Los Angeles, Dec 16 (IANS): Model Petra Nemcova says she felt a "weight lifted" from her shoulders after she was caught in the 2005 tsunami.

The former Sports Illustrated model was on a holiday in Thailand when the devastating waves hit and killed 280,000 people, including her fiance Simon Atlee, and she's now said just how much the disaster has forced her to learn.

"You know, one of the things the tsunami taught me is not to over-think the future... Before the tsunami, I always lived in the future, never the present, but planning places so much pressure on you, it is such a weight on your shoulders."

"For me, after the tsunami, that weight lifted. I think of it as one of the gifts that it gave me. I am no longer stuck in the future, I can simply enjoy the moment that is now," she told dailymail.co.uk.

Since losing her fiance a decade ago, she's gone on to launch a charity called Happy Hearts, which builds schools in areas affected by natural disasters.

"I think most people have a mission in life, a role they feel set to play. Mine has always been that I wanted to work with children and in education. The tsunami happened and it fast-forwarded the process," the 35-year-old added.

Nemcova now calls Haiti her home and is dating the nation's president Lauren Lamothe, insisting she'll always remain thankful despite suffering such painful loss.

"I think one of the things I've always had is gratitude. Every morning when I wake up and every evening before I fall asleep, I say thanks."

"Not for huge things, just things that have happened that day, the experience I have had, the people I have met, and the things that the new day will bring," she said.