Latest / Living with Parkinson’s | Bryce Perry / Parkinson’s Superpowers Part 2 – Patience, Empathy & Mental Strength

Transcript

Parkinson’s Superpowers Part 2 – Patience, Empathy & Mental Strength · Living with Parkinson’s | Bryce Perry

• 0:01
  They told him he had five good years left.
• 0:04
  That was 15 years ago. He's still standing, still
• 0:08
  speaking, still living. This is living with Parkinson's,
• 0:12
  The good, the bad, and the reality.
• 0:15
  A podcast about what happens when life throws you something
• 0:18
  incurable and you fight back anyway.
• 0:21
  Hosted by Bryce Perry, diagnosed at 4015.
• 0:25
  Years into the battle, This is the truth behind the tremor.
• 0:29
  Let's begin. All right, so people talk about
• 0:32
  Parkinson's like it only effects movement, but the real game is
• 0:36
  in your head and in your heart. Well, guess what?
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  Today, Guess what? Today is Part 2 of our
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  Superpower series, and we're going to dive into some stuff,
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  some stuff that you can't always see.
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  The emotional resilience, the mental strength, the unshakable
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  empathy. Really, we're going to talk
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  about emotional and mental superpowers that Parkinson's has
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  given us, and we're going to do that right now.
• 1:07
  Hey, welcome back to Parkinson's the good, the bad, and the
• 1:10
  reality. Actually, I screwed.
• 1:12
  Did I screw the actual title of this name?
• 1:15
  Like the title of the podcast? I truly did.
• 1:18
  Unbelievable. All right, so let's just pretend
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  like 321 like click. Hey, welcome back to living with
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  Parkinson's, the good, the bad and the reality.
• 1:27
  If you miss Part 1, go back and check it out.
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  It's all about physical superpowers.
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  And my name is Bryce and welcome to the show.
• 1:34
  That was better, right? I've been having a day.
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  Parkinson's is just like been one of those Parkinson's days.
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  So I am about to kick its butt with some some funny, crazy
• 1:45
  things that I've been thinking about and I want you to come
• 1:47
  along for this ride. It could be crazy, it could be
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  wild, but maybe you're going to learn something.
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  Maybe you're going to see something and hopefully you're
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  going to laugh. Hopefully you're going to say,
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  wow, I never even thought about that.
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  This episode though, this is about what happens inside, not
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  just on the outside. We talk about physical number
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  one. This is what happens inside
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  because while Parkinson's messes with our body, it also forces us
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  to grow mentally and emotionally in ways that we've never
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  expected. Really.
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  Well, let's check this out. Here's my superpower and what is
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  your superpower? I want you to think about this
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  as we go. Write your superpowers down.
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  Matter of fact, if you guys have some really wicked cool, amazing
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  superpowers that I didn't even think about, maybe what we'll do
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  is we have enough of them in the comments or enough of them that
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  are DM D me and message me. And you know, you guys all do
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  that message me through Instagram and all this kind of
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  stuff, which is great. I love it.
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  I love this community. I love what we're doing here.
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  But if you have what your superpowers are and they're
• 2:40
  different than mine, send them to me and maybe we'll do like a
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  show. And I mean, I have a live Q&A
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  coming up. You can see, check that out in
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  the, I don't know, on the channel somewhere in there.
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  It's just coming up live. I think it's April the 2nd.
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  We're going to go live with your Q&A and you can ask me questions
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  that you want answered live or ask me live.
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  It's up to you. But anyway, why am I like doing
• 3:01
  a big pitch? I want to tell you about my
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  superpower. If you send me yours, maybe what
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  I said, that's what I was going to do.
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  If we get enough of them, we'll do like a whole day.
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  We'll always, we'll share them. We'll share all these crazy
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  superpowers because it's empowering and it makes us.
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  We're going to like, we're going to laugh at Parkinson's today
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  because it's a bastard, isn't it?
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  Well, let's get it. Let's get it where it hurts
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  today. Let's make fun of it.
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  Let's be the bully. We'll be the bully today.
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  OK, Here is my, here is my superpower #1 it's my empathy
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  radar. OK, so when you struggling and
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  when you're struggled, you, you can see like when you, when
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  you've struggled, golly, what a day when you've struggled.
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  You can see it in other people, right?
