Today’s blog is dedicated to people who gave me exactly what I needed to keep going, when MS had me beaten. I met and became friends with people with MS who live amazing lives, I definitely did not know that was an option. Thanks to them, I say the following: though MS can leave us emotionally bereft, it can also catapult us to a more powerful life.
Today’s blog is about choosing Power MS.
My premise is based on a physical reality that we all know: there is not one bit of muscle growth that happens without working against a force that insists that we either push back or else lay back and give up.
For example, when weights are placed in our hands we can use them to become stronger or we can lie back and do nothing. A weight placed on us can help us become stronger but it doesn’t have to. We can avoid pushing against it if we wish. We have those two choices when we lay back and a bar weight is placed in our hands:
- Let the weight force us to the ground OR
- Do our best to push the weight up. If we do this enough times, what results is noticeable muscle strength and toned muscles.)
I have grown to think about MS as that weight that got shoved into our lives. We have two choices, to lay back and give up, or choose to oppose the weight, let strength emerge.
We ultimately have a choice when we get dealt a diagnosis—lie back submissively or develop power. We CAN develop inner power. Here are possible spirit response to MS.
We can push back, and we may discover developed ‘muscle’—emotional strengths—that never had been developed before.
We may not find that strength. We may back and get overwhelmed by what comes at us.
We don’t always have it in us to push back. At times laying back is the wise thing…not so that we can stay down, but so that we can rest, recuperate, stand up another day.
Life always presents us with the opportunity to develop muscle. Our spirit muscles get flaccid at times, but at other times we may discover muscles that we never had developed before.
In those weakened times, it helps to know that there are other options.
We can learn new techniques to meeting obstacles in our lives, to meeting our MS. I call this Power MS, and I learned it from someone who told me about Jimmy Huega’s seminars.
For me Jimmy Huega set the standard for Power MS.
When he was diagnosed with MS he transferred the inner strength he had developed that got him on the US Men’s Skiing Olympic Team. He used that inner strength to meet his MS head on.
He taught two things. He had two messages. They are simple and powerful—follow your passion and push to the limit.
Follow your passion. If you don’t know what your passion is, follow streams of inspiration, and give these ideas all you have. It is a two step process: follow your inspiration and then give it all you have.
Here is how Huega taught it: give Everything your best effort, always include needed breaks, then keep going till you reach beyond your goal. Reach beyond your best hopes.
My friends show me this is true. We can choose our MS. We can choose to live with muscle, with Spirit strength.