Backed by decades of experience producing exceptional clinical outcomes, Kintinu Telerehab connects recovery to everyday life. In this podcast, we explore hot topics in rehabilitation, the keys to personal growth and recovery, and how to apply it all to the real-world.
In this episode of Kintinu’d Conversations, Brad Dexter had the privilege of chatting with Chad Arnold, a Life Path Assistant at QLI, whose powerful story of healing and personal growth moved us deeply. Struggling with addiction, depression, and anxiety, Chad faced a life-changing spinal cord injury that left him searching for meaning and purpose. But it was his desperate situation that allowed him to make a pivotal shift in his mindset - what if he decided to have a good day today? That single thought changed everything for Chad, and it may just change everything for you too.
Throughout our conversation, Chad shared his journey of overcoming desperation and turning his life around. He developed healthy habits that transformed his day-to-day life and discovered the power of physical activity, nutrition, mindfulness, and meditation. Chad also emphasized the importance of surrounding oneself with positive influences and resources, a practice he continues to incorporate in his work with individuals with spinal cord injuries.
As we wrapped up our inspiring discussion with Chad, we explored the significance of building a supportive community that can guide and encourage us in our own healing journeys. His story serves as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the incredible potential for growth and transformation that lies within all of us. So, if you're ready to embrace your own journey of healing, join us for this enlightening and empowering episode.
Enjoy!
Listen to the episode on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, and Buzzsprout, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Backed by decades of experience producing exceptional clinical outcomes, Kintinu Telerehab connects recovery to everyday life. In this podcast, we explore hot topics in rehabilitation, the keys to personal growth and recovery, and how to apply it all to the real-world.
In this episode of Kintinu’d Conversations, Brad Dexter had the privilege of chatting with Chad Arnold, a Life Path Assistant at QLI, whose powerful story of healing and personal growth moved us deeply. Struggling with addiction, depression, and anxiety, Chad faced a life-changing spinal cord injury that left him searching for meaning and purpose. But it was his desperate situation that allowed him to make a pivotal shift in his mindset - what if he decided to have a good day today? That single thought changed everything for Chad, and it may just change everything for you too.
Throughout our conversation, Chad shared his journey of overcoming desperation and turning his life around. He developed healthy habits that transformed his day-to-day life and discovered the power of physical activity, nutrition, mindfulness, and meditation. Chad also emphasized the importance of surrounding oneself with positive influences and resources, a practice he continues to incorporate in his work with individuals with spinal cord injuries.
As we wrapped up our inspiring discussion with Chad, we explored the significance of building a supportive community that can guide and encourage us in our own healing journeys. His story serves as a testament to the resilience of the human spirit and the incredible potential for growth and transformation that lies within all of us. So, if you're ready to embrace your own journey of healing, join us for this enlightening and empowering episode.
Enjoy!
Listen to the episode on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, and Buzzsprout, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Welcome to continued conversations where we explore hot topics and rehabilitation, the keys to personal growth and how to apply it all to the real world. Hey, welcome back. I have a special guest in the studio today. Chad Arnold is with me. Have known Chad for gosh five, six years now, something like that 2018. 2018. Yeah, mathis hard, that's five years. Yeah, five years. I'm working at QLI in one of our departments called Life Path Services and he is a life path assistant there, and today you just told me today is your one year anniversary.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Congratulations.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:I said it feels like it's been longer than that, but Because I've been around for five years. Hey, just as a little warm up just before we dive into conversation. I'm totally throwing you for a loop here too, But I asked this question a few weeks back to others. Do you have any just like rhythms, new rhythms that you have in the springtime when it gets nice, or anything you like to do differently than the wintertime?
Speaker 2:I love to get out with the sunrise and watch it come up and watch the world come alive. It's one of my favorite things to do.
Speaker 1:Where do you do that at Like? do you just go out onto a patio deck, or do you like to go to a park?
