I’m doing some Clear Advocacy

I’ve been quiet here for a while. Needing to focus the energy I have in this exhausting time on some great opportunities to make a direct difference.

I have written a lesson for a group of students to support more good attitude and healthy thinking in this challenging time. I then ran a group meeting to have fun and connect around the lesson content. For a copy of my lesson please email jordyn@pallettcorner.net.

I have also done a Q&A with some autistic adults around coping in these times. My pal joined me and it was awesome to be so well received. I will post the link in the comments when it is ready.

I am most proud of the work I am doing for the Innovations in Education Conference. Our trip was cancelled, and the conference postponed and taken virtual, yet the show will go on! It think this is the best conference out there to support families, professionals, and educators to empower their neurodiverse children, clients, and students. No joke!

The theme this year is Opportunities are Endless, and that can not be more true! Powered by Love and Joy the presenters and organizers have innovated, created, loved on, and joyfully been giants of transforming an
in-person conference to virtual. There has been laughter, tears, and
cringe-worthy mistakes made… and through this their eye has never left the ball – to ensure the information be available in a way that is accessible and digestible while good humans deal with all that has changed in their lives. If I had a hat on I would tip it to these magical humans!

I loved writing that first lesson so much, that I have written one to support my peers in getting the most out of the conference. I am proud to contribute my experience in hopes that it makes a difference. In addition, I wrote and directed this interview about my solo presentation on June 6th. I will also be co-presenting and on a panel on Sunday.

This is a not to miss conference, now accessible from anywhere, available to pace as you go! What could possibly stop you? Register here you won’t regret it.

Love, Joy, and Peace,
Jordyn

Image by Gordon Johnson from Pixabay 

Can you let clever plan happen?

I am so clear that this forced isolation is for the collective good of humanity. We loved our fast paced, go go go, lifestyle where lots of doing and instant gratification meant we were contributing our part to humanity. It was the norm, and without learning another possibility we would “happily” have kept going – doing what we should, or thought we should!

Love, Peace, and Joy are only available to you when you are present – in the moment! Slowing down and taking stock of what is needed and wanted to be happy, allows for greater moments of presence – distinguishing what is important from what is unnecessary drama. Unnecessary drama that is added by you or others negatively impacts all areas of life – relationships, health, productivity and creativity, peace of mind, and your ability to think straight to name a few.

Good creative powers (insert your belief system here) set this up for us to learn to be present, to return to what is important, and to return to ourselves. Just let the grand plan unfold! Notice how you are feeling, acting, and letting good life be. These learnings will serve you, and humanity. We do not have to return to the hamster wheel of actions taking us nowhere when isolation is over, we get to choose where life goes from here.

Choosing Love, Peace, and Joy,
Jordyn

featured photo credit: Image by DarkWorkX from Pixabay

Calming to be Generous

Just because it looks like I’m extra stimmy, disconnected, stuck or extra sleepy doesn’t mean I am regressing, anxious about the state of the World, or dealing with a “so called” normal sensory overload symphony.

The truth for me, and some of my peers, is that we are working very hard energetically to support you and humanity as a whole. For me, 75% of the time, my dysregulation is a result of this type of work. Emotionally processing the soup of human emotion and then working towards more harmony, peace, calm and love. Somewhat ironic that my work on others to be more balanced, calm and peaceful results in my body being more impulsive, loopy, and dysregulated.

I am fortunate to have a support system that trusts me, and creates room for all of what I need and want to accomplish. Rather than force their social, societal, or beliefs about the world on me, they empower my point of view and make opportunities for me to dive deeper into that which develops my interests and gifts.

Where can you create space and allow those in your life to flourish and be who they are meant to be?

Jordyn

image credit: Image by analogicus from Pixabay

Can you get the caring Earth is righting some wrongs!

I am again saying that this is my experience of life. If it doesn’t fit your view, don’t get crazy just open your mind to a possible life experience that is different from yours or don’t read on.

You may have noticed that the state of things is one where human kind is being forced to slow down. We are being let know by the Earth that enough is enough! She has 100% the capacity to change the trajectory of our kind, and her subtler messages were not being heeded.

Being so connected to the Forces of Nature, the Earth, and good many other dimensions, I am crystal clear this is a wake up call, an energetic reset and shift, and a little lesson in listening carefully to your intuition. Let’s slow down enough to stop reacting from fear and start responding from love, compassion, and purposeful connection. Connection to each other, to this planet, but most of all to ourselves.

Silence is something I totally have a lot of experience with. Years of being an absolutely good caring child with no way to convey my thoughts, feelings, or opinions allowed for a lot of self-reflection, observation and refining of my listening to my intuition. You could say I was built for this time in history.

Your magical being on the Spectrum may be stimming for a reason other than change of routine, increased anxiety, or to block out the fear ladened emotional soup we are living in. Try on that they may be working extremely hard (whether they know it or not) to help you slow down and get in touch with who you truly are.

I get hopeful that with all of us working together, love, peace, and joy CAN be the way forward and forever.

