"Is Neurodivergence good for us ALL?" (Duh?!)

👋 Hey, I’m Rachel! I’m a content creator, yoga teacher, and coach, and a late-diagnosed neurodivergent woman - ADHD a few years back, and I strongly suspect Autism too, so I choose to self diagnose for the time being, as AuDHD. I’m also a proud mum of three (all ND as well!).

Over the past five years, I’ve been on a deep spiritual awakening - one that’s reshaped how I live, parent, and show up in the world. I’m sober, I’m open-hearted, and I don’t hold back from sharing the messy, the magical, and everything in between.

On this podcast, I bring it all together: life, neurodivergence, and spirituality — with honesty, curiosity, and a sense of humour. Expect unfiltered and unscripted chats and inspiring guests, too. Check out my offerings and connect with me below!

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Transcript

0:01

Hello and welcome back to Conscious But Grounded. So you may have noticed if you've listened to this podcast before that there is a new intro. I haven't actually recorded it yet, but it's on my list. Um, and this morning I've decided after a cup of coffee, just sat down in my kitchen and thought, what do I wanna do about this podcast? Conscious but grounded is a podcast exploring the intersection of neurodivergence and spirituality, high vibe living, while staying rooted in the very real challenges of life as a neurodivergent mom. Here I ask the big questions like, how do we connect to the universe while keeping our feet firmly on the ground? How do we honor our sensitivity, creativity, and unique wiring in a world that isn't always built for us? Expect honest, unscripted conversations, personal reflections, and inspiring guest episodes with spiritual teachers, healers and neurodivergent voices. This is a space for truth, humor, spirituality, and practical wisdom, so you can feel more connected, grounded, and at peace in your own skin. Let's dive in. And I know that it's been turning into a podcast about neurodivergence and about kind of spirituality through a neurodivergent lens. Um. For quite some time. That's what I've ended up talking about. It's been very organic in that sense. Um, and so I'm like, this is obviously what I'm meant to talk about and so much so in my other areas of work, like wanting to focus on that in, uh, in my yoga and lots of things. Um, and so I'm also gonna update the cover of the podcast. You may notice that. Um, and I wanted to talk as ever. I'm on in my, I'm in the car and I'm actually. On the way to a hospital appointment today because I had the accident on my knee, um, about a month ago now, and I need to go get it checked. It's got a lump on there. I think there's like scar tissue building around it or something. So I really need to get that checked. Um. Yeah. So today I want to talk about something that happened yesterday and definitely within the realm of the context of spirituality and neurodivergence and um, so I've been thinking about doing a master's in philosophy and I was, I applied and I was offered a place at, um, university of Sheffield and um, which is great'cause it's like a really top university, and I was like really pleased. Um, and my coach said something interesting when I was deciding whether to take. Or not. And she said, I think your kind of neurodivergent brain was kind of like seeking out a dopamine hit and got it because it was like, yes, you can get into a deep, really good university. And she's definitely got a point. Like it really gave me, um, it was like, okay, I could do that if I wanted to. That was like a bit of external validation and dopamine there, but I've been going back and forth about whether to do it or not. I had decided after speaking to my coach that I wasn't gonna do it because it would be too much. Much for me, but there was still a, there was still a little bit there thinking, but could I, but could I do it? And so I thought, well, let's just keep exploring it a little bit just to, just to make sure I'm making the right decision. And so I jumped on a call with one of the school directors and he's never gonna listen to this. So, you know, very nice guy. Um, but what was interesting to me is I, because I'd pinged him an email and said, I just wanna make sure that if I were to do. This, I would be able to bring my subject to it and it would be okay. And so I'd already mentioned my subject in the personal statement, which is the intersection of kind of yoga philosophy and neurodiversity. More specifically questions like, is autism in the soul or mind? You know, I'm definitely not the first person to think these things. I've seen things crop up on Instagram. I, I'm reading a book at the minute in this kind of area. Um, yeah, and it was really. Need to get his reaction. And by the way, I would bet a million pounds that this guy was autistic, right? Older generation, probably very different perception of what old isn't is lovely guy, like I say. Uh, anyway, so he, um, first of all, he was very. Wow. Yeah. Um, yoga philosophy, I dunno