Speaker 2:No, there's a little area that's a couple blocks from me that I'll go if I don't get out wheeling, but otherwise I'll get out wheeling all wheel, like a couple miles to a little bit more off the path location. You know, do some of that, do a little bit of yoga and stretching and meditation and maybe some writing, throw some writing in there And, yeah, it's a great way to start the day.
Speaker 1:That's awesome. That means that you have to get up earlier because the sun rises earlier and earlier through at least June, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, four or five o'clock usually Wow.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's Bravo, yeah, bravo, hey. So one of the reasons I wanted to chat with Chad on the podcast is because we started a conversation with Jodi Polinsky a few weeks ago about this concept of healing and what is healing. We had a chance to really talk about that from our different points of view within the healthcare setting Jodi being a psychologist, me being a physical therapist. You'd think maybe we just have a bent, maybe from a physical side of things or maybe from a psychological or emotional side of things, but we both had a chance to talk about our growth throughout our careers and how we've just recognized everything is tangled up and touches one another Was thinking about someone that really kind of embody some of the things that we were talking about, and Chad, you were that person that came to mind.
Speaker 1:I wanted to get you on the podcast to share a bit of your story and just bring some of those things that Jodi and I were talking about to life. You're going to tell a story much better than I am, to be honest with you, in particular your story, and it's been fun kind of listening to that change over the years too and to see that firsthand, both up close but also from a distance, as you've been growing personally. So I'm just really going to kind of open up the floor here and ask questions along the way. But, chad, you're talking about getting out and wheeling in the mornings. Can you fill us in on your story? Who's Chad Arnold? What happened and how did we get to where we are today?
Speaker 2:Well, first, i'm honored that I came up in the conversation as far as this goes, because five years ago I would have probably been the last person on your list that you'd be asking to talk about this, because my life was a wreck. I kind of cashed in the chips on trying to figure out a better way and I thought I'd found solutions, but the solutions that I'd found just created more problems for me. I've struggled with addiction, depression and anxiety a lot in my life. It was my addiction that led to my spinal cord injury. A good friend of mine, who was pretty much blackout drunk and we used to use together, he drove by and shot me in my driveway. We had had an argument and never would have thought he would have shot me, but he doesn't remember doing it and thus began my journey. I feel extremely fortunate to still be here because I laid in my driveway ten hours before somebody found me, and how that happened I still don't know, but I used to think you kept me alive for this, and now that's switched. I'm so grateful that I'm alive.
Speaker 2:I went through a couple of rehabs. I got pretty physically independent very quick and then I discharged to my mom's basement and I got sick, got constipated, lost all my strength, and that's when the real battle began. That's when the depression came in. I probably went through the worst depression in my life. It was about three weeks of it where every day was just way too long, way too heavy. I couldn't get out of my head, could not see the right side of anything, and I just wanted it to be over. to be honest, one morning I was sitting there waiting for the onslaught to come in and I had this thought just come out of left field and it was like what if you decide to have a good day today? I was like what.
Speaker 2:I was like what if you decide to kick today's ass instead of letting today kick your ass? I was like it was so foreign, where is this coming from? And then I immediately wrote two gratitude letters one to my mom, one to my sister About just how grateful I was that they were in my life. I told my mom We needed to go to Walmart and get a big desk calendar So I could get a visual in front of me where I could check the days off of every day. I kicked its ass and I could just mark it and see it on the wall.
Speaker 2:So I Did that. But I was basically sitting in my mom's basement for six months waiting for Medicaid to transfer from South Dakota to Iowa. I was supposed to get in here in October in QLI in October, then November, then December, then January, then February, and By that time I was like I was kind of it wasn't the same depression that I was in, that heavy kind, it was just more of an apathy like whatever, this isn't gonna happen, this doesn't matter, you know. And then I got in here in March and Very quickly, within a couple weeks, i noticed that I was smiling, i Was laughing and I didn't know what was going on, but I knew I felt better than I did, you know.