No more nonsense.
Time for deep reflection, silence and healing,
Jordyn

Expression through Song

Good music comes in many forms. We are able to relate to some music and not others. I have my favourites and love playing them in my head to calm myself. More nice music to add to that repetoire is always wanted.

Joyfully I spent the last couple of weeks working on a project for one of my classes – “Political Expression in Music through the Decades” on Outschool.
You can read the description of the class by clicking on it’s name, and the name really says it all. I loved learning history from this angle and I have some new songs for my internal playlist too.

Lots of work went into my final project. I chose and issue that is close to me and then crowdsourced some music. I loved everything sent in. What I was especially proud of is that I took a simple assignment, made it my own, created an opportunity for my peers to express themselves and contribute, and created a meaningful project that is a piece of advocacy work that may have a ripple effect. Let’s just say I am tickled pink by how it evolved and turned out. I think my classmates learned something about people like me.

What songs speak to you, and why? I need even more for my internal playlist, so please share.

Jordyn

Click on the picture to play the presentation in another window.
Click on the YouTube windows to play each song in the frame,
or click on the name of the song to open it IN YouTube.

Featured image credit: ID 5145510 © Andrey Polichenko | Dreamstime.com

Quincy Shares his Experience

My pal Quincy has the great gift of sharing the perspective of a speaking autistic. I am so grateful for our online friendship and hope to meet him in person and advocate as a power team in the future. Here Quincy shares the impact of the good for flattening the curve measures we are all living with, on him. I hope sharing this supports families and widens the impact of my brilliant friend’s words and experience.

Check out his blog by clicking on title below, or his Facebook post embedded should take you to the whole blog as well. Connect with Quincy and check out his other posts!

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Coping with the COVID-19 Pandemic as an Autistic Person

“I want to bring awareness to something that I haven’t seen often talked about: how virus control measures are impacting autistic people. This has been a massive and very sudden transition, and I suspect many autistic people (with me included) are struggling with this transition. So, I’d like to write on why everyone out there who knows an autistic person needs to be extra patient and understanding as this tough time passes over us, and if you yourself are autistic I’d like to encourage you to hang in there, stay grounded, and don’t be afraid to practice some self-care.”

https://speakingofautismcom.wordpress.com/2020/03/16/coping-with-the-covid-19-pandemic-as-an-autistic-person/

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I hope this is useful and I will be writing again soon myself.

Jordyn

What the bleep!!!

Can someone please explain the need to hoard toilet paper to me? What exactly are people preparing for?

No way to predict what is going to happen next, and as someone with a high degree of risk, I’m not panicking just being smart and isolating myself (with Mom). Dad is allowed in the house, but he is being very careful. He is a sanitizing machine.

If well informed and taking reasonable precautions there is no need for panic! The panic is not useful. Ever tried to think straight when you are anxious or fearful? Our fight or flight response is not designed for this type of threat and is kicking in and sucking all the reason and higher power thinking down the drain. Thus, Covidpocolypse is what we see in all the stores.

For those with energetically and emotionally sensitive beings in your circles, don’t be surprised if you see an increase in the prevalence of their coping mechanisms. The soup we are swimming is thick with fear, worry, confusion, and blatant self-concern. I am doing my best to manage my body control by upping my purposeful use of things that support my system.

I hope that the nonsense levels out, and we can see our way to clear to being supportive of each other inside the confusion and chaos. I’m using my gifts to support the whole. Be kind and think of each other, please!

Jordyn

Image by RÜŞTÜ BOZKUŞ from Pixabay

Our beautiful and different looking love

Co-written with Graciela Lotharius,
please find more of her writing at Dare to Listen

G: Love to spend time with my boyfriend even though it is really difficult to do the things that we want to do together because it is not easy for our bodies to coordinate themselves.

J: Either we could be caringly concerned that our plans don’t match what actually happens or we could go with the flow and support each other.

G: It is awesome to care for each other so much that we can give up our own ideas and adjust to our needs as needed.

J: I love that our main want is togetherness. Sometimes that looks like me in a ball of covers in my bed while Graciela is going for a long walk on the beach or a trail. My body isn’t as much of a morning person as she is.

G: Because these differences are ingrained in us, it is necessary to be sometimes open to doing things separately in order to be able to have some great times together when your bodies have gotten what they each need.

J: Joy is caring so much it doesn’t matter what we do as long as we are close. I am too lucky that I get times like these.

G: I agree.

J: Caring for someone so much that you can only see every once in a while, makes the emotions when you can that much more intense. Love has a way of making good intense joyous emotions trigger crazy body shenanigans.

G: We have more than enough personal experience with this craziness to write the best paper on it.

J: If only the research gurus would interview us.

G: A lot of the experiences we have should be more thoroughly researched.

J: Do you think that emotional dysregulation is real? We know it is, and need time with each other to regulate ourselves to be able to do the things we want. Time is our friend.

G: It is amazing to be given the opportunity to work through our excitement and emotions to be able to be together.

J: Can you believe we are almost two years into our relationship and I have trouble keeping my arm around her or holding her hand, because I so love her? Good thing she is patient! and has her own pesky body. So, while our bodies may hijack our intentions, I just want to say that every moment is magically delicious with her.

