Elizabeth Bryan - Soul Models: Transformative Stories of Courage and Compassion That Will Change Your Life

Health Communications, Inc.

Deerfield Beach, Florida

www.hcibooks.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Daffron, Angela.

Soul models: transformative stories of courage and compassion that will change
your life. / Daffron, Elizabeth Bryan.

pages cm

ISBN-13: 978-0-7573-1786-6 (Paperback)

ISBN-10: 0-7573-1786-3 (Paperback)

ISBN-13: 978-0-7573-1787-3 (ePub)

1. Courage 2. Compassion. 3.Conduct of Life. I.Bryan, Elizabeth.

II. Title

BF575.CSD34 2014

170'44dc23

2014012313

2014 Elizabeth Bryan and Angela Daffron

All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher.

HCI, its logos, and marks are trademarks of Health Communications, Inc.

Publisher: Health Communications, Inc.
3201 S.W. 15th Street
Deerfield Beach, FL 334428190

Cover art: Painted by Elizabeth Bryan, co-designed by artist Byron Keith Byrd and web designer
Marcella Smith, Paradigm Design.

Interior design and formatting by Lawna Patterson Oldfield
ePub formatted by Dawn Von Strolley Grove

To David Brenner,
your brilliance and talent live on through our three sons, our grandson, and the laughter you brought to millions of people. Thank you for inspiring me to dream bigger than the entire universe. From there, this book was born. My wish is that Soul Models continues your legacy and helps everyone who reads it to believe in the power they hold to transform this world.

Elizabeth Bryan

To my first Soul Model, my dad, thank you for teaching me to be like you!

Angela Daffron

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1All Roads Lead Back to Craigs List Elizabeth Bryan

The Heart of a Giant Eli Manning

This Is Their Story: Parts One and Two Deanne and Ally Breedlove

Leap and the Net Will Appear Kim Barnouin

Living for Love Ibu Robin Lim

The Mother of Movements Candace Lightner

Everyone Needs Magic David Copperfield

13Love Means Making Something Grow Temple Grandin

14Love Does Not Draw a Line in the Sand Mary Griffith

16Its Not What HappensIts How You Heal with It Elizabeth Bryan

17Embracing Lifeand All That Comes with It Dawn Averitt

18A World Without Cancer Margaret I. Cuomo, M.D.

19Accomplishing the Impossible Ken Kragen

21Passport to Life Eve Branson

Love Unplugged Roseanna Means, M.D.

Life is Good Steve Gross

26Soul Selfie Seikou Andrews

From Elizabeth Bryan

S oul Models has been a journey of miracles that could never have happened without the love and support of many people. Thank you to my mom for being my best friend, biggest fan, and fabulous editor; to my dad for always being there. To my amazing sons, Cole, Slade, and Wyatt for being the reasons I never give up, to Michelle for being so grounded and giving us Wesley. To John Mittelman for your never-ending love and support, to Byron Keith Byrd for being my best friend and creative cohort, to Monica Ord for always helping, to Natalie Caine for your love and nurturing in the eleventh hour. To our editor Christine Belleris for being so good at what you do, to everyone at HCI for making this happen, to Bob Jacobs for your caring and guidance, to David Mathison for always being there, to Candace Bahr and Ginita Wall, for being my personal Soul Models and lighting my path to purpose.

To the amazing Soul Models in this book: youve all kept me going through the ups and downs of life. A few of you, in particular, have changed my individual world. To Angela, for inspiring Soul Models , to Candace Lightner for your astonishing resilience and guidance, to Mary Griffith for your miraculous spirit, to Edith Eger for surviving Auschwitz and being a brilliant therapist, to Marty Gruber for being there for my sons, to Roseanna Means for showing me true sisterhood, to Dr. Margaret Cuomo for keeping me healthy, to Steve Gross for reminding me to play. To Deanne, Ally, Shawn, Jake, and Ben Breedlove: thank you so much for being in my life and reminding me of my faith when I needed it the most.

To Nancy Farnsworth: your love, bravery, friendship and outrageous brand of wisdom helped get me through it all.

From Angela Daffron

Thank you to the Soul Models in this book, as well as those we interviewed for future editions! Each one of you taught me something unique and life changing. I am confident everyone reading this book will find their own lessons in your stories, too. Your experiences and achievements are amazing and I am honored you shared them for this project.

Thank you Dad! Thank you for always giving me such sound advice and support while teaching me the strength to overcome the toughest of challenges. You taught me to be a rock, and while I may get weathered, I can withstand the harshest of conditions! Your words Take it slow and think it through, echo in my ears and guide me through each challenge life throws at me.

Elizabeth, this has been quite the journey as we both overcame personal challenges throughout the process of writing this book. Thank you for always finding the silver linings!

Thank you to the countless friends, colleagues, and family members, who listened to ideas, read samples, listened to my raves/rants, and encouraged me throughout the process of developing this project! I am lucky to have all of you in my life! You are all Soul Models!

We saved the room in this book for sharing Soul Model stories, but please visit our site at www.SoulModels.net for more acknowledgements and lessons learned from the Soul Models.

Soul Models are individuals who touch the hearts, minds and souls of everyone they meet. They are the role models of today, whose journeys showcase the power we each have to discover purpose in challenge, and use what we find to better the world. Everyone can be a Soul Modelincluding you.

Y ou are holding a powerful giftnot just the words on these pages, but inside of your heart. Maybe youve never felt quite smart, strong, thin or successful enough to really believe this is true. Maybe youve experienced hardships that have weakened your spirit or self-esteem. Maybe your life is pretty smooth most of the time, but you find yourself searching for deeper meaning. How do we understand what makes us special? How do we discover our purpose? Whats the secret to overcoming challenge and just being happier, regardless of circumstance? Most importantly, how do we step up when we feel like giving up?

Part of this answer has been inside of us all along, and recent science is backing it up its all about lending a hand... in fact, we are biologically hard-wired to help.

Translation? Not only can we all make a difference for another person; it feels really good and can improve our health. Compassionate action triggers the brains pleasure center, releasing the same endorphins we get from eatingwithout the carbs. Its called the givers high, and physical benefits include boosting our immune system, lowering stress hormones, reducing heart rates, and possibly even helping us live longer.

Giving also makes us feel better about our own lives. From the smallest hurts to the largest wounds, reaching out to others in any way helps transform our hurt to hope, and pain to purpose. The number one reason this works is because for that period of time, whether a minute or a month, the focus is off uswe get a break from our own lives! The second reason is that people really appreciate kindnesswho doesnt feel good being on the receiving end of thank you?