Rebuild Our Memory with Karen Cameron Friesen...

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[00:00:58] welcome welcome welcome welcome to the show everybody another Friday another

[00:01:07] friends and family gathering guys we got amazing guests coming up for you

[00:01:13] guys in just a few minutes but you know what we do you know what the show is all

[00:01:18] about let's give guys some praise right where you're sitting right where

[00:01:22] you standing right where you lay and perhaps heavenly Father we just thank you

[00:01:27] this day for blessing us with our amazing guests Karen Father God may we have a

[00:01:33] wonderful wonderful conversation those that have ears to ear let them hear

[00:01:39] oh Heavenly Father let the words of your daily bravery as to cross the tables

[00:01:43] of our our hearts today God Heavenly Father as we go forth in this fellowship

[00:01:48] today Father God we just ask that you bless each and every person that's in

[00:01:54] the sound of my voice thank you and Jesus name we pray amen guys I'm so

[00:02:00] excited for our next guest our next guest her name is Karen Cameron

[00:02:06] freezing and she's coming to us all the way from Canada and let me tell you

[00:02:13] guys a little bit about Karen before we bring her to the stage Karen is a

[00:02:19] professional educator fearless advocate Karen has taught from preschool

[00:02:25] through undergrad levels Karen's worked with business and education leaders

[00:02:31] parents of five amazing kids uniquely informed her leadership to what we're

[00:02:38] gonna talk about today or CK2 Inc. using changing the brain and helping people

[00:02:46] of all ages overcome challenges related to HGAD

[00:02:53] learning disabilities such as dyslexia anxiety depression brain injury stroke

[00:03:01] brain fall from cancer treatments long COVID pre-medipal's ladies memory loss

[00:03:09] and addition addiction guys welcome to the show miss Karen Cameron freezing

[00:03:19] welcome welcome Karen it is so nice to have you here today with us thank you so

[00:03:29] much I'm so glad you decided to go on the show as as normal guys if you have

[00:03:35] any questions for Karen the link is pinned in the chat you're more than

[00:03:41] welcome to come up respectfully of course and ask any questions that you guys

[00:03:46] might have so Karen how are you today I'm doing amazing it is just been a

[00:03:52] beautiful Friday here in central Canada we've we're in that interim spot where

[00:03:57] it's either rain or snow and today is rain and that's really okay same same

[00:04:03] right here in the great state of North Carolina we got rain yesterday it was 84

[00:04:08] degrees oh and we're just in that in between stage where you don't know if it's

[00:04:14] gonna be summer you don't know if it's gonna be a tidbit colder and it's trying to

[00:04:18] sneak out of winter into spring but I'll take the spring all day every day me

[00:04:25] to yes so Karen tell us a little bit about who Karen is thank you for that

[00:04:34] you know your mom yeah yeah I think for runner maybe that's a good word for me

[00:04:43] I am someone who sees future possibilities and really digs for them and so each

[00:04:51] different stage in my life I've I've just taken on adventure and looked for

[00:04:57] possibility and a lot of that has centered around education and now parenting kids I have

[00:05:04] three adult kids and two in high school right now but they have taught me so much

[00:05:10] and allowed for opportunities to really look at different ways of learning and

[00:05:15] different ways of thinking so yeah happy to share more but why why don't you ask me some

[00:05:21] questions that would really impact your audience that's right well that impacts I mean you've got

[00:05:27] your hands full and I love the kids that's what this is all about over here at 12 Street Talk

[00:05:34] Bat just giving back to the community I have three young adults myself so as an educator what are

[00:05:41] you most passionate about I want people to be able to perform at their best so wherever they are

[00:05:50] I want to make sure that they have the tools to be able to succeed and that in my house how

[00:05:56] hold look like thinking differently about education and thinking differently about how do

[00:06:01] equip people to do what they needed to do shall I tell my son's story can I can I lead with that

[00:06:09] yes of course share share share share so we knew from this start that some of our kids would

[00:06:17] would not be as well suited to a traditional classroom setting and that's my training I have a

[00:06:22] background I have a teaching degree I taught junior high I've taught at college as well

[00:06:27] and I could just see that wasn't going to be a very good fit for some of our kids and so

[00:06:33] that kind of put us on this alternative education route but it allowed for lots of flexibility

[00:06:40] to try and find different ways of responding to their learning needs and eventually what it led

