November 19, 2024 • 54 mins
In this inspiring episode of The Hope Matrix, Kathryn Goetzke sits down with Travis Davis, a passionate advocate for disability awareness and host of the podcast "Off the Crutch." Born with cerebral palsy, Travis shares his personal journey of overcoming numerous medical challenges and the pivotal role that hope has played in his life. He emphasizes the importance of positive thinking, mental health awareness, and the support of his family in fostering resilience.
Travis also discusses his entrepreneurial ventures and the need for greater inclusion in society, advocating for youth dealing with disabilities and bullying. Through candid conversations about therapy, stress management, and the power of community, Travis encourages listeners to cultivate hope and embrace their unique journeys. Join us for an uplifting dialogue that highlights the strength found in adversity and the transformative power of hope.
About Travis Davis:
Travis Davis is a disability advocate, consultant, and podcaster in Albuquerque, New Mexico. His "Off The Crutch" podcast includes personal experiences living with CP and interviews with others in the disability community. He was also born with cerebral palsy, which he has used to make an impact. His TEDx talk on social inclusion in education has helped educators not be afraid to ask questions about disabilities in the classroom. He enjoys helping others in the community by organizing adaptive sports events and through his podcast.
Find out more about Travis Davis and his work:
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(00:01):
This is Kathryn Goetzke,host of The Hope Matrix Podcast.
We are here to share science, storiesand strategies for how to hope.
I'm the Chief Hope officer of the ShineHope Company.
And SHINE is the mnemonicfor how we teach hope.
So when we talk about hope,we talk about how we use Stress Skills,
(00:22):
Happiness habits, Inspired Actions,Nourishing Networks
and Eliminating Challengeswhich are thinking patterns that
get in the way of our ability to hope.
Hope is a skill.
You can measure hope, you can teach hopeand you can start practicing skills
to activate higherhope in your life today.
(00:44):
And on this Hope Matrix podcast,we aim to bring in guests,
experts in science, people with stories,and those that have strategies
for activating hope in your life.
Well.
Hello, everyone.
This is Kathryn Goetzke,host of the Hope Matrix Podcast.
Welcome to the show. Today.
(01:05):
I am super grateful to have with ushere, Mr.
Travis Davis.
he is,he is a name that I can pronounce.
I'm super grateful for that. Off the bat.
yeah,but I'm really excited to have him here.
I am meeting Travisfor the first time now.
I mean that via LinkedIn,which I got to say, thanks to LinkedIn
(01:26):
for making so manyreally incredible connections and making,
I think people in the round the worldso accessible to us to have these
really important conversations.
And yeah, we're going to diveinto a conversation, with Travis
to learn more about Travis, his journeystory, and, how,
you know, how Hope has played a roleand specific skills
(01:48):
and strategies that you all and the worldcan use to activate hope in our lives.
So welcome to the show, Travis.
Thank you so much for being here.
Thank you so much for having me on.
I really appreciate it.
Yes. Amazing.
Well, let's let's dive into who is Travis?
Can you,tell me a little bit more about yourself?
(02:09):
Sure.
So I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
I was born and raised here.
I went to school in Southern California,got my bachelor's
in English at the Pacific University,and then I got my masters
at the University of New Mexicoand adopted physical education.
So, I was born with cerebral palsy,which is a birth defect,
(02:32):
and I also call it a physical disabilityin an affects my legs.
So there's three types of cerebral palsyin the CP
that I have is called spastic type.
So it just means that bothmy legs, are affected.
So I've had a 14 surgeriesfrom when I was born to, eighth grade.
(02:57):
and now the surgery is also included,open heart surgery when I was born,
because I had a hole in my heart.
Yeah.
And I also, have, hydrocephalus.
So for those of you who do not knowwhat hydrocephalus is, it's basically,
just, brain fluidthat needs to in an excess of brain fluid
(03:18):
that needs to get into,like, the other part of the body.
But I think like the stomach.
So I have what's called a deep shunt,a small, tiny catheter
that goes from my headdown to the stomach, and it regulates
the fluid. So, the hole in the heartand the hydrocephalus was independent
(03:40):
from the CPP.
So, yeah, I had, you know, I wasgrowing up, I'd see my podiatrist or not,
but my podiatrist, my pediatrician,I also see a for diabetes for my legs.
(04:00):
But, pediatrician and, you know,you told me at one
point that the doctors,some of them had just stopped,
operated on me because they didn'tthink I was going to live.
So, you know, and when you talkabout hope, it's like, you know what?
What,how much, more relevant is that of,
you know, not knowingif your son is going to live
(04:25):
and then having hope that he is.
And then as someone who liveswith the physical disability, you know, I,
you know, hope is intertwinedto everything that I do on a daily basis.
Wow. Yeah, absolutely.
and that's yeah, that's horribleto hear about the doctors
(04:46):
when there's a study around.
Hope that you're the physician'shope for patients is sometimes
more predictive of patient outcomesthan the patient's hope.
And so,you know, when doctors and physicians
and and give up hope on patients,I mean, I know so many people
that have overcome even whatthe doctor says through their own hope.
(05:09):
But you think about how many patientsthis affects because of the doctor's hope,
you know, getting the doctorsschooled on hope and hope science
and why it's so important for patientoutcomes to me,
not just like kids home so deeply.
yeah.
And, you know, sohow did were your parents, like, person?
(05:32):
I mean, they must have been very young.
You must have so much open.
You must be like, I'm going to. So.
But you're a tiny, right?
You're a baby or what age. Yeah,I was yeah.
I was born prematurely.
That's, one of the predictorsof having cerebral palsy or,
is being being born prematurely. So,you know, my, my
(05:58):
birthday's April 22nd,and so that is Earth Day.
I'm very grounded.
And so I think that also playsinto having hope.
So like, I'm very grounded in hope,grounded in my faith.
So that I think has served mereally well.
Yeah. That's amazing.
(06:18):
you know, my aim overall is justto normalize the conversation around
hopelessness because we all experiencemoments of hopelessness all the time.
when I got into the work, you know,I learned I, I survived a suicide attempt.
I lost my dad to suicidewhen when I was 18 years old.
So I set out on mission to reallyfigure out why do people die by suicide?
(06:41):
What makes some people stick aroundand and hope was the universal
kind of reason and hopelessness acrossall the studies
was the single consistentpredictor of suicide.
And then when I broke down hopelessnessand looking what that is,
it's it's emotional despair.
So you feel sadness, angry or afraidand it's a helplessness
to do anything about it.
(07:03):
So a powerlessness and we all experiencethose moments all the time.
It's reallyhow we navigate those moments that matter.
And the more moments of hopelessnesswe have,
the more likely we are to have clinicalanxiety and depression.
And so the more challenges we have,the more we have to be proactive
about the skills and what we doto practice and cultivate our hope.
(07:24):
Really.
and so in your life,I mean, thinking of all of the challenges,
you know, you have, I'm sure,so many moments of hopelessness.
And so how like, I mean, I'm.
Yeah, exploringhow you navigated those in healthy ways
and, like, were you intentional aboutknowing you had to practice skills
(07:46):
or was that just in you?
You know, I've been going totherapy since, 2015.
I say therapy, and that's very broadbecause I've had physical therapy,
you know, all types of therapywhen I say therapy, mental health.
(08:06):
And I think early onthe psychologists had identified
the things that I was doingas like survival methods of like,
I have gotten to this pointbecause I've had to, to use
survival tactics,in just because of my disability.
(08:31):
So just like innately figuring out how tosurvive to, like, live on my own or,
just do certain thingsbecause having a physical disability
definitely can weigh,weigh on your, your mental capacity to,
(08:54):
process how that ison top of living like your day to day
like life.
So it's figuringout how to manage your own,
stressand figuring out what having a disability
looks like on time on top of just,yeah, just your your daily life
(09:19):
activities. So.
I think I'm able to adapt in waysI probably wouldn't have
if I wasn't disabled. And,you know, I think there's
that point in which,you know, you realize where the,
(09:44):
where you've kind of been at your,your worst or the bottom.
And I think that to me was realizinghow grim it was when I was born,
because I don't remember it.
Right.
So, having the doctorsarticulate that to me, it's like, wow.
(10:06):
that really could have just been.
We could have just been.
And but it's not.
So I think.
Well, it's notI don't think it's healthy for me
to continue to like, ruminate on that, butat least it gives me a reference
to other situationswhere I feel hopeless and knowing, well,
(10:31):
I've already been through this.
It may not have beenthrough my own strength
because I was just a baby,but I got through it.
So I think I can gethave the strength to get through this.
Yeah.
And that'sand that's what we know about hope.
And that'swhy we actually write showing hope stories
and why we want to normalizethe conversation around it.
(10:52):
Like we all have challenges.
And you I mean, so many.
And so if we can write a storyfrom a challenge we've overcome
and think about the specific thingsand strategies we use to overcome,
and then in the futurewhen we have other challenges,
we can pull back on thatand know we can do hard things.
And even if you were just a baby,I mean, you had power within.
(11:15):
I mean, you're obviously a fighterand you had to
even though they were making decisions,you played a key role in that.
You know, so pretty amazing.
and talking about stress.
So the first to shine is the mnemonicfor how we talk about hope
and how we talk about practicingand cultivating skills.
And this is just based on the researchI've done from around the world, secondary
(11:38):
and primary research on hope and whatit takes to cultivate hope in our lives.
stress skills are the first.
