After her two burst brain aneurysms and stroke Toni Hickman became an author an ordained minister and a holistic health practitioner.
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Highlights:
00:51 Introduction
04:38 The first brain aneurysm
06:49 The second brain aneurysm
19:44 Seeking spirituality
34:04 Personal growth after a life-altering stroke
41:48 Spiritual growth and overcoming ego
49:12 Stop Eating The Wrong Shit
59:38 Food addiction and its impact on sleep
1:05:42 Self-improvement after a brain aneurysm
1:12:11 Self-love and resilience
1:15:41 The hardest thing about stroke
1:17:40 The lessons from stroke
1:18:51 A message to other stroke survivors
Transcript:
Toni Hickman 00:00
Hello everyone, my book The Unexpected Way That A Stroke Became The Best Thing That Happened is now available for purchase on Amazon. In the book, you will find chapters on mindset, the brain that resides in your heart, as well as the brain that resides in your gut.
Bill 00:16
You will learn about the benefits and downsides of Neuroplasticity. You will learn the benefits of getting better sleep, you will find out about the food that you should avoid after a stroke. You will learn about the amazing benefits you get from the smallest amount of exercise.
Bill 00:35
And what happens when you follow your heart’s desires? You’ll get the lowdown on the amazing positive benefits you get from surrounding yourself with the right people. And you’ll also understand how to discover your life’s purpose.
Introduction – Toni Hickman
Bill 00:51
To grab a copy of the book go to Amazon and search my name Bill Gasiamis. Or if you go to recoveryafterstroke.com/book you’ll be able to find links there. Now this is episode 287 of the Recovery after Stroke podcast and my guest today is a lady who has accomplished a lot in the years after her two burst brain aneurysms and a stroke. Tony Hickman is an author, a music artist, an ordained minister, and a holistic health practitioner. Toni Hickman, welcome to the podcast.
Toni Hickman 01:28
Thank you for having me, Bill. I’m happy to be here. How do you say your last name?
Toni Hickman 01:33
Gasiamis.
Toni Hickman 01:35
Gasiamis.
Bill 01:37
That’s it. Perfect. I was at your website, tonihickman.com. And I wanted to learn a little bit more about you, your busy person. You are an author, a musical artist, an ordained minister, a health practitioner, and a survivor of two brain aneurysms and a stroke. What else do you do? Because it doesn’t sound like you’re busy enough.
Toni Hickman 02:10
And I make a lot of music. Music is my therapy. So yeah, I write I do philosophy of philosophy. It’s a big thing that I love. That’s going to be my next book, just straight philosophy, life philosophy.
Bill 02:28
Do you have some philosophies that you’ve learned that you’ve applied to your recovery? That you’re sort of embodying and then that you’re going to expand on? Where does that love of philosophy come from?
Toni Hickman 02:49
I think I’ve been doing philosophy honestly, since I was young. I didn’t even know it. But I have a point. And my mother, she, she had it for a long time we got lost in the flood when we had one in Houston. But I did this point when I was like, seven or eight years old.
Toni Hickman 03:11
And I was talking about time and, and how as I’m writing the sentence, I’m leaving the past and I’m going to the future. So what is time? Like? I wrote that at a very young age. So I’ve always been like, I’ve always wanted to dig deeper into why. Yeah.
Bill 03:36
So tell me a little bit about your health experience your two hemorrhages and then your stroke. And then we’ll dive deep into the maybe the why. Because there are a lot of people who ask why that’s a huge question. But they frame it in a way that’s not empowering. And sometimes the why? The question of why it ends with Why me? Why did it happen? What did I do? Why did I deserve this? Instead of Instead why me? What’s the lesson here? Or why me? What can I do about it? Tell me a little bit about your health journey.
Toni Hickman 04:14
Um, well, in 2004, I had just left Houston, Texas to move to Atlanta for my music because the record label moved me there. And after that, I kind of left the label but still was doing music with like, really major artists in Atlanta.
The first brain aneurysm
Toni Hickman 04:38
And I was at my mother’s house one day. And she said I was just looking around like I was nonchalant. And she asked me what was wrong and I was just nonchalant. So eventually my son was very young and he came out and told my mom that he thought something was wrong with me.
Toni Hickman 05:08
And so eventually they got me to the hospital. And that’s when I learned that I was having my first brain aneurysm. Before that, I had no clue what a brain aneurysm was. I had never heard of it before. Yeah, and so fast forward, I ended up having an angiogram where they went through my groin, and with the camera looked at my brain and saw that I was having a rupture.
Toni Hickman 05:46
And so this is the big question of, they said that they clamped it, and then, but it’s not in my paperwork. Um, and so then I went on, and I was out of music. I was just, I would say I was down for like three months because the angiogram had done something to my body that made me feel weak. And, but after that, I got back on the music scene, I was in all of these magazines.
Toni Hickman 06:21
I was the top thing about to come out like, so excited. And so I went to New Orleans to celebrate. And, and my ex, well he’s my ex now. But my boyfriend at the time, I went to his mother’s house, and she made me some, some like vegan fried rice.
The second brain aneurysm
Toni Hickman 06:49
It was really good, and so then all of a sudden, now with my first brain aneurysm, my symptoms were throwing up. So with the second one, well, when I ate the rice, all of a sudden, I started throwing up again. And I was thinking, like, there’s no way something is wrong with me.
Toni Hickman 07:14
Maybe I have food poisoning. But there’s no way I’m having another brain aneurysm like that made no sense to me. But I just couldn’t stop vomiting. And that’s when I was told I was vomiting in his sister’s bathroom and I just fell out.
Toni Hickman 07:37
And they had to come in there and get me and rushed me to the hospital in New Orleans, Louisiana. And this is right after Katrina. So New Orleans had a stench that was out of this world. The hospitals like one of the main hospitals were closed. It was it was a mess. But they ended up getting me to a hospital and had surgery.
Toni Hickman 08:10
But while they didn’t start the surgery, they had to contact my mother and just get her to Okay. It was because there was a 5050 chance that I was going to ever speak or walk again live. And if I lived, it was still a hard chance that I was going to speak or walk again.
Bill 08:38
Good night. It’s really interesting. So I’m hearing. I’m hearing the whole This thing’s happened to me. It’s probably not going to happen again. They’ve sorted. It’s been fixed. It’s happening again. It must be food poisoning. It’s the same story as a similar story to me, in that I went through two brain hemorrhages. And then the third one ended up in brain surgery.
Bill 09:04
They didn’t do anything for my ones at the beginning other than monitor them and it wasn’t an aneurysm that burst it was another faulty blood vessel called an arteriovenous malformation. And then, but then the denial is still very real, like it’s real the first time I you know the symptoms, it’s just numbness on my left side and no big deal. I can feel it, but you know, it’s okay. The second time it will be, um, feeling nausea.
