Questioning What’s Possible: Hope, Health Foundations, and Stroke Recovery with Tristan Gibson

Welcome to Brain Health and Healing. I'm Sandra

Lee. This show is for people living with head injuries and

the families and supporters who love them. If you are ready to

reclaim your life, identity, and dreams for the future, you are

in the right place.

Welcome, everybody, to Brain Health and Healing: Receiving

Adversity's Gifts. I have another wonderful guest for us

today. Someone who has gotten himself through a stroke and to

the other side, and we love the stories about receiving

adversity's gifts here. So this is Tristan Gibson. He was a

college soccer athlete, and he had had failed brain surgeries,

leading to a massive brain stem stroke. So we've got somebody

who's had both brain surgery and stroke, and he's got a wonderful

story of recovery, and then how he has turned that into the way

he serves people in the world. Welcome to Brain Health and

Healing, Tristan. Tell us about your story.

Thank you. I'm honored. Yeah, I was a college

soccer athlete, and ended up having my first ever surgery in

2019, brain surgery, yay! That surgery failed. Ended up back in

the hospital less than four months later, and that's when

many more surgeries happened. They caused a brainstem stroke,

a perioperative brainstem stroke, and lost full functional

control on my left side. Couldn't think. Couldn't walk.

Couldn't talk. Left eye was thrown out of alignment.

Personality changed. Memory wiped for months, and I was

told, or they said that I would never walk, talk, or function

again. With the help of my family's dedication and passion

to helping me, I made a quick recovery, quote unquote, within

six to eight months. Got very basic function back in my left

side, and I drove myself to the follow-up appointment with the

neurosurgeon that saved my life. He walked in and he was shocked,

absolutely blown away. He said, "I made a great recovery, and I

would likely make no more progress. Well, I lived with

that for two and a half years. I lived with crippling depression

and anxiety. I did everything, almost everything I could, to

distract myself from my reality. And then I started learning

about how your brain and body are designed to heal. God, the

Creator, Source, whatever you want to call it, the the entity

that's up there that created everything on this realm

designed us to heal. Our bodies are the made of the same things

that nature's made out of, and nature either heals or it dies.

We didn't die, you didn't die, so you can heal, and the way

that you do that, you can do that. It's by helping it heal

from the inside out, the way it was designed, and that's what I

help my clients learn.

So tell us more, because there's there's more.

There's a lot more. The simplest explanation I

can give you is help your brain and body heal from the inside

out by making better cells, because better cells lead to

more healing and overall health physically, and more BDNF. BDNF

stands for brain-derived neurotrophic factor, which is a

protein or molecule that your brain makes that helps increase

neuroplasticity, which helps your brain become more adaptable

and reconnect to your affected side more easy or simple.

So the audience isn't going to know anything

about BDNF. They're going to need to tell us more because

this is an important part of your message.

Yeah. So BDNF makes your brain more adaptable.

It causes it increases neuroplasticity. Neuroplasticity

is what your brain uses to reconnect to your affected side

from the stroke after the stroke or major TBI. Like I said, I had

no fun. My left side was paralyzed, and now I can do

this. I can wiggle my fingers independently in a wave motion.

I can do single leg squats with my left leg. I was unable to do

this before I started doing everything that I now coach.

