To help my memory I kept reading short sentences in books until I was capable of memorizing and quoting them. This took a long time but it was well worth doing. I did likewise with favorite poetry. In turn, I was actually stimulating my dormant brain neurons (which we all have) through repetition and frequency.

I also made myself recall what I had for dinner the previous night, or some event that I had attended the previous day or evening. I did so for further brain cell stimulation. I also wrote down events and reminders every day in a notebook and kept a board on the kitchen wall with reminders about everyday things that needed to be done. To this day, I have reminder notes all over my office!

I wrote down important phone numbers as well as my address in my Journal and took it with me in case I got lost. I learned to do this the hard way, having previously been lost several times.

When too many thoughts frequented my mind, (which is quite common after brain-injury,) I silently chanted the affirmation 'Aum Mani Padme Hum,' I kept repeating the affirmation until the thoughts stopped. This also helped me for meditation purposes.

'A quitter never wins; a winner never quits' as well as 'Accept the challenge; refuse to fail' became very important affirmations. Repeating these words truly helped me to keep on with my fight for survival!  Even today, because of problems with regards to 'recent recall', in order to find my car when I am shopping at malls, I memorize the name of a shop or some landmark where I entered and exited. I have learned that avoiding anything that causes stress is a must for brain injured survivors.

When cooking meals and having to leave the kitchen to either go out to the garden or another room, I continue my former habits such as turning on the oven timer or setting the alarm clock. This I learned 'the hard way' too, as many saucepans caught fire in the early days of my recovery! (I wrote about this in my book.)  Still to this day, I check every room in the house before leaving it.

It is also advisable for head injured people to not take on more than one project at a time. I had to learn this 'the hard way' as well! I pace myself at all times and get plenty of sleep. Meditation is a must for everyone, let alone the head and brain-injured. It is not easy to blank out all thoughts and it takes time to develop this. Through time however, it works wonders.

 It is important to focus on having positive thoughts. I know that this is not the easiest thing to do when "the odds" seem against us; it is well worth the effort. It is also important to avoid drinking a lot of alcohol and to get out into the fresh air and breathe it in deeply as much as possible. Don't forget that it the lack of oxygen that injures and destroys brain neurons.

After the first few years of recovery, spanning 16 years in all, I read hundreds of books in order to exercise my brain. This led to my researching 'Theology' and it's counterpart, 'Theurgy.' While I studied, I was unknowingly stimulating my brain's dormant neurons so that they took over for the cells that were injured. Such an intensive study led to my present work, a dissertation entitled, JEWELS IN THE MUD: My Search for Spiritual Enlightenment.