I am one of the ‘fortunate’ Australians with a disability who have been accepted as a disabled person who deserves help from the NDIS. (More about that in the next paragraph). The help I will receive will be decided based on what is decided by me and the relevant person at my ‘planning meeting. The planning meeting was set up by my local area co-ordinator from the service dealing in the area I live in, after I had applied and been accepted.
‘The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) supports people with a permanent and significant disability that affects their ability to take part in everyday activities.’
This is obviously a good thing, and I am grateful for that. It has helped many Australians with disabilities to live their lives in better ways, by providing the things they need for that to happen. At the moment, I’m still at the thinking about what will really make my life the life I want to live, a life that will bring more good to me. I don’t need a wheelchair (not yet, and hopefully never will), nor do I need more home modifications (these were provided already by Disability SA some years ago). I feel like I’m sort of functional, but could be a whole lot better, a bit like the peg in the photo:
The peg can hold things on the clothesline still, but it isn’t all that useful … That’s how I feel at the moment, for sure. I can do things, but I’d like to be able to do them perfectly, not in a not good enough manner. I want to be able to feel far more useful to myself and to everyone else.
My medication is working well for me, I’m feeling good, as long as I don’t get too hot, or too stressed. So what do I need for those two things, could that be where I should be looking for help? Well, I have suitable air conditioning in my home and my car. I have a cooling vest (although I don’t wear it because it is too cumbersome and it feels unsuitable). I’m careful to stay out of the sunshine when it’s too hot, and I go to places with good enough cooling.
I’ve had training sessions with the MS Society in South Australia, on the subject of mindfulness, and I have found this has helped me a lot in maintaining my sense of control, and giving me a feeling of serenity, going with the flow and not getting anxious about the things that occur in my life. If things happen that I am unable to chang, I let them go, and find ways for better things to happen instead.
So given that my life is more or less under control, at the moment anyway, what do I feel the need for, to make my life a better, more fulfilled life? Well, I have long had the idea that I want to do more public speaking, beyond the poetry reading related things I already do. I am used to the poetry readings, they go well, and I feel completely in control and not stressed out at them. It’s just something I do.
But to challenge myself, that’s what I want and need, I want to do public speaking in a different way, not the under control poetry reading method, but something where I may not be completely under control, and I may have some questions thrown at me, so I have to think and answer them, instead of merely reading my poetry from my book … Public Speaking is a huge challenge for many people, and they fear it more than death, apparently, some of them. Of course, I read that on the internet, so it may not be true …
So public speaking on any or all topics, done with confidence and style, in a way that will attract others to ask me to speak, and actually pay me money to do it, that is my aim. I’ve done a couple of such gigs, talking about myself and my health issues, or about my writing. These went well, but they were to groups of people who already knew me, and who I knew, so it wasn’t too much of a stretch of my abilities. If I can expand on that, do more of it, more often, and in different ways, that is what I’m aiming at. I’m seriously considering joining Toastmasters, and getting training with them. This is definitely something I could get paid for by my NDIS money, I think, it will go on my list, when I do my initial checklist (which I’ve finally printed out and put in the correct place, after weeks of meaning to do it but leaving it).
Another method of Public Speaking that interests me a lot is Stand Up comedy. I am pretty sure I could combine my skills and put on an amusing little show, if I had some more training in such things. People have been known to laugh at the funny things I’ve said, or the funny poems I’ve read, over the years … So as I said, some proper training and I may become a famous comedian!
Another issue I have that I feel would help me enormously would be having some assistance in decluttering my life. I have a little car I love, but I have (mis)used my little Kia Rio as a kind of mobile office, but in a bad way. It is messy inside and dirty on the outside, I keep on meaning to get it clean inside and out, but it never happens … I know if I could just have someone to help me, I could get my car tidied up and also all of my books, papers, and clothes organised.
From where I’m sitting at the moment I can see book shelves, but also piles of books that should be in book shelves. I can see paper things, almost all of my TAFE workbooks are sitting on their side in a pile on a shelf close to me. I finished my TAFE qualification many years ago, soon after I was diagnosed with MS, which happened eight years ago – there is absolutely no need for those things to be there, so why haven’t I put them somewhere more appropriate? I feel that I don’t know where that ‘more appropriate’ place is. I need help!
I want to live my life in the best possible way that suits me – not the me I currently am, but the best me possible! Who else is still working to become their ‘Best Me’? I’m interested in what others may consider to be their ‘Best’ …
I’m looking forward to seeing what happens at my NDIS planning meeting, and hope inspiration will be with me, and wonderful things can happen!
Mick, Jane and Me 