Dr. Maya Shankar

Who's going to invite illness or joblessness or heartbreak into their lives knowingly?

Of course not.

They were all very happy with the person that they became as a result of the change.

I mean, there's a reason I call my book The Other Side of Change is because there is a promised land in that space that can be very

hope giving in these moments that can be very life giving in these moments of total distress.

I find that story so inspiring, and I love that you've taken the time to reflect on all that you've learned, because that is actually a key part of unlocking that sort of growth, right?

You have to actually take a step back and almost do an audit of yourself to figure out, well, what did I learn?

And what patterns of behavior were on display in this thing?

Can I improve on those and what have you?

And your story is reminding me of two stories from the book.

One features a young woman, Olivia, who has a massive brainstem stroke in her early 20s that leaves her with locked-in syndrome.

So locked-in syndrome is most people's worst nightmare.

In a nutshell, the damage in your brain means that you cannot voluntarily control any of the muscles in your body except for the muscles that control your eyes.

So the only way of communicating with people is by blinking.

So people will move their finger along the letters of the alphabet and you just have to blink when they get to the right letter.

And that's how you painstakingly spell out words to the people around you.

And when you're locked in, you fully retain all of your cognition.

You feel the same emotions as before.

So everything internally is working, but you cannot communicate.

And