9: Alison Shapiro
Join me for an interview with Alison Shapiro who suffered two devastating and near fatal brainstem strokes 24 hours apart. She discovered she did could and would have a profound impact on the course of that recovery.
Alison came to understand a simple truth: It’s not what happens to us that makes the difference. It’s how we deal with what happens to us that will determine the rest of our lives.
“Only 50% of people who have a brainstem stroke survive. The liklihood of living after two? Not. That. Great.”
“Our stories break. The expression of wholeness has changed.”
“I teach people how to build positive stories. It was my job to teach other people to wake up to their own potential. It’s self-directed neuroplasticity. The focus is on post-traumatic growth.”
“Brain tissue does not fill in like the skin on your knee. Brain tissue dies. And the brain has to find a way around that empty part, like going around a roadblock. That’s what therapy is doing - getting the brain to figure out where to go. The key to this is attention. What we pay attention to, we wire in our heads. It’s called self-directed neuroplasticity.”
“As an illustrator, I had experience in working through the unknown. It was a really useful tool, because I was terrified. But I had some idea I could face it. I could keep working and something would happen.”
“Stories are very important. It’s one of the reasons I tell stories when I teach stroke recovery. Because I want people to see that they have the power to craft a story on their own and that story can be far more positive than they can imagine.”
To learn more about Alison: website youtube
Available on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Thanks for listening! Please leave a comment below.
Music for the thought echoes podcast created by Andy Dovey of Brain Attack Music. Thank you Andy!