I would like each of you to consider how
would your sense of self be impacted if
you lost the ability to move your body
reflect on that for a moment it can
happen to any of us at almost any time a
car accident a fall down stairs just a
trip in an awkward landing your neck is
broken your spinal cord is damaged and
you’ve lose the ability to consciously
control the muscles in your body think
of who you are
think of the roles that you play in life
think of the passions that drive you as
a psychologist working in a post
hospital rehabilitation facility for
individuals who’ve had spinal cord
injuries I’ve seen the process that
people go through in adapting and
should you completely damage your
cervical spinal cord injury you will
lose motor and sensory function in the
lower half of your body and depending on
the level of injury you have may have
minimal to no functioning in your hands
and arms now you’re shown this range of
technological innovations that exist
that can allow you greater independence
in mobility in environmental control but
these things can’t turn back the clock
and you still have to adapt to the
changes they can’t be fixed these are
the realities that individuals who’ve
sustained these types of injuries
experience and people react very
differently to this situation everything
from completely shutting down and
withdrawing to fully engaging in all of
the changes that are necessary to leave
a meaningful and purposeful life what is
it inside you that makes one of those
choices more likely than the other with
the same situation the same physical
effects of injury what is it that
differentiates a person who completely
gives up from someone who digs in and
fights that much harder this is an
extreme illustration of the fact that we
don’t just react to situations we react
to a combination of
the world around us and our own internal
thought processes we add our own unique
spin to that information and then we
make predictions about the future and
then we react as if that is a done deal
this is an automatic process it’s
largely subconscious in nature and it’s
built on our life experiences and our
unique learning history that process
allows us to then make predictions about
the future but when you add to that our
tendency to look for danger signals to
have a negative interpretation then we
react to that imagined or predicted
future as if it is our here and now
reality to me this is the more important
part because how an individual responds
in any given situation is dependent in
part on the situation but even more so
on the internal reactions and
expectations that that person
demonstrates in situations like I’ve
described your ability to demonstrate
resilience your ability to bounce back
or to react to change in a positive way
it’s something that we call
post-traumatic growth it’s your ability
to endure a catastrophic situation but
maintain your sense of self and as I’ve
seen in working with individuals going
through this process whether or not a
person even interprets their situation
as catastrophic is more dependent upon
the person then upon this situation in
some people in going through a
significant life-changing injury they
emerge from that with a greater sense of
self they demonstrate that
post-traumatic growth that improved and
stronger sense of self and confidence
let’s face it we are all going to face
obstacles some minor some major if
everything in your life is going really
really well a minor inconvenience like a
flat tire or spilling a cup of coffee
can be a horrible terrible tragedy now
when you compare that to what I think
most of us would say is truly a
catastrophic situation loss of motor
function is a result of an permanent
injury and I’m not making light of what
people
variance and going through this process
I’m simply saying that well how you
react in a given situation depends much
more on what you have in here than
what’s going on in the world around you
now that being the case how can we start
to change what’s in here to let us be
better able to deal with adversity in
the situations that we will encounter
well the first thing is simply to be
aware of the fact that you’ve got these
filters through which you automatically
process information so evaluate yourself
what is your tendency to react to
information as a positive or a negative
how do you determine whether something
is good or bad and then what leaps of
logic do you put on top of that
information what predictions about your
future do you make and then react to is
if that reality is your here and now
existence I’ve got a news flash for
everybody you are not your thoughts as a
concept that’s both disturbing but also
liberating
it’s disturbing because if you are not
your thoughts then who are you
where does your sense of you reside it
is liberating though in that it allows
you to independently be aware of your
thoughts you and your sense of self are
such that you can be aware of the fact
that you are having a thought when that
thought occurs that gives you the
ability in that moment to decide how you
want to react to that thought you don’t
control the fact that that thought
occurs you only get to control how you
react to it that gives you an amazing
amount of power because it allows you to
disengage from things that are not
happening here and now it allows you to
consciously decide whether a given
thought makes your day better or worse
and whether you want to join with that
thought or not you can also influence
the filters through which you process
information you can actually teach
yourself to be more aware of and
recognize the positives when they occur
celebrating things little and big that
make us feel better about ourselves or
make us feel more a comp
through the process we call
neuroplasticity your brain gets better
at what you practice the more you do
something the more automatic that
becomes there’s actually a physiological
change within the brain where pathways
are developed and strengthened as you
practice so how do you practice
something like being positive or even
looking for the positive well one way is
set aside a little bit of time a minute
I’ll take 30 seconds if you’ll give it
to me every night before you go to bed
and just reflect on your day think about
things that happen today that you enjoy
that made you happy maybe not even