Bill 09:34
So I think I’m gonna vomit. Don’t rush, but at some stage, can you guys take me home? So my wife can take me to the hospital. Again, no rush, you know, it’s not a big deal. It’s not life-threatening. And then I go to the hospital and then I blacked out. And I don’t remember my wife. So, you know, it’s very typical, this can’t be happening to me. We don’t need to panic about this. just become. It’s not that serious. Sounds like you were expecting that what they had done meant that you were in the clear.
Toni Hickman 10:12
Yeah, yeah, I thought that was over with, um, and just listening to you tell your story or part of your story. It’s like it makes you wonder, Is that a part of our human nature sometimes that just wants to be okay? And you know? Yeah. So yeah, I wanted it to be okay. I wanted it to be over with. But like I said, they rushed me to the hospital, my mother ended up driving down, they shaved all my hair off and started surgery.
Toni Hickman 10:58
And yeah, and when I came to, I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t talk. I couldn’t walk. I couldn’t write, like, I was so thirsty because I had to put up my nose and tubes down my throat. And I want it water so bad. But that’s what my brain was saying. But I couldn’t tell them. And so I jerked the tubes out of my mouth. And I was just like water.
Toni Hickman 11:39
And so my mother gave me something to write on because I was gonna say, I want water. But when I wrote, I wrote a W instead of an M, like, she couldn’t understand me, and they finally gave me ice. But I wasn’t supposed to have the ice. I didn’t know. And so yeah, that was a lot I was, I was hell in the hospital, I gave everybody a problem because I was so stubborn and defiant.
Toni Hickman 12:17
Like, I just could not accept the reality that I was now in a wheelchair. And my left side was working. Not great at all. It was really weak. But my right side was just, it was like, it wasn’t even there. And that was that was highly disappointing. It was it was like a shell shock. You know, like I was, here I am, especially a person in the music industry that doesn’t portray people with disabilities or, or anything like that.
Toni Hickman 13:05
They show you this image of perfection. And so I’m just like, well, what’s gonna happen with my music? So yeah, it was it was a long journey back mentally. To shake him myself out of that reality of like, my, my life has changed. And what do I do about that?
Bill 13:34
How old were you?
Toni Hickman 13:38
The first one, I was 27. And the second one, I was 32.
Bill 13:45
How long does it take you to have a career in the music industry? Not to be a musician and an artist? Because you’re probably always a musician and an artist? How long does it take you to break that goal of becoming a signed artist? Did it take you forever?
Toni Hickman 14:06
Yeah. Oh, so yeah, that’s another story. But yeah, it just depends on the person. It depends. It depends on your timing, and what they are looking for at that time. Because it could be immediately for some people, like it’s changed from when I was trying to get a deal versus now like now record labels and not even looking at artists.
Toni Hickman 14:40
They’re looking on social media. They’re looking cuz everybody is promoting social media. And so for me, we had to send in, you know, the bio and or the CD. Well, by that time, we were doing CDs, but we had to send all of This in. And like I said, it’s a different game. Now, this is a digital market. And yeah, it can be hard for me it took I Well, in New Orleans, I was signed, I was signing to a local, new music label. And I mean, they paid me. But it wasn’t like I got paid with the other company.
Bill 15:29
You’re, you get to that stage, you get signed, you’ve got to label, everything is on the up and up, your career is looking like it’s going to take off. And then you’re unwell. And then you ask a really good question What am I meant to do? Now? How am I supposed to handle this? Your stubbornness and your attitude? Was that something that you always had dedicated in the way of your life? Or did it help you progress your life to give you opportunities that some people may not have got because they weren’t so?
Toni Hickman 16:10
Aggressive?
Bill 16:11
Maybe, whatever.
Toni Hickman 16:14
In some ways, that was aggressive. And I will say it has done both It has helped me in some of the ways if I have to be honest with myself, and it has hurt me. And some of the ways are because of misunderstandings. But also, I was very naive and aggressive. See, that makes no sense. Literally. And so it was a learning curve for me.
Toni Hickman 16:47
As far as the music industry goes, but as far as my music, I mean far as my surviving two brain aneurysms and a stroke. It was mandatory. Like I had no choice. It was I was surrounded at that time, I was the youngest person in the rehabilitation and I was in the state in a rehabilitation facility cuz I didn’t live in New Orleans, I was just there.
Toni Hickman 17:19
And I’m looking around me, and I’m the youngest person in there. And everybody is complaining about exercising and getting better or their life. And I’m looking and I’m like, This can’t be me. Now. Don’t think I didn’t go through my pity party, though. I went through my pity party I’m talking about I was even suicidal.
Toni Hickman 17:47
And one of my nurses came in while I was crying, I was having a pity party. And she was like, why are you crying? And I said because this is the second time this happened to me. And I’m wondering if it’s not meant for me to do music. Where is God? Like, you know what, why would God let this happen to me if this is my gift? And she said, and this I wish I could remember her name. But it was so profound when she told me.
Intro 18:23
If you’ve had a stroke, and you’re in recovery, you’ll know what a scary and confusing time it can be, you’re likely to have a lot of questions going through your mind. How long will it take to recover? Will I recover? What things should I avoid? In case I make matters worse, and doctors will explain things that, you’ve never had a stroke before, you probably don’t know what questions to ask.
Intro 18:47
If this is you, you may be missing out on doing things that could help speed up your recovery. If you’re finding yourself in that situation. Stop worrying, and head to recoveryafterstroke.com where you can download a guide that will help you.
Intro 19:02
It’s called seven questions to ask your doctor about your stroke. These seven questions are the ones Bill wished he’d asked when he was recovering from a stroke. They’ll not only help you better understand your condition. They’ll help you take a more active role in your recovery. Head to the website now, recoveryafterstroke.com, and download the guide. It’s free.
Toni Hickman 19:26
She said what you need to be asking is how you had two brain aneurysms and the stroke and you’re still alive right?
Bill 19:44
Oh boy.
Seeking spirituality
Toni Hickman 19:46
Yeah. And at that time, I wasn’t feeling her. Her energy. I was just like, Yeah, okay. But I added everything I have I remember, and they took care of me in this hospital because they saw I was so determined, but they took care of me in the rehabilitation unit. And, but out of everything I remember, that’s one of the most potent things I remember from the nurse is like, ask yourself why.
Toni Hickman 20:21
Right? And that is the question why, why now? What did I need to change? What did I need to alter? What was I doing wrong? Can I take responsibility for my own life in some ways, and not look like I’m the victim? And that brought some deep reflection, some self-reflection.
Bill 20:45
The really important question, the responsibility part is, that the first chapter in my book is about mindset. But there’s a massive chunk in there about me taking responsibility for the part that I played in the illness, I suppose. And not that it was my fault, in that I had a brain aneurysm. And so I had I had an arteriovenous malformation. I was born with that.
