December Session
This month’s discussion prompt:
‘Your energy in practice: internal experience compared with external experience. Are you expected to, or do you expect to, push through often? Are you able to find peace or rest when you need to?’
In terms of rest, we discussed acupuncture as helpful.
Hyper focus can be a form of rest (being left in peace undisturbed).
Walking can be a form rest/recharge. A form of freedom.
"When you are free of something intense, your brain switches to your default mode network which is more positive for rest."
People often recommend to neurodivergent ‘people have you tried time management’ (patronising and sarcastic) and in response, it's tempting to say, ‘Have you tried -------- off?‘ Misinformed recommendations can be tiring.
Not all ‘neuro therapies’ work i.e mindfulness works for some not for others. We need Neuro affirmative therapies. If not Neuroaffirmative they can make things worse.
Practical suggestions for rest/recharge:
Together charity (Resource: https://togetherco.org.uk/) in Brighton is a good resources to meet up and match up with others. Yolanda has found that very beneficial in terms of creating relationships.
We discussed the joy of ‘Exploding Appendix’ sessions and how being with right people can give energy rather than deplete it.
Pilates has been useful. Jessica Valence is on YouTube. She is very accessible. The right instructor helps with attention to detail. (Resource: https://www.youtube.com/jessicavalantpilates)
Jan Svankmajer. B 1934. (animated films). Resource: https://wepa.unima.org/en/jan-svankmajer/ and https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8VpAhdFhYnsaIdubkjILSA
Other recommendations for rest:
* Balancing the chaos and order.*
Book recommendations :
Rediscovered, by Catherina Asta, founder of The Late Discovered Club
Hum by Helen Phillips. Speculative fiction exploring marriage, motherhood and artificial intelligence.
Further Recommendations: not mentioned in the session, is research conducted by Dr Lisa Feldman Barrett . I find her work around ‘Allostatic load’ and ‘body budget’ very useful. Listen to her Ted Talk
Resource: Her website: https://lisafeldmanbarrett.com/ Books worth reading/ listening too: https://lisafeldmanbarrett.com/books/how-emotions-are-made/ and https://lisafeldmanbarrett.com/books/seven-and-a-half-lessons-about-the-brain/
Exceptional body of talks can be found here (and on YouTube) : https://lisafeldmanbarrett.com/multimedia/#academic-talks
*Note the term Neurodiverse not always used accurately in some later talks i.e she uses Neurodiverse (which is the whole population) when Neurodivergent is meant.
Resource: ‘Temple Grandin presents "Visual Thinking"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiiHeFNZjkM
Useful research, but some may have concerns about Grandin’s ideas re: work and work ethics.
Dr Adam Zeman’s ‘Extreme Imagination’ (video) research around visual and non-visual, Aphantastic and Hyper Aphantastic. ‘Blind Mind's Eye - The Science of Aphantasia with Dr. Adam Zeman’
Book: ‘Shape of things unseen: A New Science of Imagination’ (book) By Dr Adam Zeman
Sub mention: Brain mass may be shrinking in terms of human brains (as well as dogs). One hypothesis brain mass shrinking as muscle mass has shrunk as we are no longer hunter gathers.
Pioneer plants: Could Neurodivergents be pioneer plants? ‘Foxholes’ is a process of rewilding where pioneer plants grow and help newer upcoming plants.* Do Neurotypicals benefit from pioneering Neurodivergent approaches? In terms of pioneer plants is it that neurodivergent people are pioneer plants whereas neurotypical parts of the population sit within the medium they sit in behind what has gone before? Or waiting for Neurotypicals to realise that we are all Neurodivergent?
* Ecosia (Resource: https://www.ecosia.org/ ) documentary
Resource: ‘How we're restoring ancient forest WITHOUT planting trees in Madagascar’ (video)
Resources for further research
Parc (The Participatory Autism Research Collective) research sessions for those that are interested in research: https://participatoryautismresearch.wordpress.com/
Next event- A conference (Free) - is scheduled: 3rd March 2026 – Details can be found here: https://participatoryautismresearch.wordpress.com/category/events/
Sign – up to Parc’s email blog for details and alerts if interested.
Useful for researchers and community. Conferences and sessions are a mix of online or in person depending of topics. Useful to see different communication styles and different research topics around neurodivergence and wider research topics,
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