Molly Buccola’s Recovery from Venous Sinus Thrombosis: A Story of Resilience and Purpose

Understanding Venous Sinus Thrombosis: Symptoms, Treatment, and Molly Buccola’s Inspiring Journey

Venous Sinus Thrombosis (VST), a rare but serious condition involving blood clots in the brain’s venous sinuses, can have life-altering consequences. Early detection, treatment, and support are crucial for managing this rare blood clot condition effectively. In this article, we’ll explore the essentials of VST, highlight its symptoms and treatment options, and share the inspiring story of Molly Buccola, a survivor who has transformed her experience into a beacon of hope for others.

What is Venous Sinus Thrombosis (VST)?

Venous Sinus Thrombosis (VST), also known as Cerebral Venous Sinus Thrombosis (CVST), occurs when a blood clot forms in the brain’s venous sinuses. These clots obstruct blood drainage, leading to increased pressure in the brain, which can cause swelling, bleeding, and, in severe cases, stroke. Though rare, VST is a potentially life-threatening condition that requires prompt medical attention.

Symptoms of Venous Sinus Thrombosis

Understanding the symptoms of VST is vital for early diagnosis and treatment. Common symptoms include:

• Persistent or severe headache, often one-sided
• Blurred or double vision
• Nausea or vomiting
• Seizures
• Weakness or paralysis on one side of the body
• Difficulty speaking or confusion
• Loss of consciousness in severe cases

If you or someone you know experiences these symptoms, particularly in combination, seek immediate medical care.

Risk Factors for Venous Sinus Thrombosis

VST can affect individuals of any age or gender but is more common in certain populations. Key risk factors include:

• Blood clotting disorders or genetic conditions like Factor V Leiden
• Pregnancy, childbirth, or use of hormonal birth control
• Dehydration
• Infections, including meningitis
• Chronic inflammatory diseases such as lupus
• Trauma or head injury
• Cancer or cancer treatments

Recognizing and managing these risk factors can reduce the likelihood of developing VST.

Diagnosing and Treating Venous Sinus Thrombosis

Diagnosis

Diagnosing VST involves a combination of medical history, physical examination, and imaging studies. Common diagnostic tools include:

• Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): Often paired with MR venography to visualize blood flow in the brain.
• Computed Tomography (CT) Scan: Helps detect swelling or bleeding.
• Blood Tests: Identify clotting disorders or infections contributing to the condition.

Treatment

Treatment for VST focuses on dissolving the clot, managing symptoms, and preventing complications. Standard treatment options include:

• Anticoagulants: Medications like heparin or warfarin to prevent clot growth.
• Thrombolytic Therapy: Used in severe cases to break down clots.
• Symptom Management: Anti-seizure medications and pain relievers.
• Surgery: Rarely needed, but may be considered if pressure in the brain remains high.

Molly Buccola’s Journey with Venous Sinus Thrombosis

In 2005, at just 21 years old, Molly Buccola was in her final semester of college when she experienced a life-threatening venous sinus thrombosis. Molly’s symptoms began suddenly and escalated quickly, leaving her unable to speak clearly or walk steadily. A diagnosis of a blood clot in her straight sinus led to brain hemorrhaging in both hemispheres.

Initially misdiagnosed, Molly’s condition worsened rapidly. Thanks to a pioneering medical trial, a neurologist at a local stroke center was able to stabilize her. Molly’s recovery journey included paralysis on her left side, physical, and emotional healing.

Today, Molly channels her experience into creating a supportive community through her nonprofit, Beyond Stillness: Stories After Stroke. Her work emphasizes the transformative power of reflection, storytelling, and connection for stroke survivors and caregivers.

Prevention Tips for Venous Sinus Thrombosis

While not all cases of VST can be prevented, proactive measures can significantly reduce risk:

1. Stay Hydrated: Dehydration can increase blood viscosity, raising clot risk.
2. Know Your Risk Factors: Discuss your medical history with your doctor, especially if you have a clotting disorder or are pregnant.
3. Follow Prescribed Treatments: Take medications like anticoagulants as directed.
4. Seek Early Intervention: Address symptoms like severe headaches or neurological changes promptly.
5. Adopt a Healthy Lifestyle: Regular exercise, balanced nutrition, and stress management are crucial.

Living with Rare Conditions: Support and Encouragement

Living with a condition like VST can be daunting, but you’re not alone. Molly Buccola’s story highlights the importance of community and resilience. Consider these resources for support:

• Beyond Stillness: Stories After Stroke: Molly’s podcast and nonprofit offer a platform for sharing recovery journeys.
• National Stroke Association: Provides resources and educational materials for stroke and clot-related conditions.

Support Groups: Connecting with others who understand your experience can foster emotional healing.

How Molly Buccola Turned Her Venous Sinus Thrombosis Diagnosis Into Hope for Stroke Survivors

Stroke survivor Molly Buccola inspires others with her recovery from venous sinus thrombosis and her mission to bring connection and hope to others.

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Highlights:

00:00 Introduction
02:41 Molly’s Initial Experience with Stroke
04:46 Medical Intervention and Recovery
08:27 Reflecting on the Journey
13:44 Impact of Stroke on College Life
17:15 Exploring Religious Studies and Psychology
26:29 The Role of Meditation and Journaling
31:57 Reflecting on Dark Moments
36:46 The Purpose of Beyond Stillness Stories After Stroke
49:48 The Power of Storytelling
1:23:28 Final Thoughts and Resources

Transcript:

Introduction – Molly Buccola

Bill Gasiamis 0:00
Hello everyone, before we dive into today’s inspiring conversation, I wanted to share some exciting updates and express my gratitude to this amazing community. First, I just noticed that we’ve received 47 five-star reviews on Spotify, and I can’t thank you enough for your support. It truly motivates me to continue bringing you these episodes, I have also been seeing growth on the YouTube channel of the podcast, with more people watching, leaving comments and interacting with the content.

Bill Gasiamis 0:37
It’s incredible to see our community expanding and connecting stroke survivors and caregivers from all over the world, and on another exciting note, I also just realized that my book ‘The unexpected way that a stroke became the best thing that happened now has six five star reviews, and that’s not 47 but it’s amazing that six people have decided that the book deserved a five star rating, and if you’ve read the book and you think it deserves a five star rating, please do go along to Amazon and purchase the book and leave a five star rating for it.

Bill Gasiamis 1:19
What that does is it helps other people who are in need of this type of content to find it. I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to read it so far and share their feedback, it means so much to me. If you haven’t picked up a copy yet, you can find it on Amazon or at recoveryafterstroke.com/book. I also want to remind you about the resources available on My Courses page at recoveryafterstroke.com/learn. These narrated lessons created by a stroke survivor, for stroke survivors are designed to help you take actionable steps towards reclaiming your life after stroke.