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  Even when they're trying to hide it.
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  I can actually feel when someone else is fighting their own
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  invisible battle. Like I can, I can, I can sense
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  it and I can feel it and I can see it.
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  And that's empathy. And I'm going to just be
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  straight honest with you. I don't know how much empathy I
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  had before Parkinson's. Well, maybe, maybe I'm now,
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  maybe you're going to lose a bunch of subscribers.
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  You're going to be like this guy said, he's a, he's an idiot, you
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  know, not an idiot. He's a, he's a, you know what?
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  But I was very pathetic, but I was also very into myself and my
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  career and what I was doing and Parkinson's forced me to slow
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  down. But now I've got this innate
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  ability to be able, I can find, I can point out Parkinson's from
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  miles away. I can, someone can walk by me.
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  I'm like, Oh my God, they have Parkinson's.
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  You can see it. You can see what they're, you
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  can just see it, right? And you can feel it.
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  Is that just me? Maybe it is just me, maybe with
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  this like really crazy superpower that's like a real
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  superpower. I don't think so.
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  I think you can feel it. You can sense it too.
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  There's a like a like minded, a kindred spirit.
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  And it's going to be that empathy and I can I can see it
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  in people and it's an empathy so much so that I can't just walk
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  by. I have to like stop, talk, see
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  if they're OK, see if I can help, you know, 15 years in, I
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  can actually, you know, give, give some advice maybe, or, or
• 5:00
  maybe they end up talking to me and giving me advice.
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  It's, it's crazy. Anyway, that's my number one.
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  And that wasn't very funny, wasn't it?
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  No, but here's superpower #2 ready for this one.
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  Parkinson's has given me the superpower and it's a jet tie,
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  jet tie level patience. It's a jetty, jetty.
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  I can't say it. This is what Parkinson's robs me
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  and I'm going to throw it out. I'm going to crush it right now.
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  If you watch any other videos, Parkinson's and my voice, right?
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  My voice and, and my it's slowed me down, but it also takes this
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  memory thing away from me. I used to speak in front of
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  crowds of hundreds and thousands, not hundreds of
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  thousands, but hundreds and thousands and groups of two and
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  groups of five. But you know, it's, I think the
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  largest crowd I spoke in front of was there was No 4 or 5000, I
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  think like that. And I didn't script anything.
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  I never wrote things down. You know, I would just like just
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  go for it. You know, we'd have this memory,
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  this recall memory that was insanely incredible.
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  Stay with us. We'll be right back.
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  It was, it was amazing. And, and I could just do that
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  and I could go on for hours and just talk about the subjects.
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  I give definitions, I can give quotes and you name it.
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  Everything was on memory recall, you know, as when I got
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  Parkinson's and I was still, you know, speaking live events and I
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  still do. I went from that to, you know,
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  little cue card, little notes. So kind of this like here's the
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  title and here's kind of the points I want to make and make
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  sure that I don't forget them. You know, as it's gone through
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  and gone through and and as it's progressed through the years and
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  15 years in, you know, I've gone to have to like really have some
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  notes here just in case. So bear with me.
• 7:17
  Don't punish me, please and, and don't, but it's, it's a
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  frustration of mine, if that makes sense.
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  So there's some words that if they come out like, and again,
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  I've, I've encouraged people before in the comments, like if
• 7:27
  I said something wrong or if I'm sitting here stuck in a word,
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  throw it in the comment for me, because I actually love reading
• 7:32
  it later. And then it was really cool.
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  I was actually, I forgot this word in I think it was like
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  episode one or two or three of the podcast.
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  And I had said, you know, Oh my, someone wanted me to get a
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  second and a third and a fourth. And it was opinion and, and I
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  just, you know, on, on my diagnosis and I just couldn't
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  get it. And, and so people put it in the
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  comments opinion and it was, and it was great.
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  And I'm like, Oh, you're right. Oh my gosh, of course it was
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  opinion. And I've said it a million times
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  and, and I got a kick out. It was funny.
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  But, but now it's been, you know, I think it's been about
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  about a month or so. And I, I had someone had put in
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  the comments opinions and I looked at it and this is a month
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  later and I'm going opinions. I wonder what they meant by
• 8:08
  that. Like opinions, do they want my
• 8:09
  opinion on something? And, and I, and I had forgotten
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  that I had said that in the video and then all of a sudden
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  it clicked in and it just made me laugh again.
