Stroke recovery encouraging words

The following was sent to me recently and I wanted to share it here as it has helped me to understand what’s happening to me and I hope it will help others.

There is a chapter in a Book on Stroke by Wallace Sife, a New Yorker ‘poet, humanist and psychologist’.

“The intense sense of personal loss parallels the psychological reactions one has when grieving the death of a loved one. Indeed, there is a bereavement; in a sense, the old self has died. The loss is intense and traumatic. But this too will pass, if one’s potential courage and individual spiritual strength are mustered. All this time the embryo of the new self is growing, waiting, and fighting to be born, like the proverbial Phoenix rising from its own ashes.

After generalised stages of denial, anger, depression, overwhelming defeat can set in…this is characterised by low self esteem and a deep human need for escapist gratification..at this time, the healing process is ‘on hold’…this becomes an experience not unlike that of a drug or alcohol addict, who needs sustenance or escape from the subjective realities he finds intolerable…it is interesting to note that all effective recovery programs for addiction also stress a spiritual approach to healing.

Only well after the initial shock of recognition has passed can the patient learn new things. It takes time and courage to realise that healing requires that one must start all over again, in a new quest for personal identity and self-respect.

Animals naturally feel and follow their unchallenged inner instincts. They are at one with nature, and without the artificial constructs that we create for our species (such as time). Too often the daily struggles for achievement, recognition and material gain can blind us to the beauty and wisdom of the intuition inherent in us.

Indeed healing is stimulated when one realises that after a stroke one still has his basic self, complete with instinct, intuition and hope.

Yet it is so hard to be independent of the influences of a caring yet ignorant and sometimes insensitive society. What is of prime importance to the stroke recoverer is his immediate situation and eventual recovery.

It is so difficult at times to be patient and take things on a day by day basis. By embracing our intuitive strength and wisdom we learn to handle more effectively what come s our way. In realising our own self reliance we lay the foundation for self empowerment in healing.

At first this can be frightening; we are forced to come face to face with the fragment of godhead that is part of each of us.

Healing is only part of this potential within us.”