What about those paralympians, eh! The issue of accepting one’s limitations was the discussion I had with some friends on the weekend. After we marveled at the ‘triumph over tragedy’ successes of the athletes, we all acknowledged how humbled we were by the clear lessons that these superb athletes demonstrated – acceptance, motivation and focused determination.
These paralympians got on with their lives. The heart warming stories that we read about revealed the emotional and physical challenges that these athletes had to overcome to simply function and then to succeed beyond our imagination, not so much theirs. They believed.
Many of these paralympians moved forward in their lives because of the groundbreaking & dedicated performances of Terry Fox and Rick Hansen. Thanks to the media images, my friends and I well-remembered those times of 20 and 30 years ago.
As we chatted in the restaurant with the TV audio on mute and the athletic celebrations visually highlighted, our discussion turned to why it is easy for some to move forward in the face of adversity and yet very hard for others. I mentioned that ‘Getting on with it’ in life first begins with processing one’s own emotions ( i.e. anxiety, anger, depression).
If we are held captive by these negative emotions, we will never move forward, we will actually fall further into the depths of despair. It is important to acknowledge our emotions, grieve for what we cannot have and then accept where we are in terms of our whole life. For instance, anger if channeled positively can be a great motivator.
Once we are able to acknowledge and accept where we are and how we feel then we can ‘get on with it’ in new and exciting directions. My friends and I said our goodbyes and promised that we would find time to think about what we, individually, needed to do to activate something new in our lives this spring.
