Dr. Teresa Larson: The Power of Accepting Help

When John, a two-time Paralympic athlete and a combat army veteran, found himself struggling on a hike, he turned to Dr. Teresa Larson for help. The journey they embarked on, navigating the path of accepting help and embracing change, forms an inspiring and heartwarming narrative that we share in Episode 13 of the Performance Shift podcast.

Dr. Larson, a force to be reckoned with in the realms of health care, fitness, and inclusive wellness, generously shares her experiences and insights, challenging our preconceptions about strength and vulnerability while taking us on a journey through her revolutionary work in the sports program for veterans and adaptive athletes.

We love to hear from you about the challenges and changes you are navigating, or any other thoughts, insights, question or celebrations you'd like to share!

Be in touch!
kat@koppett.com
john@johnregister.com

Transcript

John Register: If you've ever wondered what it takes to achieve a remarkable success, to overcome obstacles and transform your performance in the face of big change, then you're in the right place. 

Kat Koppett: Welcome to Performance Shift, the podcast that will take you on a journey of discovery, exploration and transformation and give you the tools to navigate your own moments of change. 

John Register: I'm John Register, a two-time Paralympic athlete, Combat Army veteran and author. 

Kat Koppett: And I'm Kat Koppett, an organizational consultant, author and improviser. 

John Register: Together, we're going to be sharing our expertise and insights into how we can navigate change and find success in the face of adversity. Hey, good morning everybody. Another day of learning awakes us all. You're back on the Performance Shift podcast. If you ever wonder what it takes to achieve remarkable success, to overcome obstacles and transform your performance in the face of big change, then you are in the right place. 

Kat Koppett: You are here with us live, then you are here with us live. If you are not, you can find us or share us on any place. You get your podcasts Apple, google, anywhere. 

John Register: And if you've been enjoying these episodes, please select that notification bell and share with a friend. We've been having some great content, some great guests. We're playing fantastic games that you can actually use in your life and your business as well, so feel free to use all of it, any of it, none of it to help advance what you're doing in your work, in your field. We have a fantastic guest today, Kat. I can't wait to introduce you to her, and I know that you are halfway around the world right now and you're doing your thing improvisation, because that's what you do. 

Kat Koppett: That's right. I would be applied improvisation network global conference. I think it's like our 22nd or 23rd and in Vancouver, Canada. 

John Register: That's awesome. You got all your teen years. You're growing. 

Kat Koppett: That's right we're a little adolescent than we were. We're a little adolescent Love it. 

John Register: Well, our guest today. I met her in a retreat, a buffalo retreat. That was kind of almost like military lead, I think, a little bit more, but was fantastic. With a glimmer here in Colorado springs, the culinary castle just really was drawn to her and I wanted to introduce you all to her because I think in this topical conversation today she is top choice for this. So she is widely known as Doctor T, a leading authority in the fields of health care and fitness, with a specialization of movement, health and inclusive wellness. As a Marine Corps engineer officer and combat veteran Division I softball player in 2021 force of good recipient, Dr. T's journey to becoming an expert in the field is as impressive as it is inspiring. She holds a doctorate in physical therapy from the esteemed University of St. Augustine in San Diego, California. Driven by deep belief and the importance of being fully present in every moment, that's an improved technique right there, or philosophy, I should say Dr. T advocates for embracing the full spectrum of emotions and experiences that life offers. Together with her husband, she founded MovementRx in 2013, a company that revolutionizes traditional physical therapy by providing skill practitioners the freedom to authentically treat patients with the time, care and movement education they truly deserve. So, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the platform Dr. Teresa Larson Woo. I set the button Woo Woo. 

Kat Koppett: Woo Woo!

John Register: Woo Woo, welcome! Thanks for being on and taking some time out of your schedule to be on with us this morning. 

Dr. Teresa Larson: Oh yeah, it's I, this is an honor to be asked. I was just 30 minutes ago watching a monster truck video with my three year old, so I got my morning started. It was actually a monster truck meditation video, which was. 

Kat Koppett: Okay, you cannot say the words. Monster truck meditation video without it being further. 

Dr. Teresa Larson: No, there's, there's actually a thing, because he's obsessed with monster trucks and so I was like I always meditate in the morning and he has become my little alarm clock. So I typed in you know monster truck meditation, and what came up was monster trucks in slow mo, with rainwater in the background, and so you just watch, you just sit there and you be with the monster truck in the rain. 

Kat Koppett: I love it so much, I love it so much. 