Bill 21:14
But then I was living life like somebody who would be alive forever, and nothing could cause illness or bad health. That meant that I was smoking, I was drinking, and I was not eating well. And it meant that I wasn’t paying attention, and I wasn’t taking care of myself, and I was doing stuff that I didn’t like, was working for people I didn’t like, I played a massive role in my illness in that I might have created the perfect storm for illness to occur.
Bill 21:53
And if that thing didn’t burst, maybe something else would have happened, like a heart attack, or who knows what. And then, and then it’s like, I went to the hospital, they patched me up, and then they sent me home. And I had, I needed rehab, and I needed all sorts of help. And there was no one helping. And that’s like, what am I going to do now? Whose responsibility is it to make me better? And it was like,
Bill 22:19
Okay, I think they’ve done their bit. It’s my responsibility now to do my bit. And my bit is, I have to stop smoking, I have to stop drinking, I have to stop eating the wrong food, I have to do stuff that makes my heart come alive, etc. And I found myself being responsible for everything after that. The argument that I had, the person was wrong, but I also was responsible for you know, that I know that grasping too long, you know, yeah, I could make it somebody else’s job.
Bill 22:57
But I’m also responsible for it. And I was just waiting, we went or went on this little cycle of which part of that am I responsible for. And now when I apologize, for example, in an argument or offering it, I apologize for my part. And I specifically say I would like to apologize for my part in the argument and the things that I said that were out of order. And then what that does, is that creates a space for somebody else to apologize for their part.
Bill 23:29
And what they’re doing is that they’re not apologizing for their entire life for everything they’ve ever done. It’s just for their part in that part of the argument. And it makes it makes it a little easier to overcome and get better. All those small things that I became responsible for are things that helped me with my recovery.
Bill 23:50
And that ultimately led to more amazing things like the podcast, the book etcetera and I didn’t know your book again. So my book is called The Unexpected Way That A Stroke Became The Best Thing That Happened. Okay, okay, weird name. And people think I’m promoting stroke. The first comment I got on YouTube. about it, when I started talking about it somebody said to me, that’s a terrible thing to say, how could you be from promoting stroke as something to do or an experience to have?
Bill 24:25
And it’s like, no it’s not what I’m doing. What we’re doing is where we’re highlighting the post-traumatic growth, the good stuff, that came after stroke, everyone can talk about that stuff that shit about stroke. We could talk about that forever. But no one’s talking about the good stuff. And that book is full of good stuff that I did.
Bill 24:53
And it sounds like you went on a similar journey because you’ve been prolific with All the things you’ve done after, say music was your only focus now you’ve been prolific and you had the good question, you know what? Why did God do this to me? And you seem to seek out the answer. And you became an ordained minister. So tell me about that journey. How did you go from why me? And then I’m going to find the answer to being a minister.
Toni Hickman 25:28
And I’m not the typical minister. So yeah, I’m not, I’m not what you see on TV or anything like that. But I think this whole journey, like even when I said, I have to take responsibility, what is my responsibility? So my truth is, even when I signed with the Magic Major record label, I talked about my reality I have been on on my own since I was 16.
Toni Hickman 25:57
I grew up in the hood, the ghetto, or however you want to call it. And my lyrics, expressed my environment because that was my reality. And sometimes it was not the best expression for the upliftment of anybody. And so I had to, I had to go on an inner journey of like, yes, you do have a gift. And your gift is only meant for upliftment.
Toni Hickman 26:42
If it’s upliftment and enlightenment, and if it is not doing that, then it is destruction. And that’s as simple as it gets. So, going that route, and diving deep into my soul, brought me to becoming an ordained minister. I’m not, I’m not. I don’t dislike Christianity, I just don’t, I don’t put myself in the box of a particular system.
Toni Hickman 27:29
Like God is channeling through me whenever I can have the opportunity to receive whenever I allow myself to be open enough to be disciplined to that voice, and we all have the voice. We all have a voice when we are deciding to go left or right, or we’re trying to make an important decision. We have this voice inside of us.
Toni Hickman 28:02
Or if you want to eat cake, and you know, your doctor told you to stop eating cake because it’s contributing to bad health. And you just say, Well, I’m just gonna have one little slice instead of eating the whole cake, but you know, you shouldn’t have it like this still you going against yourself, that’s you going against your higher self and our higher self, in my opinion, and what I know it’s not my opinion is our God. So we are part of God. And so if we can see from that perspective, then it’s just about being obedient to the inner voice.
Bill 28:50
I love that we are part of God, I have mentioned in a couple of interviews before this with different people that when we’re talking about finding God or seeking out solutions from God, or whether it’s Muslim faith or Christian faith, it doesn’t matter. But I feel like I am God. And yeah, yeah. And that means that what that does, is allows me to, and that doesn’t make me perfect. None of those things. It doesn’t make me all-knowing or any of that stuff.
Bill 29:23
Just what it does is the church that I grew up in, and the Christian religion outsources God so if you have a problem, ask God for the solution, and I don’t think the solution is there. I think the solution is there in here. And if I’m asking God for a solution, I am asking me for the solution. And together, we are shining the light, and the way I say that, the light being shone is you know, you’re walking down the road and you have and thought about that problem for two days or four days or a week.
Bill 30:03
And then all of a sudden the solution comes into your head. And it’s like, Oh, I know what to do now. I, it’s because of a question that I asked earlier, two or three weeks ago, and all and the best part about it was I knew the question to ask, I didn’t need to know anything else, just the right question. And then I’m walking down the street, and bang, that’s the answer. And I didn’t come up with that answer.
Toni Hickman 30:34
You’re a vessel? We’re so connected, all of us are connected. So if we’re all connected, then that means we are all divine beings that and we have forgotten. Like, where we’re supposed to be headed, we have forgotten that it’s important to listen to that inner voice.
Toni Hickman 30:56
But I love that. And I think it also that mentality also makes you accept responsibility for your own life, instead of looking outside of yourself for something else to save you. You are already downloaded with all the answers that you need to change your life. Sometimes we can be stubborn.
Bill 31:20
We can. And if you want to give credit to God, perfectly fine. By me, I don’t mind.
Toni Hickman 31:28
God is everywhere. God is all things like.
Bill 31:34
And then, and then also, take some credit for the decisions that you made, and take some credit for the action that you took, and take some credit for some of the people that you helped, or the person’s question that you answered, because you did that, you did that for them, you did that with them.
Bill 31:53
And you do that because you learned something, and you felt like it would be useful to share that because somebody requested you’re feedback, or your knowledge, or your wisdom, or whatever you want to call it. But we, I think it’s a, it’s, it’s the only part of, you know, a religion that bothers me is that the outsourcing to God, and, and I think that if we bring God into religion, back into the person that is attending the church, then I think that empowers them even further.