Bill Gasiamis 2:01
For now, though, let’s dive into today’s episode. I’m thrilled to be joined by Molly Buccola, a stroke survivor and the founder of Beyond stillness stories after stroke. Molly’s journey began in 2005 when she was diagnosed with a venous sinus thrombosis, a rare and life threatening condition that led to paralysis and intensive recovery. Since then, Molly has turned her challenges into opportunities to inspire and support others through beyond stillness, Molly provides a platform for stroke survivors to share their stories, cultivate connection and find hope.

Molly Buccola And Her Initial Experience with Stroke

Bill Gasiamis 2:41
In this episode, we’ll explore Molly’s powerful journey her work with beyond stillness and how storytelling can be a transformative tool for healing and growth. Molly Buccola, welcome to the podcast.

Molly B. 2:54
Thanks, Bill.

Bill Gasiamis 2:57
It’s so lovely to have you here, tell me a little bit about what happened to you.

Molly B. 3:03
Okay, so it’s been a long time, and I don’t remember most of it, but in college, 19 years ago, the last semester of my senior year, I had slept until four o’clock in the afternoon, and I’m an early riser. Normally, I like to get up and go for a run and and I always chose the morning classes so that I could have the whole afternoon to, well, do whatever I wanted to. So I slept until four o’clock, and my roommate returned home and woke me, and I was speaking words, but the words didn’t make sense.

Bill Gasiamis 3:53
To you or to the other person?

Molly B. 3:56
At this point, I don’t remember any of this, and so to the other person, to my roommate, Annie, she she understood the words, it wasn’t like I was slurring them, I was saying words, but they weren’t in a correct order, and as far as I know, and I stumbled to the restroom and of course, it scared her, so she called my sister, who lived fairly close by. She was my only family member that lived in the state, and she called her sister, who was a nurse, and both of them said, get her to the hospital. So when I arrived at the hospital, they didn’t know what it was.

Medical Intervention and Recovery For Molly Buccola

Molly B. 4:46
I was only 21 at the time, and this is in 2005 and they didn’t know. They tested for a lot of different things, they thought maybe late stage syphilis, like they were throwing anything out there, and they thought maybe I was on drugs, and my roommate was like ‘She doesn’t do drugs. And they were very confused, and then by the time they figured it out I was in a coma, and thankfully, the hospital I was at had just been or was in the process. I’m not sure if they had just been certified, or they were in the process of becoming a stroke center.

Molly B. 5:35
So the neurologist had a monthly or a weekly meeting with neurologists from the area, and they met that evening, they weren’t sure what to do, what they could do, at that point, I had a blood clot in my straight sinus, so I was bleeding into both hemispheres at that point, and Bill, I don’t know the timeline for sure, but the neurologist had a let’s see, there were, how do I say this? Thank God for editing there, one of the neurologists at the meeting worked at another local hospital, and it was too dangerous to transfer me at that point.

Molly B. 6:41
So he drove from Stanford Hospital over to Good Sam and Los Gatos and worked on me there. It was a medical trial, at that point they tried something that had only been tried a few times, and the only person who had ever tried it was out of the country presenting on it. And so that neurologist walked my surgeon through the procedure, and the procedure helped a lot, but it didn’t do everything. So the main clot in the sinus straight was still there. So my family had flown from a state away, flown down to California from Oregon at that point.

Molly B. 7:43
And my family was making the decisions, and they asked ‘Is there anything else they can do? And they said ‘No, we can’t do anything. We can’t do anything except we can transfer her to a teaching hospital. So at that point they transferred me to University of San UCSF, so University of California, San Francisco, which is the teaching hospital, and I spent the rest of my time there and again, I don’t remember any of it Bill.

Molly Buccola Reflecting on the Journey

Bill Gasiamis 8:27
How’d you come up with this story, then you’re not just making it up. Have you been have the gaps been filled in by people?

Molly B. 8:35
It’s a great question. Yes, all of all the gaps that I just mentioned, those are all stories from other people, I don’t remember any of those. Yeah, I started, and similar to you, you have points that you don’t quite remember.

Bill Gasiamis 8:54
Yeah, people definitely filled in the gaps, and now I’m grateful for that, because it kind of makes more, a lot more of a compelling story, rather than I had a stroke, and then I don’t remember anything, and here I am so interesting. Of all the stuff that you just spoke about, the one thing that stood in my mind was syphilis.

Molly B. 9:17
I don’t even know what that is, late stage.

Bill Gasiamis 9:22
Well, it’s for a 21 year old. It’s unlikely to have the to hear the two connected A, B. It’s a neurological disease that happens because of, especially back in the day, promiscuity, and it’s a sexually transmitted disease, and Al Capone died of complications due to syphilis. That’s the only person that I have ever heard of or known about that died because of it, but it wasn’t an issue many, many decades ago. I don’t know how much of an issue it is now, but that’s interesting, isn’t it, that they don’t think about stroke, they think about all these other random things.

Bill Gasiamis 10:10
But when it comes to a 21 year old, one thing that doesn’t cross their mind, or it didn’t then, and perhaps even today, it still happens, stroke is not in the awareness of a lot of people that are treating patients in hospitals when it comes to a 21 year old. Let’s take a quick pause here, just before we dive back into Molly’s incredible journey and her work with beyond stillness stories after stroke. I wanted to remind you about my book ‘The unexpected way that a stroke became the best thing that happened.

Bill Gasiamis 10:46
It’s been making waves with stroke survivors and caregivers alike, offering practical guidance and inspirational stories of post-stroke growt, you can find it on Amazon or at recoveryafterstroke.com/book, and remember to explore recoveryafterstroke.com/learn. For narrated video lessons specifically designed to help you take actionable steps in your recovery journey. Now let’s get back to Molly’s story and learn more about how she’s inspiring the stroke community through storytelling and connection.

Molly B. 11:24
It’s interesting. I’m hearing more about it now, but I didn’t know anyone. Well, I wasn’t part, I wasn’t involved in the stroke community up until two years ago, but I didn’t know anyone especially my age who had had a stroke, and you’re right, it’s a it’s so common that my guess is, in the coming years, the medical professionals will be more on top of it, and they’ll have a it seems like they’re having more and more experience treating stroke.

Bill Gasiamis 12:12
Absolutely, things are well, things are getting better from an awareness perspective, and the fact that there is a specific stroke hospitals and stroke ambulances and whole whole protocols around potentially treating stroke and then the symptoms of stroke are very much in the community. People know what to look like for the majority of strokes, you know FAST acronym has made a massive impact in that area, and it’s very common in young people, and I imagine it would be even more common than syphilis in young people.

Molly B. 12:54
I was like ‘We don’t know we’re reaching, we’re reaching, and even when they weren’t sure what caused it either. And so that was another thing, I work with. A lot of people now that are nervous about another stroke and not knowing what’s next, and for me, I had no idea that that was a common, a common next step, that there’s a possibility that another Stroke can happen.

