Mind Over Matter

Ever since I was a little girl, my mother always told me “mind over matter.” I have been through a lot of big changes in my life that I never expected. Starting with pursuing my goal of becoming an Olympic short track speed skater. Chasing after my dream, I moved at a young age of sixteen away from my family to train at the Olympic education center in Marquette, Michigan. I was very scared at first, and did not think I could handle all the hours of rigorous training mentally or physically. Once again my mother looked deep into my deep green eyes and told me, always, mind over matter. It is important to me because it means through the power of concentration and positive thinking you can conquer anything.

Injuries with my sport commonly come and go, and through each one that I have unfortunately obtained, I have kept a positive attitude and somehow rose above to beat each and every one of them. Even in my deepest days of pain and disappointment, I have concentrated my focus on the positive things such as, what can I do to keep the rest of my body strong? And also, what can I do that is in all my power to heal as quickly as possible? My mother would call me on the phone asking how my treatments and rehabilitation with my broken ankle were going, and I always told her one day at a time that I was healing. She drilled in my head that an optimistic attitude in life will take you way farther than a pessimistic attitude ever could. I have lived off those small words of wisdom my entire life and they have proved to get me very far. Not only does it cast a positive attitude upon me, but also it has a positive effect on other people as well. Now that I am 100 percent healthy and injury free, I still always keep an up-beat attitude because I believe that it makes you invincible. Good things come to people who use their intelligence to get though the days in a constructive manner. Encouragement to yourself and others can get you through some of the toughest times. The sun will always rise the next day, so I believe in making the most of each and every single day. Mind over matter is a great way to think about things. If you believe in yourself and have self-trust, you can do anything.