Inspiration can be found in almost anything.
Frequently, it’s a famous person from history who has overcome adversity to achieve some amazing feat. Sometimes it’s the busy person who finds time to volunteer as an umpire for little league games. Occasionally, it’s the homeless man who feeds a stray dog even though his belly is swollen with hunger.
We all need to find inspiration somewhere. For people with lifelong diseases and disorders, it is common to latch onto an athlete or a movie star who hasn’t let the condition hold him or her back.
A woman in Texas found her inspiration in a Canadian Olympic athlete who has the same condition that she does: Addison’s disease.
This disease is the result of the body not producing enough of certain hormones in the adrenal gland. If the body doesn’t make and distribute enough hormones, quite a few symptoms can present. These can include fatigue, skin darkening, and localized pain.
Thankfully, treatment with steroids and vitamin replacements allow people with Addison’s to return to nearly pre-disease states of normalcy.
A young blogger was diagnosed with Addison’s disease shortly after moving to Texas. She lost a significant amount of weight, and she was pleased with how tan she had become. She and her new doctor attributed these symptoms to the stress of moving and the Texas sun.
Not everything was so rosy; she did experience constant flu-like symptoms. She couldn’t decide if she kept catching the flu or if it never really healed and kept returning. Eventually, the on-call doctor at the urgent care center in her town ran some tests and discovered low levels of sodium and potassium. The doctor realized something more was amiss.
He diagnosed her with Addison’s disease that night.
She started on medicine that night and began feeling better almost immediately. However, she let her diagnosis become an excuse for not exercising as much as she should. But, in the summer of 2012, she saw an article about a Canadian Olympian who also had Addison’s.
This was the inspiration and motivation she needed to tell herself to get out and do something, even when it felt better to just lay on the couch.
The inspiration worked. The next year, she ran her first half marathon. She hasn’t stopped there. She continues to draw inspiration from the Canadian Olympian whenever she is feeling tired or weak.
We all draw our inspiration from different places. But maybe a better way to handle our lives is to act in a way that lets you become an inspiration for others.
Read the original blog post by clicking here.
