Recently, I had a conversation with April Crystal, one of the Cognitive Therapists at CognitiveFX. During this conversation, April shared many helpful tips on how to use life situations as opportunities for improving our cognitive skills. Here are a few of the ideas and principles… Read More »Life as Cognitive Therapy
Summer is upon us (for those of you in the Northern Hemisphere 🙂 This often comes with traveling for reunions or vacations or business trips, etc. Navigating airports and new places can be hard and overstimulating for anyone, but for people dealing with post concussion… Read More »Traveling After A Concussion
Ok, I understand that whether or not taking a hike is actually an option can depend a lot on your symptoms and capacity at the moment, so you don’t have to take the subject of this blog literally, necessarily. But if a hike isn’t an… Read More »Take A Hike
Grief is a topic that can be hard to discuss and hard to understand. It is so personal, and yet almost everyone will experience some degree of grief in their lifetime. Those suffering from concussions and post concussion symptoms are no exception. The losses they… Read More »Grief
My guest on The Concussion Coach Podcast this week shared this thought, and it’s an idea that I’ve come to believe and appreciate over the past few years. I don’t think that believing this thought in a moment when you don’t feel ok means that… Read More »It’s OK To Not Be OK
Do you ever feel like you’re being pulled in too many directions at once? …Or like you want to do all the things but don’t have time to do any of them? …Or that you have so many balls in the air you’re afraid you… Read More »What Are Your Top 5 Priorities?
The other day my son wanted to do something, and I asked him if he’d gotten his chores and homework done yet. He started complaining that we have the rule in our house that chores and homework have to be done before other things, and… Read More »You Don’t Have To Like It… But It’s A Lot More Fun If You Do…
So many people ask to know what they can do to get better from a concussion. This is a good question, and there are in fact many, many things that can be done to improve symptoms and heal the brain. However, one key element that… Read More »When “Not Doing” Is More Important Than Doing
This is one of my favorite go-to thoughts. It’s believable for me when I zoom out and look at the big picture and remind myself that God isn’t up there wringing His hands in worry about whatever it is I’m concerned about. Trusting that there’s… Read More »Nothing’s Gone Wrong Here
The human nervous system is wired for survival, and is constantly scanning for cues of safety or danger. It scans for these cues in the external environment, from our internal organs and systems, and relationally between us and other people. Based on these cues, the… Read More »Befriending Your Nervous System
Remember that you are a human. Sometimes we forget this and think we should not have human experiences like feeling the way we feel or making the mistakes we make. We think we should be happy no matter what, or that we should… Read More »You Are A Human
I needed to process an emotion today. I used this system and it surprised me yet again at how effective it is. You process, and it goes away to the point where you can’t feel it anymore. And when it comes back (it almost always… Read More »How to Process Emotions
The following are 5 fundamental keys to mental, physical, and nervous system health: 1 – Sleep 2 – Sunlight 3 – Movement 4 – Nutrition/Hydration 5 – Relationships Sleep: Try to get 7–9 hours, have consistency in the timing of getting to bed and waking… Read More »5 Core Pillars of Health
When my son was about 1½ or so, he was playing at home and had a small toy in each hand. I had a toy in my hand that he wanted. I offered it to him and it was clear that he wanted it very… Read More »You Have To Let Go To Be Open
Once upon a time, something happened. That thing that happened was just an event in the world — not particularly good or bad. But then someone became aware of its having happened, and that person had an opinion about it. They decided it was… Read More »Stories vs Facts
I have a friend who sustained a concussion recently, and she sent me the link to a blog post that is short and very inspiring. I’ll include the link to the post below, but here’s the summary: In 1995, a world-class violinist, Itzhak Perlman, performed… Read More »With What You Have Left
Yesterday my friend sent me a video. A guy is walking in the woods and another guy sneaks up behind him and attaches a huge fake spider to him. He FREAKS out and fights this fake spider to the ground multiple times. I imagine it’s… Read More »Monster Spiders & Your Toddler Brain
As I was coaching recently, I was reminded of the concept of manuals, and want to share it here, as I think it is a really helpful idea for all of us, whether we’re dealing with post-concussion symptoms or not. You know what a manual… Read More »Throw Out the Manual
Former monk and instructor of Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania Cory Muscara shared this Chinese parable. I have heard it quoted in multiple places a variety of times, and for good reason. It’s worth repeating and considering. “There once was an old farmer… Read More »Good Luck? Bad Luck? Who Knows?
One of the most helpful concepts I have come across, for myself and my clients, is the idea of clean pain and dirty pain. Clean pain is an important part of emotional healing. It allows us to process and move through challenging experiences. It can feel… Read More »Clean Pain vs Dirty Pain