Patron hero of disability

On an early Saturday in the month of November, I woke up inside my room with a lot of joy and eagerness as it was on this day that the hospital had finally given me a chance for a day leave with my mother to go outside of the hospital grounds and into the city to do whatever we wanted to do. By this time I had already changed roommates for the fifth time and the fifth one wasn't as social as the first one so it was good timing to leave the room and explore the city. My mother and I opted to go to Fremantle to visit the Hoyts cinema to watch a movie that I had long waited for, "Dr. Srange", A Marvel superhero that tells the story of an arrogant Neurosurgeon by the name of Stephen strange who became master of the mystic arts and a powerful member of the Avengers after an accident that left his hands crippled rendering him useless with his job as a neurosurgeon and soon loses his career. One day a man told him that his cure lies at a place in the Himalayas called Kamar TaJ, a place where travelers go to to to find both healing and spiritual enlightenment. 

Desperate for a full recovery, Strange heads off to the Himalayas in search of this place. Sure enough, he finds it and embarks on a spiritual journey of both self-discovery and enlightenment. Upon arriving he was greeted by Mordo, A member of the Society who was living in Kamar Taj and a disciple of The ancient one, The spiritual guru who promises Strange that he could get his hands back if he follows the teachings of the ancient one. To Strange's surprise, the ancient one was a bald woman in robes of white. She approached him and gave Strange a brief summary of the program that he is going to do with her. The teachings are somewhat contradictory to what he had learned n medical school as the teachings of the ancient one is mostly about the mind, the power of belief, suggestions, chakras, energy healing, the soul, and manipulation of reality. To a surgeon like Strange, this all sounds like superstitious pseudoscience mumbo jumbo. He quickly rejects the teachings and walked away from the ancient one. Before he could do so the ancient one hit strange with her fist and Strange's Astral body was thrown out of his physical body and he traveled across the multiverse seeing a plethora of different form of beings and places that exists in other dimensions.

After the experience, he was convinced that her teachings are true and had the potential to fix his disabilities. Over the next few weeks, and months Strange was taught how to manipulate energy from around him to move objects, create weapons out of thin air and teleport to places through opening extradimensional gateways to access other multiverses. All of these feats have been accomplished by  Strange, which made him powerful at the end of the movie and was able to defeat the antagonist, Kaecilius and Dormammu, dark entity living in the dark dimension. Despite his victory over the villains he was still paralyzed in both of his hands. Nearing the end of the Movie the ancient one told Strange that his healing lies in his choice on how he wants to heal himself, either through the standard medical treatment or using his mind to channel his beliefs into his hands and recover them by faith.

Strange eventually chose the second option and uses his mind to slowly recover the severed nerves in his hands. The movie teaches us that the mind is very powerful and has the capacity to shape who we are and the realities we perceive on a daily basis. At some point, it can even affect our physical bodies and the environment around us, surprisingly there is even a metaphysical term or this phenomenon, it's called the law of attraction, meaning we become what we believe and receive what we desire most in both our thoughts and emotions. As the great French philosopher, Renee de carte once said, "I think, therefore I am" This lesson is even taught in the Bible with Jesus's parable of words turning to flesh meaning being mindful of what we say or think as it might just happen.

Both the metaphysical and moral lesson of this superhero movie can be applied in real life for most patients with disabilities especially those with brain injuries. The movie is a reminder to all of us that the mind goes beyond the limits of the physical a that our brains are nothing more but vessels that houses our very thoughts. If we are mindful of this lesson and fully tune in into our recovery with not only positive thinking but a strong belief of recovery, then complete healing can indeed take place. Just remember the advice that I've mentioned i "Tips on stroke recovery" What we imagine or believe shapes the neurons in our brains as if we are doing what we imagine.

Another great lesson that we can derive from this movie is the transformative power of tragedy and the beauty of failure. It's not only after the accident which severed Strange's nerves that he could find the drive to search for a cure and ultimately gain something else as an addition which made him more than the average new yorker or humans like you and I. The movie is also a reminder of the importance of time and how to use it wisely. During the fight scenes, the ancient one finally dies from a falling injury. Before she died, she told Strange that she had always believed in him and that he was capable of accomplishing great things not because he was a qualified and experienced surgeon but because he believed in himself. we are also reminded in this movie that time is short it goes by fast when you least expect it, especially with a brain injury from a stroke, all those precious seconds are stolen from you and it will never be retrieved again so you have to appreciate the little things in life and make use of our time wisely as not to waste it.