[00:06:46] to is the work that I'm doing now which is using brain training exercises to actually change your

[00:06:53] brain it's called the aerospace Smith program but what kind of motivated that piece was we received a

[00:07:00] really dire diagnosis for a second oldest son we were told he wouldn't achieve beyond a certain

[00:07:06] grade level very elementary learning and my husband Kristen I we just knew that that wasn't the

[00:07:12] future that was ahead for him and so God just let us through all of these different steps that ended

[00:07:20] up stopping with that aerospace Smith program and so to go from this situation where he

[00:07:27] wouldn't didn't have a future of success before him he spent about three years in the program part

[00:07:34] time to full time and he's currently a fourth year full scholarship student athlete at a nationally

[00:07:43] ranked university he's going to be eligible for the um football draft for the Canadian football league

[00:07:50] next spring and he is working hard at that so again just this transformative change for him

[00:07:56] which I'm so thankful to have that my family has experienced that and now to have the opportunity

[00:08:03] to share that with other people has been amazing we have so many beautiful stories of transformed

[00:08:09] lives because of this different approach to learning okay wow I did go over to your website in

[00:08:18] idea see the aerospace Smith I was going to ask you a question what's the difference because

[00:08:25] um I see here it says ck2 and ink and that's what I've got paying to the bottom of the website

[00:08:32] is I know it's one and the same you know under the same umbrella but is there a difference between

[00:08:39] the aerospace program and the ck2 so ck2 is my business and this like I said a bit of a

[00:08:47] four runner I try I've been able to share the things that I've gathered over the years in a bunch

[00:08:54] of different ways and so the ck2 allows me to provide programming in alternative education settings

[00:09:01] I taught piano for many years that was kind of that realm of fine arts and education happening

[00:09:09] over there and because of that work we then became a certified site for the aerospace Smith program so

[00:09:16] we are an authorized um site to deliver this cognitive enhancement programming so we provide the

[00:09:25] aerospace Smith program and ck2 is just the name of of our specific site there are actually a hundred

[00:09:31] sites around the world that provide this programming but aerospace Smith itself is just transformative

[00:09:37] well tell us about aerospace Smith I am so excited to dig in and I don't want audience to get

[00:09:44] and learn as much as they can in the small window time we have mm-hmm for sure so um the aerospace

[00:09:51] program was developed in the 1970s in Toronto, Canada and it actually grew out of Barbara

[00:09:58] Aerosmith Young's personal experience she's our founder she's also just an incredibly insightful

[00:10:05] woman with incredible amounts of grit she herself had some very significant learning difficulties

[00:10:12] but she also had areas of great strength and she was able to um to just stay rooted in that

[00:10:21] strength that she had in order to do research and she took two pieces um two scientists work

[00:10:28] and and married them together in order to develop this program so the first was a Russian scientist

[00:10:34] named Luria who was working with people who had brain injuries from the war and he was specifically

[00:10:40] working with one client whose brain injury resulted in some outcomes that looked very similar to

[00:10:47] what Barbara was experiencing in her life through learning difficulties and so that led her to that

[00:10:55] thought that certain areas of the brain are responsible for certain areas of of cognitive function

[00:11:03] so that was one piece and then the second piece was um another researcher from California who

[00:11:12] provided enriched environments and he was doing studies with rats where those rats that were in

[00:11:18] enriched environments meaning that they could be creative and they had um mazes that they were

[00:11:24] solving things to do that were enhancing their life experience on um on examination of those rats

[00:11:34] they found that there were more neurological connections as well as their brains were bigger than

[00:11:40] those who weren't in enriched environments so Barbara took those two ideas and put them together

[00:11:46] that if we could provide enriched environments in specific areas of the brain for specific areas of

[00:11:54] the brain we can actually make change and so that is completely that concept of neuroplasticity

[00:12:02] it used people used to think that the brain never changed and her work as well as all these amazing

[00:12:09] neuroscientists who have been working in this field for so many years have shown that the brain

[00:12:15] is able to change in adapt that you can re-root neuro pathways and especially when talking about

[00:12:21] brains that's what you want you want the most efficient way to the answer possible and when you get

[00:12:30] inefficiencies that's when um that's when things stop working for you or don't work as well

[00:12:38] and so what Barbara was um doing through her work is she took this these two concepts and started

[00:12:46] to develop exercises in order to target very specific cognitive functions and so in her life um

