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March: Brain Injury Awareness Month

March is brain injury awareness month. It is our time to show everyone what we struggle with every day of our lives. We need to raise awareness.

March is brain injury awareness month. Through this month, I will try to post a statistic or inspiring quote every day. For us, every day is brain injury awareness, but March is our month. We can now make everyone else aware of what we live with every day.

If you are new here, welcome. Please read my story. This will tell you what I am trying to do and why I am trying to do it. Please click here.

Birthdays: Negative and Positive

Birthdays are a time to celebrate. They are a time to enjoy another year with loved ones. They are a time to reflect, which can be difficult.

I had a birthday a few days ago—another trip around the sun and another year older. The funny thing is, I am not that old. I just turned 25.

A birthday is something to celebrate. That goes double after you had an injury that threatened your life. It is crucial to remember it is a time for celebration.

It is time for your friends and family to acknowledge and be thankful that they still have years with you. It is a time to celebrate with your loved ones.

Birthdays: There is a dark side

There is a darker side to having a birthday. It signifies that you are another year older. This current birthday has been a difficult one for me.

25. A quarter-century. Birthdays are an excellent time to reflect on what you have done with your time on earth. I can almost guarantee that when you were younger, you had an image of where you would be at the age you become.

When I was younger, 25 was far away. I was going to have my dream job, have a loving husband, and starting a family of my own.

Spoiler alert, I have none of that. I must find peace that life does not turn out the way we plan it at times. I talked in an earlier post about timelines. I know that sometime down the road I will get everything I want; it just will take me longer to get there—just like everything else in my life.

It is essential when you get in this funk; I am in to dig yourself out of it fast. It would be best if you didn’t dwell on what you have yet to accomplish especially on birthdays.

I try to think of what I have accomplished. I tend to think of these accomplishments, but you can write them down and keep the list somewhere. Then, when you get into the funk, pull out the list.

Acknowledgment of accomplishments is especially crucial for people with brain injuries, even if it isn’t your birthday. Remember, everything you accomplish is a big feat and should be celebrated. Try to remember all the hard work you put into what you have done.

If you have yet to read my story, please click here to read it. My birthday is also the anniversary on my injury.

Self-love: It is time to end the hatred

It is easy to focus on your flaws. It is more difficult to partake in self-love. This post is about how I began my journey.

In honor of Valentine’s day coming up, I figure it would be a good idea to talk about self-love. Sometimes loving yourself for who you are is difficult.

It is easy to see all your flaws, but it is essential to realize that the people you are around don’t see your flaws the way you do. Imperfections can be many when you are dealing with a brain injury.

If I give you a minute to write down all your flaws, how long will the list be? If I give you a minute to make a list of things you love about yourself, will the list be shorter or longer?

Usually, the love list is shorter, and that is an okay start on the self-love journey. The important thing is you find stuff you love about yourself. If there is nothing, start small.

I am not thrilled with my weight and my current life situation. I do like the color of my hair and how passionate I can become about a task.

Self-love Journey

The things you love about yourself don’t have to be physical. You can like something about your personality.

It is easy to get down on yourself. It isn’t an effortless task to improve your life if there is nothing positive you can say about yourself.

To begin my self-love journey, I challenged myself to pick five things I like about myself. Keep this list around for when you are feeling down about yourself. Read the list and remember that there are things to love about yourself.

When you are feeling down about yourself, remember you can always change what you don’t like.

The practice of self-love promotes self-confidence. The more self-confidence you have, the more comfortable you are in your own skin, and it may get rid of some self-hatred.

If you haven’t gotten the chance, please read my story about why I began the blog, click here.

Hopeless: When a task seems impossible

When a task seems impossible, remember the task is just difficult and not impossible.

The dictionary defines hopelessness as ‘impossible to accomplish.’ I have had many times where I have felt hopeless myself, or the task I am working on is futile.

This feeling is not fun to have. It can leave you feeling desperate and ask what the point is. If something is impossible to accomplish, why bother doing it.

But there is good news. There is a difference between hopelessness and exhausting. As the dictionary states, hopeless is impossible and difficult is ‘not easily or readily done.’

When a task is difficult, it may seem hopeless. But most of the time, it is just a difficult task. Usually, the only job that is impossible is one that physically cannot be done, like a dog picking up a can of soup with their paws.

The dog is physically unable to pick up a can of soup because they do not have thumbs and cannot grasp the can. Sports have taken many strides from when they began.

For a long time, figure skaters believed that triples would be the highest jump they would do. Still, recently multiple skaters have landed quadruple jumps in competitions and therefore achieving the hopeless.

Hopelessness Turned Around

It is mentally draining to perform a difficult task, but the key is not to give up. The ability to keep working on a task, and performing it over and over again is impressive.

If the task you are working on begins to feel hopeless, take a break. You can always pick it back up again. It will do no good if you keep attempting the task.

I have found that as I become more frustrated, the more hopeless the task becomes. My mind and body do not follow what is needed to do to perform the job

It is okay to step away and come back to it later. The important thing is never to give up. Next week I will dive into how I handle when I feel like I am hopeless.

If you haven’t been able to read my story and why I started this blog, click here.

Dreams: We all have them

Everyone has their dreams. It is important to acknowledge that dreams are different. With our own timelines certain life events occur at different times.

It is normal to wonder when the right time is to follow a dream in life. I have learned that it is never the right time for anything.

Since it is never the right time, you should just do what you want to do. It is important to just go for what you want.

No one knows what is going to happen in the future, and we can spend hours worrying about it. Or we can create our future.

Being Left behind

The feeling of being left behind is real, and it hurts. The importance of doing what you dream of doing is valid. Others cannot take your dream away from you.

When I am feeling left behind, I try to remember that everyone has a different vision. No one shares my vision, and I don’t share theirs.

The fact that we do not have the same dreams means we are on different timelines. I am working toward my goal of researching ways to aid in rehabilitation after a brain injury.

Different Dreams

That is my current dream. At some point, my goal will be finding the man I love and starting a family, but it is not it right now.

My friends that are engaged right now that is their dream. It is excellent that they are living their dream, and I am living mine.

When you are feeling left behind or left out, think about what you are working towards. Remember what you are trying to accomplish in life.

If you are not working toward a dream right now, sit down and think. What do you hope to accomplish in life?

It doesn’t have to be significant or life-changing. You just must pick something. Try to start small if you are unable to think of a dream.

If you get the chance, please check out my story to have an idea of why I began this blog.

Timelines: We each have our own

Events in life will happen when it is the right time. Everyone is on their own timeline and it is okay to feel left out but there are ways to help feel less left out.

We all have our own timelines in life. Our timetable may look different than others our age, and sometimes this can be not very easy to accept.

The holidays just occurred, and there were a lot of engagements and moments to share with loved ones.

I am personally of the age where most of my friends are getting married or in long term relationships where I am not. This difference in life is okay; they are where they need to be, and so am I.

I am still working on accepting this fact and I need to allow that I will find the right person. Currently, I am trying to figure out what I want in my life and what I am looking for.

This process includes me trying to figure out my life out. Now that is no small feat; I am journaling every day in order to understand what I want my life to look like.

The transition period of when you and friends are coming out of school and creating an adult life can be tough. We are in the place where the is a sense of unsure and do not know where lives are going.

This post is going to be the beginning of a series about personal timelines, I guess you can call it. Next week I will post a discussion about dealing with the immediate feelings towards being left behind and what has helped me begin to cope with this process and period in life.

If you haven’t had a chance to read my story, please click here.