In this motivational talk, concussion survivor and PCS Resilience Collective host David Brimacombe shares his personal journey of living with post‑concussion syndrome (PCS) after seven concussions over 20 years. He explains how the brain rewires itself through repeated thoughts, regardless of their truth, turning habits—positive or negative—into part of one’s identity. Brimacombe describes how micro‑wins in a consistent morning routine (gratitude, breathwork, movement) helped him shift from a victim mindset to a “winner of the morning” identity, reinforcing recovery. He then introduces the SAFE protocol—Spot, Acknowledge, Flip, Embed—as a step‑by‑step method to interrupt automatic negative thoughts (the “ants”) and replace them with empowering beliefs. The protocol includes spotting a recurring negative thought, acknowledging its limited truth, flipping it into a positive future‑oriented statement, and embedding that statement through breathwork or physical movement to cement the new belief in the subconscious. The video concludes with a call to action for viewers to apply these practices, emphasizing that the brain becomes efficient at whatever it repeats, not necessarily what is real.
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What if the thoughts you repeat every single day are retraining your brain, but not through truths, rather through habit? Hi, my name is David Brimacombe, host of the PCS Resilience Collective, and after 20 years and 7 concussions, I learned the most important lesson in recovery: the brain becomes efficient at whatever you feed it, even if it's not True. Now, this can work in both the positive and the negative. It can work for you or against you. Today, I want to try to break that bad cycle, those negative thoughts that are recurring in your mind, and add the positive ones. After concussion, people unknowingly use that mindset against themselves by telling themselves that they are broken, that the world is against them, that they are simply just a victim of a, of a bad situation, and that they have no say In their recovery. I was there too. I sat on the edge of my bed many mornings and thought, how can I go on? Is life really worth living if this is all I have? Every morning ruminating over all the negativity, leaving my life to chance that I might eventually heal. At this point, I'd rather be miserable than hopeful because I didn't know any other way. Now here is the kicker, the most important part Of this video. Neurons don't ask if a belief is accurate, only that it's familiar. The brain works like this: repetition creates rewiring, which alters your identity. You go from someone who was a victim to someone who can change their situation, which then creates more automatic behaviors called habits. But it starts at that first phase: repetition. Now, repetition isn't one massive movement that's going to have this colossal change. It's micro wins that compound over time and create a monumental victory. Think about it this way: whatever you repeat becomes easier, faster, more automatic. Now, it is said that it takes 4 to 6 weeks for a habit to stick. Now, that stickiness factor comes in and around the 3 or 4 week mark where things become Second nature. For me, this came in my morning routine. I would get up, I would put my feet on the floor, I would say some form of gratitude. I would be thankful for the day. I'd be thankful for the opportunity to be— to improve my symptoms. But that went into breathwork and later into movement. But that whole morning protocol took a few weeks for it to cement. But once it did, after that month mark, if I were to miss a day, I did not feel like I was complete. If I missed 2 days, I felt like I was completely going against my identity. My identity is someone who needed to win the morning. When I won the morning, I won the day. And this holds true with any routine or any habit. It's all about the repetition. The repetition tells your brain that this is safe. This is what we do as a person, and it now becomes who you are. I want to provide you with my protocol that I created called the SAFE. Now, for me, the SAFE is an incredible protocol for people who constantly are stuck in that negative automatic thoughts. Now, we call those ants, your automatic negative thoughts that ruminate through your mind. Think of an ant crawling over a log. Basically, how it works is those thoughts are permeating your brain through your subconscious. Now, 95% of your thoughts are in your subconscious mind. Now that plays on a loop continually. Now if those are all negative thoughts, that is all you're hearing all day on that turnstile in rotation. I am not worthy. I cannot heal. The world hates me. I'm just a victim. All those things might feel great. They might soothe you. They might give you temporary relief because you are not in control of your situation. But guess what? In the long term, They are completely detrimental to your recovery. Unfortunately, what it takes is it takes the mindset that you can control to stop those automatic negative thoughts and create change in your situation. Here is my protocol: spot, acknowledge, flip, and embed. Let's go into each of those. The first thing is spot. The hardest thing to do when you're starting your recovery journey or when you're stuck in that rut is to spot all those negative thoughts because honestly everything feels negative. Any and everything, you get up, you move, you're symptomatic. Your whole day feels negative. Now start simple. Find one thought that permeates your mind the most often. Maybe it is that PCS is who I am, it's part of my identity. I want you to think about that one thought. That is the one that you're going to stop this week. You're going to work week by week, and then every week you're going to try to stop one or two more thoughts so that you're actually creating that— getting rid of those negative thoughts one by one so that eventually you can insert positive ones in their place. So the first thing you're going to do is you're going to spot anytime you have that thought, that exact same phrase. For example, that PCS is part of who I am. It's part of my identity. Okay? You're going to spot that. That's the first step. You're going to acknowledge that although it feels good in the moment, it is not true. You are more than just PCS. You are a great mother, a great worker, a friend. You are someone who volunteers. That is not the entirety of your identity. It is a very, very small part. Now, if we detach that from our identity, we are no longer saying that we are this disorder, we are— we do have these problems. It is simply something that we had to deal with, but it's not who we are. Okay, so you've now spotted to acknowledge that, that yes, this is part of your existence, but it's not who you are. Now, the most important part, we're going to flip the script. I have PCS to I am recovering. You're creating that positive tone. You're creating an endpoint that you can see in the future, almost a carrot that is dangling in front of your face to allow you to step forward into the light instead of back into the dark. Now, the last thing we're going to do is something that people don't talk about a lot, is embedding that positive thought. Now, there's 2 ways that I like to do this. The first way is through breathwork. Once I say that new thought, in this case, I am recovering from post-concussion syndrome. I'm then going to go ahead and go deep into breathwork for maybe 5 rounds, 10 rounds. And what I'm doing is I'm embedding that thought. I'm getting into the parasympathetic state. I'm calm, I'm relaxed. I'm even repeating those thoughts as I'm doing my breathwork as a force to embed it deeper into my subconscious. The other way that I love to do this is go for a walk, add any kind of movement where you're going to increase that blood flow to the brain, which allows that thought to enter your subconscious, into your, your mind. Again, while you're walking or while you're doing your breathwork, think about it. Think about how it resonates in your body, how it feels, how it looks in the future. Again, you're trying to change your identity. You're becoming someone that you thought in this current context is not possible. But again, belief comes from repeating those same thoughts that then tell your mind that it is possible. If this video resonated with you, please let me know in the comments, give it a like, and subscribe if you haven't already. I appreciate your time and support. And remember, your brain gets good at what you repeat, not necessarily what is real. We'll see you next time. Bye.