Bill 32:32
Now, perhaps there’s a reason why it’s done the way it is. And I don’t know what that is, but it doesn’t apply to me, it doesn’t make me feel good about going to church. Now, I feel like the priest’s job, the priest’s job, I feel like is teaching the Word of God. And, and then to, and then to encourage you to practice the Word of God to be somebody who asks, not what God would do or how God would do it.
Bill 33:05
But how would I do it in a way that would please God, or be in line with the way that God would like me to do it? And then that way, and then that way, what you end up doing is you end up taking a problem like to, to arteriovenous, malformation blades, one brain surgery and not being able to walk again, you know, in a wheelchair, mental issues, health issues, emotional issues, and then you end up becoming somebody who’s supporting people all around the world.
Bill 33:37
And I’m bragging, I’m talking about me, because that wasn’t the guy before that, you know, that wasn’t the same person. And, this is the thing, it’s really important for people who are watching and listening to us to understand that you and I have been on a similar journey. And we made it about other people. And that has made our stroke. I don’t know, I’m speaking for myself, like worth having is it weird to say that?
Personal growth after a life-altering stroke
Toni Hickman 34:04
I mean, and not just the idea of helping others because that’s an automatic response, right? And we should be able to help others. But even the idea that the stroke helped me because it helped me see myself. Like, I needed to see myself in my worst state so I could understand why I was here.
Bill 34:37
If you grew up in the hood, was that not your worst state? And did the stroke show a state of view that was even worse, because by understanding my understanding from Australia is that growing up in the hood is difficult for a lot of people, a lot of kids especially when they’re alone, and they don’t have adult supervision or support or guidance?
Bill 35:07
And I would imagine my brain would imagine that that is already the hardest. The worst version. Maybe it’s not, maybe it’s not the worst version of you, maybe you’re, you can be a good you in the hood. And then you had a stroke, and then the strokes took everything away, like, give me a little bit of insight into that part of your world.
Toni Hickman 35:33
Growing up in that’s a book in itself. Um, because I have stories that would shock people. But that was, I can’t say that that’s my worst, my worst that I’ve ever experienced, because it’s just like, when you see these videos with people in Africa, and they may not have homes, or they may not have a lot as you can tell right?
Toni Hickman 36:06
And so us looking at it will think, okay, the perception of them, Oh, they’re so poor, they don’t have them. But what happens is you end up finding joy no matter what your environment is, even if it is a lower vibration, because, at that time, you don’t acknowledge that it is. You just acknowledge that this is where you live, this is what it is. And you know, some people may have better clothes than me some people.
Toni Hickman 36:41
And yeah, there’s There’s nothing. There’s nothing to say. Oh, this was like, my heart is time now I had heart moments, but nothing like the the aneurysms in the stroke. And I have to say that because I just never experienced something so profound that took me out of my norm took me out of myself. It just completely ripped me and breathed in, put me back together.
Toni Hickman 37:26
And that was a mental process. Because I’m dealing with me, I’m dealing with image factors. I’m dealing with the idea that I’m getting older and the industry does not take people who are getting older I’m getting with dealing with the idea that like what am I to do now? And so it was a journey, but it was absolutely one of the worst things I’ve ever experienced one I’ve experienced worse. But not to that degree and not that long.
Bill 38:06
It’s interesting. On Episode 157, I interviewed Luis Diaz, and he was a gangbanger in LA. And he reckons gang life was far worse than the stroke that he had. You know, so their perceptions are very interesting to hear the different perspectives from people. And I accept yours. I get it because what it sounds like you’re talking about is stroke has attacked your identity more than anything ever had before.
Toni Hickman 38:41
Yeah, that’s really what it was. And, you know, even when I think back, yeah, I did have some harsh experiences. But it was like here and there. It wasn’t like this was a whole like I said, I got taken apart and put back together and nothing in my life has ever done that, more than the stroke.
Bill 39:03
When that happened to me, I felt it later. So as things started to settle down, and I started to emerge from that everything has been taken apart, and the programming has been changed. The textbook is different. The location is different. The temperature is different, everything is different. I felt like it was kind of a good reset. And I could then start to reroute and change and fix things and not go back down some paths. Did you find that as well? Is that your experience?
Toni Hickman 39:39
Oh, definitely. After the second aneurysm, I and I eventually got out of the hospital. I was on a walking cane still, but I was out of the hospital. I decided to go and have a drink with my friends. I had just moved back I got my place. And I’m like, Okay, well, I’ll go here. And so I had to drink. And that did not work for me.
Toni Hickman 40:13
And I got when I got in because my equilibrium was off. And I had a picture of my son on the nightstand. And so when I got in, and I opened my door, and that got in, I fell because my equilibrium was off. And I cut my hand open. Because I fell in I broke my hand on his picture. I mean, that broke my hand, but cut my hand.
Toni Hickman 40:43
Yeah, and that sounds like no, we can’t do this. And then, you know, as a musician, like, it’s no secret. Most people know that most people, who do music, smoke weed or marijuana, you know. So that was my thing. And again, that’s where their spirit comes in. Because I have felt it even before I hit the aneurysms, like you need to stop this, you know, the inner voice, just like it hits talk to you, if you when you were smoking, or drinking, you get that same inner voice and you ignore it.
Spiritual growth and overcoming ego
Toni Hickman 41:19
And yeah, I stopped the alcohol because that next day, even I woke up and I had anxiety. And I was thinking, oh my god, what if I’m gonna have another brain aneurysm, right? And so I was like, okay, that’s gotta go. And then I smoked. And then I started, like, freaking out about having another brain aneurysm. And I was like, You know what, I gotta take all this stuff away. That has given me anxiety. So I don’t have to deal with that anymore.
Bill 41:58
That’s been a good choice. With the part of you, that’s not listening to the inner voice. Do you know which part that is? So I’ve got a sense, I won’t say what I think it is yet. But there’s an inner voice that says, we shouldn’t be doing this. And then there’s the other part of you that’s going Let me light up that next joint. Which part of you is the part that’s not listening to the inner voice? Is there a part? How do you override it?
Toni Hickman 42:30
Yeah, and that’s where we have to get stronger in our will, right? Or, yeah, we have to be stronger in our will. But I just honestly, this exact conversation, I just did a real environment. I haven’t posted it yet, but I just did a video about it. And I believe it is well I just call it the lower self is the ego, which is what I think Christians refer to as the devil.
Toni Hickman 43:04
But it’s this energy of compromise and conflict and confusion. And the one way I am learning that we can decipher between the lower self and the higher self is through confusion. Because God’s self is not confused, is straight to the point it knows the answers. And that’s it. Versus the is always confused. Always. Just ego and everything versus that. And so if we can see that we are in a state of confusion, then we’re not in our gods.
