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 …

• Lifelong Learning

  • Ha Ha Haiku

  • Getting Unstuck (Advice for Neurotypicals That Mig …

    • Yeehawesome!

    • Quote of the Week

  • Wonderful Wednesday

  • Today’s Beany-full Summary:

Lifelong Learning

On Saturday, when we were video calling with my parentals, they both had just picked up books that they had requested from the library.

My parents were healthcare workers for their careers and had to constantly learn and keep up with the latest technology, research, and methods.

There are all kinds of learning—book learning, hands-on learning, keeping up with current events and historical trends as they come around again, teaching others, creative work and hobbies, researching, music, and lots more.

I’m so grateful to have grown up in an environment conducive to and encouraging of learning and growing for human flourishing and for noticing beauty around us.

Not everyone has access to the same resources (or even very many resources at all, in some cases—Dolly Parton did a wonderful job getting books into the hands of many children around the world).

My parents took us to bluegrass concerts, ballets, the library, camping.

Some of my favorite moments were hiking and going to nature talks given by state park rangers. (I even wanted to be one for a while, and I think I would’ve made a good ranger.)

I’m grateful that my family helped facilitate my love of books, history, and English.

Many happy hours were spent curled up in the upholstered brown chair in the living room with a cushion and a novel or biography.

So this is a love post: for my family, and for learning.

The gift of curiosity. Yes, we’re curious in a lot of ways.

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.

Getting Unstuck (Advice for Neurotypicals That Might Help Us Too)

My little green friend up there sat on the laundry rack that I had moved outside for our towels to dry, then he decided to move in with us when I brought the towels back in.

I caught him in a jar with a lid and my son took him back out, but the little green guy stayed in there for ages. So we just left the jar and he was finally gone by the next morning.

Did he feel scared? Traumatized? Tired? Stuck? All four?

Sometimes advice for neurotypical people might work for us; sometimes not. I’m just throwing this out there for all of us to try, or not try, or keep, or toss in the gomi bin (trash can!).

This comes by way of Gretchen Rubin, Dan Harris, and Laurie Santos in the podcast episode “Move Happier: Getting Unstuck: A Fresh Start for Your Move 26 Habit.” The Move 26 in ‘26 Challenge is Gretchen Rubin’s challenge for her podcast listeners to move our bods at least 26 minutes each day in 2026.

Anyway, you can use this advice for a moving challenge or for anything else that you feel stuck on.

Or don’t use any of it!

Here is a bullet-point summary:

• Resistance: we can use it as a signal, a sort of fire alarm in our brain.

• Drift: did we just fall into something without thinking about it very much?

• When we’re stuck, sometimes we’re just doubling down and tired.

• Use self-compassion: treat yourself like you’d treat a friend.

• Nonjudgmentally notice what’s going on.

• Know that this is a common human problem.

• Ask yourself what you need right now: a check-in with yourself; use coachy-problem solving.

• Toxic self-care = just letting yourself off the hook.

• Gretchen Rubin: “We want to accept ourselves and expect more from ourselves.”

• Much better: switching from an inner drill sergeant to an inner coach. 

• Our spaces matter: clutter-clearing can help us focus (but beware of procrasticlearing). It gives us a tiny win that can lead to bigger wins.

• Reclaim your time: make a “time confetti” wish list (what you want to do in small chunks of time).

• Tap into your 5 senses: helps you get out of the loop in your head and get unstuck.

• Move your body.

• Get some sleep.

• Do something nice for somebody else: can bring yourself some more agency and help you figure out what you can then do for yourself.

• Make a decision, any decision.

• Social connections: gives you emotional bandwidth and when you feel better you can make decisions.

• NEVER WORRY ALONE. Ask for help; this gives the other person a boost too.

• And finally, watch out for the “liking gap.” Our brains assume that people like us less than they actually do. Our brains can lie to us!

For me, many of these points, and especially that last one, link to RSD (rejection sensitive dysphoria), which many of us NDs deal with on an excruciating daily and moment-by-moment basis.

I actually wonder if getting stuck is much more connected to RSD for neurodivergent folks than we realize.

Anyway, something to ponder.

A psychiatrist we know says the biggest help for NDs that he knows is moving our bodies! My exercise every morning, walks, and going to the pool about once a week have certainly helped me feel a bit better.

I am still neurodivergent.

I still struggle.

But little helps help.

I’m not going to tell you what to do (hello, PDA).

But I will pass along a nod or hug or handshake or just a hi. Whichever of those you need (or maybe don’t even realize you need).

P.S. If you can’t do any of those bullet point advice bits today or even this week, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad person. Lots of love…

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. You can sign up for a free haiku in your inbox every day from haikuniverse.com.

2. Those Yayoi Kusama shoes at the San Francisco airport are most definitely yeehawesome (thank you to my friend Sally for the photo).

3. Susan Te Kahurangi King, a 75-year-old nonverbal autistic Maori artist:

Quote of the Week

(Last week I quoted Wendell Berry about protesting so that we don’t acquiesce to something bad. He mentioned that one person doing one act of protesting might not change anything, but at least it will keep our conscience clear. This week I wanted to throw in a slightly different viewpoint from Death Penalty Action.)

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:

• I’ve written a love post for my family and their facilitation of my love of lifelong learning.

• Advice for neurotypical people to get unstuck, and some of the advice might help us too (for example, getting some sleep, moving our bodies, asking for help).

• 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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