Because, you know,when you think about the emotional despair
of hopelessness, like,how are we managing that?
We're either managing it in healthy ways,so we're either managing our sadness,
anger, fearin healthy ways, or we're turning
to things like addiction or self-harm,or which I did for a long time,
(12:00):
until I realized that I had to replace itwith healthy ways, you know?
So do you like do you have practicesor do you have things
you do to manage your stressors?
Yeah, yeah.
I think going to therapyweekly is really helpful for me
because I get great feedbackfrom my therapist.
(12:23):
And then you know, she gives me strategiesto like meditation
journaling breathwork.
So these things that can have a big impacton one's mental health.
So definitely that.
And then.
(12:44):
Learning ways in which I have,distorted thinking because that,
you know, identify, identify.
And that then allows me to be more presentwith my thoughts
and then it reduces my stress level.
Yeah, that's already,that's our eliminating challenges.
(13:07):
Just like kids.
The list is so long.
You know, of all of the ways our brain,you know, internalizing our failures
or trying to control thingsoutside of our controls or negative bias
or the automatic negative thoughts orthe rumination or the worry,
you know, kind of all of those, you know,kind of thinking, the distorted thinking,
(13:29):
attaching to outcomes,like it just drives that cycle
of helplessness and hopelessness.
And we then develop clinicalanxiety and depression.
You know, it's just so predictable and so,so it sounds like you use your stress
skills toget back into the present moment,
which is awesome.
(13:51):
So you're,you know, being proactive about that.
I think that's the,you know, we're not even taught as kids
that this is happening.
And those thought patternscontrol our lives for so long
until we really understand,like we we have power.
We have to learn to take kind ofcontrol of them and calm them down.
(14:11):
And, you know, are they helping usor are they just serving to distract us?
you know, and becoming aware,I think is so important.
That's great.
And did you just start doing themor have you been since therapy?
Have you beendid you do them as a younger kid or.
(14:31):
no, I, I didn't know as much.
And it wasn't until like 17, 18 years oldthat I was really interested
in, like psychologyin personal development to that.
I started reading booksand then it it just became clear to me,
(14:52):
and I had a better understandingthe more that I went to therapy.
And then,you know, having a good therapist.
And I've also had bad therapists.
And so, I was able to put the of,put that also in, practice
when I had that therapistto kind of manage my stress.
And it's very exciting.
(15:13):
So, I won't,I won't speak specifically about that,
but, but yeah,more so as, as an adult
with those strategies.
Yeah.
it's so importantto keep trying therapists
just because you know,like the first 1 or 10 or however,
(15:34):
you know, you'll find it's possibleto find someone.
So, they're all very different.
we connect with therapistson different levels.
So, Yeah, that's goodthat you are persistent in your pursuit.
so we're growing up.
I'm curious where kids kind to where they.
I mean,I feel like kids are so mean, like,
(15:55):
and things they don't know aboutor are scared of.
They're just mean, and I don'tI know, for me, growing up, like,
we didn't do a good job of talkingabout differences and people acceptance
and love and kindness, which.
Yeah, that's a great question.
And it's actually something that I've beendiscussing about over the past
(16:16):
couple weeks, coincidentally.
But so I grew up, going to a very small,parochial school.
So from kindergarten to eighth grade,and I was the only person
in the whole schoolfor those nine years with a disability.
So I had a really good support systemwith my friends and then people that,
(16:42):
I interacted with eitherthe grades higher or lower than me.
So that was really helpful.
I think another thing that was,beneficial was, you know, having my dad,
he would volunteer here and be,at the school a bunch during lunchtime.
So my friends got to know him, and,you know, it wasn't,
(17:04):
like, well, I'm here,so don't, you know, mess with me, right?
but but, so because my,my dad doesn't have that, personality.
Anyways, he's a very kind, individual.
So I think it justhelped the the students and my friends
just learn more about meand B be more comfortable.
(17:26):
But, you know, I remember in, P.E.,we would do kickball, and I
used for, crutches usually.
And, you know, obviouslyif I'm kicking the ball well, one,
I'm not going to kick it very farand then two, I'm not going to be able
to run to the base.
without getting out.
(17:46):
So, we had to work around,which was having one of my friends
run the base after I kicked the ball.
So, you know, that was a wayin which I think at the time,
now that I think about it,like empathy was being taught and,
put into action and,and so I, you know, I've,
(18:06):
I've been very luckyto have been like,
unscathed during my time.
Now, that's not to say I didn't have, badexperiences, but, you know,
I would say for the most part, it was,a relatively enjoyable experience for me.
(18:30):
Yeah. That's amazing.
I mean, yeah, really amazing.
And I'm so grateful to hear that.
And I think it's not the casewith so many kids, like so many
with disabilitiesfeel isolated, not included.
And to me, being innovative on how weand how we think about
inclusion is so critical.
(18:52):
especially when you look at violence,numbers increasing.
I mean, there's so much hopelessness anddepression, numbers, anxiety,
especially in our youth.
you know, if we want to havea healthy society that includes everyone.
And so being really intentional,that everyone does feel included
(19:13):
and that we're innovative,how we include people,
that would make people feel valuable and,and, and, and important to this world
because everyone is, you know,I just think it's so important.
So important.
So I'm glad to hear that that was,you know, a part of your experience
growing up.
And yeah, I think I wish we'd done morework of that in my community.
(19:38):
you know, so,and there was a there was a lot
I mean, we had a lot of diversityand stuff, but I don't I don't remember
that specifically being a part of it.
from the disability standpoint.
And I think that's so incrediblyimportant.
So, amazing.
What's your I'm curious,what's your life like now?
Like, what are you doing?
(20:00):
How how is lifeyou're living on your own, I'm assuming.
podcast. Yes.
So I have, a podcast called After Scratchwhere I share my experiences
living with, cerebral palsy,but then also interviewing people
in the disability community.
And, you know, when I started itfour years ago,
(20:21):
it was just something to dobecause of Covid and the lockdown.
And as I've gotten more,back into it,
you know, this idea of identifyingwhat are crutches
has really fascinated me because,you know, when you think of crutches,
(20:41):
we think of, you know,mobility aids or something that we use,
for a short amount of time and it's likewe have to work to get off our crutches.
But for myself,who needs, you know, for the majority
of the time that I am walking, you know,that's something that I, that I use.
But then also from a,figurative standpoint of,
(21:07):
you know,what are the mental crutches that we have
that are not allowing us to get past,you know, from point A to point B?
So, you know, being on this podcast and,you know, learning more about your work,
I think is very, parallel tothese ideas that I've, been
(21:29):
wrestling with, on my own journey.
And, like, you know,how can I help other people, like,
you're helping othersthrough this lens of hope, but,
you know, how can I help peoplethrough my lens of disability
and then also identifying,you know, what crutches people may have?
(21:50):
Because I thinkwhen we identify those roadblocks
and then figuring out a pathto move forward,
then that does provide somebodywith hope like that
does provide, a path through.
So, you know,I think this conversation is very timely
(22:11):
and again,parallel to the work that you're doing.
So, you know,the podcast is something that I've been,
focusing on and, yeah.
between that and just doing work arounddisability
awareness, talking to companies,helping them become more,
(22:32):
inclusive, I recently helpedget a basketball and smoothie
shop off the groundthat employs people with disabilities.
And so that was a really great experiencefor me to, work with my two friends.
Who are the franchise owners?
their daughter has a four year, theirdaughter is, four with Down's syndrome.
(22:55):
And so, you know, their missionto provide more employment
opportunities for people with disabilitiesreally resonated with me.
So being able, as someonewith an entrepreneurial spirit
to help in that manner and get that offthe ground was really,
you know, gratifying.
And for me, that's awesome.
(23:17):
Yeah. That's great. So important.
so good to hearthat you're working on that.
so it's good to know for people listeningthat if you want.
Travis,how can people can find you on LinkedIn?
Travis.
Yeah. Website.
yes.
So people can find me on LinkedIn,or they can go to Travis Davis
(23:37):
dot net, dot net.com.
or they can email me at Travis at TravisDavis dot net.
But yeah I'm pretty easy to get Ahold ofand accessible.
Yeah. That's amazing.
okay, so to the happiness habits.
So what do you do for dopamine oxytocin.
(23:59):
Serotonin.
How do youhow do you get them in your lives?
Like, I think working outhas been really an important role
to get,those types of good feelings in my body.
And then obviously drinking a lot ofwater, eating the foods that I need to,
(24:20):
and then having my positive thoughtsbecause I think it can be as I,
as I mentionedbefore, you have something that you
you live with that you didn't ask for.
it it can be very daunting andand very heavy.
So thinking, good thoughts.
(24:45):
havingjust positive influences in your life,
but I, I definitely enjoy,you know, working out.
I grew up playing wheelchair basketball.
So adaptive sports is is somethingthat has been a big part of my life.
And then, coaching wheelchair basketballtoo, was something that I really enjoyed.
(25:07):
So, you know, thinking about the typesof wellness,
opportunities out there for individualswith disabilities are, you know, more
so now.
But back, I don't know, maybe ten,15 years, maybe few and far between.
So being able totalk and like, mentor
(25:29):
kids with physical disabilities has been,something that I've enjoyed doing
in the past because, you know,I told them that that's a good way for
them to feel better about themselves.
And so it's like when you havethat foundation, as I'm sure you're,
well aware of when you have like,that foundation of happiness and the hope,
(25:54):
then you feel like you can do more things,you have more confidence.
