In this video, David Brimacombe shares his 20‑year history of seven concussions, focusing on the most recent injury he sustained while teaching physical education. He describes the prolonged period of dysautonomia he experienced after his second concussion, explaining how his nervous system was stuck in a sympathetic ‘accelerator’ state and how he learned to re‑engage the parasympathetic ‘brake.’ Brimacombe critiques the conventional medical advice to remain in a dark, motionless room for weeks, arguing that excessive rest actually lengthens recovery. He introduces the concept of an "energy threshold"—the limited capacity for sustained activity after a concussion—and advocates for graded, early movement (24‑48 hours post‑injury) with incremental increases. He emphasizes the importance of mindset, neuroplasticity, and daily mantras to reshape subconscious loops, drawing on ideas from Joe Dispenza and Bruce Lipton. Small, repeatable habits (tiny habits) and brief affirmations at wake‑up and bedtime are presented as practical tools to build hope and resilience. Brimacombe also highlights the therapeutic value of nature and grounding. Throughout, he frames the video as the launch of a new channel and program aimed at providing self‑education, hope, and evidence‑based protocols for concussion recovery, urging viewers to take an active role rather than relying solely on outdated medical guidance.
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I'm going to tell you a little bit about my story here, why I'm filming this, why I'm starting this new channel. A lot of it stems from the fact that 20 years ago I suffered my first concussion, and since that time I've had 7, and I've learned a lot. I've gleaned a lot from those incidents. I wouldn't give— I wouldn't give it for anything because I feel like I'm a better person now. But that took time, that took resilience, and that took the understanding that it was— there were going to be significant ups and downs. And that's why we're here today. I want to talk about energy thresholds and how one can adapt and respond and grow their subsequent ability to be symptomatic given any day life activities. So A little background here. I suffered from dysautonomia after my second stint of PCS, and it took me about three or four years to kind of figure out what was going on. Why I couldn't eat food; it made me bloated, made me irritable. Why anytime I worked out, I was zonked for the rest of the day. And I thought it was just who I was, what I was going to be. But I learned later that my body was stuck in a sympathetic state. It was stuck. It's like we think of the car analogy. The gas is your sympathetic, the brake is your parasympathetic, or your rest and digest. The stress state is sympathetic. I was stuck in the accelerator, wasn't— what wasn't— my foot wasn't coming off the pedal. Okay. And so what I had to learn are ways to now steady introduce the brake while releasing the accelerator. Okay. And it took time and it took a lot of patience. But there are ways that you can do that, and we're going to chat about that today. I also want to talk about energy threshold. So after a concussion, you're not as resilient in terms of your ability to sustain long bouts of high-energy activities or high-stress activities. So you have to be cognizant of that, and you have to be aware that without breaks and without really understanding when the signs that your body is about to go into a Um, a downward spiral that you need to stop. Most recent concussion, I was teaching phys ed, and if you know anything about junior high physical education, I was acting more like a chaos controller than an actual teacher. I'd taken my class out— this is mid-October, much like the kind of day that you see behind me here— mid-October, a nice crisp morning, we're talking 0 degrees or 35 degrees Fahrenheit, and we were throwing the footballs around. Now If you know anything about the budget of a junior high school, you know these are plastic overinflated footballs, okay, which can pose a problem. So getting them lined up, they're throwing the ball, everything seems pretty good. Of course, we have this one kid in class, he looks like he's 15 going on 45. He's ripped, he's got a mustache, and of course he's the one that's going to be the The main point of the story. Okay, so as we go back, um, I'm having them throw in lines. I'm walking across behind one of the lines throwing, looking right into the sun. Mistake number 1. Okay, as I'm walking, I hear a shout, heads up! Now we could talk about why you say heads up, because it's probably the most ridiculous thing to say, but as I'm walking, I get hit in the side of the temple. With an overinflated ball thrown by a Hercules-like 15-year-old. Hits me in the side of the head. I'm down, I'm out, I'm unconscious for what seemed like forever, but it was probably only a few seconds. I wake up, kids around me, I have no idea what had just happened. Okay, that was the start of my most recent concussion and kind of the beginning of my hardest phase in my recovery. Okay, and in turn, the reason why I'm starting this this channel and the program we're going to talk about later. What was life like after the concussion? I saw multiple specialists, doctors, all of which told me the best thing to do, go sit in a dark room, don't do anything, don't socialize, don't move. The concussion will heal on its own. That is one of the over— most overutilized, under-researched ideas there is. We now know that the more you rest, The longer your recovery takes. After 24 to 48 hours, you should get up and move. You should try to push the envelope even just a little bit, okay? And I didn't do that because I was told just sit in a dark room. So I legitimately sat in a dark room for weeks. I would come out to see my family, to eat, go to the bathroom, but that is it. I remember sitting there, lying in my bed, listening to some Terrible radio show host. I just wondered, like, is this what life is gonna be like? Is this— is this it? Basically a zombie existence sitting in a dark room, not socializing. I might as well just go live down by the river in a hut because it's basically what it felt like. So that's how it started. And as I started to kind of think, well, maybe this isn't for me, I'd start to come out of my room, move a little bit, feel symptomatic, and then go right back to bed thinking that those symptoms were a sign my brain— I was doing further harm to my brain, which couldn't be further from the truth. Okay? Symptoms are not a sign that you're causing greater stress or pain to whatever area you're talking about, in this case, your brain. Symptoms are a sign that you've met a certain threshold, and that threshold can be expanded. With certain training. Okay, if you could do 5 minutes of walking today, next week maybe you could do 6 or 7. But if you believe that symptoms mean stop whatever you're doing, go