it mean to you.
Speaker 3:For me Rusted Iron Coffee, thank you. For me, crafting survival is how I try to live my life, my daily decisions when it comes down to sleep, to nutrition, to exercise, work, professional personal relationships, things that I'm doing to minimize stress.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 3:Run a homeostasis life, basically, you know not.
Speaker 2:Surviving life, but not just surviving like really Thriving. I always say not even thriving, because I'm so over that term because of, like cancer and the world I live in and people thriving, going from surviving to thriving. But you know what I was thinking about the other day. It's aliving right, like being alive, not just thriving, like really being able to enjoy and live life. I want to feel alive, I don't want to just thrive.
Speaker 3:Right, all systems firing, everything operating at 100%.
Speaker 2:I asked ChatGPT if aliving was a real word, because I knew it was another word I made up, but it was kind of funny.
Speaker 3:Is it? What did it say?
Speaker 2:It's not, of course, birthday. It said that's like a fun word. It did a hyphen living a living, but I think it's um, it has merit, I think. But you know, crafting survival, and my view is about getting through situations right, like Like having a plan, and I keep using this analogy. Lately which, unfortunately, our dear friend's home caught on fire and I was like, oh my gosh, I've been using this analogy for like the last two weeks prior to that incident and I was like whoa. But the truth of the matter in that situation was her youngest daughter calls 911. Right, because we are trained from know in middle school, elementary school, to think about a cancer option plan. Right, like to understand or try to figure out what to do or how to even go about that or even anything in our healthcare. And and there's a lot of discussion now about even bringing in that education about cancer right and cancer screenings and care earlier in school. But you know, stop drop roll is it landon, you know?
Speaker 3:uh, this last lesson in health was about cancer. She used me as an example, wrote about it. Yeah, information, used my photos, so how old to landon?
Speaker 2:ninth grade yeah, she's a freshman high school, so even that's like a little, but at least they're moving it into school earlier. So crafting survival to me it's not just about cancer, it's about life situations and how to get out of that and have a plan. And you're the son of a fireman who always has a plan right, planning everything, so you're like accustomed to kind of thinking that way to kind of thinking that way right which uh lends uh this podcast to have a wide array of characters?
Speaker 3:yeah, and, and and guests for sure, because if you're crafting, survival could be surviving. You know. Fill in the variable yeah a car accident, divorce, bankruptcy, fire, fire, cancer divorce, bankruptcy, fire, fire, cancer, covid, infidelity.
Speaker 2:Right there was a lady I just the, a lady I just saw on tiktok, who was talking about how she married the man of her dreams and goes through this cancer journey, has this beautiful wedding and then she's, you know, um, her body's changed, she's getting better, and then he leaves her. It was like devastating, like oh my gosh, like how do you get through that? Like you just go through something really terrible in your life and you got your partner and then they're like see ya. Anyway, I digress.
Speaker 3:Well, I got to admit that I got cussed out for saying that to my ex.
Speaker 2:What see ya?
Speaker 3:No, no, oh, to my ex. What see ya? No, no, no. She was leaving me because I was cancer patient oh because it was just a couple years after. It was two years after, but there was other underlying issues.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the cancer may have been induced by stress, right?
Speaker 3:so at that point, yeah, my crafting survival was inducing self-inflicted stress, that yeah yeah, yeah, anyway.
Speaker 2:So I said infidelity but anyway, but it's crafting anything in life. So we had a really interesting situation happen when we I think it was our first year of dating, which one. And going on the backpacking journey, which I've hiked but never backpacked before.
Speaker 3:Which one?
Speaker 2:Takowitz Peak.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And sleeping in the snow. Just below San Jacinto yeah.
Speaker 3:Out of Wild.
Speaker 2:That was quite the adventure. I definitely learned a lot about myself in that situation that I'm not a very good follower.
Speaker 3:What was that situation? And then tell us your takeaways.
Speaker 2:I like when you tell the story better. I you know that was. I was like, yeah, I want to go on one of those hiking trips, like you and your brother go on, I want to camp in the snow and I want to do all that cool stuff. So you're like, okay, let's do it.
Speaker 3:Next thing you know you're getting your ass whisked up into the mountains. You're like oh shit.
Speaker 2:I no, it was fun. Got the backpack, got all the gear, we, we went sleeping bags, little two man tent yeah, we found a spot to camp crampons.
