Latest / Understanding Your Concussion / Episode 1: The Brain Can Heal from a Concussion
Transcript
- Jana: There's something I want you to know about your brain. The brain has capacity to heal. It's just not very good at it. Let's talk about it. So the good news is, is that the brain does have the capacity to heal. It's just not very good at it on its own. Thank you for joining me in understanding your concussion. hope that you are leaving this episode feeling empowered in 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. in our society, we had this ⁓ belief that the brain did ⁓ have the capacity to change ⁓ to heal, especially ⁓ once reached adulthood. Hence, ⁓ can't teach an old dog tricks. However, we have come to learn and understand it's not entirely true ⁓ about the brain. ⁓ Hi, I am Jana Kapp. I know the concussion journey deeply, ⁓ both personally ⁓ and professionally. Join me in understanding concussion, ⁓ where I empower you in navigating the complexities. You can purchase lesson one through four, reminder lesson one is free. you're interested in connecting with me for mentorship and support, one on one consultations are available online or join the Support Club where you get access all four courses and weekly drop in support options The brain does have the capacity to new tricks, ⁓ matter what it happens to be. The brain can change at any point in our lifespan. And it actually does this on a regular basis. ⁓ so when we're young, building neuro pathways, but are constantly building neuro pathways in our brain all the time. That ⁓ the of neuroplasticity. 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. The brain uses neuroplasticity by re-pairing, re-wiring, creating new neuro pathways. That is the act of neuroplasticity. ⁓ that's where the word comes from, the brain ⁓ is plastic. ⁓ has the to be ⁓ malleable and and can change. you support your brain to heal in a way to help work towards feeling functioning the way you want to feel and function after sustaining a concussion. You can work towards creating these new neural pathways to symptom-free. We can use neuroplasticity our advantage. When we don't ⁓ ⁓ guide brain in building these new neuro pathways, we may not up feeling and functioning the way that we want to. And this is exactly ⁓ how I felt my concussion recovery. and perhaps resonates with some of you, that maybe you are not feeling and functioning the way you know you could be as a result of your concussion. I refer to this as maladaptive wiring. This maladaptive wiring is what I believe led to the long-term complications that I lived with for four years ⁓ of symptoms. I wasn't of ⁓ how to make neuroplasticity for me in my recovery process. ⁓ And so brain was looking for ways to heal, ⁓ pathways to to rewire. but I wasn't participating in the process. brain is a predictive machine and it learns through creating associations. maybe heard the term neurons that fire together, wire together. neural pathways that are getting ⁓ activated when you are partaking in a task or activity your brain is learning that these neural pathways are associated with one another and they wire in. in lesson one, understanding injured brain in module ⁓ the brain can heal. give an example about reading. to help you to understand what I mean by the brain creates associations and neurons that fire together, wire together. So let's say after your concussion, you are reading and after 15 minutes of reading, you start to get a headache. But if you start to push through those symptoms and continue reading, your brain is learning and creating this association that When you read, it gets a headache. reading and headache ⁓ are starting to in together ⁓ so that down road, ⁓ every time you you get a headache. This is what the brain learns. However, the brain can unlearn this and you can start to build a new neuropathway or create new neuropathway without the association of headache. ⁓ And now you're starting to be to read without getting a headache. This is the act of neuroplasticity. When you follow that two point scale, so that ⁓ whatever task or activity you're participating in, when start to arise, more than two or three points from your initial baseline. Now, ⁓ your brain is not ⁓ learning. that when you do this task or activity, this symptom comes along because you take that opportunity the symptom and the task or activity are now not getting wired in together. That's what the two point scale ⁓ is doing for you. Now, the two point scale, ⁓ much easier to adopt when early on and it's easier to navigate symptoms. As you start to heal and progress through your journey, Sometimes it can be a little bit more challenging, but there are tools and strategies that you can learn and apply to help you through that process. This is what I started to do after living with concussion symptoms for years, when arise ⁓ take a ⁓ and allow my brain to recover. living with concussion symptoms to take a break, take a break, so that my brain wasn't learning to keep wiring in that experience of the symptom with the task or activity I was doing. ⁓ And over time, I was able build new neural pathways to support ⁓ how ⁓ I wanted to feel function. you want to make neuroplasticity work for you, well, You're going to want to learn and understand