"Blissful Ordinariness"


“Blissful ordinariness” is a term that refers to living one’s everyday life as typical without any barriers that you would not normally have. Most people take this for granted because they have never had any obstacle that would make their normal routine any more difficult than what they are used to. I have a lot of empathy for those who struggle with typical everyday activities because when I was in high school, I broke my ankle so bad that I had to have surgery. I had to get a metal plate and screws put in and I was unable to bear weight on it for at least six weeks. I required crutches or a wheelchair if I wanted to get around, especially at school, and my bedroom was on the second floor of my house so I needed to figure out ways to go up and down the stairs safely. Additionally, I couldn’t get my soft cast wet, so showering was an entire other challenge. This was far from ordinary with what I was used to in my everyday life and it made me realize how difficult things can be when some of your independence is compromised.

By understanding “blissful ordinariness,” occupational therapists can form a therapeutic relationship with their clients because they will understand the deeper consequences that may come with an injury or disability through talking and getting to know their client. OTs will understand these barriers the clients are facing and be able to work to get past them or find creative ways to get back to doing them independently. Since OTs look at every aspect of their client’s life, they’re able to take into account what their client needs and wants to do. Then, they treat them based on that rather than whatever the single barrier could be that limits their independence in doing their desired activities.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Locus of Control

Locus of control is a phrase that refers to a person’s views about what causes different things and events to happen in his or her life, whether from their own doing (internal) or from outside factors (external). My OT class did an activity to determine whether we had a more internal or external locus of control, and I scored an 11, which is almost directly in the middle. I would say this is pretty accurate for my personality. While I do believe most things are within my control to an extent, one of my favorite phrases is also “que será será” which is Spanish for “whatever will be, will be.” I do the most that I can to handle different situations and get my desired outcomes, but I also know that some things in life are just simply out of my control. For example, when applying to OT schools, I did my best to maintain good grades in undergrad, have a great application, and apply to a variety of schools. However, after interviewing and doing everything I could on my part, it was out of my...
Read more

Imposter Syndrome

  Imposter syndrome is when a person does not feel like they are competent or intelligent enough to be doing the things they are qualified to do. It seems like this is especially evident in the healthcare field. And even though most people think they are the only person who feels this way, as it turns out, most people actually do or have at some point. This is something we have learned about a lot during our master’s program, and it has made me realize that I have also felt this way in multiple different situations. However, learning about imposter syndrome has helped me figure out what can cause it and what I can do to combat it. The times I have felt most like an “imposter” has been leading up to a fieldwork or being on fieldwork. There is always the anxiety of “I don’t know what I’m doing” or “I feel like I don’t know anything” or the fear of failure, but I also know that I would not be where I am if I wasn’t capable of doing it. From reading the article “Facing Imposter Syndr...
Read more

"Man from the South"

I enjoyed reading the Man from the South story from Roald Dahl. It was about a bet between an older man and a soldier. The solider was to light a lighter successfully 10 times in a row without fail. If the solider lost, the old man got to chop off his pinky finger. If the solider won, the old man had to give the soldier his Cadillac, which we found out later was not even his, but his wife’s instead. The soldier in the story thought that losing his pinky finger would not be that big of a deal and that “it doesn’t do anything for him anyway,” but assuming the solider lost the bet, he would realize that the pinky, along with the rest of the fingers, all serve a function in our hand strength and movements. The solider would have a difficult time completing his necessary tasks on his ship if he lost his little finger. The little finger provides a lot of hand strength for many different activities and losing it would mean losing a lot of strength. Navy soldiers have to do a lot of mai...
Read more