A Review of Janine's Shepard's TED Talk " A Broken Body Isn''t a Broken Person"

“A Broken Body Isn’t a Broken Person” is a Ted talk title that immediately caught my attention. I am fascinated by the human body and intrigued by the idea of finding ways to fix what may be broken with it. Janine Shepard found out the hard way what it is like to live with a broken body but also what it was like to live with broken hopes and dreams. Her lifelong journey has taught her that it takes a creative mind and a new perspective to see past the bodies we live in and to the person who lies within.

                As an Olympic contender for the Australian cross-country skiing team, Janine was at her prime. However, a bicycle training trip with her teammates changed her life forever when she was hit by a utility truck.  A broken back, broken neck, cracked ribs, fractured arm, head torn open and right side of her body torn up and covered with gravel are just some of the injuries that left Janine in the hospital, fighting for her life. When she drifted back to consciousness after 10 days, the life she remembered was gone. 

                Among many other jobs, Janine now travels around the world as a motivational/influential speaker.  Her storytelling skills capture the audience, while her wit and humor help lighten what is truly a horrific experience. Although the first few minutes of her speech focus on her injuries, how her life changed and how she dealt with losing everything, this speech is far from being just a sad tale. Janine is out to inspire others to embrace the sort of creative mind that has helped her become the person she is today.  The turning point of the story comes when Janine explains “I was an athlete. That’s all I knew. That’s all I’d done. If I couldn’t do that, then what could I do? And the question I asked myself is, if I couldn’t do that, then who was I?” Not many people ever have to face the harsh reality of questions such as these ones, but Janine goes on to suggest that “maybe being at rock bottom is actually the perfect place to start.”

Overall, Janine Shepard does an excellent job appealing to others who may be facing disabilities as well as to those who only seek to understand them. One of her most insightful quotes from the entire lecture was “But now I was about to embark on the most creative project that any of us could ever do: that of rebuilding a life.” This is a new way of looking at the term creativity. For Janine, it wasn’t about just solving a problem, it was about creating a new life and finding a way to be happy again. Janine isn’t looking to convince anyone that they need to work on being creative, but rather showing others that they are creative in ways that they never thought. Janine went on to rebuild her life in an unexpected way that not only shocks, but inspires others who are in a similar situation. Just 18 months after waking up in the hospital, Janine earned her pilots license and advanced to being able to teach others how to fly. To sum up her ideas about creativity and what it has meant to her, Janine quotes the philosopher Lao Tzu, who said "When you let go of what you are, you become what you might be." In Janine’s own words, she explains that “I now know that my real strength never came from my body, and although my physical capabilities have changed dramatically, who I am is unchanged.”
 While Janine’s TED talk focuses on motivation and inspiration, her insight applies to what I hope to be doing in the future. As a physical therapist, I will be working with a person who is in a broken body. To be honest, before watching this talk, I would have said that I’d be working with a broken person, however after listening to Janine, I’ve found a new way to look people’s situations. In my work, it will take more than fixing the body to truly help a person. The creativity of rebuilding a life will have to become a part of my everyday work. I can’t expect to rebuild a body without also addressing the life of the person who lives in that body. When Janine said “I know that I'm not my body, and I also know that you're not yours,” I really had to think about that. Much of our lives focus around our bodies that it’s easy to forget that we can be defined by so much more. While Janine’s talk did not outline new innovations in the mobilization of the human body, she presents a point of view that I believe is essential for all people in the health care world to consider. 

This TED talk by Janine Shepard, once an Olympic team member, but now a pilot, inspirational speaker, mother of three and so much more, showed me a new perspective to the word creativity. Depending on the situation, creativity can be defined in numerous ways, but for the work I hope to do, I think Janine’s definition of creativity will be one of the most useful for me.  According to Janine’s advice, when you have a goal and set little goals to accomplish along the way, the mind’s creativity can’t be stopped. Whether it’s my creativity in helping others, or the creativity of someone I work with, we can work together to live our lives as Janine does,  “the ultimate creative expression of who we are.”