anything about it. And I, that was, that wasn't a great surprise. I think if you do a philosophy, if you're a philosophy lecturer, you know, you're probably gonna know more about Aristotle and Plato and, and Socrates and stuff like that. Uh, and Descartes and, you know, that those types of philosophers. I, it is a shame actually that yoga philosophy isn't more in the mainstream in that sense. However, it's the main philosophy I know. Um, and so. Within that, there's a discussion around reti and perusia. I'd done an episode, I link to it below about what is reti and what is p perusia. So in other words, what is reti is like, what is in the material world? So our mind, our um, brains, you know, this car, this cup of tea, everything is reti, reti, reti, uh, everything is reti apart from the soul with just perusha. Okay? So, um, I wanted to explore that a little bit and he was so thrown off by everything I was saying and I understand why.'cause he was kind of, he was trying to be really specific with me. He was like, look, you know, and, and I started talking about past lives and I started talking about having had a read and a caic reading. And I could tell he was a bit like mind blown. Like, not necessarily in a good way. And the whole conversation, basically, I came off it and was kind of like to my, to my husband. Like I, I actually think it's the university environment, probably this university in particular is too much about empiricism and too much about, um. You know, the scientific thing of everything, having to have evidence behind it. And so I'm much more faith led in what I do and the things I'm passionate about aren't about proving them, that's for sure. Um, and so yeah, it's, um, it was a really interesting conversation and so as we talked and talked and I was kind of thinking, yeah, you know, I mean I wasn't, I wasn't a, oh no, this isn't for me. I kept exploring it with him and then I said, and we talked about a few. Elements to do with Neurodivergence. And he and I said, and he said, you know, he said something interesting, you know, about, I was saying things like, you know, I, I believe that neurodivergent people are here to progress. Hu the human evolution. And it kind of, it's like by design. You know, uh, and there's a kind of conscious to the universe bringing us all forward at this time. We've always been here, but kind of raising our own awareness about that. And he was like, right, so basically you could write a dissertation on is on neuro divergent p like is it a good thing to be neurodivergent? And I was like, okay. Yeah. And I was like, are you joking? I was like, of course I didn't say this, but internally I was like, of course it's a good thing to be neurodivergent. Don't get me wrong, it comes with its own challenges. But like for example, my. Spiritual coach mentioned, um, that she was going to explore an autism diagnosis, and I said congratulations to her. And that wasn't a forced thing. That was like, that's how I feel about it. Like, congratulations, you're getting to know yourself and when, you know, that is just my mindset about it. Um, and I don't think it's all unicorns and rainbows. I know I've read several posts saying that the strength based approach can, you know, you can find it quite annoying as a. Someone with quite severe A DHD or something went because, because for you, it is been a struggle. Like I read a really high profile A DHD influence to say that once in a post, um, if I could press a button, would I be neurotypical? No or wouldn't, because I don't know what it's like to be. And so for me it is just my, my normal and, and it really threw me that this professor was saying, oh, that would make an interesting dissertation. Of course it would make an interesting. I'm not saying it wouldn't, but I'm kind of, I, what threw me was a bit like, is that even up for discussion? And it really reminded me that actually even my husband's always like, oh, are you in a bit of an echo chamber with that? You know, our Instagram feed, if I, if you are spiritual and you are into neurodivergent staff and blah, blah, blah, of course I'm gonna follow more and more and more people in that space. Uh, and, and definitely my Instagram following and followers have completely changed since. I was a kind of stay at home mom, blogger, uh, and I've had some major insights about that period of my life as well with my, with the autism coach that I spoke to yesterday. And I'll definitely be doing an episode about that and how it represented an old paradigm of parenting and motherhood. And also I was in my perfectionism and I was very highly masking at that time. Not to say it wasn't me, it was me, but I'm at a different stage of my life now. I've come through, I've traversed through this kind of tunnel over the last five years, and I'm very. In a kind of unmasking and healing phase. And, and, and it really reminded me this conversation with this lovely guy, lovely lecturer who dar strike me down if he wasn't autistic, honestly. Um, and. You know, he said he didn't