The Wonder Of Our Bodies: Standing And Walking

Hi,

This is Brooks and here we are.

It's good to be here with you.

Today we're gonna talk about standing and walking.

I know that's really um like what?

Standing and walking?

I already do that.

And that's why we're talking about it because there's a lot of things that we have that we take for granted.

You know just it's there it's there all the time and when something's common it's unnoticed and we don't realize how valuable something is sometimes you know and I know from experience because seven and a half years ago I got a double lung transplant and before that right like six months of being stuck in bed I was really sick so the muscles of my legs atrophied and then I had the surgery and then there's three days afterwards of they put you in a coma so that you just rest and so you know there's you know the legs are completely just laying there and then after that you know there's a few days of just being really groggy not even sure where I was then I was aware and awake and I thought I was so excited to be alive I was like I can't believe that I'm alive I thought I can breathe so lucky and and one of the first things I wanted to do was walk because I love to walk oh yeah and they go you can't walk and I go what do you mean they go well you're the muscles in your legs are atrophied you have to go through physical therapy and I said just give me some crutches I can do it and there he said no we're gonna bring physical therapists in so they did and they're these two women came really strong they they each one took a shoulder and lifted me off the bed and they didn't set me all the way down the ground just partially so that my feet could just touch a little bit and I you know tried to stand like it was an automatic reaction like my try to use the muscles of my legs to stand and there was nothing my legs are jelly I can make it I couldn't believe it it was the weirdest thing so they walked me around the room and they they held on to me and and I tried to walk I mean I they would they would lower me a little bit more under the ground and I would try to push up with to stand on to walk and really my legs are just no forget it we're not doing this so they they did a three or four days of that and I'm starting to get like I could walk a few feet but that was really you know and they were supporting me so I thought oh my god how am I gonna ever be able to walk again so I got sent to to a rehab place for a month well basically I learned how to take my first steps again you know like it been since I was one and a half or two since I last did this but there's this incredible amount of strength that the body has to have to be able to lift our weight you know regardless of whatever a weight is our legs have to support all this all that all of our weight and that's quite a lot you know we do it all the time so our muscles are in shape but I had to go through a lot of difficult training to to be able to stand took me a week to learn how to stand again and you know every day I could do a little bit more I was straining like just every using every ounce of energy I'd have and I eventually I could stand it I was just elated it's like a victory you know massive victory I was exhausted after each attempt but you know it was worth it and then there was just a lot of typical physical therapy to be able to begin to walk you know to carry that weight and because every time you take a step you you fall into you're lifting yourself back up and the hardest part was learn how to walk upstairs there were these it wasn't that high it was like five steps and I was just just lifting the weight with each step and I had lost like 50 pounds being really sick so I didn't have as much weight as I usually have but still it was overwhelming but eventually I was able to get to the top of the stairs and I felt like Rocky have you ever seen that movie Rocky where he runs up the stairs and he's his hands he's holding his hands in the fists in the air you know I was just so I couldn't believe how happy I was so now when I go for walks there's this feeling of like oh my god I'm so lucky it's just there's something about losing something that's really an integral part of our lives that makes realize how valuable it is so I thought we'd spend a little time thinking our legs like noticing them and thanking them and so what I'd like you to do is to stand up I'll stand up too so stand up and you know there there's all these muscles that are allowing you to do this right now and maybe you can put your hands you know crouch down a bit and feel the muscles and your thighs and your calves and in your button and your stomach they're all working they're all working to hold you up and what an act of love right I mean that's what they do that they don't do anything else that's their job is to support you and to help move you around and and they do it and again I like to think of it this way our muscles love us they love us and they look for ways to serve us so so take a moment to thank thank these muscles you know as you're standing there okay so now we're gonna walk you can walk around the room and I'll walk around to that's too far from the mic and notice notice the work that you know even beyond the muscles there's the bones and the skin and the feet like I don't know how many bones there are in the feet quite a lot but they're there you know their job too is to support you and to move you around it's all they that's all they do and they love you the tendons and then there's all the the veins and the blood and the blood is being pumped by the heart down through the veins and capillaries into your feet into your legs you're into your thighs and your calves your muscles to allow you to move around it's a team and it's a team that that's a team for you again they all they care about is serving you your lungs are taken in on the breath so you can have oxygen which is energy for the body the heart pumps it through all the veins down into your legs through your whole body because really your whole body supports you know you're walking your movement so as you're walking around thank your team thank thank your team for all the work that they do the ceaseless work and for all the love that they give you by the work that they do you now if you have a limited movement or maybe you're not able to walk you can still notice other parts of your body that that are working that are doing what they can you know they're doing the things that they that they're built to do and you know there's always something to thank because there's always as long as you're alive there's things in your body that are working for you and again it's it's out of love it's an obligation like when you stand up or walk on your legs aren't going okay I guess I'll do this for you you know I was doing something else but I guess I'll find some time to do this for you they're like alright what do we need me to do you know dogs are like dogs are like I love you what can I do for you they're just look at you like ha and our bodies like that you know if your legs aren't working well maybe your arms are working well and they're like yeah look what can I do for you and we could thank them admire them too you know as we're walking around our eyes see where we're going so they help in the walking there's parts of our body that that give us a feeling of balance so that we're able to walk without falling over and we could thank them if you can't walk very well maybe you need a wheelchair or crutches you can thank them for assisting you you know sometimes we feel like we don't have enough in life you know there's that common feel I'm like oh I wish I had more or something but often as we I mean we often overlook how much we actually have you know we're millionaires in so many different ways even better than millionaires are just again these things that if we lost them for we didn't have them anymore life would be really really difficult so noticing really makes us feel like wow I'm really lucky I don't have whatever other things I think I have to or should be having you know I wish I had I've got this you know I'm walking around I can walk I can get up my body supports lifts me I can go where I'd got me know where I need to go and do what I got to do and my body's completely adoring me by moving me around so it was a lot of fun to do this with the opioid a good time to you and I wish you the best take care