Balancing Life with a Brain Injury: Navigating Therapy, Healing, and Daily Energy Limits
- jordanswellness
- May 15
- 5 min read
Living with a brain injury can feel like a constant balancing act—juggling therapy, doctor appointments, and the reality of limited energy each day. As you work towards healing, it’s crucial to learn how to manage your symptoms while still finding time for activities outside of your recovery. The Spoon Theory can be a helpful tool to visualize how energy is spent throughout the day, helping to navigate this challenging journey. In this post, I'll explore how to balance your recovery with living life and achieving a sense of normalcy, despite the limits of your current energy levels.
Balancing Life with a Brain Injury: Navigating Therapy, Healing, and Daily Energy Limits
When living with a brain injury, particularly from an event like a medical procedure or trauma, the journey to recovery feels like walking a tightrope. You are constantly working to balance healing, therapy appointments, and the physical and emotional toll your brain injury takes on your body, mind, and soul. The mental load is often overwhelming, but so is the responsibility of managing your daily energy levels, the very resource you need to navigate the world around you.
I’m now in the midst of a two-year recovery from a traumatic brain injury (TBI), and each day requires careful navigation between the healing process and living a life outside of my diagnosis. The reality of dealing with symptoms while trying to make progress can be incredibly challenging, but it’s something I’ve learned to cope with over time.
The Impact of a Brain Injury on Everyday Life
One of the hardest things to come to terms with after a brain injury is the profound impact it has on nearly every aspect of your life, from how you process information to how your body physically responds. Things you once took for granted, like managing a busy schedule, completing tasks, or even having a conversation, may now feel like monumental tasks.
For me, therapy and doctor’s appointments are non-negotiable parts of my routine. I work with a variety of specialists, from neuro-optometrists to physical therapists, speech therapists, and even vision therapists. Each appointment is meant to help me heal and regain function, but they also come with their own set of challenges. After a session, I often feel completely drained, and my symptoms—headaches, dizziness, and fatigue—can flare up.
Energy Management: Learning to Live Within Your Limits
A key part of my recovery has been learning how to live within the limits of my energy. Before my brain injury, I was always someone who had endless energy and could take on anything the day threw at me. Now, I feel like a completely different person. There are days when I can only manage a couple of activities—walking my dogs, attending a doctor’s appointment, or completing a simple household task—and that’s it.
This is where the Spoon Theory comes into play.
The Spoon Theory: A Guide to Managing Energy
The Spoon Theory, a concept created by Christine Miserandino, is a metaphor used to explain the limited amount of energy a person with chronic illness or disability has each day. The basic premise is that you wake up with a certain number of "spoons" or energy units, and each activity you do—getting out of bed, taking a shower, cooking a meal, going to a doctor’s appointment—costs you a spoon. Once you run out of spoons, you’re done for the day.
For people with brain injuries, this theory is incredibly relatable. Every day, I start with a set number of spoons. I need to decide how I’m going to spend them wisely. For example, walking my dogs in the morning may cost me two spoons, leaving me with just a few left for things like attending a physical therapy appointment or responding to emails. By the afternoon, I might not have enough spoons to finish out the day, and I’ll need to choose between brushing my teeth or resting.
At times, it feels as though the choices I make during the day will determine whether I’ll be able to function at all the next day. Living within my energy limits is an ongoing challenge, and each day is a balancing act of ensuring I don’t overdo it and end up wiped out for days at a time.
Finding Balance Outside of Therapy: Reconnecting with Life
While therapy and doctor’s appointments are a major part of my life, it’s just as important for me to carve out time for activities that have nothing to do with my brain injury. As tempting as it is to focus solely on healing, I've learned that maintaining a sense of normalcy outside of therapy is essential for my emotional well-being.
For example, I love doing yoga. Teaching a virtual class, even for just 50 minutes, has been an act of normalcy for me—something that connects me with my pre-injury self. It’s a reminder that I am more than just my injury. However, balancing this with my symptoms is a fine line. I have to be careful with the amount of energy I exert, as teaching a class can leave me feeling drained.
It’s all about managing my spoons.
I also try to incorporate hobbies or small joys into my day, things that don’t require a lot of cognitive or physical effort. Reading a book, working on a puzzle, or going for a short walk in nature helps me maintain a sense of connection to my life outside of my injury.
Living with Intention: Accepting the Healing Journey
In the end, living with a brain injury requires a constant reevaluation of what’s important and how much energy I’m willing to invest in each moment. Some days are better than others, but even on the toughest days, I try to remind myself that healing is a journey—one that can’t be rushed. It’s okay to have limits, and it’s okay to ask for help when I need it.
So, as I continue my recovery, I focus on staying grounded, being present in my healing, and remembering that it’s not just about getting back to “normal” but also learning how to adapt and thrive within this new version of life.
If you’re navigating recovery from a brain injury, I encourage you to be gentle with yourself. Embrace the Spoon Theory and honor your energy limits. Balance is key, and it’s okay to take breaks, rest, and even do things that make you feel alive and connected to the world outside your injury. You are more than your diagnosis, and recovery is about finding joy in the journey, no matter how small the steps may be.
All my light. All my love.
Namaste,
Jordan
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