There’s almost nothing in the world more powerful than hope!
Sure, there are a lot of things that go into managing any illness, chronic or not, and the importance of proper medical care can’t be understated, but having a positive outlook on your life can make the hard times so much more worth living.
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Just ask eternal optimist Michael J. Fox!
We all love Michael J. Fox.
Of course, we all fell in love with Marty McFly from the Back To The Future series, but Michael has also showed his incredible talent in Family Ties, Spin City, Teen Wolf and loads more.
He’s still got the same boyish charm and warmth we all loved him for!
Another reason we love him so much is how optimistic he is.
Despite his diagnosis with Parkinson’s disease in 1991 (at the age of only 29!), Michael has never let it stop him from sharing his positive messages of hope and love with the world.
At least, not publicly.
In a new interview ,Michael opened up about a particularly dark moment in his life.
In 2018, a noncancerous tumor on his spine had to be removed.
Michael revealed that he “was heading for paralysis if I didn’t get it operated on.” The tumor was constricting his spinal chord, so the removal of it was both incredibly important and incredibly risky.
Thankfully, the operation went off without a hitch.
It took Michael four months to learn to walk again, but once that was done, Michael felt like it was safe for him to go on vacation with his family. He then return by himself to his apartment in New York to film a cameo in a movie.
That was when disaster struck.
Michael fell and broke his arm in his kitchen by himself.
“That was definitely my darkest moment,” Michael explained of the accident. “I just snapped. I was leaning against the wall in my kitchen, waiting for the ambulance to come, and I felt like, ‘This is as low as it gets for me.’”
I think we can all relate to feeling that kind of moment where you’re not sure how things can get worse, especially if you’ve been working hard to stay positive.
“It was when I questioned everything,” Michael revealed.
Michael explained it caused him to question how he made anything positive in the first place. “Like, ‘I can’t put a shiny face on this. There’s no bright side to this, no upside. This is just all regret and pain,'” he revealed.
Michael began to doubt himself and his ability to help anyone else.
Michael explained that the combination of everything he had gone through felt like too much at that moment. “Parkinson’s, my back, my arm … it still didn’t add up to moving the needle on the misery index compared to what some people go through,” he said.
“I thought, ‘How can I tell these people, “Chin up. Look at the bright side. Things are going to be great”?’”
Fortunately, Michael was able to remember how he got his positivity in the first place. “Optimism is really rooted in gratitude,” he said. “Optimism is sustainable when you keep coming back to gratitude, and what follows from that is acceptance. Accepting that this thing has happened, and you accept it for what it is.”
“It doesn’t mean that you can’t endeavor to change.”
“It doesn’t mean you have to accept it as a punishment or a penance, but just put it in its proper place. Then see how much the rest of your life you have to thrive in, and then you can move on,” Michael said.
We can’t express enough how much we love Michael’s optimism and positivity!
h/t: People
