exercise Archives - Jumbledbrain

Online restorative yoga for brain injury survivors

Michelle #jumbledbrain — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 11:07:38 +0000

Disclaimer: For the purposes of reviewing her services, I was given free online yoga sessions but have not been paid to write this review. As always I offer you my honest opinion.

I think most brain injury survivors have heard that Yoga is a great activity to engage in to help them in their recovery process. But often when places advertise their services they show images of people in elegant, although seemingly impossible poses. Everyone always has these athletic bodies and look like they’ve never struggled with a physical activity in their lives. (At least that’s the impression they give me.) Personally, whilst I’ve wanted to learn how to do it, I’ve always been too self conscious to get started….. until I met Nikki!

Doing Yoga at home means I don’t have to worry about what others might think of my lack of coordination.

Many survivors have one sided weakness, like me, and so putting their bodies in these beautiful shapes can be more difficult than for the average person. For me, the idea of flailing around like a beached whale in front of strangers was too much of a turn off. That’s why when I saw Nikki’s online classes which I could do at home, I was really interested to find out more. They are small group classes done via the video conferencing platform Zoom. You can turn your camera off if you would rather, which I did for my first session as I wanted to see what it was like first. It’s not like anyone actually watches you doing the poses, as everyone is doing their own thing, so the next time I turned it on again. Plus what’s great about Nikki May, is she’s a survivor too, so she gets it. After 6 strokes and had surgery to remove a brain tumor, she understands all too well the many ways a brain injury can affect us and holds Restorative Yoga sessions specifically for brain injury survivors.

What is Restorative Yoga?

I’ll admit it, I had no idea that there are lots of different types of Yoga which have different aims and intensities. Whilst some are physically demanding, Restorative Yoga is the most gentle, so you don’t need a baseline of fitness to do it. It helps relax the mind and the stretches will work on releasing tension in the body. It’s great for inducing sleep and some people even gently nod off whilst doing these sessions. Also by mindfully engaging muscles in each area of the body we help the nervous system repair the connections in the body and brain to operate them. (I briefly tried to explain before in Exercise can help your brain injury, not just your muscles . )

Nikki has done a specialist course in Yoga for brain injury, so she’s got you covered.

As well as being a fellow survivor, Nikki has completed additional training in how Yoga should be used to support the brain injury recovery process. This course from Yoga International covered:

Different types of brain injury and their potential symptoms and challenges.
Neuroanatomy and physiology key concepts.
How to optimize neuroplasticity and nervous system regulation for healing.
Methodologies and principles for adapting asana to address things like dizziness, poor balance, spasticity, and learning and memory deficits.
How to tailor meditation for students with brain injuries to address challenges with attention control and mental health.

Pretty impressive, right. But the best thing about Nikki, is how understanding she is. The first thing she did with me is ask about my health conditions to make sure she knew what things to be aware of. For example, I told her that I have hypermobility which is where you have extra long ligaments so you are more flexible than most, but can accidently over stretch as a result. She reminded me to take it easy and not to be tempted to stretch as far as I could for this reason. Also she’s relaxed and understanding. She didn’t mind when at the last minute I couldn’t attend a session as I felt unwell, or the time I got confused about which day I was on and accidently missed the next scheduled session.

Nikki has come such a long way and was awarded Headway achiever of the year 2019 in recognition of how she set up her own business and supports other survivors. And what’s so funny, is that it wasn’t until after our first online Yoga session that Nikki and I realised we knew each other! Back in 2015 we went to the same Headway support group. Small world huh!

Available sessions

Ok, so if you’re excited to give this a try here’s her weekly Yoga classes timetable:

Monday 7 am
Monday 8 pm
Wednesday 7 am
Sunday 9 pm

Monday 2 am
Monday 3 pm
Wednesday 2 am
Sunday 4 pm

Monday 11 pm
Monday 12 (midday)
Wednesday 11 pm
Sunday 1 pm

Monday 6 am
Monday 5 pm
Wednesday 5 pm
Sunday 7 am

Classes are £5 each, pay as you go, or she has a monthly package which offers the best value at £25 for the whole month. Included in the monthly package are the replays of the sessions so you can use them again when want to. I think that really helps those of us who want to be able to have a Yoga session at different times. I like to get an extra deal for my readers, so Nikki has kindly offered you £5 off your first month when you quote #JUMBLEDBRAIN via either her Instagram or her Facebook page. That means your first month costs just £20. If that wasn’t enough, she also does a meditation session on Wednesdays 8 pm UK time (3pm EST, Midday PST, 6am Australian East) which is also part of your monthly package.

If you want one to one sessions with Nikki (still done online but you get her undivided attention and a session customised to you and your specific needs) she is available for these as well. It costs £30 per hour normally, but generously she will offer it for £25 per hour to my readers. That’s an ongoing price, so you save £5 per hour, forever. Again, just use the same code #JUMBLEDBRAIN to grab this offer.