John Register: That's amazing, yeah. Well, one of the things I wanted to jump in on today and the reason I reached I wanted you know you to come on the show and if you should get to Kat is because we were doing a leadership conference. It was great was in Glen Eyrie in Colorado Springs. That sent me an introduction and we all went on. Before the event took place, we were all went on a hike and I knew kind of some of the terrain. I said this is going to be kind of tough for me as an amputee. So early on, you know, after all the instructions were given, I said I'm going to need some help, right, and so I asked for the help early. And so two people helped me through that process. Randy, and then the other one was you. So that's the kind of where I want to start our conversation today and the questions around that is how do we for the, not for? How do we ask for help early and often if we truly need the help? So that's kind of where I want to start our conversation today. 

Dr. Teresa Larson: Okay, well, I really enjoyed helping you and even though I, physically, we were help, I was helping you, you helped me too. So, just so you know it's, I thought that was when you, when you did ask, I was like that's, that's what all people need to be able to see, that like they need to do that. And actually, John, something that I at the Buffalo Leadership Conference that we did that's a big part of my talk is like being aware of the blind spot, to kind of where we are, how we end up, where we are. Right? Because a lot of people, will you know, especially in their health journey I'll relate it to that may wake up and say, wow, how did I get here? I'm 50 pounds right overweight, or I'm, you know, I've got back chronic back pain or now I have type-two diabetes or my blood pressure is through the roof, and they just focus on that right and that, but not the trajectory of that. And the trajectory of that is poor sleep, chronic stress, not handling the things that come up day-to-day, not asking for help for the things they need, not not asking for help early on for the mental struggles that they are dealing with, whether it's with their team, their family memories, right, they wait until it's really bad to ask for help, and it's more common with things that are more emotional days, because there's a there is a stigma behind it. There is a stigma, but I think that that's a key component to leading yourself first. I like to use that phrase leaving yourself first because if you can identify okay, this is, this doesn't feel right, this is going to be really hard for me. I know I can't do it alone, instead of just sucking it up and trying to do it alone right, like asking for help early on can help you with that trajectory, making that trajectory more efficient and effective for you. And we go further together than alone. And so I have a team, even though I am a health provider and I don't do traditional health care anymore. But as a healthcare provider, as a mother, as a business owner, I know that there are going to be things coming up all the time for me that are going to stress me the heck out or cause disconnect, and so I already have set up, you know, help points. I have a therapist I work with, right, I know I have all my schedule. You know movement time, meditation time, sleep is a big part of my journey. It can't be a nice to have, it's got to be a must have and it. You know these things aren't dialed in overnight, they take a while, but, like I had to ask for help for each of them right in different ways, some of them with someone, or it's something I've learned on YouTube or something I've studied. But instead of waiting until something is really bad which I have definitely done right like working on the trajectory of okay, this is this is hard, this is this is not working right now and I keep letting it go, it is going to become this massive problem and so tight getting, getting it nipping in the butt early right is key, and so that asking for help though John is, is a strength. It's not a weakness. It is an incredible strength because you know what, like asking for help meant. I get to connect with you and you got to enjoy the pike without you know, flipping and falling, and I got to connect with you as a very powerful person, learn something about you and I. That's a strength. 

John Register: Yeah, as I'm, you know, kind of thinking, thinking about it, right. There's a couple of things here...you know, I've just charged them out, let's go and after I had my amputation, when I had the amputation the first few days afterwards, you know they're trying to plus your system, trying to get you, you know, doctor, trying to get you to go, and I was struggling with the go, and so I was so weak and so not just out of it but just couldn't do for myself that even that was. Someone had to help me do that, right, and that was the shift in my life. I can point back to that. Here I was, this world-class athlete on my way to the Olympic games, right, and I was in the sport, in my mind I was doing that, had been all American and now I can't even use restroom by myself and it was an embarrassment, it was humiliating with all these things that we think about. But then when the relief came, I was like, oh my gosh, I'm so glad I got the help right and so that I began processing that on where my life do I not ask for help early enough to get the relief that I need to just to be better? So that cannot help other individuals right. And so that's been a work in progress and I've seen I'm more acutely aware of those that are in that space where they just wanna hang on and they're damaging themselves or maybe damaging others that might be around them because they will not ask for the help and so either you or Kat I know that you have some great thoughts around that. I love to just kind of hear your take on some of that. 