Bill 43:57
You just described it beautifully. Because that thing that you said about Christians would describe it as the devil. If God’s within me, then the devils within me. And then it depends on which one I give voice to the most. And for me, if I’m giving voice to God, the most God then overrides the devil. And it’s
Bill 44:27
Neuroplasticity kicks in because the more that you use one part of your brain, the more that that part is the one that’s going to take hold and support whatever it is that you’re trying to achieve or you’re doing.
Bill 44:42
And the less you give energy to the devil part, the part of you, the ego, the part that’s overriding the God-self, then the less it will be able to do that. So it’s like a skill of Practicing, just like religion, or belief in God is a practice that we have to do to make sure that the neurons that we need to fire more than the other neurons are the God Self neurons, not the devil.
Toni Hickman 45:16
Yeah, and it takes training, I talk about that in my book, too. Because this is a part in there where I say, we are living in a world and I’m paraphrasing, but we’re living in a world right now, that is feeding our lower self, if you pay attention is feeding us pornography is feeding us gossip, it’s feeding us bad foods, overeating, and then saving us through a system of hope. And so yeah, that’s, that’s something else like we are fed, our lower self is spared constantly in our world. And so it’s up to us really to, like, take hold of that, and strengthen our higher self.
Bill 46:11
You’re right about the times we’re living in. And I feel that as well. And that’s kind of this is my response to that, it’s my response is to have a tool that people can go to, and find ways to become a better version of themselves, through the example led by other people that I’m interviewing, and also to offer the kind of hope that is real.
Bill 46:43
If you just listen to enough of these interviews, 10, 100, whatever it is, you’ll start to see patterns of behavior that get people to the other side of stroke, it doesn’t matter how bad their deficits are, they’ll start to show you a pattern of behavior that you might be able to go, everyone else, everyone I heard has, has said this or did this or behaved like this, I’m not doing that part.
Bill 47:13
And perhaps if I pay attention to that, I might be able to get a better outcome in this particular area. And it’s what I was missing, I was getting sucked into social media before my stroke, which was about making more money, having a better car, and working harder. All those things I was getting, all of that stuff was the stuff that I was consuming, trying to improve my life. And it was just making my life worse. It was going against my instinct.
Bill 47:47
And it was making me feel really bad that I hadn’t achieved this or that, or the other thing or the shiny thing or the big thing. And it was really hard. Whereas now my social media, because of the way that the algorithm works, that social media is all people posting about amazing stroke, recovery, stories, journeys, challenges, and obstacles.
Bill 48:10
It’s completely different I enjoy going to my social media because people are posting nice things on my page. I’m seeing nice things on other people’s pages. And you’re the perfect example because I followed you briefly. And I kind of love all your posts, just generally. And then I saw you made a post about your most recent book. And have you got a copy of a deck and you hold it up?
Toni Hickman 48:34
Yes, yes.
Bill 48:40
Stop eating the wrong shit with a burger and a Pepsi or something that looks like a Pepsi, and I thought, I’ve never been able to say it so nicely the way that you set it to tell it’s direct and to the point, right? And it takes forever to get there. And you’ll just set it in one book cover. It’s like, stop it in the wrong shit. Simple.
Toni Hickman 49:11
Right?
Stop Eating The Wrong Shit by Toni Hickman
Bill 49:12
Tell me about the book. How did it come about?
Toni Hickman 49:14
I mean, if you follow my journey, I’ve been writing books. My first book was called Chemical Suicide: Death by Association. And it was about chemicals in beauty products or it is about chemicals in beauty products.
Toni Hickman 49:32
Because they told me when I had my brain aneurysms that I needed to stop putting chemicals in my hair. It’s specifically perms and for melanin-dominant women. That is something we’re very used to because of the stigma that comes with our hair. And so that was my first book because I was just like, Okay, if this is the case other women need to know about this.
Bill 49:59
Is that Because of the way that you guys wear braid braids and beads and all that kind of stuff, is that what that is? Is that a perm?
Toni Hickman 50:07
No braids. braids are extensions. So that’s different. perms are when you see a woman, melanin-dominant woman with straight hair.
Bill 50:20
Ah, it’s a straight perm. I’ve always known. No, we’re making members currently,
Toni Hickman 50:27
It makes it curly. For those that are not super melanin dominant, it makes it straight. For us. That’s insane. Yeah. Yeah. But is this harsh on our scalp? And then it has been known to cause very unhealthy issues with the body. And so yeah, that was my first.
Bill 50:51
Okay, is that book available online? Because my name is Amazon.
Toni Hickman 50:57
Yeah, it should be on Amazon. It was my first book. First thing I ever wrote. Yeah.
Bill 51:01
So I’m looking on Amazon right now. I see your current book. And I say a man’s cry for health. We’ll talk about that one in a minute a little. But I don’t see the other one at all.
Toni Hickman 51:14
Not undermine the name that was my first book. And so instead of it’s under my name, but it’s not my first name. So instead of it being Tony Alika Hickman is just Alika Hickman. So if you put in an Alika Hickman, you’ll see it. Yeah.
Bill 51:30
Okay, cool. We’re gonna link to all of this stuff for people who are interested in having a look at those. ,
Toni Hickman 51:37
Thank you. Yeah. And it’s on my website, too.
Bill 51:41
Very cool. So tell me about the current book, stop eating the wrong shit. How did it come to be now that I need to make sure that people understand you’re a vegan? I’m pretty sure. And I’m not a vegan. But I think we have similar philosophies, regardless of whether you eat meat or not. And I’d love to hear your thoughts, on what needs to come out of the diet, because that’s kind of what I talk about more than anything. There’s stuff that people can leave in their diet. But there’s a lot of stuff that has to come out. Tell me about the book.
Toni Hickman 52:18
Yeah, that’s, I think our biggest issue, see, and this is from studying myself, first, but then studying people who would come and see me for different ailments, or whatever. Um, we have a problem overeating, we’d have a problem eating big, like a cigarette. We eat because our nerves are bad. We eat because we had a bad day, we want to crave this or that.
Toni Hickman 52:49
And that’s our biggest problem. The second one is the junk that is provided to us because of our nerves, but yeah, that goes for every food that is not a natural substance. And even in my book, I tell everyone that I am vegan, I’m strict in my life. I don’t eat meat, I’m really, I’m raw vegan, and more half liquid area and like, I like pushing the boundaries. And that’s, that’s just what I have been doing lately.
Toni Hickman 53:29
But even in the book, I’m just saying like, if you eat meat, that’s your choice. But certain foods don’t go together. Right? The biggest thing that we are fed in these. Well, I don’t know if it’s in Australia as big as it is in America. But one of the biggest meals is a burger and fries, steak and potatoes. Those two should never go together.