Speaker 3:Well, not full on, but little ice shoes mhm not the big old, massive, gnarly crampons, but the snow wasn't that bad it was like it was like icy snow. It had melted a lot and there was a lot of clear land and you know patches of snow and stuff yeah, and the straw at the strawberry junction at 8 800 feet yeah there's still, yeah, patches of snow yeah, and then up on the mountaintop, obviously there was snow, ice melting snow and ice.
Speaker 3:But um, we got a spot we'll talk about the uh, snowy mountaintop, talk about the difference and landscape looking north versus south.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, one side was icy snow. It was like an Ansel Adams photo.
Speaker 3:I wish we were photographers because you know we need to. We're adventurers, not photographers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we need to capture them, but it was like an Ansel Adams photo. It was like burnt from the fires the year prior on one side and sunny and the other side was like cloudy, gloomy and icy snow. Yeah right, like it literally like divided the peak of the mountain we were right on the ridge of the takowitz, if you're familiar with the area.
Speaker 3:There's that uh fire watch tower up there, so kind of funny that a fire burned right to the fire tower. Yeah right up there so kind of funny that a fire burned right to the fire tower.
Speaker 2:Yeah right, mm, hmm, yeah, so what? We found a spot that was clear, behind a nice big rock where we were going to camp for the night. We went and sat on this like amazing rock and watched the sunset. Oh, and that little carve out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that rock had that. I know it's like lazy boy lounge carve out in it, and we lowered down, kind of like we're in the cockpit of a jet and our eyes were you know. Our head was just barely sticking out over the top of the rock out of this little carve-out and all the wind was gone. It was silent. It stood up a little bit. It was all windy, Squat down.
Speaker 2:It wasn't really windy at that time. The wind came up later.
Speaker 3:It got worse. Creaking around in your chair Needs oil. Yeah, yeah the wind got worse Later.
Speaker 2:Later. But we saw an amazing sunset and where we set up on the tent was behind this big rock to kind of shield us from any kind of wind and you know, whatever. But that was not the case. Yeah, no, we set up this little two-man tent right behind this log Remember, the tent was right up against the log and we're like cool, we'll put a fire on the other side of the log, we'll sit on the log and have our fire and our hot coffee and whatever, behind this big rock. It was perfect, so perfect, until the wind kicked up Like gust of wind from like nowhere Crazy, crazy wind and uh, it was so bad that the tent was gonna blow into the fire that we had set. So I had to go sit inside the tent and spread my whole body out to keep the tent from flying out.
Speaker 2:It's like bending in half well, it did yeah, well, the poles bent, not in half, but they definitely bent the other.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, the poles bent, Not in half, but they definitely bent yeah they were bent. You were weighing it down and the wind was blowing so hard.
Speaker 2:The tent poles bent A little two-man tent, yeah, and at the same time kicked up the fire, and the fire started to spread into the manzanita. Bush.
Speaker 3:It was like a spirit coming out of it. Yeah, it just whirled, yeah it was nuts.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:And then you had an emergency fire blanket or emergency blanket that your dad had given you.
Speaker 3:It was foil, like aluminum foil things, and you're running back and forth like a hyena. Hyena With my tail between my legs. Yeah, with snow, hyena, hyena, with my tail between my legs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, rah, rah, rah, with snow in the blanket, trying to put out the fire.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And to get that under control, but then you still had to get the manzanita trees that were lit on fire and the embers Right.
Speaker 3:They weren't lit on fire yet.
Speaker 2:They were about to ignite. The embers were in those. I remember staring at them, going I can't get out of this tent and I hope you can get those before they start to light up, because the manzanita trees are like fire, like just yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, not only that, but the embers were in the same dry oh yeah, and all the pine needles. Yeah, the same that I went climbing into the manzanita bushes to get sticks to light the fire, all the dead leaves and twigs. Then the fire kicked up and blew those embers right where I had just pulled the kindling out from.
Speaker 2:But when you're talking about crafting, survival, your dad gave you all kinds of things you're used to, so you had an emergency blanket and a shovel where I was able to.