And so it's like confidence for, you know,employment or whatever it may be.
So you're just like stacking stackand stacking, to get to your goals.
Yeah. Yeah.
And achieving goals, even tiny goalsreleases Doberman.
So it's like great to set goalsthat are achievable,
(26:17):
that you can actually kind of accomplishthat,
you know, starting with very little ones,even if it's just, you know,
whatever it is for whatever capacity.
how do you how do you find out about likefor people with disabilities?
How do they find places of recreation?
Or, I mean, yeah, that's great.
depending on where you live,there might be more opportunities
(26:43):
than others, but,you know, doing a Google search
on adaptive recreation or,adaptive PE, I mean, adaptive P
is usually in all of the public schools.
I, I'm assuming Chicago,because we have it here in
Chicago is a lot larger than Albuquerque.
(27:04):
But yeah, I'd sayinclusive recreation, adaptive sports,
something of that naturewill bring up, with those,
either programs or different appsthat are out there.
Now, I know that there's,other apps that people that I know
with disabilities have created.
(27:27):
So you could do exercises at home.
And it's it's really helpful for peoplewho don't have access or live
in more remote areaswhere those programs don't exist.
Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.
Very smart.
And we know that exercise releasesendorphins, and there's plenty of studies
(27:48):
that show they're as effectiveas depressants, if not more so.
So, yeah, really important toand again, the more challenges you have,
the more stress hormones you have.
And so the more happiness hormonesyou need to figure out how to get.
And so being intentional about thatand innovative
on how you get, is really critical.
(28:10):
so the I, we talked abouta little inspired actions having goals.
Do you have goals.
Do you set goals like what's your,life like your own goals?
Yeah, I so I just completed a goal.
I, I yeah, I know right.
Yeah. Yeah.
so I just got back from an eight day tripto Austin, Austin, Texas.
(28:37):
So was the first time that I had visited,and I went.
So I've lived in other places before, so,you know, that is nothing new to me,
but to go to a new placeby myself, in my wheelchair.
So the reason I specify that is, you know,I have forearm crutches, but for longer
(28:58):
distances, I will use a wheelchair.
And it can be very challengingto navigate.
like a city in a wheelchair is.
Other folks who might be listeningwho use wheelchairs will know.
so they're trying to figure out, like,what am I going to take?
(29:21):
How much am I going to take?
Figuring all that out was a challenge.
And then when I got there, it's like,okay, now that I'm here,
how like,how am I going to navigate everything?
And, you know, I would say, like,I was surprised
how smooth everything wentbecause nothing got broken.
(29:42):
I was able to get in and out of the Ubers.
you know,I was just hoping that I wouldn't,
like, go over a crack on a sidewalkand then break my.
You know, will, because that's happened.
I'm sure that's also happenedto strollers, too.
So, you know, wheelchairs are not just,you know,
(30:03):
the culprit of of that, but,so I had
a, I had a goal that I wanted to gothere and, you know, I came back with,
more confidence and, like,desire to do more traveling on my own.
And then as far as somethingthat I have yet
(30:25):
to accomplish, that is in the pipeline.
So I want to work on a, Well,I am working on a children's
book for my niece, who's two years old,and as I mentioned, I
has I've been an educatorand in the schools and what I've noticed
early on, at least at likethe middle school age, that students
(30:49):
were very curious about my disability,but they also were afraid
to ask questions. Yes.
And so having that conversation with themwas opened my eyes
to this whole world of like, wow,there must be other students like them
who feel the same way.
(31:11):
So that, gave me the inspirationfor my TEDx
talk that I gave on social inclusionand education, which,
you know, allowed me to have morespeaking opportunities and, and whatnot.
But when my niece was born, I realizedthat, I was going to be the first person
(31:33):
that she was going to have any experiencewith in regards to disability.
And I justshe loves to read, I get pictures
all the time of her,just like reading birds.
And, so, you know,that's that's what I'm working on.
And hopefully we can, I finished that upat the end of the, end of the year.
(31:58):
And so, you know, that's what's,that's what I'm working on now
and what I just recently accomplishedgoing to Austin.
Yeah. Wow.
That's amazing. And that's wonderful.
And that's exactlywhat I was talking about.
I mean, I think we're curiousand we don't know.
And if we're at allscared to do something with
that can come outas, like, anger making fun or whatever.
(32:21):
And it's like, quiet.
Like we need to open the conversationand be able to ask
questions and be curiousand do it in the right way.
So I love that you're doing that,and I can't wait to read that.
So you'll have to let me know.
Back to your tripto how much did you pack?
So I actually decidedto pack for half the amount of time
becausebringing two luggages, or
(32:49):
more than I could actually carry onwith my chair
didn't seem very practical to me.
So I also researched, you know, the hoteland whether they had laundry service.
So I'm just like, okay, perfect.
I'm just going to pack for halfand then halfway there
I'm going to do laundryand you know, it's going to be great.
And that's what happened.
That's what I did.
(33:09):
And it was the first timethat I've actually been on a trip
where everything went right.
I did not.
And if something did go wrong, it I didn'tI didn't even it didn't even affect me
because,yeah, I just I didn't have any issues.
(33:33):
Wow. That's amazing. Yeah.
I mean, it sounds likeyou planned ahead of time and you thought
through challenges you would haveand how you would navigate them and
and say you prepared well for it too.
So and that's there's another studyand hope that if you do that,
you think about a goaland you think about the challenges
you might have along the way,and you problem solve for it
(33:54):
before you even go after the goal.
Even if you have other challengesunrelated,
you still are better ableto navigate them and reach the goal.
So you're just living proof of that.
That's awesome.
Thank you. Yeah.
Super cool.
And then the end Nourishing Networksand you've talked about, you know,
you have a really strong group of friends,talked about your, your family.
(34:18):
who else is, part of your therapist?
What else is important in your network?
I think you,I think you, touched on all of that.
I will say that, the folksthat I connect with for my podcast
(34:40):
have been, like, really awesome.
and evenjust the, the friendships that I've made
from those conversations and meeting themthrough LinkedIn or social media
has really added,value to, to my life.
(35:02):
And I'm just really appreciative of that.
Yeah.
Let's say the name of your podcast again.
off the crutch.
Off the crutch. Awesome. By Travis Davis.
yeah.
That's amazing. What what kind of advice?
So say you know, you have a disabilityand kids are bullying you,
or you feel isolated or alone.
(35:23):
What what do you what can you do?
Who do youwhat's what recommendations do you have
especially for you?
yeah.
You know, my firstthought would be go to a teacher,
but I don't know how much.
(35:44):
You know,the assumption is, is that teachers and,
administrators have this, like, levelof understanding about bullying
and how to de-escalate the situation.
But how much knowledge dothey have about disability?
How much knowledge dothey have about disabilities?
(36:06):
And like bullying?
And I don't knowI don't know the answer to that.
But I also don't knowif it's as black and white as a stop.
You know, it's not nice to make funof somebody who looks different.
Like, I don't know if you de-escalatethe situation in that way.
I thinkhaving other people you can identify with.
(36:30):
So when I was playing wheelchairbasketball, that was the first time.
It was like 12 years old,the first time that I,
I actually met somebody with a disability.
So I went through like 12 years of likenot knowing anybody with a disability,
just me.
And so that was, you know,eye opening as well.
And, you know, my coach, he had polio.
(36:53):
So he was somebody that I could identifywith.
Like he didn't have CP,but he had a disability.
So yeah.
I think.
I would first reach out to peoplethat you can identify with
and see if there's,either a special education teacher
or if there's an adaptive,sport or recreation
(37:15):
organization that you can connect with,and just get I would go,
go and those, you know, those avenuesor even reach out to people
that may give those types of talks.
(37:36):
So I think that it's great,you know, you know, if
if it's happening to one person,then it's also more
than likely have been happeningin another, multiple people.
So instead of like how I got to the pointwhere I gave a talk
to the whole entire middle school backthen was because somebody
(37:56):
had brought it up into a classroom,class that I was teaching.
And so I had stoppedand talked to them about my disability.
And that was like 20 students.
But then I realized that it was probably,it probably went beyond 20 students.
So if the bullyingis happening to one student, it's
more than likely happening to more.
(38:17):
So we need to reach more people.
with this understanding of, hey,what you're doing bullying
and not having empathyis not conducive to you.
And it's also not conducive to the personthat you are traumatizing
or having those conversationswith because, at a certain point,
(38:44):
that individual will start to lose hope.
And that's not what we want.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
And we know the bullies are very hopelesstoo, you know.
So it's, it comes from a hopeless placeand then it just
creates more hopelessness.
So yeah. That's great.
So having someone into speak really important,
(39:07):
normalizing it, finding people aroundthat are like you, I would also say
like keep searching for,you know, adults like keep like,
you know, adults are flawed as welland you are not.
So don't give up on finding someonetrusted.
It's so importantthat we have trusted adults in our lives.
you know, for kidsthat have gone through trauma or feel is,
(39:29):
you know, it's,and yet we know it's so critical.
So there's, you know, some of our teachershave said less than half of the kids
in their classroom can identifyone trusted adult in their life.
and so, and that's just so sadfrom a societal standpoint.
And so, yeah, it's really important.
(39:50):
What can we do to be more inclusive,do you think?
What I mean,what would you like to see in the world?
well,I would say maybe selfishly,
that's what I enjoy doing,is talking to organizations, talking
to schools, to bringing that message of,you know, here's my story and here's how
(40:14):
I can help your school or your students.
