Thursday, April 19, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Introduction To The Brain Injury Survivor Network ..
I had a simple accident which resulted in a severe brain injury fifteen years ago since 2010. In December 1995, while surfing at Peregian Beach in Queensland, Australia, I fell off a boogie-board in metre of water and hit my head on the sand. I ended up in the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane where I was in a coma for four weeks. It took six months in hospital before I was able to walk, talk and function in a reasonably normal manner. I am now the ‘The Recycled/Restored Man ...... in a new Season of Life’.
In my new Season of Life since my accident, I am here to build people up ...... to inspire people ..... to work with them and what they have already and not what they have lost. I do this primarily via the Internet to over a thousand people around the world. Some group identities have many Cyberspace members as well. A number of years ago I began the Brain Injury Survivor Network.
I now see great value in people:
* No matter who they are
* What skin colour they are
* What race they are
* What they have done or not done
This is because I have and live out a Christian Spirituality (versus Christian Religion). The focus of this Spirituality is on Community vs. Corporation. It is a focus on people vs. seeing it as conformity to set framework of a religious corporation with rational beliefs and set rituals.
I think of my fellow brain injury survivor friends as part of my extended brain injury survivor family ..... whether I have met them or not.
In our Western Culture, it is highly individualized, being very competitive and corporate. We generally do not give value for people who cannot achieve. When you have brain injury, you certainly cannot achieve. It can become very isolating and can lead to a lot of disconnection from other people. I discuss this topic more fully in the section ‘Personal Stories Of Brain Injured People’ where I met Takalah Tan in Singapore.
With the development of the Worldwide Web, we can easily be in contact with other survivors. The purpose of this Blog Site ….. the ‘BRAIN INJURY SURVIVOR NETWORK’ is about HOPE and RESTORATION.
Hope: that by following the fundamentals of the Sustainable Life, you will again be a valued member of the community again. Such a life has the ability to be continually and maintained everyday. From my personal belief and experience there three important components in recovering from a brain injury and maintaining an ongoing life. These are: Structure, Social Network and Spirituality.
The focus is: ' ..... Beyond Being a Brain Injury Survivor into Being a Brain Injury Thriver ....'
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Join this network now at this e-mail address: aitkken@gmail.com.
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My Personal Story ..... The Hidden Disability
The one thing we all have in common is a brain injury. We didn’t ask for it but it came into all our lives in a sudden way from many different causes. The result was a sudden change of life. Brain injury affects people in similar ways for anyone around the world. The purpose of this Blog Site is to share HOPE for restoration from a brain injury. It is my personal story and in sharing it with you with, I would like to encourage you in your own personal journey out of brain injury. I am more occupied with the effects of a brain injury thirteen years on from my accident. What do we do with life now, this side of our injury?
For me, I had a severe brain injury falling off a boogie-board in shallow water in the surf at Peregian Beach on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia in December 1995 .... as simple as that. This was over thirteen years ago where I was:
- In a coma for four weeks from early December 1995 to early January 1996. I felt like a three year old child in the first week after I woke up from the coma with no control over my actions
- In hospital for six months
- Had to learn to walk, talk, eat solid food all over again
- I had to learn everything over again .... how dress myself etc.
- Get my brain back together from a very scrambled state since December 1995
- I lost a lot of intuitive ability to feel what other people are saying ..... although that has come back now.
I am not the same man as before my accident. You always work from what you have and not from what you have lost. At the moment these are my continuing problems:
- I cannot drive thirteen years out from accident .... but I have learnt to drive on the Internet .... to go around the world in few minutes and see hundreds of people at the same time.
