Month: January 2019

More than simply a joyful mood, happiness is a state of well-being that encompasses a sense purpose and satisfaction. A growing body of research also suggests that happiness can improve your physical health.

Is happiness a choice? Perhaps a noun, coupled with a few verbs? Your thoughts dictate your emotions and your mental state. Although at times it can seem totally unmanageable, you have complete control over your thoughts. What path do you choose to take with your thoughts? Do you want to choose happiness? Do you believe you CAN achieve happiness after Brain Injury? Our definition of happiness may be transformative, not what we had expected. As we have changed, so too has our perception of happiness. We all desire to love and be loved, feel the euphoria of happiness, and live a good life. The trouble is after a life changing event, we may not immediately be able to discern the road to happiness. Join Simon and I as we raise the lantern to bring light to the path.

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” ~Viktor E. Frankl

Randy Mortenson – Author, problem solver, and Professional Motivational Speaker around the world, excels at working with professionals to overcome hurdles. His vast experience includes careers in finance and energy, a variety of entrepreneurship experiences, with board of director roles in public, and private companies, as well as non-profits. He is passionate and committed to restoring sanity in conflicted workplaces where compulsive behaviors are dooming success, often mirroring issues effecting the community at large.

His success in being a carrier of important life messages, stems not only from his business experience, but also from grave personal tragedy that propel others to either recoil from life, or to seek how their experience can help others. Randy chose the latter, spreading messages of help, hope, faith for cultivating a better quality of life.

Randy offers solutions to the phrase “I don’t know how”, most recently with his presentations: Integrity in Leadership, What If, and Just Do Something. Randy is a long time member of “The Speakers Hub” with great success in turning challenged situations, into stories of strength and success. For more see: randymortensen.com

Debbie Hampton recovered from decades of unhealthy thinking and depression, a suicide attempt, and resulting brain injury to become an inspirational and educational writer on brain, psychological, emotional, and mental health issues for Huffington Post, MindBodyGreen, and more. On her website, Debbie shares how she rebuilt her brain and life to find joy and thrive. She wants you to know that you can do it too! You can quickly learn the steps to a better you in her book, Beat Depression And Anxiety By Changing Your Brain, with simple practices easy to implement in your daily life. Improve your brain, improve your life.

A trauma trigger is a psychological stimulus that prompts recall of a previous traumatic experience. The stimulus itself need not be frightening or traumatic and may be only indirectly or superficially reminiscent of an earlier traumatic incident, such as a scent, sight, sound or feeling. Things can be going well, when suddenly we shift emotionally into a darker place, seemingly without warning or control. A Brain Injury is a Traumatic Event. Some of us have been diagnosed with PTSD post injury, some heal to their threshold and are never bothered emotionally again. Some are a composite of both. At the time of the Anniversary of Our Injury (mine is today), triggers can elicit a variety of emotions. Some years are soley a celebration of gratitude and life, while others, “triggers” can take us back to the place that defined our future carved in isolation and pain. Join me and offer your experience, as I offer mine and some facts to define.

With 2018 in the books and the holidays now behind us, we look forward to the coming year. What will it look like? While we don’t have a crystal ball, we do have a hand in the outcomes. What do we change, what’s worth keeping? Call In, Open Mic .. What if anything, does 2019 signify to you?