👉🏽 Subscribe for thoughtful, bite-sized emails — from Liz Zhou, a neurodivergent therapist — on how to take care of your nervous system & understand your brain.
[newsletter] chocolate breaks in writing class 🍫
|
I’m three weeks into a memoir writing course, taught by the brilliant Stephanie Foo – author of What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma. It’s surreal (and seriously such a gift) to learn about writing from one of my favorite authors. Plus, my nervous system appreciates the care with which sensitive topics are handled in the course. For example: after reviewing excerpts from a number of best-selling memoirs - all of which covered intense topics, like trauma & oppression - we were invited to enjoy a piece of chocolate as a sensory break/reset. From our seats in the (virtual) classroom, we were prompted to notice every single detail about the chocolates – the taste, the texture, the changing of form as the chocolates melted in our mouths. 🍫 After just a couple minutes in chocolate-land, I noticed that my brain – which had been hyper-focused on the (distressing) details of the excerpts we were reviewing – relaxed a bit, and my nervous system felt more settled & at ease. The sensory break allowed me to transition from a state of nervous system activation (a natural reaction to reading stories about pain & hardship) to a state of calm. It was the perfect reminder to give my nervous system all the breaks that it needs, and to savor the joys (like chocolate) when they come by. 🌸 Taking breaks is what allows us to sit with the hard stuff - without burning out or dissociating the whole time. If this resonates with you, let this be a reminder that acknowledging pain & accessing joy don’t have to be mutually exclusive. We can learn to sit with both the hard parts & the good parts of life. That matters, in a world where there’s so much pain – and also so much opportunity for good, for healing, for joy, for connection. ❤️ So please, enjoy the chocolate (or light a candle, or pet your cat, or do whatever puts your nervous system at ease). Tell your people how much you love them. And take the breaks that you need - so that you can come back more resourced & available for the work that you’re here to do. (I don’t mean your job-work, necessarily – I mean your soul’s work.) Now, I’m off to finish homework for this week’s memoir course (and I’m saving myself a piece of chocolate, just in case). 🙃 Until next time, P.S. Know someone who needs to hear this? Forward it along. New readers can subscribe here. P.P.S. If you’re interested in working together, I’d love to support you. 🌻 For folks who are overwhelmed & burnt out, but too busy for weekly therapy, I offer Nervous System Healing Intensives — three 90-minute sessions, using brain-body modalities (Brainspotting, IFS, EMDR) that go deeper than talk therapy & help you feel better, sooner.
Intensives are a type of short-term, accelerated therapy — for folks who prefer a hyper-focused approach to healing; who need longer than 50-min sessions to warm up & process deeply. 👉🏽 If you want to get an Intensive on the books, click here to book an intro call. I help highly sensitive, neurodivergent adults heal their nervous systems & connect with their authentic selves. 💗 Need a nervous system reset? —> Join me for a Calm Place meditation. |
Liz's Neurodivergent Letters
👉🏽 Subscribe for thoughtful, bite-sized emails — from Liz Zhou, a neurodivergent therapist — on how to take care of your nervous system & understand your brain.
What does it mean to be human? Years ago, I watched an episode of Black Mirror (a science fiction show) that made me sit with this question in a new way. The episode is called San Junipero. Here’s the premise: 🌊 San Junipero is a town on the beach, where people play, dance, meet with friends & lovers, and live their best lives. The only catch? San Junipero doesn’t actually exist in the physical world. It’s a simulated, digital reality. The people who hang out in San Junipero are: living...
A couple newsletters ago, I mentioned that I recently moved to Oregon. (You can read that newsletter here if you missed it!) Since then, I’ve been observing & connecting with the nature around me - which is the land of the Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla; Clackamas; Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde; and Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. (Which I learned through this helpful & important website.) A few things catch my attention when I meander through the forest in my backyard. 🦋 the...
Recently, I brought my newly adopted dogs, Toto and Didi, to their first vet appointment. Since they’re anxious beings, still adjusting to the rhythms of our home, I wanted to find a vet that would treat them with the care & patience that they need. That’s how I ended up at a “fear-free” vet clinic, which emphasizes “stress-free visits that put your pet at ease.” The way the vet interacted with our dogs reminded me what it means to take care of the nervous system - whether animal or human....