As a co-founder of the Neurodiversity Education Academy I regularly host their Community Gatherings. These happen once a month ( check out the link at the bottom for more).
And this year I’m doing something to soothe my own nervous system as well as -hopefully- that of some of the attendees. Past Year reflections and Future planning!
Doing even a minor reflection exercise to learn from the past year has always felt daunting to me. And I spent MANY years already frustrated with myself by week 3 or 4 because there was NO WAY I was following through on my goals, remembering my “word of the year” or still in touch with my “intentions” for this new sparkly year, once life was just about to get back to normal after the routine disruption that 2 weeks of Winter break had done to my systems and (barely surviving) habits. I had no-one around me offering more accessible alternatives to these daunting tasks other people seemed to just take in stride. And of course, at that time, no-one had yet identified I had ADHD yet.
Photo by Presian Nedyalkov on Unsplash
No matter how arbitrary the date of Jan 1st is, taking time to reflect on a past period CAN be super helpful, however. And no matter how you do it (or when!) connection to your ‘lessons learned’ as well as your desires for the future, can be a powerful motivator for change. And doing it together with others can be joyful and motivating. As I learned when I got to know someone who hosted events to help people do this in a neurodivergent accessible way!
However, doing that in circles that fundamentally misunderstand or misinterpret Executive Functioning challenges or Neurodivergence can feel unsafe. It can trigger internalized shame and ableism. It can take a lot for us to hold ourselves safely in that environment. It’s hard work to ONLY take away those things that are actually helpful and work for us, and NONE of the shame of being different and needing different things.
So this is why I’m hoping to do this within our community. I want to pay it forward! Come, do as little or as much as you can of the structure I have on offer. And feel free to share with us where your hurdles are around this.
Hope to see you there! I’m curious to hear what your desired future looks like!!
Don’t forget to sign up (link at the bottom).
Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash
You can always find our most recent events here: https://www.neurodiversityeducationacademy.org/events-workshops
Use this link to go directly to the sign up page for our New Year Gathering https://www.neurodiversityeducationacademy.org/event-details/new-year-community-gathering