FIND YOUR BLIND SPOTS AND THRIVE with Brian Bushway, Jaimee Kadish and Brandon Shin of Acoustic Athletics

In divorce we have Fear, we need Courage, we go through Adaptation to changing circumstances, and we need techniques for Communication to deal with the settlement.

 

All three of our guests, Brian Bushway, Jaimee Kadish, and Brandon Shin were born sighted and now blind. The messages they have to share are inspirational, practical, and myth-shattering.

 

They still have relationships, too. Access to the visual world is one thing, but relating to the emotional world is another. Visual impairment brings a different perspective to life. We see in another way, through hearing, primarily, and through touch.

 

Find reasons to be hopeful. Hope brings us the future.

 

How we face challenges is common to everyone.

 

Eco-location means image with sound. Blindness causes people to see their environment differently, as do people going through divorce. Neuroscientists say that we can adapt to challenges.

 

See with sound.

 

Grief and drama go along with being blind. Cry. The transition to blindness is an Emotional Roller Coaster, as is divorce. Brandon lost friends while losing his eyesight. Felt sorry for himself, grieved more, and then met Brian as a mentor for eco-location and went through a transition to living life differently.

 

Light and sound work from the same principles. There are characteristics of sound; sound is different depending on the shape and size of the object. There is an Acoustic vocabulary that takes over. Neuroplasticity is engaged. People’s brains can change according to what we have to work with.

 

Preparing for mountain biking, Brian started by walking, then running, then using his body to address and react to the sound of his environment as he moved through it.

 

Shattered all preconceptions about what he could do in life once he mastered biking.

 

All three of our guests started doing things they never thought were possible.

 

Physical versus emotional blindness.

 

Jaimee Kadish, “You can’t experience courage if you don’t deal with fear.”  Grief for Jamie is a constant, so she uses it to overcome fear. Jamie works with fear and used it as an opportunity to grow.

 

Brandon deals with fear by quoting Mike Tyson’s coach, “Fear can cut you or it can move you forward in life.” Fear is necessary to grow.  

 

If Jamie is resistant to things that feel uncomfortable, it creates a space between Jamie and all other emotions. If you push away the things that don’t feel good, you can’t really appreciate the things that do feel good, or the things that do feel good don’t come to you as much.

Jamie goes back and forth with sight; she is not 100% blind 100% of the time. But she chooses to close her eyes and to purposefully do some things, like dancing, unsighted.

 

Feeling to know as opposed to seeing to know. Know who we are and how we fit in life.

 

“People use the mirror to confirm insecurities,” Brian. “I broke free from the mirror!”

 

“Vision is being constructed in the mind,” Brian stated. “The brain can stop constructing visual information. Vision is then the picture we construct in our minds.”

 

Brian focuses on people’s essences. He can sense people. A visually impaired person judges people by their gate, how they walk, their shoes.

 

“The breath and voice are the windows to the soul,” Brian continued. The breath and the voice is coming from the inside out.

 

People don’t have control over their vision. They are distracted by the bright shiney objects. Brian trains sales people with their eyes closed.

 

How do you decide who you want to be around? Brian invests in people who want to be of service to others. I get to know people to see if those people want to invest in others.

 

Listen to your gut. I want to hear people talk. I only ask a few questions so that I give people a platform to let them talk without interruption. What do people project, not visually but philosophically; how do they think? How do people see the world and want to function in the world?

 

Communication in mediation is key. Communication is a personal and spiritual mirror of ourselves. I can see my own reflection coming off of another person. We listen to the physical world for eco-location; we can become a better listener in relationships.

 

What if we all closed our eyes when speaking to each other, can we have deeper relationships with each other? Having a different physical issue is a tool to determine who is right for us and who isn’t.

Adaptability and imagination are necessary to be resilient.

 

Creativity is a result of spiritual imagination. The roadmap is yours to determine. Am I willing to stand in uncomfortable places, uncomfortable moments, which leads to character attributes. Can’t compare the future to the past or we can’t be hopeful for the future. This is the process of growth.

 

We all have insecurities: Find friends, find partners to date, what I have to bring to life is the development of my passions and interests. I went from being the care receiver to the care giver. Finding creative ways to serve the people around him is one of Brian’s missions.

