I finished listening to James
Clear's book Atomic Habits: Tiny changes, remarkable results. The strength of
this book - what fascinated me - is he cites lots of scientific evidence (research,
experiments), with dates for historical context, & people's stories.
The negative - except in the intro,
he never talks about the severe head injury from which he had to recover. I
wanted to hear more about his journey, & how he learned/applied his ideas
to get to where he is now.
So, I decided to see what *I* could
relate to my neurological rehab - & maybe it'll help some of my readers.
1) tiny neurological changes add
up. Change may be hard to see, but it's
happening. Awareness matters, notice
even the smallest thing.
2) make home therapy accessible -
see the pic of my Brock string, ready for use even with a busy background. The string gets held by me at one end, so
it's stretched out from the handle it's attached to.
3) show up - it's a guarantee that
some days, parts of days, whatever, will be difficult. Doing something - even 1
rep of something, 1 min. - basically any small thing - is better than nothing.
Showing up isn't just about my
therapy sessions, it's about doing things on my own. It's showing up when it's hard that really
makes me/you feel good about myself/yourself in the end.
4) make goals manageable - stamina
is a really BIG idea, but I can break it down.
What kind of stamina? visual,
vestibular, sound/sensory, often a combo?
Do something for a little bit less
or more, depending on the thing - again, it adds up.
5) Change - rehab isn't static - add
little changes, to keep learning, progressing.
6) Values - Christina and I talk
about values, which helps me narrow my focus
- sometimes I feel like I have waaay too many things I want to work on.
I want to make progress in therapy. This
means hard work, & taking the long view, but also trying my best to live in
the moment.
Enjoy what I can do now -
my current ability to manage our
household
take care of our pets
make music, & find ways to be
creative
weed flower pots by myself
plant flowers in flower pots by
myself
walk our dog with Ron - or on my own
when Ron's not around
Learn about my rehab - especially
vision, which really interests me. Ask Qs, listen to articles, books on neurological
rehab.
Recognize that having the ability to
think about how I want to spend my time is a huge gain for me.