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  So thank you for that community. Thank you for that.
• 8:19
  The I'm going to call you the DLT Nation doing Life Today
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  Nation. If you're with me and
• 8:24
  subscribing to part of this community, we're going to doing
• 8:26
  life. We're not just going to sit by
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  and let life pass us by, and we're not going to let life pass
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  us by, especially just because we've been diagnosed with
• 8:31
  something. We are going to take what we
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  have right? And we're going to live life to
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  the fullest. We're going to live it like it's
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  our last. And we're going to do life today
• 8:38
  and encourage you, if that you know what, if you're not
• 8:41
  subscribed to the channel and that resonate with you, you got
• 8:43
  to hit that subscribe button right now, man.
• 8:45
  We're going to have some fun and we're going to do a lot of cool
• 8:47
  things coming up here. So anyway, Jedi, Jedi there.
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  See, I got it. Superpower #2 my Jedi level
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  patience. Jedi level patience.
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  You can't rush a freezing episode, can you?
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  You just cannot rush a freezing episode.
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  You cannot rush this body. I can't rush this body.
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  I wish I could. I can't, but I can't.
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  But living with Parkinson's teaches me to slow down.
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  Like I said, it teaches me to now to breathe and wait.
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  That's patience on another level.
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  That's really, that's insanely good patience.
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  And I, hey, I got like, I used to have 0 patience.
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  Now I've got about that much patience.
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  And my buddy Brian, who we do a podcast every Sunday live here
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  on YouTube, it's called Life in Motion.
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  He was talking about, he just freezes like four or five times
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  a day and it happens, you know, like I think it was like, I
• 9:36
  can't quite remember, but between 7:00 and 9:00 or
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  something like that or seven and eight.
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  And he said, he said, he said on the podcast on Sunday that he
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  freezes like five times a day. And I said, well, how long does
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  the freezing last? And he said 15 or 20 minutes.
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  And I'm going like, holy Mama, man, I'll tell you what, 15
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  minutes just frozen for me five times a day.
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  That man's got patience. I'm working up to it.
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  I'm not there yet, but he's got patience.
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  And you can actually check out that Life in Motion podcast.
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  You can see it, it's in the, it's on the channel, you can
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  find it. And it's fun.
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  It's really fun. It's a good, it's a good
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  program. Live every Sunday.
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  OK. Anyway, so anyway, it does teach
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  us to slow down, like, you know, not just our brain, right?
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  Teach us our brain to slow down, but again, just our own body
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  slows down. And that's patience.
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  And that's a growth level. How about this one superpower #3
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  selective listening. You're like, what?
• 10:30
  Selective listening. Yeah.
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  I've heard so much unsolicited advice.
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  I've developed this power to tune it out like Olympic
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  precision, right? Everybody's telling me.
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  Have you tried this? Did you try that?
• 10:41
  Did you do this? How about this?
• 10:42
  Wait. My uncle Frank has Parkinson's
• 10:43
  and, you know, he drank 3 rustles of orange juice every
• 10:46
  day and he's doing great. He's, you know, I'm like, OK,
• 10:49
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've heard yoga's.
• 10:52
  I've heard yoga, bananas, you know, Have you tried turmeric?
• 10:55
  You know, if you put turmeric on a salad and eat it six times a
• 10:57
  day before 2 and after three. What?
• 11:00
  Sure. Thanks, Thanks, Sam.
• 11:02
  Carol, thank you so much. I appreciate that.
• 11:04
  So, you know, I, I just now have this selective hearing.
• 11:07
  I just don't, it's just like, woo Hoo, Hoo.
• 11:08
  You can I can have somebody give me all the advice in the world
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  and I can just like tune it out. It's really cool on purpose too.
• 11:17
  You know, there's that selective hearing as some husbands and and
• 11:20
  then partners have that, you know, you don't mean to be
• 11:23
  selective. This one's on purpose.
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  I can selectively tune it out and not be bothered by it and
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  it's pretty cool. I call it a superpower.
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  I don't know. Do you have that one?
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  That's the one you have to work on.
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  OK, here's superpower #4 and this one is a key.
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  This one is a massive, massive key.