really know much about neurodivergence. There were people in the university that did and that were neurodivergent. Um, and that struck me as ironic.'cause I was just thinking I bet 50% if not more of, of these lecturers are neurodivergent because autism and. Emia go together really well for obvious reasons, the structure, the hyperfocus, and so on. And it just kind of made me remember that like even though I think I'm talking about something that everybody's talking about, like my best friend or people in my life that aren't neurodivergent and. Haven't got neuro division kids, you know, as far as we know, um, you know, their feeds aren't full of it. So when I'm speaking about something like that, as the only person maybe in their feed that's speaking about it, I am, uh, raising awareness about neuro divergence and through spiritual lens or not, you know, and so it is really easy when you're in a bit of an echo chamber, as I guess we all are. I try really hard not to be, I said to my son a couple of days ago, we were talking about this whole flag thing happening. Happening in England at the minute. I always try and take a middle stance on everything, you know, like the rammed as quote beyond all polarities I am. And whilst my son finds that really annoying'cause it is a bit of a fence sitting stance, I was trying to explain to him why it's not as simple as being proud of your union jack and flying it. And so I actually, I didn't tell him, I pulled it up in chat, GBT'cause he takes the piss out of me for using it. So, but I pulled it up, I pulled up a lovely explanation in chat, GBT copied it to my notes and shared. With him on a dog walk and it, it said it much more eloquently than I could have, which is that it's very nuanced, right? Um, and so I've completely lost my thread that this happens a lot'cause I've digressed so much. But yeah, I try to take a nuanced stand. Oh, that was it. I try to, in my Instagram feed, I will really try and follow, like if I find someone really interesting and that I really like a lot, I think they're a good person and they're a Trump supporter. I will be interested to hear what they say, uh, equally. A lot of evil in my feed aren't transporters, for example. I, I don't like to shut down one spectrum of the argument, uh, as it were. And so I, I try not to live in an echo chamber, but I think it's really important to consider how wow. Like people are still really thinking that like autism is like a terrible news diagnosis. And, you know, and I'm a massive, I'm a super fan of Real Housewives and currently in Real Housewives are. Orange County. Um, one of the parents, her son is in the process of looking into an autism diagnosis because he has afi, which is like the food, extreme food, like beyond Pickiness. Like he, he basically hardly eats and he hardly, he thinks a lot of food is disgusting and stuff. My son has that a little bit. I don't think he'd qualify for an offered diagnosis, but he's like, one day he likes strawberries. The next day the rep repellent to him, you know, he's really tricky. To feed. Um, and she's like crying in the car and stuff, and I understand that. I, I think even as far away as five years ago, I think I would've had a similar response. I actually remember saying, oh my God, I'd be absolutely devastated if, you know, if you try, if you, I think autism would be really hard because I didn't understand it. I didn't understand it. I thought it was like emotionless robot who can't have eye, eye contact, like I did not understand. Uh, of course within the spectrum of autism, um, there will be elements of people, you know, people, some people who really struggle with eye contact, some people who really struggle with, um, with expressing empathy, let's say, because I think autistic people are deeply empathetic, but, but sometimes it's not expressed in the way that neurotypical people understand. Um, so yeah, you know, there, there are those traits that can be tricky. Um, I was watching. At Kardashians last night. I'm watching it from the start and oh my God, Bruce Jenner's journey is fascinating to me. If he's not autistic, I will eat my hat. Um, you know, gender dysphoria is often a feature of autism. He's very rigid and routine. He hates socializing. Um, he's a great guy. Like, and now a woman, you know, uh, but I'm like, he is so autistic. Uh, and, and I just feel like it's, it's a real, we are. In the really interesting time with Neurodivergence and from a spiritual perspective, I think it's really important, um, just to be like, this is part of the plan guys. As much as I think COVID was part of the plan, I think we are in it in fascinating. When are we not? Right? But I feel like this is such a time of change. I feel like the feminine is rising. I feel like diversity is rising. I feel like we need. Diversity of thought to tackle the obstacles in front of us. And I think we have to become more aware that of our own diversity and our own unique perspectives could be just what the universe needs right now. And to bring our gifts