Shalaka Kathapurkar

We were 30,000 ft above air, I was literally crying in pain - when my 7 year old son looked at me and asked "Mamma - will you die?". In that moment my pain stopped momentarily and my outlook changed. "No" I said, "I will not die, you are going to be fine, I am going to be fine". I had to choose to believe in that moment, for the 7 year old, for myself, and for the years to come to get stronger from that experience - when I had landed up with 2 herniated discs in my lower back while en-route a 24 hour journey from San Francisco, CA to Mumbai, India! The journey was excruciating, no amount of pain killers helped, and traveling alone with 2 young children wasn't making it any easier. And so were the 2 years after that which involved months of physical therapy, and strengthening. However the strongest feeling was that of believing that I would see this through and be stronger on the other side, of not letting this limit me in any way - and that got me through those years, made me strong enough to complete a Spartan Trifecta Race in a couple of years, and now over the years become a strength trainer. When adversity strikes, you have the power to choose, and when you "Choose to Believe" nothing can stop you from overcoming anything life throws your way.