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Beany Brain #34: In the Flow with Some Cards

Author

Abigail Munday
March 25, 2025

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

Photo by Abigail Munday

Flow-y

One of my sons and I took virtual drawing lessons when Covid hit.

We started out with basics: straight lines, shading, ovals.

The same son bought me the above set of pencils for that 2020 Mother’s Day (or maybe my birthday that year?). The pencil scent drives me wild—it’s my catnip. Or like the top of a baby’s head.

When I’m drawing, I’m feeling calm, relaxed, and happy. It makes me smile. I finish on a positive note. The smell of the pencils adds to the ambience and the meditative aspect of the whole activity.

I’ve been curious about the flow state, and I’ve discovered that it’s different than hyperfocusing. I know about both flow and hyperfocus from personal experience, but I just hadn’t labeled them as such until now.

When we are in a flow state, we’re moving and you’re grooving, but we’re not so zoomed into a task that we’re unaware of our surroundings. Sometimes, I like to put on music and dance in the kitchen when I clean. I’m not hyperfocused. I’m just trying to get into the flow of cleaning. A hyperfocused person would not stop cleaning until it was well beyond what most consider clean.

While I’m drawing, I’m aware of people around me and the hum of activity.

However, my husband says that sometimes when I’m reading, he calls my name and I don’t even hear him.

That’s hyperfocus.

And getting out of hyperfocus back into the real world can be tricky.

The same article from above says:

Transitioning from a hyperfocused, high-dopamine-reward activity to a lower-dopamine one requires a lot of impulse control, emotional regulation, and metacognition. These skills do not come naturally to ADHD brains, especially developing ones, so start by creating and following schedule. Setting time restrictions and using alerts for watching YouTube videos or playing video games can help you (and your kids too) better transition off that hyperfocus activity into whatever comes next.

Articulation helps with the transition because you’re naming the activity you’re shifting to. Try saying to yourself: “I’m going to stop writing this report, use the bathroom and breathe some fresh air. Maybe get an iced tea. Then I can begin again.”

Encouraging self-talk is just as important for adults as it is for kids. The difference is that kids with ADHD usually need some help coming up with the phrases to say to themselves during the transition process: “I’ve stopped playing my game. I’m now walking into another room because I’m going to eat dinner,” or “I’m leaving the game. I’m going to play cards with my mother,” or “I’m leaving the game. We’re going for a run.” And by using language this way, you’re not just engaging some attention on that activity and assigning some value to it but also nurturing metacognition–self-awareness.

I’ve stopped writing this newsletter for now. I’m going to have a glass of water and a chunk of my homemade chocolate-peanut-butter bark.

Maybe I’ll do some reading too. (See you next week then.)

Photo by Abigail Munday

Multiple Decks

Hey, folks, it’s an intense world.

And yes, there’s even an intense world theory. Far out, man.

This article in Psychology Today explains it using a playing card analogy.

Here’s my summary:

A neurotypical person has a deck of cards, with each card representing a word or thought. Someone asks that person to find the joker. They can easily do that, unless they’re stressed, and then it takes a bit longer.

Now, a neurodivergent person might have 10 decks of cards. Find the joker. OK. It takes longer than for the person who just has one deck. But imagine how long it will take to find the joker in a time of stress or overwhelm!

The phrase “not playing with a full deck of cards” is obviously awful.

But for a neurodivergent person, it’s not that we don’t have enough cards—it’s that we have too many because our senses are constantly on overdrive. We have too much to process because we take in everything around us all the time.

It’s like having a million tabs open.

Of course there are advantages to this.

The article doesn’t mention it, but neurodivergent people can see patterns where others might not. We notice pockets of beauty. We see people who are on the fringes or those who are upset in some way. (My 10 decks overfloweth sometimes…so I have to ask God to take the weight.)

I believe that my 10 decks of cards each have their own pattern. There’s one that’s Art Deco, one Bauhaus, one Art Nouveau, maybe one with Ruth Bader Ginsburg quotes, one with Wordle games, one with book titles, one with creative fonts, perhaps another one with Naomi Shihab Nye poems, one with songs by Monks of Senegal that start playing when I need soothing, and a tenth deck with everything lime green (limes, of course, and green apples, key lime pie, and umbrellas, and shoes, and possibly some lime-green happy faces).

Do I feel like decking the intensity sometimes? You bet. It’s both/and, as usual: I’m grateful for my 10 decks and sometimes the 10 decks deck me and I need rebuilding (cups of tea, solitude, books, quiet, spitting out a poem or three).

I have the propensity, the propensity for intensity.

Wittle Announcement

Beany Brain peeps, we’ll be traveling this week to the UK. Beany Brain will be coming at ya from Blighty for the next 4 months, and so things might be a little different. For one thing, next week I might have the 11th deck of jet lag.

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. I reached my 200th day in Duolingo for math and Japanese! Go, watashi!

  2. I’ve been getting some really nice compliments for this here Beany Brain newsletter, including from a friend who told me that lately she’s been deleting all of her non-emergency emails except for Beany Brain because she really likes reading it. Thank you, friend.

  3. This spring song by Jesse Welles (he’s like a young Bob Dylan).

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:

  • Flow vs. Hyperfocus. Flow is when you’re doing something and you know what’s going on around you. It’s pretty easy to transition out of it. Hyperfocus is when you’re in an activity and maybe forget to eat or sleep or drink water. It’s harder to transition out of hyperfocus, but you can talk to yourself and bring yourself out of it and back to what’s going on around you in life.

  • The intense world theory says that neurodivergent people deal with more intense experiences of the world than neurotypical people do. It can lead to overwhelm and meltdowns.

  • 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.

If you’re enjoying Beany Brain, please share with a friend or seventeen at www.beanybrain.com. Cheers big time!