ABOUT ME

Welcome to my world of endless possibilities!

It is my mission not only to demonstrate how you can shift your perspective on challenges but also to guide you in focusing on what you desire in life, rather than what you don’t. This journey of transformation is deeply rooted in my personal experience.

Despite gradually losing my sight due to a genetic eye condition, I have chosen to embrace each day with gratitude and optimism. This isn’t just a choice; it’s my conscious declaration!

I stand at a crossroads every day: the path of Hopelessness Street or the bright, inviting trail of Possibility Road. My choice? The latter, always. And I warmly invite you to join me on this inspiring journey. Your first steps towards a life of possibilities begin right here.

As a 5D Coach, a meditation teacher, mindfulness instructor, Keynote and TEDx Speaker, and a storyteller, my goal is to captivate, influence, and motivate. I strive to empower you to reclaim control and master your own life. I’ve walked this path and so can you!

My Background

With over two decades in the advertising industry, I’ve created numerous campaigns for major brands both in Denmark and internationally. My last decade was spent as a senior art director at the LEGO group, playing a pivotal role as a leading specialist.

Now, after a long career with the LEGO Group, I focus on delivering presentations, lectures, mindfulness meditation courses and workshops. I share insights on how mindfulness, meditation, and an understanding of the mind and body can be the foundation for creating the life you envision.

On My Website

You’ll discover a trove of resources: guided meditations, insightful blog posts, engaging podcasts, my book “Sentenced to Blindness – Now What?”, YouTube films, and various services. These tools are your stepping stones on the path to Possibility Road. If you seek guidance on this journey, I am here to accompany you.

I eagerly look forward to collaborating with you, your workplace, organization, or company. Let’s embark on this journey to mastery in life together.

Warm regards,

Morten Bonde

Retinitis pigmentosa

Retinitis Pigmentosa is a hereditary eye disease that slowly degenerates the retina. The disease, most often abbreviated to “RP”, can be difficult for outsiders to understand, and therefore living with the disease can be quite lonely.

RP, which manifests in many different ways, has in common the slow degradation of the light-sensitive cells in the eye’s retina. RP affects about 50-100 people in Denmark each year and often results in severe vision loss, which over a span of years can lead to blindness. RP is estimated to occur in one out of every 3,000 Danes, and worldwide, it’s estimated that over 1 million people have RP. RP is typically discovered in childhood or the early years and is one of the most common causes of visual impairment and blindness among young people aged 20-64 years.

In Denmark, there are approximately 2,000 reported cases of RP, and the disease can manifest in many different ways, but typically involves a gradual, persistent decline of the retina, starting with night blindness and an increasing degree of field-of-view narrowing, color vision problems, contrast problems, reduced visual acuity, and in some cases, eventual blindness.

For some, like me, the loss of vision progresses very slowly, and there might be only a slight loss over about 10 years. Others have periods of rapid decline followed by years with no noticeable deterioration. Some may have been aware since childhood that they saw poorly and might have faced challenges in school, playing a specific sport, or moving around in twilight. Others may have never realized their impaired vision, only being diagnosed with RP later in life.

Some will experience a significantly narrowed field of vision but retain almost perfect central vision, as is the case with me, while others will maintain peripheral vision but have very limited or foggy central vision. The latter type will have difficulty reading but can navigate relatively well using peripheral vision.

With so many types of symptoms and variations, it’s not surprising that outsiders find RP a challenging disability to understand. One moment, someone with RP can read or see something from a distance, take in their surroundings, or respond to a smile from a passerby, and the next moment they might walk into a row of bicycles on the sidewalk, creating embarrassing situations for themselves. It can be hard for others to understand how one can seemingly see perfectly fine one moment and behave as if severely visually impaired the next.

A person in the early stages of RP might have almost perfect vision during the day, but at night or in bright sunlight or with rapidly changing lighting, the person with RP might feel almost completely blind. Just as challenging can be understanding the loss of parts of one’s field of vision.

When a normally sighted person looks straight ahead, they can see objects on both sides and above and below the point they are focusing on. This allows them to be aware of and consider more than what’s directly in front of them. This awareness helps to alert and prevent tripping over things or bumping into people or other obstacles. Conversely, losing peripheral vision limits one’s mobility or the ability to move around in their environment.

The retina, located at the back of the eye and lining its inner surface, functions by perceiving the light we see and sends signals to the optic nerve and brain. The retina is a thin layer of visual cells that capture light and convert it to electrical signals. These are sent via a network of nerve cells to the visual center in the brain. In humans, there are two types of light-sensitive visual cells (photoreceptors) called rods and cones. Rods enable us to see in twilight or poorly lit rooms. There are approximately 120 million rod cells in a healthy eye, mainly concentrated in the outermost areas of the retina, and these cells only perceive black/white, which is why vision in the dark is always monochromatic.

Cone cells, of which we have about 7 million, are used to perceive colors and provide the sharpness of vision that allows us to read and see things clearly. There are fewer cones than rods, and they are concentrated in the central part of the retina called the “macula” or yellow spot. With RP, the photoreceptors gradually deteriorate and cease to function normally. Typically, the rods (night vision) degrade first, followed by the cones, which is why those with RP initially become night blind. I see very poorly in the dark and never venture out in the darkness without a powerful flashlight.

The decay or degeneration of the retina that occurs with RP is hereditary and is due to changes (mutations) in the genes affecting the retina’s function. After many years of research, over 160 genes are now known where mutations can cause hereditary retinal diseases. RP can be inherited in various ways, e.g., through inheritance patterns called recessive, dominant, and X-linked.

RP can occur as an isolated eye disease, but up to 30% also have involvement in other parts of the body, in the form of so-called syndromes. There are over 30 different syndromes where RP is a component, making this group even more complex and diverse.

To add to the complexity, mutations in the same gene can lead to different variants of the same retinal disease. For instance, mutations in the gene that is defective in me, the so-called Usher 2A gene, can both cause Usher syndrome with both hearing and vision loss, and RP without hearing loss. I don’t experience any hearing loss, but I’ve never been tested for it. Conversely, two people with the exact same type of retinal condition might have mutations in two entirely different genes.
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