- My balance is still a bit out at the moment .... I have to be very careful walking over uneven ground or being on rocky ground
- I cannot ride a bicycle now ….. Used to ride for kilometres when I had one when I was younger. I now fall off a bicycle from a lack of balance
- I have to be careful in walking up narrow paths
- I have to come down backwards still on steep steps at home whilst holding onto the banister
- My mind was slowed right down …. It is hard to take initiative for one’s life and make clear decisions. The result of this for me, is that my wife Harriet had to learn to manage all the finances on a day to day basis as we ran a small landscape design and construction business up to then and I did most of that. That has finished now as the whole business revolved around my creative design talents
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The Context Of My Brain-injury: For twenty years, I ran a small Landscape Design and Construction Company doing very creative, individual designer gardens for wealthy residential clients around Brisbane. I was more an artistic sort of person, a lateral thinker ..... more artist than businessman. I thought of a landscape as would a sculptor in a solid medium, but I saw it as a three-dimensional piece of space which people walked through. This space changed with time as it grew and changed with the time of day: shadows vs. sun patterns, boulders, colour, plants, trees, earth-forms, solid structures and water. These were the ingredients in a subtle flow of landscape design and construction. Rather an intangible product to sell and run a business with!! Out of this stage I built a structure for my life:
- My marriage with Harriet (33 years now from 1975)
- Business and the house plus we had a family. See my personal experiences website: www.kenaitken.net. See the following posts as an overview of the house and garden:
That all changed overnight when I had a simple accident which resulted in severe consequences. This was over eleven years ago in December 1995. I went through a real transformation of life whereby:
TRANSFORMATION OF LIFE DIRECTION:
1. Physical Gardener (Outer Sustainability)2. Inner Life Gardener (Inner Sustainability)
1. Outer Sustainability:..... can certain practices be maintained ….. is what you doing now preparing the way ahead for a new garden which will growing successfully in twenty years time. I ran a small business in upmarket landscape design and construction for wealthy clients around Brisbane. It was called ‘New Earth Systems P/L’. It was a very difficult business in which to make a profit which depended on whether I had costed it properly. Each project was very non-standard and there was a seasonal nature of the work. Every project was a “one off”’. My former life was not sustainable ….. my creativity in my business couldn’t be standardised.
Since my accident, I have come to value people. I have developed a passion to build inner community with many people around the world especially by e-mail. As I am on a permanently paid holiday through my life-long Income Protection, I have time to spend with people in a way I never could do in my busy business.
2. Inner Sustainability: …. Can your life be maintained? ….. is what you doing now preparing the way ahead for new life? Inner sustainability flows from having a wholistic way of life where problems are dealt with by personal accountability. Inner determination then flows outwards.
I have also discovered the significance of the Inner and Outer Life. Sustainability I have come to see, has to be of Inner, Middle and Outer Persons. Problems come because things do not change from the Outside to Inside but from the Inside to the Outside.
Inner Life Gardens ..... Everyone of us has a private space in our lives that we carefully guard. I call it ‘The Garden of Life’. A garden is a personal space you can go out into and to enjoy the peace, the cool air, the shadows of trees, the sun shining with translucent light through tree leaves and palm fronds, the perfume of beautiful blossoms.
No one else comes there except yourself and your family and close friends. They are invited out there with you after you have let them into your house. Strangers who come are intruders and will be dwelt with by the police.
It is the same with relationships. You have enter someone’s inner life with their consent. You do this by understanding the persons inherent value and by listening intently to what they say. You are as it were gently knocking on the door of their inner house. If that person trusts you, they will then invite you into the inner garden of their life demonstrating that they accept the value you offer them. Then you can talk with them. They will open their door of their inner life at a later time if you knock. To keep that process going is a Sustainable Relationship. If I act suspiciously or try and crash the door with a sledge hammer, I will not be let in. That is what I call an Unsustainable Relationship.
Some Inner Life Gardens are very ordered whereas others are very weedy as people do not understand their value so anything goes. There are definite values and principles of life which really work. I say ‘Go through open doors, not closed doors …. Otherwise you will get a very sore forehead. …. Look not at closed doors of the past but look to find new doors of opportunity. That is why I have become an Inner Life Gardener (Inner Sustainability) to hundreds of people around the world to encourage them.
Even though I have had a severe brain injury … My story can be read on a downloaded PDF file from my second website New Earth Community. This is a global Christian Cyberspace Community. Download the file at: http://www.newearthcommunity.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/The_Recycled-Man-%E2%80%A6.pdf
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Top 50 Ways to Make Someones Monday
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Refuse to believe that life is only enjoyable on the weekend!
I need your help! Currently there are 44 for this “Top 50 list”, please add yours to the comment section. You’re awesome! The following list is about simple, painless ways to be a Daymaker for different people. Feel free to submit more in the comment section.
