On November 11th 2018 I broke my right hand wrist.
Eleven days later, on the 22th, I was conducting my “Happiness at work” workshop. It was already prepared and scheduled for that date and I just didn’t want to cancel it and let everyone down.
Today, almost 10 months later, I have recovered 90% of my hand movement. There is still just a little work to do on it.
Standing on a different place, I now wonder how I made it. With coherence (being consistent), I believe. When we really honour our values from our inner self they manifest on our behaviour in a natural way, and they even work when we are in a semi-automatic mode.
I realized that eleven days after my bone fracture I still was in the trauma process. Those moments when you only do what is strictly necessary to stay alive because all of your systems are busy trying to recover that ‘missing’ body part . How to carry out my everyday activities with only one hand overnight! And being right-handed! So I temporarily had lost the use of the hand that used to do almost all the work. And living on my own to top it all off…
I didn’t reckon how tough daily life was going to be until that moment and the long period of time it takes to recover a broken bone, besides the continuous pain one has to live with.
When I speak about consistency, I refer to this fragment of the speech I gave at the end of one part of my workshop, and that I now want to share with you:
“Despite of not being able to control whatever happens in our lives we do have the power to control or to be conscious of how we experience those events.
Every one of us will have to face a huge challenge at a certain time of our life. It could be a job loss, health problems or even the passing of a loved one. Sometimes there are events beyond our control that can bring us down. But the stress, anger or sorrow that we might feel are not caused by these events themselves, but by the meaning (significance) we give to them.
Of course terrible things that can happen in our lives are real. But the question is ‘ In what way am I going to allow these events to shape my life? Am I going to let this tear me apart, or rather I will use this to become stronger and brighten up my path in life?
What is really important is the significance we give to the events we experience in life, because when we find a new meaning, this can lead us to a new life.”
At present I can almost say I am ambidextrous and I feel very happy to share this joy with you when I state that, not only was I able to conduct that workshop but I was also able to launch my life project then, functioning with only one hand – my left one! – and carry on with my everyday life. My right hand wanted to help somehow, it wanted to be involved even in an involuntary way. It has been a hard process but one full of love and self-care which made me stronger in every way possible.
Today, I deeply appreciate the whole health of my body, mind and Soul, who has been there all the time giving me its breath of life. A thousand thanks.
Leticia Morales
