Ask the Expert: A stroke of Genius with Jan Burl

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Hello hello Amplify You Michelle Abraham your house here today. Am I gotten asked the ask the expert interview for you today. Today I'm joined by Jan Burl . Jan is oh, she lives in New York, New York, Northern New York. She is an author artist, international motivational speaker, poet lover of the mountains and dragons. She's physically challenged from her Hemer graphic stroke, but finds beauty and inspiration in everything she tells everyone make every day, an extraordinary day, which I absolutely love to. Thank you, Jan, for being here with us today. It is my pleasure and honor to have you on our show. So let's say hi, first. Hi, how are you doing?

I'm good. How are you? Michelle? Nice to see you today.

Awesome. So great to see you as well. So you're just telling me you're working on a new chapter of your book. Do you want to tell us what that what you're working on? Sure.

I have a historical romance. It's, it's pretty clean. So not hot NaVi. It's about a gal in Scotland, who has given up on men. And it's about a guy from England who goes around and does travel writing about where he's been in. And they meet because he wants her to publish his articles because she's a once a month, Walther. Oh my gosh, I can't think tonight. She works at a miss at a magazine that comes out once a month and he wants to get his articles out. Whoa. So he ends up chasing her all around. In the meantime, she's in this old castle. That's kind of falling down. But she's found a mirror. There's something unusual about the mirror. It's just hooked on to the stone wall by a peg and wire. But when you look into it, it shows you your past lives. Ooh,

Cool.

Fascinating. And will it be? Will we be able to find out more about it on your website Bender Chris books?

It's mentioned, but it should. I'm going to try to find a publisher for it next year. Which is only a couple days away. Really. Right,

Exactly. Well, I know you have other books over on your website, and so we can send people over there to go check them out. Do you want to share a little bit about your other books?

Well, my first children's book tipis new friend is out. It's about a lonely Dragon, who happens to see a garden full of Dragon strip figurines. So she stops to take a closer look. And she meets Lana, who is a social studies teacher of junior high kids in New Hampshire, and Lana's dog tippy. My dog is tippy. And although the meeting is a little bit odd, because I mean, you know, there's a dragon. Well, I get to be friends. And she takes them on a trip. But truth. They're flying up through New York into Canada, into Nova Scotia, and all across Iceland and Greenland over to Norway, and back across the ocean to Maine and finally back home to New Hampshire. There's a map in the back of the book so children can draw out the trip that they check and know where the places are, that they're flying over. And the next book in that series is Timmy goes to California, where we meet my friend and he takes us around to see the glass beach and see the redwoods and even go up to up into the mountains, the Sierra Nevadas. And we go Belly belly sledding on a dragon. How cool. Awesome.

So fun. Well hail, where you are writer all your life? Or is this something that you've just done newly in the last few years,

I've been a poet all my life. But writing books and stories, I've told stories, but never written them down. So this is new for me. But I went to college after my stroke, I got myself back together. When I had it, I couldn't talk. I couldn't read, couldn't write couldn't move. It was pretty bad. And they didn't expect much of me. But I did manage to get myself walking. So I went back to school to be a substitute teacher and an interim teacher. And wouldn't you know it, although the doctors had given up, given up on me, after 12 months, the kids didn't. And they would come in, I still couldn't read, they would write the teachers directions on the board for me. And when we were in class, they all would read out loud and make sure I was falling along. And they would come in on their periods off to help me with classes, or they would come in on my periods off and make me mock and make me walk. And they are the reason that I got to where I am at that. I mean, they even walked around the school with me know how special but that's so amazing. It's that gives you faith and youth again, right? To sit down as well. They can they felt power to because they were teaching a teacher. Yeah, that's and

I think we're helping change someone's life to they're helping, you know, get your mobility back. And oh, my gosh, so they must have been a large part of your motivation for keeping going that and when they were they

Completely Yes, them and also the teachers who had I had one come up to me and he said, You know, I was having a pretty bad day today. But then I saw you and I thought, you know, my problems aren't really that bad. And look at you still fighting through yours. So I guess I made some people feel more appreciative of things, which is a good thing to do. Absolutely.

Having being a role model for other people, and having the courage to now share your story to like, say you're speaking on stages and podcasts about your story. What were some of the key things that helped to keep going in our interviews. So just thinking to our listeners at home right now who are maybe wanting to share their message and their story with the world? And maybe they haven't had the courage to do so yet? Do you have any words of wisdom for them?

You have to be honest, you have to be able to look at someone and say, Yes, I became addicted to pain medicine, because the pain was so severe. And yes, I had depression issues badly. And despite it all, I kept pushing through, and I managed to end up going back to college and getting my master's degree in creative writing. So it's a fight it is. And it really is painful in Don't hide your feelings from your doctor. And don't hide your feelings from the people that you're out among. Because if you're having a bad day, it's very hard to enunciate that. And let the kids know that oh my gosh, I'm trying but it's a rough day. But when I told them they understood and it was like, Oh, okay. So be honest, be authentic.

And I think by you doing that you're giving them permission to do that in their own lives, too. I would imagine.

