There is no ambiguity. Every time I cycle with Phil Huntley I am left in awe of his incredibly positive attitude toward life.
As I coast into Harold Black Park Easter Sunday morning, Phil is standing beside his new three-wheeled trike with Gary and Ed, two Niagara iCycle friends and riders. It’s a balmy 6 degrees, the sun is shining, and there are smiles all around.
My memory flashes back to last November. I’m watching Phil ride his two-wheeled e-bike unsteadily around the parking lot, concentration strained to the limit, before he announces, “I’m not going to ride today guys. I can’t keep my feet on the pedals.”
Phil has SPG-8, a rare and severe form of Hereditary Spastic Paraplegia. HSP is an inherited neurological disorder that is characterized by progressive weakness and spasticity (stiffness) of the legs.
In this parking lot five months ago, the nerves in Phil’s legs had deteriorated to the point that he was no longer sure of where his feet were in relation to his pedals or the ground, or how to place his feet on or off his pedals with certainty. Stopping for intersections or a rest would be risky and inescapably lead to significant falls.
Phil’s thoughts had immediately turned to finding an alternative, searching for a positive option to overcome this new obstacle, as he had done so often before. In his younger days as a competitive runner, when HSP had caused his feet to grow numb, he switched to cycling. As the disease progressed and he lost power in his legs, Phil next switched to an e-bike, allowing him to pedal at his own desired exertion level while maintaining or exceeding the group’s pace.
Now he is riding an e-trike.
Medical science has proven that significant health benefits are derived from positive thoughts and an optimistic attitude. A peer-reviewed research study led by Lisa R. Yanek of John Hopkins Medicine found, “People with a family history of heart disease who also had a positive outlook were one-third less likely to have a heart attack or other cardiovascular event within five to 25 years than those with a more negative outlook.”
Other studies suggest that a positive outlook can increase resistance to the inflammatory damage of stress-related illnesses such as infections, various respiratory conditions and cancer. Negative emotions have been found to weaken immune responses.
Positivity and hope fight depression, allowing us to make better life decisions and improving our coping skills, both of which contribute to better psychological and physical well-being.
Unfortunately only some of us are born as bright and bubbly glass-half-full optimists; for the rest being positive is a learnable skill. The first step to increasing positivity in one’s life is to believe in the benefits and commit to a path of incremental changes in attitude.
Once the decision to strive for a positive nature has been made, begin by consciously monitoring your own thoughts and attitudes to reframe negativity. Forget about the possibility Niagara Region may be uncomfortably overrun with eclipse-chasers next Monday— think instead how lucky we are that we can watch the eclipse from the comfort of our own doorsteps.
Identify those things in your life that you feel most negative about, and try to find positive new approaches to reduce their impact on you. Work on decreasing internal self-criticism. Don’t think or say anything to yourself or about yourself that you wouldn’t share out loud. Evaluate your negative thoughts rationally, not trying to justify them but with the purpose of replacing them with viewpoints and concepts that are uplifting.
You don’t realize how many good people there are
As your self-acceptance and positivity improve you will become less critical of the world around you, which can be a significant stress-reducing influence. Negativity is negativity whether you vocalize it or not.
Be proactive by changing your information inputs from negative to positive. Yes, it’s interesting to read or watch how Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have conned and divided their respective populations, but where’s any new or positive information in that? Read and absorb content about successes rather than failures.
The next step is to search out people with a positive approach and mindset, and engage them.
Positive people are easy to spot. Generally, they’re upbeat, and being in their company makes you feel good about yourself from deep inside. They’re confident, caring, and humble. Nothing is impossible to them. They anticipate and expect positive outcomes, and regularly face life with humour and self-effacing modesty.
Phil straps his compact collapsible cane to his trike’s carrier, carefully drops himself into its low-slung seat, and wriggles his cleated cycling shoes to the pedals. We ride south from Harold Black Park on Haist Street.
“This (cycling) is a godsend, that I can still do it,” he says, echoing the same words he spoke to me the first day we met, four years ago. He explains again that the camaraderie, being out with the guys, and the exercise cycling provides are the two biggest benefits he gets from his rides —no different than what any of us seek. Phil doesn’t seem to consider what his consistently positive approach gives to the rest of us in return.
We chat after the ride, and Phil mentions casually that he’s donated his rare DNA to McGill University’s world-renown CRISPR genome editing program to assist in finding an HSP cure for future generations. Next he explains that he frequently has to use a walker for mobility now, and it’s been educational.
“You don’t realize how many good people there are. People opening doors for you, helping to put the walker in the car, other things. There’s so many people that do that. You know, especially these days, there are so many good people out there,” he repeats.
Whether Phil’s addressing the importance of his iCycles friends, his wife’s assistance and encouragement, or the graciousness of total strangers, he’s always searching for and expressing the positives.
We catch up with Gary and Ed, and pedal quietly towards the Welland River, staying behind them for a few seconds. Phil looks over with an impudent smile and asks, “Should we pass them?” Before I can answer he’s gone, deftly threading his trike between the three of us and flying down the road like the delighted kid with a new toy that he is.
We should have expected nothing less from him.
