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Introduction and Episode Setup
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Hello everybody. Welcome back to the UFFDA! Podcast. I'm joined by Emily Morris
and I'm joined by Jordan Rudolph.
Ah, gotcha. Almost. She's quick. Uh, we are here. Season has to be Yeah. Season four, episode 42. Just before the show, I'm just talking to her about like, okay, what's the episode number one's?
[00:01:00] Okay. Okay. Okay, okay. Okay. And then I throw that on her two seconds later. Um, it's just a
lot to remember. I have to remember the episode number just in case you forget it. How you're gonna do the intro. Yeah,
it's just a lot. You gotta be ready. Always be ready. A BR Um, episode 42, season four, episode 42.
The Power of Diagnosis
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We are talking today on your diagnosis is not.
Your identity.
It's a powerful one. I think for most people, whether we've gone through and received any diagnosis, this can be health and fitness, like joint specific broken bones, surgery, replacement of a joint. Um, it can also extend to like medical conditions. It, it really is far reaching, um, I think focusing more from obviously.
Our realm, a health and fitness side of things. Um, but I think you can also kind of extrapolate this out into, when we receive a diagnosis, it's often easy. Simple, maybe not [00:02:00] easy for that to become completely consuming of our lives, leading us to feel like it's the only thing that we have going on. That it's the only thing that it's the only.
Uh, opportunity that we have to, like, identify ourselves. It becomes who we are instead of something that we are dealing with. It becomes very personal and tied to us as a human, uh, as opposed to the external of that being, yes, I am handling this, I'm dealing with this. I am going through this. External situation when that mindset or that kind of flip there, as we're gonna talk about today, is crucially important for, for anyone who has received a diagnosis of any kind.
Emotional Impact of Diagnosis
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Well, it's unfortunate too because oftentimes when we think about the word diagnosis, we're usually talking about something that's not necessarily great news, right? But like, [00:03:00] we don't hear all the time like, Hey, you've been diagnosed strong, like strong af you've been diagnosed cool. You've been diagnosed very lean, like you've been diagnosed, athletic.
Yeah. Like, we don't get those, right? Heaven forbid we don't get maybe diagnosed as like, oh, you're a professional athlete, but we don't have those, we have diagnosis as more of a negative thing. Um, unfortunately, when we were thinking about. Health, medical hospital type of stuff. Uh, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's almost unfortunate as I'm saying this out loud with you now, that we don't have more of a, a positive affirmation diagnosis of like, oh, good thing we don't have anything to diagnose you with today besides just health, like you're healthy.
Mm-hmm. And then if you ask people at the end of the day, like, if, if, if you're gonna live to X years old, what do you want to be? Mm-hmm. And from, from terms of your freedom of health. And they usually just say, I wanna be healthy, I wanna be pain free. I wanna be able to do all the things. I don't have any, any hiccups, any, any hitches in my belt or hitch hitch in the giddy up type of thing.
And, and so just healthy is enough, but it's, it's one of those things that's kinda like happy, [00:04:00] like what is it to be happy? Well, it, it's a very subjective thing. Healthy is too. Mm-hmm. Healthy is too so easy to find the diagnosis side of things. And then when we think about all those things, like you were mentioning earlier, and also think about the.
The, the preconceived notion of the diagnosis itself and the name that comes with it, there's oftentimes a lot of, um, unhappiness, depression, shame, guilt, fear. Again, all very, not like negative things, but also very, um, powerful things. Mm-hmm. And, and keep in mind when I say powerful too, when we're talking about that, like powerful motivators to do things, um, there, there's powerful motivators to do things like fear or frustration.
Uh, pain, um, guilt shame. They, they're also leading to actions, uh, actions of being inaction, like you, choosing not to do something is also like a very powerful thing. Uh, an action that's very powerful from a motivational thing. Uh, if it's a. [00:05:00] Chooses. So as we dive into the diagnosis piece and not your identity, there's a lot more out there to you than what this simple or complex, quote unquote diagnosis is of you or to you, but it doesn't mean it's you.
