| There is a significant difference between | | | | experience. |
| understanding a person and accepting them. To really | | | | Understanding of disability is not limited only to disabled |
| understand a person, you have to experience what | | | | people, but the intensity of living with a disability is. If |
| they experience in similar ways. There is a Native | | | | people identified struggles in their life that they could |
| American proverb that says to understand a man, you | | | | not control, they would be able to come closer to |
| have to walk a mile in his moccasins. For example, a | | | | understanding the struggle of disability. For instance, |
| man can never fully understand the experience of | | | | once I met with a lady going through an uncomfortable |
| childbirth. To accept someone, you have to accept | | | | divorce. I was able to share with her the ability to use |
| your concept of that person as a reality you bring | | | | the Wisdom of the Body to deal with her struggle. |
| close to your heart. Both accepting and understanding | | | | Most people think about their struggles and try to |
| become powerful vehicles for sharing love and | | | | come to a conclusion that allows them to accept what |
| support, but the heart of a disabled or chronically ill | | | | is happening. Dealing with a disability that I could not |
| person can feel a significant difference. | | | | control forced me to go beyond thinking and tap inner |
| Family and friends accept you as you struggle, but | | | | resources, such as confidence and self-trust, that |
| their inability to go through what you are going through, | | | | empowered me to better deal with my struggle. This is |
| can lead you to feel that you live in your own reality. | | | | what I call the Wisdom of the Body. |
| Imagine you lived in a village where hiccups were | | | | If a disabled person feels they live in their reality and no |
| never experienced. Then , one day a person had a | | | | one really understands them, they can deal with their |
| chronic case of hiccups. Without ever having an | | | | struggle from the Wisdom of their Body instead of |
| experience like that, people would never understand | | | | their anxious ego. You should not relate to yourself in |
| what that person was doing. One person interpreted it | | | | the limited way others relate to you. When you go |
| as a kind of dance, because they liked to dance. | | | | beyond accepting the ideas of your disability, you can |
| When they were around that hiccupping person they | | | | perceive your situation from inner wisdom. That does |
| started dancing, just to relate to them. Another person | | | | not mean you will not need a wheelchair or your |
| studied Morse code and tried to communicate with | | | | impaired vision will improve; it means you will deal with |
| them through Morse code. Neither person was really | | | | your struggle with a deeper compassion. I call that a |
| wrong, because all communication seems to come | | | | healthy way to be sick. |
| from translating one person's experience into their own | | | | |