The Three Ps Helped Me Focus and Heal
By Deb Shaw, the American Stroke Association’s 2022 Survivor Hero
After three strokes, I learned that being very focused was the best way for me to heal.
The number of ideas and tips that I received was overwhelming at times. If you bundle these with the many instructions you receive from therapists and doctors, you can find yourself tuning out those around you.
But one day, I jotted three words in my journal that seemed to stick in my mind. I quickly turned them into a mantra that I now reference to keep me on track and focused on healing:
I call them the Three Ps. Maybe you can add them to your daily routine and see whether they will help you as they have me.
Here’s how I keep them relevant in my life:
Patience with the recovery process. Once I realized that there isn’t a quick fix after a stroke (and believe me, this took a few months to sink in), I decided that I needed to develop some patience and to pace myself, making sure I had weekly improvement goals. When I began therapy, I would overestimate what I could achieve in a week and underestimate what I could accomplish in a month. Patience helped me relax, have clear goals, and look for daily and weekly progress I could feel good about. In fact, I would have therapists and my husband take short videos of my therapy sessions so I could watch them each week and see the progress I had made.
Positivity: A positive mind is an open mind. I gain and retain more from therapy if I have a positive attitude. Don’t get me wrong, I have off days and am not always in a good mood, but keeping my thoughts and attitude upbeat leads to positive results and helps the healing journey. One easy way to stay positive is by complimenting others I encounter during the day. I have found that those compliments return to you many times over.
Practice therapy. The greatest improvement would come when I started to look at my therapy sessions like a class that was teaching me new skills. Like anything new, we need to practice at home and between therapy sessions if we want to improve. Practicing everything I learned at therapy kept me focused on thinking of the different ways I can use daily life as a big therapy session. Suddenly going to the grocery store, using the sweeper and writing a thank-you note all had challenges, but this was practice and rewarding at the same time.
I encourage you to jot down the Three Ps and put them on your mirror or refrigerator as a reminder to use them in your life. Over the next few months, see whether they help you as much as they did me.
Deb Shaw was named the American Stroke Association’s 2022 Survivor Hero as part of the Stroke Hero Awards. You can learn more about her story here.
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For more information on this health topic, visit stroke.org.
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