things that were fun but that gave you a
sense of accomplishment look into your
future look at tomorrow look at the next
week look at things that you’re looking
forward to things that you’re
anticipating with a sense of pleasure as
you practice that skill of looking for
the positive you are actually
physiologically developing and
strengthening pathways that make that a
more automatic process you become more
easily able to see and recognize the
positives that do exist you’re
practicing a habit of being positive it
is amazing that we live in such a
dynamic and ever-changing world and yet
somehow we seem to think that we’re
always going to be the same the person
that we are now is who we’re always
going to be you’ve changed throughout
your entire life sometimes a little
sometimes a lot and sometimes in
response to experiences that can’t be
taken back and that you can’t fix and in
those cases you have to adapt how you
interpret a given change has a lot to do
with how long that adaptation is going
to take and just as you have changed
throughout your life you will continue
to change but you get to consciously
decide and choose whether change is to
be avoided and feared are accepted and
even embraced remember that you wouldn’t
be the person that you are right now if
you hadn’t experienced the unique
changes and challenges that you’ve had
throughout your life I’m going to leave
you with a final example of
post-traumatic growth and looking for
the positives in a situation Rachel
Johnson is
woman who sustained a spinal cord injury
as a result of a car accident and
although she will be the first to tell
you she experienced her own emotional
struggles through this process she
recently stated in an interview and I’m
gonna read this from a card because I
want to make sure I get her words right
if I could walk again or use my hands
again that would be the best gift in the
world but if I could go back to that day
and change what happened I absolutely
would not I never would and that’s
because I’ve gained so much from it I
lost so much physically but mentally
emotionally spiritually even I have
gained more than even I can put into
words and the experiences that I’ve had
now and the beautiful people that have
come into my life and the opportunities
that have been created because of what
happened that’s something I wouldn’t
change for the world Rachael graduated
from college within the last year and
this amazing young woman works with us
at QLI as a mentor for individuals going
through their own adaptation and change
after spinal cord injury her ability to
decide how to adapt and interpret her
life experiences it’s a living example
of the choice that we all have in
response to the experiences that we will
have you do not control the world most
of us can admit that occasionally right
but the truth is you don’t really even
control your own thoughts you do get to
control and decide how you react to
those thoughts when they occur and that
can make a world of difference in how
you react to the changes minor or
catastrophic that you will experience
Rachael thank you for allowing me to use
your story and to everyone thank you you
would your sense of self be impacted if
you lost the ability to move your body
reflect on that for a moment it can
happen to any of us at almost any time a
car accident a fall down stairs just a
trip in an awkward landing your neck is
broken your spinal cord is damaged and
you’ve lose the ability to consciously
control the muscles in your body think
of who you are
think of the roles that you play in life
think of the passions that drive you as
a psychologist working in a post
hospital rehabilitation facility for
individuals who’ve had spinal cord
injuries I’ve seen the process that
people go through in adapting and
should you completely damage your
cervical spinal cord injury you will
lose motor and sensory function in the
lower half of your body and depending on
the level of injury you have may have
minimal to no functioning in your hands
and arms now you’re shown this range of
technological innovations that exist
that can allow you greater independence
in mobility in environmental control but
these things can’t turn back the clock
and you still have to adapt to the
changes they can’t be fixed these are
the realities that individuals who’ve
sustained these types of injuries
experience and people react very
differently to this situation everything
from completely shutting down and
withdrawing to fully engaging in all of
the changes that are necessary to leave
a meaningful and purposeful life what is
it inside you that makes one of those
choices more likely than the other with
the same situation the same physical
effects of injury what is it that
differentiates a person who completely
gives up from someone who digs in and
fights that much harder this is an
extreme illustration of the fact that we
don’t just react to situations we react
to a combination of
the world around us and our own internal
thought processes we add our own unique
spin to that information and then we
make predictions about the future and
then we react as if that is a done deal
this is an automatic process it’s
largely subconscious in nature and it’s
built on our life experiences and our
unique learning history that process
allows us to then make predictions about
the future but when you add to that our
tendency to look for danger signals to
have a negative interpretation then we
react to that imagined or predicted
future as if it is our here and now
reality to me this is the more important
part because how an individual responds
in any given situation is dependent in
part on the situation but even more so
on the internal reactions and
expectations that that person
demonstrates in situations like I’ve
described your ability to demonstrate
resilience your ability to bounce back
or to react to change in a positive way
it’s something that we call
post-traumatic growth it’s your ability
to endure a catastrophic situation but
maintain your sense of self and as I’ve
seen in working with individuals going
through this process whether or not a
person even interprets their situation
as catastrophic is more dependent upon
the person then upon this situation in
some people in going through a
significant life-changing injury they
emerge from that with a greater sense of
