Beany Brain: loving our jumping-bean brains!

Welcome to this issue of the Beany Brain! I hope today’s newsletter will bounce us up as we contemplate the upsides and challenges of being neurodivergent, a little beauty, some creativity, and just general yeehawesomeness.

Table of Contents

• Beany Brain: loving our jumping-bean brains!

  • Welcome to this issue of the Beany Brain! I hope t …

• The Heart of God (Yayoi Kusama Art)

  • Ha Ha Haiku

  • Wall of Awful (Podcast + Book)

    • Yeehawesome!

    • Quote of the Week

  • Wonderful Wednesday

  • Today’s Beany-full Summary:

The Heart of God (Yayoi Kusama Art)

Matsumoto City Museum of Art (Nagano Prefecture). Yayoi Kusama’s hometown and a museum full of some of her best works—a permanent exhibit, and one that I’m grateful to have seen.

Autumn 2019.

Rain.

“The Heart of God” exhibit deep inside the museum.

No photographs allowed, though.

You’ll just have to take my written word for her visual statement:

We are in the heart of God.

With a red lit-up neon heart and a million mirrors behind it, my face was right in the center, multiplied to the nth degree of love.

Yayoi Kusama struggled with mental health issues her whole life, and art was her therapy and her catharsis. With her atypical brain, maybe those of us who live with neurodivergencies can relate on some level. I know that when I’m creating, whether it’s something with my acrylic pens, a display made from found objects, embroidery, taking photographs, dancing, or writing, my brain is abuzzin’ with fizziness and release and some kind of wacky joy. And it helps my noggin focus on something sweet rather than (un)savory like catastrophizing or some such nonsense.

Kusama passed away recently (another special one gone), and I hope she is experiencing peace at last. Rest well, Yayoi-san, and create some more beauty with your Creator.

Ha Ha Haiku

A funny haiku for you every week in every newsletter, whether it’s one of my own or one I curate for you. HA. Ha. Haiku.

Wall of Awful (Podcast + Book)

Tilt Parenting and Debbie Reber, who started Tilt, are an ongoing helpful resource for me in my own journey. One of her most recent podcast episodes featured Brendan Mahan, another supportive encourager in the world of neurodivergencies.

Maybe you remember that I have shared the Wall of Awful video series based on his work (videos by Jessica McCabe of How to ADHD):

(Part 1)

(Part 2)

Well, now Brendan Mahan is back to explain his wall of awful metaphor and how to overcome the blockages. Debbie Reber on the Tilt Parenting podcast was interviewing Brendan about his new book, Overcoming the Wall of Awful: Why It’s Hard to Get Things Done with ADHD, Autism and Anxiety, and How to Do Them Anyway.

He says we’re NOT LAZY.

When you come up against a wall, it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with you.

It means you can strategize and try to find a door or climb over the wall.

Here’s a real-life example of climbing a wall of awful in a recent video with Jessica McCabe and Brendan Mahan:

Suggestions from the video to overcome obstacles:

1. Break a task into pieces/make a list.

2. Choose the easiest thing with the biggest impact first (“small enough to handle but big enough to notice”).

3. Body doubling (do the hard thing with a buddy there).

Here’s the clincher: Brendan Mahan says the walls of awful never go away. They start to seem smaller because we get stronger through the struggle.

And if you need another encouragement boost, here’s Debbie Reber’s (from Tilt Parenting) 2025 TEDx Talk about neurodivergencies:

We are not broken. We are “differently wired,” as Debbie Reber says.

Do you have a Wall of Awful to approach this week? I know I do. I’ve already made my list and I’m looking to see what’s easiest but could make a significant impact.

Maybe the first thing we need to attach to the Wall of Awful is an oxygen mask with a long tube for…

Deep breaths.

Yeehawesome!

Yeehawesome! is a happy-brain roundup in each issue of Beany Brain. What’s happening that’s good in brain land? What’s bringing me joy?

1. @cassie_stephenz art is most definitely yeehawesome. Her handmade and vintage/retro dresses and accessories are amazing too. She’s an art teacher in a school somewhere in the US and her posts are very fun.

2. 8 low-effort ways to make fall cozier and easier. I’ve already done two of them: switch from iced tea or coffee to hot, and start eating more hot breakfasts.

3. Stories from the Spectrum, a series from the National Autistic Society in the UK, which shares stories from individual autistic people and their own personal challenges and successes.

Quote of the Week

Beany Brownie Points and Extra Bonus Funniness

Wonderful Wednesday

Wonderful Wednesday was a day once a year in college when they would suddenly and surprisingly call off all classes and we’d play all day. The cafeteria provided special fun food and we’d do stuff outside like slip ‘n slides and jello wrestling in sumo suits. This segment of Beany Brain is dedicated to that memory of silliness and fun—no words, just a photo from the week that I’ve taken or found that reminds me to let the joy in. Since Beany Brain is published on Wednesday every week (at least, Wednesday in Japan), I hope you enjoy this Wonderful Wednesday.

Today’s Beany-full Summary:

• Yayoi Kusama was a Japanese artist who dealt with her mental health issues by creating copious amounts of art.

• More on the Wall of Awful and how to deal with it as an ADHDer.

• Go forth in Beany joy. What will help you feel yeehawesome this week?

Thank you for reading this installment of Beany Brain! You’re very welcome to hop on by any old time.

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