Pulse December 2015 | Page 39

book and I was the author, how would I want my story to go?” she says as she reflected back how she needed to let go of the “old Amy” in order to write a new chapter of her life. Allow challenges to be stepping stones to help you find your creative path. Refusing to let her disability prevent her from snowboarding, she decided to go back to the snow-capped mountains and descend the slopes. “I remember just being so discouraged that I thought, ‘I can walk away right now because I can’t do this,’” she recalls. But she didn’t. Instead, she persevered and kept pushing. Realizing that her difficulty was mostly because she was wearing a pair of prosthetic feet not customized for the sport, she asked her prosthetist to make her a pair that would help make snowboarding possible. “That’s when I learned that the borders and obstacles in our lives can only do two things: Stop us dead in our tracks or force us to be creative,” she says. “We don’t have to be limited by our circumstances. Our circumstances can actually open up a whole world of unlimited possibilities.” Declare your intention to the world. While at a speaking tour with Oprah, Purdy learned a most valuable lesson on the power of intention. “Not trying to do something. Not hoping to do something. Absolutely going out there and doing it. Declaring your intention,” she says. When she and her husband Daniel founded Adaptive Passion Sports, their intention was to provide resources to kids, young adults and veterans with permanent disabilities who are into action sports like snowboarding and skateboarding. “Telling everyone about your intention is one of the scariest things to do. What if we fail? It’s so much easier to keep our hopes and dreams to ourselves. But I believe that if you declare your intention, the universe and all the people around you conspire to help make your goal into a reality,” she says. It was also the couple’s intention to turn athletes who are part of the program into elite competitors, in their bid to add snowboarding into the 2014 Paralympic Games in Sochi, Russia. “Standing at that podium had two meanings for me. One, it represented all the hard work that went into my legs, training and figuring out what I was capable of. Two, it represented the pride and gratitude of being part of a community that, no matter how hard things got, never gives up,” she says. Ultimately, the author and co-founder of apparel line Element Eden lives a life with no regrets. “My legs haven’t disabled me. If anything, they have enabled me. They have forced me to rely on my imagination and to believe in the possibilities.” In Their Words “We are all dedicated contributors each in our own way. The definition of ‘dedicated’ is truly being devoted to a cause. It’s not the work, it’s the purpose of work that drives me. Share your passion, impart it freely. What I do know for sure, if you keep your eye on the ball, you have a better chance of hitting the home run.” SHARILYN ABBAJAY • Elizabeth Arden Red Door Spas SVP Spa Operations and Strategic Retail Development and 2015 ISPA Dedicated Contributor Award Recipient “I asked myself: Where is this [insecurity] coming from? There’s a beautiful Arab proverb that says ‘when a person seeks his purpose, the universe conspires to answer’. The trick of life is in knowing that you deserve goodness—knowing that you are worthy. We only find that in each others’ eyes.” DR. BERTICE BERRY • Transformative Speaker, Author and General Session Guest Speaker December 2015 n PULSE 37