[00:12:55] she struggled with symbolic relationships so that's part of an executive function and it's actually

[00:13:03] one of the key areas that people with ADHD or if you had a brain injury or if um yeah

[00:13:12] if you yeah ADHD and brain injury or even stroke those are really key areas to target and even

[00:13:19] mental pause it's kind of like the cognitive area of cognitive areas and so for her that meant she

[00:13:28] she couldn't under she knew that her mother's sister was someone in her life but she didn't

[00:13:38] understand that was also her aunt or right she couldn't fit together the ability to um relate to

[00:13:47] multiple people in a room or to be able to really um understand cause and effect in her life

[00:13:56] and so she targeted that area specific area to start with and again with all of that determination

[00:14:03] over time she was able to see shifts for herself and then she was able to focus on things like

[00:14:09] kinesthetic perception being able to feel yourself in space she tells stories about um crashing into

[00:14:17] things or that her mother was concerned that she was going to chop off a finger when she was

[00:14:21] chopping vegetables um so again she took and developed the suite of exercises 19 different ones

[00:14:29] that would target these different areas and uh yeah and so that's now the work that i'm

[00:14:36] that i do we take people who like all of us have inefficiencies so for me i am not a very spatial

[00:14:44] person and i have a house full of kids and i drove a suburban for many years i couldn't pair a little

[00:14:51] park that suburban without lots of practice but that didn't really change my everyday life

[00:14:58] right for someone else who has multiple areas that just aren't working so maybe

[00:15:05] you struggle to manage yourself and be able to to be in a room of people and still feel confident

[00:15:14] and be able to express yourself maybe you struggle with memory and people's names just slip away or

[00:15:22] i had a student he wasn't able to remember things over the course of his day what are we doing this

[00:15:29] evening oh no i haven't remembered i'm supposed to be here at this dinner time and so for him he had

[00:15:36] reminders every 15 minutes in his phone before he came to us because he needed that external

[00:15:43] compensation in order to have success in his everyday life for some people um it's um nonverbal

[00:15:51] reasoning being able to understand social situations and so what we do in our work is we use an

[00:15:58] assessment process that looks at these 19 areas and then we have a scale it's 12 points starting from

[00:16:06] very severe and then 10 points up and then average and above average and so our goal is to take wherever

[00:16:14] you fit on that scale and move you up to average and it's like going to the gym and here's

[00:16:22] where i love to talk about my son because he goes to the gym and he does a buy oh here we go

[00:16:27] you get in the screen here he does a bicep curl and it does not look like football but it totally changes

[00:16:36] his football game so the same thing maybe you have a hard time understanding social cues and you

[00:16:45] miss when someone's using sarcasm and maybe that results in some kind of um taking taking advantage

[00:16:53] of a situation and so you're exposed in a different kind of way so what we do doesn't look like

[00:17:01] coaching you in those situations it's not like having someone who can be in your ear and

[00:17:08] letting you know oh can you think through this we actually have an exercise that you do

[00:17:15] and the outcome is that you're nonverbal reasoning changes so it in some cases will do will use

[00:17:27] for example an exercise that helps with precision and automatic output and it's a paper in pencil

[00:17:36] activity it doesn't teach you handwriting but it improves your ability to hand right and also

[00:17:45] translate what's in your head to what's on the paper so i don't actually care if you can precisely

[00:17:52] do the activity or the um or the automaticity for that activity it doesn't matter that you can

[00:18:00] do those things but you do them so that you can get the result right right right

[00:18:06] right right and then the reality is it just transforms people's lives

[00:18:13] right i want you know i was particularly interested in it caught me when you said a DHD because

[00:18:20] that's something i dealt with with my 27 year old thank god we caught it yeah when she was younger

[00:18:29] and i can i can relate hands on and maybe it was missed on my side of the family or for that

[00:18:37] side of the family because some of the things that when i was on your website reading up about

[00:18:42] i could identify with yeah and is it something and i know we spoke about a lot because i also

[00:18:50] read up a little bit on it prior to ever meeting you about uh perimenopause and how we have

[00:18:56] memory loss and things of that nature and i can say for sure going through that

[00:19:02] that takes life is it something that's hereditary what because we listed so much

[00:19:08] that you guys help people with with the memory loss the brain injury uh the addictions

[00:19:15] besides ADHD is that something that we've discovered that possibly could be hereditary or just

