This Hat is a Helmet

I'm not sure who to give credit to for this image...this is a picture I took of the back of a notebook I once bought. (This one might be fun to listen to, regardless of your screen time capacity 😋  Click here !) Have you ever read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz ?   The original novel?   About four years ago I was at a different, but also challenging, crossroads in my life.   Not recovering from a brain injury at that time, but recovering from major life changes nonetheless - it felt like my life was re-inventing itself.   It also seemed at that time like themes from the Wizard of Oz were popping up everywhere I looked.   I do have a bit of a history with the story - in grade nine I was in fact in our high school musical “The Wiz,” and I played a damn good munchkin and flying monkey, if I do say so myself 😜. I was reminded of the recurring song lyrics “ Come on and ease on down, ease on down the road…don’t you carry nothing that might be a lo...

(Want to listen to this post instead? Less screen time for all!  Click here ) “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.”   Do you know who said that?   I knew that quote but had no idea where it came from.   Apparently it was a French psychologist by the name of Émile Coué.   According to wikipedia, in the late 19th century he worked as an apothecary and discovered what we now call the placebo effect .   He then went on to develop his method (the Coué method ), which involved repeating optimistic mantras to help improve what ails you.   He figured that to work through some of our troubles, it took more than a strong conscious will; it also took a change in unconscious thought and to get there, imagination is the only ticket.   And so was born the mantra “Tous les jours à tous points de vue je vas de mieux en mieux,” translated into English “Every day, in every way, I’m getting better and better.” I’m not here to commend...

(Want to listen to this post instead?  Less screen time!  Click here ) Recently I went to a talk on neuroplasticity.   If there is anything I learned from that talk it is that very little is truly known about how exactly the brain works. The researcher and professor giving the talk likened brain research to opening one Pandora's box, only to find another Pandora's box, only to find another, and another… though as I doubt neuroscience research releases any evil into the world, I picture it more as opening never ending nesting dolls, each one revealing another confusing mystery, wrapped in a riddle, tucked inside the enigma that is the brain. You know that expression people use when they are trying to say something isn't that complicated? “It's not rocket science…” Well rocket science is child's play compared to scientific research into the brain… I'm not here to give a quality science lesson on the pathophysiology of brain injuries; this...

(Want to listen to this post instead?  Less screen time!  Click here .) When I tell people I have a brain injury, or that I have had a number of concussions (I think the count is up to 4 or 5…depending on how you count them), I often get asked how it happened.   Now, I can’t speak for the whole brain injury community, but for me, this question is kind of a social faux-pas.   It reminds me of the first episode of Orange is the New Black.   The protagonist enters her first jail cell for the first time.   She is awkwardly trying to greet her cell mates.   She gets asked what she did to get put in prison.  She replied "Aren't you not supposed to ask that question?  I read that you're not supposed to ask that"… Well, the brain injury can be likened to prison.   It isolates me.   It keeps me from the outside world.   It keeps me confined to only a few rooms.   I can’t really wat...

(Want to listen to this post instead?  Less screen time!  Click  here ) I tip my hat off to you…or, my helmet.   Because you’re here.   You’ve made it this far.   Opened yourself up to learning about another person’s experience with brain injury. You may have a brain injury yourself.   You may know someone, or care for someone who does.   You may be a professional who wants to get a better understanding of the actual day-to-day challenges.   Either way, I tip my helmet off to you…then I put it back on before I hit my head again… This blog is called “This Hat is a Helmet” for a very good reason.   Or maybe just a reason.   Good or bad or neutral, here is that reason: we all have many different roles.   We are friends, siblings, spouses, parents, coworkers, professionals.   We may be baristas, clerks, teachers, entrepreneurs, landscapers, performers, athletes.   We may also be that person at the...