Let's talk about awkward, because if you're living with Parkinson's, you know that it comes with a few uninvited surprises. Random arm swings, rogue shuffles, or suddenly sounding like you forgot how to blink in public. But yeah, awkward. But here's what I've learned. Awkward doesn't have to equal embarrassing. You don't have to shrink, you don't have to hide, and you don't have to apologize. In fact, sometimes you can even flip those moments and take the power back. So today I'm going to share how I hacked those awkward moments with Parkinson's, the stuff that makes people look sideways, and how I deal with it without losing my dignity, my confidence, or my humor. Well, welcome back my friends. And if it's your first time here, I am so glad you found this space. I'm Bryce, and this is life. This is, you know, isn't something, talk about awkward moments, when you forget the name of your podcast. How about that as an awkward moment? Now I could edit this, right? I could cut this out, and I could just make it disappear and never have to worry about it again. Or I could leave it in to show you that that's pretty darn awkward, and I'm gonna deal with it. In fact, I have two podcasts. So I have Life in Motion, right? The Parkinson podcast. I do that with my buddy Brian. We do that on Sundays here on YouTube, and across, it'll be coming out on audio pretty soon. But this podcast, this one today, is, what is it called? Living with Parkinson's. The good, the bad, and the reality. Not bad, right? Awkward, not bad? Who cares? Anyway, here we talk about real life with Parkinson's. The good days, the messy moments, and the stuff that no one else is saying out loud. It's about strength, community, and figuring out how to keep showing up one day at a time. And hey, if you're enjoying this kind of honest, unfiltered conversation, consider subscribing to the channel. There's no pressure. There's no expectation. Just hit that little button if you want more of this in your life. And if you're ready to take this a little bit further, a little bit deeper, I also have a thing called The Inner Circle. It's a private membership group where we hang out once a month on Zoom, just laugh, we vent, we share, we cry. Sometimes we laugh, sometimes we cry, but sometimes we do it all, really. We talk about what's really going on in each of our lives, and it's quickly become one of my favorite hours or two of the month. Anyway, you're welcome there anytime, but again, only if and when you're ready. And if you're interested in something like that, you can click on the link in the description below to get you more information, or if you're on YouTube, watch this on YouTube, you can click the Join button right underneath this video. Alright, let's talk about awkward. So, awkward used to terrify me. Like truly, I'd avoid certain situations just because I didn't wanna deal with the what ifs. What if my arms start shaking mid conversation? What if I freeze in the middle of a hallway? What if someone sees me? But here's what I learned. Awkward moments are only as powerful as the story we attach them to. If we treat them like proof that we're failing, then yeah, they're gonna hurt. But if we treat them like we just, that they're just part of this deal, they lose their sting. Alright, let me tell you this one. This is an actual story here, I'm gonna tell you. So, I was sitting in a coffee shop and I was talking to somebody about life, and mid sentence my arm decides to go freestyle. Ever been there? Ever been there? It just flies out for no reason. Do you ever do that? A jazz hand in the middle of a small talk? Now, the old me would have panicked, tried to hide it, apologize. I'm from Canada, right? So, sorry, sorry, sorry. And maybe even cut the conversation short. But instead, I smiled and I said, sorry, apparently my hand is trying to order its own drink. We both laughed and the tension kind of dissolved. And guess what? The world kept turning. The world kept turning. So, here's my first hack. Use humor to reset the moment. If it doesn't have to be a perfect... Sorry, it doesn't have to be a perfect joke. Just something light to acknowledge the moment and then move on, right? You might be sitting here going, well, I'm not funny, I can't just make a joke. It doesn't have to be funny, right? It just has to be something, acknowledge it like it's no big... Oops, sorry. Acknowledge it like it's no big deal to you and it won't be a big deal overall. Okay. And that's crazy, right? And again, I get these just fly outs, like I'll just be sitting here and we're having a normal conversation and my hand just wants to do it, just takes off. So anyway, been there, done that? Let me know in the comments, what's one maybe crazy thing that you were either embarrassed about or something that happened that you