Radical Acceptance for Neurodivergence.
Fully grieving the picture of yourself that you’ve clung to, reframing your vision of your past self, your present self, and your future self.
Creating room to embrace your truest self, your limits, your needs, and the steps towards building a sustainable life that works FOR you rather than against you.
It’s not about feeling like you have less potential. It’s about embracing your TRUE potential, neurodivergent quirks, strengths, struggles and all…While shedding the neurotypical mold that you’ve always struggled to squish yourself into.
Many Neurodivergent challenges stem from lack of self-acceptance.
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Mental Health Struggles
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Shame & Internal Dysregulation
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Working Against Our Needs & Processing Style
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Low Self-Esteem
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Unfulfilling & Unhealthy Relationships
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Burnout/Nervous System Collapse
Living in misalignment with our needs, we’re stuck in survival mode.
The more self-acceptance & alignment in our life, the more we will be able to THRIVE.
This cycle keeps us stuck in burnout or on the edge of burnout.
Without full acceptance of our differences…
We are stuck in a cycle of prioritizing acceptance when our needs are bigger, but then shifting the priority back to meeting expectations once we begin to feel a sense of recovery.
After increased focus on meeting expectations once more, we then move back into burnout.
To break free of this cycle we have to work towards embracing a more Radical Acceptance.
Download the handout.
Without full acceptance of our differences…
We stay stuck in the shadow of shame.
Shame dysregulates us internally, similar to the overstimulating, overwhelming amplitude of a fire alarm, except we can’t leave the building to escape it.
We must find a way to work through it from the inside.
Shame also keeps us from accepting and prioritizing our needs, keeping us not too far from burnout.
Download the handout.
When we can more fully EMBRACE our differences…
We can finally break free from the cycle.
Internally regulating our shame from being different.
Embracing our needs and honoring them more often.
Stepping away from “walking on the edge of burnout” and towards building a sustainable life.
Stepping towards Radical Acceptance, and more internal balance.
Our Approach:
Acknowledge
Core Acknowledgements of Neurodivergence
The Core Acknowledgements of Radical Acceptance are the basic admissions that accompany neurodivergence, many of which we battle internally daily. From acknowledging that we have different energy capacities, to sometimes requiring help or accommodations.
We often accept these things once we’ve already met our limits, after internally fighting against these needs, and with the shame of that reality always beeping in the background. Let’s bring that truth out of the shadows, fully name it, and figure out how to embrace it for our own well-being.
Reprogram
Cognitive Reprogramming
Cognitive Reprogramming is about changing the patterns in which we understand & relate to ourselves. As neurodivergent individuals, most of us have internalized years of correction & rejection, forming unhealthy patterns of thinking about ourselves. It’s often subconscious and is cemented in our brain after years of this pattern, so we’ve got to bring it to the forefront of our minds as we actively work to change the way we relate to ourselves.
Cognitive Reprogramming also involves reflection to allow ourselves to get reacquainted with our truest selves, the things we like, the things we don’t, what feels fulfilling, and what brings us joy. After years of heavily masking, it can be extremely difficult to distinguish our true self from our masked self, & it takes conscious effort to unpeel these layers.
Validate & Support
Community Support/Validation
Because most of the world around us lacks a true understanding of the neurodivergent experience, we are often exposed to outside voices that validate the inner self-critic, and invalidate OUR core experience. As we work to form a more compassionate relationship with ourselves, we must counter-balance these critical voices with the voices of those who truly understand because they’ve lived it too.
Exploring Our Dual Identities.
It’s essential to confront the inner conflict and it’s effects in our journey towards a fuller acceptance.
It’s natural to have mental blocks with accepting the word “disabled” when applied to ourselves. Please see the full guide attached below for prompts to help with reflection on common mental blocks.
By Finding Radical Acceptance We Gain:
Our truest self, unmasked.
Opportunity for building authentic relationships & community.
The space to find roles that truly fit us & allow us to thrive.
Self-acceptance and internal peace instead of shame.
A new more authentic & realistic picture of ourselves & our lives.
By Finding Radical Acceptance We Lose:
The old picture of ourselves and the need to constantly mask.
Expectations for ourselves that are misaligned with our truest self.
The shame we carry from where we’ve failed, felt incompetent, or feel like we’ve fallen short.
“Radical Acceptance is truly one of the most complex things to unpack- mentally, emotionally, relationally, habitually, in our roles & responsibilities, and in all of life’s logistics… It’s such a challenging thing to do that it makes sense that autistic burnout itself is usually the catalyst for change & the first chapter in working towards it.”
Interested in reading more about Radical Acceptance?
Check out one or our recent articles on the topic here.
