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 …

• “Different Doesn’t Equal Broken”: Debbie Reber’s T …

  • Ha Ha Haiku

  • Ah, The Sounds of Winter!

    • Yeehawesome!

    • Quote of the Week

  • Wonderful Wednesday

  • Today’s Beany-full Summary:

“Different Doesn’t Equal Broken”: Debbie Reber’s TEDx Talk

I’ve been listening to Tilt Parenting, Debbie Reber’s parenting podcast about neurodivergent families and “differently wired” folks, for a number of years. She’s just done a TEDx talk in Berlin called “What If Feeling Broken Wasn’t the End of the Story?”

If you’ve got 12 minutes, watch here:

If not, or you just want a summation, here’s what I got from it:

• As a late-diagnosed person, you might feel both grief and relief. [I did and do.]

• “We’re not in an ‘epidemic’ of disorders. We’re in an era of discovery.”

• For many years past and even now, the vocabulary around neurodivergencies has included words like “deficit” and “pathology.” Using these words shows that society thinks our brains are broken. They’re not. They’re just different.

• “We’re not broken. We’re seeing ourselves accurately for the first time.”

• Let’s change our expectations, stories, and acceptance of what “normal” is.

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.

Ah, The Sounds of Winter!

Kerosene heaters.

Dehumidifiers.

Air filters.

Space heaters.

Refrigerator.

Kitchen stove fan.

One particular light bulb that whines.

All of these almost (but not quite) drown out the winter hail on the living-room skylight. They definitely don’t cover the thunder that comes with the winter territory in this prefecture.

It all feels like an ear and full-body attack!

This is why I don’t wear earbuds when I take walks outside: I want to be able to hear the wind in the bamboo, the birds in the trees, the rain or melting snow running through the gutters and streams.

The natural stuff.

I save my podcasts and Christmas playlists for indoors.

OK, so I’m not complaining. I’m simply stating that this is how my body, specifically my ear drums, feels about the cacophony of indoor winter soundscapes.

It is what it is.

What sounds do you find…grating? Frustrating? Annoying? Too much? Or what sounds do you absolutely adore? (Even sounds I love can eventually start being too much.)

Did you know that sound sensitivity is called hyperacusis? It’s really really real. We who are NDs are not making this stuff up.

And we each have our own coping mechanisms. One of mine is reading; when I’m in a book, I hear/feel/sense the sounds from the characters and the setting in that particular scene. (My husband can tell you this is the truth: I don’t hear him when he says my name.)

When I come back to reality and the machine noises kick in again, I’m ready for something soothing like a homemade turmeric latte or moving to a different planet.

A very quiet warm planet where we don’t have to engineer our environment to survive.

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. Portable mini games, like Piglet Dice (from Germany, which I bought at an international fair in the Nagoya area way before we even had kids) or mini Uno. I carry my piggies with me wherever I go, and I’m proud to say that one of our kids, unbeknownst to us, smuggled the Uno pack into Coco’s (what they call a family restaurant here, like Denny’s in the US) when we got treats there the other day. Of course we had to play a few rounds! We spontaneously played the piglet dice game at our friends’ home the other day too.

2. Raver Tots! A father has created raves for kids, and he says it’s great for all kids, but especially ADHD kids who need to get some energy out.

3. A boy with Down Syndrome has wowed an audience with his Whitney Houston drum challenge. Made me cry!

4. And I HAD to share this one, of course: A neurodivergent artist has won the Turner Prize! Congratulations, Nnena Kalu! Her work is fabulous.

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:

• We’re not broken; we’re different. Debbie Reber’s 12-minute TEDx talk is worth a watch.

• Sensory sensitivities are real and they are really debilitating sometimes for ND folks. We have to have coping mechanisms in place.

• 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!