[00:19:22] something that just happens in life you know i i am certainly not an expert there so i won't

[00:19:29] i won't be able to answer but what we can do is it actually doesn't matter the reason

[00:19:36] for the injury or the learning difficulty we just look at the outcomes so just like

[00:19:44] our Russian scientist Luria was working with someone with literally a bullet in his brain

[00:19:51] in a certain area he had the same outcomes as Barbara did just from learning difficulties she

[00:19:58] had from birth so we're more concerned about what is your cognitive function in each of these areas

[00:20:06] and then let's work on strengthening those capacities so for example if you have a child who's

[00:20:14] struggling in math we don't actually teach them math we work with a few different areas one being

[00:20:22] kind of mental math being able to take that number and put it in the right spot in your brain

[00:20:27] and then manipulate it and then we take another area that again has to do with logic and reasoning

[00:20:35] and we strengthen that and maybe we're even going to work on an area that has to do with kind of

[00:20:42] with predicate of speech and we use this auditory activity that then increases your ability to work

[00:20:49] with multiple steps in problems so again we haven't taught you math but then when you do math

[00:20:58] you can learn so much more easily we have strength in your capacity to learn exactly so for example I had a

[00:21:08] young guy he had a brain injury when he was in his second year when he was in grade two and

[00:21:17] and he retains some really amazing really amazing strengths he had this great memory especially for

[00:21:27] facts about the natural world he was like a walking encyclopedia you could tell us also it's

[00:21:34] wonderful things but he really struggled with focus and attention that logic and reasoning

[00:21:40] piece wasn't working for him and his math function was very low and so kind of that first year

[00:21:47] we we end up with these student profiles where we're looking at their progress reports and

[00:21:53] in his measures he was making good progress because we have 40 years of data that we can say

[00:22:01] a student who's 11 and it started at this level on our scale if he makes it this far we can still

[00:22:09] say he's making good progress even though his rating shift doesn't happen so his first year he

[00:22:15] didn't make a lot of shifts but the second year wow a whole bunch of things changed for him and he

[00:22:22] made it so far up that scale in the third year it was just like icing on the cake and and what

[00:22:28] happened was in that third year he worked with us he then did all of the elementary math curriculum

[00:22:36] from September through August so he was ready to enter his grade 9 his

[00:22:45] I can't even freshman year I was trying to remember grade 9 then for his freshman year of high school

[00:22:52] because his brain was then just ready for that and that's what's so exciting it just opens possibility

[00:22:59] wow well I guess that leads me into my next question I was going to ask you

[00:23:06] is it certain methods or techniques that you use for each individual client because like I said

[00:23:12] earlier we listed ADHD learning difficulties such as dyslexia and zyt depression is it different

[00:23:20] methods or is it all kind of the same good question method so what we do is we develop an

[00:23:29] individual learning plan so again we take a look at those 19 different areas so typically when you

[00:23:36] do an educational psychological assessment it's like you get a picture for that moment in time

[00:23:43] where you fit in a bunch of different cognitive measures the difference with how we do it

[00:23:50] is that we give you that snapshot of that moment in time but in such a way that it's targeted to each

[00:23:59] of the activities that we have so you're going to get a profile where um of those 19 areas and we

[00:24:08] figure out where you fit and then that tells us which specific exercise to use as well as what

[00:24:16] level in that exercise you should start at and if you're eight maybe you're going to start here

[00:24:22] and you only have to go a little ways until you hit that average rating um if you're an adult maybe

[00:24:28] you're gonna go farther in that so we really target based on your individualized profile as well as

[00:24:37] what our priorities for you and thinking of an adult student right now um he came into the program

[00:24:44] he works for the our federal government and he works in weights and measures and he wanted to just

[00:24:49] kind of work on that logic and reasoning piece for himself that was something that he just wanted

[00:24:54] to have more facility with but we'd noticed in his everyday life that he would come across as really

[00:25:02] kind of gruff and sometimes unkind and for and we're like oh I bet we're going to do this

[00:25:10] assessment and I bet he's gonna have to work on his nonverbal reasoning and so we went into the

[00:25:17] assessment we looked at all of these different areas and what was so very interesting for him

[00:25:23] was he actually was average in nonverbal reasoning but his processing speed was slow

[00:25:31] so he understood the social situations but it wasn't in real time so then what what we could do

[00:25:39] is prioritize both the logic and reasoning that will help with his processing speed

[00:25:46] and then we also used another exercise for problem solving because that was just that

[00:25:53] it's an another executive function area but it also helps you with prioritizing within your day

[00:26:00] and set it yeah setting in agenda and following that through and and that whole problem solving

[00:26:06] piece and it was so interesting because what I noticed over time was that he just seemed nicer

[00:26:15] because his processing speed caught up can you imagine what that does for his family right?

