Those are two great ideas, Jessica, particularly the meditation. The Center for Head Injuries uses MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction), developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn, in its program for TBI and other brain-injured clients. I just completed the course with one of their neuropsychologists, who offers it at a much-reduced cost to patients with balky insurance companies. The studies demonstrate (using MRIs) positive brain changes in MBSR practitioners, which defines it as a medical treatment. The course I took cost $300 vs. $2600 for the hospital-based course, because my insurance insisted on paying it as "behavioral" and the hospital will only bill it as "medical." One hopes this will not be such a fight in the future.
A very good free MBSR course is available online. I plan to update the chemobrain thread with this information, including a link to my Dropbox folder where I have downloaded all the audio and video files, and created a single indexed PDF of the manual (which needs some formatting tweaks, which is why I haven't posted it yet), but in the meantime, here's a link to the site:
Palouse Mindfulness
John Kabat-Zinn offers his tapes at the
Sounds True store, where Pema Chödrön's offerings are also available. I find his voice and timing and choice of words really annoying, so I use the Palouse materials as well the audio and video from
UC San Diego Health System, which offers yoga instruction by Lynn Rossy. She's far more pleasant to my ear, but not everyone finds Kabat-Zinn as unattractive as I do.
The difference between the two programs is that MBSR is secularity. I have always been attracted to Buddhism, and I plan to branch out in my meditation practice, but for those who prefer an approach that is simple to learn, as well as medically documented, MBSR is a good choice.
Edited to add:
I just listed to a sample tape, and Pema Chödrön's voice and manner is also far more appealing that Jon Kabat-Zinn's.