Living Beyond Labels And Limitations
- Nikki Weigel
- Feb 26, 2018
- 2 min read
Choosing the life we want
At the end of 2009, life looked pretty grim. I’d just lost my sister and niece to murder and I was in an abusive marriage. I had three boys under the age of 7 that I knew carried diagnoses, but were not diagnosed yet. I was drowning. I felt like a failure. My oldest had been diagnosed with Mosaic Down Syndrome in utero, and in 2010, was diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum. Shortly thereafter, my 3 year old and 2 year old were also diagnosed on the Autism Spectrum. I’d been told so many things. Mostly, not to expect much. Not to be hopeful. Not to try. I grieved. I cried. I became angry. I let my thoughts limit how I saw my children. For years. We made progress through diet and other natural remedies, but I still saw them differently. I was still believing there was a cap to what they could do and that I had to be there for it all. To make sure everything was ok. Or somehow I’d be failing them again. I carried huge Mom guilt.
weeding the garden
As the years passed, more diagnoses followed. Brain damage. Anxiety. Blindness. The list continues. And as it grew, so did my beliefs of what my kids COULDN’T do. Then I stopped. One day, at my rock bottom, I decided to weed out all my limiting beliefs about my boys, like weeding a garden. I threw them all out. I began to replace them with limitless thinking. And my boys blossomed. So did our relationships. School. Bike riding. Staying home alone. Reading. Self-care. Advocating. You name it, they started doing it because I stopped believing they wouldn’t. They stopped believing they couldn’t. It was a beautiful transformation that continues today. Life is amazing. And we use our message now to help others understand the power of thought to reach potentials beyond their wildest dreams.
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