Latest / Understanding Your Concussion / Episode 16: The 4 P's in a Concussion Recovery; Pace, Plan, Prioritize and Pause
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. Hello, it is so exciting to be back in the podcast studio and recording a podcast. So I know from your perspective, there hasn't been a new episode in the past two weeks. However, I actually haven't recorded a podcast since August. I went away at the end of August to visit family. I'm coming back. It was return to school, return to routine, and I just knew that I wasn't going to be able to stay on top of recording a weekly podcast. And so I planned ahead and paced myself in order to ensure that I could have weekly episodes still. Coming out, even while I knew life was going to be busy, because I really wanted to prioritize the podcast. And life still happened. All went to plan, more or less. But I expected that I would be able to start jumping back into recording podcasts earlier than I actually have been able to. And that's why there's been this pause in the podcast for the last two weeks. So today I want to talk about planning. Pacing, prioritizing, and the pause that does come along with a concussion recovery journey. Because even when we are living with long-term concussion symptoms, we still have to go out and live our lives. Life does not stop while we're injured for any injury. And so we do. Have to make these adjustments in our lives around the injuries that we're experiencing. Concussion can make this quite challenging because our brain is involved in everything that we do: any task, any activity, any experience that we are participating in in life. And so it is a very different type of adjustment than it would be if you Sprained your ankle, broke your leg, injured your wrist. We have to include a lot more planning, pacing, and prioritizing in our lives. And there are times where we will need to pause, or life will encourage us to pause. And that's what's kind of happened to me over the last two weeks and why there wasn't a podcast available. Because I had to prioritize. In this particular incident, my energy levels, which required a pause on the podcast. I had started out with a plan. I knew I was going to be away. I knew coming back into life was gonna be a little bit hectic. And so I had made this plan where I had podcasts edited and ready to go, and then added in. Information about the understanding your concussion courses as extra podcasts to be included. One, so you're all starting to get an introduction into what the courses are all about, and two, as a way to pace myself so that I could still ensure that I was prioritizing podcast releases every week. This was a tool and strategy that I learned throughout. My concussion recovery journey. The planning, the pacing, and the prioritizing is essential when you're living with long-term concussion symptoms. Because there is that fourth P of pause. We often talk about the three P's in the concussion world: planning, pacing, and prioritizing. But I added that fourth P of pause because. Sometimes you need to pause and recover and recharge. And sometimes life is encouraging us to pause, or energy levels are just not there. And that fourth P is essential to add into this concussion recovery journey. The bit that I have to constantly still remind myself about is that planning is. Something we can do to help us feel a little bit more in control, but we might not always be able to stick to the plan. And that's kind of what happened for me. Weeks ago, I made this plan to have the podcast still coming out weekly so that when I was back by the end of September, I would be able to start recording podcasts and keep it coming out consistently weekly. Which was my plan and is something that I was prioritizing for myself in my commitment for getting this information out and showing up for people who are living with persistent symptoms and looking and seeking and searching for information for themselves on how to navigate this journey. It did go to plan initially. But what I wasn't prepared for is how much my energy levels were going to be impacted. And that I wasn't actually going to then continue with the plan. My plan had to be adjusted. My expectations had to be adjusted. And I had to incorporate a pause. because I wasn't able to keep up with that momentum that I initially thought I could and keep that consistent. This happened a lot in my own concussion recovery journey. I would make a plan initially, maybe just for the day. Maybe for the week. It wasn't something in the beginning of my journey that I was able to plan six weeks in advance. I was really living more day to day, week to week in the moment at that point. And It is really good for the brain to have a plan. Because when we wake up in the morning and we may not be sure of what to do with ourselves or what to participate in, we end up sometimes doing nothing instead because we're not really sure of where we should put our energy and What we should be prioritizing in that moment. What I notice is that when I make a plan, and whether I can stick to it or not, isn't always the importance of the plan. The plan is what helps my brain prepare itself for what is to come. If you've listened to lesson one, Understanding Your Injured Brain, or some of the previous podcasts. You'll know that the brain is a big predicting machine. It is always predicting what comes next. And so when we don't have a plan, we