Acceptance: Brad Smeele

Why accepting things we can't change is key to our emotional and psychological wellbeing, with quadriplegic former wakeboard champion Brad Smeele. Research shows that our willingness to accept the unchangeable is crucial, whether we’re talking about a financial crisis, a health diagnosis, the loss of an important relationship, or any other unanticipated, unpleasant event, fighting what is won’t make it not so. Instead, when we do battle with reality, we cripple our capacity to cope with the situation and manage all the emotions we experience in response to it. Brad Smeele was a world champion wakeboarder – until he broke his neck performing a trick in 2014- which left him quadriplegic. Until that point, Brad had been pretty much living the dream- chasing summers around the world and earning money on the side as a model. His identity before the accident was closely bound up with his physicality- so coming to terms with the fact that that was no longer the case was understandably a huge challenge. However – Brad has demonstrated a truly inspiring mentality toward his new life as a quadriplegic. He has set up a foundation called the movement collaborative to help fund spinal cord injury research, and is a motivational speaker sharing the lessons he has learnt along his journey. In this episode- Brad explains how he came to terms with what happened, and how he realigned his identity by looking inward. He talks about the importance of sitting with emotions- and learning from them- rather than trying to avoid them. He explains the power of being vulnerable and having genuine conversations, as well as the importance of understanding that everyone goes through difficult times, although social media can distort that.