|
Larry introduced his son Aaron Brokenshire, and gave us some background of Aaron's impressive career as an athletic and coach. But that was just the background. Aaron spoke to us about his life experience since discovering that he had a life-threatening condition 5 years ago, at age 43. SVT is a condition in which the heart can race uncontrollably, in his case up to 250 beats per minute. He was given the choice of either taking a powerful drug that would reduce his quality of life, or waiting 6 months for surgery. But that wasn't even what his story was about. Aaron spoke to us about his mental and emotional response to the diagnosis, how that undermined his life, and how he recovered from it. He spent some time consumed with fear and worry, not sleeping, retreating from the world, and deep depression. After getting some encouragement from a therapist, he was able to train himself to eliminate negative or unproductive thoughts and channel his energy in positive directions, including returning to intense sports he had enjoyed before the diagnosis. Aaron has written a book about it to encourage others in similar situations "How Good Could You Be", available on amazon. It was an inspiring story, and also very interesting to learn that people can train themselves to think differently. Todd thanked our speaker and said he is going to read the book because he worries way too much about his kids. That's something he inherited from one of his parents. |
