TBI True Believers

09/23/2026

Yesterday in my ABI DBT & Stress Management class, we talked about a tool called RAIN, a mindfulness and self-compassion practice from Tara Brach Ph.D. 🌧️💛

One thing I really appreciate about this practice is that the goal isn’t to immediately fix the feeling, talk yourself out of it, or force yourself to “feel better.” Sometimes the first step is simply noticing:

This is what I’m experiencing right now. Can I make a little room for it instead of fighting it?

Then, from that place, we can get curious about what our brain and body are telling us and ask what we actually need. For me, this fits so naturally with the work I’ve been doing around radical acceptance, nervous system regulation, and learning to work with my brain instead of constantly battling it.

I made this little one-page reminder because I wanted something simple enough to come back to when my brain is overwhelmed. Maybe it’ll be helpful to someone else, too. 💛

You don’t have to make every difficult feeling disappear. Sometimes compassion starts with learning how to sit beside it.

09/23/2026

After my TBI, and now with fibromyalgia, I’ve had to grieve a lot of pieces of who I used to be.
My thresholds changed, which shrunk my hobbies down big time . Then my community vanished. . My career, too. Even the things that fundamentally made me feel like me became just difficult enough, that it often takes the "fun" right out of it.
A big part of the last few years has been learning radical acceptance. Not giving up, and definitely not pretending I’m okay with everything that happened, but accepting where I am now instead of constantly measuring myself against who I was before.
And lately, that’s meant getting curious about who I am now.
I’ve been playing with my Cricut. Making stencils and spray painting things. Gardening. Messing around with epoxy and UV resin. Trying random little projects just because they sound fun.
Am I good at all of them? Absolutely not. 😂
Am I making mistakes? Constantly.
Am I learning? Yep.
Am I having fun? Hell yes.
There’s something really freeing about giving yourself permission to be a beginner again.
So if illness, injury, disability, burnout, or just life has changed what you’re capable of, I hope you give yourself permission to explore, too. Try the thing you have absolutely no idea how to do. Make the ugly craft. Kill a plant and try again. Waste some resin. Make something wonky. Be terrible at something simply because you enjoy doing it.
You don't have to turn it into a side hustle. You don't have to master it. You don't even have to be good.
Fun is enough. Curiosity is enough. Trying is enough.
I lost a lot of pieces of myself after my brain injury. Maybe part of rebuilding isn’t finding every one of those old pieces.
Maybe it’s discovering some new ones.
So go be brave enough to absolutely suck at something new. 💛✨

09/21/2026

Acquired Brain Injury Program- Expressive Writing piece from 7/15/26- "Gratitude, In the Small Things" ☕️🌺💋

08/09/2026

Acquired Brain Injury Program - Expressive Writing piece from 6/30/26.

08/07/2026

This summer, I took Expressive Writing through the Acquired Brain Injury (ABI) Program, and it quickly became one of the classes I looked forward to most each week.
I used to write a lot when I was younger. Since my brain injury, writing has become really hard. Sitting down and focusing long enough to hold onto an idea, processing what I am trying to say, finding the words, and then *organizing* those thoughts into something coherent takes so much more effort than it once did.
This class gave me a place to practice doing exactly that, without the pressure to do it perfectly.
Our assignments can be stories, poems, journal entries, articles, or wherever the prompt takes us. We have the option to read our work aloud and receive supportive feedback, while also practicing listening, speaking, functional memory strategies, and confidence.
It is expressive writing, but it is also brain injury rehabilitation tucked inside something creative.
And so much of what makes that space special is our instructor, Margaret Jones.
Margaret is a Speech Language Pathologist who has taught in the Continuing Education ABI Program for decades, and I truly cannot express enough gratitude or adoration for her. Her classes are so warm and welcoming. She is kind, patient, encouraging, and has a way of making you feel like whatever words you managed to get onto the page are worth sharing.
I am also regularly inspired and in awe of my classmates. Hearing what other people create, and watching everyone find their own ways of expressing themselves after brain injury, has been one of my favorite parts of the program.
I loved this summer class so much that over the next week, I am going to share a few of the pieces I wrote during the semester.
Starting with this one, “The Benefits of Whimsy.” 💗
Apparently rehabilitation can also include ska records, heart shaped sunglasses, and blowing bubbles into the wind.
I am very okay with that. 🫧

If you live in California and have been struggling following a brain injury, the ABI Program is SUCH a wonderful thing. Check it out!
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07/30/2026

The real jump scare?
Hearing, "Now boarding..." after my brain had already checked out.
🧠✈️👻😱😜

06/30/2026

06/11/2026

Burnout is not recovery.

Sometimes the bravest thing is not pulling harder.

Sometimes it’s letting go of the rope.





❤️

05/22/2026

Anyone else overwhelmed with HOW MANY different specialists they see following their TBI? I'mmmmm so exhausted. Last week, I had *7* doctors appointments, and 6 classes through my Acquired Brain Injury Program. The fatigued "shut down mode" was engaged the bulk of the week. How are you all doing this week?

05/22/2026

New diagnosis unlocked: fibromyalgia. Apparently the brain injury wasn’t dramatic enough. I’m. So. Damn. Tired.