Dr. Teresa Larson: Well, shoot, John, you hit the nail on the head. I get to work with a lot of adaptive individuals, actually, and we are all adaptive in our own way, but some more than others, right Cause you and you have you from listening to your story a very uncommon injury, clearly, like most of it. So I'll tell you this like 82, up to 82% of the injuries we see up there are preventable, and there are just some that aren't right, like yours isn't, yours wasn't, the MBT tuition wasn't. But having worked with so many amazing warriors who've had physical, whether they've been put in a wheelchair or lost a limb they I've learned the most from them in asking for help and, like, I love sharing stories of them now when I present, because they set a very good example of, like, the willingness to ask for help early on now, maybe they didn't do that before their injury, right, but, like you said, it's humbling and it can be embarrassing and that's really the story in our minds, right, but it's a human feeling, like I had my own embarrassing story, which I can share here too, about my own injury, injuries, and once you get through that and you realize, okay, this health is like it's a relief, right, I'm better for it, I've made a new friend. I feel more connected to humanity when I do that, and actually if when asking for help early on is if you can get out of your mind the embarrassment or push that aside and realize it's a strength, and the more you can accept this new normal and the fact that there are going to be some phases where you need your handheld, where you just need someone to be there with you 24 seven, and then it's going to be not 24 seven and this a little bit like when you can start to accept that you have a new normal, that you're navigating and that it's not always going to be that intense Like that's a very powerful thing. Sometimes we think when we're in it that it's going to be forever. When's it going to end? And the things we know about physical injuries and mental injuries, which go together, is that there is it's like a bell curve, right, it's going to be intense for a little while and maybe it's going to be a year to yours or a little bit longer or less, depending on the injury. But it will get better if you lean into it versus cope poorly. And the way to lean into it is asking for the help you need along the way, versus coping poorly, beating yourself up, drinking right All the things which I've done. But the thing is, when you really plow through the storm, as we said at the Buffalo conference, work through the storm, don't net try to go around it, but go straight through it like the Buffalo. You will end up on the other side where those feelings and symptoms and all that are less than they were and when things come up again it's like oh you know what, I just need help for that. I need help for that. Maybe you have a struggle with your amputation based around the fit of the socket right, or the way your hip feels with the prosthetic, or the other hip is starting to cause you problems down those things. It's not the same issues you had when you first had the amputation because you were dealing with this whole new normal. Now you're in the new normal but you've got things that pop up like irritation, a wound right. If you have a cut on the bottom of your nub, then that's not fun because you're right in prosthetic, but those things you know. You need help for that and the more you can just lean into that versus being like angry about it, you're gonna suffer less. That's the thing, too is when, the more you can accept that where you're at, versus wish you were like you were before or wish something different, you'll suffer less. And I've experienced that in my own life of motherhood. Right, our bodies are different, our life is different. Right now, I have two humans to feed and keep alive, so I'll play on humans, right, and then myself and my husband. I definitely need help. My parents aren't around anymore and sometimes I'm like what the heck am I doing, you know, and I ask my friends for help, like I don't. Can you make me a meal? Like can you make my family a meal? Because right now I'm really struggling? Or you know, what do you do about this situation? Because I have no idea. Like I just I'm okay, asking for help now because I am in a new normal. I know that if I don't, it's just gonna cause me more suffering, and I know it's a strength and not a weakness. But I know that now based on where I've been, as you do, John. So yeah. 

Kat Koppett: This conversation is, as usual, reminding me of 12 things, but a couple of them are. There was some research out of Stanford, I think, and University of Chicago maybe Nicholas Epley and his partner, whose name I'm not going to remember around asking for help and how we undervalue, we overestimate the burden on people and really underestimate people's willingness to help and how much they want to help. So they did simple studies like asking, like walking around publicly and asking to borrow someone's cell phone, or asking someone to take a picture of you. But the students reported that when they thought about having to go out and do this, like ask a stranger to borrow their cell phone, they had stories about oh, nobody's going to say yes, everybody's going to feel annoyed. And in fact they got much higher responses than they expected and people seemed really, really happy to help. And when they reported on how did it feel to help, most people found a lot of joy in it, which is what I hear you saying, Dr. Larson. 

