Neuro Note #4 | Stroke of Insight | Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor

My Stroke of Insight | Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor | TED Talk

Dr. Taylor is a neuroanatomist who studies the brain and all of its workings. In this TED Talk, Dr. Taylor shares her riveting experience she had while having a hemorrhagic stroke (the irony behind a neuroanatomist being able to experience a stroke is unfortunate and horrible, yet comical). One morning she woke up and began her normal routine and soon began to feel funny. She explained she just decided to continue on with her morning as she normally did. She began to do some cardio exercises, and this is where the affects really started to set in. Her hands began to look "claw like," her body started to feel funny and tingly, she wasn't able to associate herself with her body, and she was overall just very confused. She eventually realized that she would soon be experience a stroke and knew that she needed to call for help. In her gruesome efforts to find a business card of someone she could call for help, she realized it took her about 45 minutes to get through about an inch of business cards for someone to get ahold of. She eventually got ahold of one her coworkers, to which she realized she couldn't speak or understand language, but her coworker knew she needed help and was able to call for help. After realizing she was in an ambulance, she began to experience something that sent chills up my spine. In that moment, she felt her spirit leaving her body. She felt a sense of peace, a sense of disassociation, a sense of nirvana. This would become important to her in the future. She eventually would wake in the hospital room after being saved by physicians. She explained the lights as piercing, noises as unbearable to hear, everything around her she was hypersensitive to (important to know for post stroke patients). During her time of recovery, she realized while experiencing her stroke that she was mostly on the right side of her brain rather than the left. This was her theory around being able to experience this peace and nirvana. She ended her talk with the fact that she felt as if everything around her was peaceful, nice, caring, and loving during this awful experience. She encouraged that if she was able to experience nirvana while physically being here on earth, that others can too. We have a choice. What side of the brain do you want to be on? she encouraged us to feel the way she was able to feel and act the way she perceived. Let's spread peace, love, positivity, and be caring. And we all can facilitate this by being in touch with our right brain. I was able to further my learning by really focusing on to some important messages within this talk. I got to learn about someone who has experienced a hemorrhagic stroke first hand and what its like, and someone who had an almost out-of-body experience within her soul.

I chose this talk because of my heightened interested in not only neurological conditions, but also CVA's (cerebral vascular accidents, aka strokes). This talk has been widely known and watched by over 6.1 million people. After the fact, I was happy with my choosing because of the emotion Dr. Taylor put into this talk.

What I most importantly learned in an OT aspect was the affect of a stroke on someone. Every symptom she explained experiencing was exactly what I remember talking about in OT 537 in regards to CVA's. In the future, it will be very important to me to know the signs and symptoms of not only strokes, but other neurological conditions. I know what to look for in my future patients who could be experiencing this. I also know how, and in what was, to encourage my clients and to be empathetic. Although we can't experience every single thing that happens to one another personally, we can listen, reflect, and feel through empathy. I was able to do this while listening to Dr. Taylor's talk. I am inspired, and filled with more knowledge about strokes and each hemisphere's of the brains affect on the mind, body, and soul.

Watch this TED talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU

TED. (2008, March 13). My stroke of insight | Jill Bolte Taylor. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyyjU8fzEYU

Comments

Popular Posts