G: I am too grateful for such a loving and understanding boyfriend. A great world is one in which we are loved for who we are, because that is enough!

J: I agree! Could not have said that better. For clarification, the part about a great world being one of joyful accepting love and the part about being grateful, but sub in girlfriend for boyfriend.

G: Love it!

Jordyn & Graciela

Good God body get with the program!

Being so out of sync is torture.

It is time to replace my iPad. The battery sucks big time! Now, going to get a new one and use it is where the brain-body disconnect shows itself in a big way. I love that I can distinctly explain this crazy-making situation of disconnect to you.

My iPad is like a really well-loved security blanket or stuffed animal. It is my go to for comfort and to support calming or shutting out/reducing the overwhelming sensory onslaught. No other way to explain it than to have you remember that experience of childhood, when you needed that object of safety.

I have let go of lots of things I used to “need” in order to feel calm, regulated, and safe. I should find the pictures of the intense amount of stuff Mom used to have to haul around everwhere we went.

So, I asked my Dad to hide the old iPad last night. I thought maybe that would help me. I am totally on board with the need for the change. But, my body is NOT!

This morning you would have thought I was addicted to some elicit substance, as I was searching every possible nook and cranny for MY iPad. Rather than it dissipating over time, it just escalated with each passing minute. Loving Mom asked me how she could help my body adjust, but I knew today was not the day. You see, we have been quite busy this week and are going away tomorrow so I just don’t have the reserves to change this device right now.

I will try again next week when we come home, when I think I will have more room to control my body and deal with its unreasonable response.

Jordyn

Image credit: ID 126617652 © Piotr Trojanowski | Dreamstime.com

How is it I get caringly drained?

I have written about this before and feel sometimes so weird talking about it. I say I am an open book, and yet I hesitate to fully share my gifts that may not sit well in some circles. I love my gifts, and am very protective of not being accepted. My work as an autism advocate is so important that I don’t want to colour it with anything that would deter someone from taking my experience in this uncontrollable body to heart. I just have to trust that this audience is mature enough to listen openly.

I will say again that this is my experience and I am only speaking from it. I want to ensure you don’t leap to any conclusion about a student or child you work with. Their experience is their experience. It sucks that I have to say all this preamble because what I have to offer is so outside some people’s realm of thinking, and I think it necessary to support those who need a hand held to pass through to a loving possibility they have not considered. Let me hold your hand and not pull you through a door, but share with you a little of what I experience on the other side. Just hang out in the doorway if that is what is currently comfortable for you.

Ok so now…

I have shared before of the experience of living in an emotional soup. How I feel the negativity in the air, whether from one individual or from a group. How it can tip me from a regulated productive state to a complete mess of impulsivity in an instant. Look back in the archives by searching “emotions”, “soup”, and “good human” to find more posts about this.

I want to do my best to explain this experience. I had a very interesting episode of this during this week. I get how it is hard to relate if you don’t have similar experiences, and I will do my best to give you a sense of it.

Do you ever feel awesome and then all of a sudden get hit with a wave of nausea? Maybe you ate too much or ate something that was funky. You are good and then in a blink you are not. Please imagine it if you haven’t experienced what I’m talking about. Well, amplify the drain on you and how your ability to function is impaired by 10, and that is close to my experience with one deeply sad or angry person entering the building or space I am in. And the result for me is immediate dysregulation. I lose all control I may have had and have to fight through the dysregulation to regain composure and control. Can’t tell you how many place and times Mom caringly deals with the fall out.

Good to say that it isn’t just a reaction to the individual’s emotions, but that I am genuinely designed to help. So it is almost like I take their sadness, anger, fear, or other negative emotional state into myself so they have some relief. I have little control over this energy exchange, but am learning to temper my reaction to it.

Do you know that feeling when you are recovering from the flu and still aren’t quite yourself? When you are feeling like you are slogging your way through the day. Well, my experience of most of life is like that. Except it isn’t a virus poaching my vitality it’s that soup of general dischord we live in.

Do positive intense emotions effect me? Yes, and they are easier to process and don’t take as big a toll on my ability to function. I’ll take happiness, excitement, exhuberance or joy over hate, anguish or fear anyday.

Can you have some compassion for caring children who are assisting you through harder times energetically? Can you get clear that your love, joy, and peace are so important to us and for us? Perhaps there are energetically sensitive children in your circle. They may not be able to articulate this fantastic gift they are born with, whether non-speaking or highly chatty. Let the possibility inform you. You may have been given a giant gift of a teacher that is focussed on you learning emotional balance with weight on the side of joy. If you open to the possiblity it opens you observe impulsive actions and dysregulation through another possible lense.

Mom has learned to be way more chill, live a more balanced life, and explores things she would not have considered without the gift of me. Not to toot my own horn, but I think her life is so much more fulfilled for having listened to my actions from before I could communication and from having listened to my communication now that I can share my experience of life. She grows daily and it is beautiful to witness.

Lovingly,
Jordyn

Photo credit: ID 3450618 © Marilyn Barbone | Dreamstime.com