often do feel at a loss. And when we're injured, maybe experiencing a little bit of demotivation, uncertainty, fear around experiencing our symptoms, and we don't have a plan to work off of. We get stuck. That's what I experienced. The days where I wasn't prepared for what I could be doing with my day often left me at a loss, and I didn't really accomplish much. Whereas when I had set out a plan for the day in some particular order, then I was able to look at what it was that I had. planned for myself and in that moment would be able to know whether I felt symptomatic enough or not enough, whether to know I could actually participate in those tasks at that time. It gave me something to work off of. It gave me something to respond to. And that is how I typically function. And so having those ideas, whether they were actually written out Or something I had sat down with myself and decided on the evening before. I want to make sure I go for a walk. It's been a few days. I need to participate in my rehab exercises because if I'm not participating in those, I'm not going to see change. I have to make that phone call, send that email for the insurance company, for work, for school, whatever it is. When I had a list of something to work off of, it made it much easier to find something to begin to do with my day. And then based off of how that engaged with my brain and my system and what symptoms I was then experiencing allowed me to continue to figure out how to navigate throughout that day. That's where the prioritizing comes in. You can make a plan, but you also want to prioritize in that plan what are the essential things you do need to get done? What are the non-essential things that you would like to get done, but it's okay if they don't get done that particular day. When you prioritize, it helps you manage your energy levels better. Now, everyone is an individual, as I've repeated quite frequently throughout this podcast. But typically what we do find is that people living with persistent symptoms tend to have more energy or capacity earlier on in the day. Because once you've had that moment of sleep and recharge, you often have more of a fuller cup to work from. So when you do have energy and capacity to put into your recovery, that's when you're going to prioritize the things in your plan of what does really truly need to get done either in that day or earlier on in the week. I knew for myself during my journey, after a weekend, I typically allowed myself to either rest or just focus on being me. I didn't always focus on my recovery process on the weekends. I needed a pause. I needed a break. And so I would often use the weekends as a break because I was approaching my mindset and my outlook on my recovery as more like a full-time job. So I'm gonna focus on my recovery from Monday to Friday. And on the weekend, I'm gonna take a break because we can't always put 110% effort into everything that we do all the time 24-7. Our brains need a break. Our brains need a pause. Our systems need a pause. Our energy needs that pause. Our capacity sometimes requires that pause in order to recharge, rebuild, and gain some of that back. When we can prioritize those things that will maybe take more energy out of us, we want to do that when we have the energy to put into it. And then when we know the different types of tasks and activities that are not as draining for us, those are the things that we can do maybe closer to the end of the day when we don't have the same energy and capacity that we typically do at the start of the day. However, We're all an individual. And sometimes things change from day to day. Maybe you don't get a good night's sleep and you don't have the energy and capacity that you expected to have earlier on in the day. So maybe you're now prioritizing some of those things that you know recharge you. So instead of energy out initially earlier in the day, you need to recoup some energy back because you didn't have that great. Sleep. Or maybe you're the type of person who needs a slow morning. And once they kind of methodically go through that morning routine, then they feel more energized. And by midday, they have the capacity and an energy to put into those things that typically can be a little bit more draining. So another P, I guess you could add, is it being personalized. Whatever plan you make, whatever you're prioritizing, it needs to be personalized to you. And so the reality is that from this whole experience, I was once reminded again that the plan is so important to have because it did ensure that I had podcasts going out as I wanted. But my plan had to be adjusted. Because of how I was feeling and functioning as I was getting to the end of the plan. my plan initially was, by the end of September, things will have settled. I will be able to have more energy by then. And it will be easy for me to record a podcast. I wasn't aware that my husband was going to hire someone to come and work on the house and do things In and out of the house that required them in the spaces that I typically record my podcast in, that the noise was going to be quite distracting for recording a podcast. And that I had kind of hit a wall from the different things that have been going on in my life that I've had to navigate. And I ran out of energy. So the plan that I had initially created did need adjustment. And that is possibly one thing we don't often give ourselves permission for in our