Understanding Stroke Rehabilitation<\/b><\/h2>\n
Stroke rehabilitation is pivotal for aiding stroke survivors in regaining independence and improving their quality of life. While traditional rehabilitation methods are crucial, integrating complementary approaches like adaptive yoga can enhance the overall recovery journey.<\/span><\/p>\n Adaptive yoga is a modified form of yoga that accommodates individuals with varying abilities and physical limitations. For stroke patients, adaptive yoga offers several therapeutic benefits, including:<\/span><\/p>\n Integrating adaptive yoga into stroke rehabilitation requires careful consideration and collaboration between healthcare providers and certified yoga instructors. Here are some tips for incorporating adaptive yoga into a stroke recovery program:<\/span><\/p>\n In conclusion, adaptive yoga is a valuable and inclusive approach to stroke rehabilitation, offering a range of physical, emotional, and social benefits for survivors. By incorporating adaptive yoga into the recovery process, stroke patients can enhance their overall well-being and resilience on the path to recovery.<\/span><\/p>\n Remember, adaptive yoga offers a personalized and supportive environment for stroke survivors to explore movement, mindfulness, and healing. With dedication and support, adaptive yoga can empower stroke patients to embrace their journey of recovery with strength and resilience.<\/span><\/p>\n Stacie Wyatt is no stranger to how neurological challenges can impact life. As a mother of a child with a neurological condition from birth, she turned to adaptive yoga to help herself and others.<\/span><\/p>\n Facebook<\/a> Highlights:<\/p>\n 00:00 Introduction Transcript:<\/p>\n Bill Gasiamis 0:00 Bill Gasiamis 0:16 Bill Gasiamis 0:28 Bill Gasiamis 0:40 Bill Gasiamis 0:55 Stacie Wyatt 1:10 Bill Gasiamis 1:12 Stacie Wyatt 1:30 Stacie Wyatt 1:52 Stacie Wyatt 2:10 Stacie Wyatt 2:24 Stacie Wyatt 2:42 Stacie Wyatt 2:58 Stacie Wyatt 3:21 Bill Gasiamis 3:50 Stacie Wyatt 4:11 Stacie Wyatt 4:30 Stacie Wyatt 4:49 Stacie Wyatt 5:09 Stacie Wyatt 5:26 Bill Gasiamis 5:47 Bill Gasiamis 6:05 Bill Gasiamis 6:24 Bill Gasiamis 6:42 Stacie Wyatt 7:08 Stacie Wyatt 7:14 Stacie Wyatt 7:32 Stacie Wyatt 8:00 Stacie Wyatt 8:17 Stacie Wyatt 8:35 Stacie Wyatt 8:53 Stacie Wyatt 9:09 Stacie Wyatt 9:35 Stacie Wyatt 9:59 Stacie Wyatt 10:28 Bill Gasiamis 11:37 Bill Gasiamis 12:10 Bill Gasiamis 12:38 Bill Gasiamis 13:10 Bill Gasiamis 13:45 Stacie Wyatt 14:24 Stacie Wyatt 14:51 Stacie Wyatt 15:25 Stacie Wyatt 16:05 Stacie Wyatt 16:29 Stacie Wyatt 16:50 Stacie Wyatt 17:15 Stacie Wyatt 17:48 Bill Gasiamis 18:49 Bill Gasiamis 19:16 Bill Gasiamis 19:51 Bill Gasiamis 20:25 Bill Gasiamis 20:44 Intro 21:06 Stacie Wyatt 22:09 Stacie Wyatt 22:51 Stacie Wyatt 23:17 Stacie Wyatt 23:45 Stacie Wyatt 24:06 Stacie Wyatt 24:37 Stacie Wyatt 24:56 Bill Gasiamis 25:20 Bill Gasiamis 25:35 Bill Gasiamis 25:55The Therapeutic Benefits of Adaptive Yoga<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Incorporating Adaptive Yoga into Stroke Rehabilitation<\/b><\/h3>\n
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Conclusion<\/b><\/h3>\n
Full Interview With Stacie Wyatt<\/h2>\n
\nInstagram<\/a><\/p>\n
\n07:08 Motherhood, and Acceptance of a Child with Special Needs
\n11:06 Adaptive yoga for individuals with brain injuries
\n18:14 Importance of community in stroke recovery
\n25:20 Volunteering after a neurological condition
\n29:13 Volunteering in hospice, experiences with loss and healing
\n35:51 Coping with life changes, focusing on gratitude and mindset shift
\n49:24 Yoga and its benefits for physical and mental well-being
\n1:00:30 Yoga and breathing techniques for managing stress and trauma<\/p>\nIntroduction – Stacie Wyatt<\/h3>\n
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<\/h3>\n
\nHello, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Recovery after Stroke podcast. My guest today is Stacie Wyatt, who amongst other things, is an adaptive yoga instructor who joined me on the show to encourage you to discover the benefits of adaptive yoga.<\/p>\n
\nAnd I’m not just talking about being more active. This was a deep and meaningful conversation, which I thoroughly enjoyed. And I encourage you to listen to the end, as the highlights just kept coming.<\/p>\n
\nNow just before we get started with the interview, allow me to share for a moment a little bit about my book, The Unexpected Way That A Stroke Became The Best Thing That Happened<\/a>: 10 Tools for Recovery and Personal Transformation.<\/p>\n