Toni Hickman 54:01
You should always if you’re going to eat meat, you should eat it with a vegetable. But burgers and fries, it gives you it makes you sleepy because it is draining your system to digest. Because it’s a sticky food and a starch. I mean it’s a starch and the meat and so it’s like really acidic.
Toni Hickman 54:26
So you have to balance when you’re going to eat meat. You have to balance it with a vegetable or a salad. But you can’t put it’s not wise you can because we’re doing that and I’ve done it but it’s wise to eat it with vegetables if you want proper that proper digestion.
Bill 54:49
I find myself being more impacted as I age and after the stroke by the food that I for sure. I noticed that when I was eating things like fries are whitebread pasta, I found myself fatigued, with stroke fatigue, the brain fatigue just out of control. Oh, yeah, yeah. And I couldn’t cope with it. And I’ve done some interviews.
Bill 55:12
And I’ve got a little course that people can go and look at if they go to my website, and they can download a course where interviewed a nutritionist here in Australia, a lady who was a nutritionist, and her husband, who was a perfect high-performance coach, like the athletic kind of coach. And we spoke about the five foods to avoid, and one of them was dairy. The other one was sugar. Alcohol. What else was it? sugar, dairy, alcohol. Men have forgotten what they were anyhow, I’ll look it up in a second.
Toni Hickman 55:55
White rice, pasta.
Bill 55:57
Yeah, bread, wheat, yep, and basically, why I started going down that path was because they’re the things that I eliminated and started to feel good about myself, my body physically. And now if I eat a steak now, we have an old saying here in Australia. I’m not sure if it’s the same in the US.
Bill 56:23
What did you have for dinner, steak, and three vegs, you know, it’s a bit of steak, and a little bit and three vegetables, whatever they were carrot, broccoli, corn doesn’t matter. And that’s exactly how I try to eat my meat. And also, sometimes I’ll eat it without anything, just a steak on its own. And that’s it. And I feel like, I feel like it just when I eat food like that energizes me better. Like, even if I’m eating vegetables, and I just have some vegetables on their own on the side.
Bill 56:56
They seem to just digest better. And every time I add wheat, or dairy, or the drain or sugar, I get something else that happens, that doesn’t feel right. And then there’s a longer it’s kind of like I have to recover from eating where I don’t, that doesn’t make sense that you shouldn’t be recovering from eating a meal, you should just be eating a meal then going about your business not having a nap or having to unbutton your pants or whatever.
Toni Hickman 57:28
Yeah, no, that’s that’s the reality because it is draining our system to digest. And that takes a lot of energy and also even eating late at night. But I’m glad you brought up the sugar and I go, I deal in on dairy sugar, the chemicals in our foods that we think are okay. But it’s important to, I guess, identify what you are eating and also eat before the sunset. Like if we eat before we go to bed, then we’re digesting all through the night, instead of fasting.
Bill 58:12
Right? And why is it important to fast?
Toni Hickman 58:17
Because if we fast, and we’re giving our system of rest, and so if you have healing that you need to do, be it the brain, be it the organ in your body, then resting allows us to heal.
Bill 58:34
And the foods that I was mentioning were caffeine, sugar, gluten, dairy, and alcohol, and they’re all inflammatory. So we’ve got an inflamed brain after the stroke. And for some people after the stroke, it may remain sensitive to stimulants and it may remain sensitive to sugar and dairy and all that kind of stuff.
Bill 58:54
So the idea behind my thinking is, if we take out things that are going to get in the way of recovery and are going to impact your energy levels, then we’re going to have a better recovery we’ll be able to put more energy into rehabilitation into self-reflection into you know, a problem-solving.
Bill 59:17
So the whole idea is that what we want to do is try and create the right environment for healing. And then that’s going to create the right environment for us to have a better sleep right so sleeping, eating before sleep, changes your sleep right it doesn’t support good sleep.
Food addiction and its impact on sleep for Toni Hickman
Toni Hickman 59:38
Ah, I will say doesn’t support a good sleep. It may but it’s not healthy for your body and some people it does so people will eat and then go right to sleep because it makes you sleepy. It makes you sleepy when you eat all of these foods together at late night times. But for some people, it may be a disrupt Should or they may wake up and can’t go back to sleep after their body is finished digesting everything that they have consumed.
Bill 1:00:09
Yeah, I find that when I eat late at night, it does make my sleep a little harder. stomach full trying to get comfortable. You know, trying to settle down is a lot different than going to bed, having had dinner at normal dinner time, and then sort of settling into the night and then going to bed a few hours later. Sometimes if I’m up late, we’ve been out and I’m hungry. And I pick up something that’s not ideal. It normally is not a good, comfortable, settled sleep.
Toni Hickman 1:00:47
Yeah, like I said, I can see that part. So especially again, if it goes to the, we’re talking about overeating too, because that is uncomfortable. Like we’ll taste something. And we just love how it tastes. So we’ll keep eating, I’ve done it, where it’s just like, oh my god, this is so good. And so I just keep eating, just because it tastes good. But I’m full. I’ll go fix seconds, but I’m full. That makes no sense. We overeat?
Bill 1:01:24
Do we do that for entertainment purposes? Why do we do that? Why do you think it is I feel like a lot of our food is wrapped up into entertaining you not only with what it’s meant to be nourishing, but then, you know, the whole master chef and all these kinds of cooking shows, and it seems to be have rolled into entertainment where food? Never was that?
Toni Hickman 1:01:48
Yeah, yeah, it is gotten out of nourishment. And, and while I understand, the idea of wanting to take something amazing. Like we don’t consider the whole, we don’t consider the destruction we’re doing to ourselves every time we act as addicts, because literally, you are an addict. Like I talked about that in my book, too.
Toni Hickman 1:02:20
Like we love to point the fingers at people who are on drugs, and I’ll crack and call them crackheads and all of that. But if you are overeating, then you too are a crackhead in a different form, it may not hit you the same way. It may not, you know, cause disruption to your teeth or whatever. But over time, if you’re eating a bunch of sugar it will you talk about meth heads.
Toni Hickman 1:02:49
But yeah, you could do the same thing with a whole bunch of sugar. So it’s a thin line between a drug addict and a food addict. And we love to ignore that part. Instead, we love to point the finger at other people instead of looking at ourselves.
Bill 1:03:08
I agree with that. It’s comfortable to point the finger at other people and not look at ourselves until we get to that point where we’re having ill health. And then we have to look at ourselves because the microscope is being pointed out and we have no choice. And I was that guy I was being told one specific person in my life would every time you saw me with a cigarette would say stuff like that’ll kill you, Bill.
Bill 1:03:35
And I was like, yeah, probably won’t. And I just kept smoking. So it’s like, even then, when somebody was being so blunt, and so forward in telling me what I’m doing is not good for my health. Even though I knew that, I still ignored it. And then, and then the microscope.
