FINDING BALANCE BY ANGELA HART
My son Jacob was a fit and well, football-loving 15 year old when he suffered a severe brain haemorrhage after heading a football during a Sunday morning football game. Jacob spent several weeks in a coma in intensive care but his fighting spirit pulled him through. His family and friends have never given up faith and hope that with the right support and expertise Jacob will eventually make a good recovery.
Alongside the standard medical treatments, we also draw on our strong belief in the power of evidence-based alternative/complementary medicine to help encourage Jacob’s mind and body to heal itself. He has had regular Acupuncture, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, Reiki, Pulsed Electromagnetic Field Therapy (PEMF) as well as practising meditation and yoga.
Fortunately, Jacob was soon back to his cheeky and very sweet personality and 5 years later continues to make good progress. However, he still has some way to go on his journey to full independence.
I had been practicing yoga for a number of years and was about to start my teacher training when Jacob had his brain injury. So, once he was well enough, I instinctively felt that along with the speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physiotherapy he was offered, that yoga would help. When Jacob first started doing yoga as a then 18 year old young man, he was skeptical but agreed to give it a try. Now he really enjoys it. Somehow he isn’t able to fully articulate why, but only says he ‘loves’ it! I can see that it has certainly helped with his strength, flexibility and emotional wellbeing. He just says he feels ‘happy; after his sessions. Both he and I have benefitted from practicing yoga regularly.
Jacob, and all of us who help care for him, have had to learn patience and to accept that there is no overnight fix to a brain injury. What we have always had from the very beginning though is gratitude! Despite the fact that Jacob is now visually impaired and still wheelchair dependent, we are so grateful for his life and the opportunity for him to make more progress. He is well aware that it could have been so different. I am so grateful for his positive outlook, the passion he still has for making the most of his life, and his resilience in both mind and body. Being grateful for what you have, rather than what you can have lost, is one of the most important lessons we both would like to share. You are, of course, allowed to have your down days, but being able to find the positives in whatever situation you are in is so important.
For me as his mum and his main carer, Jacob’s brain injury has been one of the biggest challenges I have also had to face. So I have had to learn to take time out to be with myself, to rest, to allow him to be cared for by others and trust that he will be ok. And to be positive about his future. Practising yoga has certainly helped with this. It has given me the tools to deal with day to day emotional stress, kept me positive and helped to keep both my mind and body strong. Luckily, I can also draw my inspiration from Jacob. If he can cope then of course so can I.