Living with Physical and Neurodiversity

I was incredibly touched listening to Caroline Casey tell her story of how living without sight gave her the vision to follow her dreams.  What if each and every one of us living with neurological or physical diversities lived into the opportunity to find what is really true within ourselves, not just what some test or some doctor tells us about our situation.  What limitations we believe about ourselves could we challenge?

Caroline presents a truly strengths-based approach to understanding what it means to live with a disability.  What if disability didn’t mean “not-able” but simply meant, “different way of being”?  What if disability was seen as a strength, a valued and unique perspective, that benefited the greater good? What would be different in your life if you valued your differences as much as you valued what is the same?

Working with kids, adolescents, and adults with neurological and physical diversity (I prefer this term over disability) I never cease to be in awe of the amazing strength, skills, talents, and approaches to life my clients have.  I feel blessed every day to see  and learn things from different perspectives than my own.  What is hard to see is now defeated the kids, teens, adults, and families feel after years of feeling like they don’t fit into the system.  Quickly the biggest challenge, even bigger than the diversity/disability issue, is the lack of self-esteem that so frequently happens living with physical or neurodiversity in a world that doesn’t always value these perspectives.  Caroline is a woman who found the strength to believe in herself, despite her physical challenges.  Caroline found her strength and her purpose BECAUSE of her diversity and challenges.  What would you do if you took your challenges and found the strengths within them?

So I will end here and let you watch Caroline from the link below.  In the words of Caroline Casey, “if you truly believe — and I mean believe from the bottom of your heart — you can make change happen. And we need to make it happen, because every single one of us — woman, man, gay, straight, disabled, perfect, normal, whatever — every one of us must be the very best of ourselves. I no longer want anybody to be invisible. We all have to be included. And stop with the labels, the limiting — losing of labels. Because we are not jam jars; we are extraordinary, different, wonderful people.” Excerpted from Caroline Casey’s TEDtalk: Looking Past Limits

In Gratitude,

Deborah