I was sitting out on my deck this morning enjoying the beautiful sunshine and I had this sense of appreciation come over me for all the people who visit my blog.
It means a lot to me knowing I can share some of what has helped me through the worst of my “anxious” years with others. It means a lot to read your comments and how it has helped you.
So… thank-you to everyone.
While thinking of my gratitude I decided I wanted to share a personal story on just how powerful “gratitude” has been in my life in helping me deal with fear, stress and anxiety and in maintaining a healthy perspective on life.
On June 11, 2006 one hour before my son’s 8th birthday party I had just finished getting everything ready for his 20 friends to arrive and was going to have a quick shower when something occurred that completely changed my life.
My son and an out of town friend of his were on the trampoline waiting for the party so I decided to jump with them a bit before having a shower.
As I was attempting my patented “run and jump and flip onto the trampoline” move, I slipped and fell head first into the ground and broke my neck.
The ambulance arrived within 5 minutes and I was off to the hospital.
After several X-rays, an MRI and a Cat scan the neuro surgeon arrived with the news.
He informed me that I had severely broken my neck and considering I was showing no signs of paralysis told me I was the “luckiest man in the hospital”.
He went on to tell me I should have been dead or at least a quadriplegic.
Although I was experiencing the worst pain imaginable and despite the uncertainty of the future and how I would care for my family during my year long recovery I was completely overwhelmed with gratitude.
There’s a song by “Three Days Grace” called “Pain” and one line in the song says “I’d rather feel pain than nothing at all…”
I couldn’t get this song out of my head.
I was so thankful for the intense pain and discomfort because I knew that if I didn’t feel it then I would be paralyzed… it was a weird but beautiful time in my life.
During the entire time in the hospital and even for months after I returned home I would on a daily basis cry tears of joy, excitement, gratitude and appreciation.
I was grateful to God, I was grateful for life, I was grateful for all our friends and extended family who were pitching in to help us through this difficult time.
A couple months following the accident I was talking to a close friend about the event and they said something about “if I could do it all over” and without hesitation I replied that I would not take it back, I would not do it any different.
Although that time was the scariest, most painful and difficult time of my life I would not take it back because of what it did to my heart… to my outlook on life… my view of friends and family… my ability to see the “good” in the midst of something so seemingly “bad”.
Since then I still on a daily basis make a point of looking for… finding… and being grateful for all the beauty life has to offer me.
Even in the midst of hard, painful and difficult times there is always beauty surrounding you… you just have to look for it… there is always something to be thankful for… you just need to be aware of it.
When your heart is full of gratitude it can’t be filled with fear and anxiety at the same time…
Tags: anxiety, anxiety attack, anxiety disorder, anxiety treatment, anxious, best, cure, ease, fear, fear and anxiety, free, freedom, help, inner peace, know, natural, overcome, panic attack, relief, relieve, remedy, stress, treatment, truth, worry
August 1, 2008 at 12:17 am |
This is really amazing. It never ceases to amaze me how some of the most painful experiences in life can end up being some of the best ones.
Sierra