Speaker 3:So you had an emergency blanket and a shovel where I was able to go shovel snow under the blanket and then carry the blanket and dump the snow onto the fire.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we were going to be the fire out pretty quick we were going to be those people about to light the mountain on fire at night time oh my gosh, the fire chief dad and I didn't. I didn't like wake up in the morning and leave you freak out, not doing this life with you, right, yeah?
Speaker 3:as the wind kept actually.
Speaker 2:But then, but then right when you finished like putting out the fire, the freaking wind went away. It was like died down, like gone. It was like let's just put you guys in the most stressful situation and see how you act. Let's just put you guys in the most stressful situation and see how you act. And it actually made us closer not you know, I wasn't yeah.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 2:It was a pretty crazy bonding experience, not one that I'd want to go through again, but survived that one, and so we make it through the night. We're good.
Speaker 3:It was so hectic and chaotic it felt like being in a 737 on its way crashing into the ground, totally like it just felt rough and turbulent and shit going everywhere. You know it was wild it was very so.
Speaker 2:Then we wake up, we're good, we sleep through the night. We had a peaceful evening after that and we continued to hike in the morning and our goal was to get to the top of the peak and, um, I'm not a very good um follower, even though I know you're way more experienced than me at hiking and at one point I get out in front of you, probably a couple times actually, and I think about it. And so we're um going along the trail and we uh, well, there's no trail because it stops because the snow, and whoever had footsteps in front of us, they clearly didn't have crampons or any ability to go on, and we're like we can do it.
Speaker 3:So we were hiking on the trail to get to Takowitz Peak and as you get towards the end the mountain gets really steep Right and the trail that ended it disappeared. People couldn't no longer continue to traverse past because it was so steep and icy and it just was dangerous, and so that was it.
Speaker 1:So we turned around right.
Speaker 3:So we turned around and we start heading back, you know, retracing our footsteps and as I'm walking, um, you know back the way we came, and I'm looking up at the mountain and I'm thinking that there's a ridge on the top, that we could follow our footsteps back maybe a mile or so and then hit this valley and get to the ridge and follow the ridge all the way up to the peak.
Speaker 1:And it worked.
Speaker 3:That's where we saw the Ansel Adams photo. Ansel Adams photo Now, as we're going up, it was sketch in a couple places. Remember we had to hand over hand climb and not too high 8 feet, maybe 10 feet, something like that but fully geared up and gloves and jackets and backpack and everything A little sketch.
Speaker 2:Rock climbing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, rock climbing. We get to the top, have our lunch and turn around and start to head back, and you get in front of me and I yelled at you, hey, you're getting off trail. And you're like, no, I'm not. And you're starting to head downhill you know steep where I'm certain that we're not on the trail and you're like, is that this? And so the first time you listened and you came back pretty quickly. You got over your leadership ability.
Speaker 2:Lack of.
Speaker 3:Wanting to lead and we continue on and then you get in front of me again. No big deal whatever. But then you start to veer off again and this time you're certain that that was the way we came up and you know we had our little discussion about. I don't think so. It's not it remember we got to get on the trip on the ridge. We're gonna have to figure out how we're gonna, hand over hand, climb down the. You know we haven't even got there yet. You're starting to veer off the ridge and so we go for it and the situation turns sketch pretty quick On the ridge, lots of rocks and trees and bushes that have broken the snow and the ice that allow you to walk through and hike through. So as we get off the ridge we're hiding behind rock outcroppings and tree wells to get soft snow where it's not ice. And as we keep going, those trees and rocks get further and further apart and now it gets pretty sketchy.
Speaker 3:We get to a situation where it's probably 20 feet between a rock and a tree, a rock and a hard, a rock and a tree, a rock in a hard place we were in the rock in a hard place yeah and so, um, you're still in front of me and you sit down in the snow, you know, on the hill, kind of on your butt, and I freaked out. Uh, you know, to me it looked like you were sitting on a snow sled and you were just straight down.
Speaker 2:But I had my feet planted and dug in and I knew I was secure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you had your shoes dug in with the ice spikes.
Speaker 2:I don't know why I sat down. I just something. I don't know.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And I even remember saying why did I? I just, yeah, I think I needed to relax a little or something, because we had been intense.
Speaker 3:And so I go around you and I have to get through this steep part of the mountainside that's iced up and there's no coverage to help me get through and I take my poles and I start breaking.
Speaker 2:It was like a good 200 feet or so right across.
