Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Beany Brain newsletter! My excited brain is jumping for joy that your brain is here too—together, we can figure some things out, learn tips and tricks to bolster our imagination, creativity, and focus, and find some laughter and joy in the midst of the hard stuff. And mainly, we just want to love and cherish our unique brains.

Table of Contents

• Welcome to the inaugural issue of the Beany Brain …

• Stacked Crates or Mexican Jumping Beans?

  • Phone + 5-Senses Brain Distraction Hack

    • Yeehawesome!

Stacked Crates or Mexican Jumping Beans?

Do you have ADHD like I do? Is it tricky to focus sometimes? My photo of Japanese sake bottles in organized crates is satisfying to look at and it’s why I stopped to admire that window, but it’s not how my brain works a lot of the time.

Focus and filtering! According to a March 2024 article about a study at Brown University, focus and filtering are our friends when it comes to brain activity. Our amazing brains were designed to focus on what’s important in the moment and filter out unnecessary information at the same time.

But when you’re dealing with ADHD and other neurodivergencies (I have three!), there ain’t always a simple formula for doing what you need to do right now and ignoring extraneous intrusions. In this newsletter, I will share some ideas that work for me sometimes. (Even buckling down to work on this newsletter and figure it out, which is something I really really want to do, took so much focusing effort!)

I don’t know of any overarching all-inclusive answers, but this phrase from the Brown University article was buoying:

“It's not that our brains are too simple, but instead that our brains are really complicated, and it's the coordination that's hard.”

There you have it, folks. We’re beautifully intricate. Even when our brains are hopping around in excitement and distraction like Mexican jumping beans. There is beauty in order, and stacked crates are nice to admire. There is also wonderment in having a creatively active and jumping Beany Brain.

Phone + 5-Senses Brain Distraction Hack

You know how they always say that if you’re feeling anxious you should use your five senses to ground yourself?

1. Look around and pay attention to what you see. (My husband and his new cool black glasses.)

2. What are you tasting right now? (Pineapple candy from Osaka. Thanks, Michael!)

3. Any fragrances in the air that you notice? (Humidity and rain.)

4. What do you hear? (Wall air-conditioning unit and floor fan. Tapping of laptop keys.)

5. What are you touching? (Hard cool smooth keyboard keys.)

Well, my friends, that’s not how I’ve been using this idea lately!

Anybody else grab their phone for no reason?

Me too.

So instead of aimlessly heeding the call of The Phone, look at the above list and remember your precious five senses.

Look around; taste something good; use your smeller; listen up; and touch a sofa pillow or a smooth table BEFORE you do any phone touching.

That’ll do you some good. And your phone will thank you for the nap it will get.

Yeehawesome!

Yeehawesome! will be 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 are uniquely you! Not just your fingerprint, but your lovely brain too.

2. “Stories from the Village of Nothing Much” is a podcast bringing my anxious brain some calm and joy. I highly recommendoodle it.

3. Hey, do some movies and shows with intense scenes stress you out? Here’s my new policy for myself: Don’t watch that stuff! Phew. Books are much nicer for me wittle selfy. Books bring me JOY. Go grab yourself a nice book (an e-reader or audio book is OK too, just FYI). 😃 

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

Would you take this super-quick survey, please? Pretty please with a jumping bean on top!