 

Jamie:  Courage and faith, “Are we going to be a victim or a student of this situation? If a student, we can develop a deeper understanding of what we’re capable of.”

 

Brandon: “The best creative product is found through suffering. Creativity has different forms, one being resourcefulness. Lean into the thing you’re afraid of and deal with it. You’ve blinded yourself by the thing that you’re afraid of: FIND YOUR BLIND SPOTS AND THRIVE!

 

Find your blind spots.

 

#fear #blindness #courage #eco-location #trust #relationships #perseverance #personalchallenge #imagination #adaptability #communication #acousticathletics #creativity #mountainbiking #neuroplasticity

 

Acoustic Athletics Team Bios

 

Brian Bushway:

Acoustic Athletics Co-Founder

 

As a pioneer of human echolocation, Brian Bushway mastered the ability to “see with sound” in his late teens, was recognized as the World’s Best Totally Blind Mountain Biker in his early twenties, and spent the next fifteen years providing perceptual training for athletes, teams, individuals, and organizations around the globe. Brian is a globally recognized keynote speaker, Diversity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DIA) leader, Certified Orientation & Mobility (O&M) Instructor, employment accessibility director, TV and film production advisor, musician, technology consultant, and entrepreneur.

 

Most recently, Brian has launched Acoustic Athletics, a performance and development company that offers cognitive, sensory, and perceptual augmentation programs for elite athletes with his business partner Thomas Izdebski.

In addition to working with professional athletes and blind students from all backgrounds, Brian also serves as a teacher of sighted mobility instructors on the use of FlashSonar™ (a specialized form of Active Echolocation) and Perceptual Navigation strategies. He designs and implements perceptual development plans for each client, and serves families by offering informational counseling and emotional support. But his impact doesn’t end there. He has helped them create blind mobility programs and education courses on FlashSonar™, Perceptual Navigation, and family coaching. Brian’s presentations about FlashSonar™ have also been showcased at the Museums of Science and Industry in Chicago and Oregon.

 

Brandon Shin

 

Brandon Shin, born and raised in Los Angeles, California, is a third generation echolocation student under the tutelage of Brian Bushway. Diagnosed with Optic Nerve Atrophy at age ten, Brandon lost most of his vision by the age of twelve. Passionate about martial arts and combat sports, he competed in fencing during high school winning third place against sighted opponents. Brandon studied in various martial art disciplines such as MMA, JKD, FMA, Jujitsu, etc. Today, he is an avid Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner who regularly innovates and experiments with his echolocation and perceptual skills to be more functional for martial arts. He enjoys being in the mountains, especially during the winter when the air is cool and when snow is regularly in the forecast. On his spare time, Brandon enjoys music and shooting guns with his uncles.

 

Jaimee Kadish-

Acoustic Athletics Movement Specialist

 

Born and raised in Los Angeles, Jaimee is a Movement Specialist with a lifelong passion to teach.  Starting her career in pursuit of professional dance, Jaimee studied classical forms of ballet and modern dance while attending numerous arts programs and received her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Dance from California State University, Long Beach. After being diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, Jaimee switched her focus from performance to physical literacy, allowing her to dive deep into the relationship between anatomy, movement and understanding how the body works, how it works in motion, and the role of foundational movement in physical fitness.  Jaimee pursued her Associate of Arts in Early Childhood Education then entered the preschool classroom where she continued to develop her practice of using movement to help children learn and grow. In her role as a Certified Pilates Instructor (BASI) and Personal Trainer, she works with private clients in Los Angeles.  In her role as Movement Specialist with Acoustic Athletics, Jaimee accurately analyzes clients’ movement patterns, identifies overactive/underactive muscle groups and compensations, and creates tailored training programs to enhance creative and functional movement.

 

www.acousticathletics.com

 

My Blind Coach- Relationship/Communication Coaching

Instagram: myblindcoach

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MyBlindCoach

Website:  www.myblindcoach.com

Acoustic Athletics

Instagram: AcousticAthletics

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AcousticAthletics

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-h5Y_i65SZx1EWwzHXE-8Q

Website: www.acousticathletics.com

 

Brian Bushway

Instagram: BrianBushway

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/brian.bushway.3/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnSsNx-Ql3WNNcSULXdTbug

Website: www.brianbushway.com