Bill 1:03:57
And that’s and it’s, you know, it happens to other people. That guy smokes more than me or he’s been smoking longer than me, or, you know, he smokes heavier tar cigarettes than me. And there was always a reason why everybody else was a cigarette addict and I wasn’t.
Toni Hickman 1:04:17
Yeah. I have a story I have in my book too, about that. And about like, you can always try and tell somebody what they are doing wrong in their life. But it’s only when that person has decided that they have had enough of their bullshit that they decide to change but it’s never because you tell them to change. Most times our our energy will rebel because we like to think that we are the dominant power of self.
Bill 1:04:51
Yeah. This writing books, is that part of your ministry? Do you think that they’re intertwined?
Toni Hickman 1:05:02
Perhaps Yes, I think all of it, isn’t it? I think my music, my music, the writing. I love writing I’ve written a couple of books on health. I’ve never written a philosophy book. And I think because it’s going to be spiritual philosophy. But I think that that’s where it will really, my ministry will be a part of that. Because it is like in all of my books, I, of course, am giving you information.
Self-improvement after a brain aneurysm
Toni Hickman 1:05:42
But now I’m giving you information about looking deep into yourself, and not even you looking deep into yourself but asking your question yourself questions that you have been avoiding to become a better person. And like I said, I write as a work in progress. I don’t ever want anyone to paint me as like, this perfect person who is doing I’m working on it.
Toni Hickman 1:06:15
I’m working on perfecting myself. I do believe that even though I know, our world teaches that, like, humans aren’t perfect. But I do believe that humans can reach perfection. But it’s a mentality that is like switching from giving yourself the excuse that you are not perfect, and then understanding what perfect means and spirit.
Bill 1:06:48
So we shouldn’t be like Tony Hickman, we should learn from Tony Hickman.
Toni Hickman 1:06:55
Yeah, be like yourself. Be like your best God self. That’s who you need to be like, I’m just in the process of becoming my own best God self.
Bill 1:07:10
It’s interesting when I’ve done nearly 300, podcast interviews, but when you have a platform like this, people and I used to do the same people think that you’re a little more special or interesting or important or whatever. And then when they say that to me, I kind of blush. I don’t know how to take it. But do you know who I am?
Bill 1:07:31
Like, you don’t know? If I was alright, you’d say at some, it says something nice. But in another way, you know, you’ve wanted to say it the way that it’s like, like, Oh, my God, guys, you got it all wrong. You know, this is Bill, like, I’m not some up here kind of guy like I’m down here. And it’s just really weird.
Toni Hickman 1:07:55
But you are what if you are. See what if you do things that like, like reducing our greatness? What didn’t? What do I’ve done all my life? But what if it’s things like that like us reducing our greatness and allowing ourselves to be held in that space? So we, in turn, hold ourselves accountable?
Bill 1:08:18
I’m up for that if that is what’s happening, and I haven’t seen it yet, I’m up for that, too.
Toni Hickman 1:08:23
I think it’s already happening. Like, maybe you don’t see it.
Bill 1:08:29
I don’t, I’m not hard on my greatness, like, I am realizing my greatness. I’m very comfortable with it. But there is one side of me that says, you know, what? No, you can be this great. So what I’m trying to say is like, I’m not an unachievable height that you can’t get to. I am right. I’m just you. And yeah. And you think you’re not at my level yet, but you are in your way.
Bill 1:09:03
It’s like, you know, how easy it is to get here. It’s pretty easy. And that’s kind of what it is like, I’m not doing I’m not trying real hard to be here. I’m just being myself and practicing what I believe that’s it, and you can be the same. And if you want that, and you want to feel like you’re participating in society and that you’re helping your community.
Bill 1:09:35
And what you have to do is just do something different than what you’re doing now. That’s it. Not a major, huge Yeah. It seems major. It just seems major because I’ve been doing it a little longer. But every episode I do is easier and easier. It gets easier and easier for me. It’s not hard. It seems strange, but yeah, I just try to tell people you can be Um, you can be at my level, not me, you’re not going to be me. But you can be you at my level, which is just a normal level. It’s just like normal. That’s all.
Toni Hickman 1:10:13
Yeah. And I want to add to that, too, because I think it’s so important for us to love ourselves through the process of becoming, right because we want this instant gratification, this instant notice of improvement, and it’s still a journey. Like, if time is an illusion, then it’s a journey to get there. And you should take the steps. And every step is a part of you still being there and becoming.
Bill 1:10:47
Yeah, yeah, that’s so important. Now, you know, my book took four years to write. Two years was the research part two years was the writing part. It felt like forever while I was doing it, and now that it’s done, I look back on it. And it’s like, that was so quick.
Toni Hickman 1:11:04
Yeah.
Bill 1:11:07
And it’s that whole illusion of this is taking too long, or I need to have a deadline, or it needs to be out sooner. Or, for me, it was what I needed to do before I had another blade and die. Like, that was going on in my head, you know, but I got to the end. And now that I’m at the end, and I’m promoting it, it’s like, oh, man, that happened in a blink of an eye. It hasn’t happened in a long time at all, and it seems like it but it’s the truth. It’s like that instant gratification.
Bill 1:11:40
Now people are responding to it. Like, it happened instantly. They’re going wow, this is amazing why you look what you’ve done, whatever. And it’s like, they get the instant gratification from saying this is a book I need to read. But it was the longest project I’ve ever been involved in, personally, because I never had focus. I never could sit back and see something through. I always this had taken too long. Forget about it.
Self-love and resilience after a brain aneurysm
Toni Hickman 1:12:11
Hmm. That’s awesome. So what’s next?
Bill 1:12:17
Probably another book soon, you know, there’ll be more about what, what’s a popular word. Now it’s normalizing stroke, you know, and saying, This is what stroke is, like, if you’ve had this experience, it’s normal, you know, these are things that other stroke survivors have experienced. And it’s okay, that you’re experiencing that. And it’s like, now that you know, you can park that, put it aside, and just move on and keep going.
Bill 1:12:47
And of some of those things are people that reach out, and often want to know about, does anyone else have vision problems with this? Does anyone else have that feel like that? You know, that kind of stuff where caregivers, because I felt the biggest challenge that we had when we were at home was why am I feeling like that?
Bill 1:13:07
Is that part of the stroke? Or am I having another stroke? So this next book is probably something about alleviating the anxiety that we all go through. When we don’t know the journey of stroke, what it’s like.
Toni Hickman 1:13:22
I think that’s a great subject. Yeah.
Bill 1:13:25
And maybe that’ll calm a little bit of people’s nerves and anxiety and just allow them to just get on with recovery. Yeah. Where can we hear your music? Because now I’m interested to go and have a listen. Will there be early stuff and new stuff? What can we expect to find?
