In this solo instructional video for the PCS Resilience Collective, David Brimacombe draws on his personal experience of seven concussions over two decades to argue that post‑concussion syndrome (PCS) recovery benefits from doing less rather than more. He explains that the common urge to rapidly improve leads many patients to overload their nervous system with multiple supplements, therapies, and habits, which can cause overstimulation and setbacks. Brimacombe introduces a step‑wise, low‑dose approach: start with a single habit, practice it consistently for about two weeks, evaluate its impact, and then layer additional practices only if the first proves beneficial. He highlights three non‑negotiable, low‑effort practices that can be adopted immediately: (1) a gratitude habit using a sticky note placed in a frequently‑seen location, (2) down‑regulating breathwork (e.g., 4‑second inhale, 8‑second exhale, five breaths each morning/evening), and (3) a mirror “high‑five” to reinforce self‑acceptance. Throughout, he stresses consistency, identity formation, and the Pareto principle (20 % effort yields 80 % results) as the drivers of a sustainable recovery trajectory. The video concludes with a call to integrate these practices gradually, monitor progress, and avoid the temptation to stack too many interventions at once.
Chapters
This might sound backwards, but sometimes in order to do more in your life, you need to do less in your PCS recovery routine. Hi and welcome to the PCS Resilience Collective. My name is David Brimacombe, and after 7 concussions over 20 years, I learned that the more you do doesn't always equal a quicker recovery. In this video, I want to explore the concept that doing less might actually allow you to recover quicker. Let's begin. One of the biggest things that commonly plagues people at the beginning, even at the middle portions of their recovery, is that they have this urgency to be better. They want to be better tomorrow. They want to be better next week. Okay, their system though requires A longer runway. Now, in order to get that new you in a week, in a couple days, it requires you to do a lot right now. Stack your supplements, increase your routines, go to multiple forms of therapy. But the body only has such a capacity to take in that much new information, that much new inputs. So what happens is your body gets overstressed, overstimulated, and you actually have a bit of a setback in your recovery. Now, for some people, this might be a psychological barrier. They might say, well, this is terrible. I'm starting at the beginning. It is a tough thing to overcome. So this video is meant to give you a conceptual understanding That less is sometimes more. If you've ever heard of the Pareto principle, the concept that 20% of your actions result in 80% of your outcomes. So for example, if I am someone in the beginning of my recovery journey, I really want to include multiple supplements, my morning walks, exercise exposure training. I want to do— breathwork and meditation and gratitude journaling. All those things are amazing, but if I do them all at once, okay, it's limiting the benefit of all of them as a whole. Now, the biggest thing I can throw out there as a suggestion for those who are early or in the midpoint of your recovery is that start with one thing, be consistent with one thing, become exceptional at that one thing, okay? And that will do Uh, multiple things for you. For starters, if you become really good at gratitude journaling, you're consistent with it every morning you get up, you put 5 points of gratitude, you think about that throughout the day. Guess what? Not only are you able to tell within a week or 2, does that actually have an impact? Am I actually feeling better? Am I seeing the good in life instead of all the negatives, all the symptoms that are coming? Or does it have no real benefit to my recovery? Now, again, I don't want to be layering a bunch of stuff that isn't actually helping me. If it isn't helping you, why do it? Again, you have a reduced energy capacity. You struggle to get out of bed sometimes. You struggle to go down the stairs and do your job and hang out with your friends. So why would you unnecessarily add additional layers to your recovery journey? When you don't need to. So for those 2 weeks, I do my gratitude journaling. I find it has a benefit on me. I feel like I see the good in the world. I've changed my filter for life. I can see the birds, I can see the clouds, I can see the sun, I can hear kids laughing, and it kind of masks my symptoms. I don't think about all those things that are going wrong in my body as often. That is a Wonderful, wonderful addition to your protocol. But if conversely you don't, you don't seem to see all those positives, you're still ruminating on your thoughts and you're still feeling all those symptoms just as, as you did before, then maybe this isn't for you. So now we've had that 2-week trial. Now I'm going to try something different. And again, if that gratitude journal works, keep it in. And layer up. Maybe now it's 5 minutes of breathwork. Okay, do that for 2 weeks. Do I feel better today than I did 2 weeks prior? Again, you're doing these small tests, and these small tests are providing not only information for you, but it is actually increasing the level of safety in your system. Your body feels safe to do these activities, and generally speaking, your nervous system is not as alarmed as it would have been prior. Because you're giving