Speaker 2:But the journey wasn't linear. From there I Started having pressure, sore issues really limited my activity when I was here And I had to kind of call on my team and myself to pivot and figure out what else we could do. You know, and that's kind of when I started exploring The techniques that are foundational for me today, started getting into meditation, started getting into more writing, journaling, a Little bit of breathing not so much yet, but just just things that I could do while I was in bed while I had downtime. You get a lot of downtime when you're in a chair and I didn't have the The mental discipline to handle that well. So I also started doing a practice where I would I Paid attention to how things made me feel and I just inundated myself with things that made me feel better. So, like I just curated playlist on YouTube of motivational things Songs, i just paid attention to how things made me feel. If it made me feel good, i checked it, put it in my playlist. I would replay things over and over and over just because I just needed to.
Speaker 2:I Needed to combat the negative thinking that I had going on in my head and just trying to think my way out of that. I couldn't do it, so I had to Really do other things to kind of fill my head with with different thoughts, you know, and fill myself up and follow the feeling more than the thinking. You know, if it felt right or if it motivated me, if I felt inspired, i just did more of it. I Got into adaptive CrossFit when I was here. That was amazing and transformational. I love that competition with myself, which was the battle of my whole life. So it was kind of like this microcosm version of of that battle And and I love the workouts and I loved how it feel and I loved how it affected my, my thinking and things. But then after I got out of here, i got two really bad pressure sores that went septic on me and I about died from those Came back again to lay in the sand bed that you got for me, thank you.
Speaker 1:Works wonders, yeah it did.
Speaker 2:It was amazing and and And. Then I got the flap surgery and I discharged to my apartment And that was February of 2019 and that's when I really did a deep dive into Who chat is today. That's when I said, okay, what if I did everything I could do? What if I did everything I could do to make my relationships better, make my life better, make my You know, my mental thinking better, make my physical everything, spirituality, anything I could do? I just started doing it and just became my own lab rat and my own experiments of paying attention to Did this move the needle in the right direction Nutrition, what I ate.
Speaker 2:When I got up my routine, what I did in the morning, while I was laying in bed recovering from the flap surgery, i found this video this guy doing these breathing techniques and I started doing that and that was really transformational for me because I woke up every day I was in pain, i hated life, had headaches and I just noticed when I did that, whether it was for five minutes or the rest of the day, i felt better. So that became a go-to for me. It still is today.
Speaker 1:Is that Wim Hof Yep?
Speaker 2:Yeah, do that every day Before I get out of bed, do 20 minutes of that, you know, and that just gets me going, it gets my head right, you know, i'm thinking on a different plane, on a better plane, and And so then, yeah, it just became these foundational practices. You know, i couldn't really do a whole lot in the beginning physically, because I had an up-down schedule, i'd lost a lot of, you know, stamina and everything. So it was really a slow build of Slow movement practices yoga, stretching, and and then that's also when I started really meditating regularly. You know, i probably spent, you know, a good 30-40 minutes a day, you know, from then on, just Through apps and different things, my own self-exploration, reading books of spending time with my own mind, you know, and figuring out What worked and what didn't, you know. But yeah, it was those foundational practices that then I built the life on that I have today Wanted to come back here and volunteer and mentor Just wasn't in the cards at the time.
Speaker 2:Then COVID hit And then, after the restrictions were lifted and people could come back to campus, jamie called me and he's like I think we're ready for you to come back on campus. I'm like heck, yeah, and I came back and I started mentoring and hanging out with people and meeting with Jamie and seeing what we could do to build a strong mentor group in a program that's more evergreen. And then I just kept getting in deeper and deeper and deeper until finally I got hired a year ago. Here we go, you got hired that's right.
Speaker 1:And then you got to do those same things while getting paid for it too right, absolutely.
Speaker 2:yeah, it's a long vetting process.