See the Blog Site: http://top50waystomakesomeonesmonday.blogspot.com/
Brain Injury Survivor Travels Around the World
..... To illustrate in Real Practical Ways that there
Severe Brain Injury After Fourteen Years ....
________________________The New Travel Blog For Ken and Harriet Aitken
Are You A Brain Injury Survivor or a Brain Injury Thriver?
I had a severe brain injury falling off a boogie-board in shallow water in the surf at Peregian Beach on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia in December 1995 .... as simple as that. This was over twelve years ago.
Even though I have had a severe brain injury … I have moved from seeing myself and others as brain injury survivors to seeing the possibility of being brain injury thrivers. The outworking of this life is told in my recent story ‘The Rosewater Story' at this Website.
I went through a real transformation of life whereby:
TRANSFORMATION OF LIFE DIRECTION: With my brain injury, I went from being:1.Outer Physical Gardener (Outer Sustainability) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>2. Inner Life Gardener (Inner Sustainability)1. Outer Sustainability: In a gardening and agriculture sense ….. can certain practices be maintained….. is what you doing now preparing the way ahead for new life? It was a very difficult business in which to make money, mainly due to the very non-standard and the seasonal nature of the work. My former life was not sustainable ….. my creativity in my business couldn’t be standardised vs. a successful business needs to be like a biscuit cutter …. Making a few $$ off large numbers of components.This side of the accident since I was hospital from 8th December 1996 to now, I have really discovered people in a big way. I have really come to value people, no matter who they are, what they do or say. I have developed a passion to build inner community with many people around the world especially by e-mail. As I am on a permanently paid holiday through my life-long Income Protection, I have time to spend with people in a way I never could do in my busy business.2. Inner Sustainability: In an ongoing personal sense …. Can your life be maintained to? ….. is what you doing now preparing the way ahead for new life? I have also discovered the significance of the Inner and Outer Life. Sustainability I have come to see, has to be a wholistic view on life of Inner, Middle and Outer Persons. Problems come because things do not change from the Outside to Inside but from the Inside to the Outside.
An International Perspective: With the freedom of life we have and having no mortgage on our five acres of land plus house we built from recycled materials in 1981 for minimal money, Harriet and I have been travelling overseas every two years to see the world. In between we have been seeing parts of Australia which is a very large country. We are also a member of Wyndham Vacation Resorts Asia Pacific and because they are linked with Interval International, we have available free accommodation in 3 star apartments around the world. These are free of cost.
I believe there are three kinds of people in the world. I compare these people to how they would look at trees in a forest. They are:1. There are those who see and count the physical trees in the forest .... all they see in the world is the physical things of life.2. There are who those who see, observe and work with the spaces inbetween the physical trees in the forest .... all they see in the world is the spiritual and abstract things of life.3. There are who those who count the physical trees in the forest but they also see, observe and work with the spaces inbetween the physical trees in the forest .... they see that you cannot have the spaces inbetween the physical trees without the actual trees .... they endeavour to live whole lives.Harriet and I are of the third kind of people. When we go travelling, we see and value the physical realities that we are seeing but also the culture behind what we are seeing. We have a great love of history eg. when we were in France in May 2007, we spent a week in Paris, we hired a car and drove throughout Brittany for a week then we drove down through the Loire Valley for another week. See two of the places we saw: Josselin and Perros Guirec.See my new Travel Blog at: http://travelblogkenandharriet.blogspot.com/
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Personal Stories Of Brain Injured People ..... No. 2
Peter Mulroy who lives on McLeay Island in Moreton Bay out from Brisbane, Australia as at 31.07.09
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He three brain surgeries and was permanently blind in one eye and confined to a wheelchair for seven months. He had been a former trainer with Skillshare for twelve years and a radio announcer. He had now lost his speech and swallowing was dangerous.
In September 2002, he began a course of recovery with the Brain Injury Service (BIS). He experienced the wonderful professional care of the staff of which he will be forever grateful.
After fourteen months he graduated from BIS just as graduated from his wheelchair and walking stick. Headstart came next. Headstart is a group in Newcastle who are linked together as a post recovery group of social activities and friendships. He was invited to join. Supportive staff drew him into social activities and many friendships. As part of Headstart, he wrote these articles below for the Newslink magazine ..... starting with his own story.
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See http://www.kenaitken.net/?page_id=2538
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