Unleashing Resilience: A Journey of Triumph and Self-Discovery with Tadaaki Sun
In an inspiring tale of resilience and self-discovery, Tadaaki Sun, a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) survivor and accomplished athlete, shares his remarkable journey from adversity to triumph. Born in Japan to a Chinese family, Tadaaki's upbringing instilled in him a deep respect for tradition but also fueled his innate need for movement and exploration. Despite facing obstacles and cultural expectations, he defied norms to pursue his passions, ultimately emerging as a beacon of motivation and empowerment for others. Join us as Tadaaki opens up about his daily rituals, cultural influences, and the pivotal moments that shaped his path to success.
What's a typical day in your life look like?: A typical day in looks like feeling into my body through a combination of meditation and various exercises such as running, swimming, capoeira, and yoga. I am making sure that I am grounded doing each activity and a consistent routine keeps me aware of any changes I feel in my body. I use this feeling and sensation to guide me for what intentions to bring in the day whether it is healing or using the energy. I combine this with the energy of the day based on Astrological planets elements to create a flow with my energy with the energy of the day. Grounding this energy is the most important focus for me so that I can bring my inner fire to create my story, train my body for aquathlon and running events, and heal myself to prepare for the main races and speaking engagements.
How would you say your upbringing and cultural background contributed to your career aspirations?: I was born in Japan in a Chinese family where we followed a tradition to be respectful to our elders. At a young age children will sit down listening to the elders speak. As a child with asthma and eczema in my body, I had the need to move around all the time. With the environment keeping me still every time I move I had was programmed to be uncomfortable to be still. This was true even when I had a traumatic brain injury and needed years to recover. I couldn't accept the fact that I had to sit at home and take pain killers for healing. Since then I have taken my health into my own hands and be my own doctor so that I can move my body in the way I desire and would like to teach others how to do the same by getting to know their bodies better. I am currently sharing my stories to inspire those who are feeling stagnant and have physical health symptoms and eventually help people move their own stagnant energies so people can own their own body as they wish.
What would you say has been your biggest obstacle in launching a successful career? How have you overcome it?: My biggest obstacle was my mind. Not facing the traumas in my childhood really kept me stuck in my mind to be fearful of putting my self out in the public. Feeling like people will stop me and criticize for who I want to express kept me in the small bubble to stay safe. That is why it took me a long time to share my recover journey from a Traumatic Brain Injury patient becoming a Boston marathoner within two years was the best accomplishment yet I didn't know how I will be accepted. The idea that my family didn't understand the value for qualifying for Boston Marathon and instead think that it was a waste of time as I lost the opportunity to earn money and climb up the corporate ladder. It took a lot of revisiting my upbringing to rewrite my story, but I was able to apply how I achieved to be a Boston Marathoner in a short time frame. It was to take it slowly one step at a time. Reading my story over and over again until I am not triggered with my story allowed me to have the confidence to speak and write about my story for everyone today.
What is the phrase, sentence, or conversation that stopped you in your tracks and changed your outlook in life?: The phrase "easy, easy", as the Kenyans say really changed my outlook in life. As the country with the fastest runners out there, we all may assume that they do a lot of hard training at a fast pace to maintain the speed in their races. However, not many know that they do a lot of easy runs and do a few quality workouts for speed. And when I say easy, it is very easy easy. The previous World record Marathoner was jogging at my pace. Do you get it? That means really slowly and I have to go very very slow. No wonder they will joke at us saying we are so good at warming up and can endure the workouts. It is weird that in order to go fast, we actually need to go slow. In fact, once I started running slowly, I had all sorts of pain. I didn't have enough slow twitch muscles to endure my runs. So it was actually the best shortcut for me to Boston marathon by having a traumatic brain injury as I had to learn how to listen to my bodies limit and run slowly. By mastering how to run slower, I became a fast marathoner and qualified for Boston Marathon.
