Ep 12 David Smith, Paralympian's passion to help others and live a life with purpose

This conversation tells the story of how a Paralympian gold medallist’s grit and self-reliance  gave way to vulnerability, self-awareness, accepting and offering help and a greater sense of purpose.

David was a promising national level student athlete, but in 2010 he was diagnosed with a rare tumour in his spinal cord. He then went on to represent Great Britain at rowing and win gold at the London Olympics in 2012.  However in 2106, one of the multiple spinal surgeries he had to endure that year left him paralaysed from the neck down on one side.

We  discuss how dealing with depression and overcoming suicidal thoughts has given him a greater sense of purpose, and brought out his altruistic personality, passion to learn, help others and make a difference in the world.

Some other themes we cover are:

• It's hard in today's world when we're bombarded with so much noise, to get to the core of who we are, what we value the most, what are our non-negotiables, and live in alignment with that. 
• The benefit of nature, animals and a change of environment to help yourself. 
• Mental health challenges of performance athletes who experience post Olympics depression, yet it seems it less impacts the coaches and support team 
• How Victor Frankl’s stimulus-space-response framework can guide our perhaps unwanted immediate  reactions to situations.  if we can work on that stimulus, space response and smile more often, we change the vibration of our life and everyone around us.
• The difference between UK and Jamaican culture around greetings and expressing of love and blessings.  

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