A life changing event like a significant motor vehicle accident or traumatic brain injury can alter your entire interpretation of the world and your life.
Removing your security, removing your certainty and removing your direction.
Accidents or illness can lead to questions about “why has this happened to me?”
“What is my purpose?” , “Why did I survive?”
All questions I know that I myself have been faced with on a regular basis.
Moments like these lead us towards justifiable fears about the future with so many elements to our lives changing rapidly around us.
Whether it be sustained injuries that impair your physical health and performance, vivid or influential experiences that affect your emotional stability, changes to your employment, relationships and social dynamics all ultimately resulting in a rebound effect on our self-worth.
But what about Gratitude?
Like most, I myself am greatful just to be alive and sharing in this crazy journey called life.
I’m greatful for the support networks and people in my life who ultimately push me forward through the hard days and long experiences of recovery.
I am also greatful that I can sit here and share my experiences and thoughts in a way that it might in turn help others.
But as life would have it when you suffer any form of impairment, grief, loss, pain or disapproving circumstance it can be hard to remember all the reasons to be happy and all the things we can be grateful for.
So in an attempt to see my life in a more positive light, I decided to sit down and identify all the areas of my life that I was grateful for and compile a list to remind me to smile on my darker days. I encourage you to do the same.
I am grateful for the following, in no particular order:
- To have survived my accident and to have my life.
- I still have my mind and my personality
- I have my memory (most of it)
- Major crash and their involvement in my case
- Greatful I could pull off a beanie
- The prayers and support
- To make decisions and have a degree of independence
- That I was fit and healthy prior to the accident
- I had a congenital fused C3 and C4 vertebrae from birth that protect me from severe whiplash
- I still have my inappropriate humor
- I didn’t have any significant financial commitments
- I could utilize my rehab in the home
- I had pre-existing services i could use for my recovery.
- A loving family and place to call my home
- Supportive and understanding friends who lift my spirits
- To have all my senses
- That my name was kept out of the media until I was able to share my story the way I wanted.
- To the nurses, doctors and surgeons who saved my life.
- To have family members with a medical background
- That I bought an expensive bed and TV before the accident
- A home cooked meal
- That I was a writer, this has been a great outlet
- That its winter and I don’t have to worry about an unexercised body at the beach
- A phone full of playlists
- Greatful I don’t live in a third world country with limited medical provisions
- My absolute best friend and partner in crime “Mr Parker”.
- Not going through the accident and recovery alone
- Finding a PTSD specialist who made sense of my insane brain
So ask yourself…
“what are you grateful for?”
