"Overcoming Adversity / Walking into Your Challenges" with guest co-host Michelle Cooley, and guests Motivational Speaker & Athlete Isabella Picard and Quadriplegic on a journey to walk again and inspire others Robert Paylor.

These two outstanding individuals, both sustaining crippling injuries on the sports field will share their vision and experience about acceptance, overcoming adversity and walking into challenges.

Purpose of show to:

  Provide insight on challenging situations and possibilities to overcome your own challenges,

  Understand your inspirations are guided from your aspirations, but it requires perspiration (YOU MUST WORK),

  Focus on the positive and the good from life changing events, and

  Reach past our negative thoughts and turning those into successes.

Bella Picard is an All-American full scholarship softball player from Upton, MA. In April of 2015 Bella took her last steps on a softball field after a nasty collision diving headfirst into the opposing shortstop’s knee. Bella broke her neck and suffered a spinal cord injury and was placed into a rehabilitation hospital in Boston that summer after her cervical spinal fusion in hopes of regaining strength and function in the right side of her body.

Throughout these last 5 years, Bella has proved doctors wrong and can walk independently with no assistance, with the exception of a leg brace for her right sided drop-foot. In-between surgeries and intense rehab, Bella’s positivity and contagious spirit has led her to speak in front of hundreds of people throughout the nation. From youth softball organizations to college sports teams, foster homes in FL to several churches throughout New England, there isn’t a soul Bella can’t connect with to spread light and hope. Bella continues to put her heart and soul into her rehabilitation and is currently training at BARWIS Performance Center in South Florida for their Neurological Reengineering Program.

Bella contributes an unparalleled perspective on how quickly the physical body can be taken away and how she had to learn on her own how to strengthen her mind and keep it healthy outside of the world of sports that she only knew. Sharing her experience has made an impact like no other on student-athletes across the nation. Bella is on a mission to use her unique insight she has gained on her road to full recovery and she hopes to make a positive shift in the way current student-athletes view their playing. Bella has been known to tell all athletes she meets, “Never take one step on that field for granted.”

In one moment, Robert was in the best day of his life, competing for the collegiate rugby national championship. In the next moment, his life changed forever. Robert suffered a spinal cord injury in the first minutes of the game and found himself face down in the turf unable to move anything below his neck. His doctor told him he would never walk or move his hands for the rest of his life. Through an unbreakable vision and relentless determination, Robert is defying the odds. He has graduated from UC Berkeley, is winning the fight to walk again, and is sharing his method of how he overcomes quadriplegia. Every person faces challenges; Robert’s are just visible. The skills Robert uses to overcome paralysis can be used by all to optimally perform. His message is one that inspires others to access their full potential and conquer their challenges no matter how daunting they may seem.

Support the show: http://www.cooleyfoundation.org/

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