The Power of Choosing Gratitude
[Music]
[Applause]
what is gratefulness
how can being grateful change your
perspective on life
how can you choose to be grateful today
to define the word being grateful is
having a feeling of thankfulness
or showing an appreciation of kindness
it’s the emotion
of being pleased or relieved today i
want to leave you with something lasting
pierce your hearts hit your soul and
allow your minds to grasp something so
simple i want you to experience
listening to me and understanding how
just 11 years old
i began to better understand how the
effects of anxiety
pain and doubt can create a stronghold
in our lives unless we do one simple
thing
be grateful this is the power of
choosing gratitude
it was a beautiful friday afternoon my
old town of merced california
and as a fifth grader who just got back
home from school i wanted to go outside
play be with my friends and all that fun
stuff but first i got this funny idea to
surprise attack my dad who was on a
riding lawnmower just got
back home from work by shooting him in
the back of his head with my
wooden rubber band gun i thought it’d be
hilarious
so i got up got my rubber band gun and
ventured off to my backyard
to see my dad mowing the lot mowing the
yard from one side of the
lawn to the other
i saw him reach the middle of the lawn
and as he reached the middle lawn i
decided to sneak right up behind him
without him even noticing
and he didn’t notice at all i was then
behind the mower
and he reached the edge of the lawn and
then stopped the mower and put it in
reverse
i stole into the ground trying to get
away i tripped
and the backrack tire came at me the
whole miller came out with the
background tyrant on my right foot
and the blade completely took my foot
my dad felt this bump swung up into
action and lifted this
1000 pound lawnmower onto its side like
it was nothing
crying screaming he came to me hugged me
kissed me
couldn’t believe that this was happening
to his baby boy
he reacted perfectly though and got
towels to stop the bleeding wrap my leg
in a tourniquet and call 9-1-1 soon
after and i was airlifted to a medical
center
where i underwent four surgeries within
11 days and they amputated two inches
above my ankle let’s take a breath that
was a lot
but as devastating as that was there is
whenever i share how i lost my foot with
people i always end it with what i said
to my mom
right out of my first surgery and that
was this
i said mom i know this happened
for a reason to reiterate i said mom
i know this happened for a reason
i knew i had purpose in this moment i
probably wasn’t necessarily thinking
about it
but i was so thankful for something so
severe to happen to me
i did deal with pain and a lot of doubt
but it’s almost as if i knew the
blessings that are about to unfold
through this very pain and suffering
what i mean by this
is that the acknowledgment of blessings
in our lives leads to an open mind of
gratitude
this gratitude then affects our brains
literally changing our neural structures
to make us feel happier and more content
even with tragedy
amidst this tragedy though i constantly
look for the good in a bad situation
and this directory correlates to a
neurochemical level in our brain where
gratitude acts as a catalyst
for neurotransmitters like dopamine
serotonin and norepinephrine
basically the emotions that maintain and
can even uplift
are basically the chemicals that can
maintain or uplift our emotions
pertaining to pain and immediate stress
responses
now i didn’t know this kind of science
at the time but i want you to imagine
being
my dad and having been involved with
this accident
witnessing your own child choose
gratitude after something so
traumatizing
wouldn’t that change your perspective on
life it changed my life
and it changed his soon after you see
gratitude not only affects yourself but
others around you as well
this is a constant battle that we face
in our minds every day
we wake up every day and choose the life
we are going to live
why not make it a grateful one my
gratitude only escalated in relation to
my faith
and it was in this faith that i felt
stronger could push harder
and reach for the stars and become
resilient
through trial and future adversities for
example
when i was released from the hospital
and put in a wheelchair
i chose to be grateful with the rough
road of recovery ahead
and this led to hope for what was to
come hope to know that i was one step
closer to being able to walk again
when i got my casper moved and was
finally able to use crutches
after intense physical therapy i chose
to be grateful
and this led to built-up resilience so i
could push through barriers because i
was so grateful for all that i had
and what i had gone through already that
i knew i could keep going
when i was finally able to be fitted
adjusted and got my first prosthetic
how was i grateful especially seeing
