To some people, a world without the sense of sight, hearing, taste, touch, or smell can be a challenging one. However, it’s a world that millions of people who have lost one or more of their senses must navigate every day.
It might seem strange to say, but a loss of senses can be a good thing. Why? It turns out there are several reasons, ranging from heightened intuition to stronger resilience.
Humans can do some amazing things – even in the face of adversity. Take a look at the following five examples of how sensory loss can surprisingly help people overcome other challenges in their lives:
1. Increased Awareness
If you lose one sense, such as hearing or sight, one thing you’ll notice is how you become more aware of the world around you. You learn to fine-tune your other senses, and they will compensate for your sensory loss to some degree.
For example, people who experience hearing loss may learn to understand people in other ways, such as through lip reading or intuition, and their hearing loss lifestyle evolves without necessarily being a negative experience.
2. Increased Empathy and Compassion
As harsh as it might seem, some people only become empathetic and compassionate when they have a life-changing experience, such as sensory loss. Meanwhile, for everyone else, their already good levels of empathy and compassion become heightened.
One positive outcome of sensory loss is how everyone who experiences it learns to understand and be more compassionate for others around them, resulting in more supportive relationships.
3. Creativity and Adaptation
What happens if you experience sensory loss? The one thing that everyone will do is adapt to their new lives. Sure, it might take some people a while to adjust to their new ways of living, but their sensory loss also helps them be more creative in their lives.
Humans are resilient and will always find new ways to solve problems and navigate their environments when they experience life-changing events. Put simply, they accomplish their daily tasks as they’ve always done, but in different ways.
4. Better Memory
Another positive and welcome change to a person’s life when they experience sensory loss is improved memory and cognitive skills. The mind is a beautiful thing, yet everyone doesn’t fully use theirs to their potential.
Sensory loss causes affected people to rely more on their minds and memories, resulting in improved memory recall. For instance, someone with a loss of smell can remember the smell of home cooking or smells linked with happy times in their lives.
5. Personal Growth
One final surprising way that loss of senses can be a good thing is how it helps people become better versions of themselves.
They will experience increased personal growth by learning how to overcome challenges as they navigate new chapters of their lives. They will also learn other qualities, such as being more patient, self-acceptance, and improved resilience.
Improved personal growth will help those individuals in many aspects of their lives, from life at home to better dealing with health issues and even improving their careers at work.
