Humans have this tendency to assume that their reality bubble is applicable to every other human in the world. Which makes communication a bit challenging at times. Because what is ‘normal’ for one person might be very different for another person.
Was talking to my physiotherapist this morning about having good proprioception – a keen awareness of my body in space in time. I was rather ‘old’ when I discovered that not everyone has that ability. I also discovered that my ability to visualize something was not as common as I assumed.
Over time I learned more about humans and how they learn, then how to teach groups of varying ‘abilities’. So now, this many years into this life, I have incorporated a number of ways to explain something. As I added more ways to explain concepts, I saw more lights go on behind the eyes, so I knew I was getting through to more people.
After one class a participant came up to me, thanked me for having explained something in a way that made sense to her, and I said that I tried to have various ways to explain things. She said ‘Well, it doesn’t help if someone just says exactly the same thing but louder!’
I find it interesting that now ‘neurodiversity’ is more discussed and considered, just how many diverse ways that humans actually process information. The more I learn, I wonder how ‘neurospicy’ I am. I don’t think I’m on the autism spectrum, although have some of the things that are part of that spectrum. I don’t think I am ADHD, although I have some of the tendency for that spectrum. I am empathetic, or try to be, willing to put myself in the other person’s shoes to try and understand what the barricade to learning is built from, try to find a way through, around or over.
And I’m pretty sure that the level of proprioception I have has allowed me to figure out how to work more ergonomically. The physiotherapist commented that not everyone can check in with their body and figure out the subtle signals that the body sends, and was supportive in my efforts to continue to improve my physical fitness. It has been a long road – about 7 months before I could reliably point to actual improvement in my mobility, and about a month of targeting a real barrier to improvement and focusing on that.
But finally something seems to be changing in a way that leads me to believe that things *could* get better.
She and other therapists have asked me what my goals are. The only thing I could honestly come up with was ‘life has to be ‘better’ than this. I want ‘better’. When asked for concrete goals, I said I wanted to be able to stand for more than five minutes, walk more than 100 feet, without needing to ‘rest’.
Last Saturday I stood to fill my pill containers with the weeks worth of what I take daily. And I didn’t need to sit down halfway through to ‘rest’ before I could continue. Today I told her I wanted to be able to walk into the clinic without my ‘buddy’, my cane.
She said she would help make that happen.
I am so grateful for all the helpers, the encouragers.
Took the day off today after two pretty intense days of therapy. Will be heading back to the loom tomorrow. Because I want to remind my muscles of the job I need them to do.
Weave on…
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