Have you tried Yoga and how has it helped you during your brain injury recovery?

The post Online restorative yoga for brain injury survivors appeared first on Jumbledbrain.

Exercise can help your brain injury, not just your muscles

Michelle #jumbledbrain — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 00:21:23 +0000

Having suffered a car accident, I had some serious injuries. These included my spine, nerves and my brain. I had foot drop, where when you raise your leg, you can not raise your foot from your ankle, leaving it to hang limply. That means you cannot put any weight on it and it will not offer any support or flexibility. On top of this, due to a damaged nerve in my neck, and had weakness down my left side. However after 10 days, the hospital team got me walking with crutches, and sent me home.

I knew that I needed to do some exercise to help rebuild some of my strength. But what I didn’t know was how good exercise is for your brain as well.

We all know that the more you practise at something, the better you will get at it. Well, the brain is just the same. Every time you perform an action, you are creating the building blocks for a new pathway in your brain. Let me give you an example. I used to love painting and drawing. But following my brain injury, I could barely write legibly. For me this was depressing, as my art was a part of who I was. My partner James, kept badgering me to keep trying although I felt he just didn’t understand. I couldn’t make my hand follow the instructions I gave it properly, leaving me frustrated.

Exercise doesn’t mean you have to hit the gym. Just practise a physical activity.

So many sheets of paper ended up in the bin. (I would like to apologise to the trees who were sacrificed for my cause.) But in time my writing improved, and I found my artistic flair returning to me. Just by reminding the muscles in my hand and arm how to behave, I had begun to regain my skill. But it wasn’t because the muscles needed to be rebuilt, it was because my brain needed to create new pathways to replace those that were damaged. This is the same process as when you learn a skill for the first time, and why your mother always said “practise makes perfect.” The more we do an action, the more the brain prioritises building pathways which make a shortcut to that action.

Now I know you are saying “but Michelle drawing and writing isn’t exercise.” And yes you are right, but I wanted to share this example with you to help you see that although there is the physical muscles movements, there is much more that needs to happen and I think we can all agree agree creativity is something very much in your brain.

Think about how in sports there is a tactical element, spacial awareness, problem solving… the list goes on.

Think of your favourite teams and how some are better at the element of surprise than others. This is the players having to read the current situation and apply the tactics that they have been practising all whilst dealing with how their opponents are trying to stop them. Yes it helps to be the fastest and strongest person on the pitch, but if you can’t get your timing, accuracy and game plan right, you’re going to still struggle. And whilst you might take the feedback from your coach with, you can only get better at these things by going out there and trying again. Ths that’s why exercise can help your brain injury recovery for other parts of the brain too.

I’m now 5 years on from my accident, and most people wouldn’t notice my slight limp. For someone who struggled to walk for so long, that’s not bad. I still have nerve damage, and I may do for the rest of my life, but I can deal with it. I’d be frightened to go skiing again, but it doesn’t affect my everyday life much at all. Yes I get pain and tire much easier, but I can cope with that.

My brain is still trying to repair my cognitive skills. Bearing in mind I couldn’t read or write to start with, I think it’s fair to say it’s doing a pretty good job. I even set up this website all by myself even though I had no experience of doing this sort of thing before. (If you are thinking of starting a blog but aren’t sure where to start head over to Starting a blog following a brain injury is difficult, but it is achievable to get some ideas on how to get going.)

No matter what your fitness level, or sporting ability never underestimate the importance of exercise.

You don’t need to run like you’re Mo Farah, just find something you enjoy which you can fit into your busy schedule. Dance, yoga and swimming are all great options. As evidence is growing to show regular exercise can stave off dementia, your brain will thank you for it. We all have days when just getting out of bed is an achievement, so don’t feel any shame in taking it easy. But just remember your efforts will encourage enhancements in much more than just becoming physically stronger. Your mental health and general well being will benefit too. Exercise can help your brain injury recovery process and you might even discover a talent for something new that you never knew you had.

Listen to what your body needs after a brain injury

Michelle #jumbledbrain — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 17:19:27 +0000

I have written various articles with advice on coping with a brain injury. And I wholeheartedly believe in that advice otherwise I wouldn’t write it. But there are times that I lose my focus, and stop listening to what my body needs now. I mean, I’m no angel, I’m only human.

As I have hypothyroidism, as many brain injury survivors do, my metabolism has walked out on me. Even though I take Levothyroxine , it doesn’t solve everything. So in the last 3 years since my accident, I have put on 2 dress sizes. Whilst I don’t worry that much about what I look like, it does make me uncomfortable. So I am going to start putting my brain and body needs first.

