When do you feel most like yourself? 😹 When you’re laughing with friends over an inside joke? 📚 When your nose is buried in a book, making the hours pass by like minutes? 👐🏽 When you’re creating something beautiful/messy/tactile with your hands? 🗺️ When you’re at home? Or on the road? Or waiting at airports, the ultimate in-between space? What I find fascinating is that I could ask 1,000 people this same question, when do you feel most like yourself?, and I would hear 1,000 different answers....
9 days ago • 2 min read
What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear “nervous system regulation”? 🧘🏻♀️ Maybe you think about breathing techniques or mindfulness skills. 🍵 Or all the teas we’re told to drink, and supplements we’re encouraged to take. 🛁 Or bubble baths, self-care products, and spa appointments. All of the above are valid, and potentially extremely helpful, options for nervous system regulation. Different things work for different people. (I, for one, love my weighted pillow that smells like...
16 days ago • 2 min read
When I sit down to crochet (one of my favorite sensory-soothing activities), my cat always loves to join. The movement of the yarn riles her up, and she’ll swat at it or pounce at me from different angles to attack her prey — I mean, the yarn. 🧶 It’s actually super unhelpful for me — my process ends up looking like two stitches forward, one stitch back, as the yarn inevitably gets tangled by her ferocious attacks. But I don’t get mad, because it makes total sense to me why she does this....
23 days ago • 2 min read
Is neurodivergence a: diagnosis identity neurotype disability way of being …or all of the above? This is the question I unpack in episode 2 of my podcast, Nervous System Care & Healing. (Spoiler alert: the answer really depends on who you ask and what their lived experiences are. There’s no one “right” answer, and no one way to be neurodivergent. But there are more affirming & less affirming ways to talk about this topic.) 🎧 In this 18-min episode, What Does it Mean to be Neurodivergent?, I...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
I was introduced to a new word last week, and it spoke to me deeply, so I want to share about it here. The word is “f*ckery.” The context? I was sitting in a Brainspotting session with my teacher, Mari, the first day into a week-long intensive training retreat. (Quick info-dump if you’re new to Brainspotting - it’s a nervous system healing modality that uses fixed eye positions, or “Brainspots,” to process trauma, grief, & stress held in the body. As a Brainspotting practitioner, it’s...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
If someone were to ask you, “how are you, really?”… what would you honest answer be right now? In times like these, when the world & current events seem to move faster than the human nervous system was designed to process, I feel grateful to know my “parts.” So, my honest response to “how are you, really?” would not be a short answer — it’d be an answer that acknowledges all of my parts. We all have parts, working inside of our nervous systems, helping us to navigate life in whatever way...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
How does your brain like to process information? By reading words on a page? Skimming a screen? Talking it out in a live conversation? Watching videos? Looking at images? 👀 Listening to podcasts? While moving your body, or while sitting still? Our brains process information in so many different ways — visually, auditorily, kinesthetically, verbally, non-verbally, sub-consciously, consciously… and more. 🎧 If you happen to be an auditory processor, you might enjoy this new resource that I’ve...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
I recently joined a pottery class, as a way to unwind, be creative, meet new people, and learn a fun new skill. 🏺 2 weeks & 1 clay-splattered shirt later… and I want to share some (neurodivergent) observations. *** My art teacher uses a lot of verbal instructions – put your hand there, put your other hand here, position your body this way. The challenge? My brain struggles to process verbal instructions. I have a much easier time with slow, experiential, and visual learning. Whether your...
2 months ago • 2 min read
As highly sensitive & neurodivergent people, I think a lot of us are used to navigating complexities and holding dualities. For example: the complexity of masking to stay safe and unmasking to conserve energy, while learning who you are underneath the masks. The duality of experiencing deep joy and deep grief, sometimes within the same hour. Or the same breath. And the whiplash of shifting between these two states. The paradox of parts of you wanting connection, and parts of you wanting to be...
2 months ago • 2 min read