So, you know, I, you know, whether it'swith you on this podcast or friends
that I know, I've always saidthat I'm here to be a resource
to just help other people.
And I think, my friends and peoplethat know me know that about me,
(40:35):
that I'm, I'm very generouswith, what I enjoy doing in that way.
But I think having more,more conversations on
why what is a disability like, how are we,you know, incorporating inclusiveness
(40:55):
in our classrooms?
no. Ienjoy talking to the private schools
more so than the public enjoys.
Maybe not the best word.
the differences that I've seenis that unlike,
(41:17):
the private schools, public schoolshave, like, special education programs.
So they'll have, like, best buddies or,more of they'll have the population
of individuals with disabilities where.
So in the private schools they don't.
So that's where I think I'm able to go inand be somebody that they've
maybe never seen before.
(41:40):
And that also helps them not,feel like they
maybe act out in sort of bullyingtendencies. But,
I think having moreand like that, like teachers
need more professional development.
That's, that would have advocating forbut like the, but teacher.
(42:05):
Yeah, yeah.
But I think, you know,those those conversations are helpful
to, you know, it's to not,you know, segment the students of like,
here, all the people that arein special education
(42:25):
or have these disabilities, like,have more integration and reach out to
to outside organizationslike Best Buddies, Special Olympics,
adaptive sport organizations.
trying to think of any othersoff the top of my head.
But yeah, outside organizationsbringing them in
(42:47):
like people have brought mein, from the outside.
So, I,I think that's a really good way to go.
Yeah, I love that.
Like creative integration.
You know? Yeah, I love it. It's so good.
And yeah, having the conversationsaround it, having an open,
you know, curiouskind of school environment.
(43:09):
I mean, we in our child mnemonic,we have under the nourishing networks
like the research on kindness compassion,empathy is all
so clear on why it's so important forour health and well-being.
and we have links to ton of those studies.
So, it's important that we cultivate thisin our, in our children and, to great.
Those are great suggestionsand ideas for how to do so.
(43:31):
yeah. Amazing.
And we already kind ofwent through the e eliminated challenges,
which are our negativethought patterns that
get in the way of our ability to help,which is some, you know, our mind is
sometimes our biggest challenge, of all.
And you talked about those stress skills.
Are there any anything elsethat you want to add to that?
do you like controlling thingsoutside of our control?
(43:56):
Is that been a big issue for me?
Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. 100%.
especially with the Austin trip,you know, I go back to it again, but,
I think the whole time I was just like,I'm going to go with it,
you know, and I releasedany control that I had for eight days.
(44:20):
And then,then I came back home and like, okay, I'm
back in control of everything now.
but, yeah, for those eight days,I'm like, I'm just going to go with it.
I'm going to be, patient.
I'm going to just, roll with the punches.
And that served me well.
(44:42):
You know, I, I think that added tohow much I enjoyed this city so much.
yeah.
What a greatwhat a great trip, but amazing.
Yeah.
And that you were intentionalabout it too.
So we're kind of aware of it.
And the more fear we have, the moreyou know, the more we want to control.
(45:02):
That's just such a ingrainedkind of mechanism.
So like understanding that and learninghow to like what is within my control
in this trip and what can't I controland how can I just kind of allow for that?
you know, before we get on,you talked a little bit about your faith.
How does that play a role in all of thisfor your,
(45:25):
Well, you know, I grew up Catholic,and I think that it
it it serves mebecause as I learned about,
my faith in Godgrowing up in parochial school,
having, like, the understanding.
(45:46):
And I'm just talking from like,a faith perspective.
So and individuals listeningwho may not share
the same values, itmay this may not resonate with them.
And that is totally fine.
But feeling that I wasI'm, I'm here for a purpose and that. God.
allowed me to be aliveeven though doctors gave up on me,
(46:08):
I think is very powerful.
So, you know, I feel like,you know,
my disability is the cross that I bear,but it's also
because I can't hide my disability.
So, you know, wherever I go, people know.
(46:29):
And so that sometimes gives themthe invitation to help me.
So, like yesterday, I was leaving,a restaurant after dessert.
And as I was walking out,somebody got out of their seat
and just went to the doorand opened it up for me.
And you know, that that actually happensquite a bit,
(46:57):
for whatever reason.
But, and I'm very grateful I,I have no problems
with people helping me, but,and I think that just speaks
to people's empathy and their desires to,just, just be very kind.
But I definitely feel like havingthe faith allows me to set
(47:20):
goals,to have hope, and to really move forward.
Yeah.
So doyou like it when people ask you about it,
help you in the streetor whatever to that?
I got that questionthe other day when I was guest
lecturing for, for a class.
(47:41):
And yeah, my response was,and for this, to
I think it comes with the territory.
So I, I didn't ask for this life,but at the same time, like,
I'm not going to go out of my waynot to acknowledge it.
And I think that, you know, bigpeople have their jobs right from 8 to 5,
(48:02):
and then they're just like offcall, like they're,
they're they're done after 5:00.
Like, you can't reach me like I'm doneuntil the next day.
Like I feel like I'm on call all the time.
So I'll go anywhere.
And I'm justsomebody has a conversation with me like,
you know, we can have that conversation.
So, I have gotten used to it.
(48:26):
I some days are better thanothers where I'm just like,
I, I do.
I want to engage right now.
I want to, but.
Yeah. yeah.
You know, it comes with the territory.
And if it's not me,then you know who else is going
to give them that knowledgeand have that conversation with them?
(48:48):
yeah.
Got it. amazing.
Is there anything else that you want,anyone, any of our listeners to know
or any information you want to share?
again, Travis Davis dot net.
That's. Yeah.
Travis Bateson like, no, I,I would just say that, you know,
(49:09):
whether you have a disability or not.
And if you're going througha difficult time,
you know, there are techniques,there are people and,
you know, as much as I'm sure it'scliche to say, like, it does get better
and everybody has the strengthinside of them to reach their goals
(49:29):
and their potential.
And, you know.
I wouldn't bewhere I am without that
and having that understanding and,you know, take it from somebody
who have maybenot have been alive and be here right
now, like I,I use that as motivation and,
(49:50):
to push forward.
So, you know, if you were to like,believe anybody
but don't believe that it's, you know,and you can be
you can be, definitely be hopefuland get to where you want to be.
walking miracle Travis.
(50:10):
yeah. That's amazing.
And, you know, it's a processI kind of think I get, I solve it,
and then I go back down,and then I somebody.
Yeah.
You know, for me, as an ongoing, I armwrestle with her, but it's like a muscle.
And you get better at itand think for time and practice
and learningfrom others that have gone through
similar experiences,you know, how do they navigate,
(50:31):
how can I navigate, more easily.
So I maybe don't sufferas much, but I'm also very,
you know, I'm very independent.
And so, you know, I like to learn thingsfor myself sometimes the hard way
is, but, Yeah, it's been such an honorto get to know you and to meet you.
(50:53):
I'm so grateful to you for taking the timeto share with me and our listeners
kind of some strategiesthat they can potentially incorporate
in their own livesor the lives of others, or ways
to be kinder and more compassionate humansand more open and inclusive.
I think it's so important, you know, rightnow, more so than ever.
(51:15):
so you sharing your storyreally helps kind of achieve that.
So thank you so much, Travis Davis.
and thank youall the listeners for listening in.
please do share this with others.
Spread the message.
You know, hopeis measurable and teachable.
And we have to practice and cultivateskills to become more hopeful.
And, you know, as we talked about,we learn from other people
(51:35):
so and other people's stories.
and so I'm really grateful to Travisfor sharing his today.
You're on this podcast.
So have a wonderful day.
Thank you so much. And don't forgetto keep shining. Thank you.
Thank you all for listening into the Hope Matrix podcast.
We want to shine a lightthat hope is teachable.
(51:57):
Hope is measurable and teachableand provide you with actionable insights
for how you can start activatinghope in your life today
and provide a framework so you can starttalking about hope with other people
and practice these skills togetherbecause we are better with hope.
Please feel freeto check out theshinehopecompany.com,
(52:18):
where we list all of our resources aroundhow to Hope.
We have a lot of free programsfor how to hope, including the five day
Challenge, our Hope infographicwith a lot of skills
that showcase how to hope and articlesof how to incorporate hope in your life.
We have The Hopebeat Weekly,which is a weekly newsletter
that shares strategies for hope.
(52:39):
We have a My Hope Story templates soyou can write your own Hope story today.
Also my Hope Hero so we can sharewhat our heroes are doing to activate
hope in their lives.
And this is especially good with youthso they can start looking up
to people that have overcome similaror challenges to them
(52:59):
and seen how these heroes use the ShineHope framework.
We have a Hopeful Minds for Teens programand Hopeful minds Overview
Educator Guides.
We have a new evidencebased college course so you can activate
Hope on the college campus.
There are programs in the workplace.
Overview courses 90 minute coursesfor learning the what,
why and how to hope.
(53:22):
What I want you to know about hopeis it's a skill.
You've got to practice these skillsto become hopeful.
It's easyto fall into despair and helplessness
when we deal with challenges in life,and it takes intentional work
and practice to get to hope.
And yet it is always possible.
So no matter what life brings.
Keep shining hope.
(53:43):
Thanks so much for listeningand have an awesome day.
