In this motivational video for the PCS Resilience Collective, David Brimacombe shares his personal recovery experience and proposes a practical, mindset‑based approach to managing post‑concussion syndrome (PCS). He argues that obsessing over uncontrollable questions (e.g., how long recovery will take, whether symptoms will ever fully disappear) fuels helplessness and hinders healing. Instead, he urges viewers to focus on the "controllables"—aspects of daily life they can actively influence. He introduces a simple three‑step protocol: (1) spend five minutes on gratitude journaling, (2) make conscious, health‑supportive food choices, and (3) go to sleep on time. These actions are written down each morning to create a flexible, low‑pressure system that reinforces a sense of safety and agency. Brimacombe explains how repeatedly stacking such controllable habits reshapes identity, turning the individual into a "change agent" rather than a victim of symptoms. He emphasizes that while symptom flare‑ups will still occur, the consistent practice of controllable actions leads to immediate mood improvements and long‑term progress. The video concludes with a call‑to‑action, asking viewers to comment three controllable actions they will take that day, reinforcing the new identity and community accountability.
Chapters
PCS recovery can feel incredibly erratic. Symptoms come and go at random. Some days you feel great, other days you feel awful. But you have power to change this. What I want to do in this video is talk about how you should control the controllables. Let's begin. Hi and welcome to the PCS Resilience Collective. My name is David Brimacombe. My PCS recovery journey started to push on the upward slope when I knew the things in my environment that I could control and I could elicit change over. That's when I started to see true recovery happen. Many people obsess over questions like, how long is this recovery going to take? Will my symptoms ever go away? Will I ever be the person I once was. Now, the biggest problems with these questions, besides the fact that they don't really have an answer, is that they're out of your control. When you start to focus on things that you have no control over, you start to feel like you have no say in your life, like you are not the captain of your ship. And with that becomes a sense of hopelessness, of helplessness, that is not going to help your recovery. Instead, you need to focus on the controllables, things that you have a say over. There's many things in life that we cannot control. We cannot control other people. In the case of PCS recovery, we cannot control how our symptoms flare, how days become good to bad and vice versa. We can control a simple setup that makes our day all the easier. What I would suggest is a simple 3-step protocol where you're controlling 3 parts of your life. And if that's all you have a say over, that's the only thing that you can control, well, at least you have this. At least you have this as a start. And again, many of the things I talk about in this, in this channel are about teaching your body, okay, that things are safe, that things are possible, that you can change. And again, starting small. So I'm going to create a 3-step framework in that I'm going to convince myself that I have control in my life. So when I get up, okay, I might ask that question. Okay, so I've done my breathwork, I've kind of gone to the bathroom, and now I'm thinking about, so today, what are 3 things that I have control over, that I can influence? I can influence the weather. how my children react, what's going to happen at work. But there are 3 things that I can control. I can control that I'm going to do 5 minutes of gratitude journaling. I can control the food that I put in my body. I can control that I'm going to go to sleep on time tonight. And those are 3 things that I'm going to write down at the beginning of my day that I am going to control today. I'm not going to worry about anyone else. When my symptoms flare, that's okay. That's fine. I can live with that, but I'm going to focus on those 3 things. Maybe next week it's another 3 things. And what I'm doing is I'm starting to create systems, systems without rigid structure. These are just small things that I'm going to convince myself that I have a say over, that I know I can control. And what's this— what this is going to do is this is going to again increase that level of safety in the system. It's going to increase my level of understanding and mindset that I am walking down the right path, that I'm getting closer and closer with each day to the person I want to become. And it takes small steps to do that. The worst part about a PCS recovery is feeling like a victim, a victim of your own body, a victim to the symptoms, to the circumstances of your, your PCS recovery. When you start To stack things that you can control, what you do is you start to see the positives in your environment. You start to see more evidence of things you can control. So for example, if I know what I eat influences how I feel, I might then start looking at food differently. Maybe I don't eat that dessert every, every night. Maybe I don't snack after supper. Maybe I Stay away from the fast food for a bit because I know that I can control that. It is not simply a reflex or just me saying, I'm hungry, I'm going to feed the system. I know the system feels better on good food and that I have an influence over this. Okay, that agency that you're creating is creating an identity that you are a change agent. You have a say in this recovery regardless of how long it takes. You are creating a new identity. And again, I'll rehash this. I've said this before on this channel. I am a better person today than I was before my first concussion. Even though I still have some stuff that lingers, even though I would say that my nervous system sometimes flares uncontrollably, I'm okay with that because I've created structure. I've changed my mindset. I'm a better person because of the systems that I've created. But what I needed to do first is understand that I have a say. I am not a victim of my circumstances. I am a person that could influence change. Yes, I'm going to have bad days. Yes, there's going to be times where I cannot control what goes on around me or the fact that my symptoms might flare. When I get sick, I start to feel some of those symptoms come back, but I remind myself, I know what I need to do. Let's get back into it. Okay? And when I do that, I feel better right away because I am influencing my recovery. You can do that too. I want you to put in the comments below, what are you going to do today? What 3 things could you control that are going to influence that recovery? Convince yourself of your new identity. Put those in the comments below. Okay? Thank you very much for watching to the end. I hope you have yourself a great day.