[00:26:22] Yes I noticed a little bit of that not saying that it's the same diagnosis

[00:26:29] I noticed that a little bit in my daughter

[00:26:34] it's not that and she's a very social person yeah I'm very bubbly very happy but I just noticed

[00:26:41] it takes a little bit longer for her to process so I have to re-intrate each time I tell her something

[00:26:51] and can just kind of keep trying to drive that nail home so this interesting that you

[00:26:58] spoke about this particular individual and again I'm not saying it's the same thing but

[00:27:03] the way the mind works and that's the same thing for me I was addicted to alcohol for

[00:27:09] some time a small period in my life and I noticed some changes in my memory I noticed some changes

[00:27:15] in my speech where I didn't slur before now I get tongue tied I didn't get tongue tied before

[00:27:23] and you never really think about that stuff when you're going through your hurt and you're pain

[00:27:27] you just want something to numb it but the end result is when and if guys will people do decide

[00:27:34] to get clean you start to notice the damage that you've done not only to your body but your brain

[00:27:40] as well because I do notice some difference in my memory my speech and stuff like that and you

[00:27:46] mentioned that you mentioned addiction is it a little bit different for addiction then disability

[00:27:54] or do you find that it's the same type you know again we're just applying these exercises to the

[00:28:01] areas that you need and what is so amazing to hear it tends to be that Australians and New Zealanders

[00:28:12] adopt more innovative things faster than the rest of us in North America and so our program has been

[00:28:20] there for quite a long time and they recently did a study where they used this one executive function

[00:28:30] activity they used it at an adult and teen challenge of organization I'm not sure if you're

[00:28:38] familiar with them there so it's an addiction support it's a a Christian addiction support

[00:28:46] approach where people live on campus in house or that and so they use this program in a trial

[00:28:56] setting over a two year period and what was so amazing was to see those same results that were seeing

[00:29:02] for kids in school with learning difficulties those were the things that people in addictions

[00:29:09] were experiencing as well that they were seeing growth in their processing speed and their ability

[00:29:16] to understand social situations and it allowed them to better engage in their recovery process

[00:29:24] to both think through their feelings and the logic and reasoning that it's needed for that

[00:29:29] and then the beautiful thing is and I'll connect this to ADHD as well what we see is for a lot of our

[00:29:37] our clients is that there's that weightiness of feeling like you're not you're not

[00:29:45] doing as well as you can in your everyday life you spend a lot of time second guessing yourself so

[00:29:51] what if you all you can kind of manage as yourself and so for people in addiction settings maybe

[00:29:59] they can even manage it manage themselves and so we use an activity that helps you manage one item

[00:30:07] and then add another and add another up to 10 different items as if then you can interact with

[00:30:15] people in a large group setting or maybe then you can manage your bills and drive your car

[00:30:21] and hold a job and manage your schedules maybe things you haven't done before we work on that

[00:30:27] cognitive function again doesn't look like coaching doesn't look like therapy not talk therapy at all

[00:30:34] you're you're just doing this the brain equivalent right him again of a concept curl for

[00:30:41] your brain and then just sit for you and what is so exciting as we see statistically significant

[00:30:50] differences in people's social and emotional well-being so whether a addiction settings or just

[00:30:58] someone managing their life you're going to now be able to have more success in activities of

[00:31:05] daily living so those positive those leadership attributes that you know are in there that your

[00:31:12] daughter has and that interesting interactivability now it can come out because she's not having to

[00:31:18] kind of second guess or has trouble focusing on the things she needs these exercises help you

[00:31:25] store the pieces in the place you need it but then also be able to access them in the most

[00:31:30] efficient way possible and so for my guy I had mentioned the young man who had had to keep his

[00:31:38] schedule in his phone every 15 minutes his day he was he just gave the program his all he's he did

[00:31:46] about a year's work in four months and he moved from central Canada to a 30 week program in New Zealand

[00:31:55] wow was having success there he actually got a job partway through his program he had had trouble