And of course, I’ve got to add this, thatthis program is designed to assist you
in learning about hope should not be usedfor medical advice, counseling,
or other health related services.
iFred, The Shine Hope Company and myself,Kathryn Goetzke
do not endorse or provide any medicaladvice, diagnosis or treatment.
(54:04):
I am not a medical doctor.
The information provided hereshould not be used for the diagnosis
or treatment of any medical conditionand cannot be substituted
for the advice of physicians, licenseprofessionals or therapists
who are familiarwith your specific situation.
Consulta licensed medical profession or call 911.
(54:27):
If you are in need of immediate assistanceand be sure to know the crisis Hotline.
988. If you are in need of support.
Thanks so much for listening.
Take good care of yourselfand keep shining hope.
This is Kathryn Goetzke,host of The Hope Matrix Podcast.
We are here to share science, storiesand strategies for how to hope.
I'm the Chief Hope officer of the ShineHope Company.
And SHINE is the mnemonicfor how we teach hope.
So when we talk about hope,we talk about how we use Stress Skills,
(00:22):
Happiness habits, Inspired Actions,Nourishing Networks
and Eliminating Challengeswhich are thinking patterns that
get in the way of our ability to hope.
Hope is a skill.
You can measure hope, you can teach hopeand you can start practicing skills
to activate higherhope in your life today.
(00:44):
And on this Hope Matrix podcast,we aim to bring in guests,
experts in science, people with stories,and those that have strategies
for activating hope in your life.
Well.
Hello, everyone.
This is Kathryn Goetzke,host of the Hope Matrix Podcast.
Welcome to the show. Today.
(01:05):
I am super grateful to have with ushere, Mr.
Travis Davis.
he is,he is a name that I can pronounce.
I'm super grateful for that. Off the bat.
yeah,but I'm really excited to have him here.
I am meeting Travisfor the first time now.
I mean that via LinkedIn,which I got to say, thanks to LinkedIn
(01:26):
for making so manyreally incredible connections and making,
I think people in the round the worldso accessible to us to have these
really important conversations.
And yeah, we're going to diveinto a conversation, with Travis
to learn more about Travis, his journeystory, and, how,
you know, how Hope has played a roleand specific skills
(01:48):
and strategies that you all and the worldcan use to activate hope in our lives.
So welcome to the show, Travis.
Thank you so much for being here.
Thank you so much for having me on.
I really appreciate it.
Yes. Amazing.
Well, let's let's dive into who is Travis?
Can you,tell me a little bit more about yourself?
(02:09):
Sure.
So I live in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
I was born and raised here.
I went to school in Southern California,got my bachelor's
in English at the Pacific University,and then I got my masters
at the University of New Mexicoand adopted physical education.
So, I was born with cerebral palsy,which is a birth defect,
(02:32):
and I also call it a physical disabilityin an affects my legs.
So there's three types of cerebral palsyin the CP
that I have is called spastic type.
So it just means that bothmy legs, are affected.
So I've had a 14 surgeriesfrom when I was born to, eighth grade.
(02:57):
and now the surgery is also included,open heart surgery when I was born,
because I had a hole in my heart.
Yeah.
And I also, have, hydrocephalus.
So for those of you who do not knowwhat hydrocephalus is, it's basically,
just, brain fluidthat needs to in an excess of brain fluid
(03:18):
that needs to get into,like, the other part of the body.
But I think like the stomach.
So I have what's called a deep shunt,a small, tiny catheter
that goes from my headdown to the stomach, and it regulates
the fluid. So, the hole in the heartand the hydrocephalus was independent
(03:40):
from the CPP.
So, yeah, I had, you know, I wasgrowing up, I'd see my podiatrist or not,
but my podiatrist, my pediatrician,I also see a for diabetes for my legs.
(04:00):
But, pediatrician and, you know,you told me at one
point that the doctors,some of them had just stopped,
operated on me because they didn'tthink I was going to live.
So, you know, and when you talkabout hope, it's like, you know what?
What,how much, more relevant is that of,
you know, not knowingif your son is going to live
(04:25):
and then having hope that he is.
And then as someone who liveswith the physical disability, you know, I,
you know, hope is intertwinedto everything that I do on a daily basis.
Wow. Yeah, absolutely.
and that's yeah, that's horribleto hear about the doctors
(04:46):
when there's a study around.
Hope that you're the physician'shope for patients is sometimes
more predictive of patient outcomesthan the patient's hope.
And so,you know, when doctors and physicians
and and give up hope on patients,I mean, I know so many people
that have overcome even whatthe doctor says through their own hope.
(05:09):
But you think about how many patientsthis affects because of the doctor's hope,
you know, getting the doctorsschooled on hope and hope science
and why it's so important for patientoutcomes to me,
not just like kids home so deeply.
yeah.
And, you know, sohow did were your parents, like, person?
(05:32):
I mean, they must have been very young.
You must have so much open.
You must be like, I'm going to. So.
But you're a tiny, right?
You're a baby or what age. Yeah,I was yeah.
I was born prematurely.
That's, one of the predictorsof having cerebral palsy or,
is being being born prematurely. So,you know, my, my
(05:58):
birthday's April 22nd,and so that is Earth Day.
I'm very grounded.
And so I think that also playsinto having hope.
So like, I'm very grounded in hope,grounded in my faith.
So that I think has served mereally well.
Yeah. That's amazing.
(06:18):
you know, my aim overall is justto normalize the conversation around
hopelessness because we all experiencemoments of hopelessness all the time.
when I got into the work, you know,I learned I, I survived a suicide attempt.
I lost my dad to suicidewhen when I was 18 years old.
So I set out on mission to reallyfigure out why do people die by suicide?
(06:41):
What makes some people stick aroundand and hope was the universal
kind of reason and hopelessness acrossall the studies
was the single consistentpredictor of suicide.
And then when I broke down hopelessnessand looking what that is,
it's it's emotional despair.
So you feel sadness, angry or afraidand it's a helplessness
to do anything about it.
(07:03):
So a powerlessness and we all experiencethose moments all the time.
It's reallyhow we navigate those moments that matter.
And the more moments of hopelessnesswe have,
the more likely we are to have clinicalanxiety and depression.
And so the more challenges we have,the more we have to be proactive
about the skills and what we doto practice and cultivate our hope.
(07:24):
Really.
and so in your life,I mean, thinking of all of the challenges,
you know, you have, I'm sure,so many moments of hopelessness.
And so how like, I mean, I'm.
Yeah, exploringhow you navigated those in healthy ways
and, like, were you intentional aboutknowing you had to practice skills
(07:46):
or was that just in you?
You know, I've been going totherapy since, 2015.
I say therapy, and that's very broadbecause I've had physical therapy,
you know, all types of therapywhen I say therapy, mental health.
(08:06):
And I think early onthe psychologists had identified
the things that I was doingas like survival methods of like,
I have gotten to this pointbecause I've had to, to use
survival tactics,in just because of my disability.
(08:31):
So just like innately figuring out how tosurvive to, like, live on my own or,
just do certain thingsbecause having a physical disability
definitely can weigh,weigh on your, your mental capacity to,
(08:54):
process how that ison top of living like your day to day
like life.
So it's figuringout how to manage your own,
stressand figuring out what having a disability
looks like on time on top of just,yeah, just your your daily life
(09:19):
activities. So.
I think I'm able to adapt in waysI probably wouldn't have
if I wasn't disabled. And,you know, I think there's
that point in which,you know, you realize where the,
(09:44):
where you've kind of been at your,your worst or the bottom.
And I think that to me was realizinghow grim it was when I was born,
because I don't remember it.
Right.
So, having the doctorsarticulate that to me, it's like, wow.
(10:06):
that really could have just been.
We could have just been.
And but it's not.
So I think.
Well, it's notI don't think it's healthy for me
to continue to like, ruminate on that, butat least it gives me a reference
to other situationswhere I feel hopeless and knowing, well,
(10:31):
I've already been through this.
It may not have beenthrough my own strength
because I was just a baby,but I got through it.
So I think I can gethave the strength to get through this.
Yeah.
And that'sand that's what we know about hope.
And that'swhy we actually write showing hope stories
and why we want to normalizethe conversation around it.
(10:52):
Like we all have challenges.
And you I mean, so many.
And so if we can write a storyfrom a challenge we've overcome
and think about the specific thingsand strategies we use to overcome,
and then in the futurewhen we have other challenges,
we can pull back on thatand know we can do hard things.
And even if you were just a baby,I mean, you had power within.
(11:15):
I mean, you're obviously a fighterand you had to
even though they were making decisions,you played a key role in that.
You know, so pretty amazing.
and talking about stress.
So the first to shine is the mnemonicfor how we talk about hope
and how we talk about practicingand cultivating skills.
And this is just based on the researchI've done from around the world, secondary
(11:38):
and primary research on hope and whatit takes to cultivate hope in our lives.
stress skills are the first.
Because, you know,when you think about the emotional despair
of hopelessness, like,how are we managing that?
We're either managing it in healthy ways,so we're either managing our sadness,
anger, fearin healthy ways, or we're turning
to things like addiction or self-harm,or which I did for a long time,
(12:00):
until I realized that I had to replace itwith healthy ways, you know?
So do you like do you have practicesor do you have things
you do to manage your stressors?
Yeah, yeah.
I think going to therapyweekly is really helpful for me
because I get great feedbackfrom my therapist.
(12:23):
And then you know, she gives me strategiesto like meditation
journaling breathwork.
So these things that can have a big impacton one's mental health.
So definitely that.
And then.
