Rhythmic Exercises For Dementia Wellness

Introduction to Jill Simpson 0:00

Welcome back to this episode of the Reverse Alzheimer's Summit. I'm your host, Dr. Heather Sandison, and I'm delighted to introduce you to Jill Simpson today. She is Seniors' Fitness and Healthy Aging specialist. She's a woman on a mission to change the way we think about aging. Jill has spent the past decade inspiring and empowering older adults to be their best possible selves at every age, and then teaching them how to do it. Jill, it's so exciting to have you here. Welcome. Yeah, I'm happy to be here.

So first, I want you to share with everyone when when we first met, I was so impressed by just how many people you have interfaced with around healthy exercise, safe, healthy exercise as they age. So you can you just give everyone a little bit of a background into your experience. Okay. Well, I was a dancer. I was a professional dancer. And after homeschooling my children, which took up 15 years of my life, I decided to go back to teaching. And I was asked to go back and teach seniors fitness of all things.

And I thought, okay, that sounds good. So I went to do my certification and I had just started teaching for the City Parks Rec Department, and my boss called me into her office and she was like, We have had complaints about you. And I was like, okay, what have I done? And she said, Well, one lady has said that she felt things were moving to the beat of the music. And that's not how a fitness class went that seemed too dancey for her. And then this other person had complained.

First Dementia Fitness Class 2:00

I made them sweat during their exercise class. And she'd done this class for five years, and she never sweated. And she wanted to make a formal complaint. And I thought, okay, well, I didn't know what to say. Anyhow, my boss went on to say that the Alzheimer's Society had contacted her, so she took care of this whole huge district of people. And they were looking, asking her to recommend somebody to teach a pilot program that they had developed was called Minds in Motion. And she said, you don't seem to be able to do anything inside the box.

I think you would be perfect. So she said, I've set up an interview, go do it. And I met the my supervisor at the Alzheimer's Society and we were like 10 minutes into the conversation. And she said her case that the job to get the right attitude, let's go. So it turned out that there was almost there was a very short timeline when the grant approval all this Strong on Grant's rights had actually been the granted actually going approved. So before the grant they had spent all this time designing there were two parts to this program.

One was a physical exercise for an hour, and one was a cognitive social engagement where people sat together in a little room and did activities. And they had spent all this time on the social engagement. And nobody has led by that time. They thought they weren't getting the grant, had put any thought into what they were going to do for a class, specifically for people with dementia. So the class went it was for people with dementia and a care partner, which was the best thing about it. And they both did the same class simultaneously in the same way, which is great.

Anyhow, we got to day one, which was only like five days later after, and my supervisor said, I just want you to know that the Alzheimer's Society I hate exercise. I loathed and I've never been to an exercise class I've never exercised. And you are 100% on your own. So just do whatever you do best. So I it was a terrible thing using this basement of this old community center, and it felt like it got down to the morgue level at the hospital or something, right? No natural light. And there were I walked in and there were 15 people with Alzheimer's and 15 care partners and volunteers from the Alzheimer's Society trying to put them through this battery of tests where they were testing strength and cardiovascular capacity and all of this.

And it was rather chaotic. And it was really obvious that these people, the people with Alzheimer's, they were not happy about being there. It was like going and getting tested. It's where you get tested, prodded and poked, right? When you go to. So there it was. There was a lot of noise and struggle and I don't want to do this and it going on and I'm thinking, this is not good beginning. And there was this one woman, Fay, and she had Tourette's also. So she was peppering. They are constantly swearing and cursing the weight and everybody was getting super agitated.

So finally the test came out or the testing was over. They gathered their statistics beforehand for the grant and my boss looks at me and says, Well, it's all yours. I was like, Everything I had planned to do in this class just went out the window like I knew nothing was going to work that I had preconceived. So I, I just sort of did a wing nut routine and I had everybody pull their chairs into this giant circle. So we had we also an Alice insisted that the staff from the Alzheimer's Society took the class too.