It doesn't take away everything.
Correct.
Overcoming Diagnosis and Finding Opportunity
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And that's where, as these diagnosis often are accompanied by some sort of life change necessitated from that, right? Whether it be a dietary change, a lifestyle change, we have to change our movement. We have to adjust how we're training, right? There can be all sorts of different things that accompany that, where it starts to feel like our entire life revolves around this.
Keeping that external can be a massive powerful, like you're saying, motivator. In allowing us to continue to take the actions moving forward in a positive direction as opposed to [00:06:00] being consumed with all of the things that we can no longer do as a result of that, right? It's not too dissimilar to, if we're talking about losing body fat or adjusting and eating in a calorie deficit.
It's easier to focus on all the things that we can't eat, that we can't do, that we can't consume, versus all of the opportunity and all the things that we can now do when we're approaching this. It can be quite similar as well, right? It's easy to focus on all the things that we can no longer do. Often temporarily, right?
But it's hard to see that temporary ness of it versus what we can now do, the opportunities that lie ahead that to come back stronger from this, to overcome this. To be a role model, to be an example, to set a new standard for whatever the outcome might be there, right? There's a lot of opportunity there and it can be very challenging to see when we.
[00:07:00] Trick ourselves and kind of trap ourselves into the mindset of, well, I am just now, you know, this diagnosis. I am just now the person that has the bad shoulder, have a bad shoulder. I'll just always have a bad shoulder. Nothing I can do about it versus, okay, I have a bad shoulder. Or I've been diagnosed with X, right?
Bad shoulder is not a diagnosis, but labeled as such. And now we can look at, okay, but how can I come back from this? How can I still be able to do the things that I want to do? Awesome. Maybe that involves pt, maybe that involves rehab, maybe that involves training, whatever those variables are, but it becomes more opportunity focused versus, uh, clo I keep thinking close-minded, which is, is true.
To a degree, but versus more restrictive, focused.
Well, the di the diagnosis can create. I mean, we've talked about those emotions before. Like that can create a lot of, [00:08:00] um, scarcity mm-hmm. Around a mindset and around what Sure. Uh, beliefs, uh, and truths. Right. So, um, I closed-minded isn't, isn't necessarily something that is,
it's not, but yeah.
It's not far off. It's just not where I wanted to.
Right, right, right. Yeah. Yeah. So when we, when we, when we go through that, like there's no doubt that a diagnosis. Um, excuse me. Could be something that's life-changing, devastating, crushing, painful, uh, debilitating physically, mentally, and emotionally. All the above.
Mm-hmm. For all the things that I just said. There's no doubt that it can create that, but the identity at the end of the day is what you want yourself to be and what you believe yourself to be.
Inspirational Stories and Identity Shift
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When we hear about some of these inspirational stories that are out there, and oftentimes a lot of thus, uh, listening to this, uh, and Emily and myself as talking into the microphones.
We know somebody who's been quote, unquote diagnosed as such thing, [00:09:00] but they did not let it I be their identity. They did not let it identify them and who they were going to be and how they were going to live. They put their life to their fullest and there's a lot of identity within that and it might consider something being like an identity shift.
We talked a little bit about that in the Be do have episodes, um, a couple months ago, but I think about this most recently. Like the most devastating one that I've, I've, I've been a part of was, uh, was a friend of mine and now a friend of mine who went through, uh, a pretty serious nervous system, uh, attack.
Was that, was that two summers ago? Year ago? I think it was, was two ago.
Yeah, it was two ago.
Um, Gillian Barr. Mm-hmm. Gillian Barr syndrome came out of nowhere and, and, and the guy like I, I literally am on a call with him. Uh, two days prior, and then all of a sudden I see like he's going to the hospital.
Some things aren't good, and the next video I see is him in his underwear sitting on a, on a hospital bed [00:10:00] eye patch over his eye because he lost function of his eye. And he can barely talk. He can barely speak, he can barely move. And like, and I'd never heard, I'd heard of Gillian Bar. I didn't know what it did.
