Hi there,
Jesse here.
Well,
If you found your way here to Insight Timer and my introduction to mindfulness with a brain injury,
Then,
Yeah,
Then you're just like me and you have a brain injury.
Well,
It's so hard,
Right?
Hmm.
See if you can place your hand on your heart and just feeling into that,
That feeling of how hard it is,
But the feeling of how you're not alone.
You're just like me.
And there's millions of us all around the world struggling with this invisible disability that is so hard for others to understand,
But,
But we get it.
We get each other even though no two concussions are alike and we're not in the same boat.
We've all got our own unique situations,
But still I get you and I bet you get me.
Feel into that connection between us and the 69 million people a year who get a brain injury and how we're all struggling our best to get by and learning new strategies and skills to try to manage as best we can.
Now,
I don't know,
Where are you?
Maybe you're like me and I'm in Canada.
Maybe you're in Tokyo or Jakarta or Melbourne or London or Nairobi or Chicago.
I have no idea,
But my heart goes out to you.
I want to share with you a little thing that I do in the morning these days that a student of mine inspired this actually.
So we're all survivors,
But we're also warriors and every morning now,
Most mornings,
When I remember I wake up and I say to myself,
I am a warrior and then I say,
We are warriors and I think of you wherever you are.
I think about you and how I'm not alone in this and how inspired I am to share what I've learned in my nine-year journey of post-concussion symptoms and how much I'm so grateful for having learned mindfulness,
The broad range of mindfulness from sort of more traditional sitting practice to mindfulness in nature,
Mindful self-compassion and again and restorative yoga and a whole range of ways that I've learned to help cultivate calm clarity in my life and weather the storms that come with a brain injury and I so want this for you.
When I started out with mindfulness I found it really hard.
I mean everybody does,
But with a brain injury some of the traditional practices were just way too overwhelming,
Too much attention to my body for too long.
No thank you.
I'm not doing that.
So I learned to modify mindfulness practices in ways that work for us for brain injury and I invite you to join me on this journey where your body's a beaker and a big experiment.
Nobody's the same.
Everybody and everybody is different and it's only you that can figure out what will help you feel calm and what will help you feel some clarity when our brains get foggy.
So join me here on Insight Timer on this journey together,
Sending you some light and ease today.
Until next time,
My heart's with you.
