In this video, concussion survivor and PCS coach David Brimacombe explains how the emotion of awe can be harnessed to accelerate recovery from post‑concussion syndrome. He first defines awe as a reverential wonder that directs attention outward, contrasting it with the common PCS tendency to become trapped in self‑focused symptom rumination. Brimacombe outlines the physiological benefits of awe—lower heart rate, reduced cortisol, activation of the parasympathetic "rest‑and‑digest" state, and a heightened sense of safety. He then describes the psychological impact: awe shrinks the perceived significance of symptoms by shifting focus to the external world, creating new context for the body’s alarm signals. The video details practical, everyday awe‑inducing practices (watching children, nature walks, cloud‑spotting, scheduled moments of gratitude) and urges viewers to treat these moments like medication, integrating them into daily routines. Finally, he links awe to the brain’s reticular activating system (RAS), explaining how expanding the attentional filter rewires perception, allowing patients to notice incremental improvements and maintain a growth mindset during healing.
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If you're stuck in PCS recovery with anxiety, with chronic symptoms, without any understanding of where to go next, what you might be missing isn't necessarily another system or protocol. It might be something as simple as awe. Welcome to the PCS Resilience Collective. My name is David Brimacombe, and after 7 concussions over 20 years, I learned a lot about the simple things in life and how powerful they can be in your PCS recovery. Let's begin. Today I want to talk about awe. Now, awe is the reverential wonder and respect for the world and things around you. You might have experienced awe as a child. Maybe you went to Disneyland, maybe you went to a national monument, maybe just seeing your idol for the first time. But awe goes beyond just that wonder, that desire to be the person or to go to the thing that you've always wanted to. Awe looks outside of yourself. Now, let's backtrack a bit here. So one of the things that is most common in PCS recovery is that people get stuck in their own self. Now, they get stuck in their symptoms. Any and everything that happens in their life revolves around them. This doesn't mean you're egotistical. It doesn't mean that all you think about is yourself, but everything is amplified. The volume of your symptoms, your self-talk, everything just seems louder. And subsequently, it's hard to see the world around you when you're stuck inside yourself. So the beauty of something like awe is it provides a window to what's out there, what else there is in this world beyond yourself. Now, what are some of the main benefits of awe? Now, again, this might seem like such a simple thing, so simple that it— there's no way it's going to impact my PCS recovery. But here are some of the benefits. There are some physical benefits to looking outside yourself, to seeing something that you revere, That you wonder about. The first thing it does is it lowers your heart rate, okay, which lowers your cortisol. I'm sure you've heard of cortisol. Um, the higher your levels of sustained cortisol, the higher your stress. It drops you into the parasympathetic state, meaning your body is in a rest and digest, a calm state, okay? It also helps increase that level of safety. That signal to your body that everything around you, okay, is not inherently evil. Everything around you is not going to flare your symptoms. So that safety is huge. Now, the best part about awe is it shrinks the significance of your symptoms. Now, again, I'm not here to say that what you're feeling isn't valid, what you're feeling isn't justified. I went through that same type of recovery. Okay, days I couldn't get out of bed, days I felt like I don't know why I'm getting up or if I can get up. Okay, now the beauty of something like awe, or looking in, in the distance, staring at a mountain, a landscape of sheer beauty, is that your focus is now out there instead of in here. Creates more context for for your symptoms. Now, again, I'm going to rehash this throughout this whole video. I'm not here to make you seem like you are overreacting, but your body is overreacting whether you want it to or not. It is sounding the alarms, the smoke signals, the any and everything are going off because everything is a threat, because it perceives the world and, uh, and the environment around you As a threat, as unsafe, as dangerous. So if I can look out into the distance, I can watch my children play, I can go to a sporting event or a movie where I am taken out of myself. I am watching something for it is. I'm seeing the beauty of life, the good and the bad. And that's the thing about it. I could be watching something occur and it doesn't have to all be of joy. But I am in awe of the things that I see in front of me. Okay? And what's that— what that is doing, it's taking the perspective from me being introspective to me actually looking out at the world and seeing the world for what it is. Now, I found some of the most impactful ways to do this. It might seem strange at first. If you have children at home, go stand in their doorway Watch them sleep for a few minutes. Okay, just marvel at, you know, who they've become, the fact that they're your children, where they came from, their futures. You are looking at them with a sense of awe, with a sense of wonder of what's to come. For those who are parents, we all love our kids deeply, and that deep gratitude will come out by just simply staring at them. Okay. Again, something that I used to do, I would have to sit outside my kids' doors as they fell asleep. Once they fell asleep, you just sit there for a minute and just look at them. Again, that is creating that sense of awe, which is a sense of gratitude, which lowers your stress. Okay. Helps you look at the world around you and not focus solely on your symptoms. Another way that you can do this is just go for a walk. Just enjoy nature. Look into the horizon. Stare at the trees and the clouds and lie on your back on the grass and just look for shapes in the clouds. Again, you are looking as far out into the distance as possible. Okay? You're pulling your focus away from yourself. Now, I've talked a lot in on this channel about the RAS, your reticular activating system. Now this is changing your brain's filter, otherwise known as the reticular activating system. You are changing the way you view the world. If you can look at something out in the distance and see it for its true beauty, okay, you're now going to just in turn gonna see the true beauty in other things in life. When you come back to your house or when you look in the mirror and you say, wait a minute, You know what? My symptoms, maybe they have improved over the last few months. Maybe I do feel better than I did a week ago. Even though I don't feel great, I'm seeing those improvements. But that is because I've now shifted my focus. My focus isn't solely internal. I am now looking at the world. I'm looking beyond myself, and I'm then transferring that when I get home so that I can see myself as someone who is progressing even in the small. So what I want you to do is I want you to schedule these moments of awe like you would take your medication, your vitamins, your food. Okay? Schedule these. Maybe first thing you get up, you look out the window, you see the birds flying, you smile. That's a point of gratitude. That's a point of awe that's going to start your day off right. Maybe at lunch, instead of sitting and watching TV or scrolling on Instagram, you're going to go ahead and go for a walk outside. Okay? At nighttime, your kids fall asleep, stand in their doorway. Just stand there in wonder and awe of the beauty of childhood, of the futures that they're going to have, and the part that you're going to play in that once you're recovered. Remember, your brain is not broken. It's just still learning as you're still healing. Healing. Thanks for watching. Have yourself a great day.