Bill Gasiamis 13:35
How long were you in hospital? Do you know the details of how long you were in, when you got out and where you went to after hospital?

Impact of Stroke on College Life

Molly B. 13:44
Yeah, so I was only in for, I don’t know, maybe 10, days, two weeks, maybe, I’m not sure the exact extent, and when I left, I was able to go directly, I didn’t. They didn’t send me to inpatient rehab, and so I moved in with my sister, who lived fairly close, and my mom moved down from Oregon to take care of me there.

Bill Gasiamis 14:19
And then college? What happens there? Does it just go on pause? What happens to the life of a 21 year old after they’ve had a stroke?

Molly B. 14:30
That’s a good question that, that’s what I was asking myself. Bill, what now the last semester of college? People are preparing for the next step in life, and so I had arranged to volunteer abroad for the next couple years, and I was set up with an organization, and I was ready, I was so excited, and I had, and after going through such a discernment process on what’s, what’s the next step after college, and weighing all your options, and then you think ‘Okay, I’ve got it. Of course, life throws throws us a curve ball when we think we’ve got it.

Molly B. 15:22
So the next, the next step in terms of graduating, I was at a I was in a fairly small program at a university. I was graduating in religious studies and psychology, and knew my professors pretty well, and so they worked with me on finishing the courses in ways that I could, and I’m very grateful for that. In order to finish on time, even if I’m not going to classes every day, they worked with me to try to figure out different ways to go through that.

Molly B. 16:05
Then again, I’m going through a pretty major life experience, and Religious Studies and psychology are both very central to that life experience. So it was a way for me to reflect on that experience in light of those disciplines.

Bill Gasiamis 16:29
Also, you hear adults like me say, oh, there wouldn’t be anything worse than going to a site I am out of the age of an adult? Yes, that’s a very lovely question, because depends who you ask, they might disagree with my statement about myself. Adults like me, who are of an age of an adult at 50, would often have conversations with people that goes there’d be nothing worse than going into a counseling session and having a kid who’s just qualified as a counselor or has just studied psychology to take you through an issue, because what do they know about life?

Molly Buccola Exploring Religious Studies and Psychology

Bill Gasiamis 17:15
They’ve not ever had any life experience yet, you were 21 and you’re having a dramatic amount of life experience all in a short amount of time, and you’re studying psychology and religion. Or is religion the same kind of thing is? Is it what it was? Are you trying to get a grasp of religious beliefs and different versions of religion. What is that study specifically about? And then I want to talk about how those two topics supported you.

Molly B. 17:54
Yes, so religious studies, the program that that I graduated from, we studied a variety of world religions, and I just think it’s fascinating to this day to explore spirituality and how it shows up in different cultures and different people, and it was interesting how now we have this term, the intersection of but it was interesting how they connected throughout spirituality and psychology, and I believe they’re the basis of humans of connection, and it’s fluid, yeah, so you add a second part to your question. What was the second part?

Bill Gasiamis 18:48
Yeah, how did they support you in the recovery? So you’re dealing with some big existential issues at that age, after a stroke, I imagine, and the the the years that you spent studying religion, or that you did religious studies and and then psychology would have, as you said, like intersected beautifully with what you’re going through, but also provided a 21 year old with a lot more of An understanding about those two topics.

Bill Gasiamis 19:21
And often people dive deeply into philosophical, psychological and religious type of topics after a massive life event. And you’ve done that really, really early on. How does How did they support you? Did they support you?

Molly B. 19:42
I would love to say Bill that that’s a really good question. First off, and I’d love to say that I figured it all out at 21 because I’d gone through this, but really it was probably a new beginning, right? Because you can study concepts, and you can write papers on concepts, and at that point, I my whole heart was in and I believed in him, and I was passionate about him, and then all of a sudden, this happened. I was like, what was that? I thought I had it figured out. And instead of, instead of it making sense to me at that point, I was thrown into confusion.

Molly B. 20:38
And it’s not until now, 19 years later, that I’m actually reflecting back on that experience. Like I said before, I didn’t know anyone and and when I was able to once, I relearned how to walk and to feed myself and to bathe myself and live on my own, I did, and I didn’t talk with other people about stroke because I didn’t know anyone, and it’s a long story, and it’s if people asked me, of course I would tell them, but it wasn’t something that I didn’t know how it all fit, and I’m I definitely don’t have it all figured out.

Molly B. 21:35
Now, I don’t know how it all fits, but it’s brought me back to this beautiful community in which you’re a part, and it’s led me to these inspiring people from all over the world and all walks of life and all ages and economic backgrounds and and cultures and in I’m in awe of the way that everyone moves forward in a different way. I love that takes a little bit what, yeah.

Bill Gasiamis 22:16
That’s so important. What you said moves forward, because that’s the theme of of every person who I’ve had on the podcast is then moving forward scarred, you know, fatigue from the battle with their recovery and from what, what’s happening in their life because of stroke. You know, often dragging themselves along, being dragged by other people, sometimes getting nowhere, sometimes having good progress, dealing with stuff that they never expected to deal with emotions and mental health and physical health and all this stuff, right?

Bill Gasiamis 22:58
And yet, they are moving forward, they are somehow continuing to do that, and that’s what I hope the podcast, my one does is it gives people an insight of where things were and how we’re grappling with them, and Then how we’re moving forward, and that is the hope part of it, right? We’re trying to provide hope and give people a sense of all right, you’re probably doing it tough now, but there’s still movement forward.

Bill Gasiamis 23:32
You will still move forward. When, a little bit earlier, when we spoke about your religious studies, did you go into religious studies with a religion, with an upbringing from of religion, or was there any of that stuff that you had with you when you started those studies?

Molly B. 23:53
Yes, I went to Catholic school growing up, and I was raised Catholic, and I hope my high school religion teachers aren’t listening to this. But I hated my religion classes in high school, but I went to a Catholic University, and part of graduating from the university is you have to take a few Religious Studies courses, I think, three courses, and I left them to my senior year because I didn’t like my religion courses in high school, so I took all three of them the first semester or the first quarter. I think we had quarters of senior year, and ended up loving it.

Molly B. 24:42
I had a a Jesuit professor that made us sit cross legged in the Mission Church every morning at 7am we were like, 7am we go to bed at like, four. What do you mean seven? I didn’t go to bed at four, but as college students, you’re not used to arriving at 7am to a silent place of worship every day of the week, we had to meet there and sit cross legged in silence and meditate for 20 minutes.

Bill Gasiamis 25:23
Wow.

Molly B. 25:23
And he taught us a variety of ways to meditate, and we got to put it into practice. And that was the beginning of my like formal meditation practice, but those courses welcomed me into a the those courses opened a new door for me.