Speaker 3:No, no, no, it was 20.
Speaker 2:20 feet.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, because you probably counted the steps. Well, I have the GoPro.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:We've gone back and looked at it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, so the scary part of the GoPro we do.
Speaker 3:Yeah, got the footage of that. So I'm breaking ice and I'm step by step putting my foot into the broken hole and then breaking more ice and taking another step, and I get across this little sketchy section and then it's your turn to go and you start across and at this point not much is being said, just watching and hoping that you're gonna get through there, like if I were to fall you'd be accused of murder very easily it would be a.
Speaker 2:It would be one of those murder and did, did he do it?
Speaker 3:stories right because it was, it was gnarly you would have gone all the way down the face of suicide rock yep on ice, so your your sleeping bag did so, her, your sleeping bag was tied to the outside of the bag and for some reason it came untied and in complete silence it just slid right down the side of that icy slope and it was gone, disappeared.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it like did a jump off at the bottom Right. It was like if you were skiing down an alpine and went off a big ass jump.
Speaker 3:We both just looked at each other like whoa Right.
Speaker 2:It's a good thing that my sleeping bag from Amazon, the down feathered $200 plus sub-zero sleeping bag that I was trying to get in time didn't show up and I bought it from big five and it was like I don't know 50, 75 dollar backpack. I mean um sleeping bag which worked fine by the way um, because the night was warmer than we thought. But yeah, it was a good thing.
Speaker 3:I was like thank god oh, we had each other's body heat.
Speaker 2:Sleeping bed.
Speaker 3:We unzipped the bags, made it in bed.
Speaker 2:We didn't do individual body heat, but anyway, so I didn't lose my expensive sleeping bag, right.
Speaker 3:And I didn't lose my bride.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we weren't married yet, but hey, Right.
Speaker 1:Now we get to tell it.
Speaker 3:Yeah so we got through it and then we be be lined out of there, and that was the end. So that's where we turned around when we started the hike to the peak After we got through that sketchy section. Another little couple steps is where the trail had ended and it was the turnaround point.
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm. Yeah, that was crazy, but I think the lesson for me was that I had to learn to follow and I had to pay attention to some of the things you did, even to get us through the situation, like things that I was not accustomed to and not accustomed to that you know how to do that. I don't know how to do. I'm sure I could figure it out, but I wouldn't have been able to probably, like, react as quickly and do what you did to get the fire out and to control the situation. Um, I just, you know, just not my brain's not trained that way to think and plan ahead like the shovel, all that stuff. I wouldn't have taken a shovel backpack and be like, yeah, it's too heavy, I don't put that in my backpack, but there's a good reason that you always have a shovel when you.
Speaker 3:I want to make snowmen with you.
Speaker 2:That's funny, yeah, but we've had a few of those situations, not like that, thankfully. Now I listen to you Pay attention. But why does the wind love us? Remember the other time we went out and we were like out in near Joshua Tree or whatever, and we had to the butterflies oh yeah, the butterflies were amazing, but no, we had to like park in that like washout or whatever, because the wind was crazy and back your truck into it. And wherever we go, the wind's like likes to kick up on us.
Speaker 3:Overnight, yeah, in the desert yeah. You get that a lot. Yeah, the dramatic shift in temperature hot to cold night yeah. Draws in the wind pressure change.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I want to get like on that whole idea of like hiking. I want to get, I said earlier, but a woman by the name of Allison Levine on our podcast and talk about her Mount Everest.
Speaker 3:You know, she crafts survival.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 3:Yeah, mount Everest.
Speaker 2:She did it twice.
Speaker 3:Amongst the other six tallest peaks in the world right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Kilimanjaro, Denali.
Speaker 2:I think she's done all of them, but she's done Everest twice and she has a book about it and she's a speaker. She speaks, she's pretty awesome and has her own health condition that she deals with too. She's pretty awesome and has her own health condition that she deals with too. So, yeah, I would love to bring her on and talk about crafting survival. I think she'd be amazing Aliving herself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're going to start talking about aliving. Yeah, and sometimes it takes getting sick or having a traumatic event to kickstart or open your eyes right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah to change. Can we talk about?
