Latest / Understanding Your Concussion / Episode 13: Intro to Understanding Your Concussion Course: Lesson 3 Understanding Rest and Recovery
Transcript
- Jana: Hi, I am Jana Kapp. I know the concussion recovery journey deeply, ⁓ both personally ⁓ and professionally. Join me in understanding your concussion, ⁓ where I empower you in navigating the complexities of a concussion recovery journey by sharing the science of what is going on behind the scenes, the stories of why we feel the way we feel, and how we can work with our brain to find our way back to feeling and functioning like ourselves again. We are officially halfway through the first season of understanding your concussion. Thank you so much for joining me. I Hope you are finding value in these episodes to help you navigate your concussion recovery journey Throughout the season, I've been alluding to the understanding your concussion courses. These courses I created to empower those who are navigating a concussion recovery journey. As someone who has lived with persistent symptoms, I know how challenging it is to not understand what you're living, what you're going through, and how you can start to move towards feeling and functioning like yourselves again. This is where understanding your concussion courses evolved from. as a healthcare professional, I found myself repeating the same information to different clients over and over and over again. And I started recognizing that this information that I continue to repeat. It is important for anyone who is navigating a concussion recovery journey. But as a physiotherapist who works with acute and persistent concussion clients, I've realized that in a session, it's really hard to support someone in all the different facets of a concussion recovery journey. when an individual comes into the clinic, And they are paying for a concussion assessment. I am going to prioritize understanding what is going on behind the scenes of the systems that work with the brain. Your vision system, your vestibular system, the autonomic nervous system, the neck, and any of the other things that may be associated with their specific concussion recovery journey. When we only have between 30 minutes, maybe up to 90 minutes when you work with a therapist, it doesn't often leave a lot of room for the educational piece. in the clinic, a concussion provider is going to prioritize assessment, treatment, and home exercise programs through our professional lens in order to support you in that particular aspect of your journey. am invited to speak at concussion support groups and discuss my own personal journey and the information that I value in a concussion recovery. when I share the educational component, many individuals comment, I really wish my physiotherapist had let me know this. Why isn't this information more accessible? It's because as a professional, we are devoting your time, your money to what you came into the clinic for. Sometimes The educational piece of how to live with and navigate a concussion recovery might not be addressed. Because I have the background of personally navigating this journey myself, I know there is so much value in that educational component. But when someone comes into the clinic and I have my physiotherapist hat on, I will focus more through assessment and treatment. I created understanding your concussion courses. so that that educational component is accessible to anyone living with concussion symptoms. Your rehab component is an essential aspect of this journey, but typically it only takes up about 30 minutes of your day, and maybe you participate in those 30 minutes throughout the week to perform or to practice your exercises that you are prescribed from your concussion provider. What do you do outside of the 23 hours and 30 minutes that you are not doing your exercises? There is this mismatch in concussion care where the educational component is essential for the individual to have access to and be aware of, but then isn't often provided by the therapist or concussion provider themselves. Because I have that unique perspective having navigated this journey myself, I know how important it is to know what to do with yourself outside of those 23 hours a day. the reasons that I created these courses is because there often isn't time that we can devote as concussion care providers to the educational component. How to navigate your symptoms. How to manage your symptoms. How to engage with rest. You might be told by your concussion provider that you require more rest in your concussion recovery journey. But maybe they don't say much more beyond that, as there isn't enough time to devote to why you need to rest and how you need to rest. Right now in the concussion recovery world, cardiovascular exercise. is a priority in your concussion recovery journey. However, I do find that people who are living with persistent symptoms often are not engaging in their cardiovascular exercise because they often don't understand why it's important and how to exercise through a concussion recovery lens. The understanding your concussion courses cover symptom management, rest, and exercise. These are the courses that I've alluded to in the podcast. And I thought that it might be a good idea to start to share with you what is inside understanding your concussion courses so that you can start to determine if this is something. That is really going to enhance your recovery process. over the next few weeks, the understanding your concussion courses episodes are going to be sprinkled in amongst the style of episodes you've already been listening to. the understanding your concussion courses come with four lessons. These are the lessons that I believe are essential for an individual living with concussion symptoms to begin to understand, to support and empower them through their concussion recovery journey. Each of these courses take you through the what, why, and how of a concussion recovery through the lens of each lesson. There are four lessons: understanding your injured brain, understanding symptom management, understanding rest and recovery, and understanding exercise. Lesson one, understanding your injured brain, is free on my website. It takes you through What is going on behind the scenes of your injured brain? Why concussion subtypes? So that you can start to identify for yourself what systems may be impacted in your concussion recovery and which concussion provider to seek out for support. And how the brain heals. Yes, the brain can heal. It's just not very good at it on its own and it needs your support. When you have that understanding, of how the brain heals, you can show up differently in your concussion recovery journey. lesson two, understanding symptom management, takes you through understanding what overstimulation is, why we experience concussion symptoms, spoiler alert, their communication from our brain. You might already know that if you've been listening to the podcast. And three, how to respond to your symptoms. based off of what your brain is communicating. And I take you through those four things as I discussed in the episode, what your symptoms are communicating. Detect error, perceive threat, integration issue, and capacity. Lesson three is devoted to rest and recovery. What is rest? Why do we rest and how to rest? Because many of us in our journey are unaware of how to rest. I was myself in the beginning of my journey, and that's how I developed these different ways of engaging and participating in rest. I also take you through what is recovery time? Why are we focusing on recovery time? And how to recover. Lesson four is understanding exercise. What is exercise? Let's start there so that you have an idea of truly what is exercise, because