Bill Gasiamis 25:55
They would especially at that age. Not only have you, you know, you’re doing college life, and there’s a bit of studying involved and some partying and all that kind of stuff. But the reality is, at 21 you haven’t really ever woken up to go anywhere at 7am.

Molly B. 26:15
I did love running at 7am and it cut into that schedule.

Bill Gasiamis 26:19
Oh my gosh. Okay, you’re one of those people, I get it, all right.

Molly B. 26:24
I’m one of those people, I know.

The Role of Meditation and Journaling for Molly Buccola

Bill Gasiamis 26:29
So you, you had a little bit of a a leg up, at least, you had the ability to get there and be there. But then you discovered this thing called meditation, which you totally didn’t expect, which was brand new to you, and what an awesome gift to give to a 21 year old, or however old you were when you first started that, right? You know, I think that’s an amazing thing, because I think 21 year olds these days are lacking resources.

Bill Gasiamis 26:57
They’ve got heaps of information because the internet’s full of them. You know, don’t eat this and don’t do that and eat this and eat that and but they actually don’t have tools. I think they don’t have tools that they can fall back on when they need, when they need, when things are tough, right? Did you fall back on meditation through your recovery?

Molly B. 27:18
Yeah, meditation, from that point forward, was a part of my life. I’m sure that it informed my recovery. I’m not sure if I thought of it in that way that this is going to help my recovery, it was at that point I was meditating, I was journaling, and I still am, and that I’m sure that that helped the process. Like I said, I don’t remember many of the months after my stroke, and when I go back and read the journal, I read fairly dark moments, and I’ve always been a fairly optimistic person, and most I don’t know if I give off.

Molly B. 28:29
If I was giving off that I was feeling those dark moments, but to go back and read those meditation could have helped me navigate those thoughts. But I can’t say for sure. I’m not sure Bill, based on we know what we know for Brain Science, it did.

Bill Gasiamis 28:51
I feel like it was your one of those things again, because you’re it was a habit, like a seven o’clock running. If it was just something that you did, then you didn’t reflect on it too much. You just did it, and like journaling, it seems like both of those were actually integral parts of the foundation to your recovery. And you don’t have to know that you’ve got great foundations if you’re doing it and you don’t know that’s even better.

Molly B. 29:20
That’s the hope.

Bill Gasiamis 29:23
So journaling is one of those things that I don’t like to do, just because I tried it a couple of times and I just feel like it’s not the right tool for me. I suppose, for me, the right tool is talking out loud to people and connecting with people and doing it that way. And that’s why I went to counseling, my habit was counseling. You know, from about the age of 25, 26 onwards, it still is. And sometimes I don’t go for many months, and sometimes I go more often. What was it like as I imagine an adult or person that’s of adult age?

Molly B. 30:10
Thank you. You’re doing great to becoming an adult.

Bill Gasiamis 30:14
To look adults. I don’t know somebody like says after it’s, I don’t know when, when illegal things put you in jail. I think.

Molly B. 30:28
Okay. I think we’re adults then, yeah, I’d like to say it’s when someone knights you. You are now an adult to build this Gasiamis.

Bill Gasiamis 30:37
Well, you know, there used to be cultures where, and there still are for Catholic religion, where there’s these rituals that kind of transform people from being a child into this other state. And in ancient cultures, people that lived in places like the Amazon or other cultures where there was traditional ceremonies to transition people into different, different stages of I don’t know. I’m not sure what it is like different stages, I would just leave it at that.

Bill Gasiamis 31:16
You know, the Jewish religions have the bar mitzvah. The Christian religions have the the confirmation and so on. So let’s just say it’s for the sake of the secular world. It’s at the age where, and in every country that might be different, where you end up in jail if you do the wrong thing. Let’s say that now, now that we’ve clarified that.

Molly B. 31:49
That’s not as fun as like a full spiritual cultural celebration.

Bill Gasiamis 31:56
It’s not.

Molly B. 31:56
But I’ll take it.

Reflecting on Dark Moments

Bill Gasiamis 31:58
It’s actually 100% not, it’s just boring and it’s so regimented and it’s so, you know, it’s like a VIN, and then after that day, you totally are, and there’s no more things to do to become an adult. You just reach the age, and it doesn’t mean anything, but at your age, reflecting on those dark times. How do you reflect on those dark times, like when you read the stuff that you wrote, what does it do to you? How do you respond? Do you have to respond? What do you feel for young, 21 year old Molly?

Molly B. 32:38
Yeah, those are really good questions, do you have to respond. That’s a really important one, I hadn’t thought of it like that, it’s like listening to another person and I feel blessed that people have trusted me with their dark moments, and so it feels like sitting with one of those people and holding that space for them, but also knowing that we’re just at one point within this longer journey. And a lot of times that one point is so so painful, and it’s hard to look past that point, but like we were talking about earlier, 19 years later, I look back and I think it all makes sense.

Molly B. 34:01
It’s led me to these people, it’s led me to where I am now. I was able to apply my retreat work, my work at the monastery, my work in schools, all of it to what I’m doing now, and I had no idea when I was doing each of those individual when I was going through each of those individual professional experiences, passions, relationships, all of them. I had no idea that they all wove together in a way that was leading to this moment to be on stillness, and that’s essentially what this is, right when we have a stroke. When someone has a stroke, we’re forced to be still.

Molly B. 35:07
Our body forces us to be still, our mind forces us to be still, our whole spiritual being is still for a moment, and we’re forced to think, what is this? Why? Where everything is confusing and it’s a dark moment, and it’s hard to see past that dark moment. But there is, there is a beyond stillness, beyond the physical, beyond this world. I believe, I think there’s a very big spiritual element involved.

Bill Gasiamis 35:56
You’ve got the proof that there is beyond stillness, because you’ve got the actual recording of that version of stillness for you from back in the day you wrote it down. It was there dark moments and difficult time, and now you’re 19 years post, and you can actually see that distance right that you’ve traversed. You’ve gone from one to the other, and now you’re here, and now you’re reflecting, and you’re going.

Bill Gasiamis 36:27
Wow, I was pretty cool, as in, I didn’t know, but I was doing all these things and that they’re skills that I can superimpose over here and take to the next level with my next project, whatever that project is.

The Purpose of Beyond Stillness: Stories After Stroke

Molly B. 36:46
And Bill, what I’ve found is a lot of the people that I work with in crafting their story for the podcast, we have seven weeks or so that we work together and we have conversations about, yes, the story, but it’s a reflective space. So we go beyond the what we’re writing, the actual story.

Molly B. 37:17
We dive into them as a person, and how they see the world and how their perspective shifted, and there’s so much that goes on to every individual story, and when we’re able to look back on our whole lives and the moment of stillness, we see something different, yeah, but it’s so familiar, because it’s us.

