Transcription:
Bill Gasiamis 0:00
Hi there, it’s Bill from recoveryafterstroke.com and I am coming to you live from my podcast studio, office, garage, I don’t know, whatever you want to call it. And I’m in week three, I think of our six-week lockdown for COVID.
Bill Gasiamis 0:19
And it’s just driving me bonkers. This COVID even has this lockdown even has a curfew. We can’t go out after eight. We can only go out for one hour of exercise. And it feels like these other kinds of rules that are imposed on prisoners that have done something really dramatic and serious.
Bill Gasiamis 0:43
And I understand COVID is serious and I understand that there’s a massive issue around the world. We’re wearing masks if and when we do go out we can go out for a one hour walk. So I make the most of it. But today it’s raining it’s really shitty weather outside so there’s not really much of that going on, but I am wearing my Technicolor Poncho to brighten things up a little bit on this gloomy day in isolation.
Bill Gasiamis 1:09
And hopefully one day we’ll be out of this COVID isolation and you’ll be able to get back to life in some way, shape or form, it feels very similar to what stroke isolation felt like. And I remember being at home for many months, even years doing nothing, seeing nobody, and spending very little time outside and just trying to heal and recover.
Bill Gasiamis 1:32
And finally, we, got there, and it’s been eight years since the first time I experienced the bleed in my brain. Arain surgery was in November 2014. So time has really flown and what this experience taught me was that even during COVID, that this thing will end and in the scheme of a lifetime, the amount of time that we’re shut down, and that we’re confined or we’re not allowed to go out and about and do things, is only a small blip on the radar.
Bill Gasiamis 2:04
And it doesn’t really make that much of a difference to a really long life or a life beyond 40 years like mine has gone, it’s just a small amount of time. So, that being said, though, it’s interesting that the government, in Australia amongst other governments around the world have got one way to win against COVID.
Bill Gasiamis 2:27
And that one way, according to them, is to keep everyone locked down to get rid of COVID as much as they can, and to keep people safe and make sure people aren’t dying. What’s interesting is they don’t do that for any other disease, any other virus, for anything ever around the world, like thousands and thousands of people die every day from cancer and no one gives a shit about them.
Bill Gasiamis 2:51
No one says let’s shut down everything until we work out a solution for cancer but the COVID they’ve gone down this approach. And to me, it kind of feels like there’s only one way to solve this COVID crisis. And it’s unlikely that they’re going to achieve that. And the reason it’s unlikely we’re going to achieve their outcome, in my opinion, is because of this one way to solve the crisis, at least in our state, in Australia in Victoria, is that they’re going to eliminate this by keeping us locked up and as safe as possible.
Bill Gasiamis 3:28
Now, we all know that in real life, there isn’t such a thing as keeping everybody safe. Sure, the vulnerable should be safe. The people that feel like they need to stay home should be safe. And I don’t disagree with anybody or agree with anybody that has a different view than mine, because this is what I know. I know that I’m not the only one who thinks the way I think and I know that there’s more people that don’t think like me, and I’m really comfortable with that.
Bill Gasiamis 3:53
So it’s horses for courses and I’m quite comfortable understanding that everyone else has a different view and wants to do their own thing. Now, what am I talking about this for? Because it’s relevant to stroke recovery. And in stroke recovery, if you’re the kind of person who has a one track mind, and your recovery is only ever going to be about achieving this one thing that you wanted to do, you’re more likely to fail than succeed.
Bill Gasiamis 4:23
And what do I mean by that? Say the only thing on my mind during my stroke recovery was to get back to work exactly the same way that I used to work before stroke. Well, I would have failed miserably to do that because I am physically different, and I can’t actually do the things that I used to do before stroke in the same way. And also I don’t want to.
Bill Gasiamis 4:48
And if I started the whole process of healing in my mind, which was going to be around, getting back to work in exactly the same way. I was working in the past, I would have failed dismally. And that may have made me feel bad. It might have made me feel unwell. It made me feel stressed and anxious and annoyed, and frustrated and angry, because I didn’t get back to work in exactly the same way that I was working in the past.
Bill Gasiamis 5:20
So what it’s done, though, it’s allowed me to transform and change and become a different version of myself, who has the same type of aspirations can offer the same type of things in the world, but now in a different way. And if I had only one way to succeed, and I failed, what kind of example would that be sitting for the people around me that loved me that are helping me that are caring for me, that are supporting me, my family, my kids, my wife, or my extended family, it wouldn’t really be much of an inspirational story.
Bill Gasiamis 5:55
Just been in a story about how a guy had a stroke. He then became depressed, upset, anxious, angry all those things because of whatever reason that they didn’t understand that for me it was because I just narrowed my focus instead of gave myself a bit of a broader focus. So I have more than one way to succeed in life. And surely, it’s not just about how I returned back to work.
Bill Gasiamis 5:55
Now that might be just an example. But that might be something that’s playing up in your mind at the moment. But my question to you is, do you have more than one way to succeed in your stroke recovery? And if you don’t, why is that? Can you perhaps reflect for a little bit and see whether or not you can be flexible at this time.
Bill Gasiamis 6:41
And to use the work example, going back to work for me, still was successful when I decided that I was going to go back to work and other people were going to do the majority of the heavy lifting that I couldn’t do with me supervising them, maybe it would cost a little more, but still, I was able to do that continue to be involved in my business be with my clients, and at the same time, recover while achieving things and feeling like I am getting back to normal in some way, shape or form and also, you know, having these little wins and achieving things.
Bill Gasiamis 7:18
So my question to you is, do you have more than one way to succeed in your stroke recovery? If you do, please do me a favor, leave the comments below and let me know whether you have more than one way to succeed in your recovery. And I’m sorry if I made this about COVID at the beginning, but it was just a way to bring a little bit of information about what’s currently happening in my world, and relate to something that happened in my world some time ago, and how that might be relevant in your stroke recovery.
Bill Gasiamis 7:54
So do us a favor leave a comment below, let me know how you’re going with it. achieving what you want to achieve after stroke. And also let me know if this has triggered you and just reminded you that partially to broaden your horizons about what success and what recovery actually looks like for you, beyond just the one narrow focus. Bill from recoveryafterstroke.com thanks so much for listening