It's completely possible, and one thing I want to say is the

professionals only know what they learned in school. What

they learned in school was approved by education boards to

maximize profits for them. Like I mentioned, your brain and body

are designed to heal. They're designed to heal. It's as simple

as that. All it takes is helping and do so. And one thing that

helps is giving your brain and body what. Need to heal, and

also getting out of your head and giving all of the negativity

up to God, Source Consciousness, the Creator, whatever you want

to call it, because that entity, from what I've come to learn,

looks at us like we're toddlers. When a toddler comes up to you

and yells, "I hate you! I don't want to live here! Yada yada

yada. Do you believe it? Hopefully not. That's how God

looks at us. When I was at my darkest, and I was on the edge

of, well, I had numerous voices in my head that told me to end

everything because everything I worked for my entire life had

was taken away from me, and I got so close to figuring out how

to get out of bed and getting, or biting the bullet, for lack

of a better term. And at that point in time, I was atheist, so

I went to a Southern Baptist college, and they pushed me away

from God and religion. All they did was preach hella fire and

damnation. Well, I didn't know where I would end up. I didn't

know if I'd go to hell, heaven, or purgatory. So I reached out,

decided to take a chance. Said, "God, if you're real, why did

you do this to me? Why me? I project, I cussed God out. I

projected all of the negative negativity onto God, and then I

waited. And over the next couple days, all the voices

disappeared, and something happened to help me realize why

everything happened. And the biggest thing that helped me

with this was changing my thoughts, my question from "Why

me? to "Why not me? So if you start asking yourself why not me

instead of why me, your subconscious will start trying

to answer that question, and the answer could be life changing.

It could change how you view the whole stroke, your pre-stroke

life, your post-stroke life, everything, and that could be

dramatically. That can help dramatically improve your stroke

recovery, your TBR recovery.

So that that is an excellent practical strategy,

practical step. So we like to give people here at Brain Health

and Healing these gems, the things that they can apply to

life today, apply to life this week. So I love that you are

giving them that practical step. Now I want to go back to BDNF.

How do people get more BDNF? Because that's another practical

thing that they can do.

Yeah. So BDNF, yes, exercise can help increase

BDNF, and it's not the only thing. You can increase BDNF by

improving your diet. You can increase BDNF by getting more

sun exposure by sleeping better because the sun plays many roles

in health. When you're conscious about your sun exposure, meaning

build your solar callus, when you put better things in your

body, you can become more resistant to the sun, which

means you can get more sun. And this is coming from a ginger who

used to burn within 510, minutes of going out in the sun, and now

I don't burn, or if I do burn, it goes away the next day. Using

cold exposure consciously, grounding, improving your mental

state-you know, getting out of the negativity, getting into

positivity, improving your relationship with yourself and

others-all of this stuff can help.

So Tristan is sharing some practical things

that you can do that supports your body in having more

brain-derived neurotrophic factor. So by basically doing

these things that are good for your health. You can help your

brain to be able to heal itself. And one of the things I love

about Tristan is he has taken these practical strategies like

nutrition, exercise, sleep-you know these basic things that

we've heard from everybody forever-and then you know

trusting God, and He's turned it into a program. So, tell us

about your program and how you help other people.

Yeah, my program has 12 coaching sections to help

you learn everything that's worked for myself and my clients

in order to get unstuck in your stroke recovery, to make more

progress in your stroke recovery, and I'll also say this

is not to replace the therapies or anything else that you're

doing. This is meant to help because when you build a house

from the top down, does it work? When you put the wrong fuel in a

car, does it run? When you put the wrong ammo in a gun, does it

shoot? No. So with this approach, we focus on building

the house from the ground up. Focus on putting the right fuel

in the car in your car, and putting the right ammo in the

gun so it can the building can stay up. So. The car can run, so

the gun can fire. Because if you approach the your stroke

recovery from only the typical recovery route, you could make

more progress. Okay, and if you help your brain and body do what

it's designed to do, which is heal from the inside out, you

can get so much more from what you're already doing, and make

more progress.

This is a great point. When you do all those

basic things that he was describing that support your

health in general, oh my goodness! Whatever it is you

have going on, whether it's an injury to your brain or

something else, it's going to help you, and I love his

examples. You know, this is like if you put the wrong ammo in the

car or no ammo in in the gun, it's not going to shoot. If you

put the wrong fuel in or no fuel in, then the car is not going to

run. So, perfect message for all of us today. All of you who are

gleaning the the gems from your brain health and healing

episodes? Tristan is giving you tons of practical strategies of

how to optimize your health. If you have a brain injury, stroke

or otherwise, this is going to help you. Whatever it is you

have, but even if you don't have a brain injury. The things that

Tristan is sharing are only going to help you.

Oh yeah, and remember, I had much more than a

stroke. I had eight total brain surgeries. Seven of them failed,

and at least one in each lobe of my brain. If I can do it, then

you can too.