Dr. Teresa Larson: Oh yeah, now that's actually very interesting because we get in our own way. Essentially, if we were to sum that up, we get in our own way, and one thing I learned on my personal development journey was throw out the considerations of what people think. I mean, we do that all the time. What does that person think? What do they think of me? Like I don't know if I'm going to be embarrassed there and that gets in the way even in business. Oh, that person makes so much Like they wouldn't want to talk to me, or that person has experienced so much Like why would they want to talk to me? And we put ourselves down because of that and versus just their human being and we all actually underneath the surface, we all bleed and cry and put our pants on the same way and so after I learned that this was early on in my journey after becoming a PT, I was like, screw it, I'm throwing out all considerations, I'm going to ask for help. I mean, I have been on an airplane where I've been so tired with my infant that I couldn't figure out how to roll up the stroller. So I'm sitting in line. You know what it's like when you're trying to get on the airplane Nobody's in a good mood because it's 6 AM and I'm like hold the infant, I need help. That's just like random guy holding my infant. Please don't drop it. Ok, because I want to figure out how to roll up the stroller. And then yeah. So it's like we just get in our own ways sometimes when we're like, what's the point of you? Think of us, and I've been there and in business, I am someone you will hear from me a lot if we get to connect, whether it's email or phone or video message. I am constantly I'm not overly constant, but just like persistent and with education and hallows, and oftentimes people get lost in their messaging and so it's like, instead of thinking, oh my gosh, they haven't responded to me. I don't know what's going on with them, maybe they don't like me. I throw that out. I'm like nope, I am just going to keep saying hello and even with friends right, if I haven't heard them from them in a while, just keep pulling in. Hey, how's it going? Versus thinking, oh, they haven't gotten back to me and maybe they don't like me anymore. Stuff like that that doesn't even not even a thought and I think that's an important distinction for people is to throw out the considerations of what people think and that's what took Jimmy to you, John. It was like early on in this group, you don't even know. You're like yeah, I'm going to need help. Got it Ready to do that? I would love to help you and you know what, I'd love to connect with you. That was my thinking. No thought of like, oh man, this guy and I know everyone else there probably felt the same. It was like, oh yeah, of course, some of them probably didn't know how to help you. That's the thing with the AdoptUs Community is I find trainers health providers when it comes to returning to fitness, or you know like people get so strung out in my industry about or trainers like, oh, I don't know, I don't want to hurt you, you know you're already hurt. Well, now you have a new normal. Yeah, you, I know you have a paper cut, significantly a paper cut. However, like no, you're not going to hurt them more and actually, why don't you this is what I tell trainers ask them what they need, versus not saying anything at all or push you into a corner? I don't know what to do with you. I don't want to hurt you more. No, ask them what you need. Don't be a you know a wallflower like you're a coach. You know they're going to teach you more. They're going to make you a better coach. They're going to make you a better health provider to lean into that. Don't just say I don't know or push them off to someone else. Be a resource and don't be scared of hurting them more, especially if you pay attention to them and ask them what they need, so. 

John Register: So yeah, like so I'm like I'm Kat right now. I got like 15 things in my head, three I want to. Just that is when I was building the with the team building the military sport program. One of our challenges was worthy the family members that had now received their loved one again who's been injured in Iraq or Afghanistan and they're missing limbs or there's spinal cord injury or something, and they're doing the military sport camp. That was exactly what they didn't want them to do. You may not want to do this activity because you might get hurt more. So it was an interesting dynamic to help walk family members through this process because they began blocking actually the recovery of the sports aspect of it. So we got another person, another group, to manage that piece and give them something to do so then they can all have this shared experience. But that was a, that was a nuance for me. I didn't, I didn't know that was going on. And then the set thank you for using the term to do normal. Yes, yeah, yes. And the next thing was how do we I guess are there ways for this word either one of you other ways that we can teach how to be out of the negative talk, right. How do we train people to see the positive side and not the negative side? I like to quite equate it in business, because in business we tell ourselves these negative things. I see it all the time happening I don't deserve the promotion, or my idea's not going to get put out and they're going to think it's going to be stupid or something like that, and we negative talk ourselves into something that might be able to actually release the organization. So I'd love to know from either one of you what type of steps can we take? 

Dr. Teresa Larson: Kat, you want to? 

Kat Koppett: Well, it's such a delicious question and a few things come to mind. One is we have an actual framework that we teach people when we go into organizations about recognizing, managing self-talk, and it has four steps. The first is to recognize the self-talk, so paying attention to what are the stories in my head, what am I actually making up in my head? And I love what you just said, Dr. Larson, about letting that go. But first you have to know it's there. Sometimes we just like, oh, I'm not going to call because I have this idea this person is too important or they won't want to talk to us. So capturing it. The second step is to actually write it down. So we can't always do that in the moment, but if I have a recurring self-thought, the physicality of writing it down can help and then I can distance myself from it. The third step is to reframe it. So it's got R's in it, john, a framework with R's in it. We reframe it and this is the piece that in the US, especially in the 80s and 90s, we would have these super hyper-positive affirmations that in some ways were blocks of what we actually were feeling and experiencing. But sometimes our self-talk can be very helpful. I can do this. But when it's not helpful, how do I reframe it? And reframing is just what feels true. What can I actually believe? But that's going to be more helpful. So if I want to call someone, I think, oh, they're too important. They won't want to talk to me. Maybe a reframe is. All he can say is no, or maybe the frame is. I know when people ask me for my expertise, I feel very honored and very willing to help. So how do I just reframe it? And then the fourth R is to repeat that Nice. I repeat it OK, I just know that that's going to be an iterative process, as you were saying, that it's not a one-time fix. It's a practice of recognizing, distancing, reframing, and then just part of it is being able to pull away from, detach from the thoughts and stories and feelings that I'm having, not block them or try to get rid of them, but just notice that they're not, they don't have to be me or I don't have to get hooked by them. 