\nWithin its pages lie the profound stories of 10 stroke survivors, each illustrating the transformative journey from adversity to personal growth, spanning topics from nutrition and exercise to managing the emotional aftermath.<\/p>\n
\nThis book<\/a> serves as a guiding light for all those navigating the path to recovery. To discover more about this invaluable research visit recoveryafterstroke.com\/book<\/a>. Stacie Wyatt, welcome to the podcast.<\/p>\n
\nThanks for having me.<\/p>\n
\nThank you for being here and requesting to be on the show. I love it. When people reach out and request to be on the show, it makes my life a little bit easier. It means I don’t have to find people. And I love meeting people who want to help people. Tell me a little bit about your background.<\/p>\n
\nWell, my background is sort of an interesting story I am a mom to three amazing human beings. And my middle child, my only daughter was born with multiple disabilities. And the first 10 years of her life were tough I wasn’t very happy that this was what was given to me.<\/p>\n
\nAnd I resisted it for a long time. And so I found I found a yoga practice thinking that would make me a better person and or make me stretch here my intention was initially that I would be more flexible. And I had no idea it would change my life in such amazing ways.<\/p>\n
\nAnd I initially stepped into teaching yoga to people with developmental disabilities. And thinking that would be a bridge for my daughter and I and it it just wasn’t for her. Like she wanted nothing to do with it.<\/p>\n
\nBut I felt so drawn to bringing yoga to people who couldn’t access a traditional setting like they couldn’t go to a yoga studio because there were barriers and maybe that was a disability or mental illness or income or size or age.<\/p>\n
\nAnd so I knew I didn’t want to just teach normal, super flexible, cute Yoga people, I wanted to reach a different population. So I began almost 17 years ago with that intention.<\/p>\n
\nAnd as time went on, I found a great love and appreciation for people with traumatic brain injuries. Because I feel like they’re living in everyday life all as well. They’ve got a career family and in an instant, their life has completely changed, and I just felt like that.<\/p>\n
\nThat was my heart and soul. So I did some more studies and became more schooled in brain injuries and what that looks like, and here I am. And so my students now range from acquired brain injuries, traumatic brain injuries, dementia, Parkinson’s, any sort of really neurological condition. And I serve hundreds of individuals every single month. It’s it’s crazy.<\/p>\n
\nThat is probably lovely. I know crazy you’re using it in that way. But it’s probably crazy good, right? It sounds like it is. Tell me about your daughter a little bit like what condition were you guys dealing with? When she was born? What was it that she had?<\/p>\n
\nWell, initially, I just thought, is this how girls are like I had I had a son and I thought this is hard like she was hard. And as an infant now that I know what I know. Like I just never connected with her. She always was staring off into space.<\/p>\n
\nAnd she never engaged in a way that like a baby does when you approach them in the little basket and they get all like wiggly and happy to see you there was none of that. And by the time she was two, some big differences were happening and language wasn’t coming and she was very particular about things.<\/p>\n
\nAnd so of course we got a diagnosis of autism spectrum, but that wasn’t it and it took until she was 17 years old. So to identify that she has a very rare genetic change in her chromosome, one of the little rungs of her ladder is missing.<\/p>\n
\nAnd the features of the syndrome very much look like somebody who has autism and other just developmental delays. So it’s hard to explain like, yeah, she has tendencies like somebody with autism, but it’s so much bigger than that.<\/p>\n
\nBecause there’s some physical stuff that we didn’t know about and cognitive stuff that, you know, she’s, she’s this will be 30 in just a couple of weeks. And she’s more like a 10-year-old, a pretty happy 10-year-old. Now that she has some strategies, and we’ve come to understand each other well, things are good. But it was hard. It was really hard.<\/p>\n