Speaker 2:that for a second.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I think you bring up a really interesting point because at the Cancer Help Desk and the nonprofit, I spend time on Facebook and Instagram and now TikTok, and listening and looking and reading what people write and say when on their cancer journey there's, you know, hundreds of thousands of people on social media with cancer and dealing with or dealing with cancer and I sometimes like look at it and go you know, is it an opportunity or is it a death sentence? I'll be curious kind of your thought, like as I mean, I think you're unique in the way you handled your own journey, but you know how you conduct your life even now is like you talked about survival, like you're a survivalist. It's like you're survivalist. It's like you're, you know, caveman. But um, I think it's interesting what you just said because it's about.
Speaker 3:You know. It presents new opportunity and, yeah, it's unfortunate that you gotta. That situation even arises right and so makes you think what would I be doing had this never happened? Hiking mountains, but you still do it wouldn't have started my own business that's scary too you know, yeah, I was on the rebound, I was on disability. I was like shit. Now's the time. Get all your ducks in a row and then figure out what it's going to take to run your own business hey, crafting survival you.
Speaker 2:What's your business? Because you craft, you're a crafter yeah, construction, yeah, full circle builders this message is brought to you by. Are you a sponsor now? Yeah, full circle builders. This message is brought to you by full circle builders inc. Are you a sponsor now?
Speaker 3:you're number one sponsor, babe yeah, that's right.
Speaker 2:The non-profit doesn't have any money, so hopefully one day we'll get there yeah, yeah, you can use it for, you know, if you have the right mindset, opportun, and you want to chase cancer away with positive outcomes, or if you want to be a victim right about in our kind of story in our meeting, and one of the reasons I moved away, that I wanted to get out of that town, was because I was held at gunpoint and sexually assaulted when I was 15 and I refused in my mind to be a victim. I didn't. I don't you know. People would say I'm so sorry that happened to you and even when I bring it up now it makes people uncomfortable.
Speaker 3:And where did this happen? This was on the path that you would walk home from school, right?
Speaker 2:No, it was on my dad.
Speaker 2:It was before they built back in that area and my dad would yeah, and my dad would um walk back there and he, um, you know this path he took. So of course I mean, why wouldn't it be safe? So anyway, that's here nor there. But people, people will say I'm sorry that happened to you and I'm like, but it happens, can happen to anybody. I mean, I could never like say, yeah, you know, I didn't, I don't want to dwell in it, I didn't want to be stuck in it and I didn't want it to be part of my identity whatsoever. I just wanted to move past it and and say you know, my answer was always why not me? And I still think that, even with my own health or anything like, why not me? Or why can't these things happen to me? Um, cause they happen to a lot of people, um, so I personally don't.
Speaker 3:Well, that, that's a good mindset for prehabilitation. If you had a mindset of why not me? And do you think tomorrow could be my day? I could wake up and whatever could change drastically. And now I got to figure out how to get through it Right Fall off the mountain. Family member in a plane crash.
Speaker 2:Car crash Right, whatever, sick illness, whatever Figure it out, yeah, so why not me right off the mountain family member in a plane crash? I mean right crash?
Speaker 3:right, whatever sick illness, whatever figure it out where, yeah, so why not me? And so if you, like fear. So then it's like fear today that tomorrow could be my day. How am I going to approach it? Am I going to, you know, have that healthier choice at the buffet, or am I going to decide to go do that yoga or that workout, or you know? Or am I gonna sit on the couch and and scroll, or or pour a glass of wine, or are you talking about me now?
Speaker 2:since I've been, I've been at a commission with my knee all right? No, I'm not talking about you, yeah, but I have been doing those things right, it sounds like I not talking about you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but I have been doing those things Right. It sounds like I'm talking about you.
Speaker 2:That's not how I hate TV actually.
Speaker 3:I'm like later going to another yoga yeah and then I get pissed off Me yeah.
Speaker 2:It's not your fault.
Speaker 3:So with that, why not me? Mindset you know why not me? Give why not me a reason to why not you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Go to the gym, take those extra steps, do those push-ups when you're laying there watching TV.
