0:01 Hi, this is Katie, and thank you for joining me on the My Senses, My Space podcast. And today I wanted to talk about blueberry versus starburst and maybe strawberry starburst, if that's your flavor of choice.
0:17 And what I mean by which one is what do you think your tolerance level is for just the day or the week or the month, whatever it is.
0:33 And the reason why I bring these two examples up is because blueberries themselves can come in such a variety of sizes and sweetness and acidity levels and how juicy they are, and how like there's just such a variety.
0:53 Whenever you have one blueberry, it's very not very often that the next blueberry that you have is going to be exactly the same or just very close.
1:03 But if you pop a Starbucks, Starbucks, s Starburst into your mouth the next one's probably gonna be almost exactly the same.
1:14 And having that consistency and having those expectations met of the, yes, this next thing that I'm putting in my mouth or, you know, what I'm eating, or this next task in my day or this next thing that's going to happen in my life is going to be consistent and expected.
1:35 And I think for a lot of neurodivergent people, it can be really hard to deal with that variety, to that, that stretching and that those expectations changing and surprises popping up in their days.
1:52 And so I think when we wake up in the morning, it can be very much kind of taking a temperature reading in our heart, in our mind and saying, is this a blueberry day or is it a starburst day?
2:06 Is it something that I can handle more variety in things that are unexpected? Or do I need that consistency today to take care of myself, to not be overwhelmed, to advance further in the accomplishments that I wanna do that day, the tasks that I wanna do that day.
2:29 And I think it's kind of an important question to ask, because many times when I'm going to sleep the night before, I don't know how I'm gonna be in the morning, whether it's due to my chronic illness due to overwhelm, due to other factors in my life.
2:46 And I think a lot of people experience this, is that we can plan to our heart's content. And I'm a planner and I have a whole YouTube channel dedicated to planning, but it doesn't mean that that Morning that I'm gonna follow those plans.
3:03 Exactly. And so it could be that I wake up super tired or super irritable or super, like I can't take one more change.
3:16 I need something very consistent. So to have those things in my life that are consistent, and that's not, I mean, personally, I don't have starburst in my house <laugh> really that often.
3:33 But what is it that I can have in my environment that does bring consistency? Is it that blanket? Is it that certain coffee flavor that I wanna make every morning?
3:48 Is it that one type of cereal? Is it the pencil that I'm using? What of these things, my favorite things, those things I can return to that I can rely on and say, this is what's carrying me through because I'm having a tough day.
4:08 And then other times I can wake up and go, you know what, I have more energy. My body is feeling better.
4:15 I don't feel as overwhelmed. Maybe I got past a lot of really hard things yesterday, but today I feel like I can stretch myself and that I can have things pop up, whether it's lunch plan's gone awry, or I find that I'm missing an ingredient for something, or I have to run out and run an errand I wasn't expecting, or a phone call or an unexpected bill or something that I can deal with those things a little easier on that day.
4:46 Now here's the thing. All those pop-up surprises of things are unpredictable, <laugh>. We can't say, oh, well I can have surprises that day, but not that day.
5:01 And life doesn't work that way, right? But you can say, okay, these surprises are popping up today, and if nothing is super, super urgent, they're going to tomorrow.
5:13 They are gonna be pushed to tomorrow. Where tomorrow me will be able to handle those a little bit better. Because today I'm gonna stick with what I know, what supports me, what makes me feel more stable, more connected to myself, more taken care of, more supported, so that maybe tomorrow when I wake up I can handle a blueberry.
5:42 So until next time, thank you for joining me on the My Senses, My Space Podcast.