So this was her first fitness class ever. So we told them into a big circle. And I dunk through my music on the iPod because what I had chosen was not what was going to work and found something. And I just asked people, I said, there's no right and wrong with doing the thing in this class. If you're moving, you're breathing, you're smiling. That's good enough for me. You don't have to do it the same way I do. Whatever. So I turn on this music. I had them sit down and I did really just simple little movements.

And to my surprise, everybody just sort of everybody was able to follow right where you are. And actually, some of the people with Alzheimer's did a far better following. Well, than my boss did, actually. And so I thought, oh, that was interesting.

Building a Program for People with Dementia 7:00

So I upped the ante of, okay, well, we'll make this a little more complicated. We'll lose more parts of our body and everybody was able to follow. So I opted again and said, okay, so this is not what I was expecting. But everybody that was visual and everybody was able to translate what I was doing into their body, not not in exactly the same way, but in no class does it work that way. So then I asked them to get up and we put the chairs away and I found this all. I remember this moment distinctly.

It was a 1957 tune called Ain't got no Home, and I turned up the music really loud and just said, okay, whatever I do, you guys just follow right? And just enjoy yourself. And I turn up the music and 15 minutes into the class Fay had quit swearing, everybody quit complaining. And all this anxiety and angst about being there was just totally gone. And people were smiling and they were laughing. And I was like, Wow, what just happened? Right? So that was a really pivotal moment in my life because I had taken care of my dad, who had Lewy body, and I had never thought about dancing and being with him.

I had never crossed my mind. And I was like, Oh, this is a way that I, as a dancer and a fitness instructor, instructor, have a way to communicate with I can communicate with you movement. And so it just grew from there. It was just an amazing moment. I thought, I have to understand more about this. And then I spent a decade studying the brain and how it works and why it doesn't work. So that's the story. How exciting. And so since then, you have really dedicated your career to supporting people with neurodegenerative disease through movement.

So give us a little sense of what the classes that you offer and the different type of people that you work with right now. COVID changed everything. A lot of the programs that I was doing, I worked with wonderful residential home facilities for people. I'm going to say from 20 to 50 that had cognitive issues at birth. So a lot of kids with Down's and cerebral palsy, a lot of them in wheelchairs, and we danced and we drummed and we performed. We would go around the community and perform. And I worked with people with I worked for the society, the Parkinson's Society.

I did the training with National Ballet. I was the Dancing for dancing with Parkinson's. Yeah. I sort of worked with everybody. But I the fitness for your aging brain, which is my big focus right now, is has two strings. And it started off that it was just it came out of this grant this grant and this pilot study and my about week four, this lady came up to me, Camille, and said, I want to tell you something privately. So we went off and she said, Something strange is happening to her husband Johnny.

At home. He had early onset and had had it since his mid-fifties. Early, yeah. Of 55 she said, she said when we go home from class we have this photo album and I always leave it on the table, right. And it's sitting in it, sitting on the kitchen table. And Johnny went home from class a couple of weeks ago when you open the photo album and he started talking about the people in the album and he said, she said he hasn't remembered or recognized a single person in that album for two years. And so she said every week she would go home and they open the album and he recommended for a couple of days.

Right. And then that that would fade and I thought that was really interesting. Anyhow, the group of people in this Alzheimer's class got together and they wanted to know what was going to happen to them at the end of the pilot. Right. It was only eight weeks. And so one lady stood up and said, so what are you going to do with this at the end of eight weeks? You can't make us. That's not fair to make us feel better and then check us out. So along with my boss, she encouraged me to set up a program where they could go.