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  If you can laugh while spilling your coffee for the third time
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  this morning, then you're stronger than most people
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  realize. You know, humor can be a shield
• 11:48
  or it can be a sword, or it can be both.
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  How about that? Humor can be a shield and a
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  sword. Humor can be used to kind of
• 11:54
  shield your way and think about it, but it can also cut through
• 11:56
  stuff. Again, not going to go over it
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  again, but I use my sense of humor as a as a sword.
• 12:04
  I cut through it. I make fun of Parkinson's and
• 12:06
  somehow, I don't know why, it gives me some power, but my
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  superhero #4 my superpower #4 is a sense of humor and not just a
• 12:15
  sense of humor. Ready for this sense of humor in
• 12:18
  chaos? Incomplete and utter chaos,
• 12:20
  right? Because you know, your
• 12:22
  Parkinson's, it cuts. It cuts in when everything else
• 12:25
  is cutting out. Like, I mean literally, like I'm
• 12:27
  spilling coffee just when I can't find the keys to my car,
• 12:30
  when I, I'm looking for the keys of the car because the dog's
• 12:33
  locked inside of it and the, you know, it just was on and on and
• 12:36
  on. It's like a bad country song, if
• 12:38
  that makes any sense. But anyway, that's my super hard
• 12:40
  #4 what's yours again? Let's go, let's connect, let's
• 12:43
  make a community here. Anyway.
• 12:45
  Number 5 though, that's really Parkinson's have really taught
• 12:48
  me this. And given this to me, it's a
• 12:49
  gift round #5 is my mental grit. You learn to keep going,
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  especially on hard days when you don't feel like it, when it
• 12:59
  would be easier to stay in bed. You show up, you do it anyway,
• 13:03
  then that's grit and that's strength.
• 13:08
  And there might be even you might be today, you might be
• 13:09
  watching this going, you don't even want to do this today.
• 13:12
  You just wanted to like forget about it.
• 13:14
  Just like tune out watching this day.
• 13:17
  Even that is grit. You know, throw something in the
• 13:21
  comments. It's grit every time you do
• 13:22
  something. It's like taking a stand against
• 13:26
  Parkinson's. You put a comment in there in
• 13:28
  the comments section about, you know, hey, I'm, hey, here's me
• 13:31
  and I'm from here and, and this is what I'm dealing with.
• 13:33
  And or you or you respond to someone else's comment and, and
• 13:35
  give them, give them some, you know, a ray of hope, right?
• 13:38
  Encourage them. I challenge you.
• 13:41
  Encourage somebody today in these comments from one person
• 13:44
  of the community to another. And that shows grit, that shows
• 13:48
  strength and that shows Parkinson's.
• 13:50
  That you're in charge. Yeah.
• 13:53
  That you're in charge, not Parkinson's, right?
• 13:57
  All right, well, these aren't small things, and I'm sorry if
• 13:59
  it wasn't as funny as this one. I'm sorry this one wasn't as
• 14:01
  funny as as as I thought it was going to be.
• 14:03
  But the the next one's not super funny.
• 14:05
  But these are the Super powers that actually matter, right?
• 14:08
  They actually matter. You know, if you've discovered
• 14:11
  have like if, if you've discovered any unexpected
• 14:15
  emotional strengths on your park as a journey, please share them.
• 14:19
  I want to know and it'll inspire somebody else.
• 14:22
  OK, listen, we've got one more episode in the series and I
• 14:25
  promise you this one is going to make you laugh.
• 14:27
  It's everyday wins, the funny stuff and the superpowers that
• 14:31
  will make you laugh. All right, let's go there now
• 14:33
  and I'll see you there. Parkinson's may be part of your
• 14:38
  life, but it doesn't get to define it.
• 14:40
  Thanks for listening to Living with Parkinson's, the good, the
• 14:44
  Bad, and the Reality. If this episode moved you,
• 14:47
  helped you, or reminded you you're not alone, share it with
• 14:51
  someone who needs to hear it. Want to go deeper?
• 14:54
  The Inner Circle is waiting. Monthly Zoom calls, 24/7
• 14:58
  community, and a Direct Line to Bryce.
• 15:00
  You'll find the link in the show notes.
• 15:02
  Until next time, keep showing up and keep doing life today.