Speaker 1:No, i love that and I appreciate you just kind of sharing that with me and with our listeners as well. I guess there's a couple thoughts that I have as you're talking through that one And you said this it wasn't a linear process. It wasn't like you got hurt and you just like progressively got better And the healing quote unquote moved at the same rate the entire time. There are lots of ups and downs along the way, and I thought you did a good job of pointing out some of those were truly physical challenges, right, skin flaps, pressure sores are waiting games, you know, but a lot of what you highlighted was kind of the emotional and the mental game along the way too, and that has always struck me as the part that can be the most exhausting, and it seems like it was. It was for you.
Speaker 1:You've talked a little bit about even building resilience in the midst of that. How did you go from Chad before your injury to that point? I mean, would you have done those types of things prior to 2018, would you have like, come up with these strategies on your own or like, why was it different? Why did you become a different person?
Speaker 2:Desperation. I mean it's a gift and a curse. Really. It was having almost died twice in the span of two years that I was like you're not, there's something, you're seriously getting wrong about this living thing And you might not have another chance, you know So, and I really liked this living thing and I didn't want it to be over.
Speaker 2:And when I had a chance to reflect I realized that much of what had happened was it was kind of like an unlived life, like would I have done some of these things before? Maybe a little bit. I mean, i was kind of always a little bit nutritionally bent, a little bit against the system, a little bit against big pharma and big food and that type of stuff. Like I thought there was something up there, but it wasn't enough to fully tilt me completely in that direction until my life was literally on the line And I had a chance. I mean, the night on the driveway is so pivotal I had five hours at least that I was awake, that after I realized that I couldn't move and I couldn't hauler and I couldn't get help and then I realized I was gonna die. it was like I didn't want to And I had a chance to kind of really reflect on my life in a way that I don't know how you get people to Have that, i don't know. You know, how do you create a near-death experience, you know, experience where somebody has a chance to Really evaluate the choices they've made? you know, and so it was.
Speaker 2:It was that, that that I Turned away from in the beginning, but eventually I looked back to and realized I Did make some deals that night on the driveway, you know I did. I did say, if I have another chance, this is what I'll do. And I didn't do that. And So then, when I was laying in a bed for you know, three, almost four months, i had a lot of time to think about that and I was like You might not get another chance to do this.
Speaker 2:So It was really the desperation, the not wanting to die, not wanting this to be over, and I want it. I wanted to take the chances, i wanted to start taking the chances and see where this thing could go, you know. But I had a lot of work to do. You know. I had a lot of work really in the mental, emotional. I had a lot of stuff that I needed to confront and deal with with my addiction and in my thought patterns, in my cycles and And that was not a, you know, that was not a one and done day over thing that was, yeah, that was a practice that I I still have to keep doing today Cultivating.
Speaker 1:I want to. I want to come back to that here in a moment. But because you mentioned this too, how, how, how much do you go back to that night where you're laying? in the driveway. Is it scary for you to revisit that in your thoughts? Was it scary initially to revisit that in your thoughts and it took time to come back to that? or Tell me a little more.
Speaker 2:No, it was never scary to look at. I remember it vividly. It was never like I, you know, got a big emotional reaction or you'd say that I had like Any sort of like PTSD. You know from that It was more. I mean, i guess there's a fear of death that I have, that's more That I thought I cured it. That has come back with a vengeance the fuller my life gets. I don't think I fear death as much, as I just don't want this ride to end yet.
Speaker 1:But Yeah yeah, that's good. So, just following up then on what you're talking about, before that Something I heard you say when you were sharing your story Was, you know, realized I couldn't just think myself out of some of these patterns or out of these Thoughts that I was having right and it sounds like I've said this before, i think on the podcast too Like we're not primarily thinking things, we can't just think ourselves from one point to the next. We we're shaped by a lot of habits, daily things that we do, people around us, the environments that we're in, and I would just love to hear a little bit more, maybe about that, that tension that you've walked through of trying to think yourself out of certain ways of doing things and started building Certain habits that shape your day and shape your life on a day-to-day basis.
