Just wanted to share an update post-post-meltdown now that I'm feeling better & my head is feeling less fuzzy/cloudy. Grateful for the support of kind people. May we all find our people. <3
This week I had an autistic meltdown. IT WAS NOT FUN! I wanted to share my insights and reflections on it, in case it helps anyone feel less alone in the experience. I see you. I'm with you.
Are you carrying an old wound like me, where you feel like your needs are an inconvenience to others, even though all of the evidence you have suggests otherwise? And even though maybe you know its objectively "a good thing" to communicate your needs & your feelings, you're also kind of like... BUT WHY? Why why why? Why would I do this? Why not just deal with it myself? Aren't my feelings my own responsibility??? What's the point of sharing what your needs and your feelings are when you can ...
In this episode I talk about neuroplasticity frameworks for feeling proud & celebrating ourselves when we have a disconnect between the cognitive experience of—"Yeah, I would like to feel proud of myself about this"—and the deeper, embodied, somatic and emotional experience of feeling proud of ourselves. Also, in this one, I sing you a little song ☺️🎶
"Your brain will do it when it's ready to do it," is a profound truth for me. BUT, sometimes, we can't always wait! Sometimes we have hard deadlines and rigid timelines. So, what do we do then??? The mindset that I talk about today dives into a more active approach that still allows for the intuition and subconscious-level processing that many ADHD + AuDHD brains *need* when it comes to doing the things we want to do.
WHAT IF IT'S ACTUALLY MEANT TO BE EASY??? In this episode we dive into resource states and neuroplasticity frameworks for creative problem solving when we're experiencing executive dysfunction!
In this episode I explore with the pod's first guest, Peter Harrison about autism assessments, masking & unmasking, and what it feels like to mask (and how to approach unmasking!).
Okay, cool, let's normalize shit weeks, yes... But what do we do when every week feels like a shit week? How do we know what requires radical self-acceptance, and what requires radical change? In this episode I talk about the circumstances in which it might actually be a good thing for someone blow up their whole life.
New Year's got you feeling down? Me too, friend. Me too. If you're not feeling very "woo" or sparkly and shiny at the start of 2024, this message of comfort is for you.
In this episode I talk about uncommonly talked about hyperfixations!! It's not all sunshines and rainbows and crochet amigurumi on this ship! We dive into the experience of hyperfixating on PEOPLE, body-focused and medical hyperfixations, and a "perfectionism" hyperfixation on shiny things in our environment. I also mention how ADHD meds affected my experience of many of these—listen in! **CW: I talk about cancer in this episode**
Editor's note: Hobbies aren't meant to stress you out *without your own enthusiastic consent*. Like, skydiving? Probably stressful. But if it's what you signed up for, because you LOVE IT, because it's worth it to you—then hell yeah. I'm rooting for you. Rock on. But if we're talking about... crochet? Journaling? Scrapbooking??? Learning how to roller-skate again? A different perspective can be helpful. I hope you remember to have fun <3
Intimacy is important for human relationships—and it's *also* important for the things we want to do!! These are a reflection of the human relationship with have with ourselves. So, how do we build intimacy, and why should we?? Listen to learn more!
In this episode I lay out common pitfalls of the dreaded "to do list" and explore ideas on how to approach task initiation executive dysfunction in ways that are more accessible for your ADHD!
Transition time, decompression time, and time to recharge—this is NOT procrastination!!!! Transition time is ESSENTIAL for neurodivergent brains. Learn the "why" in this episode.
If you experience hyperfixation spending or impulsive spending (or have an interesting relationship with grief, BECAUSE, Y'KNOW, MY ADHD BRAIN SPAGHETTI'S ON HERE SOMETIMES), this episode is for you!!! In this ep, I talk about some of the main frameworks for impulsive + hyperfixation spending that I teach in my Impulsive Spending Masterclass.
In this episode I talk about why it's so freaking hard to know what your needs are when you're late-diagnosed neurodivergent, and a strategy for connecting with your intuition!
Here is one of my FAVORITE support tools for when I'm understimulated, or even for when I'm just wanting to follow my dopamine but I have no idea what I want to do! Create a library for yourself, a physical menu of options—make it as visual and accessible as possible!
This is my love letter, my mission statement, for NORMALIZING having absolute garbage weeks. Have you been having a rough day, a rough week, a rough year? This message is for you. Not everything we experience is meant to be fixed—not every hard moment means that we're broken.