might have been embarrassed about and how did you deal with it? I'd love to hear about it. Let's get that conversation started, okay? Because I'm telling you, it's going to help people, alright? Alright, let me tell you another story. I call this one like the dinner disaster, okay? So let's talk about meals. So a couple of years ago, I was at this fundraising dinner and I tried to cut into a piece of roast beef and suddenly it turned into like a wrestling match. The plate moved, the fork flew and I'm pretty sure gravy ended up somewhere where gravy should never be. I could have been embarrassed, but instead I just said, clearly I've underestimated the cow's final act. That sounds awful, right? Saying that back, it's crazy. Saying that back, it sounds like I booed myself, like, oh my gosh. And my daughter, my daughter who is 21, 22, 22 now, she probably would have said that that was a really bad dad joke. Anyway, joke's on her. She had her wisdom teeth out this weekend, so I have her on video afterwards. It was hilarious. I might even show that in the members, one of these member posts, just to see it, because it was hilarious. But anyway, again, laughter again and the moment passed. So that's hack number two. Here's, okay, so that just goes hand in hand, but hack number two is this. Think ahead, adapt your environment, okay? So now I cut up food just before I sit down or I order something easier, right? So in other words, if I have roast beef coming, I kind of will stand there and I'll kind of get it all set up. I don't take, I don't cut a piece and have a little piece and then have a carrot and then have whatever. I literally just cut the entire thing up and it's just easier and I feel like I'm paying more attention to that moment as well and I can kind of go slow, I gotta go at my own pace and I just kind of do it. So I cut it all up before or I never eat it or I don't order roast beef sometimes, especially if I'm wearing a suit and it's something I really wanna pay attention to because I have to pay attention when I'm eating, right? And someone in the back said, Amen. Anyway, but it's not because I'm ashamed. I wanna be really clear about this. It's not because I'm ashamed but it's because I'd rather enjoy the meal and then fight with it. Like I'd rather enjoy the night, enjoy the meal and rather than fight about it and rather than fight about it and fight with it. So adaption is power, not failure, okay? Adaption is power, not failure. Okay, then how about this one? How about the look? Hey, you know it, you know it. That tilted head, that raised eyebrow, like, are you okay face? I've had it thousands of times in line at the store. I may have had it on stage in a Parkinson's panel, right? And what's wild is sometimes people, they don't even realize that I have Parkinson's, okay? I've had folks approach me after I moderate a full event, a full event. I moderate the entire thing, I tell my story, I talk about my medication and everything and people will come up to me and they'll go like, Wow, that was amazing. Do you have someone in your family with Parkinson's? I'm like, buddy, that's my story, right? That's my, what the? That's my story. What are you doing? Were you not paying attention? What's going on here? But it used to mess me up and I've told, I've said that many times, it used to mess me up. And now I just say, Parkinson's is weird. It doesn't always look the way you think it will look at all. So hack number three is this, set expectations when needed. So a quick explanation said with a calm and confidence goes a long way. Alright, here's another story. This is, I'm like full of stories today. It's story day. I've been kind of under the weather. My nose is kind of plugged, so whatever. But I was kind of laying around and I kind of slowed down a little bit because I was under the weather. And I started thinking about all these different stories. I was thinking about these awkward moments and these stories just kept popping up and popping up. And Brian and I, in the other podcast, we talk about, we had the 10 most awkward things people say to you. And if you haven't seen that video or that podcast, go check it out. It's really good. It's long, but it's very, very good. So it made me start me thinking about not just the awkward things that people say or the awkward comments they'll say, but those awkward moments. Right? So I have all these stories running through my head. So anyway, here's one and it's still this one. This one still makes me laugh, okay? So I'm at the grocery store and I go to pay. I reach my debit card and instead of, I reach into my debit card, instead I drop my keys, I drop my phone, I drop my Costco card and I drop a receipt for like 2010. And the cashier just stares at me and I go, I go, I'm sorry, I call that move the