\nI can imagine what. So what’s it like, though, as a mum, you don’t have any expectations that your kids are going to be “different” There’s no other word for me to say different. You have one child who’s born as expected.<\/p>\n
\nAnd then the second one is a little bit of a challenge because you’re not recognizing things. After all, you have no experience in that type of condition, you don’t recognize things. So you stumble, and you fumble, and it’s frustrating, and it’s challenging.<\/p>\n
\nAt the 10-year mark, you kind of go I need to do something for myself out of here have you realized that you need some self-care, because caregivers tend to neglect themselves, especially if you’ve got three kids? Mums neglect themselves all the time.<\/p>\n
\nBut then when you’re dealing with a child who’s a little more requires a little different strategy. You’re even more stretched, it’s even harder. What did you do to support yourself for those 10 years? And then what was it like to get to this realization that you needed to do something more than just about your normal day?<\/p>\nMotherhood, and acceptance of a child with special needs<\/h3>\n
\nYeah, it was crazy. I was a very young mom, and young married mom trying to play the role of being a wife and a young mom. And I didn’t understand myself, I chose to get married and then chose to have three little kids very early into my 20s.<\/p>\n
\nAnd, you know, when there’s such a stressor of being young, and financially struggling, as young people often are, and then you have this child that you don’t understand.<\/p>\n
\nAnd when she was in early, elementary age, I would take her to school, and there would be other moms with little girls that would take their child and kind of shy away from Lindsay. And I just thought, you know, this is so wrong. Like, I felt so different. I didn’t have connections with other moms.<\/p>\n
\nI didn’t know any other parents of people with disabilities. And my marriage fell apart. My husband at the time just couldn’t do it. He had that choice, I guess, to leave. So here I was a single mom with three kids and no education. And I was angry, I was toxic.<\/p>\n
\nI was physically ginormously, heavy, energetically, spiritually heavy. I was a mess. And I found yoga. And I thought I loved this so much. I’m going to become a yoga teacher. And in my first yoga teacher training, the teacher was talking about suffering.<\/p>\n
\nAnd being that I was young and full of what I thought I knew everything and had a little bit of ego. I went to him during the break. And I said, You don’t know anything about suffering, my daughter, she suffers, nobody likes her, she looks different, and she doesn’t get invited to parties.<\/p>\n
\nAnd he just smiled tenderly and kind of leaned in and he said, who’s suffering? And I just was getting furious. Like, you’re not hearing me like nobody likes her, she has no friends, people stare at her, people stare at me, they think I’m a bad parent.<\/p>\n
\nAnd I just kept going on and he finally got so close to me. He probably could have kissed me. And he said, who’s suffering? And it was like a thunderbolt hit me. And I realized this was all about me. And I went home from that training, 14 hours, went home, and I looked at her through an entirely different lens.<\/p>\n
\nI looked at her through the lens that she’s not suffering that she’s herself, she’s fine. She lives in happiness and joy. And I saw her as perfect. And when I did that, and I was able to see her and accept her and say yes, literally within a year my life changed.<\/p>\n
\nI found my part purpose, I knew I wanted to do what I wanted to be doing today. And I went out into the world with a lot of information and a lot of heart to say, These people need to be seen and they need to be heard just as they are and, and really, I call that time in my life around when I was 30 as my great wake up, because I turned something off, turn something on in me that the anger went away.<\/p>\n
\nLove came into my being I lost 80 pounds, I got lighter in my spirit I found myself and I often say that, that she was like this gift holding this door open for me. And her spirit was saying if you say yes, your life’s gonna be unreal. And literally within nine months to a year of me saying yes to who she is, my life has just tremendously changed. And so while it was really hard, and I had very minimal support, it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me.<\/p>\nAdaptive yoga for individuals with brain injuries<\/h3>\n
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\nBill Gasiamis 11:06