Dr. Teresa Larson: Yeah, Kat, I love that and actually I'll take it another step further with coming as a, so, when I work with organizations, sometimes I said it out loud, sometimes I don't. But yes, I care about your business, but I care more about you as an individual and your people. I know I said that Buffalo Conference in a very loud way. Anyway, I get really into it. But it's the foundation of recognizing and it's like, ok, well, the foundation is mindfulness, yeah, and that is the practice of being aware. Well, it's not the practice, it is being aware in any given moment. So that is part of our. The five components to well-being is that sleep, we've got mindset, food, movement and then social support. Now, I know there are other components to well-being, like financial success, but how we show up to navigate those depends on our physical health and mental health. But to go together and so a blind spot for people is the fact that training their mind through mindfulness and meditation, which has been extremely powerful for me. There's no really way around it. It's like the best way to train your mind is in mindfulness and meditation and the research all points to that, like how to be present in any given moment, which be where your feet are. Essentially, that's not easy and nor are we going to do that 100% of our day, but if we can do that a lot of our day, like that actually creates happiness. That is a research. You could be cleaning toilets and completely present cleaning that toilet bowl and you will be happier than cleaning toilets with your mind on a million other things that's stuck doing that. So if you're present to how you show up which the practice of being present is mindful meditation, it makes you a more mindful person. So when you start to be more present, you're like wow, I showed up really poorly today. I wasn't nice to that person because I woke up on the wrong side of the bed. And then you can go back and say I messed up versus just plowing through like you normally do and running over. People are not paying attention to how you're showing up for your family and your people at work, and so that's the foundation. I often share about that in my presentations, because we think of meditation as like a nice to have or a hippie-dippy thing, and it's not. It's a necessity for our longevity, and you've got to take a step back and pause and say how are we showing up? Do we want to be a big D to people, or do we want to be nice, do we want to be kind and do we want to be firm? But do we want to be confident? And oftentimes we don't even take a step back to look at how we're showing up to people and it's OK to mess up, it's OK to not have great days, but it's more important to just say I'm having a rough day, let me think about this, or I think that will help the recognized reframe repeat yeah, peace. But you have to be doing that in your life in general and the way to practice that, the lifestyle component is meditation. Meditation will make you a more mindful person and that's a foundation for one of the five components of well-being that I teach.  

John Register: I'm smiling because I'm like, I don't know why this is in my head right now, Kat, I'm seeing everything through the lens of improv right now that she's just saying. 

Kat Koppett: Oh yeah, Absolutely. 

John Register: Be where your feet are right. So being absolutely, 100% present and not going further and down the road I have because we're all going to fail. Circus bow. Take the circus bow, and then I care about you more than your business, right? So I'm going to care about my partner and make them look good and I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm learning. 

Kat Koppett: Like you know everything, John, All of those principles, and I want to add another one. I'll just connect you to the last one that you said and ask you about this. The last one which you said, which is I want to make my partner look good, so I'm going to focus on my partner, not on myself. An extension of that is this idea that we are in community, that we are co-creating, right? And the theme today of asking for help that we started with. I'm curious about your thoughts about that. Like I think in the US, we can tend to be, especially in the US, in a lot of Western cultures very individualistic and very identified with ourself. This is me, this is who I am. I have to do it myself. How am I going to look, which I know meditation can help with as well but can you talk a little bit about the collective or community level of this, as opposed to the individual level?

Dr. Teresa Larson: Asking for help? 

Kat Koppett: Yeah, wellness, well-being, asking for help, like any of it. 

Dr. Teresa Larson: This is actually so interesting. Some of the studies coming out now talk about this social contagion, how health is contagious. So that is when I speak to leaders at the Bethelau conference. It was. You don't read the one of the line such as you don't realize that your health is contagious to everyone around you your spouse, your partner, your kids, your people. So we kind of think of ourselves as separate. Like you said, Kat, like I'm good, got my own thing going on. People have their own things, but you know what? Everyone's watching you and vice versa, you're watching everyone else. And like I walk around my house I gave this example like there's monster trucks everywhere, there's dinosaurs everywhere watching me, like they're sitting, watching me eat, they're sitting in the bathroom, like everywhere I look, I'm like there's things watching me, like kids, you know and I use that analogy, but it's true like I walk, the way I show up to my team, we're all virtual, so they're gonna be paying attention to how I'm connecting with them. Am I on my phone? Am I doing a million different things, right and what? Or am I actually like listening to them with the highs and lows of their weak heart, and so that's something I think that is a blind spot for people. It's not a blind spot for me anymore, right, because this is something I've studied and really looked into in my own life. First, like everything I talk about, I've like experienced in my own life, and then I like I realized you can talk to other leaders. This is something that's a bit of an epidemic too, of not being aware that your actions impact everyone else, and there's this in meditation. There's this concept of humanity right Of, we're all connected underneath the surface. We're so similar. We wanna be loved, cared for, we wanna be safe, we want shelter, food, all that stuff we wanna steam get. On the surface, that looks different for each of us and we all suffer. We all look a little different in how we suffer, maybe your way of not feeling loved, so you suffer a little bit differently than me, or even your injury, which have the same right shoulder injury, but you're going to experience it differently than me just because of the way our brain perceives pain and so I think that's I navigate that with people and organizations, specifically leaders who want to help their organization be better is the fact that how their example is contagious. So if they wanna see change, they need to be that change. It's as simple as that. But then I show them where right they can start showing up better, which is through the sleep, the movement, the mindset, training, food and then social support, like if you're just connecting with colleagues of work every day, you need other people in your life. I learned that moving to a new town. It's like I had no friends here. My first friends were police officers because I did a talk at like the FBI in Durango or Denver and I was like, well, I can have friends that are police officers, but like I need other friends too. And so finally meeting other mountain moms and just people doing great things and navigating their lives differently, it just was awesome, like it really helped me and I feel healthier because of it. And they're not work related, yeah absolutely and so that is, I think, the number one thing is just as a leader which a leader doesn't have to be leading a company, it's like you have a family, right? Leading yourself. Your human being, Like your health, is contagious to others. 

