@Deb Brouwer @Renee Van keulen @Diana Domantay @Nic F that is exactly how I felt & the reason I did this post. I felt left behind and honestly kind of sorry for myself. Many of the people I was engaging with during the challenge went on to the program and I felt really disappointed that I couldn't. Started spiraling into shame and guilt reinforcing the old beliefs that I was a failure etc. I decided to put those thoughts aside and put myself out there, hoping that it would reach others seeking connection and it seems that I have!

I was telling someone about the program and how hopeful and optimistic I felt since doing it and that I was sad that I couldn't afford the program now but that I would do it in the future and it would be better because Jim is constantly improving it and the AI is constantly learning! 😉

I listened to Desiderata again today, and for some reason, it resonated with me differently. It felt like hearing the same words with a new nervous system — one that finally understands itself better. I found new meaning in lines I’ve heard a hundred times before. Maybe it’s because of this challenge. Maybe it’s because I’m seeing myself more clearly. But today, the poem felt like it was speaking directly to the ADHD parts of me — the sensitive parts, the overwhelmed parts, the parts that have spent years trying to fit into boxes that never felt right. So many of us live in that “noise and haste,” both outside and inside our own minds. We feel everything intensely. We try to keep up. We compare ourselves. We shrink to fit into boxes that were never meant for us. And somewhere along the way, we forget who we were before the world told us who to be. But hearing this poem again, through the lens of ADHD and through the clarity this challenge has given me, it hits differently. It feels like permission. Permission to move gently. Permission to stop comparing. Permission to listen to our own truth. Permission to be ourselves — without apology, without performance, without the masks we’ve worn for survival. The line that stays with me is: “Be gentle with yourself.” So many of our fears, doubts, and spirals are born from fatigue, loneliness, and years of misunderstanding our own wiring. And then this: “You are a child of the universe… you have a right to be here.” For anyone who has ever felt “too much,” “not enough,” or “out of place,” that line lands like a deep exhale. This challenge helped me see that my ADHD, my trauma, my identity — they aren’t scattered pieces. They’re one story. My story. And I’m finally learning to hold it with compassion instead of judgment. If this resonates with you too, just know: You belong here. You’re allowed to take up space. And even in the noise and confusion of life, you can keep peace in your soul.

@Lois Hamilton I don't know I just woke up and felt compelled to listen and read it again

Hi Leonie, I hear you with this. I was an only child of a financially-struggling single mother, she is also bipolar and her episodes started when I started high school. I was also diagnosed as bipolar since my early twenties but never really accepted it. I was diagnosed with ADHD w RSD Trauma & PTSD in October 2025. Since my diagnosis I have been trying to understand "trauma" and how it shapes us, our behavior & the personality types/masks we develop in order to be accepted, inner-child work etc Now my mum and I are very close, and I talk to her about everything: every course, every class every new thing I discover. I want to talk to her about this, but I haven't because I know how she is and I think she would feel "attacked" or that I was blaming her for things. Worse I worry that it might trigger an episode and she lives alone in another country.

Love this! I am limiting myself to focus on only 3 tasks at aa time that is when I remember what I was actually doing. This is me managing my ADHD & menopause

Love this!