And this was 2014 and a lot of them were with me right until COVID shut us down in 2020. Wow. That went on for quite a while and then. We. Really embraced Zoom and being able to provide fitness classes online. Is that right? Well, what happened when COVID hit? I, I had a lot of people that I was working with live. I had never taught on Zoom before, never recorded. And it was, Oh my gosh, what am I going to do? So I, I caught these companies

COVID, Zoom, and Exercise Kits 12:40

and my suppliers into give me a super discount. And I made 150 little kids in bags and I threw them in the trunk of a car. And I went to the parking lot because we weren't allowed to go in and everybody would meet. People thought I was selling illegal hand sanitizer in the beginning because this was like the first three weeks of Kohl's in lockdown. So everybody had a kit or those who couldn't do it. I made it out of household items and like two and a half, three weeks after COVID hit, we were doing the classes online.

So I really. Had to do that. So I went I went to talk high level. I want I want everybody to know what's in the kit and then let's tell them why these kids are important. So what's in the kit? Oh, well, there is there is a dryer ball like, you know, the little spiky hard kind that we use to help people train their balance. So it it stimulates the mechanic. We stimulate the mechanic receptor, the nerves in your hands and your feet. And then we work on balance, and then I teach them to do this at home.

So a lot of people, especially people who might have had chemo, I have trouble with feeling in their limbs. They said it was extremely helpful. Balance improves demand. So we were told on a balance we have balls that we bounce, we have cones. Are these funny little things that you can throw a ball and catch them in the air? We have big balls. We have weighted balls. They weigh like two or £3 and they're both the size of your hand and you feel like you're insert the saline when you're doing this right.

It's easy to catch, but there's this real sense of accomplishment because of the weight as it hits in your hand. We have bands, all different kinds of like Sarah, bands that we don't traditionally use in the same way we have little rhythm instruments because when you move tiny, tiny little movements while up your heart rate more than goes for a walk, you can up your heart rate sitting on the couch, shaking a little bottle of with rice so that you can double your heart rate in a minute and you're sitting on the couch.

Right. And then my favorite item is the Dollar Store Bruiser Neck. Just the handle out of the broom. Used to be a dollar. It's now up to a dollar 50. But the best piece of fitness equipment that we have in that kit, so and we're using it in different ways all the time. If you use something in the same way, your brain has no challenge. So you've got to do it. Everything has to be different. Every class has to be novel. Every class has to be a challenge. I think when I first heard you say you were dropping these kids off, I was like, okay, what's in their socks?

But yeah, they're they're these props basically that you're using. To give. You the exercise and that is helping with what we call. There's another interview here on the reversing Alzheimer's Summit with Ryan Glatt from the Pacific Neuroscience Institute. And we're talking about dual task exercises and really diving into the science of why it's important to engage your brain at the same time that you're engaging physically. And it sounds like a lot of your exercises do just that. So tell us what a typical exercise routine with you would be like a class would be like with you.

Is it 30 minutes? Is it an hour? How does it start? What do you do during it? How does it end? And why is there a particular way you've set up classes specifically for people with dementia? The demand is the ones specifically for dementia are not really particularly different. The concept from those who are trying to prevent dementia, because we all the basic principles are the same. If you do the same thing over and over, your brain goes, I'm going to sleep. And brains to me are like my I remember my teenagers.

They, they would do the least passable work around my house. My lawn would grow a foot and a half that they were lazy. And your brain is like that. It's conserving energy, right? So it's going to put it into something else only if it's forced to do it. So there is no typical class. Every day is absolutely different. Sometimes we're working with words as we work with our body, but it's always a combination of physical and cognitive. And you said dual tasks. So in, in a class we are multitasking. We might be doing three or four different things.

And most important, we are timing it to music. So the rhythm of the music, upping the dopamine in your brain and people, especially with dementia, can follow the music very well. And they have that sense in, you know, that that rhythm and that music is such a stimulant. So whatever it is, we're always doing it to music. And I try to make it different and I try to make it fun so that people want to be there. Right. There is so many great points you have there. I think a lot of people who aren't professionally working in the Alzheimer's space don't realize that music is and rhythm is one of the last things that a classic Alzheimer's patient will lose.