Bill Gasiamis 37:51
What we’ve been talking about, for everyone who’s listening and watching, I’ve obviously, I’ve introduced at the beginning of the episode, Molly and her work. So we’ve got a fair idea of who Molly is before we start the interview, but we’re talking about the podcast, which is beyond stillness, stories after stroke, and Molly’s version of the podcasting is very different, we get taken on. How are they? One hour sessions, each one of them, and there are about seven or eight of them, where you interview us.

Bill Gasiamis 37:52
And then you kind of extract from the people who you’ve interviewed information about their life, who they were, some of the what my specific story, I’ll talk about that. One was we spoke about my upbringing and my habits as a little kid, and how those habits became my habits later on in life, and perhaps the habits of a little kid didn’t serve the habits of an older kid, and then an quote, unquote adult and and then during those conversations, you gave me homework to do that was interesting, like actually doing the homework and reflecting on.

Bill Gasiamis 39:20
That part of the story that you were hoping to craft, but for me, it wasn’t. I wasn’t crafting a story, I was just trying to answer your questions and do what you’re doing now deeply think about something a situation, and then we go through that for about eight weeks, backwards and forwards, some emails, and then you put it all together, and you do a wonderful job of putting it all together. And then you deliver a an interview with the with the person that you’re interviewing that you’ve gone on this journey with, which goes for approximately 30 minutes.

Bill Gasiamis 39:58
And then also there’s a second part to that, where you get the stroke survivor to read their own story out, and that was a really interesting experience for me, because I wrote my book and it was written from my own, it was like my own agenda, I wanted to tell people about this strange path to stroke being the best thing that happened to you, even though it has this foundation of a really difficult time, stillness, darkness, all that thing.

Bill Gasiamis 40:36
But then when I was reading my story, the one that you helped me extract, and it was kind of trying to and it was coming from your perspective of the world and how you would like to share stroke stories. It was a far more profound experience, because I was reading that and I was getting emotional because I was reflecting on me, like you said, I was reflecting on the other person of me the other one, it was a very different experience. Was really profound.

Molly B. 41:19
Wow, I’m so glad. Bill, yeah, it’s and the process is different for every person, depending on. Well, depending on the person, some people write, and due to aphasia, some people have writing challenges or reading challenges, and so they will talk, and I’ll type as they talk. And like you said, sometimes, when people are talking in our our meetings and our reflective meetings, I’ll give homework and say, I want you to write two pages on that. I want to hear more about that bill and it the wisdom that comes from the stroke survivors.

Molly B. 42:11
My hope is that they hear themselves, because when they take a moment to stop and reflect, you said you were talking about journaling and how you’re not a journaler, this is an opportunity for people to talk it out, and I take notes as they’re talking and I’ll read it back to them. I’ll read back their key phrases, and they get to decide what they want to tell the world, so they’ll come up with their theme or their main takeaway from the story, and Bill, yours was post traumatic growth. How am I? How is my experience an example of post traumatic growth.

Bill Gasiamis 43:03
So, that looked very sorry, and I was going to say sorry to interrupt you, it was the one of the very first times that I spoke about post traumatic growth in detail and reflected on it in detail, and it’s been on my mind, and I never had the word for what I had experienced and what all of the people who I interviewed for the book, experienced. And we had this thing, but we didn’t have a label for it, and without a label, it kind of felt like we couldn’t touch it. And then, in that time that we spoken just before that, I started looking at the research of post traumatic growth.

Bill Gasiamis 43:47
Then I spoke about it with my mentor, and it was the catalyst to the work that I want to do next and take to the next sort of level, which is to speak to corporations, and I’m preparing a presentation on post traumatic growth, so that they understand that trauma is again that time, and then we can move ahead and forward from it, and then we can grow at the same time, and we can transform traumas and PTSD into post traumatic growth. We can, I’m not saying it’s easy, and I’m not saying you do it.

Bill Gasiamis 44:36
You know it’s it’s a long process and different for everybody, but you can do it, and this is what I got out of our interview, which I didn’t expect. You know, that’s the thing about it. It’s just far more profound than I ever thought an interview could be, especially because I started this interview very naively, this whole podcast, is very naively thinking it. It was just about me, but then realizing that it’s not about me at all, it’s about everybody else, and us. And I wanted to kind of understand from you, why start your podcast series? Why do this work 17 years later.

Molly B. 45:24
First off, I want to commend you on your work with post traumatic growth and finding a name for it, because, Bill, you’ve been doing it all along, since day one. You all of your work has been again, all of your work has been working to this point, everything that you have done who you are, has led you to this moment, and we can all say that about everything. How, how am I standing at the the intersection outside? Well, everything in my life led me to where I’m standing right now. But back to your question. How did I get here? Is that?

Bill Gasiamis 46:13
Yeah, why did you decide, after 17 years to start a podcast series connect with the stroke community? Clearly, this thing that you had been through, even though you moved on from it and got on with your life, clearly it hadn’t been properly put to work or dealt with or transformed yet.

Molly B. 46:38
Well, when COVID hit, I returned home to Oregon. My partner and I did not have children, or I don’t have children. We didn’t have children, and we both grew up in Oregon, and so we returned home, and I started volunteering to facilitate a support group with people who had been affected by stroke, and I had volunteered all my life in a variety of different ways, and loved it because I love getting to know people and how again, how they came to be, where they are, what they’re doing, and everyone has a different story, but I was sitting listening to these people, and I felt this deep.

Molly B. 47:30
I mean, again, this is a little bit about me. I felt this deep connection as they were talking about something that I hadn’t thought about in a very long time. It touched me deeply, and on a run one morning, I realized I have all the skills to put all this to work. I have been for 16 years, I worked with faculty and staff and students, one on one to craft their story and then deliver it to 400 people in the mic. So we would work on drafting their stories, and once a week at the school that I worked at that one of those people would get up in the microphone and we’d practice public speaking skills.

Molly B. 48:23
And I thought, I Why not do that with stroke survivors? That’s something I want to do in the minute I started conducting these reflection sessions with stroke survivors, and it’s something that I had done for a long time. I just felt goosebumps like I knew it was right, I knew that it was the moment that I knew I needed to be there. And Bill, you said that hearing yourself talk, you realize that your life had this culmination point, and you were on this trajectory. And a lot of times after people finish the sessions.

Molly B. 49:19
They start volunteering, or they start their own some people have started their own support groups. Some have gone back to rehab, some have shared their stories at the local library. All these people when they hear themselves talk, when they hear their story put together in one I mean, every person could have 100 stories.

The Power of Storytelling

Molly B. 49:48
There’s only 16 minutes, but when they hear themselves read it, there’s always an emotional piece, and it’s all things that they’ve said or written themselves. Yes, it’s just really powerful for people to see themselves, to look back and then realize there’s a path forward, maybe not realize there’s a path forward, sorry, and see their path forward.