forth however they look. Um, and I think paradigm shifts to shift paradigms truly shift them. You know, things like education, things like what it means to work, things like what it means to be a parent. Uh, I think a neuro neurodiverse. Angle on those things is incredibly important. Um, and the actual, you know, the subject I guess of this podcast is gonna be, you know, are you are autistic, is it good to be autistics or slash a DH, adhd? Of course. Like we need those, that diversity of thought. And, and, and I think it's so important, and if you're listening to this, you must be interested in neurodiversity or spirituality. You're both, um. And I think keep talking about it. Keep expressing yourself. Keep digging into the ways that you are masking. Like I didn't, I'm still really struggling with the unmasking thing. Uh, I'm a, I'm, I'm just starting out my journey. I've read two books about it, the Devon Price book and also the Ellie Middleton. Book, is it Ellie Middleton? Um, and I'm actually meeting somebody on Thursday this week. Uh, and she's a student filmmaker and she wants me to help her with this film. Um, and it's about unmasking. Um, and I'm like a bit scared because I'm like, I don't know how I'm, how I'm asked. But you know, some stuff came through yesterday talking to this autism coach and I think, I think going through perimenopause and my whole journey of. The last five years, having a kind of depressive break and rebuilding myself from that. I'm such a different person to the person I was. Don't get me wrong, um, I, I, I, that was still me, right? It was still me, but I was operating from a place of perfectionism. I was operating from a place of keeping it all together. I was operating from a place of. Good girl syndrome, you know, good girl mode. I was operating from a place of partying and all these different things that just aren't me anymore, you know? And also it's really interesting to see people's reactions when they realize that that person is, that version of me is God. People don't necessarily like. It and friendships are dropping by the wayside. Uh, and that is unbelievably hard, uh, very heavy on my heart, but you know, I can only be me. That's all I can do. Um, and some of it is age, some of it is perimenopause, some of it is seasons of life. But it's really interesting. And the more I honor those things, the less my neurodiversity kind of, or my neurodivergence rather, um, causes me problems if that likes. But if you, if you. If you like. I mean, even within my marriage, you know, it, it's taking its toll because he didn't sign up for this version of me. He signed up for the other version of me. Um, and actually, you know, it's really important to traverse these waters together. And also it's really important for neuro people to honor how difficult that is for their partners and loved ones to, to be like, oh, okay, so like, this is, this is new. Like you're putting your boundaries. Um, you struggle with this noise. You don't wanna go out to the pub because you'll have to drink to mask and cope with all the environment and the smells and you know, it, it's a lot for them too. And so holding space for that as well, whilst also saying like, yeah, you know, it would be great if you educated yourself on this, or like, sending them memes if they don't like to read books, you know, tagging them and things. It's really important that we start to all get on board with this because. It is like the reaction of the lecturer, like, oh, that would be like such a interesting, he was like, that's an original piece of work. And I was thinking it really, I mean maybe if, if I brought in new angles, but I'm like, that's, that's just like strengths based approach to Neurodivergence. I didn't say that, but it was really, it just struck me that like, are we really still thinking, oh, autism is a bad thing. Or like, don't get me wrong, like, let's just talk, touch on a bit about RFK. Junior in the, uh, in the states and so on. So I actually like a lot of things that he's bringing in. Again, I don't want to do the polarized thing about American politics and Trump and all the rest of it. He's, you know, let's not even go there because it's clear that there are a lot of issues around him as, as a human being. Um, but don't throw the baby outta the bath water. Nobody's all bad. Nothing is all bad. Like there are some things that, that they're doing, I think. Yeah, great. Like, you know, RFK Junior is like trying to tackle the crap in all the food and the American. Diet problem, you know, the American obesity problem. Um, and he's tackling things like glycinate. He's tackling things like, you know, the amount of ultra purpose processed foods that is just the mainstream over there, much more so than here. I noticed that when I was there, uh, in the uk. And, and that, um, but you know what? I don't really like the rhetoric that's happening in America. I don't feel as activist about it as some people in the community, uh, because I have seen that some of his remarks have been