a little bit more about neuroplasticity. Now there are some principles of neuroplasticity to be aware of. The principles of neuroplasticity require effort, energy, attention, ⁓ And all comes ⁓ from intentional ⁓ action. Healing ⁓ same principles, energy, attention, and repetition, and having an intentional action to really drive you forward. ⁓ Action also another word for intention. What is your intention behind action? ⁓ Because that's what's going to you ⁓ to choose what is the best step to take now to help move you forward based on your intention, your intentional action, or that long-term goal that you have. My intentional action or my long-term goal when going through my recovery process was to work towards a future self that would be able to feel and function the way that I wanted to feel and function again in my life. didn't like how I was functioning after living with symptoms for many years. Many you probably resonate with that as well ⁓ in it is not something that you enjoy living with symptoms or not being able to live at the same level or capacity that you once remembered. That was my goal. And if that is a similar goal of yours or whatever your goal is, you can make neuroplasticity work for you. you can make neuroplasticity work for you. if that is our intentional action is to feel and function like ourselves ⁓ or to live symptom free, ⁓ your ⁓ that you take have to you that direction. Our actions do influence ⁓ neuroplasticity. That's that effort and energy, whatever effort energy we are putting our recoveries is influencing our neuroplasticity. Our actions what builds our habits. And habits ⁓ is builds behaviors. And our behaviors build who we are. So our actions are the choices that we make. And it makes me think of this Anne Frank quote that I came across a few years ago, that our lives are fashioned by our choices. we make our choices, then choices make us. choices are actions. We build our future selves by the actions or the choices make now in the present. We're working towards that future self. Now obviously, happens over time. It's a process for us to build these neuro I always like to equate process of recovering from a concussion to a weight loss journey, the process of losing weight, right? ⁓ It a process. We do eat a salad and drop 10 pounds, if only, but it's not. we an intentional action and then that leads to choices for ⁓ to in effort ⁓ and pay attention and repeat those actions that are going to move us towards that goal. And it does take time. It takes time to see the we want to see, whether that's in a concussion recovery journey or in a weight loss journey. we have to find a to have the ability to keep showing up and take that action towards our goal. It requires that effort and energy to take the action, whether it's to the gym, watching what we eat, how we sleep, what we're drinking, we're putting that effort, it energy, and we have to keep repeating it. The attention piece, ⁓ I comes from the fact that we need to ensure that we pay attention to the actions that we're taking, and that it is leading us towards how we do want to feel and function. What is the progress we're seeing? Are we starting to notice some of the changes in how our clothes fit or how much energy we have, how our symptoms are changing, how we can participate in an activity or a task longer before our symptoms appear, or are they not changing at all? So by having that ability to pay attention is what's also gonna help us to determine the action and the choices that we can make that are best going to support how we want to feel and function. Now, in saying all of that, don't want you to become a perfectionist trying to apply the principles of neuroplasticity to your recovery process. ⁓ not aiming for I will repeat that. We are aiming ⁓ for I typically have a tendency to be a little bit perfect and ensure that all the steps and action that I'm taking are organized and ready and are going to be the best they can be. Through this journey, I have learned how to work with that, reframe things and restructure it. We often talk about that consistency, that repetition. And I think that that's where it can sometimes trigger our perfectionism. We have to repeat it. We have to keep going. We cannot stop. And that's not entirely true. So instead of thinking about repetition and consistency and triggering that perfectionism, I just changed my language a little bit and changed it to commitment or even discipline that some days I might not be able to repeat what I need to do to move me towards that goal. Maybe some weeks even. I'm still committed to the overall goal. And so I know that when my energy is back, when I can put in the effort, when I have the discipline behind me, then I'm ready to go at it again, right? So when we think about that weight loss journey and you're building muscle, you're exercising, you're moving your body, you're paying attention to your sleep, you're drinking water, you're being mindful of what you're putting into your body, because it's never just one thing. there takes a bunch of different actions ⁓ are going to support you ⁓ that goal. If happen to ⁓ eat donut, It's not going to jeopardize that goal. Now, if you're going to eat a donut three times a day, every day, might, depending on