Speaker 2:Yeah, like I feel like thoughts Create a rut in our head and so, like the cycles and patterns and the thoughts that I had, it was a deep rut and I Couldn't I couldn't get out of it by thinking my way out of it at all. In fact, that was a lot of the frustration was I wanted different and better, but my head would always oscillate back to, you know, the negativity or the depression or a Solution that doesn't work, like an addiction or you know whatever it was It was. Those were such well-worn ruts that it was so difficult to Get out of them. So one of the things that I began to do was I realized that I couldn't shift it that way, so I needed to somehow get it out of me, and That's where my writing practice really came in to play was I Heard I think it was Ed Sheeran gave Jason Maraz some advice on writing one time And he said sometimes you just got it's like well water and you got to turn it on And you just got to let the brown water run out first before you get to the clear water.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I had a lot of brown water, and That's how I did it. I wrote, i wrote letters to people that I never sent, just to process those relationships. I wrote copious amounts of pages in my journal To just get the thoughts out, and then I had to fill it back up with with something. So it was that's where, like a lot of that motivational, inspirational, the playlist that I curated be it music or videos or Podcasts or whatever paid attention to how those things made me feel and just did not allow any other information in. You know. so it was this.
Speaker 2:it was kind of this play between getting the negativity and the dirty out, with the exploration of and sitting with it, noticing it and being aware of it, but then writing about it and kind of purging it and then also filling it up with those other things. But then physical activity is a huge component of that, what I eat is a huge component of that, how much water I drink is a huge component of that. Like who I surround myself around. You know, do I allow toxicity in my life? You know, all those things play a crucial role in this process because in the beginning, any little piece of that that was allowed into my life would infiltrate it, because that's what I was used to, so I could easily go back to that or give up or quit. So it wasn't about in the day or the moment, it was about playing the long game And it was about saying I'm going to commit to these things for three months, six months, whatever it is, and I'll reevaluate at the end of this.
Speaker 2:but I'm not going to evaluate today. Do I feel like doing this today? That just, you know, originally that thought was loud, like the volume was up on that. oh, chad, you don't got to do that today or just do this or just do that. And slowly over time that dial just got turned down. Now that voice is still there, but it's really quiet, you know, it's not as loud, it doesn't take up as much space.
Speaker 1:You can shut it out easily.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, you can just overwrite it. You know, i got something else to overwrite it, but yeah, it was this constant thing where this thing is getting a little bit louder and this thing is getting a little bit quieter, you know, and it was that play, and then it was just, it was the awareness of paying attention to what worked. So the mindfulness and the meditation practice is so important, not just for self-care, i believe, but for to notice what's working. You know How am I feeling about this? Is this, you know, is this affecting me positively, negatively?
Speaker 2:I made it very binary in the beginning. Is this, you know, the life toward I want, or is this what I'm used to? Just separate into two bends, break it down. I think everything can be really binary if you get down to it, and so that's so. I found little things like that to simplify it, because I can get, i can over intellectualize a lot of things, you know, and I had to really kind of break that down and get out of my head about it and more into action and practices, because, like you said, you can't really use the mind, you know, to fix the mind.
Speaker 1:Yep, so I'm really. I mean, where you are today is drastically different than you were five years ago. There was a gradual process that you went through to get to that point, and I'm sure there's still, you know, still been checkpoints along the way here and will be checkpoints moving forward, of making some of those small decisions to keep moving in the same direction too. Right, i'm curious. In your current role, you're spending a lot of time with other individuals that have had catastrophic injuries. Happen to them. They've maybe had spinal cord injuries just like you have, and you're sitting with them, you're spending time with them, you're conversing with them, you're sharing life in a lot of ways. You're sharing your story. Are you? are you seeing other people with spinal cord injuries that have had spinal cord injuries buy into some of those same practices that you're talking about, or are you finding, hey, they're on their own journey. We've got to kind of take this slow. I've got to just kind of plant seeds now and water them along the way.
