TBI Commons

These are tweets about my journey to full TBI recovery. What I did. Lessons I learned. And how I did it.

Thanks to the @shanhaiwoo team for the opportunity. From a decade of supporting brain trauma survivors @brokenbrainsco to pitching. Time to validate and build. 🚀 Great vibes. Privilege hearing @not_qz in the flesh. He's super eloquent.

Today's wisdom for other #TBI survivors out there: Fear of missing out. #FOMO. I read too much, watched too much in fear of missing out to the point I became overloaded and ultimately fell into #depression. My advice: try to focus on just one.

If you offer to help someone, they don't appreciate something given to them as much as if they had to work hard for it. That doesn't mean you shouldn't help people. It just means you shouldn't try to be a saviour.

Want to forget about your own problems? Go help someone with theirs just by lending a listening ear & most importantly don’t try to save them.

As #TBI survivors, if we recover to a high functioning state, then one of our natural strengths is patience. There will be more misunderstandings around us that developing this becomes a coping mechanism.

After TBI, the biggest challenge I faced was depression. This thread sums up what I did to overcome it. And because it is temporary, you will have to try different things on different occasions. bit.ly/32ynx0e via @newsycombinator #TBI #Recovery #Depression #Overcome

For those rough times where I failed, like when I lost my job 3 times, i wish there was someone to tell me to have more self empathy and compassion towards myself. With this, I think i would have been able to bounce back faster. #Compassion #Improvement #TBI #recovery

Two books that made a profound impact on my life are "Diamond Cutter" by Michael Roach and Ray Dalio's "Principles: Life and Work" #TBI #Singapore #Enlightenment

From 2006 to 2007 I wrote for a blog that provided interviews with entrepreneurs to inspire entrepreneurs. It gave me a purpose, improved my communication skills both verbal and written, and brought me enjoyment visiting all those fancy startup offices. #TBI #CA #Purpose

#Vipassana talks about the temporary nature of all things good and bad, happy and sad, failure and success. Understanding this helped me overcome some big moments in my life like my career. I couldn’t hold on to jobs. I would either leave or face retrenchment. #TBI #CA #Singapore

I have a tiger mom. She’s a broker and made it a business. Loves her kids more than herself. She has a healthy ego, divorced and remarried, a clean freak, and very hard on herself. If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t have recovered after my TBI as well as I did. #TBI #USA #Family

If there was one characteristic that boosted my recovery consistently, it was my determination to get better. I got more sleep. I ate healthier. I ran marathons. I completed my Computer Science degree. I started a blog. I co-founded an e-commerce startup. #TBI #USA #Ambition

After my TBI, helping other people, helped me not focus on my own problems. I raised $2000 in three fundraisers, 32nd Birthday random acts of kindness campaign, growing a Mustache for kids, and installing 12 solar panels on a low income home at Solarthon 2010. #TBI #USA #dogood

After my TBI, one of the biggest activities of daily living I struggled with was sleeping before midnight. My secret? Exercise and meditation. Once my body is tired, my mind follows. And I was able to quiet my mind enough to fall asleep. #TBI #USA #Sijgapore #Adaptations

I was discharged from the hospital with severe balance and hand eye coordination deficits and left body pain and weakness. To improve it, I underwent Eastern medicine in China, daily acupuncture and cupping for an hour for 3 months. It made a world of a difference.

After my TBI, stress made me suicidal. What helped me tremendously was putting my phone down and being in the moment. Go off the grid and stay disconnected from social media. #Recovery #Singapore #stressmanagement

When Engaging in conversations I found it difficult to hold multiple thoughts at once, I would lose the topic, and I would forget what we’re talking about so I stopped thinking about what I would say next and just started listening. Life changing.

To considerably cut down on stress on any situation, I found it helpful to focus my thoughts and actions on just one thing. #TBI

Socrates said the unexamined life is not with living. Thinking faster on my feet, Making people laugh, and Overthinking everything I say we’re three things I wanted to improve. From 2011-2012, I learned improv @CSzSanJose #TBI #Singapore #improv