“5 Tips for Making Daily Practice Alot More Fun, Doable and Effective”

Daily practice can make a real difference in your stroke recovery.

After all, stroke recovery experts recommend it.  Getting around, being stronger, talking again and overcoming all those challenges can happen so much more quickly when you practice daily.

The problem is practice can be so challenging and frustrating. It can take everything out of you, make you tired, and get you down and discouraged, to the point that some people give up on it or do it as little as possible.

Yes daily practice is like a dirty tissue.  One side you like and the other you don’t.  It really helps you regain your abilities more quickly.  But it isn’t always fun or easy, is it?

Well, at strokeadvice.com we have put our heads together to make this one little thing a lot more fun, doable and effective.  We bring you:

“5 Tips for Making Daily Practice Alot More Fun, Doable and Effective”

1. Have a Variety of Activities 

Sometimes the tasks we get given at therapy are difficult or mundane.  Having a variety of stroke recovery promoting activities makes things more interesting, gives you a break, and helps you regain abilities in many different areas at a time.

I recommend you set a minimum amount of times you do the main therapy activities each day.  So run through the exercises from your therapist 3 times each day.

From there, add other stroke recovery activities.  You might want to use an exercise bike (there are recumbent bikes available).  Lifting weights helps regain strength.  Playing snap- while forcing your weak or “bad” arm to do the work.  Have a variety of different activities.

To make sure this doesn’t seem like a whole lot of work, mix more intense with less intense activities.  You can also mix in fun activities.

2. Make it Fun.

There are a lot of fun things you can use during stroke recovery. These things give you a chance to relax, while also improving your abilities. The Nintendo Wii, Xbox Kinect, the iPad, and playing cards are some examples.

Research shows that playing the Wii improves arm function, and that certain games “Fruit Ninja” on the iPad can improve fine motor control.  There are even “apps” on the iPad with different tongue exercises for speech.

Meanwhile, playing cards can help you unwind while also promoting recovery, if you use your “bad” arm.

Not only are these things fun, the increased serotonin you have in your brain while doing them makes it more plastic.  It helps the formation of new nerve pathways.  This is with all fun things but particularly the Wii and iPad games.

The only problem with these is stopping.  Most of us can remember playing video games as a kid and not wanting to stop.  One way to deal with this is to do your therapy exercises first, then use the Wii or iPad.

3. Set Achievable Goals

Having small milestones helps give you a reason to keep doing those challenging tasks. Then when you reach them, you have something to feel good about. You can now do something new!

This can be things as simple as hold a heavier weight, pick up marbles more quickly, stay on the exercise bike for 5 more minutes, or walk 5 steps further than you did yesterday.

The point is, keep setting these small goals.  And when you achieve them, do two things: set another one, and celebrate.

4. Celebrate Your Success 

Celebrating is very important.  You have worked hard, you deserve a reward.  This can be something as simple as a smile and congratulations, or something bigger like an outing or a bottle of non alcoholic wine.

Give yourself smaller rewards for your small successes, and bigger ones for the bigger achievements.  While you don’t “need” to do this, it does help you smile and enjoy the journey.  It also gives you a break, recharges the batteries and naturally increases serotonin which all help with stroke recovery.

The most satisfying reward, however, is being able to do something again.

5. Have the End in Mind

 Having a long term vision of your stroke recovery can keep you going when times get challenging.  This long term vision is your picture of yourself once you have regained your abilities.

Think about yourself being able to do the things you want to do.  Think about how life will be when you can move, talk, and do things the way you want to.  What will that be like?

Another thing is actually having a long term goal.  It’s common to have the attitude of “I’ll see how far my therapist will take me”.  What’s better, is to have the attitude of “This is where I want to be, and I’ll use the therapies and tools I need to get there as fast as possible.”

This sets you up to keep going when you reach those challenges, plateaus and daily frustrations.