Speaker 2:I free. That's funny. You say plant seeds, because I'm always saying that that's exactly what I feel like we're all doing here is we're planting seeds. That's what you guys did for me. I mean, you know, my, my journey wasn't linear. You know I didn't. I didn't stop with my addiction when I left here. You know I didn't. I didn't figure out all my demons or everything you know, but you planted seeds that then I could return to when I was ready, and I'm like that's why they said that, that's why this is important.
Speaker 2:So, as far as with other people, i feel like I'm doing the same thing, but I'm constantly reading. What is their threshold for this information, you know? is it are they absorbing some of this? Do they like it? So I'm just constantly evaluating the feedback I'm getting back from them, not always what they say, sometimes what they don't say, you know, but I'm constantly doing that And so so it really depends.
Speaker 2:Some people, they enjoy the practices, they start doing them every day. Other people, they're like Yeah, i don't want any more of that, you know, and we'll find other stuff to do. But ultimately it's about I feel like it's about creating a space that they feel comfortable enough to explore who they are and what they want, and then we can go from there. But without that space it's hard to get anywhere. So I'm just constantly that's my first intention is to create that safe space And and just allow them to exhale, you know, and just settle in and you know, and then maybe we can explore where they're at And then maybe I can find a way through that to interject things. You know, i'm constantly trying to figure out what language works, what doesn't. Maybe we don't say mindfulness, maybe I call it mental training. You know different things like that to figure out where's. You know, you say a word and you watch somebody react to it and you're like, okay, that didn't work, okay that.
Speaker 2:I lost them.
Speaker 2:Got to try something else, Yeah you got to figure something else out, so constantly trying to do that and see where they're at. But my goal is, i feel like, with with breathing and mindfulness, there's two things about it. That number one you have access to that 24 seven. And when you're talking about breathing for somebody that maybe can't move a lot, maybe they can't get to a gym, maybe they need a lot of setup for that They can do stuff with their breath where they can increase circulation in their body, they can help with a lot of different things and heal their body through their breathing and help settle their mind and things like that. So I think it's a powerful practice And I think that's a.
Speaker 2:I use that one a lot more than mindfulness. That seems to get a buy in pretty quickly because you can notice through a breath practice, some tangible results in a few minutes. Mindfulness takes a little bit longer. I believe mindfulness is far more transformational in terms of the gains you can get from it. But I start primarily with the breath and then I use. I use that. People won't even know that they're like we're doing a meditation here. I didn't say that's what it was, but that's what we're doing. You're focused on your breathing. You're here in this present moment. That's what it's about. You're cultivating this power of attention, all those things. So I'm trying to find subtle ways to always interject these practices and they just read in the room seeing where they're at and what they're open to.
Speaker 2:But ultimately, man, sometimes they just, sometimes they just need to vent or cry or, you know, get mad at me or whatever you know, and that's okay too. You know, i found early on that if I focus on trying to help other people, i can't help anybody. But if I make sure that I'm still taking care of Chad, then everything else seems to fall online. Yeah, i want to help people, but they also got to meet you halfway And I used to. That was one of my tendencies was to over overextend and over help and try to do more for people than they do for themselves.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and wanting it more than someone else does.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, there can be I'm going to over generalize, probably but on one end of the spectrum you can maybe feel like you can fix everything right For someone else, and when it doesn't work, there's a lot of frustration on your end, maybe as a clinician or someone that's walking alongside other people like you are too And then on the other end, there can be maybe a flippancy of like hey, they just got to figure it out on their own, nothing I can do right, but like, in reality, there's a place in the middle. I love how you put it in terms of creating a safe space. It's really it's creating that relationship with another person right, and giving them the opportunity and the freedom to be able to vent or to be like Chad. I just don't, i don't get this right. Or hey, what has worked for you? That may not work for me, but what has worked for you to help push into what you've experienced and come out in a place where you're not just surviving But you're thriving on the other end.
