The Cognitive FX Blog

Past patient, Anna Empey shares her experiences in a series of blog posts including "Perspective After a Brain Injury," "10 Things I Wish I had Know Before my Brain Injury," and here in this post.  

When I first was recovering, I felt like I couldn’t find words to write about my experience. I couldn’t explain either written or vocally how I was feeling or what I was going through. Over time, writing became something that helped me learn how to gather my thoughts and express myself. I focused more on the act of writing something down rather than if it was written perfectly or exactly accurate. Continually writing helped me find ways to get better at it.

Sleep: something we tell ourselves we don’t have time for, yet we always seem to need more of it.

The brain is the most important organ in the human body. It regulates the profuse amount of information that the body needs to regulate itself. This includes comprehending pain levels, regulating blood pressure, controlling nervous response, creating and secreting hormones, assisting digestion, along with coordinating the countless other signals the body sends to the brain to help our body function. It is so important to give your brain the vital nutrients it needs to keep your body running in tip top shape.

The Cognitive FX EPIC Treatment program is designed to help patients recover from a concussion in a week. 

Centered around the specific deficits and symptoms of each patient, this week is intense for the mind, brain, and body, and uniquely customized to each individual. We use standard modalities that have been amplified for our patient’s specific needs such as Neurological Occupational Therapy, NeuroMuscular Therapy, Vision Therapy, Brain Games, De-stimulation and more. 

Our team focuses on giving the “Just Right Challenge” to help our patients know when to push through an exercise or when to rest or slow down a bit. The “Just Right Challenge” is simple. As you start the day you work to get to your optimal activity level. We often try to push through the mental and or physical challenges. Instead of pushing through pain and symptoms to the point of crashing, we have you slow down or take a short break , with the goal to get back to your optimal activity level again. As you move forward with this challenge, the goal is to need and take fewer breaks. 

“Eat right and exercise” – this advice is nothing new, you’re tired of hearing it and you’re tempted to tune it out right now – but it’s not going away.  In fact, when it comes to brain health, this worn cliché is gaining more traction than ever. Here I’ll focus just on exercise and leave nutrition to another post.

By Brittany Prijatel, Sports Psychology Consultant

With the new year comes new changes. I would like to give you 6 ways to help you identify changes that you want to make and how to fit them into a current daily routine or schedule.

1- Have a clear idea of what it is that you want to incorporate into your daily routine.

• How much time do I want/have to commit to this activity each day/week?

2- Map out what your current schedule is like during the day/week.

• It is always easier to do this with someone else so that you do not criticize and instead you analyze. There are many ways you can map out a daily routine. One way is to start with a piece of paper and write the hours from 7 am to 11 pm down the side (Hours may vary depending on your schedule). Then block out the time for each activity you are doing that day. Then you can easily see where time is going, where to add in the things you want to incorporate and what to adjust.

By Brittany Pritajel

Self-talk is a necessary skill to develop as you seek to increase your well-being. Self-talk is managing what you say to yourself (either out loud or in your head). As you look to improve your life after a concussion or injury you may target changing your behavior. It is important to know that behind the behavior is thoughts because what you think affects how you feel, and how you feel affects how you behave.

You can change how you talk to yourself. Positive self-talk can support you as you make changes in your life and strive to reach your goals in your concussion recovery.

By Brittany Prijatel, Sports Psychology Consultant

Motivation comes and goes, but one thing to remember is that it is possible to cultivate motivation. You can find and create motivation even when you are feeling unmotivated.

 As we move forward into the new year, we are at the height of personal change as well as establishing new routines.

Here are 4 tips to keep in mind as we approach all the changes that we are looking to incorporate into our life.

Everyone has their own ideas and opinions about goals and goal setting. One of the things that I notice as I work with individuals during EPIC concussion treatment, is that a lot of time it is not the goals that we are failing at but instead the goal setting. It may sound like a small difference but it can have a huge impact on achieving our goals.

Barbara Fredrickson, a psychology researcher at the University of North Carolina, conducted a study about the ways positive thinking affects us. She is quantifying positivity with emotions and life impact using a positive outlook.

By Brittany Prijatel - Sports Psychological Consultant

Gratitude is a profound tool for cultivating positivity. Gratitude is simply the conscious act of bringing your attention to what you have or want to appreciate. More importantly, gratitude is a choice. By taking the time to appreciate the abundance that we have in our lives, we create a momentum towards receiving even more. When you begin to say thank you for the things that you have, and the kindness others share, you truly notice all the great things you have to be thankful for each day.

Gratitude has been demonstrated to have a large impact on multiple areas of your life. By being grateful studies have shown that individuals have seen improvements with:

• Immune System
• A Decrease in Blood Pressure
• Improvements in Sleep & Relationships
• Increases in Happiness
• More Feelings of Enthusiasm, Interest, Attentiveness, Energy, & Determination

By Brittany Prijatel – Cognitive FX Sports Psychology Consultant  

The pinnacle of improvement is awareness. Before you can implement any sort of mental skills or techniques to help manage daily symptoms, it is important to understand the biggest piece of the puzzle is cultivating awareness.

Awareness allows you to understand your symptoms as well as what may trigger them. This empowers you to create a better situation, a better day, and a better life. After EPIC Treatment it is important that you practice and use awareness to continue improving.

5 Ways to Practice Awareness & Improve Your Daily Life

 What is the Brock String Test? 

The Brock String Test is designed to test and treat visual perception problems. This is important because these problems can contribute to headaches, blurry vision, balance problems, and more. Symptoms that can be caused by a concussion. The Brock String Test really looks at two different things: convergence and suppression.