What I Wish You Knew About Living With Disability: Part 1 of 3

There's a lot more to living with disability than the eye can see...

Welcome to the first publication of the new year from our adaptive yoga community. This month we asked our students to share an insight they wished everyone knew about what it’s like living with disability. We’d love to hear your thoughts, please do share them with us in the comments section below. Also, we’d love if you shared our substack with your friends and subscribe so you never miss a publication. Thank you!

December Prompt:

Discuss an aspect of living with disability you wish everyone knew about and understood? Why would this be so meaningful to you?

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I wish I could adequately convey how exhausting it is to live with the multitude of impairments and disabilities I have. I feel like sometimes I’m in a perpetual state of wishing to be understood — truly seen. Perhaps the greater desire is to feel truly accepted. For who I really am and what this physical body of mine has become.

The unpredictability of it all can be mind-boggling. And as hard as it is for me to grasp the variations in my capabilities, I imagine it to be even more confounding to others. This past month, for example: In mid-December I was gleefully baking cookies; trimming the tree with ornaments; and happily wrapping gifts. Now, for nearly two weeks, I’ve been at home, alternating between naps on the couch and longer siestas in the bed.

Aside from the discomfort of the physical symptoms, the mental and emotional toll has drained me so, that even writing this short missive to you all feel more taxing than Sisyphus rolling his boulder up the mountain yet again.

However, with all that being said, there are so many other things I wish people knew about living with disabilities. Of course, I could droll on about the obstacles and challenges. But there are positives, too. And I believe the greatest asset of living with various handicaps is the opportunity to, again and again, be humbled by my humanness.

Not a single one of us will roam this Earth infinitely. Chronic illness, pain, and limitations offer me the chance to pause. When another surgery or medical crisis detours my journey, it’s like life is saying, “Hey there. Why don’t you just stop what you’re doing and engage in reflection? How about you take stock of what’s going right and what’s going not-so-right and make some changes?”

I know I’m not alone in really disliking being told that “What doesn’t take you out makes you stronger” because, frankly, I’m pretty darned strong at this point. But it is true! Each setback and detour holds within the chance for me to start again. Just like Patanjali says in Yoga Sutra 1.1, Atha Yoga Anushasanam — and NOW, I begin. I have all that I need within and will start from here.

- Rebecca Áine

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