Yep. Gas.

How cool is that? So many times people would have just given up in you know, being told that you only have 26% chance of surviving to have the stroke that you have most people I would say a lot of people will probably just pack it in and call it a day and yet you kept going. So when people are at that moment in in challenging spaces in their lives, what were some things that helped you keep going. You were just mentioning being honest, obviously that's one of them.

Yeah, I didn't want to end up a couch potato, which actually only five of us the 26 that survived end up with any kind of a meaningful life because the pain is so severe but it only hurts if you move Oh, yeah, yeah. And then when you don't use things, they atrophy. And that is not only muscles and tendons, it's also your brain. Yeah. And with neuroplasticity, the brain is able to make new pathways. Some of the work, some of them don't, I've had some odd pathways that the brain tried and well, they close those down pretty fast. But you just have to keep moving and have to keep using anything you can. And for me, it was the kids, they made me walk, I still don't have much use of my right arm and hand, I can hold my shoulder up and down. But that's about it. So far, there is never an end to this, the recovery is a lifetime journey. So and my dream is to change the 5% that make a good recovery to a larger number. I'd like them to know that they have options that I'm there if they need to talk. And that's the one thing that's hard for me, because I can't make up a set course. Because every single person with traumatic brain injury or a stroke are different, and they suffer different things. So I figure instead of writing down stuff like that, I'd rather do one on one with them, so that we can focus on them

Yeah, and I'll be super customize, I'm sure he has is one, you know, thing that you experienced in your life being the stroke has been probably changed the trajectory of where your life is gone, and kind of open new doors to new ways of doing business or having a meaningful life, as you're saying. And it's like, how can you then help other people figure out what that is for them like you've done? So like, I think the doing the children's books and the romance books, I think, obviously, the creative writing has been a really great outlet for you. How do you help? How do you how do how we choose to just other people find that what's that spark for that? acitivity.

And from there, the spark can be anything it can be writing, it can be doing artistic things, I paint, but I painted with my right hand. So starting to do something like that, again, was very daunting. And I started by sketching, or it could be getting out even if you're in a wheelchair and traveling. If you don't want to fly fine. Have someone go with you and take you on rides to different areas. Don't just sit in the house. Get out see the world. It's important.

Yeah, that's great advice. I love it. Anything you'd like to share with anything else you'd like to share with our podcasts. He's I mean, he's sitting at home thinking about sharing the message with the world.

Well, just what I said, you have to make every day an extraordinary day, you have to, you know, when you get up in the morning, your first thoughts color your whole day. So I get up, I make my bed. That way I'm set for the morning, anything that comes my way I can handle. But if I wake up, and I'm kind of off, the day is kind of off. So I try to always think of good things. And it's important to remember that you are chosen because you are still alive.

Whoo. Yes. And, you know, I always sat listening back to some of the podcast interviews you've done in the past and one of the titles of one of them was your you your stroke of genius. And we like to say amplify you that your uniqueness is your genius. And so like you know, having this as part of your story and thing positive and keeping, moving forward is a is definitely your zone of genius now. And I think that you're so inspiring and your message is going to carry on to inspire other people. I like what you say about getting up first thing in the morning, and just by making your bed makes you feel accomplished already, right. So I know I feel I feel different when I don't make my bed in the morning versus one Id it's that first sense of accomplishment and gets you going on the right and the right chat. Hey,

Yeah, but you know, you can have bad days and you know what if you go in your room and you cry, because sometimes you just wonder why why me? Why do I have to deal with so much. Go to bed, curl up, go to sleep, and then when you wake up in the morning, it's so much better. It's always better But the next day, and

I would say it's also probably better to let it out and experience that emotion and move through, rather than keeping it bottled up in text back down inside of you.

Exactly. And writing my book on stroke survival, writing it, what I was going through every day, and reading my positive thoughts, or my, oh, gosh, I can't do this anymore. I just don't want this. And it did it helped get it out. That's why I have always written poetry because it got out my feelings. So by writing it, you not only help yourself, but there are so many others that have something like it happening to them. And when they see that, oh, wow. They feel that too. Or they think that to the opens things up for other people.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you for being so inspiring. Thank you for sharing with us today. Any last words before we share with our audience where to find out more about you?

Just never give up? And make every day extraordinary?

Neat? I love those words. So it's a great and we can find more information about you on the Newcrest books.com. Is that correct? Yes,

I just opened it last night. All right, awesome.

Well head over there, amplify your family. Check out what Jen's up to her kids books are there and some of her other books that she's working on are also over there. And you can connect with her directly there. They send so much for being here with us today. Amplifyou Valley have an amazing day and we'll see you again next week.

Amplifyou Intro/Outro: Thank you, family for joining us on this adventure. If you're ready to be heard, head over to my podcast coach.com where you'll find out all the tools and tips you'll need to launch your podcast today. If you have a show already and you need some help managing it, please head over to manage my podcast.com and the Amplifyou team will be happy to help you manage your podcasts. Please also head over to iTunes like subscribe or review our show so we can spread this message. And until next time be your own unique genius