38 - Mandy Salas talks about the life-changing trip at 16 that left her paralyzed

Sideline Sisters

Mandy Salas has been a professional speaker since early 2023. Just over 30 years ago, she was an elite athlete with perfect grades, when she was injured in a catastrophic car accident that rendered her quadriplegic. Since then, she have learned endless, valuable lessons about resilience and how everyone has the power to shift S, and now is raising two wonderful children with her partner – all without any movement below her shoulders. Mandy's Notes from the Sidelines:

1. Stigmas start early, so it is important to educate and increase perspective.
2. Being in Argentina was the most soul-filling experience in her life, allowing her to receive many unquantifiable gifts. If science could take her out of her wheelchair, but take along with it all the experiences that came before today, she would pass up science, stay in the chair, and keep the richness of her time in Argentina.
3. Don't let the inner negative voice keep you from not trying. If something is not meant to be, it is not going to happen, or it is meant to happen at a different time.
4. Sit with your thoughts. Stay with the negative, challenges, anger, and adversity, and process them.
5. Sit alone, have a spot and sit with thoughts. They will become clean in time. Try meditation and nature. Put the phone down.
6. Be comfortable in your own skin. Phones, scrolling, and social media prevent us from doing this. Set a timer to help.
7. Challenges are challenges, and they're big to whoever is experiencing them. We can't control challenges coming at us, but we can control our reactions.
8. Process the icky so you can move past it. Focus on good stuff as you process the bad.

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