[00:32:03] maintaining a job prior to then he was a young adult and he ended up becoming the manager of a

[00:32:11] team that was in charge of events set up like huge changes from where he was that's amazing

[00:32:19] you probably already covered most of what I was going to ask you for sure yes you did

[00:32:27] you did we talked about 80s 80 HD and the learning difficulties in filling in those gap but what

[00:32:33] does it look like for someone that's seeking your services I guess I would I could rephrase that

[00:32:39] by saying where do they start you know a great place is just to send us a message on our inquiry

[00:32:46] form through our website we'll do an informational call I would explain more of how the program works

[00:32:52] obviously and and really it is um we offer online programming so some of it you can do independently

[00:33:01] generally each area you work on is about 200 minutes a week so whether you schedule that if

[00:33:08] you're a professional or someone yeah professional experience wherever yeah exactly you can you

[00:33:17] can choose your times that you work we also have a fully online classroom that you can work in as well

[00:33:23] so there lots of different iterations of how you can do it but basically you work in this program

[00:33:29] for the amount of time that you want to generally it's two to five years is kind of the range

[00:33:35] that we have for people that have more significant issues some people do it in a much shorter time

[00:33:43] for example um people would move you used to have to be located where an arrowsmith program site was

[00:33:50] people would move for the year or two years in order to take the program and some would come

[00:33:56] and do an intensive program in the summer where they would for six weeks they would work four or five

[00:34:02] six hours a day in one of the in this executive function cognitive area and just really reap

[00:34:09] the benefits from that time so that the beauty is the changes are permanent so when

[00:34:17] if you need to take a break you can be assured that that will still be available to you

[00:34:24] to access again in the future if you haven't gotten to average and that's that's lovely because

[00:34:29] you're using that area in in the rest of your life so you don't have to continue the exercises

[00:34:36] anymore and that was my next question that you just answered for me you are just moving right along

[00:34:42] as I was going to ask you was it on site or is it something that was available online I've got

[00:34:47] your website pinned to the bottom of the screen oh we talked about uh the aerospace program and you

[00:34:55] said it was the solution to turn on the faucet so yeah in general too as far as your your son

[00:35:03] and the things that we were going through with him oh wow one last question yeah I want

[00:35:09] to ask you does eating habits and exercise play a role in everything that you try to provide

[00:35:17] to your clients you know it's a different way of thinking about your health and that's what I'd

[00:35:25] like to leave people with today is that it's a tool in your toolbox and you want to do those things

[00:35:34] that are going to uh make for amazing health make for you to be able to perform at your best

[00:35:43] so we know that brain change occurs so we have um bdnf production is what your body uses to make

[00:35:53] new neuro connections so we know that in our work with if in our in-person classroom we take our

[00:36:00] students for a walk before we get started so for you maybe you're gonna if you're working out during

[00:36:07] the week do your workout then do the brain training exercises and then we actually do a fair amount

[00:36:14] with mindfulness as well where you take time to consciously give your brain some diffuse time

[00:36:23] and that's when change is occurring as well so whether that is honestly sitting and looking at the

[00:36:29] leaves on trees for 10 minutes or I really like um Andrew Huberman in his podcast um Huberman lab he

[00:36:40] shared a non-sleep deep rest just like a little 10 minute guided thought about relaxing different

[00:36:49] parts of your body and I always want to be cautious about that because there there are lots of

[00:36:54] meditation things that have spiritual overtones this is very much just physiological so that's

[00:37:01] to the exercise piece you can't go you can't eat Doritos and go to the gym and explain

[00:37:09] the game results right right right right right go those good things for yourself and be

[00:37:16] efficient about it like if you're the the work that we do isn't easy we basically find the areas

[00:37:23] that are hardest for you we program you just above the area that you're capable of but it's still

[00:37:31] hard work and so like think of it like an athlete come in get your get your body move even before

[00:37:39] we came on I was out doing a little jumping around and getting some right errands some sun on my

[00:37:45] body just so I could was coming in with the right energy for you today but like that was just

[00:37:50] strategic what I wanted to do I do I have a we have a young lady in our network she also has a

[00:37:57] podcast uh hippo wellness under the unfiltered studios podcast and sometimes when I find myself

[00:38:04] wound up like a ball sometimes she does start her show with a little bit of meditation and

[00:38:09] breathe in exercises and she talks you through it and I can find myself just coming right down

