Episode #16: John Abate 🇺🇸

Who in the World

In this podcast episode, please meet John Abate. I’ve known John all the way back to my post-college days back in Colorado, where we definitely saw some wild stuff and have some stories to tell.

John and I both happened to move to San Francisco years later and were friends there, where I always got a kick out of his bike messenger lifestyle and crowd. He went on to race semi-professionally for years in Encinitas before tragedy came on August 16th, 2016.

John was struck by car while on a cycling ride only one-half mile from his house. The impact sent him about 45 feet and 12 feet in the air, his body almost clipping a tree branch. The hit-and-run driver sped off, leaving him for dead on the side of the road.

Just about everything in his body was broken, including his back that would need five vertebrae fused and serious internal bleeding.

But he lived, defying the odds and amazing even his doctors, a testament to the incredible physical shape he was in, as well as a good amount of luck.

During the excruciating recovery and rehabilitation, found forgiveness and mindfulness as a way to heal, mind, body, and soul.

Particularly, he used a method called Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) to aid his healing and send him on his spiritual journey, and became a certified teacher in MBSR.

In a recovery that would take most people years or even decades, John was somehow healed and up and walking within only four months. Of course, there was still a lot of work to do and rehabilitation, but John’s turning inward somehow sped his miraculous rehabilitation.

Now healthy, happy, and still enjoying athletics, John teaches MBSR and meditation workshops to individuals and companies, and even offers free courses for anyone who would benefit.

Long gone are the days of college antics and bike messenger wildlings, and the evolved man before us now concerns himself with helping others find compassion, forgiveness, and becoming aware of their true (higher) selves.

Enjoy this chat with John Abate and thanks for listening and subscribing to the Who in the World podcast!

-Your friend,

Norm Schriever :-)