Discussion: Week One, Day One – Empathy Exercises for Spiritual Growth As you explored today’s exercise, tuning in to the feelings of someone you’ve recently interacted with, what came up for you? Did you notice clarity, resistance, or even surprise in what you sensed? This is a space to share your reflections, questions, or even the challenges you encountered as you began working with empathy as a spiritual tool. Your experience—whether small or profound—helps all of us deepen our own practice. What did this first step teach you about yourself, or about the person you chose to focus on? This discussion is part of the Empathy Exercises for Spiritual Growth course, available for free in the classroom. The course unlocks one week at a time as you move through it, and by the end of six weeks, you’ll have the entire journey open to you.

I posted a full article in The Neurodivergent Path classroom about masking exhaustion and why decompression is essential. Masking is when we tuck away our natural selves to appear “acceptable”—forcing eye contact, copying social cues, holding back stims, scripting conversations. It’s survival, but it drains energy at a brutal pace. By the time we get home, there’s nothing left to give. That’s masking exhaustion. In the article, I also talk about spoon theory, and how masking can burn through half your spoons before lunch. That’s why decompressing isn’t optional—it’s what keeps us from sliding into shutdown, meltdown, or burnout. Rocking, zoning out, wrapping up in blankets, silence—all of these are forms of recovery, not laziness. I’d love to hear from you: - How do you personally decompress after masking? - What helps you refill spoons when they’re gone? - If you live with or love someone who masks, how do you support their recovery time? - How can we educate the people around us to see decompression as survival, not avoidance? Let’s share our practices, frustrations, and ideas for making the world a little safer for unmasking.

This thread is the companion to our course unit Neurodivergence: A Living Tapestry of Minds in the classroom. In that article, I’ve laid out the base definitions of autism, ADHD, AuDHD, dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia, Tourette’s, OCD, and how they can overlap. I also share pieces of my own lived experience with AuDHD and how these different neurodivergences present in cisgender men and women. The article is there to give us a foundation, but this discussion is where we bring it to life. If you live with a neurodivergence, I invite you to share your story... what traits stand out for you, what challenges you’ve faced, and the strengths you’ve discovered. If you are an ally or allistic (non-autistic) and want to learn how to better understand and support, this is also your place to reflect, ask questions, and learn directly from lived voices. So... do you have a neurodivergence, or are you here as an ally seeking to understand? Share your perspective, your experiences, and your questions. This is the discussion post for the course article, and your voice is a vital part of weaving the tapestry.

This is the discussion thread for the classroom course article Living with AuDHD: Walking Between Fire and Stone. In the article, I share what it feels like to live with both autism and ADHD at the same time — the contradictions, the gifts, the ways I’ve learned to create structure, and the constant renegotiation of balance. Here in this thread, I want to open the door for conversation. If you have questions about AuDHD, my experiences, or how I make these two very different brain currents work together, ask them here. If you live with AuDHD yourself, or with autism, ADHD, or another neurodivergence, I’d love to hear about your own strategies, struggles, and strengths. And if you’re an ally wanting to understand, your reflections and questions are welcome too. This is where we weave our voices together. Share openly, ask bravely, and let’s learn from one another.

This is the discussion thread for the classroom course article The Work of Being Understood: Autistic Communication. In that article, I open up about one of the deepest frustrations many autistic people face — not the sensory storms or burnout, but the constant effort of making ourselves understood. We ask questions and get mistaken for judging. We clarify and are told we’re arguing. We over-explain and people roll their eyes, not realizing this is survival. This space is where I want to hear from you. If you are autistic, how has this shown up in your life? Do you find yourself being misread when you’re only reaching for clarity? What strategies have you found for making yourself understood — or for coping with being misunderstood? If you’re allistic (non-autistic), this is your chance to ask honest questions and reflect on your own communication with autistic loved ones, coworkers, or friends. What surprises you about our perspective? What feels different from how you were taught to communicate? This thread is for sharing perspectives, frustrations, strategies, and insights. Let’s break down the assumptions and meet each other in the honesty we’re all craving.