{"id":1504,"date":"2017-10-13T08:33:14","date_gmt":"2017-10-13T14:33:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thebrainfairy.com\/?p=1504"},"modified":"2018-12-11T08:23:49","modified_gmt":"2018-12-11T15:23:49","slug":"how-my-brain-injury-taught-me-gratitude-and-to-be-in-the-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebrainfairy.com\/?p=1504","title":{"rendered":"How My Brain Injury Taught Me Gratitude and To Be in the Moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Linda W. Arms –\u00a0<\/em>Oct. 13, 2017<\/em><\/p>\n

After my brain injury, I found myself living in the present moment with a sense of peace.\u00a0 It is a feeling that I remember even after nearly 12 years of recovery and the pace of my life being much busier.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Because I know the sensation, I find I can go back there when I choose to.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 These days, we often read about being in the moment.\u00a0\u00a0 Before my brain injury, I read several self-improvement books to help me find peace within myself.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I bought \u201cThe Power of Now\u201d, by Eckhart Tolle, but even after reading this and other books like it, I couldn\u2019t find that elusive skill of being in the moment.<\/p>\n

The brain injury caused me to lose many things including my career and, for many years, simple skills of reading, speaking, math and other things we take for granted were greatly diminished.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0But \u2013 I lived in the moment.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I didn\u2019t have a choice.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It was all my brain was capable of doing.\u00a0\u00a0 There were many times there were no thoughts in my head.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I just sat and looked at something or, at other times, I would have my eyes closed.<\/p>\n

My brain did not have the energy to think about most things.\u00a0\u00a0 I worried very little compared to my pre-injury self.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t think about the past or future \u2013 it was too much work.\u00a0\u00a0 I didn\u2019t even try.\u00a0\u00a0 My career was a huge part of my life.\u00a0\u00a0 Prior to the accident, when there were times I was sick or on vacation, I was always on the job even if it was just in my head.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I tried very hard to quit thinking about work and other things that caused me worry.\u00a0\u00a0 I just couldn\u2019t stop those thoughts.<\/p>\n

After the accident, the door to the world of my career slammed shut.\u00a0\u00a0 I didn\u2019t think about it, didn\u2019t care \u2013 it was just gone. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I was always a planner, thinking about upcoming work projects, things to do at home, trips, events and other things I enjoyed putting together.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 After the accident, I, the family planner, was gone.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t think about the future.\u00a0\u00a0 It was all I could do to get through one day let alone think about what needed to be done tomorrow.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I wrote many things down so I wouldn\u2019t forget.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been difficult in recent times to be in the moment because there have been so many demands on me that have been out of my control.\u00a0\u00a0 I am extremely more capable of doing things compared to 11 \u00bd years ago.\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0Even though life has been very crazy in the last few years, I am very grateful!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I am very grateful because I frequently recognize that I am doing things today that I never dreamed I could do again after my brain injury.\u00a0\u00a0 I feel this gratitude so often and acknowledge all the progress I have made in my continuing journey of healing from the brain injury.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Although \u201chaving a brain injury never ends\u201d,<\/a> I believe that the healing never ends.<\/p>\n

So after all those self help books that I read prior to my accident, it was the brain injury that taught me about being in the moment and learning true gratitude for things in my life.\u00a0\u00a0 This morning, one of the first things I read was a beautiful article by Marc Chernoff, one of the co-writers of the Marc and Angel Life Hacks blog.\u00a0\u00a0 It was about allowing the moment to be enough without needing to do anything else with it.\u00a0\u00a0 It helped remind me that you can just be \u2013 just be in the moment, looking or experiencing something without taking a picture of it, or sharing it with someone else but just savoring it all for yourself.\u00a0 \u00a0It reminded me of the earlier years after my brain injury.\u00a0 \u00a0Please enjoy his article \u201cOne Reality to Accept Before You Can Enjoy Your Best Life.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

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by Linda W. Arms –\u00a0Oct. 13, 2017 After my brain injury, I found myself living in the present moment with a sense of peace.\u00a0 It is a feeling that I remember even after nearly 12 years of recovery and the pace of my life being much busier.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Because I know the sensation, I find I can go back there when I choose to.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 These days, we often read about being in the moment.\u00a0\u00a0 Before my brain injury, I read several… Continue reading »<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[15,55,17,9,36,22,23,29,10,56,37,24,16,8],"class_list":["post-1504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abi","tag-being-in-the-moment","tag-brain-aneurysm","tag-brain-injury","tag-brain-injury-inspiration","tag-brain-tumor","tag-cognitive-difficulties","tag-cognitively-challenged","tag-concussion","tag-gratitude","tag-life-after-brain-injury","tag-sensations-after-brain-injury","tag-stroke","tag-tbi"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2GcQn-og","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebrainfairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebrainfairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebrainfairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebrainfairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebrainfairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1504"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"https:\/\/thebrainfairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1574,"href":"https:\/\/thebrainfairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1504\/revisions\/1574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebrainfairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebrainfairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebrainfairy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}