And so at Morongo, we have a resident who's quite progressed, but she still knows the words to Jingle Bells. So, so these really familiar rhythms, or especially if there's an emotional attachment, if it was, say, a song played at your wedding or your prom or something that really stood out to you, those will be ingrained and you'll have access to that. Either the lyrics or at least a familiar idea with the rhythm. And those memories of those moments might also come back. And then this idea that Variety is the name of the game here, we want it mixing it up continually, and then you also encourage people to get involved.

We talked about these props in even making the props now. So if four people online actually, can I just go back and tell you a little story? See, I had a gentleman in my Alzheimer's class and he was in his mid nineties and he was pretty progressed in terms of Alzheimer's, but he had all these other body health issues right as well. And his daughter, who came to the class with him every week, called me. He'd been away for a couple of weeks and she called me and she said, Dad's in hospice

How the Classes Work 19:40

and I would it be possible if you could tell me what some of the music you played in the class was? Because he loved it and he had been a singer and we always played really boppy rhythmic music. I said, Well, I'll do better than that. We will bring the class to the hospice. So a bunch of us I talked to everybody in the class and a group of us took the music and the tour and our art class to his room in the hospice. It was the loudest room in the whole hospice because we had the music cranked up and Tom was there and he was lying in bed.

And the minute I turn the music on, this was a man who had forgotten how to swallow. He could no longer chew, who was at the end of his ability for his brain to keep his body functioning. I saw showing their tones. I mean, I could see him looking at me and all of a sudden he's doing these he's doing the moves, right that we had done in class. And he is they were part of his body. Right. And a man who couldn't swallow could dance lying down in bed. And then he died that night. But we had a lovely class.

It was just it was great. What an incredible goodbye. And this idea that it's fun, right? That it's in his when he's, like, essentially going in the direction, taking his last breath, that he would find the energy and capacity to join you. But part of that is because it's fun and it's enjoyable, right? So there's motivation to keep coming back. And the other variety is really important. Consistency is also important. Continuing to telepathy is how we get the benefits right. If you show up when you're not going to get the benefit and I share this with my patients, I say all the time, you know, if doing some online cognitive challenge games, if you're not having fun, skip it.

And let's think about something else that you can do that will be fun. What motivates you? Is it the social piece? Is it looking good? Is it the capacity to be able to, you know, do things around the house, remain independent? What is it that motivates you? Let's connect to that and then let's also make it really fun so that you want to be there, because then it's more likely that you're going to continue to show up and get the benefit. So what are the things that you do to make it fun? Oh, I'm unabashedly silly.

Yeah, I can. I am totally not self-conscious of what I do, and if I mess up, they love it. If we're ever tossing a ball and I miss it is the highlight of their class, you know. And that's one thing with the Alzheimer's group watching. They're working in partners with care partners, right. So and it doesn't have to be 1 to 1, but watching your care partner struggling to do this, too, creates a lot of laughter. And not I mean, the exercises aren't there's nothing to accomplish. And I make that really clear.

There's no right and wrong way. Right. What is important is the process. So we're doing the same exercise. You get it right away. I don't get it. Well, my brain is working harder than yours because you're were so in and got it slack off. Mine is still on high alert. Right. And I think part of it too is people come out feeling the words they made up is brain buds empty saying, I would I come out and I've got I've got this sort of tingle. It feels like my brain's tingling. And my theory is that primitive man with drumming, drumming and music, all this is part of, you know, you think back to a very tribal culture.

There's this drumming music dance that connects people beyond themselves. Right. So that is an important thing, is to connect with others beyond yourself. But then people would say, oh, you know, they go into a trance. Well, I think my interpretation is they didn't have the word neurotransmitters press. And it's just this flood of cocktails that are there's cocktail and flood of neurotransmitters and chemicals and proteins in your brain. When you exercise, when you hear the music, all that stimulation there at once.

