Mind Set Go

Decades ago, I watched someone who I was very close to, figuratively speaking, waterskiing on a lake in Massachusetts.  It wasn’t something this person had done recently, so I was really impressed that this person was not only able to ski quite well, but to slalom, as well.  As I watched the ski boat come closer to the shore, the person let go of the tow line with the intent to glide freely to the shore without power.  However, just as the skier approached friends hanging out in the water, the front of the ski ran over a rope that marked a swimming area for kids.  The rope was right at or just below the surface of the water yet not seen by the skier. 

I watched as the water skier’s feet stopped suddenly, while a perfectly healthy body was slammed forward, face first, in a rather violent manner.  I had a feeling this person might have sustained a spinal injury just like that.  You know: one minute fine; the next, changed forever.  Instead, within seconds that seemed like eternity, the person was upright, perhaps with a little more than ego injured… but fine otherwise.

Unbeknownst to me, I would have the opportunity the very next week to enroll into the Boy Scouts (BSA) Life Guard course.  As a 40 year-old female assistant Scout Master for a boy’s troop, I chose to take the opportunity to expand my horizons.  As the other adults dropped out of the course, it was just me and several 17-year-old boys/young men still pursuing the class while at summer camp.  When we learned how to approach and turn a face-down spinal cord injury victim, the event I had witnessed the week prior was front and center in my mind.  While that person had been fine and really only had an ego to repair, I realized that it could have been much worse, and I doubt any of us had the training at the lake to know how to respond. 

The World Health Organization estimates 250,000 to 500,000 spinal cord injuries occur per year worldwide.  While on an airplane many years ago, I watched a documentary entitled, “Any One of Us” in the TV section of entertainment offerings on the flight.   The documentary provided information of the journey of several people who had sustained serious spinal cord injuries.  From a mountain bike accident to diving into shallow water to a complication with an epidural during a second childbirth, these people described what it is like to undergo change following such an injury.  Tobias, who had dived into shallow water, described the change as a “metamorphosis.”  You see, in an instant, lives were changed.  They had hope.  They were healthy and able.  And in the next instant, their lives changed forever.

I remember in a social group for those with cancer, one woman describing how she did not know how “cancer” could have happened.  She did everything right.  She exercised, got good sleep and ate healthy foods.  Why, she wanted to know, had this happened to her?  Our lives are always changing, but often sudden, unexpected changes catch us by surprise.   

Tobias, in the documentary, “Any One of Us” described how teams of people worked to get him better, in as little time as possible.  But when all of that care ended, then what?  As he stated, “The bubble bursts.” 

When someone is injured or receives a life-changing diagnosis, it is not just the body that is affected, but the mind as well.  While none of us can necessarily predict what will happen, and when or where, what “mindset” can help us along on this journey?  What does it mean to be mentally prepared to know what to do to help in the case of an accident?  What does it mean to be mentally prepared when changes occur in the lives of strangers, our loved-ones or ourselves?  And, how can what we do now impact what we do or may become in the future?   How can what we do now impact the lives and health of others?

I have spent some time considering the motivation many Westerners have of practices like meditation.  Meditation and prayer can be a way of life—something incorporated as a practice; however, the resultant desired positive outcome, (while present and gaining credibility in the western world as science now documents positive outcomes through empirical studies,) is, rather, often the impetus and the goal for many to meditate.  However, it can be a way of life and not just a tool for a desired outcome.  While it is a practice thought to span back to 1500 BCE, our modern “takes” on ancient practices often are not acknowledged as legitimate in western thought until thousands of years later.

It is the same in other fields of science.  Andrew Weil, M.D., a Harvard Medical School graduate often considered to be the father of integrative medicine, and psychologist Daniel Goleman, often considered to be the father of emotional intelligence, both chose fields of study that only gained popularity relatively recently.  Since the 1990s much has changed about what is accepted and encouraged to be viable ways of approaching and engaging in life.

Life is precious, and there are ways to adapt a new way of living, one that honors life and changes not only your mindset, but your brain patterns.  Your body, mind and soul are integrated, a miraculous integrated entity that is much more powerful at incorporating healing and harnessing power much greater than you alone can probably conceive.  Calming your mind, giving your body time to heal, feeding it with organic, whole foods, moving and breathing deeply, praying and meditating—these are ways you can harness a life that is guided by goodness, leading to readiness and acceptance.  By practicing kindness and love, you will come to love and take care of yourself.  While you may have goals to be richer, handsomer, leaner and more fit, striving to be your best self is the best you can be.  And you deserve no less.

I will close with this:  

Less than two weeks ago, I was in the Houston airport about to board a plane for Guatemala.  I sensed a change of energy or something behind me that I feel really led me to look back, and when I turned, I noticed two very concerned parents looking down at their young, approximately 2-year old, daughter.  She was choking.  Her back was to me.  It was clear that they did not know what to do.  I immediately placed my phone and passport atop my suitcase, alerting my spouse that I was doing so, then proceeded to perform the Heimlich maneuver on the child.  I will never forget what it felt like to place my left hand on her back and my right fist, pumping upwards.  It was as if her body responded to the three upward thrusts.  A chunk of Popeye’s chicken came out into her worried mother’s hand.  It all happened in what felt like slow-motion.  I remember thinking, “Surly, there are more qualified people than me to do this,” and I remembered immediately the training I had had in the past.  I thought about her age and the best method to use.  Something told me that I would act, and that I would do my best. 

This was quite different than an opportunity I had a few years ago.  A young child was being viciously attacked by a dog.  I had a hard time removing the violent dog from the girl’s head and upper torso, and so when I separated them a little bit, I placed my leg between them.  I, too, was bitten, but the dog stopped attacking at that point.  While I just needed time to heal and a course of antibiotics, the girl spent 4 days in the hospital and required surgery to place medicated gauze in the wound that had become infected and to heal. 

You don’t know how you will react in any given situation; however, programs available like I have taken at the Red Cross and Boy Scouts of America, (now Scouting America) can help you to know what to do in certain situations.  Even if you are not current in certifications, much of what you may have already learned, even if years ago, can come to the foreground given a medical emergency.  Additionally, it is through meditation that you can have a mindset in which you remain calm, and perhaps even have a greater awareness of the energy around you. 

And, no one… no one can be better qualified than you to act.  Act now.  Today is your day.  Your day to train, to practice, to heal and be open to the goodness this world holds for you… with all it’s glorious, and perhaps not so seemingly glorious, change and all.