\nSounds like the exact title of my book<\/a>. I wrote a book called The Unexpected Way That Stroke Became the Best Thing That Happened to Me<\/a>. And there’s a chapter about exercise in there. And what I’m trying to do is encourage people to understand the benefits of exercise, but also demystify it so that they don’t think that what exercises is running laps, or doing CrossFit or, you know, pumping massive weights or whatever.<\/p>\n
\nThat’s not exercise that is necessarily useful for somebody who’s had a stroke or has a neurological condition or something like that, that that can just simply sit on a chair, and be guided by a yoga teacher. And that says, you know, move this way, move that way, to the best of your ability to do this and do that. And you’re, you’re it’s like, your path to finding your purpose.<\/p>\n
\nSounds like it came from going with the flow rather than fighting the current. And then once you discover that your daughter is this way, and she’s probably okay with it, well, then that’s when the learning has to come to you, who has to grow up and start acting like an adult, and then discovering, discovering the things about yourself that you need to improve on.<\/p>\n
\nAnd those things. For me, it was a classic example. For me, I was 37. And I had to start my personal development. Although I had played in space a little bit, I just stopped my personal development at 37, when I had a stroke, because I was suffering. And suffering without purpose is terrible. But when you’ve got a purpose, and your suffering kind of is, as is given an outlet, the suffering tends to ease and the purpose comes alive.<\/p>\n
\nAnd you find yourself in this space like me, after 300 episodes of the podcast so far, you find the space, in the space with something that you love doing. And it’s easy to do, that might be a lot of work. And it might be a lot of challenges around but it’s easy to do emotionally, mentally, spiritually, physically. And then, and then you’ve transformed this supposedly terrible situation, you know, the one that you thought was terrible, into an amazing opportunity for personal development and growth.<\/p>\n
\nAnd then you’re an example, to your family, to your friends, to your children, about how somebody might tackle a difficult situation. And then people look at you in awe and they go Stacy’s you know, you’re, oh my God, how do you manage to do everything or this supermom? You’re this superwoman, you do yoga to do this. And it’s like, you probably have a busy day, but you don’t find it difficult to do these things. You find it rewarding purposeful and useful. And yeah, tell me how does that do that?<\/p>\n
\nYeah, and I often say like, what when I go to work, I get in my car and sometimes I have to commute 200, 300 miles just to knock on the door of a home or people who have traumatic brain injuries are living and I walk in a knock on the door and say, Hey, I’m here for yoga and, and I think this doesn’t even work. This is such joy. And it’s so amazing that I get to do this and it’s I’m grateful that I get to do it.<\/p>\n
\nI don’t have to do it I get to do it. And I think there’s a big difference in that a lot of people feel like going to work is something they have to do and I’m just blown Last, I am grateful that I make a living doing it. But the money is so irrelevant to me, I love it so much, I would do it for free. But maybe someday I’ll go back to that I volunteered for four years before I actually started contracting with agencies, and I do eventually want to go back to that, model of just serving without financial gain, but right now it’s paying the mortgage.<\/p>\n
\nAnd it’s good. And I think my experience with somebody who has an everyday normal life, whatever normal is, and an event happens, for me what I’ve come to realize with that population of brain injuries, particularly because it’s such an instant, right, whether it’s a stroke, and you’re having a great day, and then boom, is there such a tendency in rehab to make sure the person can toilet, eat, walk, transfer, maybe get dressed, and my thinking when I see these individuals who are talking about grief and loss.<\/p>\n
\nAnd their career is over their family life is over their ability to drive and be independent and cook a meal. And, and there’s so much loss. And so part of the yoga that I offer these individuals is to find wholeness in what’s new to them now, not what was because this is an entirely different experience.<\/p>\n