And I think they were just having your brain buzzed but didn't have a good word for it. That's great. How often? Yeah, it sounds like people are often energized by this, I think. Well, imagine exercise. Oh, I'm going to be so depleted and so tired after. But they're actually walking out feeling energized. You know. I engaged how often? So I want people to understand, you know, if if they're doing exercise right now, what are a couple, two or three tips that you can give them to make their exercise basically better for their brain?

I'm hearing drumming and music and here is that always part of your your course in your classes or what are your what's what are some of the key things that somebody who's maybe not going to work with you would want to incorporate into their routine? Well, that's the key thing, is the benefit to the brain is the lead follow relationship. Right. Lots and lots of research on why dance is so good for your brain as a neuroprotective activity. And not only are we using all parts of our body, but when you're dancing, you're not using them symmetrically.

My left hand might be doing one thing while my right hand is doing something else and my feet are doing something else. I'm coordinating it to the music. But where the real benefit comes in is picking up a cue from somebody else, turning on the music. Dancing around your living is cardiovascular exercise. It is not cognitive exercise, right? And that needs to be really clear. Where the benefit it is is the quick reaction time. So I'm doing this. You're sitting watching me and you have to go, what hand?

What is she doing with the left hand? Which hand is she doing it with. Do I have one of those. Oh, there is mine. Right. And I and I. What's she doing. She's doing that. So it's the follow and lead. So interestingly, you know, ballroom, ballroom is really good because you've got one partner giving it to you and then you've got the other partner responding to the cue. And the cue is not verbal, so we're communicating in a different way. I used to teach ballroom.

Music, Rhythm, and Brain Benefits 26:40

I thought it was an exercise in telling people, teaching people how to communicate in a way that didn't involve words. But tango is one of the best things for your brain of all ballroom dances. That's why. Would that be a but in a waltz? It's a slow beat and you have one slow beat to give the cue. And for that person to respond in tango, it's fast. That thump thump, right. That the it's half the time or less that that person has to respond, right? So I touch you in a certain way and you got to be in position one beat later.

You've got to be there because we're going that direction, right? So it's the rule and in the fitness class, it's you following me, right? Or you, I will have everybody in the class lead sometimes just make make up anything. Tell me what you do in a day at a household then. So they would say, Oh, well, doing the dishes. So we'll turn that into we'll turn that into a cardio exercise and everybody will lead in the class. So it's not always me leading. We follow other people, but it's that relationship between giving a cue and translating that into your body.

Oh, neat. Okay, so again, not everyone's going to have access to you, but if somebody did want to work with you, they did want to join a fitness class with you. How could they do that? Oh, you could certainly go. My website would be a good, easy place to go and it's just betterwithfitness.com Great dot com. And if you're interested in fitness rearranging brain so I teach you other things as well so on better with fitness there is an online seniors exercise program. Everything I do, whether it's fitness for aging brain, the emphasis is that we exercise to keep our brain healthy enough so that we can keep our body functioning well for as long as possible.

So I want people to be their best possible selves at 95 or 100. What do you have to do? Well, you got to start now, right? Don't wait till your 94 to decide. You want to be fit at 95 so that you can do and then fitness for your aging brain. I have online YouTube II have a YouTube channel and now those are prerecorded classes. People do them at their own time or groups will do them on their own schedule. And if you just Google Fitnessforyouragingbrain, all one word and aging is still Canadian way without an E, A G I N G Fitnessforyouragingbrain it'll just it'll pop up as a search and I'll take it to the YouTube channel and there's information and there'll be a couple of free classes that you can try at home.

So that's that I sell by subscription and we're going to do this pilot at Marama. I'm really excited for a live a livestream dementia the dementia's class right and after after we do the pilot and I get all this feedback, we'll tweak it, then it will go live as well. How exciting and how fun it is. Just this internet age makes so much more accessible and I really want to applaud you for embracing that because so many seniors are sometimes isolated by their circumstances, right? They don't have a driver's license anymore or they're quite far in.