[00:38:16] opposite on her show so you're definitely right as about the energy and just like any diet you're

[00:38:23] not gonna stuff cake in your mouth if you and then go to the gym yes that feeds the purpose

[00:38:30] well and you want you want to move yourself into that parasympathetic mode so that's where

[00:38:36] your body isn't in fight or flight and that's where a lot of people are whether they've been

[00:38:41] struggling with success for ADHD or they've had a brain injury and life is just a struggle

[00:38:48] you want to move your body into that system where it can build and so our exercises are building

[00:38:55] exercises to think through how can you care for yourself and sometimes it's just just a little shift

[00:39:03] James clear talks about habit stacking in his atomic habits book where you just take something

[00:39:09] you do regularly like maybe it's your having a cup of coffee in the morning well habit stack

[00:39:16] have that cup of coffee will use it outside and get the morning sunlight on your face for five

[00:39:22] minutes because that's going to reset your circadian clock which is gonna have good effects the next day

[00:39:29] so just yeah you just want to put all those pieces in I had one more story if we have a minute

[00:39:35] yes we do yes my all means any information yeah stories information any gods I have a year for it

[00:39:43] all well I was just thinking of a new student so this is more on that on the parry menopause and menopause

[00:39:52] side of things and new student I met her at a convention and didn't really get to chat very much

[00:40:01] about where we were coming from but then we did an informational conversation turns out she is

[00:40:08] a mom to nine she has 30 grandchildren and she has a 500 eight

[00:40:16] armada and as part of that she has a lot of cattle that she cares for and so she started working on

[00:40:23] our executive function exercise kind of in near the end of February so it was about two weeks in

[00:40:31] and and we were doing our online check-in where she's done some work for a while and then the two

[00:40:37] of us meet via zoom and we kind of go through some of her goals and and see where things are at

[00:40:43] and she says you know this is helping me drive my tractor better well please tell me about that

[00:40:50] and she said well in this tractor I have a gear to go forward and back I have one to add gas or come

[00:40:59] off I also have a bucket function that I need to grapple and dump and turn and all together there are

[00:41:07] 12 different gears that she needed to manage in the course of feeding these cattle and

[00:41:15] she just had more clarity because she is working on being able to keep two different thoughts in her

[00:41:24] head at the same time and understand the relationship as one one part moves one way another part

[00:41:32] moves the other way this is in the exercise and it translated to how she was feeling

[00:41:39] making this tractor move and it also translated into her confidence speaking it was so interesting

[00:41:47] just to hear how her voice had shifted where she was very uncertain sounding and she's much more

[00:41:56] directed and able to follow through within her thought patterns even just communicating with me

[00:42:04] that how exciting is that just with a couple of weeks I need to tell you how to do about you

[00:42:11] oh I got everyone through a cognitive lens now yes yes yes as you were telling me that story

[00:42:19] he drives a truck all day a concrete truck but when he gets into the car he forgets it's not

[00:42:27] a pull down gear so in the car he's reaching for pull down gear instead of the drop neutral that's

[00:42:35] in the center and you know when you said that I could identify whether he was like he always goes I

[00:42:40] don't know what I'm thinking I'm not in the work truck I'm in the car right but

[00:42:46] little stuff like they're the little subtle stuff as you were saying you know that some of the

[00:42:51] methods and exercises could help with that is wonderful and my brain is over here running a thousand

[00:42:58] a minute I told you that before that my brain sometimes run faster than I can get the words out

[00:43:05] I know exactly what I want to say and it makes sense and it sounds good in my brain but it does not

[00:43:11] exactly come outright I've been practicing slowing down whether it takes me a little bit longer or

[00:43:19] not because I'm so excited in my brain and I'm a hyper person by nature anyway so I've been

[00:43:27] practicing little small tips but this is something that it sounds like my entire family can be

[00:43:32] to fit from you know and we all can and that's that beautiful piece it's we need to shift our thinking

[00:43:41] from an education model where you're compensating or finding workarounds for things in your everyday

[00:43:47] life what if we could take this program and change brains so that just like my son is not living in an

[00:43:56] assisted living situation for his life he's actually contributing and he's going after his goals he

[00:44:04] has this peak performance piece just the world is open to him and I like for all of our clients

[00:44:13] that whatever that little piece is for you it might be remembering a name or it could be we had

[00:44:21] a CEO who couldn't couldn't remember people's names and that's just the lexical function in his brain

