mindful march: brain injury awareness month

Happy Mindful March :-)

Today marks the beginning of Women’s History Month and Brain Injury Awareness Month. While both are important to me, its my intention to highlight brain health this month on the blog.

If you’ve followed me for long, you may be aware of my journey with traumatic brain injury (TBI). If not, I’ll share more this month! What’s important to know is that brain injury is very common, yet every injury is different. A TBI is caused by a bump, blow, or jolt to the head that disrupts the normal function of the brain. Not all blows or jolts to the head result in a TBI. The severity of a TBI may range from “mild” (i.e., a brief change in mental status or consciousness) to “severe” (i.e., an extended period of unconsciousness or memory loss after the injury). Most TBIs that occur each year are mild, commonly called concussions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that over 3 million people experience a traumatic brain injury annually in the United States, and is the second highest cause of disability in Americans.

While my brain injury was classified as “mild,” it had a profound affect on every aspect of my life. I couldn’t drive for months, I was out of work completely for months, and over 2.5 years later I am still recovering. I’ve reimagined my entire life and business to suit my brain’s needs to give me the best quality of life (along with continued neurological care, physical therapy, vision checkups, psychotherapy, and the help of other specialists).

Along with major life shifts, my TBI changed my relationship with self care. No longer a luxury, self care became essential to my ability to function. Most relevant to this blog post, my injury gave me the space to practice mindfulness consistently, and gave me the idea for “mindful minutes.” At the time of my injury, I couldn’t do a lot physically due to my debilitating symptoms. So, I relied on guided meditation, breathwork, and visualization to take my mind off the pain and discomfort for even a minute.

(You can sign up for my free daily mindfulness prompt by texting MINDFUL to +1-480-531-9810 !)

love your brain meditation challenge

The Love Your Brain Foundation is a 501c nonprofit organization that provides brain-friendly yoga and mindfulness tools to those affected by traumatic brain injury. Love Your Brain has been a huge support to me through my recovery, as I was able to attend their in-person yoga and retreat programs prior to covid, and even completed their teacher training program. I’m now facilitating my second and third sections of their online Mindset program to other survivors of TBI.

Each March, LYB has a special meditation challenge to help participants develop a mindfulness habit, while raising awareness of TBI and raising funds for their programs.

I’d love to invite you to join the challenge today! They offer a 10-day and monthlong options.

A mindful minute to reconnect

Today’s mindful minute is a simple tool to notice your mind’s activity, without judgement, for one minute.

Try it, right now. Whatever you’re doing, take one minute to do this exercise.

Remember that you can always download the slide and save it to your phone (when we’re stressed, we will not naturally remember to be mindful!).

Now that you have practiced the tool . . .

What do you notice?

Try to answer without judgement. Whatever you notice is simply what you noticed; it’s not right, wrong, or indifferent.

Can you make a reminder to yourself to do this once a day this week??

For more support in creating a mindfulness habit, text MINDFUL to +1-480-531-9810 for a free, daily mindful minute prompt!