Maybe there's not something available for miles and miles around. And so having this come into the living room, through the TV is just such a great way to make it more accessible. And I hear you really recommending that they do it with a care partner. So to have someone else there with them, are there any other kind of safety issues that come up? You know, I think many people as they age worry about getting exercise because they're afraid they're going to get hurt. How do you prevent that from happening?

Well, that is hard when people are at a distance. I only recommend the care partner doing it with a care partner. If one partner has Alzheimer's. Okay. The dementia prevention stream that is on YouTube, lots of people do it on their own. I always I always have notes. This is what you need for the class. And then I'm counseling, reminding them, look at the floor, you know, look around at the floor, make sure it's safe. Where's your dog? You know, if you're going to bounce a ball, that dog is sinking, you're going to play it.

You're playing and you're doing that for him. And I have three people not online, but in their regular life, you know, have major breaks because they're out playing with the dog or some of these dog wraps, their leash around You know, again, it just happens so that safety, so we set it up in a safe way. I'm using it like I will describe exactly what you need to do. And as we're using equipment, I am very, very oh, I forgot. We always have drums and drumsticks too, with lovely and loud and and so I'm always watching.

Now, on an online class, I can see you are like on Zoom, I can see you, you can see me and I can go, oh, wait a minute. Prerecorded. People have to be cognizant. And I tried to warn them during the class. Hey, have you checked this? Yes. Good, good. Yeah, there's it's such a catch 22, I think for so many people as they age that they want to go in the direction of of of excuse me, exercise is and exercise for a healthy brain. And yet there's this fear and so making it feel safe and accessible, I think is a really great point and something that I'm glad that you're obviously considering.

Is there anything else that people should consider while they're looking towards getting more exercise as they age?

Safety, Accessibility, and Aging Well 33:00

Well, I think the most important thing is not to buy into our society's message about aging so that it's a constant bombardment, telling us that about what we are not supposed to be able to do. So let me give you an example. My pet peeve drives me crazy. It wrote to the head of this company, a big pharmacy chain across Canada. They just set up a set of 55 plus 55, plus parking stalls designated Parking stalls right in front of the door. So you've got the handicaps parking stalls So those are very handy and useful.

And then right, equally distant is the 55 plus. What's that message that messages at 55? You should be concerned that you're unable to walk across a small parking lot. What we should be doing is we should be taking the seniors parking and sticking it at the platform around the parking lot. Right. Because as you age, you need to do more. So society says, hey, kick back, you've earned your teeth, 65, retire. All of these things just take life easy. But the reality is we have to work harder to keep our brain active.

The world is closing in as soon as you retire and we need to broaden and then physically we need to do more. My son, who's 27, can take a month off of the gym and go back and not notice it might. People take like Mike, people in my classes take a week of Christmas off last year they took Christmas off. This year they said can we just do one drop in in between? Because I felt awful after Christmas ten days ago. It's a lot of eating, too, but, you know, you have to be consistent. You have to do more and you have to do it above your capacity is stretching your capacity, sitting in a chair, in a seniors fitness class, sitting down and lifting a £1 weight is not going to help you age.

I age well, right. You're not going to increase your health span and you're not going to increase cardiovascular capacity. So my advice is when you're exercising, find a class that is real exercise. And so many are. I hate to use the term, I'm going to say, dumbed down and patronizing. Right. Or you should sit in the chair. Will you exercise? No. I need to be able to stand up because I want to be able to stand up by a bungalow. You'll never, you know, and then three weeks later, you can't do stairs, write all these messages about what we can't do.

And I want people to focus on what they want to be at 95 and what all they can't do because there's no reason. And I defined you can't do that. I had this great patient yesterday. She's 87 and she said she always surprises everyone because she can sprint basically up and down the stairs and she's like, it's because I have stairs in my house. I yes. Know all day long my bedroom's upstairs and the kitchen is downstairs and she's still cooking very traditional Mexican food for a big extended family.