(12:44):
Learning ways in which I have,distorted thinking because that,
you know, identify, identify.
And that then allows me to be more presentwith my thoughts
and then it reduces my stress level.
Yeah, that's already,that's our eliminating challenges.
(13:07):
Just like kids.
The list is so long.
You know, of all of the ways our brain,you know, internalizing our failures
or trying to control thingsoutside of our controls or negative bias
or the automatic negative thoughts orthe rumination or the worry,
you know, kind of all of those, you know,kind of thinking, the distorted thinking,
(13:29):
attaching to outcomes,like it just drives that cycle
of helplessness and hopelessness.
And we then develop clinicalanxiety and depression.
You know, it's just so predictable and so,so it sounds like you use your stress
skills toget back into the present moment,
which is awesome.
(13:51):
So you're,you know, being proactive about that.
I think that's the,you know, we're not even taught as kids
that this is happening.
And those thought patternscontrol our lives for so long
until we really understand,like we we have power.
We have to learn to take kind ofcontrol of them and calm them down.
(14:11):
And, you know, are they helping usor are they just serving to distract us?
you know, and becoming aware,I think is so important.
That's great.
And did you just start doing themor have you been since therapy?
Have you beendid you do them as a younger kid or.
(14:31):
no, I, I didn't know as much.
And it wasn't until like 17, 18 years oldthat I was really interested
in, like psychologyin personal development to that.
I started reading booksand then it it just became clear to me,
(14:52):
and I had a better understandingthe more that I went to therapy.
And then,you know, having a good therapist.
And I've also had bad therapists.
And so, I was able to put the of,put that also in, practice
when I had that therapistto kind of manage my stress.
And it's very exciting.
(15:13):
So, I won't,I won't speak specifically about that,
but, but yeah,more so as, as an adult
with those strategies.
Yeah.
it's so importantto keep trying therapists
just because you know,like the first 1 or 10 or however,
(15:34):
you know, you'll find it's possibleto find someone.
So, they're all very different.
we connect with therapistson different levels.
So, Yeah, that's goodthat you are persistent in your pursuit.
so we're growing up.
I'm curious where kids kind to where they.
I mean,I feel like kids are so mean, like,
(15:55):
and things they don't know aboutor are scared of.
They're just mean, and I don'tI know, for me, growing up, like,
we didn't do a good job of talkingabout differences and people acceptance
and love and kindness, which.
Yeah, that's a great question.
And it's actually something that I've beendiscussing about over the past
(16:16):
couple weeks, coincidentally.
But so I grew up, going to a very small,parochial school.
So from kindergarten to eighth grade,and I was the only person
in the whole schoolfor those nine years with a disability.
So I had a really good support systemwith my friends and then people that,
(16:42):
I interacted with eitherthe grades higher or lower than me.
So that was really helpful.
I think another thing that was,beneficial was, you know, having my dad,
he would volunteer here and be,at the school a bunch during lunchtime.
So my friends got to know him, and,you know, it wasn't,
(17:04):
like, well, I'm here,so don't, you know, mess with me, right?
but but, so because my,my dad doesn't have that, personality.
Anyways, he's a very kind, individual.
So I think it justhelped the the students and my friends
just learn more about meand B be more comfortable.
(17:26):
But, you know, I remember in, P.E.,we would do kickball, and I
used for, crutches usually.
And, you know, obviouslyif I'm kicking the ball well, one,
I'm not going to kick it very farand then two, I'm not going to be able
to run to the base.
without getting out.
(17:46):
So, we had to work around,which was having one of my friends
run the base after I kicked the ball.
So, you know, that was a wayin which I think at the time,
now that I think about it,like empathy was being taught and,
put into action and,and so I, you know, I've,
(18:06):
I've been very luckyto have been like,
unscathed during my time.
Now, that's not to say I didn't have, badexperiences, but, you know,
I would say for the most part, it was,a relatively enjoyable experience for me.
(18:30):
Yeah. That's amazing.
I mean, yeah, really amazing.
And I'm so grateful to hear that.
And I think it's not the casewith so many kids, like so many
with disabilitiesfeel isolated, not included.
And to me, being innovative on how weand how we think about
inclusion is so critical.
(18:52):
especially when you look at violence,numbers increasing.
I mean, there's so much hopelessness anddepression, numbers, anxiety,
especially in our youth.
you know, if we want to havea healthy society that includes everyone.
And so being really intentional,that everyone does feel included
(19:13):
and that we're innovative,how we include people,
that would make people feel valuable and,and, and, and important to this world
because everyone is, you know,I just think it's so important.
So important.
So I'm glad to hear that that was,you know, a part of your experience
growing up.
And yeah, I think I wish we'd done morework of that in my community.
(19:38):
you know, so,and there was a there was a lot
I mean, we had a lot of diversityand stuff, but I don't I don't remember
that specifically being a part of it.
from the disability standpoint.
And I think that's so incrediblyimportant.
So, amazing.
What's your I'm curious,what's your life like now?
Like, what are you doing?
(20:00):
How how is lifeyou're living on your own, I'm assuming.
podcast. Yes.
So I have, a podcast called After Scratchwhere I share my experiences
living with, cerebral palsy,but then also interviewing people
in the disability community.
And, you know, when I started itfour years ago,
(20:21):
it was just something to dobecause of Covid and the lockdown.
And as I've gotten more,back into it,
you know, this idea of identifyingwhat are crutches
has really fascinated me because,you know, when you think of crutches,
(20:41):
we think of, you know,mobility aids or something that we use,
for a short amount of time and it's likewe have to work to get off our crutches.
But for myself,who needs, you know, for the majority
of the time that I am walking, you know,that's something that I, that I use.
But then also from a,figurative standpoint of,
(21:07):
you know,what are the mental crutches that we have
that are not allowing us to get past,you know, from point A to point B?
So, you know, being on this podcast and,you know, learning more about your work,
I think is very, parallel tothese ideas that I've, been
(21:29):
wrestling with, on my own journey.
And, like, you know,how can I help other people, like,
you're helping othersthrough this lens of hope, but,
you know, how can I help peoplethrough my lens of disability
and then also identifying,you know, what crutches people may have?
(21:50):
Because I thinkwhen we identify those roadblocks
and then figuring out a pathto move forward,
then that does provide somebodywith hope like that
does provide, a path through.
So, you know,I think this conversation is very timely
(22:11):
and again,parallel to the work that you're doing.
So, you know,the podcast is something that I've been,
focusing on and, yeah.
between that and just doing work arounddisability
awareness, talking to companies,helping them become more,
(22:32):
inclusive, I recently helpedget a basketball and smoothie
shop off the groundthat employs people with disabilities.
And so that was a really great experiencefor me to, work with my two friends.
Who are the franchise owners?
their daughter has a four year, theirdaughter is, four with Down's syndrome.
(22:55):
And so, you know, their missionto provide more employment
opportunities for people with disabilitiesreally resonated with me.
So being able, as someonewith an entrepreneurial spirit
to help in that manner and get that offthe ground was really,
you know, gratifying.
And for me, that's awesome.
(23:17):
Yeah. That's great. So important.
so good to hearthat you're working on that.
so it's good to know for people listeningthat if you want.
Travis,how can people can find you on LinkedIn?
Travis.
Yeah. Website.
yes.
So people can find me on LinkedIn,or they can go to Travis Davis
(23:37):
dot net, dot net.com.
or they can email me at Travis at TravisDavis dot net.
But yeah I'm pretty easy to get Ahold ofand accessible.
Yeah. That's amazing.
okay, so to the happiness habits.
So what do you do for dopamine oxytocin.
(23:59):
Serotonin.
How do youhow do you get them in your lives?
Like, I think working outhas been really an important role
to get,those types of good feelings in my body.
And then obviously drinking a lot ofwater, eating the foods that I need to,
(24:20):
and then having my positive thoughtsbecause I think it can be as I,
as I mentionedbefore, you have something that you
you live with that you didn't ask for.
it it can be very daunting andand very heavy.
So thinking, good thoughts.
(24:45):
havingjust positive influences in your life,
but I, I definitely enjoy,you know, working out.
I grew up playing wheelchair basketball.
So adaptive sports is is somethingthat has been a big part of my life.
And then, coaching wheelchair basketballtoo, was something that I really enjoyed.
(25:07):
So, you know, thinking about the typesof wellness,
opportunities out there for individualswith disabilities are, you know, more
so now.
But back, I don't know, maybe ten,15 years, maybe few and far between.
So being able totalk and like, mentor
(25:29):
kids with physical disabilities has been,something that I've enjoyed doing
in the past because, you know,I told them that that's a good way for
them to feel better about themselves.
And so it's like when you havethat foundation, as I'm sure you're,
well aware of when you have like,that foundation of happiness and the hope,
(25:54):
then you feel like you can do more things,you have more confidence.
And so it's like confidence for, you know,employment or whatever it may be.
So you're just like stacking stackand stacking, to get to your goals.
Yeah. Yeah.
And achieving goals, even tiny goalsreleases Doberman.
So it's like great to set goalsthat are achievable,
(26:17):
that you can actually kind of accomplishthat,
you know, starting with very little ones,even if it's just, you know,
whatever it is for whatever capacity.
how do you how do you find out about likefor people with disabilities?
How do they find places of recreation?
Or, I mean, yeah, that's great.
depending on where you live,there might be more opportunities
(26:43):
than others, but,you know, doing a Google search
on adaptive recreation or,adaptive PE, I mean, adaptive P
is usually in all of the public schools.