recovery processes. So many P words, I love it. This is the P-word podcast. We need to be okay with when we know we need a pause in our recovery journeys or when we need a pause in life. And this is what I had to remind myself of over the last few weeks. As frustrating as I found it, as you know, there's an element sometimes of shame that can creep in when we can't keep up with the expectation we've set for ourselves, that we're afraid we're letting other people down. That we can't function the way we have expected of ourselves. We do feel negativity towards ourselves. And that's how I was feeling. I felt like I was letting people down by not keeping the consistency of the podcast. I felt that I was letting myself down by not keeping to my commitment of weekly podcasts that were coming out. And that was the commitment I made to myself. When we question ourselves this way, feel shame about our productivity of what we are or are not doing, of what we are or are not accomplishing, that does lead to that anxiety, rightly so, but that does then elevate our nervous system. And so going through my concussion recovery journey. What I noticed is that if I spent a lot of time in that emotional flooding, in that feeling of questioning myself, of doubting myself, of being hard on myself for not keeping up the way that I expected myself to do so, it really was elevating my nervous system and pushing me more into that state of fight or flight and staying in that elevated fight or flight. Because I was allowing that emotional flooding piece to persist. And once I recognized that that emotional flooding was really impeding my ability to heal, what I had to focus on was my mindset, my outlook, and my language. And so those are the tools that I still use to this day because our nervous system is a part of who we are. That will never change. And even though nervous system regulation is really a hot topic right now, the reality that no one's really talking about is that, nervous system regulation isn't a consistent state. Nervous system regulation is a dynamic state. It is something that is constantly ebbing and flowing. That's why I say we're always in this dance with our nervous system. we are not meant to be. Just calm, and that's a regulated nervous system. Our nervous system is meant to fluctuate. But on the other side, we are not supposed to stay in an elevated sympathetic state all the time either. And that naturally does happen with a concussion. If you're not really sure what I'm talking about with emotional flooding, make sure you check out that episode as well because there's a lot of valuable information in that. But that emotional flooding piece. Can really impact our ability to recover. And so being mindful of what we tell ourselves in response to some of these moments where we do need to adjust the plan, change what we did prioritize, and maybe pace ourselves slower than we really wanted to, and come to a point where we realize we do need a pause. That can all lead to emotional flooding if we allow ourselves to see that through a negative lens. And so that's what I've really worked on in my recovery process and recognize when it's happening now that I have to honor first myself. when you are the adult. When you are in charge of a family, when you are a part of a family, when you're a part of a team, whether that team is for sports or for work, when you feel like you're letting yourself or you're letting other people down, we often tend to prioritize them. But the two things I often tell my clients is one. You're the only one who is going to have to deal with how you feel. So if you push yourself through your symptoms because of the fear of letting other people down, you have to be prepared to deal with those symptoms. And sometimes it's worth it. Sometimes you'll need to. But often it's not. And what ends up happening is you push yourself, you regret it because now you're symptomatic and it's impacted. the rest of your plan for the day or the week. And now the only person suffering is you. The other people are fine. And the other people would have been fine if they needed to adjust because they're in a different place in their life. And we often don't give credit to how strong other people can be when when you can prioritize yourself because people prioritize themselves all the time. We just not might not be aware of that. The other thing is that I always remind people about what happens when you're on an airplane, and if the pressure changes and those masks fall down, what do the flight attendants tell you to do? They tell you to prioritize yourself. You need to put that mask on for yourself first. So that you're getting oxygen so that you can then be helpful to other people. And I think sometimes we don't realize how important it is for us to have energy and capacity and be symptom limited or as symptom free as we can be to show up as our best selves when we are participating with other people. Or working with other people or showing up in a team. If you're fearing that you're gonna let down the team because you're not gonna show up and they're gonna have to adjust, and you do show up, but you're symptomatic, or you're not capable of performing as best as you typically are, you're probably still letting the team down. You're not showing up as your best self. And so maybe in the bigger picture of everything, it was actually better for you to prioritize yourself and stay out and stay