it small inputs. You're introducing things in small doses, which doesn't set off all those alarm bells. The biggest thing I want you to take away from this video is the concept of consistency. Consistency will create a better long-term recovery trajectory than someone who is willing to go ahead and do any and everything at this very moment. Okay. So consistency pays off. Consistency creates a new identity. That new identity is more susceptible to adding and layering new ideas and concepts and supplements and routines later on. Okay, again, your body is going from a state where it is rejecting thoughts, it is rejecting new foods and supplements and routines. So to layer everything on at once You're just destined for failure. You're setting yourself up for a situation where your body can't tolerate it. So I'm starting small, I'm doing less, and I'm going to give you, okay, by the end of this video, if you stick along, the 3 things I think everyone needs to add. Okay, so this is the beginning, the middle, even if near the end of your recovery, 3 things everyone needs to have. I think this is a non-negotiable. But for you, I want you to think about consistency as your driver. Okay? What I do today, I want to do tomorrow. Okay? I follow a rule. It's pretty simple. I miss a day because I'm tired, I'm sick, I'm busy. That's fine. Never miss 2 days. Okay? Because by doing all these new routines every 2 weeks, I'm adding a new layer. What I'm doing is I'm changing my identity. Now, that identity can be changed for the good, but if you stop doing things, it can also be changed for the bad. So again, if I stop doing gratitude journaling for 2 weeks, I will no longer feel like that is part of who I am. I won't feel as inclined to do it because I've shifted who I am. I've set a mental roadblock, a mental hurdle that I have now to overcome. Okay? Your identity is huge. Subconsciously, it is that puts on the brakes if it's something that you don't align with, or it puts on the, the gas if it's something that you know as a person. Okay? It shapes your identity. So start small, layer up, be consistent so that your body can understand that this is something that's going to heal, not hurt you. So as I mentioned, I wanted to give you the 3 things that I think everyone should be doing in some capacity in their recovery journey. Okay, so those 3 things include some form of gratitude. Now I'm going to give you the simple place to start. You grab a sticky note, you write One thing you're grateful for. And again, I almost think the more general, the more innocuous, the better. I'm grateful for life. I'm grateful for someone opening the door yesterday when I went to the store. I'm grateful for the chair that I'm sitting on. Strange, but honestly, think about it this way. If I become grateful for things that are everyday items, that are everyday occurrences, you start to notice them. I put on that sticky note for a couple days, I'm grateful things that strangers do for me. Then when I'm out in public, I'm more inclined to hold the door open for someone else who smiles at me, who creates and elicits a positive response in myself, which creates happiness and joy, which carries forward for the rest of my day. See, the thing about gratitude journaling is it's not about what you say in the moment. It's what— it's about the lasting impact that has on your day, on how you view the world. You're— we know that your perception forms your reality. If you're looking through a lens of optimism, of hope, of belief, of joy, that is the world you'll be living in. The opposite is also true. So the first thing I'm going to suggest, get a sticky note, write down one thing you're grateful for, slap it on something that you're going to walk by multiple times that day. As you go by, I want you to go and think about it. Again, I always use my bathroom mirror as my example. Every time I go to the bathroom, I'm going to look at that. Maybe when I'm on the bathroom, I'm going to think about it. When I leave, again, it's constant on the top of my mind. Okay, that's number one. Okay, the second thing I want you to do is some form of downregulating breathwork. So when I get up, okay, I'm going to take 5 deep breaths where I'm going to elongate On the exhale. So basically, maybe it's 4 seconds on the inhale and then 8 seconds on a long exhale. Again, that long exhale is downregulating. It's slowing your heart rate. It's telling your body it's time to rest. This is how we set the baseline for the day. So maybe it's as soon as you get up and before you go to bed, it's 5 deep breaths. Okay. And the third thing that I think is super impactful, this might seem strange. I got this Tip from Mel Robbins. Now, I'm a huge advocate of, of high fives, of positive interactions with people. In this case, a positive interaction with yourself. Okay? Every time you look at yourself in the mirror, okay, instead of just looking at yourself, washing your hands, whatever you're doing, I want you to go ahead and give yourself a high five. Okay? It may seem strange in the moment, but the more you do it, The more you understand that, that acknowledgement of yourself, of your situation, of who you are and where you've been is huge. Okay? This is something that will change how you view yourself, your self-acceptance of where you are and the journey that you're about to undertake. Thank you very much for listening and watching to the end. I hope you have yourself a great day. Don't forget to high-five yourself.
