Stroke affects 15,000,000 people year across the world ….it can happen to anyone,anywhere, anytime.

In the early hours of a Monday morning in November 2011, 34 year-old Lotje Sodderland was woken from her sleep with a pain in her head so excruciating that she lay on the floor waiting to die. She was experiencing a massive life threatening brain haemorrhage.

My Beautiful Broken Brain is the Lotje’s story – a film born out of necessity to help a young woman make sense of having to start her life again when she was only half way through it. Incredibly, thanks to medical intervention she survived.

I watched this amazing account of one young womans experience with stroke on Netflix today. I urge anyone who would like to gain a better understanding of the mind and brain to watch it.

They always say time changes things

But you have to change them yourself

Andy Warhol

I am taking the action to change my mind, I have a choice, it is my body…. I am the one in control,  I can regain function. There is no magic pill that can transport me back to how things were before my stroke happened.

Before my stroke movement was  not something I really paid much heed to, oh sure I exercised and worked on my fitness but, for example, I could lift my arm without much  thought,  because well it just happened didn’t it?  Just like babies and toddlers do, I can relearn the basics of movement, all over again, and retrain my body/brain connection. Thanks to neuroplasticity I have an opportunity  to alter the neuro – circuitry of my brain. 

One of the most important components of recovery is patience.  I wish I  could in all honesty espouse this virtue in spades, but  I am human and have  melt down days. Days when frustration trumps triumph. 

Its been  one of those times. The past few days have been a struggle. I started NeuroMovement® for Healthy Necks and Shoulders with enthusiasm, only to struggle with lesson 4. The pain in my shoulder is my brain overwhelmed, too preoccupied to  be able to move through sequences, and it  is  same with lesson 5 . I practise the visualization, but feel ultimately a sense of disappointment.. I get very excited when I start something new. Eager for immediate results….. and now I realize   I am missing a vital point of this program.  Go slow . Its not a rush.  Time to regroup.

Those who know me well  are aware that prior to my stroke a big part of my fitness regime was The Tracy Anderson Method. Over  the past 5 years patrons of my local gym got used to my daily workout which incorporated 30 minutes of dance  cardio…. Crazy old bird dancing! Ha ha! Today I would like to share this Ted Talk video by Dr. Jaquin Farias, after watching this talk today, I am thinking its time to re-introduce dance to my exercise regime TAMily  🙂

* I want to caution anyone reading my account, that I am no medical expert, I am writing this as a personal account of how stroke has affected me, and it’s my journey of recovery.

I love this little video that I discovered on the Feldenkrais online website. It perfectly illustrates of the main tenets of The Feldenkrais method, we’ve all done this before….. Its taken stroke to set me down a similar path of discovery.

The great power of the brain, is that it’s plastic! Once you learn something it is not set in stone, it’s continuously shaped by experience and so the learning continues.

I have now completed the first 6 lessons of the NeuroMovement® Whole Body Fitness streaming. Frustrated by my painful left shoulder and restricted range of motion, I decided to start the NeuroMovement® for Healthy Necks and Shoulders series of lessons. The exercises for the neck and shoulders concentrate on where the changes need to happen first, in the brain.Today is lesson 3 in a series of 6. Instead of focusing on tight muscles, the exercises for the neck and shoulders tell the brain how to move in harmonious and pain free ways.

After 2 days of this practice I have noticed the pain in my shoulder is easing, so I am feeling encouraged Stephanie my physio-therapist also noted an easing in the tone in my arm when I saw her this afternoon.

Today is lesson 3, I learned a different way of sensing and using the core, this is where our most powerful muscles reside and connect to the pelvis. In the past I believed like many that a strong core means keeping ab muscles contracted ( a flat stomach) , I planked and contracted with the best of them! But I am discovering there is much more to the core than just contracting abs. In addition to the abs, the back muscles and transverse muscles are important , and becoming aware of when to release and use these muscles is the purpose of this lesson.

As I progress further into this practice, I so love the sense of calm and relaxation I feel as each lesson advances. There is no sense of hurry, and (not to sound too smoshy) at the end of a session I feel a sense of peace.

My progress is slow, but there is improvement, and this builds a sense of achievement.

* I want to caution anyone reading my account, that I am no medical expert, I am writing this as a personal account of how stroke has affected me, and its my journey of recovery.