Shade Zahrai

I've never really, I know all the research, not sorry, not all the research, but I know a lot of the research on the brain's ability to rewire itself and what's going on here.

And I did that five year deep dive.

I've never had my own experience where I went, wow, that's powerful in terms of my own brain doing something cool.

So when I was doing these last five years, it was very, very hard for me.

And so I have a lot of respect for anyone who's gone through that process.

my memory started to really suffer.

So by year three of doing this research and writing this dissertation, I couldn't remember things.

Both my long-term and my short-term memory

had become terrible.

I'd have conversations with my husband and he'd say, we talked about this two days ago, do you not remember?

I had no recollection of it.

I would have a conversation with someone in the morning, by the end of the day, I couldn't remember who I spoke to or what I said.

And this is a problem for me because a lot of our business is working with companies and leaders and people and about the research and applying these insights that we're learning.

I couldn't even remember them.

This was really concerning.

Now, it became even more concerning

because I read a case study of a woman who was about my age who had something similar where she started forgetting things and she kind of brushed it off because life was busy she had her kids she had her business she kept brushing it off until she finally sought help when it was really bad and they discovered some kind of brain-eating bacteria that was affecting the the parts of her brain responsible for memory and then she had gone to get help too late and now her life is fundamentally different because she cannot remember

And I naturally, my brain starts catastrophizing and thinking, oh my gosh, I've got a brain eating bacteria.

What's going on?

It's eating my brain.