Mercedes Maidana: How a Traumatic Brain Injury Halted Her Professional Surfing Career and Led Her to a Life Beyond her Wildest Dreams
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Content Warning: This episode discusses thoughts of death as a result of a traumatic brain injury.
When we think about “having it all” it brings to mind being at the pinnacle of our career or at an ultimate high in our life where we feel we have reached the summit. But nothing in life is promised and what happens when that all comes crashing down leaving us to rebuild our life? That is exactly what happened to Mercedes Maidana after a surfing accident changed the course of her life in a huge way. This week on Journeys Through Change, my guest Mercedes Maidana and I are talking about how a traumatic brain injury halted her professional surfing career and led her to a life beyond her wildest dreams.
Change is inevitable. That’s why I designed the Day by Day Book, a guided journal to help you face the discomfort of those shifts in life that are pushing you to that next level of growth and learning. Get your Day by Day Book at livedaybyday.com
10 years ago, Mercedes Maidana was "living the dream" as a professional Big-Wave Surfer in Hawaii, traveling the globe searching for waves, sponsored by one of the best clothing companies in the world - she was married to a great guy, living on the beach and felt like she truly had it all. Until one day it all came crashing down. While surfing at a big-wave contest in an isolated outer reef on the coast of Oregon, a 30-foot wave caught her by surprise leaving her with a Traumatic Brain Injury that completely changed her life. Once a force of nature, even the simple things in life felt almost impossible to do, thus losing her sponsorship and ending her surfing career. After battling Depression, PTSD and years of medical treatments, she slowly began rebuilding her life, finding love again, and starting a family. She is now coaching women to empower them to achieve their dreams. But most importantly she’s started living the dream (even better than before) she never knew was waiting for her all along.
In this episode, Mercedes and I discuss:
- Mercede’s career as a professional big wave surfer and the accident that halted it all.
- The physical and emotional challenges that followed her accident and the breaking point that led her to surrender to her higher power.
- Mercede’s road to healing and finding abundance through the simple joys in life.
- How her past experiences allows her to help clients by relating to them on both a physical and mental level.
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