Bill Gasiamis 50:20
Yeah, that’s profound. That flip of I’m just moving, I don’t know where I’m going to I know where I’m going is a game changer. Completely changes everything that happened to me as well. The podcast was not called the recovery after stroke podcast at the beginning. And then one day, not on a run, because I barely run, but one day, it same kind of thing happened. It was like ‘Whoa, you should be talking to stroke survivors, what are you doing talking to people who are not stroke survivors, they’re lovely, and their stories are important, but I couldn’t really resonate with them.

Bill Gasiamis 50:58
I couldn’t really find an audience. You know wasn’t sticking, and then as soon as I changed it to the recovery after stroke podcast and began interviewing either stroke survivors or people who helped stroke survivors or caregivers, it completely changed everything it was and I was. It was a Goosebumps moment for me too, like I couldn’t believe that that’s the thing that I was meant to do, it was so weird.

Molly B. 51:25
And then in that moment, I mean, I’ve only been doing this for a year, but the right people show up at the right time, and the right ideas pop into my head at the right time, and someone connects with some it’s like it’s unfolding on its own. It’s such a beautiful, I don’t know what to call it. It’s a beautiful thing to witness.

Bill Gasiamis 51:54
Yeah, it’s an experience.

Molly B. 51:56
It’s a spirit of its own.

Bill Gasiamis 52:00
It’s an experience, that’s what I’m finding. You know, the comments that are coming from all around the world and every day by email or on YouTube, so you never you know. You think you’re not going to get continuously blown away by everybody’s feedback, and then just every single day, there’s a new comment and a new feedback, and it’s like ‘Oh, man, I just never thought that there could be so much positivity and hope and opportunity to do that kind of work before. I never thought that.

Bill Gasiamis 52:32
And you know what’s a very clear theme of a massive pattern, because I’m pretty good at observing patterns in the world, whether they are people’s behavior, or my own or or any kind of pattern like sometimes things just pop up into mine and I see a pattern, and then it’s so obvious, volunteering is a key component to these transformations, to these post traumatic growth events. It’s kind of like one of the keystones, if you have that, then a lot of the other ones come in to place, they fall in.

Bill Gasiamis 53:12
Every one of the people who I interviewed for my book who made it into the 10 chapters volunteered, and so did the people who I didn’t, who didn’t make it in, because I interviewed more than 10 people, and it’s just a very common theme that in the thick of it, often with no resources and all the challenges you could possibly imagine, sometimes immediately after stroke, and you know that means few months after stroke, people are looking to help other stroke survivors. How can I help other stroke survivors when they are themselves, in dire need of help.

Molly B. 54:05
I see that too. We have monthly zooms with past guests and listeners, and yesterday, there were over half of the people in that group talked about volunteering. And it wasn’t necessarily volunteering in the stroke community, but it was volunteering. And one guy said I was just folding, I was folding letters and putting them in in a envelope, and he’s like ‘It didn’t feel like much, but it felt good to be there. And maybe we’re not ready to face our stroke.

Molly B. 54:49
Maybe we are still at a point that we’re like, what? What just happened? What is this? But there’s something powerful about offering. Our strengths, our talents, our time and joining with others to do something for the community.

Bill Gasiamis 55:09
It’s very religious. You know, it’s like, it’s one of the, and I don’t know a lot about religions per se, other than, you know, the Greek Orthodox religion a little bit, but it is a fundamental theme that pops up. It’s that doing something for your neighbor, for others, helping out where you can. Now, that whole theme seems to be taught a lot. Now, I also like to think it’s instinctive. It’s an instinct of us, rather than an embedded theme that we grew up with, and it was, you know, taught, told to us at every possible religious ceremony we’ve went to, but I feel like it’s an instinctive thing.

Bill Gasiamis 56:00
I think it’s how humans find community, that you know that that community, which is the one that we always hear about, you know, the one where you know, you look out for each other and you help your neighbor, the one where you’re not talking about politics or, you know, crazy stuff, like for me, I’ve got probably a strong political leaning in one way or another. But in all the 320 episodes that I’ve done so far, or thereabouts, I’ve never spoken about, who should be Prime Minister, President, what this guy thinks.

Bill Gasiamis 56:46
What policy should be about that we’ve never, ever spoken about any of that stuff. There’s so much more things to talk about that are far more meaningful than small talk about what you know, other people do you know, like it? There’s no room for it when you’re doing stuff like thinking about other people and how to help them.

Molly B. 57:18
Yeah, it when listening, how do, where do I go from here? Yeah, there’s something truly connective in each of us and that’s what you and I are doing, Bill, where we’re pulling stories from people. We’re asking them to talk about what’s important to them, and once we sit down at the table and talk about the real stuff, we which what’s the real stuff, right? Who knows, but you love talking philosophy, we can talk about the real stuff forever.

Molly B. 58:08
But when I finally sat, and actually when I was on a walk and was thinking about the commonalities between each of the talks. I came up with wisdom because everyone has their own unique wisdom, something for someone might be good, but it might not be the same, something for someone else and everyone has this unique wisdom that they are expressing through their story. Wisdom, purpose, they find purpose somewhere, going back to our volunteerism topic, wisdom, purpose, connection.

Molly B. 59:06
So finding connection within themselves, like their path, all of a sudden, they see how everything connects, or connections with others, creating community. Now they feel like they’re a part of other relationships that are growing deeper now, post stroke, so wisdom, purpose, connection and hope. With those three things, there’s a way forward.

Bill Gasiamis 59:36
Yeah, all familiar themes. That’s things that I noticed, the purpose this chapter in my book, the last chapter is stumbling into purpose. Because nobody sets out to find their purpose when they find itm if you try and do purpose by going, I’m going to think about what my purpose in life is. You’d be thinking about it for an eternity you’re never going to get because it’s not what it’s about. Because, thinking about purpose is not purposeful, like, you know what I mean, it’s trying to trying to compose purpose.

Bill Gasiamis 1:00:17
And you can’t compose purpose, you have to feel it, you have to be it, you have to live it. It’s not something you think, you don’t think it, and that’s what all of the people who I interviewed did, is they all stumbled into their purpose. They didn’t set out for volunteering by looking at their own life and making changes where they knew that they perhaps could do a little better, nutrition, sleep, relationships, exercise or effort in that exercise space.

Bill Gasiamis 1:00:56
Because everyone after stroke can exercise differently at different levels capacities, when, when they tended to a lot of those things, purpose kind of just spat itself out at the end and going, ha, you found your purpose.

Molly B. 1:01:13
Well, that’s the thing is you can do things that are purposeful. You can talk about purpose, but until that moment that you spoke about Bill, until that moment where you have the chills and you’re like, I feel it. I am living purpose, it’s for me. It’s a bodily experience, It’s for me, it’s a well, I’m a very kinesthetic person. So for somebody else, it might be hearing themselves say something, and then they realize ‘Ah, I’m living with purpose.