Speaker 1:you know, and I don't know that's.
Speaker 1:that's this like delicate balance.
Speaker 1:I feel like that a lot of us have to work at working in the rehab realm, where you recognize you can't fix everything.
Speaker 1:You also don't want to be on this side where you're. you're kind of just flippant and waiting for people to figure things out for themselves, but you are constantly like we were talking about planting seeds and just kind of watering along the way. You're willing to press into the dark and the hard stuff and you're willing to sit with people and and to go through the journey at least a small part of the journey that we get with them right. And what a pleasure it is just to even hear where you're at today and to recognize that the people that you had around you along the way did the hard work of planting those seeds or saying some of the hard things at times That needed to be said, and then just being with you and having having the relationship, even talking about like a breathing practice or a meditation practice, a mindfulness practice I think there is a perception that those things can be hokey right, you agree with me. Right, absolutely.
Speaker 1:They can be really healthy. We live in a culture that is very fast paced, very hustle oriented, right Hurry oriented, and it is good to slow down. The amount of time or how you do it may differ from person to person, right, it may differ based along faith lines or spirituality lines for people, but it's a valuable thing to do, to be able to slow down And to spend time reflecting on life. I mean, you talked about writing, getting the brown water out for the clear water comes, and what a great way of meditation, of reflection, but some of that is done without thinking about much too right? Yeah, it's just focusing on breathing.
Speaker 2:It's being grateful during a sunrise and putting yourself in spaces or places that maybe put you in a good spot too right, yeah, well, and I think too, we take our mind into every experience that we have, so our mind colors everything we do. How well do you know How your mind works? You know, how well do you understand The way your mind throws things at you, the way your mind tries to Grab on and hold on to the things that are pleasant or push away the things that you don't like. You know and, and it's like we're constantly trying to say, when I get my ducks in a row, you know then, then I'll enjoy my life, you know then, when I get to that vacation or when I get to this or whatever, but But in the process of doing that, we haven't cultivated the ability to be here Right now.
Speaker 2:You know, and there's something you know, and it can sound cliche, but there's something so profound about this moment, you know, and Being here right now and not thinking about the past or or ruminating about the future or you know whatever it is, but to just be here, you know there's, there's something that's really transformational about being able to do that and and Anybody can do it, but it takes practice, and it also takes like I can't bank on my practice, you know. I mean maybe from a couple weeks ago. I might be riding a little bit of that wave right now, but not, you know, it's a, it's a practice, because you have to keep doing it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and thanks for taking some time to just sit with me and process through some of that too. Again, i think that That concept of healing that Jodi and I talked about a few weeks ago is just really well-encompassed in In the story that you've shared and some of the practices that you've developed along the way to, and just recognizing that it's ongoing, it's not linear, it's it's not Purely physical, it's not purely emotional, it's not purely spiritual, it's not purely psychological, like it's not just one of those things. Everything is tangled up together and they all kind of work together. And, yeah, there's something just really beautiful about the way that you Are able to talk about where you're at right now in life and how you've, how you've moved to that spot too, and then I just appreciate that you, you have a desire to give back and to share what you've learned with others, right? I think that's really awesome.
Speaker 1:So, again, thank you for just having the conversation with me today and, and listeners, thank you for listening in Love bringing stories like this to the podcast and being able to share Stories in the midst of the things that we're talking about too. So chat is such a great resource. If he's okay with it, i might drop some of his information into the show notes. So if anyone listening has other questions or wants to reach out to him, that'll be available too. So chat. Thanks again for joining the conversation.
Speaker 2:Thanks, brad. Thanks for joining the conversation with us today. If you found it helpful, please share with your family and friends. You can learn more about us on our website at continue tell the rehab comm or check us out on YouTube, instagram and Facebook.