self they demonstrate that
post-traumatic growth that improved and
stronger sense of self and confidence
let’s face it we are all going to face
obstacles some minor some major if
everything in your life is going really
really well a minor inconvenience like a
flat tire or spilling a cup of coffee
can be a horrible terrible tragedy now
when you compare that to what I think
most of us would say is truly a
catastrophic situation loss of motor
function is a result of an permanent
injury and I’m not making light of what
people
variance and going through this process
I’m simply saying that well how you
react in a given situation depends much
more on what you have in here than
what’s going on in the world around you
now that being the case how can we start
to change what’s in here to let us be
better able to deal with adversity in
the situations that we will encounter
well the first thing is simply to be
aware of the fact that you’ve got these
filters through which you automatically
process information so evaluate yourself
what is your tendency to react to
information as a positive or a negative
how do you determine whether something
is good or bad and then what leaps of
logic do you put on top of that
information what predictions about your
future do you make and then react to is
if that reality is your here and now
existence I’ve got a news flash for
everybody you are not your thoughts as a
concept that’s both disturbing but also
liberating
it’s disturbing because if you are not
your thoughts then who are you
where does your sense of you reside it
is liberating though in that it allows
you to independently be aware of your
thoughts you and your sense of self are
such that you can be aware of the fact
that you are having a thought when that
thought occurs that gives you the
ability in that moment to decide how you
want to react to that thought you don’t
control the fact that that thought
occurs you only get to control how you
react to it that gives you an amazing
amount of power because it allows you to
disengage from things that are not
happening here and now it allows you to
consciously decide whether a given
thought makes your day better or worse
and whether you want to join with that
thought or not you can also influence
the filters through which you process
information you can actually teach
yourself to be more aware of and
recognize the positives when they occur
celebrating things little and big that
make us feel better about ourselves or
make us feel more a comp
through the process we call
neuroplasticity your brain gets better
at what you practice the more you do
something the more automatic that
becomes there’s actually a physiological
change within the brain where pathways
are developed and strengthened as you
practice so how do you practice
something like being positive or even
looking for the positive well one way is
set aside a little bit of time a minute
I’ll take 30 seconds if you’ll give it
to me every night before you go to bed
and just reflect on your day think about
things that happen today that you enjoy
that made you happy maybe not even
things that were fun but that gave you a
sense of accomplishment look into your
future look at tomorrow look at the next
week look at things that you’re looking
forward to things that you’re
anticipating with a sense of pleasure as
you practice that skill of looking for
the positive you are actually
physiologically developing and
strengthening pathways that make that a
more automatic process you become more
easily able to see and recognize the
positives that do exist you’re
practicing a habit of being positive it
is amazing that we live in such a
dynamic and ever-changing world and yet
somehow we seem to think that we’re
always going to be the same the person
that we are now is who we’re always
going to be you’ve changed throughout
your entire life sometimes a little
sometimes a lot and sometimes in
response to experiences that can’t be
taken back and that you can’t fix and in
those cases you have to adapt how you
interpret a given change has a lot to do
with how long that adaptation is going
to take and just as you have changed
throughout your life you will continue
to change but you get to consciously
decide and choose whether change is to
be avoided and feared are accepted and
even embraced remember that you wouldn’t
be the person that you are right now if
you hadn’t experienced the unique
changes and challenges that you’ve had
throughout your life I’m going to leave
you with a final example of
post-traumatic growth and looking for
the positives in a situation Rachel
Johnson is
woman who sustained a spinal cord injury
as a result of a car accident and
although she will be the first to tell
you she experienced her own emotional
struggles through this process she
recently stated in an interview and I’m
gonna read this from a card because I
want to make sure I get her words right
if I could walk again or use my hands
again that would be the best gift in the
world but if I could go back to that day
and change what happened I absolutely
would not I never would and that’s
because I’ve gained so much from it I
lost so much physically but mentally
emotionally spiritually even I have
gained more than even I can put into
words and the experiences that I’ve had
now and the beautiful people that have
come into my life and the opportunities
that have been created because of what
happened that’s something I wouldn’t
change for the world Rachael graduated
from college within the last year and
this amazing young woman works with us
at QLI as a mentor for individuals going
through their own adaptation and change
after spinal cord injury her ability to
decide how to adapt and interpret her
life experiences it’s a living example
of the choice that we all have in
response to the experiences that we will
have you do not control the world most
of us can admit that occasionally right
but the truth is you don’t really even
control your own thoughts you do get to
control and decide how you react to
those thoughts when they occur and that
can make a world of difference in how
you react to the changes minor or
catastrophic that you will experience
Rachael thank you for allowing me to use
your story and to everyone thank you you
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