My new schedule:

Take pills when James (my partner) leaves for work at 5.30 am. – I ask him to always say goodbye as he goes. Having the medication then gives it a chance to try to prompt my metabolism to do something before breakfast.
Once up, I have warm lemon water. It’s full of vitamin C and is thought to also give your metabolism a kick up the backside. – Always drink with a straw and wait 90 minutes before brushing your teeth. The acid can damage your tooth enamel so the straw helps minimise its contact with your teeth. Saliva is brilliant at breaking things down in your mouth so this gives it time to go through this process which is very important.
Always have breakfast (although this might be hours later if I fall back to sleep.) Usually I have cereal loaded with fruit and seeds to give a balanced diet. If I’m going to the gym that day I have scrambled eggs for protein. – This is because when I’m working out it will give my body the energy it needs, rather than it breaking down muscle. (I’m trying to build muscle, not destroy the tiny bit I have.) As muscles drive your metabolism even when you are resting, the more you have, the more calories you burn.
Go to the gym mid morning. Two reasons for this: a) it’s usually a bit quieter at that time b) after your workout your body will continue to burn calories for hours afterwards. This means you have the energy in the day when you need it. If you workout in the evening you might find it harder to sleep.
Eat some Brazil nuts after the gym. – As they are a great source of gluten free protein, again it ensures that your muscles are building not depleting. And they are loaded with selenium and vitamin E. Selenium is important for those with a under-active thyroid as it counteracts the negative effects fluoride has on your thyroid. Fluoride is added to the water supply in the UK to benefit the nations teeth. I think this is fine, but I need to also consider my thyroid. To see the full list of benefits of the little gifts from nature that are Brazil nuts click here.
If you think you’re hungry, first drink some water. Often our system can’t tell the difference between thirst and hunger, so this will keep you hydrated first.
If still hungry between meals, snack on carrots, oranges, apples, bananas or other nutritious items of fruits and vegetables. Gives a little boost. Don’t cut back on food too much otherwise the body goes into starvation mode and stores more fat.
Make sure lunch and dinner has more protein than carbs, but don’t worry too much. They really aren’t as bad as the world makes them out to be. Focus on green vegetables too.

I’m already feeling my energy levels rise. None of this is stuff I didn’t already know, I guess I had just lost motivation. But I owe this to myself, not just for my recovery from a brain injury, but for life.

Are you listening to what your body needs? What simple things help you manage your symptoms?

The post Listen to what your body needs after a brain injury appeared first on Jumbledbrain.

Laughing in the face of brain injury

Michelle #jumbledbrain — Fri, 13 Jan 2017 14:55:00 +0000

When my brain injury first happened I don’t think I was capable of finding anything remotely funny. But 2 years on things have changed. Now I can find myself laughing like it’s the funniest thing ever!

I quite like this phase, I hope it stays.

I always had a sense of humour, but I was probably a bit dry. Alongside that I’m very responsible and perhaps more serious than necessary at times. But that can make life boring and more like a chore. Where as laughing is so much fun, even if I do come across as slightly mad.

Number 1 source of my laughter.

Honestly one of the funniest things in life right now is my cat Dexter. I find him absolutely hilarious! He’s a menace but his face is so innocent. One day my partner James was watching a video on YouTube and the most hideous but mental tune was playing as the backing. When I started complaining about how awful and confusing the noise was James retorted with “This is what Dexters’ head sound like!”

Well that was it. I was laughing so much I was crying. The joke has continued now so every time Dexter gets over excited we do impressions of what his head sounds like in that moment. You have to be there to get it…. or maybe it’s not that funny, it’s just this phase I’m in.

But then the mood swing happens.

Unfortunately once the moment has passed I’m felt feeling a bit like I’ve got nothing more to give. I’m awake but I can’t easily sting a cogent thought together. So I appear quiet and moody. James often asks if I still like him because it can be so confusing to see me fall into silence after being so animated. I guess it’s like everything else that over stimulates me. My brain suddenly realises it used up a lot of energy very quickly, and wants to hibernate. But whilst that feeling is quite odd, I would rather that than just the total, grey, middle of the road, life I was experiencing. You can read more about my mood swings in Danger! Hot temper after brain injury.

The benefits of laughter on your health.

The old saying “Laughter is the best medicine”, has a lot of truth in it. As well as you having fun in that moment, there are longer term benefits too. By reducing 4 types of stress hormones in the brain and releasing endorphins, your overall mental health can improve.

Research also suggests that laughing more can contribute to living longer. This could be helped by the fact that it boosts your immune system, so you are able to deal with viruses like flu better. On top of this it is such fun exercise! A real belly laugh uses your diaphragm, abs and shoulders, as well as giving the heart something to get going about. If I had to choose between 15 minutes on an exercise bike, or laughing 100 times, I know which I would choose. They both burn the same amount of calories, but I admit your face might hurt from laughing too much.

What things do you find yourself laughing at? Or do you find it difficult to have natural reactions?

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