Where might you be found on a Saturday afternoon with no plans?: This varies from day to day, but I may be napping or walking out in a nature where my body feels like going and being, like at parks or oceans. I could also be found in cafes and hidden dessert spots just to treat myself for a good weeks of work and healing. I can be taking a massage or yoga class to rest from a good workout in the morning to let go of any tightness from the accumulated workouts. I may be catching up with friends locally or virtually. Or attending workshops to keep on learning about healing or simply meeting people. Weekends are always a wild card.
If you were to meet 10 year old you, what would you say to them?: When I was 10 years old, I was still naturally smiling at all times even when life was hard. There was a day in school where I was smiling at school as always, when I was suddenly heard from the teacher that I had detention for 5 minutes. Apparently the teacher thought I was smiling at another classmate who got a detention. However, I was on the other side of the hallway and did not know what happened for my classmate to get a detention. There was part of me who told myself it is just 5 minutes, it won't matter. Although now as I'm writing this I can feel my body feeling uncomfortable. So I am shaking in real time and telling myself that it is okay. Perhaps I needed a small break from something and that was the opportunity. So I would like to tell my 10 year old self that I have now felt the negative feelings for you and now freed from the thought of not being able to smile when you feel like it.
What is stopping you?: What is stopping me right now is facing my imperfections. This comes through relationships because each relationship mirrors who you truly are. It easy to see the fault in others and blame them for their actions. However it is often the case that it is something in the past that I didn't like about myself shown through other people's actions. As I accept the part of my imperfection being mirrored from any relationship and forgiving yourself of having this fault myself and accepting them, I get to move on move up to the next level. Failure to recognize this lessons Kees you in the same loop of people who will show you the same lesson until you learn them. So in areas where I'm repeating the same actions such as avoiding the problems, I remind myself that it is another part of me that I didn't accept which needs to be healed, so I can move on.
Same goes for imposter syndrome. How do you combat those feelings (if any)?: Wherever you are in life imposter syndrome seems to get at you. For me it was after I qualified for Boston Marathon and when my family didn't approve me for my accomplishments, I had all of the negative thoughts such as "this doesn't matter" or "other runners expect results from me", and "why am I doing this?" All these thoughts contributed in myself losing myself and not feeling whole in my body and instead getting in the head. I have spent many races afterwards having minor injuries and slower than my best performance. I understand that it is really hard to get out of this black hole when you have put yourself in it. This is where grounding helps you get back into the body. Rather than fearing that stopping the consistent running will lose my fitness and endurance for my races, I took the courage to take a break and learn new exercises that I have never done before. This gets you out of the head as what you know no longer means anything when you are learning something new. When you ground yourself in your body, you bring back your consciousness within you. For me, I have realized that my intention for running was because I wanted to move and play to best of my abilities. Getting in my head does not accomplish this. So I will do whatever activities that will get you out of the head and reconnect to your original intention.
What accomplishment are you most proud of, both in your personal and professional life?: My accomplishment to this date is still qualifying for Boston Marathon as a Traumatic Brain injury survivor. Even before I had the accident it was tough from my fragile body to accomplish the fitness to run a fast marathon. However trusting that I will reach this level as my intention when I got back into running allowed me to have the accident which became the actual shortcut to take things easily to build my physique while I heal my brain. When my family was not supportive of this accomplishment, I actually had a fire within me that somehow wanted to make this accomplishment a professional work too. Therefore I am now proud of saying that I build up my confidence enough to share my story out in this world to inspire more beings to acting for myself. To dat, I am most proud of a couch potato starting to walk daily which is enough excitement for me that confirmed that my story inspires people. I would like to continue shedding my light to lighten up beings to take action for themselves moving forward.
I want to reiterate that is really possible to finish what you couldn't in your inner child. As a child who couldn't sit still and had many punishments on moving around, I can now proudly say I am the top 1% of the runners by qualifying for Boston Marathon. Looking back at my life, I stopped running to focus on my studies and pass with a good grade as the society expects. However, when there was an opportunity to move, I will go full out and enjoy myself. Even when authorities stopped me from moving, I found the right environment for me to move and be seen for what I did. Now that I accomplished the highest accomplishment in running I can now rest and help others move as they want as well. So if you are thinking that there is nothing you are passionate in life, please don't let you stop from taking the first step and see where it goes. I got your back!