Parkinson pocket dump. She looks at me kind of like, what? And then she starts to laugh, but it was like an awkward laugh. Okay? And so she didn't respond to me, she kind of just kind of like smiled and like, ha ha, you know, one of those ha ha joke. Probably the way you're laughing at my dad jokes today. Ha ha, right? So she gives me the ha ha and I'm like, oh my goodness. So I'm thinking maybe I slurred the Parkinson part, right? Because again, I'm having, you know, my anxiety is high now because I mean, I get phones everywhere, everything's going crazy. And so I get through that. So now she's, you know, get everything going. So now I get my debit card out. Okay? Now, I don't sure about where you're from, but where I'm from, I think my card has like a $100 limit on tapping, like tapping my debit card. Man, I like tapping my debit card because how many... Give me something in the comments here. How many of you have tried to get that little tiny card? I'm looking around for one as if I could show you a demonstration if you're watching this, but if you're listening, you wouldn't see it anyway, so it doesn't matter. But anyway, trying to get that little tiny debit card in those little tiny space inside that debit machine or that ATM machine, good luck. All of a sudden though, it kicked in with her, with the Costco lady. It kicked in because I think when I said, you know, that's just like my Parkinson, you know, whatever, you know, pocket overload, whatever I called it, that Parkinson... I can't even say it right now. The Parkinson's pocket dump. I don't know if she really caught on to the Parkinson's part, but then all of a sudden, I realized when I was trying to get this thing inside the machine and I couldn't get it in, then I saw that look again and it kind of like tooth... I saw the light bulb go off like, oh my gosh, Parkinson's. And so she's like, can I help you with that, sir? I'm like, sure, no problem. And then she kind of took my card and put it in for me. And then it was kind of weird after that, she was like, do you need someone to help you out? Do you need someone to push your card? Do you need someone? I'm like, no, I'm fine, no, I'm fine, no, I'm fine. But anyway, so here's the thing you have to do though, you have to embrace the absurd. This is hack number four, embrace the absurd. Because the truth is, sometimes Parkinson's, it's flippin' weird, right? It's flippin' weird. You can either cry or laugh and laughing feels better, okay? So just decide, I'm gonna cry, I'm gonna laugh. And sometimes you cry, good, let it out, cry it out, cry it out. And sometimes you just have to laugh, but at the end of the day, I kind of like laughing better than crying. So that's when I choose mostly, I'm just gonna laugh it off, laugh it off. So I found that awkward moments are usually the hardest when we feel like we're being watched instead of understood, okay? Think of what I just said. I feel like the moments, the awkward moments are harder when we feel like we're being watched instead of understood. Just like that lady I was talking about at Picosco. So I talk to people around me, right? I'll say things like, hey, just so you know, sometimes my hand or my face doesn't behave. Huh? Yeah, it's okay. You don't have to worry unless I ask for help. And they're gonna go like, huh. It takes about 10 to 15 seconds. And everybody's like, huh. But then it opens the door for understanding instead of assumption. So why go by assumption? Why have everybody standing around wondering what's wrong with you or wondering what's up with this person or wondering if you're drunk or wondering if you're high or wondering if you have Parkinson's, right? I'd rather just call a spade a spade. Hey, hey, you know what? Sometimes my stuff's gonna do some wild things. We could be dancing in a second. If you see me dancing, it's okay. Let me dance. But I promise you, if I need help, I'll ask for help. So don't worry about me, right? So that's hack number five. You have to invite people in. You have to invite them in. You don't have to explain everything, but a little context creates a lot of freedom. Let me say that clearly. A little context creates a lot of freedom. And I normally do this, that hack, at restaurants. So with the waiter or the waitress. Because I know, ultimately, whether I'm gonna go be paying for something, p-p-p-paying, there's a way, what am I paying, p-p-p-paying, whether I'm gonna go pay for something or whether I'm gonna get my drink or spill my drink or who knows what's gonna happen. Who knows, right? Who knows? But prepare it. So I just kind of state it out front. Hey, by the way, I'm gonna give you a heads up. Here's where I'm at. So anyway, if I need help, I'll ask for help. If not, laugh with me. Join me. Let's do it. But let me say something, and I wanna say