I, I'm assuming Chicago,because we have it here in
Chicago is a lot larger than Albuquerque.
(27:04):
But yeah, I'd sayinclusive recreation, adaptive sports,
something of that naturewill bring up, with those,
either programs or different appsthat are out there.
Now, I know that there's,other apps that people that I know
with disabilities have created.
(27:27):
So you could do exercises at home.
And it's it's really helpful for peoplewho don't have access or live
in more remote areaswhere those programs don't exist.
Yeah. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.
Very smart.
And we know that exercise releasesendorphins, and there's plenty of studies
(27:48):
that show they're as effectiveas depressants, if not more so.
So, yeah, really important toand again, the more challenges you have,
the more stress hormones you have.
And so the more happiness hormonesyou need to figure out how to get.
And so being intentional about thatand innovative
on how you get, is really critical.
(28:10):
so the I, we talked abouta little inspired actions having goals.
Do you have goals.
Do you set goals like what's your,life like your own goals?
Yeah, I so I just completed a goal.
I, I yeah, I know right.
Yeah. Yeah.
so I just got back from an eight day tripto Austin, Austin, Texas.
(28:37):
So was the first time that I had visited,and I went.
So I've lived in other places before, so,you know, that is nothing new to me,
but to go to a new placeby myself, in my wheelchair.
So the reason I specify that is, you know,I have forearm crutches, but for longer
(28:58):
distances, I will use a wheelchair.
And it can be very challengingto navigate.
like a city in a wheelchair is.
Other folks who might be listeningwho use wheelchairs will know.
so they're trying to figure out, like,what am I going to take?
(29:21):
How much am I going to take?
Figuring all that out was a challenge.
And then when I got there, it's like,okay, now that I'm here,
how like,how am I going to navigate everything?
And, you know, I would say, like,I was surprised
how smooth everything wentbecause nothing got broken.
(29:42):
I was able to get in and out of the Ubers.
you know,I was just hoping that I wouldn't,
like, go over a crack on a sidewalkand then break my.
You know, will, because that's happened.
I'm sure that's also happenedto strollers, too.
So, you know, wheelchairs are not just,you know,
(30:03):
the culprit of of that, but,so I had
a, I had a goal that I wanted to gothere and, you know, I came back with,
more confidence and, like,desire to do more traveling on my own.
And then as far as somethingthat I have yet
(30:25):
to accomplish, that is in the pipeline.
So I want to work on a, Well,I am working on a children's
book for my niece, who's two years old,and as I mentioned, I
has I've been an educatorand in the schools and what I've noticed
early on, at least at likethe middle school age, that students
(30:49):
were very curious about my disability,but they also were afraid
to ask questions. Yes.
And so having that conversation with themwas opened my eyes
to this whole world of like, wow,there must be other students like them
who feel the same way.
(31:11):
So that, gave me the inspirationfor my TEDx
talk that I gave on social inclusionand education, which,
you know, allowed me to have morespeaking opportunities and, and whatnot.
But when my niece was born, I realizedthat, I was going to be the first person
(31:33):
that she was going to have any experiencewith in regards to disability.
And I justshe loves to read, I get pictures
all the time of her,just like reading birds.
And, so, you know,that's that's what I'm working on.
And hopefully we can, I finished that upat the end of the, end of the year.
(31:58):
And so, you know, that's what's,that's what I'm working on now
and what I just recently accomplishedgoing to Austin.
Yeah. Wow.
That's amazing. And that's wonderful.
And that's exactlywhat I was talking about.
I mean, I think we're curiousand we don't know.
And if we're at allscared to do something with
that can come outas, like, anger making fun or whatever.
(32:21):
And it's like, quiet.
Like we need to open the conversationand be able to ask
questions and be curiousand do it in the right way.
So I love that you're doing that,and I can't wait to read that.
So you'll have to let me know.
Back to your tripto how much did you pack?
So I actually decidedto pack for half the amount of time
becausebringing two luggages, or
(32:49):
more than I could actually carry onwith my chair
didn't seem very practical to me.
So I also researched, you know, the hoteland whether they had laundry service.
So I'm just like, okay, perfect.
I'm just going to pack for halfand then halfway there
I'm going to do laundryand you know, it's going to be great.
And that's what happened.
That's what I did.
(33:09):
And it was the first timethat I've actually been on a trip
where everything went right.
I did not.
And if something did go wrong, it I didn'tI didn't even it didn't even affect me
because,yeah, I just I didn't have any issues.
(33:33):
Wow. That's amazing. Yeah.
I mean, it sounds likeyou planned ahead of time and you thought
through challenges you would haveand how you would navigate them and
and say you prepared well for it too.
So and that's there's another studyand hope that if you do that,
you think about a goaland you think about the challenges
you might have along the way,and you problem solve for it
(33:54):
before you even go after the goal.
Even if you have other challengesunrelated,
you still are better ableto navigate them and reach the goal.
So you're just living proof of that.
That's awesome.
Thank you. Yeah.
Super cool.
And then the end Nourishing Networksand you've talked about, you know,
you have a really strong group of friends,talked about your, your family.
(34:18):
who else is, part of your therapist?
What else is important in your network?
I think you,I think you, touched on all of that.
I will say that, the folksthat I connect with for my podcast
(34:40):
have been, like, really awesome.
and evenjust the, the friendships that I've made
from those conversations and meeting themthrough LinkedIn or social media
has really added,value to, to my life.
(35:02):
And I'm just really appreciative of that.
Yeah.
Let's say the name of your podcast again.
off the crutch.
Off the crutch. Awesome. By Travis Davis.
yeah.
That's amazing. What what kind of advice?
So say you know, you have a disabilityand kids are bullying you,
or you feel isolated or alone.
(35:23):
What what do you what can you do?
Who do youwhat's what recommendations do you have
especially for you?
yeah.
You know, my firstthought would be go to a teacher,
but I don't know how much.
(35:44):
You know,the assumption is, is that teachers and,
administrators have this, like, levelof understanding about bullying
and how to de-escalate the situation.
But how much knowledge dothey have about disability?
How much knowledge dothey have about disabilities?
(36:06):
And like bullying?
And I don't knowI don't know the answer to that.
But I also don't knowif it's as black and white as a stop.
You know, it's not nice to make funof somebody who looks different.
Like, I don't know if you de-escalatethe situation in that way.
I thinkhaving other people you can identify with.
(36:30):
So when I was playing wheelchairbasketball, that was the first time.
It was like 12 years old,the first time that I,
I actually met somebody with a disability.
So I went through like 12 years of likenot knowing anybody with a disability,
just me.
And so that was, you know,eye opening as well.
And, you know, my coach, he had polio.
(36:53):
So he was somebody that I could identifywith.
Like he didn't have CP,but he had a disability.
So yeah.
I think.
I would first reach out to peoplethat you can identify with
and see if there's,either a special education teacher
or if there's an adaptive,sport or recreation
(37:15):
organization that you can connect with,and just get I would go,
go and those, you know, those avenuesor even reach out to people
that may give those types of talks.
(37:36):
So I think that it's great,you know, you know, if
if it's happening to one person,then it's also more
than likely have been happeningin another, multiple people.
So instead of like how I got to the pointwhere I gave a talk
to the whole entire middle school backthen was because somebody
(37:56):
had brought it up into a classroom,class that I was teaching.
And so I had stoppedand talked to them about my disability.
And that was like 20 students.
But then I realized that it was probably,it probably went beyond 20 students.
So if the bullyingis happening to one student, it's
more than likely happening to more.
(38:17):
So we need to reach more people.
with this understanding of, hey,what you're doing bullying
and not having empathyis not conducive to you.
And it's also not conducive to the personthat you are traumatizing
or having those conversationswith because, at a certain point,
(38:44):
that individual will start to lose hope.
And that's not what we want.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
And we know the bullies are very hopelesstoo, you know.
So it's, it comes from a hopeless placeand then it just
creates more hopelessness.
So yeah. That's great.
So having someone into speak really important,
(39:07):
normalizing it, finding people aroundthat are like you, I would also say
like keep searching for,you know, adults like keep like,
you know, adults are flawed as welland you are not.
So don't give up on finding someonetrusted.
It's so importantthat we have trusted adults in our lives.
you know, for kidsthat have gone through trauma or feel is,
(39:29):
you know, it's,and yet we know it's so critical.
So there's, you know, some of our teachershave said less than half of the kids
in their classroom can identifyone trusted adult in their life.
and so, and that's just so sadfrom a societal standpoint.
And so, yeah, it's really important.
(39:50):
What can we do to be more inclusive,do you think?
What I mean,what would you like to see in the world?
well,I would say maybe selfishly,
that's what I enjoy doing,is talking to organizations, talking
to schools, to bringing that message of,you know, here's my story and here's how
(40:14):
I can help your school or your students.
So, you know, I, you know, whether it'swith you on this podcast or friends
that I know, I've always saidthat I'm here to be a resource
to just help other people.
And I think, my friends and peoplethat know me know that about me,
(40:35):
that I'm, I'm very generouswith, what I enjoy doing in that way.
But I think having more,more conversations on
why what is a disability like, how are we,you know, incorporating inclusiveness
(40:55):
in our classrooms?
no. Ienjoy talking to the private schools
more so than the public enjoys.
Maybe not the best word.
the differences that I've seenis that unlike,
(41:17):
the private schools, public schoolshave, like, special education programs.