\nAnd so a lot of my yoga work, you know, I’m a big Stickler, and our western view of yoga, here in the United States is just so physical based, and there’s a place for it, for sure. But there are seven other big parts of the yoga practice, that have to do with how we show up in the world.<\/p>\n
\nAnd a lot of that is an understanding of who we are. And, so that’s my gift to my students is helping them see that even if their body doesn’t move the way that it did, or their memory or their language, or maybe they can’t speak at all, but they use a device that they’re still holding, there’s still a deep purpose in them that we have to uncover and figure out what that is.<\/p>\n
\nAnd if it’s becoming some sort of advocate for fellow people that live in their house and helping somebody else to do everyday activities of daily living because they can like that might be your purpose, and let them see that they still have a place in this world for them to shine. And it’s a lot of work. there are a lot of big emotions, and I get challenged sometimes by more exercise-based people who observe my work because they’re thinking as well, can’t they be doing more physically?<\/p>\n
\nAnd like, Well, yeah, maybe. But right now we got to purge some of this pain, where they’re never going to be able to get there. And, so that’s really, what I’m passionate about the most is just really seeing individuals as they are today. And in fact, I rarely even want to know how their injury came to be if they want to share that. That’s fine, but I don’t inquire about it.<\/p>\nImportance of community in stroke recovery<\/h3>\n
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\nStacie Wyatt 18:14
\nBecause I want to see who they are at that moment on a random Tuesday. I don’t need to know all that. Maybe it will come out in time. And it’s relevant. And I need to know some things. But I try not to get too curious about their life before their events unless it applies to their health and something I need to know like a spinal injury or something, but I try to see them. And that’s what they need. They need to not be seen as broken, disabled, half-paralyzed people, they need to be seen as whole. And I want to give that to them.<\/p>\n
\nYeah, that’s an awesome gift. You know, what you said about the people who see you and say, can’t they be doing more things, more physical stuff, that’s, it is a great thing that the hospitals and rehabilitation facilities do is they can address walking and moving and standing and lifting and hand and shifting and all that kind of stuff that can address that. So they’re good at that.<\/p>\n
\nBut then, and they’re not resourced to handle the emotional side of recovery from any condition, you know, it doesn’t matter who they are. I know that in a stroke, you’re going to one of the things that gets missed out on a lot is the emotional side. Mental Health kind of gets a little bit of a look in physical does but the emotional side gets missed and you can’t heal from any trauma. If you don’t do what I call the three-tier kind of recovery, you know, emotional, mental, and physical.<\/p>\n
\nYou got to do all three and if you don’t do one, I think emotional seems like it’s 1\/3 of the pie like it seems to represent 33% But I think the power of emotional healing is far greater than 33%. I think it gives way more back when you do the hard work go with the traumas face your demons, and overcome all that kind of stuff. Now, what I love about a group like yours is that people come there for something else, they think they’re coming for yoga, and they think they’re coming from movement, and all this kind of stuff.<\/p>\n
\nAnd then because of the type of space that you have, is, it’s safe. And there’s an opportunity for them to share things they may not have normally shared with people who are like-minded with people who are similar to them, and people who have been through what they’ve been through maybe in a different format, but you know, have a similar trauma.<\/p>\n
\nAnd then, and then it’s like, these are kind of my people, you know, I was listening to somebody talk about immunity, and they broke the word down from they broke it down, like from community, to the words that make up that word. And what came back was common unity.<\/p>\n