[00:44:27] his lexical memory and who wants to sign a multi-million dollar contract with someone who can't

[00:44:33] remember your name well right it's just an exercise do the exercise 200 minutes a week maybe

[00:44:39] it's going to take you a few months but that function is going to be yours and then you get to use

[00:44:44] it wherever like this that's the advocacy that I want to do what if we could in the prison system

[00:44:55] that incidents of disability and brain injury and addiction is far higher than in the normal or

[00:45:04] the general population so what if we could could put this program there and change people's lives

[00:45:11] like could you imagine or that very underserved brain injury community what if people would write a

[00:45:19] prescription for cognitive exercise and experience that change for themselves wow yeah

[00:45:27] beautiful that's beautiful given back to the community that that's what we are all about over here

[00:45:33] I just you know that's something that I found out you have to add layers to I thought it was

[00:45:39] something that you could just jump right into full force and I'm finding that you can get

[00:45:44] you've got to get out in the community you got to see what the need is and you have to work on

[00:45:49] a small part at a time but I am determined to bridge that gap of communication between our

[00:45:57] generations I do think that there's a communication gap there and if we could just figure out

[00:46:03] what each generation wants to bring to the table and we may not agree with everything they'll

[00:46:10] say and agree to disagree but maybe we can find a solution to you know just bridging that gap and

[00:46:17] and I love that you have a beautiful spirit thank you so much for coming to the show Karen thank you

[00:46:22] for everybody you're welcome you're welcome you come back anytime your friend of 12th Street

[00:46:28] guys check her out check out our website I have it pinned to the bottom of the screen check out

[00:46:33] the arrowsmiths program um and let me make sure I get this right they can you have a facility and

[00:46:39] they can do it online as well am I correct absolutely the majority of our clients work online we can

[00:46:46] go anywhere in the world you can even take us backpacking with us we had one student who back packed

[00:46:51] all over the US while she was doing her work so so so flexible and so so much fun to be able to

[00:46:57] target things while you're on the rego thank you so much for that see guys you can take them on the

[00:47:04] go with you have a little support wherever you go okay Karen tell us where we can find you

[00:47:11] do you have a facebook page do you have an instagram and we got the website pinned to the end

[00:47:17] uh to the bottom of the screen can they find you on those places um and get a little bit more

[00:47:22] information or whenever you have events coming up yes absolutely you can totally find us online our

[00:47:30] website links to our facebook and our instagram um I had to quickly look up what is our instagram again

[00:47:37] it's a ck2.inc that you'll find us there and we're ck2ink on facebook but website is a great way to

[00:47:45] connect with us and we're always happy to happy to find opportunities we'll have actually have

[00:47:51] an informational um meeting coming up at the beginning of april so please watch your uh watch our

[00:47:59] website and and our socials and you can join us there as well and learn more about uh

[00:48:05] great great great great great and if and I'm following you guys I started following you guys on your

[00:48:11] facebook page i do have an answer but i'm more of a facebook gal my kids told me that Facebook is for

[00:48:17] old people and i said well you know what i better stay in my lane but i do have an instagram but i'm

[00:48:22] more facebook than anything well thank you so much Karen from joining the show you guys go over

[00:48:28] and check out their website follow them on facebook on instagram any of your social media platforms

[00:48:35] check out their event they have coming up in april and if i see it coming down my timeline

[00:48:40] on my social media pages i'll definitely reshare thank you thank you so much is there anything else

[00:48:47] you want to leave my audience before you leave today i just want to say thank you for having me

[00:48:51] it's such a pleasure to be at the table and and i want to leave your audience with hope maybe there's

[00:48:56] something that has been holding you back for a long time this again is a tool that you can use

[00:49:03] to shift your future and we know that healing is ours this is just a way of working it out so we're

[00:49:10] thankful for that too that's right thank you guys for joining us today and as well guys you can

[00:49:17] check us out Monday Wednesday and Friday for morning inspiration at 11.30 a.m we thank Karen so much

[00:49:25] for stopping by 12 streets out back where transparency is our love language guys don't forget

[00:49:33] to go follow her on any of her social media platforms and this will be available on youtube for

[00:49:40] live instant play and it'll be uploaded to any of your listening platforms on Tuesday of next week

[00:49:49] in just in case you forgot to catch the live thank you so much for joining us here at 12 street talk

[00:49:55] and we will see you back again on Monday