So they'll have, like, best buddies or,more of they'll have the population
of individuals with disabilities where.
So in the private schools they don't.
So that's where I think I'm able to go inand be somebody that they've
maybe never seen before.
(41:40):
And that also helps them not,feel like they
maybe act out in sort of bullyingtendencies. But,
I think having moreand like that, like teachers
need more professional development.
That's, that would have advocating forbut like the, but teacher.
(42:05):
Yeah, yeah.
But I think, you know,those those conversations are helpful
to, you know, it's to not,you know, segment the students of like,
here, all the people that arein special education
(42:25):
or have these disabilities, like,have more integration and reach out to
to outside organizationslike Best Buddies, Special Olympics,
adaptive sport organizations.
trying to think of any othersoff the top of my head.
But yeah, outside organizationsbringing them in
(42:47):
like people have brought mein, from the outside.
So, I,I think that's a really good way to go.
Yeah, I love that.
Like creative integration.
You know? Yeah, I love it. It's so good.
And yeah, having the conversationsaround it, having an open,
you know, curiouskind of school environment.
(43:09):
I mean, we in our child mnemonic,we have under the nourishing networks
like the research on kindness compassion,empathy is all
so clear on why it's so important forour health and well-being.
and we have links to ton of those studies.
So, it's important that we cultivate thisin our, in our children and, to great.
Those are great suggestionsand ideas for how to do so.
(43:31):
yeah. Amazing.
And we already kind ofwent through the e eliminated challenges,
which are our negativethought patterns that
get in the way of our ability to help,which is some, you know, our mind is
sometimes our biggest challenge, of all.
And you talked about those stress skills.
Are there any anything elsethat you want to add to that?
do you like controlling thingsoutside of our control?
(43:56):
Is that been a big issue for me?
Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. 100%.
especially with the Austin trip,you know, I go back to it again, but,
I think the whole time I was just like,I'm going to go with it,
you know, and I releasedany control that I had for eight days.
(44:20):
And then,then I came back home and like, okay, I'm
back in control of everything now.
but, yeah, for those eight days,I'm like, I'm just going to go with it.
I'm going to be, patient.
I'm going to just, roll with the punches.
And that served me well.
(44:42):
You know, I, I think that added tohow much I enjoyed this city so much.
yeah.
What a greatwhat a great trip, but amazing.
Yeah.
And that you were intentionalabout it too.
So we're kind of aware of it.
And the more fear we have, the moreyou know, the more we want to control.
(45:02):
That's just such a ingrainedkind of mechanism.
So like understanding that and learninghow to like what is within my control
in this trip and what can't I controland how can I just kind of allow for that?
you know, before we get on,you talked a little bit about your faith.
How does that play a role in all of thisfor your,
(45:25):
Well, you know, I grew up Catholic,and I think that it
it it serves mebecause as I learned about,
my faith in Godgrowing up in parochial school,
having, like, the understanding.
(45:46):
And I'm just talking from like,a faith perspective.
So and individuals listeningwho may not share
the same values, itmay this may not resonate with them.
And that is totally fine.
But feeling that I wasI'm, I'm here for a purpose and that. God.
allowed me to be aliveeven though doctors gave up on me,
(46:08):
I think is very powerful.
So, you know, I feel like,you know,
my disability is the cross that I bear,but it's also
because I can't hide my disability.
So, you know, wherever I go, people know.
(46:29):
And so that sometimes gives themthe invitation to help me.
So, like yesterday, I was leaving,a restaurant after dessert.
And as I was walking out,somebody got out of their seat
and just went to the doorand opened it up for me.
And you know, that that actually happensquite a bit,
(46:57):
for whatever reason.
But, and I'm very grateful I,I have no problems
with people helping me, but,and I think that just speaks
to people's empathy and their desires to,just, just be very kind.
But I definitely feel like havingthe faith allows me to set
(47:20):
goals,to have hope, and to really move forward.
Yeah.
So doyou like it when people ask you about it,
help you in the streetor whatever to that?
I got that questionthe other day when I was guest
lecturing for, for a class.
(47:41):
And yeah, my response was,and for this, to
I think it comes with the territory.
So I, I didn't ask for this life,but at the same time, like,
I'm not going to go out of my waynot to acknowledge it.
And I think that, you know, bigpeople have their jobs right from 8 to 5,
(48:02):
and then they're just like offcall, like they're,
they're they're done after 5:00.
Like, you can't reach me like I'm doneuntil the next day.
Like I feel like I'm on call all the time.
So I'll go anywhere.
And I'm justsomebody has a conversation with me like,
you know, we can have that conversation.
So, I have gotten used to it.
(48:26):
I some days are better thanothers where I'm just like,
I, I do.
I want to engage right now.
I want to, but.
Yeah. yeah.
You know, it comes with the territory.
And if it's not me,then you know who else is going
to give them that knowledgeand have that conversation with them?
(48:48):
yeah.
Got it. amazing.
Is there anything else that you want,anyone, any of our listeners to know
or any information you want to share?
again, Travis Davis dot net.
That's. Yeah.
Travis Bateson like, no, I,I would just say that, you know,
(49:09):
whether you have a disability or not.
And if you're going througha difficult time,
you know, there are techniques,there are people and,
you know, as much as I'm sure it'scliche to say, like, it does get better
and everybody has the strengthinside of them to reach their goals
(49:29):
and their potential.
And, you know.
I wouldn't bewhere I am without that
and having that understanding and,you know, take it from somebody
who have maybenot have been alive and be here right
now, like I,I use that as motivation and,
(49:50):
to push forward.
So, you know, if you were to like,believe anybody
but don't believe that it's, you know,and you can be
you can be, definitely be hopefuland get to where you want to be.
walking miracle Travis.
(50:10):
yeah. That's amazing.
And, you know, it's a processI kind of think I get, I solve it,
and then I go back down,and then I somebody.
Yeah.
You know, for me, as an ongoing, I armwrestle with her, but it's like a muscle.
And you get better at itand think for time and practice
and learningfrom others that have gone through
similar experiences,you know, how do they navigate,
(50:31):
how can I navigate, more easily.
So I maybe don't sufferas much, but I'm also very,
you know, I'm very independent.
And so, you know, I like to learn thingsfor myself sometimes the hard way
is, but, Yeah, it's been such an honorto get to know you and to meet you.
(50:53):
I'm so grateful to you for taking the timeto share with me and our listeners
kind of some strategiesthat they can potentially incorporate
in their own livesor the lives of others, or ways
to be kinder and more compassionate humansand more open and inclusive.
I think it's so important, you know, rightnow, more so than ever.
(51:15):
so you sharing your storyreally helps kind of achieve that.
So thank you so much, Travis Davis.
and thank youall the listeners for listening in.
please do share this with others.
Spread the message.
You know, hopeis measurable and teachable.
And we have to practice and cultivateskills to become more hopeful.
And, you know, as we talked about,we learn from other people
(51:35):
so and other people's stories.
and so I'm really grateful to Travisfor sharing his today.
You're on this podcast.
So have a wonderful day.
Thank you so much. And don't forgetto keep shining. Thank you.
Thank you all for listening into the Hope Matrix podcast.
We want to shine a lightthat hope is teachable.
(51:57):
Hope is measurable and teachableand provide you with actionable insights
for how you can start activatinghope in your life today
and provide a framework so you can starttalking about hope with other people
and practice these skills togetherbecause we are better with hope.
Please feel freeto check out theshinehopecompany.com,
(52:18):
where we list all of our resources aroundhow to Hope.
We have a lot of free programsfor how to hope, including the five day
Challenge, our Hope infographicwith a lot of skills
that showcase how to hope and articlesof how to incorporate hope in your life.
We have The Hopebeat Weekly,which is a weekly newsletter
that shares strategies for hope.
(52:39):
We have a My Hope Story templates soyou can write your own Hope story today.
Also my Hope Hero so we can sharewhat our heroes are doing to activate
hope in their lives.
And this is especially good with youthso they can start looking up
to people that have overcome similaror challenges to them
(52:59):
and seen how these heroes use the ShineHope framework.
We have a Hopeful Minds for Teens programand Hopeful minds Overview
Educator Guides.
We have a new evidencebased college course so you can activate
Hope on the college campus.
There are programs in the workplace.
Overview courses 90 minute coursesfor learning the what,
why and how to hope.
(53:22):
What I want you to know about hopeis it's a skill.
You've got to practice these skillsto become hopeful.
It's easyto fall into despair and helplessness
when we deal with challenges in life,and it takes intentional work
and practice to get to hope.
And yet it is always possible.
So no matter what life brings.
Keep shining hope.
(53:43):
Thanks so much for listeningand have an awesome day.
And of course, I’ve got to add this, thatthis program is designed to assist you
in learning about hope should not be usedfor medical advice, counseling,
or other health related services.
iFred, The Shine Hope Company and myself,Kathryn Goetzke
do not endorse or provide any medicaladvice, diagnosis or treatment.
(54:04):
I am not a medical doctor.
The information provided hereshould not be used for the diagnosis
or treatment of any medical conditionand cannot be substituted
for the advice of physicians, licenseprofessionals or therapists
who are familiarwith your specific situation.
Consulta licensed medical profession or call 911.
(54:27):
If you are in need of immediate assistanceand be sure to know the crisis Hotline.
988. If you are in need of support.
Thanks so much for listening.
Take good care of yourselfand keep shining hope.
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