It’s all temporary

Something occurred to me yesterday that has the potential to make me as happy as it makes me sad : It’s all temporary.

I mean, I know that everything passes,and I know that everything really is temporary, but I tend to get caught up in the problem of the moment, and I lose sight of the fact that everything changes in one way or another. Nothing stays one way for long.

But I get so caught up in my rigidity and my literalism,I lose sight of that fact. I’ve been very rigid, this winter, having it in my head that I need to do certain things or else, and I have let a lot of stuff slide, as a result. I’ve been so focused on a small set of activities, that I haven’t actually taken time to A) fix things around the house I should be fixing and B) simply enjoy myself and get out and about like I try to do year-round.

I don’t have any excuse. I just got so caught up in what I was doing, I lost track of everything else.

I think I know what causes me to get stuck – the fact that everything truly is temporary, including my memory. And I don’t want to lose the progress I’ve made.I tend to lose track of where I am, if I get pulled away to do something different, and I really wanted to finish the projects I started in late fall.I kept getting distracted, kept getting pulled off in million different directions, and I wasn’t making the kind of progress I needed to make.

So I decided to block everything out and just ONLY do that one thing, until it was done.

That meant I blocked out just about everything else, except for the basics, like getting up and going to work, eating and sleeping.

Now I’m dealing with some house issues that are a real problem. I’ve got some water leaks in the system that continue to cause problems, and the house is getting a musty smell. Also, with the car situation, I let some things slide, and now I’m scrambling to catch up.

Making calls. Figuring out how much money I have to spend. Getting my numbers together and figuring out my schedule. Just taking it a piece at a time, doing what I can, when I can.

I just need to not get stuck … everything is temporary, including the problems I have. Other people have surmounted worse.

I just need to keep going, keep thinking, and stay flexible as best I can.

Onward.

More reading on flexibility and rigidity and TBI:

Author: brokenbrilliant

I am a long-term multiple (mild) Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI or TBI) survivor who experienced assaults, falls, car accidents, sports-related injuries in the 1960s, '70s, '80s, and '90s. My last mild TBI was in 2004, but it was definitely the worst of the lot. I never received medical treatment for my injuries, some of which were sports injuries (and you have to get back in the game!), but I have been living very successfully with cognitive/behavioral (social, emotional, functional) symptoms and complications since I was a young kid. I’ve done it so well, in fact, that virtually nobody knows that I sustained those injuries… and the folks who do know, haven’t fully realized just how it’s impacted my life. It has impacted my life, however. In serious and debilitating ways. I’m coming out from behind the shields I’ve put up, in hopes of successfully addressing my own (invisible) challenges and helping others to see that sustaining a TBI is not the end of the world, and they can, in fact, live happy, fulfilled, productive lives in spite of it all.

4 thoughts on “It’s all temporary”

  1. This is an issue that I struggle with also. It seems, since my brain injury, that I’ve lost my ability to multi-task but instead focus intensely on one thing at a time. I get lost in issues that cost me dearly sometimes because I neglect other, sometimes more urgent ones. It’s helpful to remember that those issues, both positive and negative, are indeed temporary. If only I could stop and remember that before the frustration sets in! Thank you for the reminder.

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  3. Ah yes… the “excitement” of perseveration. I used to set timers for myself, to keep myself from getting too locked in on activities, then I thought I was all better, and stopped. I think I need to go back to that again – set limits for myself. And also keep better track of what I need to be doing. My list-keeping has fallen by the wayside, but that only works when things are going well.

    And things have been very challenging for me, lately. So, it’s back to my lists, I guess.

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