Drink 🫖
What is Tadaaki’s go-to drink?
My go to drink when I go out for a drink is golden oat milk latte. To me it is the color that is bright orange and yellow which are my favourite colors that is visually appealing to me. The turmeric inside is anti-inflammatory and helps me with my accumulated daily toxins and stress from my workouts. On the flip side the fire of the spice fires me up and gives me energy as well. The oat milk add a creamy and mild flavour as well, so together with the spice I feel like I am getting the whole yin-yang holistic experience with one drink. So if you don't have a golden milk in your menu, I won't be visiting you!
Listening To 🎧
What is Tadaaki listening to at the moment?
I love listening to my body! I go out on runs without music because I really want know how my body is feeling that day using measures such as the heart rate and how easy the effort is feeling. I’ve gotten a spinning instructor certificate towards the end of my recovery process so that I can get over my trauma with bicycles and along the way I picked up how to use the beats of the music as a tool. With upbeat tempos you go for a faster ride and the lower the beat are suitable for hill climbing. That is exactly how I plan my runs as I have a comfortable beat range which is actually around 180 beats per minute like many runners swear by. Finding your rhythm has been my guide in relaxing into my own music. When I need some extra push to prep for a race for a task, I would use some soundtracks from my favourite Japanese dramas to hype myself as a background music during the day.
Your Truth 🗣️
What is a Tadaaki’s truth?
Now that I achieved to be a TBI patient who qualified for Boston Marathon my goals have shifted. In the qualification race, there was a 60 year old who ran 2 minutes faster than me and a 50 year old who ran 4 minutes faster than me. For a runner who just ran a marathon under 3 hours, this was shocking to me even though I was happy with where I was. To me, it is fascinating to run at this speed for their age and I believe that there is a lot of discipline and dedication in having this fitness. As someone who had a creative approach in my training, maintaining the training and fitness is not what I can achieve in my current state. That is why I am doing more work in the past to open up my senses fully to get to the state of enduring for life. I needed to let go of all the limits I put on myself to stick out of the crowd and be myself and personally it has been showing from not having a fun race in the world class events. I want to bring the playfulness and fun movement that came easily in local races and show this version of myself in world class events and I hope to showcase this more online so that I can inspire others simultaneously.
Your Plug 🔌
What is Tadaaki plugging today?
This new project is dedicated to those who want to have balance and alignment in life. For someone who has been good at people please and shape shifting in other people's methods, for the longest time it was hard for me to figure myself out. I thought that by doing the shadow work myself got me quicker to being the best version of myself, but after all being in many relationships helps me learn a lot more about myself as you see yourself in a mirror. As I put my words out there and learn from the feedback, I would like to share eventually on how I studied and learned about my body as I recover from the traumatic brain injury and recovered in the quickest way possible and how I moved myself to be in a best shape with my current resources I have. I hope to share this in the upcoming months to inspire more people to move for themselves.
More about Tadaaki Sun
Tadaaki is a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Surviving Boston Marathoner, Canadian Age Group Aquathlete and a motivational speaker shining inspiration for people to move for themselves. A Chinese born in Japan educated in an all boys Catholic school, he is pushing through the rules and restrictions to become his authentic version of himself by trusting himself through traumatic experiences. With the bike accident which caused a TBI injury, he finally regained his energy where he had the time to recover and heal as he wants. With an injury that could have taken more than three years to recover, he qualified for Boston Marathon in two years through an active healing approach.
By recently representing Canada with a Japanese first name and a Chinese last name, he now fully accepts himself for all the cultures he has experienced and bringing a global perspective as he raced around the world. Hoping to allow more individuals to be present in their body when moving so that they can have a better overall healthy experience in life.