Finding Something Soothing to the Soul

Life typically is a steady movement, but sometimes it moves so fast, its hard to keep up. The past few months have been a whirlwind between brain injury, holidays, new ventures, new symptoms, and different activities. Sometimes it requires taking a moment to stop the hustle and chaos in order to control the confusion. Finding something that is soothing to the soul and brings you back to a peaceful state can be challenging but its vital to charge forward. Unbeknownst to me, that’s exactly what I did this weekend without having to even make the plan!

Most of our weekends are jammed packed, more so packed for my husband if I’m out of commission, and lead to a beginning-of-the-week brain hangover if I overexert, over plan, or overload on sensories. It sounds so crazy how one TBI could lead to having to control every aspect of your environment and while most people don’t get it, I’m fortunate enough to have a handful who do.

This week was annoying, hard, and frustrating for no blatant reason. Maybe it was the weather and the crazy bouts of vertigo, maybe it was my baby boy turning a whole year older, or maybe it was my team getting booted from the AFC Championship Game (just kidding!). But the truth of the matter is, EVERYONE has weeks like that where you feel like you can’t get out of your own way. The key is funneling all of the negativity aspects around you to a place you can control.

Grab your favorite book, take that bubble bath, have a cup of tea, do some yoga, or make a date with your closest girlfriend. I laid super low most of the weekend, even rooting for my Steelers in my sweats. My best friend came over and we sat for a few hours. Maybe she read through my cryptic, frazzled texts that I needed some time, or maybe she was just looking for something to do. Either way, it felt nice, actually it was more therapeutic… to sit for a couple hours and catch up on our lives. Literally going through a list of everything we have happening, but not like a bitchfest, more like a “I’m happy to share with you” visit. At the end, it was just a colossal reminder that no matter how quickly life is moving, there are some things that will forever be constant. So as you start the week after a long weekend, keep a reminder of those constants and remember to take breath!