there is a difference between physical activity and exercise. Why do we exercise for concussion? And how? To exercise safely and efficiently when you are recovering from a concussion. The sprinkled-in episodes that are going to take you through each of these lessons will give you a listen to the introduction to the lesson itself, an introduction to the what, an introduction to the why, and an introduction to the how. of each particular lesson in understanding your concussion course. Not everyone does have access to a concussion care provider. These courses are going to start you on your journey so that you can start to work with your brain to promote healing and determine for yourself when it is the right time to seek out support, treatment, or alternative therapies to enhance your recovery process. Empower yourself in your concussion recovery journey so that you can begin to work with your brain, promote healing, and return to feeling and functioning like yourself again. Let's dive in to the next lesson. Lesson three, Rest and Recovery. Introduction. In the concussion recovery world, rest is a controversial subject. There is a lot of mixed messaging on rest when recovering from a concussion. Some say rest is of the utmost importance in this journey. While others believe rest can be detrimental to a concussion recovery. This leaves individuals very confused about rest and how to participate in rest. The truth of it all is that rest alone will not lead to us becoming symptom-free so that we can return back to our lives as normal. On the flip side, Avoiding rest altogether will also not lead to us becoming symptom-free so that we can return to our lives as normal. We want to find a way to incorporate rest in our journeys that will support our healing. There is more to rest than our preconceived notion of sitting around and doing nothing. When we can understand the what, why, and how of rest in a concussion recovery process, not only will it empower you in your journey, but you will also experience less symptoms, along with more energy, capacity, and motivation. This is what this lesson is dedicated to. Helping you to understand the what, why, and how of rest and recovery in your concussion recovery journey. What is rest? Rest is wildly misunderstood. My guess is that if I asked you, what is rest? You would tell me that rest is sitting around and doing nothing. When we see rest through this lens of sitting around and doing nothing, we often view rest as being lazy, unproductive, and a waste of time. Many of us do not value or see the value of rest and typically feel that we need to earn our rest. When we sustain a concussion due to the nature of this injury, we are required to slow down and rest more frequently than we ever have before. Many of us are not used to this, and having to slow down and rest can make us feel uncomfortable. Prior to my concussion, I was not used to resting and bought into this idea that rest is being lazy, unproductive, and a waste of time. After I sustained my concussion, Initially, I did not allow myself to slow down and incorporate rest in my journey. I did not see it as something of value to my recovery process. But after years of pushing through and living with persistent symptoms, it became very clear that I would not heal without incorporating rest in this journey. So I worked on changing my relationship to rest and reframed what rest really was, especially in my journey. I reframed rest as not just sitting around being lazy and doing nothing. Rest is an active part of the concussion recovery process. Engaging with rest and discovering different ways to engage with rest shifted my recovery process in a more positive direction. Engaging with rest wasn't sitting around and doing nothing. It was an active and essential aspect of the concussion recovery journey. Why rest? After sustaining a concussion, our brains are placed in a vulnerable state due to the underlying neurometabolic cascade and energy crisis. The brain has to devote energy resources towards healing and at the same time to the functioning brain so that you can function in your life. Balancing these two aspects of healing and functioning is not an easy task for the brain or for ourselves. When not managed well early on in our journeys, the energy crisis can linger and lead to long-term concussion symptoms. As we navigate healing in our journeys, we need to allocate our energy in a different way than what we are typically used to. Not only do we need to manage the energy that we put out into our recoveries, we also have to ensure we are recouping back the energy we have put out. This is why rest is an active part of the concussion recovery process. When we rest, we are actively Catching up on the backlog, working to keep us below our threshold, creating space to check in with our brain, balancing the energy in with energy out, and allowing for what is going on behind the scenes. How to rest. Introduction. Ideally, I have now begun to change your mind on the concept of rest, and you are beginning to understand that rest is not just sitting around and doing nothing. Rest is an active part of this recovery process to help us replenish and restore our energy and capacity. How we engage in rest will vary throughout the day, from day to day, and even throughout our overall healing journey, based on how we need to restore and replenish our energy. What I discovered throughout my journey. Is that by taking on the lens that rest equals restoring energy levels, it opens up many different possibilities for how to engage with rest. Let's dive into the various forms of rest that you can begin to choose from to help restore and replenish your energy levels throughout your recovery process. I identified eight different forms of rest that I could participate in throughout my journey. Recovery time, introduction. Throughout a concussion recovery process, it is very easy to spot the negative aspects associated with this journey. It can be challenging to find or spot the positives. Yes, there are positives. I too struggled to find the positives initially. Once I had a better understanding of rest and recovery time, I was able to change my perspective and see the positives and healing that was occurring throughout my journey. Resting can be challenging for individuals throughout this recovery. As during this downtime, our thoughts may gravitate towards the negative aspects of our recovery process. I refer to this as emotional flooding. When we look at our recovery time, it changes where we place our attention. Instead of looking at how crappy we feel, we can begin to focus our attention on how good we feel. Instead of focusing on what isn't working, now we can begin to see what is working. When we can turn our attention to our recovery time, it can help us to spot the positives and allow ourselves to enjoy resting so that we reap the benefits. Before we dive into the what, why, and how of recovery time, let's discuss emotional flooding when resting. Thank you for joining me in understanding your concussion. I hope that you are leaving this episode feeling empowered in understanding what is going on behind the scenes of your injury, why you feel the way you feel, and how to begin to take action to move forward in your unique healing journey. Interested in checking out understanding your concussion course? Head to concussion healingspace.com or the link is in the show notes. You can purchase lesson one through four, reminder lesson one is free. If you're interested in connecting with me for mentorship and support, one on one consultations are available online or join the Concussion Support Club where you get access to all four courses and weekly drop in support club options