Bill Gasiamis 1:01:57
For me, it was episode 70. I’m pretty sure it was episode 70, I looked it up for the book to make sure I knew which one it was. I said it to my guest, and my guest set it back to me, I think I found my purpose. And my guest said ‘I think I found my purpose. And I kind of went ‘Oh, I think I just said that, oh, what’s all that about? And then that begins another, another kind of level of deep thought. What does that even mean? How do I, how did I do that? And I think in that interview was a lot of firsts, you know, I think in that interview was also.

Bill Gasiamis 1:02:33
I think, strokes, the best thing that happened to me. So, what is that all about? Clearly, you’re got some problem with your head Bill, because how can stroke be the best thing that happens to you? And then there goes another dive, deep dive, to uncut, unpack that and work it out, you know? So it sounds like you know, what I love about your journey is that I reckon there’s a lot of this stuff to come for you, still, a lot of these massive moments and ahas and just when you’re not expecting it, you know, they’ll just pop up.

Molly B. 1:03:05
We all have it. I love it, it’s so exciting. What’s going to happen tomorrow? But Bill, I love that you said that you repeated the story about episode 70, because in our interview, you were talking about how profound episode 70 was for you in hearing yourself say something and then the guest saying it back to you. But we talk all the time, all day long, and for some reason, that day and that moment, you were able to hear yourself say it, and for some reason, he mirrored you on that.

Bill Gasiamis 1:03:50
Yeah, it’s just, it was just, it was another one of those coming together things, everything just happened together. And, yeah, it’s pretty profound. I like to encourage my guests to listen back to the interview. Sometimes, as a third person listening in on themselves in a conversation with somebody else, you have another level of understanding or clarity, or you hear yourself say something that you didn’t remember that you said, and it just changes the game, like it completely shifts things.

Bill Gasiamis 1:04:25
Do you ever catch yourself out, sort of saying or doing things that just astound you about yourself? Because I’m pretty proud of myself sometimes.

Molly B. 1:04:39
In the interview process?

Bill Gasiamis 1:04:40
Yeah.

Molly B. 1:04:42
It is so odd. Bill, it’s so odd to go back through and edit and think, man, I always say this word, or I stumble over this, or I stutter. And you’re right. There are those moments, the ones that I love, are the moments that I am stumped by the interviewee, because I just love listening to them, and then I have to edit out all the pauses that I’m like ‘Whoa, those are when I listen back to my interviews I’m in. I’m surprised at how often I pause, it makes me realize that I may not be the best interviewer, because I just want to, I just want to hear them talk.

Bill Gasiamis 1:05:48
No, then they’re your perfect interviewer, because that’s the whole point of it, isn’t it? That’s the whole point is to hear the other person talk and to create space for them. And it’s not about you, even though I make it about me a little bit in every episode, because to bring the conversation along, you have to share my experience and your experience and so on.

Bill Gasiamis 1:06:08
But it’s your space, it’s about you. It’s that’s the whole I’ve had, which is so bizarre. I’ve had stroke survivors. Come on the podcast, they’ve had a stroke, 10, 13, 14, 15, years ago. Never spoken to anybody about it ever, and then they come on the podcast, and I’m like ‘What, how can that be?

Molly B. 1:06:31
Are those interviews different than the others?

Bill Gasiamis 1:06:36
I feel they’re more cathartic for that person. I feel like they just are that first stumbling, that first step, you know whether they’re stumbling over it or trying to get to it or whatever, because if they I imagine that not speaking about anything for 10 years, a particular issue, dramatic episode, whatever it is, probably not that useful. I think it’s more useful to talk about stuff, just from what I understand about trauma and keeping things bottled up and just, I don’t know, I think everything needs to be dealt with some way, shape or form.

Bill Gasiamis 1:07:18
And I find it’s a real honor and a privilege to be the first person that somebody’s spoken to stroke about for 10 years. It just shouldn’t be me like it should have happened already, and I’m grateful that it’s happening and it’s that it is me. And I think I got that with you, because, like I said, I’ve spoken about it many times, and I have been interviewed by different people for different podcasts, but not at the level and for the purpose that you did. And I got that whole, I think.

Bill Gasiamis 1:08:00
And like I said, well, I explained it already. It was a new experience, and it was a new understanding, and it was bringing things that were kind of floating around in the periphery, bringing them all together, and giving me one of those aha moments again, like it’s that thing you’re also facilitating that space for for me and and I listened to Michael Shutt’s episode that just went out, and I’ve interviewed Michael as well. And you know, just hearing your version and the stuff that you got out of him, so to speak, was really eye opening again.

Bill Gasiamis 1:08:46
It’s really, you know, it is well worth the time and effort to extract that stuff, not that, the term extract is the right word, but it’s, you know, to see it be born or emerge, those words, those thoughts, those feelings. I think it’s a real good allocation of time and resources.

Molly B. 1:09:15
I’m so glad, Bill, thank you, and it’s interesting because you were just talking about speaking with people who are talking about their experience for the first time. And someone once asked, how, how do you choose your your guests? And there’s an initial meeting over zoom and I can we can all tell if someone’s ready to share a story in order to inspire others, or if someone’s there to process their own trauma. And I’m not a psychologist, and the process is for people who are ready, who are on another side of the dark.

Molly B. 1:10:16
Of course, we all still have our dark moments, because when does recovery ever stop, but the people who end up sharing their story have have processed a lot of that already, and I’m thankful that people like you and like Michael Shutt, I’ve worked with more than a few people who have written books or have done something with their stroke experience in order to give back to the stroke community.

Molly B. 1:10:50
And my first question in the meeting is, are you here to share something that you’ve already done, or do you want to go through the process? And I haven’t had one person say ‘Let me share what I’ve already done. And I’m really thankful for the courage that people have in order to create, to explore and to create. So thank you for saying that, Bill, thank you for going through the experience with me too.

Bill Gasiamis 1:11:25
Yeah, you’re welcome. It is an awesome experience, I just think about the people who I’ve interviewed as well, now that you said that, about people who are ready to share, to help others, and people who kind of still early on. So my platform is, the only qualification is that you’ve had a stroke. You know someone who had a stroke, where you help people out of stroke, there’s no interview beforehand. People just say, cannot be on your podcast and they come.

Molly B. 1:11:57
There’s value in that. There’s value in seeing every stage and every angle, and it’s like showing up to a support group. Everyone has something to contribute.