She's the matriarch and everyone comes to her house and she wants she's worked her whole life to kind of create this this family and this this home and this place where they can gather and have their parties. And she wants to keep it. And that was so motivating for her. And so it was just really sweet and amazing to see how how hard she works at it. And I appreciate what you're saying is it's not as easy. Just doing the minimum is not going to allow us to maintain capacity, maintain ability as we age.

We've got to push ourselves and really envision where do we want to be, who do we want to be and what do we want to be able to do? And then put into motion, put into the these exercises, these classes, whatever it is that's going to keep you fit and strong and able. And I it's really important how what you said about having a reason for going to a fitness class can be I go there because I know what's good for me, me wanting to be my best possible self at 95, wanting to be nobody have ever asked.

You know, I always have people at the first tell me what you what you look like at 95. What do you envision? What can you do? Nobody's ever said, Oh, I am. I'm a little care facility here. Right. And everybody's taking care of me. I'm unable to do anything. Everybody has this great vision. So when you're exercising, you should be tapping into that vision and having a purpose because you are that purpose and all those little incremental gains just reinforce what you can do as opposed to society reinforcing what you can't.

Right. Right. This mindset piece is such a such a big, big component. Well, Joe, this has been fantastic. Really, really wonderful. I've learned so much from you and I'm so excited to get the pilot program started at Miramar and have you sharing your wisdom and all of this experience with our residents there, but also with everyone who has joined us here on the reverse Alzheimer's Summit. Is there any other parting gift or words you want to share with our audience. That share a little story. Please?

Okay. This was probably my most unusual, atypical person in my class. So very early on, right after the Alzheimer's pilot and I was running this Fitness for aging building where people could come out as a pilot. So it was advertised in the city, little brochure or whatever, as a class for people with Alzheimer's. And this lady walked into the classrooms and she can read this piece of paper, says, this is my registration.

Mindset, Purpose, and Personal Stories 39:20

And it was and I she was 23 years old and I went, Brian So we talked and this is what I'm here. And she said, I have all the signs of Alzheimer's. And she had what was, I would say, medically induced dementia. And that's my term. I don't know if there is a term, but she had had intractable depression as a teenager. Then she came out of it and she'd gone to university. She'd done a degree she'd gotten honors. She got depressed after the afterwards and they given her electroshock shot electro shock therapy and it had weight through memory.

She showed me her piece of paper. It was her degree. She said, I have no idea what what I got a degree in. I don't know anything. She couldn't read. She couldn't find the words like it would take her, you know, a couple of minutes to say to tell me something in a short sentence anyhow. So she would use sort of I would say she would get overwhelmed so fast in the class because we were busy. So I told her just to closed her eyes and go into herself, sit there, and when she was ready to come back, she can open her eyes or get up and join the circle.

Then about weeks ago, she starts running out of the room like and she her expression was like, panic break. I said, Wow, I don't know what I've done. This caused her this panic. So after the class, I said, you know, Lizzie, what is it? Well, how can I help you not be overwhelmed, right? What can I do that will make this work? And she was like, Oh, no, no, it's not. And she said, As I'm moving these movements, they're triggering memories. And I have I guess I'm remembering things I would have thought I'd lost forever.

And she said, I ran out of the room and she ran up to the cloakroom, a butter book. And I sit in the cloakroom in the closet and I write some down before I forget them again. And then she asked me, I was doing a conference in Texas, a workshop for people with PTSD, and she had told me a lot about her life in an abusive life and that and that's why she had gotten into this psychological state. She said, I want to make a video and I want to tell my story. So that's what we did. And she was just an amazing woman.

But the fact that the movement had triggered these memories that were not that she thought she'd lost forever. So, you know how incredible the power. Of the stories hope they. Absolutely. Yeah. Thank you so much, Joe. This is so exciting what you're doing and just really creating accessibility to, well informed exercise that's safe and again accessible is so key and fun. The people want to show up for it. Thank you so for doing the work you're doing and your dedication to those who are struggling.

And it's it's really inspiring. Well, the feeling is likewise. Thanks.