this really, really clear. You are allowed to be awkward. You're allowed to fumble. You're allowed to shake. You're allowed to freeze. And you don't need to apologize for existing. You're more than your symptoms. You are not a problem to be managed. You're not. You're a person learning to navigate something that's unbelievably complex, and you need to give yourself grace. And when you can smile through the chaos, because awkward might be unavoidable, but shame is optional. And if this episode helped you breathe even a little easier today, or maybe it made you laugh, or maybe it didn't, maybe you gave me a ah or boo, like it anyway, please. The more you like a video, the more you comment on a video, the further it goes. But the podcast comments, likes, shares, it tells the algorithms that this is an okay video, and it gets it out to more people. And this is an amazing community here. And when you jump in and you like a video, or you start commenting, and you jump in like that, we see this big spike because it goes out to other people that are looking and searching for help like this, and looking and searching to talk about Parkinson's in real life. And you know what? If you ever need any encouragement, look through some of the comments. I cannot tell you, sorry, I cannot tell you how many comments are like, I just found you, I just found you, I just found this community. I can't believe that all these people even in the comments are talking so openly and free. I've never seen anything like this. You're a part of this, you're a part of this. So let's not stop now, let's not stop now. Help me, help me, help me, help me reach everybody, help me reach more. And I'll help you, I wanna help you as well, right? So give it a like, give it a share, and leave that comment, right? Hey, you know what? I read every single comment, every single one of them, and I reply to every single comment personally, every comment I reply to personally. Now, I wanna apologize in advance. I know, because you guys are so amazing and awesome, this channel is exploding, this podcast is exploding, I cannot get over the explosion that we're having. I think we're getting 50, 60, 70 new people every day. So give me a bit of grace, please. I was sick this weekend, my daughter had her wisdom teeth out, what a week, what a week I've had. So I was a little behind in the comments, but I think I've caught up, and if I've missed some or I'm still catching up, please bear with me. I will do my very best to get there as fast as I can, but every single comment is important to me, every single one of you is important to me. And hey, if you haven't subscribed and you're still here right now, hit that subscribe button. Click the bell, though, and turn on the notification so that every time a new podcast or a short video or any video is dropped, you'll be notified, okay? Now, if you haven't subscribed, right, do that. It's a great time to do that, but you don't have to, there's no expectations here, none at all. And if you want more content that feels like a conversation and not a lecture, this is your space. And if you're looking for something even more than that, something more connected, I'm telling you, join Learning to Circle, come join me. It's a live Zoom call, we do it once a month with people just like us, and it's real, it's just real. I'm in there talking about my stuff too, okay? And then you also get easy or early access, but I'm doing some behind the scenes stuff as well, and those are just not the type of things you can put on the channel that go everywhere. So that's why... I mean, don't make money from this podcast or this channel, this YouTube, it's... And if there is any money, so for a little bit, like if there's swag, the swag's looking really cool, or the memberships, I just reinvest it back into Parkinson's to advocate for Parkinson's, to get the word out there. So it's not a money thing, it's just a you and me thing, right? It's like a commitment for both of us. So anyway, there's no pressure at all, I love everybody, everybody, I love everybody, and I wanna be here for you no matter what stage you're at or no matter where you're at in life, okay? So no pressure, just presence, that's all I ask is presence. You don't have to show up perfectly, you just have to show up. Hey, the next one's coming out really soon, I might even drop two this week, so watch, watch, get it, and if you haven't, hit that bell, click it, get the notifications, and the link is in the description below for everything you need, everything you need. And you gotta remember, you're not alone in this. You are not alone in the awkward moments, you're not broken, you are a beautiful, complicated, hilarious work in progress, just like the rest of us. Thanks for being here, and I'm gonna see you in the next one.