DEALING WITH A DISABILITY
A disability can come in many forms. Some people have been dealing with one for their entire life, while others acquire them after a tragic accident.
No matter your circumstance, living with a disability doesn’t have to stop you from living a life full of love and happiness. Keep reading to learn five tips on how to overcome challenges and start having fun!
1. Allow Yourself Time
Realizing you won’t be able to accomplish all the things you may have wanted to because of your physical limitation is a terrible feeling.
When you lose a loved one, the grieving process can take years.
When the person you’re losing is the old image of yourself, it can take even longer.
Give yourself time to grieve. Life in a wheelchair or with a walker can still be full and rewarding, but you’re allowed to not think that right away.
2. Nurture Yourself
Give yourself a portion of every day to focus on yourself and your health. Sometimes that simply means having a cup of tea in the morning, sitting outside and spending some time thinking about the progress you’ve made.
If you had to give up one of your favorite hobbies because of your disability, pick up a new one!
Accepting your disability is about finding new things you can do rather than focusing on the things you can’t.
3. Focus on the Present
The hard truth of becoming disabled is that, from the moment it happens, everything about your life is going to be different. Some of the things you thought you would achieve later in life might no longer be possible.However, that’s no reason to give up hope. Instead of brooding about the future you wanted and the past you wish you could change, you need to focus on the present. Create new goals, and take advantage of every opportunity you get to move closer to those goals.
4. Minimize Your Disability’s Impact
Part of overcoming your disability is realizing that you don’t have to fall by the wayside, at work or in the healthcare system. Do research to find out what kind of benefits you can get, and feel empowered as you take charge of your own life.
There are also new advancements being made in technology every day, and those advancements can help you live life without sacrificing the same conveniences you had before.
5. Ask For Support
The worst thing you can do when attempting to cope with a disability doing it all by yourself.
Don’t be ashamed to ask for help, but even more importantly, don’t be too prideful to accept help when it’s offered.
Coping with limitations and overcoming new challenges is going to be hard, and the emotional burden will feel a lot lighter if you let your friends and family help you carry it.
Living With a Disability
Living with a disability doesn’t have to mean living small. In today’s modern world, there are so many opportunities for people of all sorts to find jobs, make new friends, and find love.
Be sure to leave a comment below and tell us about how you or a loved one has overcome their disability.
