The Hidden Depths Of the Indomitable Human Spirit

[Spiorad_Aisce]

Introduction:

With the Paralympics due to take place in Rio next month, I thought the most apt way to start a take on the strength of the human spirit would be with image of James O'Shea who competed in the London 2012 Paralympics https://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/olympics/paralympic-sport/9524190/Paralympics-2012-swimmer-James-OShea-fulfils-incredible-quest.html

The topic for the team that I am on in the #BATTLEROYALE take contest this week is "Health & Fitness". I got to thinking about how a healthy mind/spirit is just as important to a person as an healthy body, how we should reflect on how amazing the human spirit can be and how we should support it.

Those that know my profile page will have seen that my favourite song is "Spirit" by The Waterboys written by singer Mike Scott in the early 1980s. It is essentially a short album song but what I love about it, is the lyrics.

"Spirit"

Man gets tired
Spirit don't
Man surrenders
Spirit won't
Man crawls
Spirit flies
Spirit lives
When man dies

Man seems
Spirit is
Man dreams
The spirit lives
Man is tethered
Spirit free
What spirit is
Man can be

(1) Indefatigability:

I am not showing off by using big words, I just love words and often when I hear a word that sounds perfect for the occasion, it sticks with me. You hear the word "Indefatigable" used a lot in connection with human spirit, its definition is

Adjective: (1) Incapable of being tired out; not yielding to fatigue; untiring (2) Sustained enthusiastic action with unflagging vitality, "an indefatigable advocate of human rights"

I think it is the perfect word to describe the human spirit, how we rise to particular challenges because we have to. Who is the strongest human here?

The Powerlifter

The single parent on welfare supporting their family with a very sick child who just keeps going day in, day out caring for the child, their other sons and daughters fulfilling all their family duties.

The person who walks 16 miles a day just to get clean water for their family

2) You Don't Know How Strong You Are:

I remember a few years ago, I was writing a email to someone who was having a tough time and wanted to give her a quote or a picture to say that she had a lot going for her, she was as strong and smart as anybody. When I searched, I found there was so many wise and inspirational quotes in "Winnie the Pooh", I think I bought the book for her in the end.

Sometimes you look at things in life and say "How was I able to do that?". I nowhere had it near as bad as some people who rose over almost insurmountable odds to get through something but I had it a little bit. If you had told me before I cared for my father who was ill with dementia then cancer who needed 24/7 almost one on one care for the last two years of his life with bad mobility, not really being able to communicate or plan what he needed for day to day things like help to the toilet during the night for example when he needed to go several times a night, if I thought about what it would entail, I would have said no family could cope with that.

My mother is very deaf and couldn't hear him stirring in the other bed, she had to get a separate bed in the room because he was very restless. My sister lived elsewhere with her family. All our houses are close and since I was on my own with no family commitments, I moved back to the family home. I had to listen from another bedroom to hear if he wanted to go to the toilet. So for about 8 months I never fell fully asleep, eventually my mother and me swapped rooms. Then my sister and I took turns sleeping in the room with him. I know that seems logical but often you don't think of those things and when you do, you go "Why didn't we do this months ago".

Then we got a pressure pad for the bed so an alarm went off if he tried to get out of the bed meaning we could sleep heavily, knowing alarm would wake us up. My point here is you just do it, you don't think about it, my friends and extended family members use to say that is amazing but I kinda got annoyed thinking "I am doing what anybody else would do" only looking back after my father passed away and thinking "Yeah, it was hard work but he was my father and he would have done same for me". My second point is the "Anybody else would do it" part which is you don't know what you are capable of till you are faced with something. About 20 times during those two years with my father, a crisis would happen and I would say "Okay, have a 10 minute freak out thinking I can't cope anymore then cop on and think of how to adapt" and within a couple of days it was usually "What crisis?". Here we go back to the title of the take "Hidden Depths" that even the person themselves doesn't realise they have inside in their heart.

(3) You Have Inner Strength But Still Need Support:

(3a) Believe In Yourself - Often the first and most important person you have to convince is yourself. So learn to look inwards to see you have what it takes to overcome or adapt to what is put in front of you, believe in yourself and others will start to believe in you too. An important caveat here is to remain positive and constructive, do not turn to negative things like drugs and alcohol to cope or other vices.

(3b) Know Yourself - It seems a bit strange after hyping up hidden strengths in the previous points but know your capabilities and strengths. Like I know I am 47 now, I will not be beating Usain Bolt's 100m world record at the next Olympics but there are other things I feel I am capable of doing.

(3c) A Shoulder To Lean On - Sometimes you forget how nice it is to talk to someone, have a night out, a few days away, a bit of comfort, talk rubbish or talk through your concerns, have a listening ear to confide in.

(3d) Unexpected Help:

Always be open to outside assistance, do plenty of research on any situation you are in. You may find aid coming from the unlikeliest of places, I didn't realise I qualified for a Carer's allowance until a counsellor mentioned it off the cuff at a meeting for something else.

(3e) You Often Don't Know What Is Happening In Someone's Life:

These is for those of us for who are fortunate enough to be in a good place at the moment. We have to be open to supporting other people.

Conclusion:

To finish up this thought process is just to reiterate you are often stronger than you think you are, capable of many things that your self doubt says you can't do. Believe in yourself but also believe in others even though they sometimes are better at hiding it, they have self doubt as well. I believe the world is a good place with good people in it.

Thanks for reading.

[Fathoms77]

You know what?

There are thousands... no, millions of perfectly able slugs in the world. And every last one of them should be terribly embarrassed that so many with so much LESS are doing so much MORE.

[Spiorad_Aisce]

Yes the competitors are amazing at the Paralympics

[SensualScribe]

I believe people are more capable of prevailing through challenges than they realize until they actually do it.

[Spiorad_Aisce]

Yes I agree

[YourFutureEx]

Exactly! There is nothing to complain about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOzsjEmjjHs&list=LLeGExRd_XbYZcI1CEnu084Q&index=8

[Spiorad_Aisce]

Great video

[gobsmacked3]

As follows

https://youtu.be/IocLkk3aYlk

[Spiorad_Aisce]

Yeah I am a huge fan of the foreign drama on E4, More4 and All4 and I have seen those inspirational ads running all summer.

[wkkylie]

Okee