Bill Gasiamis 1:12:08
Yeah, and I don’t pick my guests, they pick me. So I don’t say ‘Oh yeah, that person is going to be the right one or not. I mean, and I know you don’t do that either, but you’re, you know your purposes for that particular storytelling method that you just choose is different, right? So, for me, the ones that step the point I’m trying to make is the ones that stand out the most are the ones that always, more often than not, will say ‘I want to tell my story. I hope it helps someone that’s like, All right, yeah, come on, that’s exactly what I want. I want to help other people.

Bill Gasiamis 1:12:53
I’m so thankful that you want to help other people. I’ll facilitate that for you, I’ll help you do that. They haven’t got a podcast, and never thought of starting a podcast, they haven’t written a book yet, they’re not interested in writing a book, whatever, but they they understand the power of of sharing stories and whatever I’ve heard about stories and how they’ve were told in the ancient days in 2000 years ago or 4000 years ago, or stories that come from further beyond that they will pass down person to person.

Bill Gasiamis 1:13:32
That’s how stories worked and became part of the health and well being of a society. They were shared experiences, learnings, they were things that we it was education. It was passing on wisdom before, perhaps in some parts of the world, before it was formalized the way that it is now.

Molly B. 1:14:01
Yeah, it’s, it’s interesting how everything comes back around right now. In business and in education, everyone’s talking about storytelling. It’s, we need to bring storytelling in the classroom, because if they can feel it, they learn it. And you’re, you’re right. This is some it’s evolutionary. It’s evolutionary, right? And we feel it in our bodies. It’s visceral, that human connection when we’re able to share, and it’s profound for the person sharing and for the people listening.

Molly B. 1:14:35
It’s like this, this communal levity that happens, or depth that happens. I don’t know if we’re going up or down, but it’s a little bit of both.

Bill Gasiamis 1:14:46
I think we’re going down, and then that helps people to go up. You know, there we go, this might be a little bit different for you, but I ask everybody these three questions at the end of each episode, and because it’s been a while and you don’t remember a lot, maybe you won’t be able to answer it specifically how others have but that’s alright. So the first question is, what is the hardest thing about stroke for you? Or what was or what has been?

Molly B. 1:15:21
The disorientation, wondering what it all means and what I can give now. I thought I knew what my, dare I say, purpose. I thought I knew my trajectory, and was passionate about where I was going, and then I was then everything halted. So disorientation, being disoriented, the feeling of disconnect, also disconnect from community. All the sudden, I’m different, nobody can understand, and which, of course, came back. All of that comes back, but there are those moments that feel confusing.

Bill Gasiamis 1:16:29
What is something that stroke has taught you?

Molly B. 1:16:37
The threads of life ultimately tied together. It has taught me that stillness can be a gift, that wisdom emerges, that wisdom emerges through the process of what has it taught me that when we step away from the normalcy of life, and we’re forced to be still and reflect on ourselves and ourselves in relation to the world. We see life differently, so stroke offered me that opportunity, and still does.

Bill Gasiamis 1:17:41
Yeah, that’s cool. There’s people listening who are in the stroke journey. We don’t know might be at the beginning, in the middle, there might be far down the road, but they’re listening, and they’re trying to get something out of this podcast interview. You know they’re trying to learn or get a concept or grow or have an awareness. What do you want to tell the people who are listening and watching?

Molly B. 1:18:10
Patience, purpose and honor your own wisdom. Connection, I’m going back to the values, wisdom, purpose, connection and hope.

Bill Gasiamis 1:18:49
Brilliant, they’re great words, and they are words that often get repeated by many, many people who I’ve interviewed, and they seem to play a very important role in people’s journeys. So maybe people will reflect on some of those words and see what they mean for them, or what comes to them about that.

Molly B. 1:19:16
I like that you said that, see what they mean to them. It’s important that it’s their own.

Bill Gasiamis 1:19:27
And you and I were just tossing out our own ideas as just a way and an example for other people to kind of be able to do the same thing, to contemplate their version of it, and to go ‘Oh yeah, I agree with that, or I experienced that, or I didn’t, or I know what that means, or I wouldn’t want to go down that path, or I might go down that path. It has been awesome experience to work with you.

Bill Gasiamis 1:20:00
And do my story and share that with the world, and there’ll be links to that in the show notes for people to find that. Also, there’ll be links to your podcast and your other channels. But for anyone listening and watching, where is the best place for them to find your work.

Molly B. 1:20:22
Yeah, our we are a nonprofit organization, and our website is www.beyondstillness.org, and you can find ways to contact us there, and there’s a little overview of our story creation process there as well. And we have community zoom events, and all are welcome to those events, and those often have past guests and listeners involved. And we also have retreat series, which are weekly, a series of weekly meetings for individuals, a way to connect and reflect on their experiences. And then I recently joined social media.

Molly B. 1:21:12
Thank you for the nudge Bill and we created an Instagram that is stories, underscore after underscore stroke. Stories after stroke and our Facebook page is Beyond Stillness. Stories after stroke, which is the name of our organization,

Bill Gasiamis 1:21:38
Beautiful.

Molly B. 1:21:40
Anything else Bill? What else do you usually say? You’re the professional here.

Bill Gasiamis 1:21:44
I’m just learning. I’m just the guy who wants to see more of these things. You know, what I was missing when I was going through this 12, more than 5 years ago now? And what you were missing was anything. And I know that the more things that are out there that stroke survivors can stumble across in their own Google searches or from whoever they know, the better, right? That’s the whole point of this whole thing. It’s like I’m doing what I was missing out on what I didn’t have.

Bill Gasiamis 1:22:22
So, I hope that that’s it, there’s nothing else that’s, that’s it, you know, I just want people to find it and maybe join, maybe jump on and see if they’re a good fit for a story, with you. And that’ll be great if that happens, that’s clearly of benefit to the world and to the society and to community. So thank you for being on the podcast.

Molly B. 1:22:55
Thank you, Bill. Thank you. I have loved connecting with you over the past two months, and now I love being in your space. Here, you create a space that feels very welcoming, and all of our conversations lead to philosophy and spirituality and purpose, and you’re really an old soul that invites other people into being themselves and exploring that space within them. So thank you for doing that for me.

Final Thoughts and Resources

Bill Gasiamis 1:23:28
Well, that brings us to the end of this episode with Molly, her journey from surviving venus sinus thrombosis to founding Beyond Stillness. Stories after stroke is a testament to resilience, hope and the power of connection. Before we wrap up, I want to thank everyone who’s been a part of this incredible recovery after stroke community, your comments, feedback and support on YouTube, Spotify and iTunes, keep this podcast going strong. If today’s episode inspired you or offered you valuable insights.

Bill Gasiamis 1:23:59
Please consider leaving a five-star rating on Spotify or iTunes or a like and a comment on the YouTube channel. It truly helps others find the podcast and join our growing community. Remember to check out Molly’s work at beyondstilness.org and explore the resources available at recoveryafterstroke.com thank you again for tuning in, and I’ll see you in the next episode.

Intro 1:24:40
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