ahead and rest, then you'll never, you'll never heal. And I think that's one of the things that is profoundly wrong with how concussions are treated. Let's talk a little bit about belief. Now, in those days lying in bed, uh, not knowing what was going to happen tomorrow, Not knowing how I was going to feel, if I was going to be able to get up to talk to anyone, be a good father or a good husband. I had little to no belief. I had little to no perception that I had control. I had the ability to enhance my recovery. Okay. Now, one of the things that I think is underutilized in the recovery space is the concept of mindset advancement and teaching people the understanding that your brain can heal. Okay, your brain has the power to heal. We know that as neuroplasticity, and we know that it can be achieved in a matter of weeks, months, through the repetition of certain activities or certain mantras, certain sayings that you can repeat to yourself. Now, 95% of the thoughts that reoccur in your mind are from your subconscious. So the subconscious runs on a loop, almost like if you're hopping into an elevator, you'll hear that same Terrible elevator track on a loop. Now, your mind is no different. Those subconscious thoughts circulate around. Now, those thoughts don't always represent, or usually don't represent, your current beliefs and values. What they are is they're a collection of historical and based on situations and things that have happened to you. Now, they have nothing, no bearing on how you, how your current existence But they are still playing in your mind. And unless you break that cycle, your mind believes it to be true still. So I went through the better part of months sitting in bed, lying in bed, really wondering what was going to happen next. And the whole time, those negative loops, doctors telling me, you know, you have no say in your recovery. Sit in a dark room. Don't get up and move. If you start to feel dizzy, sit down right away. Now, again, I don't think they were doing it nefariously. They just didn't know any better. And, and that's one of the biggest issues we have in the concussion space is that there isn't enough education. You need to educate yourself. You need to learn what's going to best benefit you. I am of the complete belief that the best person to, to teach about recovery is you. You got to learn it first, teach it to yourself. So belief— how do we believe? Well, we have to believe that we're going to build a roadmap, we're going to walk that trail before we actually walk in reality. Now, your mind cannot tell the difference between what you perceive and what actually happens. By laying down that neural pathways in your mind, using that belief, creating those sayings, those mantras that you can repeat every day, will create— will start to give yourself hope. Once you have hope, That recovery is possible. You can start walking towards that light. Again, if you have no hope, why get up? Just stay in bed. Subscribe to the doctor's notion that you have no say in your recovery. Okay, now what can we do? What are some examples? Now again, I love the work of Joe Dispenza, of Bruce Lipton. They've introduced me to the concept that the mind is malleable. You can introduce sayings and phrases That can alter your path in life. They can change the way that you're gonna go. Okay, now some of the simple things that I would do is the first 30 seconds when I get up— when I got up— and the last 30 seconds before I went to bed. That is when your mind is the most susceptible to changing that subconscious pattern, that subconscious loop that plays in your mind. So I would come up with the mantra, something, something like, today I'm healing. Today I'm healing. Even if I don't see it. And I would say that 3 or 4 times when I wake up and before I go to bed. Again, the first few times I said it, I didn't believe it. But the more I said it, I started to lay those neural pathways, that neural track that I was walking towards a future that I wanted to live. And that was the game changer that changed my recovery from something of a hope and a myth and a, you know, a Maybe at some point in my life I'll be able to do the things I love to do, to actually thinking it was possible, it was plausible. I had a pathway and I knew I could do it. It's not easy. I could tell you it's, it's not easy getting up every day and you feel like junk and you sit on the side of your bed and you just— the first thing that comes to your mind is another crappy day. I gotta get up, I gotta go to work, I gotta help be a good parent. It's tough, but the more you do it, the easier it becomes. Okay, I believe in the work of tiny habits create big changes. Small ripples now, big waves tomorrow. So if it takes only one saying, one phrase, whatever it is, if it's one word today, maybe next week it's 2 or 3. You're gonna build on that. Okay, so today maybe all you're gonna say is today's gonna be a good day. I'm gonna make an attempt for today to be a good day. Say it once in the, uh, you know, when you get up and before you go to bed. Today was a great day. I can now rest. Go to sleep. Okay, so we're talking small changes create big ripples later on in life. I want to talk about the obvious thing. Why the heck are you sitting by a river? All right, well, for one, it's absolutely beautiful. Um, I will say that Nature was one of the main reasons why I was able to, to resolve my issues. Standing in nature, grounding, walking, feeling the air on your face. Um, secondly, I have a house, I have 3 kids and 2 dogs, so finding a quiet space is next to impossible. So, uh, over the next few months, if not years, I'm hoping you'll stick with this channel. I'm going to grow as a person, as a presenter, um, but I really want to get the message across. that there is hope. You need to have the belief. But I'm proof, living proof, that I went from a place of a cocoon therapy, basically sitting in my room, okay, was not moving, was still to the world, completely useless, okay, an irritable father, not good, okay, to someone who is living his life, his best life right now, okay. I did not think that was going to be possible 7 years ago, okay. Today I'm living my best life, but it took time. And it took steps, it took protocols. I'm going to go through a lot of those. I want you to come along on this journey with me because I feel that, you know, there's so much that needs to be learned, and it needs to be learned— you need to learn it on your own. Because if we trust the medical system, the medical system seems like it's 15, 20 years behind what the research is telling us. And this is what the research is telling us: there is hope and belief. You can tell yourself, create those neural pathways that change is going to come with change. Build those layers, those tracks, walk through it. Okay, I'm super excited to start this journey, and please continue watching. Thank you.