Speaker 2:Well, what if you're sick, Okay? So I mean you're saying those things and you know it's not so easy when you're sick already, like dealing with it. Like you're like, hey, can you go to yoga today, day? And I'm like, do you see my knee? It's not any better, right, it's fat and swollen and we don't know why. But you'll say, you know, I'm like no, I mean I want to, but I can't. And it does get frustrating because I want to, I want to do those things and I know that I can't. Now there's other things I could be doing, right, not going to hot yoga per se, where I have to use my legs to balance my body, but I could be doing sit-ups and push-ups right in my upper body, um. But I get down and frustrated, probably just like most people do who are not well, and so not that I'm sitting there going, why me, I just am frustrated with the situation, and so I'm not certain that it's so easy to just flip that switch and go. Oh, I'm just going to go to the gym now.
Speaker 2:So you know, were there times where which you I wouldn't say your your journey with being treated with cancer wasn't like easy, but you still continued to go to the gym or you know you didn't lose too much ground because you were already in good shape. So I don't think you've gone through like debilitating, like we have some friends who've been sick with cancer, who had debilitating, you know, who were athletes, and it became debilitating because of their surgeries and things and it's hard, it's really, really hard to find your way back. But does that kind of like? You know, I wonder, when I see some of the cases that I see and people talking about their illness, with the like rushing of like like you almost got rushed into having surgery and then somebody hit the pause button Right, like can we encourage people to push the pause button and not be rushed into like making a treatment decision?
Speaker 2:You know that could change their life, that could change their life and there's I see a lot of that in healthcare and and could you maybe pre-plan kind of what that journey is going to look like? Okay, well, if I have surgery and I lose part of my intestines because that's what happens then coming out of that, then the post, post planning, right, but you already gone into it, right, you plan for that fire, you plan for these different things to happen in scenarios and I don't see a lot of that happening. But anyway, I kind of digress. I went on a tangent, sorry.
Speaker 3:Prehabilitation.
Speaker 2:But I think it comes back to like the.
Speaker 3:You want to preheat, rehabilitate or prehabilitate, yeah Right. So we're stuck in a society where we rehabilitate. We're not doing the work before, we're doing it after.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's too late, but, as I said, the mindset though I'm kind of going to the mindset thing of the mindset of why not me, or why me Right, or whatever I think when you're already in the situation it's difficult. You know you can't just flip that mental switch. Sometimes, Right, and even if you could flip the mental switch, you know you stay that physical, Physically you're able, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So I think you know if you could flip that switch, you know, while you're going through it and just do whatever little stuff for yourself that you can, If it's you know you can if it's you know yeah reading if it's meditating crafting survival right, it's something that is going to de-stress your life is really ultimately?
Speaker 3:you know, cancer is a stress grab that shovel and dig deep, dig out of the snow, dig out of the fire right, yeah, in that situation, do whatever you can and and that meditation, that 20 minute of breath work might turn into 16 minutes of breath work and four minutes of push-ups, and so that's breath work.
Speaker 2:We gotta talk about breath work on a another time because, uh, I want to talk about, like the whole w Wim Hof method and that whole deal because that's super interesting. His story is interesting too.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah. Well, breathwork in and of itself is amazing, the responses you can trigger from your body, your neurological system.
Speaker 2:Oxygen to your cells and your brain.
Speaker 3:Mm-hmm. Yeah, get revved up, ready to go for a marathon, and you're not even running a marathon.
Speaker 2:He's got so many ideas of people he could bring on. Oh yeah, oh my gosh yeah.
Speaker 3:We could do a podcast in an ice bath, oh my God.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. Well, I stay in longer than you, so I got more fat cells than you, you can do a podcast in an ice bath and I'll take off.
Speaker 1:Go to hot yoga. Yeah, you can leave me in the ice bath and go to hot yoga.
Speaker 3:You would do that Sauna. We can do a sauna.
Speaker 2:Yeah, anyway, we're going to have to wrap it up, am I getting it? Yeah, that's been another. It's a wrap.
Speaker 3:We've got to get out of here.
Speaker 2:Okay, okay, see, we gotta get out of here. Okay, okay, see ya.
Speaker 3:Remember, no matter the challenge, there are extraordinary people out there overcoming the unimaginable. Their journeys remind us that grit and hope are powerful.
Speaker 2:Join us next time as we continue to explore the lives of those who face life's biggest challenges head on.
Speaker 3:Until then, stay strong, stay hopeful and keep crafting your own survival.
Speaker 2:Tune in weekly and follow us on Instagram TikTok and Facebook this is Crafting Survival. You.