taken out of context. Um, I think it's interesting to do research on what are the causes of autism, right? Because I dunno what will come back, right? I dunno what will come back. But I, even if they find, uh, you know, good, good information, good science saying it's this, or it's that, you know, these, these neuro adaptations, let's call them that they are coming from somewhere. And so whether you believe that, you know, in a previous life we came from a different realm, which I saw again, I saw that on a Instagram post last night. I've had those thoughts. Four, I've had antic reading and that kind of came up within that like this. It was like, you are from this realm. And it described a list of traits that I would say are very autistic. Um, it didn't say autistic in Thetic record, but you know, I think for me, let's talk about a d, adhd. I think A DH ADHD is a brain adaptation to trauma intergenerationally. Um, so where the human brain co, uh, to cope with trauma as, um, also the position that G Mate takes and their. Psychologist Nicole. Uh, Nicole Lepar. Sorry. So, you know, where does autism come from? Yeah, let's look at it. Absolutely. Whether you like it or not, or whether they prove something new or not new or whatever. It's here and it's become a human adaptation and it's a different neuro type. Um, I'm not necessarily against that. I do con, I am concerned about the science that'll come out of it and the, and the, I don't necessarily think that we're going down a eugenics path with this, but of, but I, what do I know? Right. And I, and I think you are right to be concerned about it and to, and to, but I don't feel as strongly, I don't feel as doomy about it. I think they're looking at it, um, they are looking at autism through a negative lens, I would say. However, I commend. Just in thread on a discussion point around it saying, you know, of course I'm saying it's strength based because I'm low needs. Right. But I also honor and acknowledge those parents who are, um, whose kids are very high needs autistic and, and struggling and find it damn hard. And that is a different, like a different kettle of fish, right. Um, so yeah, it's nuanced. It's calmed. Legs. But do autistic and A DHD people enrich the lives for everyone else? I would say yes. Like, you know, when we talk about these changes and accommodations that we would love to be put in place in schools, in the workplace, they actually will benefit everybody. That's what I had as a takeaway from Ellie Middleton's book, um, is, you know, a lot of these accommodations they would be great for, for everyone. You know, neuro neurodivergent people make up what, 20. Percent of the population or something are we thinking now. Uh, and so it really is gonna help everybody to be more regulated, to have more diversity of thought, and just to have more space for one another. You know, the world has been very much designed for neurotypical people. Well, actually, we're realizing now that not a very high. Of us aren't neurotypical. So making these changes will make everybody happier, more regulated, and it's more inclusive. So why isn't inclusivity seen as a good thing with some people? You know, I think a lot of this is generational. A lot of the older people, I listen to people who have those views and I hear them because I like to hear everyone's views. But I love as well to like, explain my perspective to them. Um, and I see that a lot, and I often see it hilariously from people who are clearly neurodivergent themselves. Um, and the reason for that is, is because they can't see outside of their own lens of morality. So they, you know, I've seen some funny memes like grandma saying, neurodiversity wasn't even a thing in my day, as she kind of polishes her. Teaspoon collection, you know, that is the most autistic thing ever. Right. So, yeah, I think it's generational and I think, but the answer to the question being is, are neurodiverse people good for a good thing for everybody, for society? Well, of course, yes. That's the answer. And are we it through a spiritual lens? Is this important and is this relevant and valid, of course, because it's a part of how we're gonna evolve as a species and, and, and how we evolve in the species. Here on Earth is very much, it's all about being grounded in the earth, in the life we're living now. Like spirituality isn't about your head in the clouds. And this brings it back to the actual subject of this podcast, conscious but grounded, but spirituality and being embodied and being, you know, all the somatic practices that I love, they're about being right here, right now. Come back to the breath. That's the most spiritual thing you can do, is to be right here, right now. And so I'm gonna round it up there, guys. I feel like that was a really interesting topic. And I love talking about this stuff, and so, uh, leave a comment below, leave a rating that really helps my podcast and, uh, let me know your thoughts and connect with me over on Instagram. I'll leave all my next below so much love. Bye.