LOVEYOURBRAIN: March Is Brain Injury Awareness Month!
By Kelly Krishna Dunn
LOVEYOURBRAIN is the above and beyond campaign born from the documentary, The Crash Reel and pro-snowboarder Kevin Pearce’s inspiring story. The fundraiser includes a variety of different initiatives, including infographics on what to do if you hit your head, a resource guide to help those with a brain injury, a share-your-story forum, a helmet pledge and discounts for snowboarders and skiers who wear a helmet at participating mountain resorts, and so much more. Because of the nature of snowboarding the sport that Kevin Pearce is involved in, where riders frequently wear cameras to capture their own acrobatic flips, spins, snowboarding tricks and those of their friends, that there was no shortage of footage from the moments before and after Kevin's accident.
The Crash Reel directed by Oscar® nominated filmmaker Lucy Walker evokes the thrills fans crave from watching extreme sports -from live footage of the high-energy sport snowboarding and the epic rise of snowboarder Kevin Pearce. Until the moment, which arrives without a heads up, when Pearce comes down into the half-pipe after a high-flying aerial trick, catching the edge of his board on the half-pipe wall. In a split-second, he's slammed face-first into the hardened ice and snow. As an unconscious Pearce is airlifted off the ski mountain and his friends sit in a state of shock at what they've just witnessed.
This life-changing crash happens while training for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and the snowboarding accident had very different implications for Pearce on one hand and his family on the other. But the intense emotional pain experienced by his family as they sit at his bedside while he's blacked out, as they help him through long hours, weeks, months of recovery and eventually years of rehabilitation.
The personal story here is revealed so sensitively and intimately, with challenging moments between Pearce and his family and his doctors shown with an uncomfortable honesty, that it's easy to forget that The Crash Reel is also a big-picture documentary about the larger issue of these kinds of injuries in sports.
Now, Kevin is definitely not the same as he was before the accident, but neither is he the same man he was immediately after it, or a year after it. The way traumatic brain injuries-wounds recover can seemingly be invisible, leaving the individual no choice but to be a different person. Gaining the humility to accept restrictions is no easy task for anyone, but it must be especially for an athlete of Pearce's potential talents. Watching him do so demonstrates that his gifts and talents run far richer and deeper than those it takes to perform a double cork in a half-pipe.
Inspiring greater peace, acceptance, and happiness for people affected by brain injury, meditation is one powerful way to help transform clutter into inner calm and misery into joy. Meditation offers a variety of paths so that everyone can find a practice that works for them. LOVEYOURBRAIN collaborates with brain injury survivors, yogis, and meditation teachers to share meditation practices suggested for healing.
For more information on the largest global yoga fundraising initiative during Brain Injury Awareness Month click here>>>
To watch the documentary of one unforgettable athlete, Kevin Pearce; turning pain into purpose watch The Crash Reel and to learn more about Kevin Pearce visit kevinpearce.com. To learn more about LOVEYOURBRAIN visit loveyourbrain.com.