So many people who have brain surgeries and brain

injuries get to a place where they feel like this is it. I

just have to live with this, and they lose hope. So part of your

message, I think, is very similar to mine. You need to

have hope, even doing small things that enable you to see

change, so that you can actually believe you can get to where you

want. So, tell us more about that.

Yeah, if you have no hope, then you'll make

no recovery. You have more hope, then you can make a good

recovery, because whether you think you can, or think you

can't. You're right. So the very, the very first step that's

needed for your recovery, that's required for your recovery, is

having hope. Because you can do all the right things, quote

unquote, for your recovery, and if you have no hope, then that

won't work. You can do all the wrong things, quote unquote, for

your recovery, and they could work more because you believe,

it's as simple as that.

I love that message. I love that message. Sound like

me.

Two people.

Yeah. So tell people how they can connect with you,

and if you have something to give them.

Yeah. So you can shoot me a follow on Instagram.

It's Captain underscore Orangutan, which is O R A N G U

T A N. If you shoot me a follow, you'll get an automated message

with a freebie, and it's my dark my dark quiet room method, which

is how you can start getting the thoughts out of your head And

start your progress. I'm feeling better about your post-stroke

life. Facebook is Captain Orangutan, O-R-A-N-G-U-T-A-N,

and then TikTok is Cap underscore O underscore. You can

also follow me on YouTube, which is Captain Underscore orangutan

as well. I've stopped posting my shorts to that. I will start

posting my longer form content when I get around to filming it.

All of Tristan's contact information is going to be in

the show notes, so you can find that. So tell them about how

they can get to your program. Yeah, so you can comment

coaching on any of my content on Facebook, Instagram, or TikTok.

You'll get an automated message on Facebook and Instagram for

the to learn about one-on-one coaching or group coaching,

depending on what you comment. You can comment coaching for

one-on-one or group for the group coaching, obviously.

TikTok takes me a little bit longer. I don't have the

automated assists set up for that yet, so you'll get a

personal message from me on TikTok.

So I know that Tristan makes available a

tremendous amount of material that supports you in getting

that that basic foundation, like eating, sleeping, exercise,

those things. So I encourage you to connect with him and his

program. I have met some of the people there, and they have been

wonderful. And his his program works because it supports you

in. Setting up those basic foundations.

I'll also add, it only works as much as you try

the stuff, and as much as you believe.

Absolutely, belief is the foundation of everything.

Like I said, you know, if you think you can, you can. If you

think you can't, it's not happening. Very good. So, what

is the last point that you want to leave the audience with? What

do you want them to remember? I

strongly encourage you to stop blindly

believing any humans, including myself. I want you to go out,

look into things, question everything, including myself,

including Sandra, because the world does not need more blind

followers. The world needs more free thinkers. And when you arm

yourself with the knowledge and you start taking action on the

knowledge, then you can learn so much more than what blindly

following people that includes people with degrees or

certifications or professionals, because my recovery started

dramatically improving when I started questioning those things

and branching out and trying different things, and so are my

clients.

Lovely. So I have one last question for you: I

want you to imagine a time where you've reached like the pinnacle

of your influence. You're really making a difference for people,

and the world is being the way you want it to be. What do you

see yourself doing? What's around you?

Well, I have my homesteading community with my

gorgeous, loving, beautiful wife and my many, many kids, and we

are making an impact by helping people learn to heal themselves.

I

love that. So, thank you, Tristan, so much for being

here with Brain Health and Healing and sharing your

message. And for you in the audience, I encourage you to go

follow Tristan. You know, find his community and take in more

of the value that he has to share. Thank you so much for

being here for Brain Health and Healing. We will see you again

next time. It was wonderful having Tristan on, and I love

that his message fits so perfectly with mine. That you

have to have hope and belief to heal yourself. Your brain heals

itself every day, and I love that he provides information

about that foundation of health that supports whatever it is you

have going on: food, sleep, movement, belief in Yourself, so

write down those gems, the practical things he gave you,

and go over to the Brain Health and Healing Facebook group. Put

in there what you got out of today and what you're going to

apply in your life. If you want to talk with me. I invite you to

share your story call with me. 10 minutes. It's not a sales

call, just an opportunity to share your experience. Thank you

for joining me for brain health and healing.