John Register: Yeah, there's David. He's another group that I'm in and just wanted to kind of honor his thought here about around. He's an amputee. We're probably an amputee community together and one of the things. So if you're listening to this, David says morning everyone John and David and I found out that mental health plays a lot in the amputee community. When they first experienced their amputation, they feel like what am I going to do and how am I going to live and support my family? That was definitely me. But what they need to understand that their life is not over and they will survive and reaching out and talking with someone who's gone through an amputation and get support to let them know they are going to be okay. Exactly what you're saying. Both of you are saying. So thank you. I wanted to just honor you with that, David. Thank you for being on this morning. I have one last question then. Let me get into a game after that. In the work that you're doing, Dr. T, with these various organizations that you were even mentioning with the TRX, CrossFit and the Veterans Administration, Baptist Sports what have been some of the most rewarding moments in promoting movement and mindset through these diverse populations? 

Dr. Teresa Larson: So some of the most rewarding moments have been one was when I first started, so when I first became a DPP. Now I became a DPP, Dr. PT later in my career. So I was a Marine Engineer Officer. I played a year of professional softball in Italy and then I got injured when I broke my big toe. Now, if you ever seen fast pitch softball yeah, I was playing soccer in Italy and as a pitcher, like if you ever watched fast pitch softball, like we drag our back foot right, we open up and we drag our back foot. Now that back foot was the one I broke and so imagine, I just still pitch with a broken toe. So I ended up having to see a sports medicine doctor out in Italy couldn't speak a lick of Italian. My husband actually played football American football in Italy and could speak Italian, no problem. I did not meet him there, though this was later on. However, it was through that experience I was like I love, I wanna be able to help people navigate these injuries. Now the title is orthopedic in nature, but it got me inspired to be in the health field and I so. Then I decided okay, I'm gonna do PT, because one it was movement-based and then, early on, after I got my doctorate, I started to get involved in the working wounded game and which is a more cross-fit based, adaptive sports game, if you will, competition. And I was actually. I found a class in San Diego that I could help volunteer and they would take veterans or active duty military that are going through rehab in the C5 unit with their amputation or spinal cord injury and or TBI to my brain injury and take them to this gym and they would do some strength and conditioning and it was that really got me going. I was like, oh man, I had already started my own practice. Then I started my own practice right away because I was like I do not belong in a regular PT clinic. I need to do my own thing. I don't need, I don't want to boss. I don't want to say I'll boss, okay. My husband even say, yeah, yeah, you need, you need to be your boss. So anyway, but not one of the first classes I taught, I met a man who a veteran or he's still active duty but going through rehab or traumatic brain injury is the pretty significant traumatic brain injury, and so I started to and he'd done so. Unfortunately, this gym wasn't really navigating training very well for these adaptive athletes. They were throwing hero workouts at them, and so that again there was another disconnect in the strength and conditioning sports. Strength and conditioning field, I should say, was like these guys are going through rehab currently, like they don't need to be doing hero workouts, which are extremely intense. There needs to be a progression to getting them there, because they can get there, but it can't be like day one, and so that was something I also navigated over time and I took the Warriors out of this gym and put them in another gym because it wasn't in. It ended up not being safe for them, but there was a lack of knowledge from the coaches of what to do, and so, but anyway, one of the first Warriors I worked with came out of the bud. He injured himself and got a traumatic brain injury and was dealing with alcoholism because he wasn't allowed to be back in the team. Well, he wasn't allowed to continue training. Going back to Buds he was. He developed alcoholism and was just really down and out significant migraines and I started to work in the PT clinic with him. So he wanted to work with me. 