\nIf 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, like, how long will it take to recover? Will I recover? What things should I avoid? In case I make matters worse, doctors will explain things. But, if you’ve never had a stroke before, you probably don’t know what questions to ask. 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 recovery after stroke.com where you can download a guide that will help you 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, recovery after stroke.com and download the guide. It’s free.<\/p>\n
\nLove it, love it. And it’s interesting, like, like community, I have four pillars that I sort of teach to it. And this is sort of the method that I’ve crafted over my time doing this. And the number one pillar that has to be part of the puzzle is community. And we always sit in a circle because I’m not the boss, I’m not the teacher, I’m not better than and so we gather around a living room or a kitchen table. And, there is that space to share and to be heard and to be seen. And I’ve had students in my practice who have been incarcerated and have done bad things.<\/p>\n
\nAnd they come with a lot of identity and labels to those things. And in that moment, it’s irrelevant because we’re sitting around the kitchen table, we might even be having tea or coffee. And they’re thinking they’re going to do yoga. And by definition, yoga means union, it means to unite two things together. And so if I get resistance, like I’m not doing that, you know, crazy pretzel get on the floor yoga.<\/p>\n
\nAnd so I asked her asking them some questions or you know, I get real close and say, can I see what color eyes you have? And there’s an immediate connection because we’re looking at each other. And then I’ll say you just had a beautiful yoga practice with me. And then they laugh and go, Oh, it’s not scary. It’s not pretzel stuff. It’s it’s community. And so we do a check in every practice. How’s your mind? How’s your body? How’s your spirit?<\/p>\n
\nAnd the purpose of that is to be brave to be vulnerable and say, my mind is busy, my body sucks and my spirits in the dumps? Well, if somebody else is feeling the same thing, now all of a sudden you have shared empathy, you have shared compassion you have a home, I’m not alone. Oh, thank goodness, I’m not alone.<\/p>\n
\nAnd so then we have this round robin, kind of how are you, and I try to do a check out after we do the other three things that I always do in the practice. And, at the beginning that drove my data for agencies who make decisions to say like, well, if something’s happening, they came in very dysregulated and pissed off and upset and in pain, and they’re leaving yoga feeling peaceful and joyful and grateful for what is happening.<\/p>\n
\nAnd so for years, I took those data sheets and would hand them to the administrators who never came to the practice. Just so they could see that there’s something magical that’s going on in these 45 minutes that the least likely people to do yoga are showing up and they’re shining in this practice.<\/p>\n
\nSo community is the number one thing that I Teach. And so when I have somebody observe me, and their questions, what can’t they do more? Like you just missed all of this courage and sharing and growth, just so that maybe they could stand on one leg? Who cares? Like, who cares about that? That’s part of it. But it’s not all of it.<\/p>\nVolunteering after a neurological condition<\/h3>\n
\nNo, no, it’s probably probably good to fail in front of other people as well, when you can’t do that. Because there’s a bit of a lesson there as well. It’s like, nobody in that room, nobody cares. It’s interesting what you said about who comes to your room.<\/p>\n
\nWith my podcast, I don’t have any requirements for people to come on my podcast, you need to be somebody who either had a stroke or somebody who helps people who have had a stroke. In your case, for example, you might not specifically help or target to helping stroke survivors, but people who have neurological conditions are a pass for me.<\/p>\n
\nEverything else that you’ve done in your life that you’ve been through, or whatever, like, it doesn’t matter, I couldn’t care less. But what I do, just want to know is that you’re out willing to share a story that’s going to help other people, that’s all I’m interested in. And that makes the bar for attending this particular interview very low, and nobody has to worry about, Am I good enough? Am I going to be able to meet up to the expectations of the person hosting and all that kind of stuff?<\/p>\n
![\"image_pdf\"](\"https:\/\/recoveryafterstroke.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/pdf-print\/images\/pdf.png\" "\\"Download")