Toni Hickman 1:13:48
Um, yes, it will be early stuff and new stuff. The early stuff and I will tell you like, it’s not this Tony is the other version of me. Some of it can be destructive, and some of it is once again, yeah, sorry about that. But some of it is can you see me? Yeah. Okay. Some of it is destruction coming out of destruction.
Toni Hickman 1:14:21
So it’s like this pattern of, of going up so yeah, but I’m on all streaming platforms. Tony Hickman, my rap name when I was on the record label when I was you know, doing major stuff was slim goody. So you can look at Lookup Slim Goodie aka Tony Hickman, and that will give you like my first that will give you the first independent album that I did after the stroke.
Toni Hickman 1:14:55
And they told me I would never speak or walk again. So I was very determined, determined, and I got it done. But that’s my first album. And then one of my favorite albums that I’ve done is called Unbroken. And it’s an all-clean album. It’s an amazing album. But I do suggest looking that went up to unbroken Tony Hickman.
Bill 1:15:31
Fantastic. I am aware of the time, we do need to end this. But before we end this, I would ask a couple more questions.
Toni Hickman 1:15:42
Yes, yes. Because we started late because of me.
The hardest thing about stroke
Bill 1:15:45
That’s okay. What about what’s the hardest thing about stroke for you
Toni Hickman 1:15:59
realizing that it was so important to learn to love myself. Because I was like I said, I was a person somewhat in the limelight. And so now it was this concept of an image that I had to deal with. But there was a time I had gotten braids in my hair, I got brave extensions in my hair because it has started going back. And I remember it made me feel that temporary superficial beauty that I was looking for, but I still had my limp.
Toni Hickman 1:16:47
I still have my cane and was still falling that will you know, but it gave me that superficial feeling. And I remember getting in the mirror and looking in the mirror and I just took my braids and I held them. And I got the scissors and I just started cutting the braids out. I just cut them all out.
Toni Hickman 1:17:12
And I was like, I love you. I love you. I’m talking to the mirror the whole time. I’m taking my braids out. And I’m like I love you I love you I’m crying I’m having a moment and that was when I realized how important I had to be my computer like I had to I had to take care of my soul.
The lessons from stroke
Bill 1:17:40
What has stroke taught you a similar question but slightly different?
Toni Hickman 1:17:47
it’s taught me that life is to be cherished is taught me that I can redefine enjoyment is taught me against all odds. I can still become Yeah, and this taught me that it’s okay to make mistakes, but it’s not okay to wallow in it. It’s not okay to make that my life story. I’m not a victim. I am a conqueror of my bullshit. And even if I have to keep repeating my bullshit until it finally makes me conquer it. That’s okay.
A message to other stroke survivors
Bill 1:18:53
That’s some real modern philosophy. I love it, other people are listening and watching the stroke survivors some of them on the journey for a long time. Some of them just starting. What do you want to tell them?
Toni Hickman 1:19:12
No matter what you are going through right now. Do not give up on yourself. And when one door closes another door opens that is a very famous saying but just know that this is temporary what you’re going through and it’s a redirection and you are responsible for figuring out how you’re going to make this your best second chance, your best third chance. Whatever it is like you you can figure it out you have the power because you are God you Are the highest part of yourself, you are God you’re capable.
Bill 1:20:06
Toni Hickman, thank you so much for being on the podcast.
Toni Hickman 1:20:10
Thank you for having me, Bill. Yes, thank you.
Bill 1:20:22
Well, thank you once again for joining me on the Recovery after Stroke podcast. I hope you enjoyed the episode. To get the Amazon links of where to grab a copy of my book The Unexpected Way That A Stroke Became The Best Thing That Happened.
Bill 1:21:41
Visit the show notes of this episode by going to recoveryafterstroke.com/episodes. There you will also be able to learn more about my guests including links to their social media their bio their book, and whatever else it is that I have spoken about during the episode.
Bill 1:22:02
Thank you to everyone who has already left a review for my podcast. It means the world to me. Podcasts live and thrive because of reviews. And when you leave a review, you are helping others in need of this type of content to find it easier.
Bill 1:22:18
And that’s making a massive benefit to their stroke recovery. If you haven’t left a review and would like to leave a review. The best way to do it is to go to Spotify or iTunes and leave a five-star review and a few words about what the show means to you.
Bill 1:22:37
If you’re watching on YouTube comment below the video you’ll note that I respond to all comments on YouTube, like this episode because that helps the algorithm tell other people about the episode. And of course, subscribe to the show on the platform of your choice.
Bill 1:22:54
If you subscribe on YouTube do hit the notifications bell so that you’re notified every time a new episode or a new piece of content for me is made available. If you’re a stroke survivor with a story to share about your experience. Come and join me on the show.
Bill 1:23:09
The interviews are not scripted, you do not have to plan for them. All you need to do to qualify is be a stroke survivor who wants to share their story in the hope that it’ll help somebody else going through something similar. If you are a researcher who wants to share the findings of a recent study or you are looking to recruit people into studies, you may also wish to reach out and be a guest on my show.
Bill 1:23:31
If you have a commercial product that you’d like to promote that is related to helping stroke survivors recover. There is also a path for you to join me on a sponsored episode of the show. Go to recoveryafterstroke.com/contact, fill out the form explaining briefly which category you belong to and I will respond with more details about how we can connect via Zoom. Thank you again for being here and listening are appreciate you see you on the next episode.
Intro 1:24:02
Importantly, we present many podcasts designed to give you an insight and understanding into the experiences of other individuals’ opinions and treatment protocols discussed during any podcast or the individual’s own experience and we do not necessarily share the same opinion nor do we recommend any treatment protocol discussed.
Intro 1:24:19
All content on this website at any linked blog, podcast, or video material controlled by this website or content is created and produced for informational purposes only and is largely based on the personal experience of Bill Gasiamis.
Intro 1:24:32
The content is intended to complement your medical treatment and support healing. It is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice and should not be relied on as health advice. The information is general and may not be suitable for your personal injuries, circumstances, or health objectives.
Intro 1:24:47
Do not use our content as a standalone resource to diagnose treat, cure, or prevent any disease for therapeutic purposes or as a substitute for the advice of a health professional. Never delay seeking advice or disregard the advice of medical professionals, your doctor, or your rehabilitation program based on our content.
Intro 1:25:03
If you have any questions or concerns about your health or medical condition please seek guidance from a doctor or other medical professional. If you are experiencing a health emergency or think you might be call 000 if in Australia or your local emergency number immediately for emergency assistance or go to the nearest hospital emergency department medical information changes constantly.
Intro 1:25:23
While we aim to provide current quality information in our content. We do not provide any guarantees and assume no legal liability or responsibility for the accuracy, currency, or completeness of the content. If you choose to rely on any information within our content, you do so solely at your own risk. We are careful with the links we provide however third-party links from our website are followed at your own risk and we are not responsible for any information you find there.