John Register: And I just say what? Just tell our audience what BUDS means. 

Dr. Teresa Larson: Oh yeah, basic underwater demolition, something. So it's, it's the training that Navy SEALs do before they become Navy SEALs. Actually, it's the six months of training they have to do. John and John McCaskill and Phillip will probably they could tell you, but they, they're guys that worked with me at the Buffalo Conference. Anyway, this, this individual I worked with, I put my, you know, I helped him navigate his brain injury and training and helped him with a progressive program and I really loved it and I loved helping him and I also. We also navigated the alcoholism. Like I'm not a therapist, it's mental health therapist, and I made sure he was seeing someone, but I knew that he was missing his purpose. He wasn't able to do the thing he was wanted to do for so long. He had to find a new normal and so, helping him navigate that he ended up deciding to go back and get a kinesiology degree and then become a PT later on and that took him years. But like that's his new purpose is basically doing, you know, working with individuals like himself who've had significant injuries, like he, john, and helping them navigate this new normal in a powerful way. What a great new purpose, meaning other Navy SEALs who have injured themselves severely or other warriors. So that was the early in my career. The first time I really like I knew that I was on the right path in terms of my profession, is working with these warriors, with him, and I knew I needed to continue to do that and now, in my my work, what it looks like is I no longer have a PT clinic but we have a college level course to help coaches and future health providers navigate how to work with adopted athletes post rehab. Rehab is a whole new ball game but like, what's next is the big question and what I do in the corporate space and in government contracting space is bring that inclusivity and fitness to the program, because it's all looks like you know the average Joe out there, but like the average Joe, there's no, we need more than the average Joe. We need that. The Joe, the house missing limb, the Joe that's in the wheelchair. I said Joe, it's the thing that has a TBI. Like we need to be inclusive to all abilities with these wellness offerings, and they're not and so that's what I do in the corporate and government space.

John Register: Dodgeball! Average Joes.

Dr. Teresa Larson: Yeah, I know, I actually showed oh my gosh, John. In the conference. I showed the quitting scene from with Lance Armstrong and Vince Vaughn, I think is his name? And it was like, you know. He's like, oh, they saw him in a bar at the airport or something like that, and like I'm a big fan, and then just like, oh, I quit. Actually, he's like oh man why man Like you know if I, if I I had just testicular cancer, brain cancer and lung cancer and then you know I wonder if I couldn't quit. Like I. You know, it was just a funny scene, like kind of demonstrating why are we quitting on ourselves or not like waiting till we feel like it to do something? You just do it. You don't quit. 

John Register: If you can Dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball.

Dr. Teresa Larson: That's right!

Kat Koppett: Shall, we play a game, John? 

John Register: Let's play a game. 

Kat Koppett: So I've been thinking we always play an improv game, I always try to match it to what we're doing, and I've been thinking, as we've been talking, what would be appropriate, but I can't get past monster trucks, monster truck meditation.

Dr. Teresa Larson: OK.

Kat Koppett: It's by far the most fascinating thing we've said. In this very fascinating content. We're going to play a game that I was reminded of by my colleague, Gary Hirsch, from a consultancy called On your Feet, just yesterday in a session here at the Applied Improv Network Conference, and it's got, It's got a preliminary step, and then and then we'll play. So the preliminary step is think of three things that you really love. They could be anything. It could be ice cream, be puppies, be your kids, could be monster trucks, whatever you want. So think of three things. I'll give you a moment to do that, and then we're just going to share those three things. So, John, when you're ready, tell us three things you love. 

John Register: Three things: Music, travel and the Incredibles. 

Kat Koppett: Music, travel and the Incredibles. Great. Three things I love are improv, crème brûlée and reading my daughter's newspaper, because she's the editor-in-chief of the paper at school. How about you, doctor? 

Dr. Teresa Larson: Okay, I like peanut butter, whipped cream and my husband's smile. 

Kat Koppett: Okay, so we have nine things now. This is a creativity exercise and ideation activity. If we're going to use a you know wonky corporate word, we're going to try to come up with a new product or idea, mashing up our favorite things, like monster truck meditation. So, for example, I heard peanut butter and I heard the Incredibles. So I might say, oh, how about we make like an incredible super food based on peanut butter? It's called, you know, the Incredible Peanut Butter, where we take all of the great nutrients and healthy things and stick it in a jar of peanut butter.

Dr. Teresa Larson: So I need you to repeat your three because I want to write them down.

Kat Koppett: Oh, if I can remember them. I said crème brûlée, I said reading my daughter's newspaper and I think I said improv.

John Register: Yep. 

Dr. Teresa Larson: I love crème brûlée too.

Kat Koppett: Yeah, with whipped cream and peanut butter.

Dr. Teresa Larson: And John, yours is travel right. 

