Thanksgiving and Gratitude

Thanksgiving, in the United States, we are taught, commemorates a harsh winter in the New England colony, when the colonists food ran out and the Native American tribes shared theirs, saving the colony from starvation.

Today, it is a day we reflect on everything we should be thankful for.

I believe being thankful and grateful is beneficial to one's health.  Given the spinal cord injury i suffered two years ago, I am grateful and thankful to have recovered as much as I have.  I am also grateful and thankful for all the support I have received.

Happy Thanksgiving.  I will be taking a few days off from blogging until after this holiday, so this will probably the last post until early December.

Be Happy Be Healthy

We have all heard of stories of studies which link happiness to health.

Here is another one.  A Bad marriage Can Break Your Heart

According to this study, women who are unhappy in marriages have a higher risk for cardiovascular disease than those who are happily married.  In this study, the risk for men did not increase.  However, I believe their have been other studies that show happy marriages benefit the health of both partners.

Slow Improvements in Recovery Could be an Illusion

When people are diagnosed with an injury to the spinal cord, often they are told, "within such and such a time..."  And much of the references one finds on the internet will say, "such and such a time..."

Many people, including health professionals assume that after two years, your level of recovery is pretty much set.  While this may be somewhat true, it is sort of misleading.

For people who have recovered a lot, there is less amount to be recovered, so it seems we are recovering less. But the field is shortened, so relatively, we are probably seeing the same amount of recovery, whether two months or two years.  Using football as an example, if the opposing goal line represents full recovery, and spinal cord injury occurs at your own goal line, you have 100 yards of recovery.  You gain 90 yards. Relatively, you've recovered 90%.  Now you are at the opposing team's 10 yard line.  You gain 9 yards.  If you are at the beginning of recovery, 9 yards would represent a 9% recovery.  But since your playing field is now 10 yards long, that 9 yards represent a 90% recovery from your current position.

So, in absolute terms, it might not seem you are recovering as fast as before, but relatively speaking, you are probably recovering just as fast as before - it just doesn't seem like it because you've shortened the playing field.

Is Thinking Positive Enough?

I was reading a critique about Tony Robbins, in which the reviewer stated that one of the flaws of all the self-help gurus out there is they promote an idea that positive thinking will overcome obstacles.

Those who know me know that I am a proponent of positive thinking, and have been a reader, viewer and listener of Tony Robbins for many years.  Whether it is Tony Robbins, or other motivational speakers, this part of the message almost always seems to get misunderstood.

Regardless of how this statement is presented, positive thinking alone does not get you what you want.  And most motivational speakers make this clear.

But this is an important aspect of self-help. Why? Because it is motivational.  It is sort of like the ignition to get started on the road to success. Success is achieved not by thinking, but by action.  However, if you think about a positive outcome, you will more likely act upon your thoughts, and those actions will be more diligent because you will care more about the result.

So, today's post is a shout out to all those motivational speakers out there who motivate us and get us to do things for ourselves instead of just daydreaming.

Customer Reviews on Amazon UK

I meant to do this post a couple of weeks ago, but had trouble posting due to the computer I was using at that time.

This morning, I woke up to find I had a second customer review on Amazon UK.

As a author, I really really appreciate customer reviews (especially if they approve of the book).

That said, a shout out to ML. H and Golden J.  Thank you very much for your kind reviews.

Read the reviews at Amazon UK

Duke of Cambridge and Prince Harry Host Reception for Veteran's Care

This news is about two weeks old, but Prince William and Prince Harry hosted a reception to pay tribute to those who participate in the care and rehabilitation of Bristish veterans of recent conflicts.

 I damaged my spinal cord just by a freak coincidence of basically catching a cold and having that virus hit the spinal cord. Service members of all nations risk their lives in carrying out the duties thier nation's governments asks of them.  As opposed to me, they placed their bodies in a situation which sustaining a spinal cord injury is very much a possibility.

This blogpost is a Shout Out to the Royal Hignesses and to Queen Elizabeth, who made a suprise appearance.

Here is the link to the story from the Royal's website. Armed Services Rehabilitation

Running, the perfect participation sport

I really hadn't heard of the Paralympics until August 2012, right after I was discharged from the hospital and Oscar Pistorius was in the headlines. Of course, Pistorius was in the headlines before that during the Olympics Games, but I wasn't paying attention tot he Olympics while in the hospital.

The Paralympics  parallels the Olympic Games and is for those who have sustained disabilities.  Although, not called the Paralympics at that time, it was started for a group of British WWII veterans who had suffered spinal cord injuries.

I started thinking about this because and also about sports for people in the position I am, really no longer disabled, but not really fully-abled either.

There are many sports that are for both wheel-chair participants and fully abled-bodied persons.  Basketball comes to mind.  There is wheel-chair basketball, and regular able bodied basketball.
I really wouldn't be able to participate in either.  I am no longer a paraplegic, so I wouldn't qualify for that type of league, and given my "recovered, but not at pre-injury level" I really couldn't participate in a neighborhood pick-up game.  The best I could do is to play a stationary version of H-O-R-S-E.

Tennis would present me with the same issues.  I can't play wheelchair tennis, but there is no way I could compete with fully able bodied players.

That's where running comes in.  Races are open to all levels of ability: those in wheelchairs, albeit these racers use tricked out wheelchairs for racing, the fully able bodied, and those who are like me, fully recovered, but not fully able bodied.  And I wouldn't be competing directly with others, it would be with myself - competition with others would only be in finish placement, but it's not a matter of going against one another and having one winner and one loser.

Originally I had wanted to run a 10K as a way of objectively proving to myself that I have come back from my injury, but it really is the perfect sport because people of all levels can participate at the same event at the same time.  Because of this, more so than most other sports, it is a sport of inclusion.

Featured on Transverse Myelitis Association Blog

I submitted a guest blog post to the Transverse Myelitis Blog and they published it yesterday. Hooray!  I am very grateful they allowed me to share my story.

Here is the link:  My story

Kaizen

I have written about this before, and just did a guest blogpost about it, but Kaizen is a really good term.

Kaizen is a Japanese term that loosely means "continuous improvement over time."  In practice it means that small changes over time leads to big improvement.

For me, it was the realization that my recovery wasn't spontaneous.  It was a gradual process, even in the beginning, when the improvements seemed to be great.  Also, it was a process that was augmented by hard physical work.  It's not that I woke one day was able to breathe strong enoughto be taken off the respirator - well, yes, but each day I worked on my lungs and then the lungs were tested each day to see if I was well enough to breathe independently.

The same for walking and standing.  First my toes moved, then my legs, then I slowly gained strength, enough for me to stand with assistance, then to walk a few steps with assistance, then graduated to a walker, then to crutches, then to a cane.

Doctors and other healthcare professionals sometimes put benchmarks on improvements, but I think as long as you work to improve incrementally, you will experience big changes as a result of all the small improvements.

Stay Gold

This is a condensed version of a guest blogpost I wrote.

In the novel, The Outsiders, by S.E. Hinton, the character Johnny tells Ponyboy to "Stay Gold."

It is based on Robert Frost's poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay."

There are several interpretations of the way the novel uses the line, as well as the meaning of the poem.

I have been using this term a lot lately, since the last time I saw the movie a few months ago.  I've felt like re-reading the book for the past couple of months.

When I tell a person to stay gold.  I mean it a little differently than the novel or the poem.  To me, Stay gold means to stay strong; stay positive.  Gold medals are awarded to champions. To stay gold means to stay a champion.