👉🏽 Subscribe for thoughtful, bite-sized emails — from Liz Zhou, a neurodivergent therapist — on how to take care of your nervous system & understand your brain.
When a small accommodation makes a big difference
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This is a story about unmasking. Last fall, I visited my friend in New York City. Knowing that the place would be loud and overstimulating, I made sure to bring my earplugs. My earplugs are designed to block out noise. When I wear them, I still hear everything, but sounds are muffled as if I’m half underwater, half on earth. The earplugs allow me to participate in conversations & stay aware of my surroundings, with minimal auditory overwhelm. It’s like they stretch the battery life of my nervous system — so instead of having to head home after an hour of hanging out at a loud venue, I can linger for 2-3 hours and actually enjoy my time there. One night, we had dinner at an awesome, but fairly loud, restaurant. My friend snapped a photo of me, and I happened to be wearing my earplugs. Then he invited me to take my earplugs off, so I could get a “normal” photo. This is what we ended up with. Looking back, I love both photos. They memorialize a sweet moment in time. But the more unmasked version of me is definitely the photo with earplugs on, because that’s how I actually look in public most of the time. Those earplugs have accompanied me to busy cafés, on plane rides, and even to a rave (!!). They’re one of the best investments & accommodations I’ve ever made for my nervous system health. Choosing to be seen with earplugs on is one small example of unmasking. Because why pretend that I don’t need them, when I actually do? There are lots of different ways to unmask, and a lot of reasons why we choose to mask or unmask. I don’t believe there’s a right or wrong way — only your way, and your choice, in this moment. And in the fairly low-stakes example of wearing my earplugs in public, I choose my own comfort & sensory peace over the potential discomfort of receiving some weird looks from strangers. So, I’m curious… What is one way you’re unmasking & accommodating your needs today? Talk soon, P.S. If you need help figuring out how to unmask & accommodate your needs, I’d love to support you. I offer Nervous System Healing Intensives (short-term, accelerated work) for highly sensitive, neurodivergent adults, online worldwide. Click HERE to learn more. And if you want to get an Intensive on the books, contact me HERE. I’m scheduling Intensives for June 2025 & beyond.
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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.
I sprained my ankle this weekend, tripping down the stairs… so my agenda since then has been to rest as much as possible. (Which works out great for my cats, who like me best when I’m a stationary object who can double as their couch.) As my ankle recovers, I’ve been reflecting on the healing process, and keep coming back to these core truths/reminders. 🍃 The first truth is that rest is a part of healing. Even when it seems like we’re not doing anything & nothing is happening, doing nothing...
Every day, as part of my sensory care routine, I like to brush my arms & legs with a skin brush. It exfoliates the skin, helps with circulation, and makes me feel more awake & connected to my body. When I engage in this soothing ritual, I think about how taking care of my nervous system is also a way to connect with my ancestors. After all, each of our nervous systems is an ancestral inheritance. The human meat-suit that you’re living in right now, didn’t just come from nowhere. Every cell in...
One of my budding special interests is permaculture (pun intended 🌱), and a common saying in the permaculture world is as follows: The problem is the solution. or: The solution is inside of the problem. It reads like a riddle, but there’s so much truth & wisdom behind it. For example: the accumulation of waste on earth is a problem. A solution is to compost the waste so that it regenerates into a valuable resource. The problem (we don’t know what to do with all this waste 💩) guides us to the...