Do you frequently find yourself looking at the clock and saying, "AHHH!! I have no time!! I've wasted my entire day!!!" If this is you, this is the episode for you! Here are some mindset downloads based on neuroplasticity techniques to require your brain to hold different beliefs—(on purpose! Very very very intentionally!!!) and require the actually incredibly neutral trigger point of looking at a clock. This simple shift I talk about in this episode creates nervous system safety, supports unsha...
Okay, so we've heard of bare minimums, but what about bare maximums??? Do we even need bare maximums? When is it a good idea to use them? And is hyperfocus a bad thing??? Listen to this episode to learn more! And if you are looking for it, here's the link to sign up for my Neurodivergent Love Letters in your inbox!
Do you ever feel guilty for not "resting enough" on the weekends? Or have you tried to make sure you're getting enough rest by taking naps, chilling on the couch, watching Netflix—and found yourself feeling bored AF? Here is my love letter to you: Rest doesn't *always* have to look like physical rest. It can!! And we love that!!! But rest for your brain can actually look highly active—especially with ADHD! Listen to learn more!
Do you have a hard time coming back into your routines after they've been disrupted? Maybe you went on vacation or traveled for work, maybe you had an unexpected chaotic life even happen (me + Hurricane Idalia), or maybe you just burned out. In this episode, I walk you through gentle approaches toward coming back to doing the things you want to do.
Why I think it's important for our brains to have experiences (through things like hobbies!) that reflect our values back at us. Not "shoulds," but true, authentic values for the people that we want to be, and the beliefs that feel like home in our brains and in our bodies.
Lately I've had a lot of people tell me, "Wow! You are so nice to your brain!!" But I have not always been so nice to my brain. My go-to default was beating myself up and shaming myself for not doing enough. I reflected on it a bit, and there are two tools in particular that I tend to utilize *a lot* when it comes to this particular form of brain-changing via neuroplasticity—using *new*, different neural networks and breaking away from those default patterns. I invite you to try these out and se...
I have clients with chronic pain, chronic illness. I have clients who are in burnout, or just on the cusp of coming out of burnout. I have autistic clients with sensory overload and ADHD clients who take stimulants and find that no pharmacy can fill their prescriptions due to the shortage, leaving them in withdrawal. I have clients who have had MAJOR life crises. The loss of loved ones. Clients with the stress and challenge of moving, of new job transitions, of vacation transitions. This is what...
In this episode, I talk about my journey with disordered eating & finding my way to intuitive eating / anti-dieting... all before I ever even knew that I had ADHD! But of course, learning that I did have ADHD made this entire journey make SO MUCH more sense. Intuitive eating changed my life. I went from obsessing 24/7 about food, restricting food, and my weigh on the scale to recovering from my binge eating disorder and being able to totally change my relationship with food, to the point of ...
If you hear panting in the background, it's my dog Melody! :D Join me today for this episode about mindset downloads for your to-do list and how to use a to-do list as a support tool instead of having it be a fascist dictator that throws value-judgments at you for not being "good enough" if you don't get enough things done.
Have you heard me talk about "following your dopamine" but struggle to feel what your intuitive pulls/calls/longings are? If following your dopamine feels challenging, that makes sense. This is a mental muscle, a spiritual skill, that we've often not been taught how to develop. It gets overcome by "shoulds" and shame. We were taught not to listen to our intuitive pulls because they're childish, immature, lazy, or wasteful. But the concept of "following your dopamine" is a critical skill when it ...
This episode is all about demand avoidance, my experiences around it and how I approach it in ways that are helpful for my brain (instead of harmful). Demand avoidance is something that I've struggled with since childhood. For me, the experience is an internal cringe combined with a teen-angsty feeling. Very often, demand avoidance for me causes emotional dysregulation and in extremes, meltdowns & shutdowns. Today I share about what strategies, mindsets, and approaches help me work with my d...
Procrastination is a nominalization—which means, it's a verb that we conventionally use as a noun. Taking back the "verb" of procrastination allows us to gain insights about what exactly is holding us back & keeping us stuck. The wisdom that lies within our resistance. This was a challenging podcast to record, not because I didn't want to record it, but because I was incredibly emotionally dysregulated from a stressful week. But I wanted to be here. I wanted to record it. I talk about a few ...
