Wingman Day May 4 Published April 21, 2015 By Nancy Koch-Castillo 412th Test Wing community support coordinator EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Spring is in the air! Don't forget to count your blessings! In a technologically driven world we live in, we all seem so busy, or so we all think we are, that we forget to take time to "smell the roses." Often at the most hectic times in one's life, it is a good idea to step back, or stop in your tracks, and appreciate the people, the environment and just flat out count your blessings. Through gratitude, one can really learn to appreciate what they have. According to Robert Emmons, who is one of the most prominent researchers on gratitude, "Gratitude is a sense of wonder, thankfulness and appreciation for life." Through the unit-led Comprehensive Airman Fitness Resilience Skills that will be offered at this upcoming Wingman Day, May 4, personnel will learn two of the 11 life-coping skills, one being the skill "Counting Blessings." The goal of Counting Blessings is to cultivate gratitude, build optimism and positive thinking. It helps people cope with daily hassles and stress and improve their quality of life. It is human nature to often focus on the things that went wrong in one's life, but with this skill you learn to think about what went right. Gratitude helps people cope with stress and traumatic events. Appreciating things in your life and focusing on the positive can help you adjust and move forward after trauma and stressful events. Gratitude can strengthen your relationships with others. Research has shown that people who feel gratitude towards others feel closer to those people and report better relationships even if they don't express the gratitude towards the other person. Gratitude also improves your health and sleep and can help you make progress on your goals. For starters, ask yourself what are you grateful for? Some people unconsciously count their blessings every day. Others may count their blessings once a week or once a month. You just need to find the right frequency that works for you. There are other ways to express your gratitude. You may decide to write a letter thanking that person who has a positive influence in your life. You may send an email or leave a voice mail thanking someone. When you are with your family, you may sit around the dinner table on Thanksgiving or Christmas and have everyone state what they are grateful for. Please continue to read about our upcoming Wingman Day guest speakers who truly have mastered the skill of counting blessings! Event: Wingman Day, mandated by AFI 90-506, Comprehensive Airman Fitness Date: May 4 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. - Unit-Led Activities: Resilience training, delivery of POTUS report findings and Annual Face-to-Face Suicide Prevention Training 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. - Main Event at base theater Guest Speakers: Kate Weber, advocate for the "Invisible War" and Angela Rockwood, advocate for the disabled and star of "Push Girls." California resident and U.S. Army Veteran Kate Weber is a powerful advocate for military rape survivors, and an inspiration for those seeking to find their voice after enduring significant trauma. Despite her 100% service-connected disability for post-traumatic stress disorder from military sexual trauma, she continues to travel extensively to raise awareness of veteran challenges, organizes training and advises on programs available to help survivors of violence and rape. Kate also advises, trains and guides military leadership with their desires to create and establish effective training for their unit members. She has also been passionate about advising lawmakers and endorsing legislation geared toward helping survivors of military rape. Angela Rockwood was born in Clovis, New Mexico, and experienced the world growing up as the child of a career military man. She started modeling at the age of 17, later becoming a fitness instructor, which led her into the world of martial arts. At 22, she relocated to Los Angeles and within a year was engaged to her best friend. They bought a house and she fell back into the entertainment world by launching an acting career with small roles in "The Fast and the Furious" and the syndicated television series V.I.P. Angela's life was practically perfect until turmoil struck one week before 9/11 on Sept. 3, 2001. She and her two bridesmaids were driving home from a trip in San Francisco when her girlfriend spun out of control. Angela was in the backseat and was thrown through the side-rear triangular window suffering a broken neck and severed spinal cord; as a result she was diagnosed as a c4 quadriplegic. When Angela awoke from surgery, she was given a 3% to 5% chance of regaining any movement from the neck down. She felt her paralysis was for a reason, that she had a mission to fulfill. Unable to move or feel anything, she knew instantly she had two things left; life and her indomitable spirit. She stated she's "had a huge choice to make, to turn a catastrophic situation into something extraordinary and to be a powerful voice for others in similar devastating situations." Angela, a martial artist and a firm believer in alternative methods of healing didn't accept her doctor's prognosis. Two months after the accident, with numbness in her hands, she was able to wiggle her left index finger, a dramatic moment captured live on an Entertainment Tonight piece about the "Power of the Mind." And then, just a month later, she touched the top of her head. In 2003, she was the third American to undergo a pioneering stem cell surgery in Portugal, which allowed her to later operate a manual wheelchair. Although Angela is unable to move her fingers fully, she can feed herself, paint, train in martial arts and apply her own makeup.