my mom and dad in tears watching me take
my first steps again
like i was a toddler
also and this is one of the best parts
of my story
my leg was at the point where it was
fully healed so that i could
um to where i could get back into one of
my favorite places ever
i could fully submerge my leg into this
place a place i felt i was born into
and meant for something more the pool
the water
the amount of freedom that i felt in the
water
to just be weightless and swim around
like there’s like nothing
wasn’t is the most critical part
of my journey and i made me all the more
grateful
for everything that i went through both
mentally and physically
i had overcome so much to finally get
back into the water again
which was a goal of mine after the
accident and i even began to have the
desire to want to compete against other
able-bodied athletes and beat them
the reason for this is because i felt
normal in the water
free and just like everybody else i felt
like i had purpose
in the water achieving each of these
victories
and every part of this healing was key
it allowed me to find more of my purpose
and almost every day i chose to be
grateful though some days i didn’t
then i felt the harsh repercussions that
come from that
because staying in a negative state of
mind will torment you
and i know this because well let’s be
honest there’s no way i could be
grateful every single day
that’s impossible i urge you though
to choose gratitude in the hardest
moments of life
because you’ll start to see a better
version of yourself you’ll start to see
a more empathetic
optimistic selfless and spiritual side
side that
you may have never even seen before i
discovered more of who i was and
am from the times that i chose gratitude
and from the times that i didn’t
all is to say that during this time of
healing recovery finally being able to
walk again and diving back into the
water
wasn’t as the most critical part of my
journey and for what was to come
i knew this was just the beginning so
a few years later i began high school
and started swimming more competitively
and i realized that the pool was where i
was meant to be and that something great
could come from the sport
in fact a week after graduating high
school in 2015
i got offered by a paralympic coach to
train for the rio 2016 paralympic games
an opportunity i never expected
right away i accepted this offer and
started
rigorously training with elite athletes
seeking community and growth with hard
work and determination
i learned quickly that gratitude is
inseparably linked with self-discipline
and motivation because when we’re
grateful for all that we have we work
harder
go further and reach for the stars for
me though
i ended up landing on the moon how you
may ask
well in just a short amount of time and
with the right mindset
i made the rio 2016 paralympic games
within that
year
thank you
the experience was remarkable and
incredible
and competing for team usa in the world
stage was absolutely nerve-wracking
it is absolutely nerve-wracking
it was absolutely nerve-wracking
i couldn’t believe where i was at that i
was able to compete for team usa
on the world stage for my own country
it was incredible
what started out for me as a tragic and
terrible accident
at the age of 11 ended up to be a story
of triumph
at the age of 19
because i’m still not done yet
because now at the age of 24 years old i
achieved a bronze medal
at the world championships in 2017 a
year after rio
a gold medal at the pan american games
in 2019
and i’m currently training for the tokyo
2021 games
this year and even amidst the setbacks
of 2020 in relation to kovan 19
i was nothing but motivated and grateful
through every single day of it
why i took last year as an opportunity
to do better
be better and work harder than ever i
adapted
and knew that my mind was trained to
react positively to disaster
because of my choice of gratitude from
my past
with practice and commitment gratitude
can become a natural response to said
disasters
two failures to life’s hardest moments
it’s what can pick us back up on our
feet
or foot
and allow for us to keep going i am
grateful
for my failures for my hardest moments
in life
and i’m even filled with thankfulness
for what happened to me
when i was 11 years old i
i would even go as far as to say that
i’m that i would not reverse
time to have my foot back again because
it’s made me who i am
and i’m grateful for that rejoice always
give thanks in all circumstances i’ve
spent most of my life choosing this
mental attitude and it has continually
defeated the emotional toll of anxiety
pain and doubt it is hard
and most of the time it’s not easy to
choose this perspective
but within the simple act of being
grateful you will start to see your
perception
on life be changed this is the power
of choosing gratitude so
how can gratitude change your
perspective on life
are you going to choose to be grateful
today thank you so much