Living with a disability: A gateway to practicing forgiveness and compassion.

Forgiveness and compassion are two helpful approachestoward reducing the emotional, psychological, and spiritualanxiety brought about by negative and harmful experiences. Disability, forgiveness, and compassion are terms that maynot be thought of in relation to one another, but here theauthors introduce the idea that the experience of living witha disability can be an opportunity to practice forgiveness or compassion, whether directed toward one’s self or towardothers. Forgiveness and compassion are similar yet unique practices that influence the emotional well-being. The experience of disability includes both the disabling lifeevent (in the case of acquired disabilities) and the manymicro aggressions that the disabled experience over time. It is the authors’ belief that forgiveness and compassion are tools applicable to people with disabilities that may be usedas a means for personal growth and healing. These tools can benefit not only people with disabilities, but also their loved ones and all those they encounter in life.