Hey there beauties! We hope you’re feeling fantastic as we roll further into 2019! Our conversation today focuses on the importance of practicing self-care and cultivating solid friendships and the ways these two topics are related. We know that good self-care routines often include a multitude of different activities, such as staying active or reading. But we should also add finding solid friendships and nurturing them into our self-care routines.
Maintaining meaningful friendships can have an incredible impact on your health. Your closest friends can help boost your overall mental and physical stability and help you reduce your stress. Maintaining quality friendships is important for people of all abilities.
While the act of making and maintaining friendships is an over all inclusive activity that everyone can and should do often, we must think about the fact that some individuals find making friends difficult. People can often feel alienated and left out when it comes to forming friendship bonds. These issues can sometimes be more present for those who are living their life with a physical disability. I know from personal experience that not everyone you meet will truly understand you or the challenges you face in your day to day life… and that’s ok!
As sad as it is, there are people in this world who look at individuals who live with disabilities with pity in their eyes. They often see us as different, or assume we are unable to make good friends outside of the individuals who are paid to assist us daily. Or they think that the only friendships we are allowed to maintain are with our family members. But this is just not so. There are also people who see us for the amazing and unique people we are!
My advice to you as a disabled individual who has dealt with this issue myself, is to always try to find friends who forget about your limitations and can allow you to forget about them as well (if even for a short time.) Good friends always see the person first no matter the challenges. Be sure to find friends who make you laugh so hard you fall off the couch, and then they will help you back up (after laughing with you of course)! Most importantly, be sure to find friends who will encourage and support you to grow and reach your full potential. Slick Chicks believes that having a strong support system is essential for effective self-care, as it is all about giving yourself the love and support necessary for your mental and emotional health. Therefore, you should fill your life with reliable and supportive friends who genuinely love you and have your best interests at heart, cheer you on, and challenge you to become a better you! A true friendship is blind to limitations.
“Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you; spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.”- Amy Poehler
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See ya in your skivvies!
Shannon and the Slick Chicks Team
Love this message of friendship. But it is the hardest thing to do or arrange because my daughter age 32 absolutely is afraid because she has major berthing in her daily life with trach tube care and ventilator usage etc.. Most people freak out when they hear a suction machine running including her family we are not invited to family events because of that and they don’t want her near food on their table. She would never do that all her food has to be prep different and she prefer eating at home because eating cause coughing and more suctioning. I keep feeling from all the picture I see that it easier for people who don’t live in the poor inner city area. You definite need a car or a van neither one we have.
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