Difficulties assail people with brain injury in their everyday lives. Whether it’s struggling to rise out of bed after another non-restorative night of sleep; remembering to eat breakfast; expending cognitive effort in daily reading practice; straining to put on an acceptable social front; or being patient with the need to pace and rest regularly, these activities, which many adults take for granted, comprise layers of continuing difficulties that only gradually over the years attain automaticity, one layer at a time.

For example, brushing one’s teeth requires memory, muscle strength, coordination, energy, stamina, patience, and concentration to finish the job properly. Purchasing an electric toothbrush may remove the muscle strength layer, and brain biofeedback the concentration layer, but the other layers remain until they, too, heal one by one over time.

Brain injury turning life into a daily endurance marathon can crush us, wear us out, or demand that we find a way to persevere. One of those ways is to notice moments of joy and signs of being seen. I wrote about some of these moments in my memoir Concussion Is Brain Injury: Treating the Neurons and Me:

“I sat down at my kitchen table, mind blank, and two cardinals flew by my window. I........

© Psychology Today