By Parker J. Palmer — 2015
“What am I meant to learn from this situation? What’s life trying to teach me here?” Questions like those help me find meaning in apparently meaningless situations.
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CLEAR ALL
Osaka’s mental health challenges are nothing new in her isolating sport. What is new is the acceptance she’ll face—and the paths back—if she takes a prolonged break.
In the past few weeks, my journey took an unexpected path but one that has taught me so much and helped me grow. I learned a couple of key lessons.
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Through the size of her platform, however, and her decision to choose well-being over pursuit of a Grand Slam title, Osaka offers the promise of bringing mental health awareness—both inside and outside of sports—to an entirely new level.
By withdrawing from competition citing concerns over her mental health, Biles showed that resisting expectations can be more powerful than persisting through them.