Empathy: The ability to understand and share the feelings of another.
We autistics are told we have no empathy because we experience the world differently and express ourselves differently. The irony here is that when autistic people talk about their personal experiences we are dismissed and not believed; demonstrating the lack of empathy with in the neurotypical system.
Hello Dazzle! Thanks for coming and hanging out with me today, I’m glad that you are here. Today I want to talk about some of the lessons that chronic illness has taught me.
We are all born into a meat boat that we must sail through our lives within. Everything that we experience in this life is through this vessel. And it will constantly change as we travel. Normally, these changes happen over years. Coming so slowly that we struggle to tell when those changes really began. But chronic illness changes your body dramatically and quickly. Sometimes, the body that you woke up with just isn’t the body that you go to sleep with at the end of the day. Being aware of the way that our bodies betray us has made me have a greater empathy for the elderly who share in the experience of the betrayal of the flesh.
Continue reading “10 Things Chronic Illness Has Taught Me”Hello Dazzle! Thanks for coming and hanging out with me today, I’m glad that you are here. Today I want to talk about the idea of being lazy. I personally believe that no one is lazy. I think that the word lazy is nothing more then a tool for shame and I strongly wish that we would stop using it. There is a more helpful way of looking at our behavior if we are interested in creating change.
Continue reading “Laziness is a Lie”Hello Dazzle! Thanks for coming and hanging out with me today, I’m glad that you are here. Today, I’m giving you my hot take: “Masking isn’t bad!” Let’s start with defining what masking is:
Continue reading “Masking is not Bad”In psychology and sociology, masking is the process in which an individual camouflages their natural personality or behavior to conform to social pressures, abuse, or harassment.
-From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hello Dazzle! Thanks for coming and hanging out with me today, I’m glad that you are here. Today I want to talk about the way that our emotions effect us. The metaphor that I am going to use is that of a backpack.
Everyone is born with an emotional backpack that they are required to carry around with them. The first thing to understand about this backpack is that it is a part of you. There is no option to leave it behind or to not carry it. Instead, think of it like a leg or an arm. There are things that can happen to change the nature of this part of you, but it isn’t something that you can just choose not to have in your life.
Continue reading “Emotional Backpack”How do you express your gratitude?
Hello Dazzle! Thanks for coming and hanging out with me today, I’m glad that you are here. Happy Thanksgiving! Today seemed like the perfect day to talk about gratitude. Gratitude is when you feel thankful for the good things in your life even when you are experiencing hardships or difficulties. It is all too easy to become focused on the negative aspects of our lives and forget that there are still good things happening as well. These good things are often things people take for granted, like having a place to live, food, clean water, friends, and family. Gratitude is taking a moment to reflect on how lucky you are when something good happens, whether it’s small or big; whether it is occasional or everyday.
Continue reading “Gratitude”Hello Dazzle! Thanks for coming and hanging out with me today, I’m glad that you are here. Today I want to talk about the misconception that kindness means being a door mat. It doesn’t. Kindness is having human regard. That doesn’t mean that you’re always giving to others or always saying yes when asked. In fact, kindness requires you to have human regard for yourself and that often requires you to say no. But for some reason there is this myth that nice people have to be people pleasers.
Continue reading “Kindness with Boundaries”Hello Dazzle! Thanks for coming and hanging out with me today, I’m glad that you are here. I’m just touching base with you guys today. I haven’t had a lot of spoons as of late and that has meant that I just haven’t been able to do as many things as I normally would. Sorry about no post this past week. There won’t be one for this coming week either, just this little checking in moment that won’t have a ton of refinement.
Continue reading “Update 102923”Hello Dazzle! Thanks for coming and hanging out with me today, I’m glad that you are here. Today I just wanted to tell you guys about an unexpected art project I ended up making. It was a coloring book titled The Magical Forest.
Continue reading “The Magical Forest”Hello Dazzle! Thanks for coming and hanging out with me today, I’m glad that you are here. Today I want to talk about the importance of finding balance in your life. I believe that having balance is important in everyone’s life, but for those of us with chronic illness we tend to become more aware of the need for it. Additionally, we also tend to experience adverse consequences sooner if we aren’t maintaining a good balance.
Continue reading “Finding Balance”
Zebra Pig 