Uh, and, and, and to have him be there, uh, I think he was in the hospital for like, I don't know, six weeks, eight weeks, something like that. Wow. But to see, like him, when he was in there, he didn't let this, I like diagnosis. I like be his identity. Mm-hmm. He knew he wanted to be something else. He started working out in his hospital bed, he got his wife to bring him resistance bands.
He started doing exercises while he was in the bed, and now he's this incredible inspirational story and he's helping other humans create this identity shift in their body. And he's doing this from a gym standpoint. Mm-hmm. Sorry. Identity shift in their mind. And he's doing this from a gym standpoint as they're working on their body.
But it starts with what your identity is and what you believe it to be. Again, it's the unfortunate part of it is that most diagnosis that we hear about understand are bad ones. Mm-hmm. Like I, what is a good [00:11:00] diagnosis?
I, I'm gonna be honest, when you brought it up at the beginning of episode, that was my first thought of like, Hmm, what is good?
You're healthy, you're good. Keep doing what you're doing. Great job. Like, there's
not a huge like. Yeah. There's, there's really no note for that.
Yeah. Like we think about like a person that's got a lot of, of overweight and triglycerides. Oh, you're obese. Mm-hmm. You're obese too, but a person that's not like that.
Like, you're healthy.
Yeah.
But I, I'm glad that we didn't necessarily create an identity in that one. That's just a very, like a diagnosis in that one. That's just a very poor example, but it's an example. Mm-hmm. It's just kind of weird, um, now that we're thinking about it. Uh, but it, it ultimately comes down to what you believe in, in yourself.
Taking Control of Your Identity
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Some people go through the, the. Like the traumatic part of this, where they feel like they've deserved this. Like everything in their life led up to this point and they knew what was gonna happen. I knew I was gonna get X, Y, or z. I knew that was gonna, and they now they wanna just confirm themself more right and correct about anything else and everything else in their life that has happened to them.
Then actually acknowledge the fact that they can do something about this. Mm-hmm. Which is [00:12:00] scarier than it probably. That's a very scary situation for sure. It's tough. But as we go through this and, and we think about what. These diagnosis can do to us. It's, it's, it's a good idea to take a step back and think about who you still want to be and who you want that person to be remembered as, do you wanna be remembered as X, Y, Z, or a, B, C?
Mm-hmm. You still have a choice in a lot of that stuff.
For sure. Well, and we are talking about control last episode, and it, it throws the control back to you, right? Maybe if you're listening to this and you just got a diagnosis that you were maybe unexpected, unexpected diagnosis, or maybe you were unsure, it just came, came up for you, maybe this is the moment to revisit a be do, have exercise.
Revisit those episodes if you did, even if you did it already the first time. Leave that sheet alone. Start from the top. Do it again. Right? Ignore the diagnosis, part of that step outside of [00:13:00] it, and who do you want to be? In spite of that, or even with that, who do you want to be? And really get clear on what you want and who you want your identity to be, so that you can approach the diagnosis with as much control around that identity with letting it consume you and be coming your identity.
And a lot of, again, a lot of times too when we get the diagnosis, we're asking a lot of questions. What does it all mean? We're WebMDing ourself. We're communicating to doctors. We're introduced to new doctors that we never even know existed. Maybe words that we never even knew existed either. It's, it's easy to get going on this thing mm-hmm.
And put yourself in that place. Uh, but you still have control and you still have, you still have the, that ability. We always have control of our attitude. We always have control of our belief if we want it to be there. I. So the diagnosis does not take all that away from you. It does not completely change you as a person unless [00:14:00] you let it or want it to be.
Mm-hmm. Absolutely.
Conclusion and Farewell
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With that, thank you so much for listening. Tuning, tuning in, and listening to this week's episode of the U of To Podcast. Share this with someone who you think will find it valuable. Leave us a rating, a review, subscribe. Download all the things that help us do organically, and we'll catch you in the next episode.
Bye everybody.
Thanks everyone.