home. This was something that took me a while to learn through my recovery journey: is that prioritizing myself is not just being selfish. It's actually for the greater good of everyone involved. Because if I can't show up as my best self. then I'm really not prioritizing everyone else. It is okay to be a little selfish and prioritize yourself because you're the one that has to deal with the aftermath. And you have to sometimes think bigger picture and long term. If you're showing up and not giving great quality, was it worth it? And so that's what I had to remind myself during this podcast: is that sure, I could show up and ramble on about something about concussions. I probably talk about concussions in my sleep. There's a lot of things I can talk about. However, is it actually going to be good quality and of benefit to other people? And by taking the time, by allowing myself to have that pause. Then all of a sudden the creative juices did start to flow. And I realized, well, that's what I've been doing. I had a plan. I prioritized what was good and right for me, but I didn't necessarily pace myself with everything going on because of how life just unfolded. And so it led to me requiring a pause. And by taking that pause, I've been able to rejuvenate, recover, and become creative again. And hopefully, this is a podcast that Is necessary right now. There's someone out here listening to this who really needs to hear this. And because I allowed myself to slow down and pause and plan what it is that I was actually going to say instead of just showing up and forcing it, then the message is going to be produced better and receive better. And that is a hard whether it's I don't know what the word is that I'm looking for. Whether that's a hard lesson or experience or quality to learn because it feels uncomfortable to pause. And it still does to me, even after all the positive things that I have learnt from pausing, it still feels uncomfortable to me because it's not really valued in how we function in our society. But we can start to change that. And so we can lead by example. And so that's kind of the outlook that I took. In the last two weeks, even though I was feeling guilty and a little shameful for the fact that I wasn't able to stick to the plan and to continue to feel like I wasn't prioritizing the podcast, I really realized that by actually taking the pause was allowing me to prioritize the podcast. And that by slowing down was leading to better outcomes rather than. Forcing things to happen and not producing ideally good quality work. And so that's the message that I really wanted to come back and share with you after this tiny little hiatus of the podcast is that those four P's, the main four Ps, even though there are a lot of other P words that have come into this podcast today, that planning is very helpful in life, but also in a concussion recovery journey to support the brain and how it functions. Prioritizing is something that is important for you to do based off of how you want to feel and function and how you can start to manage your energy levels and your capacity. Pacing ourselves is essential, but it's challenging because often it does mean we need to move slower than we're used to, which can feel uncomfortable. But when we pace ourselves, We often can give ourselves that longevity of moving forward than we would if we were really rushing and forcing. And that pausing is okay in your recovery process, in life. And that consistency can feed on that feeling of perfectionism, which is really, I love what Elizabeth Gilbert says. Perfectionism is just fear. In really good shoes. So when we are letting that perfectionism sneak up on us and kind of start to convince us that we're not doing enough, we should be doing more. Things should be better. We should be forcing it. We should be pushing ourselves. That isn't truly what we need. What we truly need is a pause. And so we need to let that fear of the pause subside and not convince us of being perfect and our perfectionism. And that pausing can really be a big enhancement in the long-term bigger picture of our recovery process or in life and the quality that we can bring forth to the people around us in our world. So think about those four Ps throughout your day or throughout your week. And if you haven't already been incorporating a plan, try it. Try just giving yourself a few ideas of what you could achieve in your day, prioritize them of what feels good and right to you, and pace yourself in doing so. When you need a pause, pause. And when you need to adjust the plan, do not feel guilty. Do not feel ashamed. Allow yourself to change your outlook of this is what I need. And instead of prioritizing the plan, I'm prioritizing my energy. I'm prioritizing my capacity. I'm prioritizing the pause. Because this is what I know is going to serve me down the road. And that better quality of how I'm going to feel and function is more important than what it is that I produce or can check off the box. So think about that throughout your week and your day and reach out to me and let me know how incorporating the four Ps into your recovery process. Has changed or supported you in a different way than maybe you didn't expect. It's always worth a try. If it doesn't work for you, then you know. But give it a shot and let me know how the four P's work for you in your recovery process. 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