John Register: Mine was travel music and the Incredibles. 

Dr. Teresa Larson: Okay, got it. Okay, this is really fun. 

Kat Koppett: Yeah, so anybody, any few things that they would like. 

John Register: What I matched up was the musical crème brûlée.

Dr. Teresa Larson: Musical crème brûlée.

John Register: Crème brûlée music. The musical crème brûlées. The crème brûlée music.

Kat Koppett: Fantastic, like the new Broadway hit musical. 

John Register: The Broadway hit, the Broadway show is the crème brûlée. 

Kat Koppett: Brilliant, brilliant, like about oh-

John Register: The crème brûlées!

Dr. Teresa Larson: Well, my, okay. So a new travel experience is a product, right?

Kat Koppett: Yeah. 

Dr. Teresa Larson: An incredible travel experience where there's whipped cream and peanut butter in crème brûlée. 

Kat Koppett: Serve you every day, every day I, just like you, can travel experience, like when you tour around to different places and experience their crème brûlée desserts with you know whipped cream, peanut butter. 

Dr. Teresa Larson: I love that. Yeah, it can be dressed as the Incredibles or just it can be incredible yeah brilliant, good. 

Kat Koppett: One or two more, any two things that you want to do? Do you want to mash up? 

John Register: Let's see how. About newspapers and travel. The travel section of the newspaper, I'm thinking? But there's an emotional connection around with that too. So how do we do something about the emotional connection of-

Kat Koppett: Travel and newspapers?  

John Register: Travel and newspapers. 

Kat Koppett: How about this. You can upload a product where you can take your travel photos that you've taken and you upload it to a site, maybe it's AI and they will create an entire front page of a newspaper for you with headline stories about your trip.

Dr. Teresa Larson: I love it. Yeah, that's awesome. How about a musical experience centered around the musical experience, centered around reading the newspaper? 

John Register: News Boys! 

Kat Koppett: But also like I heard when you said that like there's somehow you can sync the soundtrack for the story. So if it's a happy story, you want to find a happy soundtrack or something. I want to do something with your husband's smile. That was such a lovely thing to love. 

John Register: Yeah, that was a great one. 

Kat Koppett: I thought it like musical. We're talking about musical, maybe like a musical toothbrush, that for a kid or someone who doesn't brush their teeth long enough, like you brush your teeth until the song ends?  

Dr. Teresa Larson: Yeah oh, that's a good one. I could use that one for my kids. 

Kat Koppett: Yeah, all right, so that's that. I mean we could play forever, but that's the game and it's a super fun way to sort of generate ideas for real right. 

Dr. Teresa Larson: Yeah, I love it. 

Kat Koppett: I just want to mash them up. My colleague, Gary Hirsch, said to us there are no new ideas, they're just new collisions.

Dr. Teresa Larson: Yeah, absolutely.

John Register: Love that. Oh, that's so beautiful. Well, this has been fantastic. You have some things I think we can also share, but some resources that people can you looked at some earlier. Would you please share those resources with the audience and then, Kat, you can share yours, and I'll share mine. For some additional helps. 

Dr. Teresa Larson: Absolutely. If you want to get ahold of me, I have, especially from the show, like you can email me Teresa dot Larsen at movement-rx.com, the T-H-E-R-E-S-A dot Larsen at movement-rx.com, and I have an actual lifestyle Rx printout that I can send you. So anyone from the show listening is happy to send you this, because it's actually can be super helpful for you to kind of understand where in your life you can start working on your health and not make it a nice have and a need to have. My company is movement-rx. It's a great way to find me, too. If you can't remember that email movement-rx.com and best social media is LinkedIn. So I'm Dr Teresa Larsen, DTT on LinkedIn. 

John Register: And we'll put those in the show notes and Kat, your book, of course, is-

Kat Koppett: Training to imagine practical improvisational theater, techniques for creativity, communication, leadership and learning or something like that, and I have a whole bunch of principles of improv and then a lot of activities around how to apply it. Great activity. Collectively, yeah. 

John Register: Great activity in that book. Highly recommend Kat's book and then I have 10 power stories to impact any leader Journey your way to leadership success, and so, after reading that book, you should have 10 of your own stories that you can share in times of crisis. So thank you all for being on. What a great show!

Dr. Teresa Larson: Thank you.

Kat Koppett: Thank you, it's been fantastic. Yeah, no, this was really good and I'm glad it went well. It always goes in a great direction, so I'm really thankful. So thanks for being a part of Performance Shift. Remember, change is inevitable, but the right mindset and tools you can shift your performance and achieve greatness. Stay tuned for our next episode. We will continue to explore and transform with the power of change. Go forth and inspire your world, everybody, and we'll chat with you back here next week. Bye for now. Thank you. Bye.