your metabolism. We are all individuals. I I can't eat a donut every day and still lose weight. ⁓ That's I know for me. So it's the same with your concussion. There ⁓ are where you will have the energy and we'll put in the effort and repeat and choose the actions that are best gonna support you. Going to appointments, doing your rehab exercises, working through a gradual return to work protocol, working on your wellness strategy, your mindset, your nervous system regulation, how you manage stress. All these actions that will help you move forward in your journey. There are times where maybe you might overdo it and now your symptoms are quite frequent and intense and it does not feel good. might label this as a setback. I don't believe in setbacks. You've flared up your symptoms. ⁓ You've pushed your brain beyond its capacity of what it can That doesn't mean you've move towards your goal. You're just in a state or phase right now where you're a bit symptomatic it's an opportunity for a break to settle your symptoms. And when you're ready, you will be able to return back to that intention of working towards feeling and functioning the way you want to ⁓ working towards feeling symptom free or symptom limited. I want to empower you. You can take charge of your recovery process. You can make neuroplasticity work for you in your journey. you can empower yourself to work with your brain rather than against it. it may feel that however long you've been living with long-term concussion symptoms, that you have been working against brain. maybe you're ⁓ waiting ⁓ on your brain to snap out of it and just Come back to what you remember. I remember feeling that way when I was living symptoms. I was just waiting for my brain to snap out of it it didn't. When I started to think about applying neuroplasticity principles and creating intentional actions ⁓ and making choices ⁓ that Spoiler alert, started to work with my brain, everything changed. that's what I want for you. I would highly recommend diving into lesson two, understanding your symptoms. There is ⁓ so much valuable in that lesson. It is ⁓ all of the tools and strategies that learned for myself ⁓ And I compiled ⁓ all of that into a resource for you. so that you could start to understand how to respond to your symptoms so that you know what is the best action or choice that you can make in that moment of what to do to respond to your symptoms. So that's often where we're at a loss. ⁓ know we have symptoms. Yes, ⁓ are ⁓ that symptoms are a part of this experience, ⁓ how do we respond to our symptoms ⁓ that We can make the best choice, take the best action in that moment that is best going to support intentional action or our goal. I know ⁓ going through this process, it's to sometimes see ⁓ the Even in a weight loss journey, we don't often see a lot of progress, especially as you get closer and closer to your goal. It's harder to lose weight. And you to dig deep and find that motivation to know that the action that you're taking. And the repetition of it all, the effort, the energy you're putting in is moving you in that direction towards you want to feel and function. it's not easy ⁓ go through the process recovering from a concussion. But it's not easy going through the process to lose weight either. Sometimes it's just not easy. But doesn't mean it's not possible or doable. It can be easier for other people to see weight loss journey. It be harder for other people to see the progress you're making in your concussion because it's more an inside job. We don't see a concussion. We feel it. And it can be very frustrating navigating this journey knowing that Other people aren't aware of the effort and the energy and the repetition that you're putting in, in the same way you would see someone work months towards their weight loss goal. The way that I reframe this for myself is that I didn't care other people thought. All cared was about what I felt, what I thought, and how I was functioning. as long as ⁓ I was that I was moving in the direction towards how I intended to feel and function, then that was all that mattered. Because the ⁓ only person who the expert on you is you. You know what it feels like to be you. You know what it feels like to function like yourself. This journey is an inside job and you are doing it for you. And yeah, you might be doing it for other people. did it for my future children so that I'd be able to bounce on the trampoline with them and go skiing and ⁓ around the garden because for a really long time, ⁓ could only go for a 15 minute walk before I would feel dizzy, nauseous and extremely tired. But I knew that the brain had the capacity to heal. What I came to understand is that it needed me to help it. And so your brain is looking for your support, your guidance. Now you might be looking for some support and guidance to figure out how to navigate this whole journey. And that's where concussion healing space comes in. Check out my website for the different lessons that you can start to navigate and dive into so that you can understand more about what is going on with you, why you feel the way you feel, and how you can begin to take action feeling and functioning the way you remember, how you want to feel as your future self. the brain can heal. ⁓