Are You an X-Man?

Hi. My name is Julia and I am a high functioning individual!  

And I am more than a little different.  I'm always a little too much for people, too intense and I freak people out with my intensity of energy.  I would yell all the answers out in class. I laugh too loud, too much, too long.  I have an extreme joy of organization, you name it, I have so much fun organizing it: recipes, clothing, documents on my computer. At the same time I have a zeal of chaos that springs up in everything I touch.  I sort and schedule and always have from the time I was a child.  And I disrupt and color outside those same lines that I create.  

I was hanging out with one of my favorite eccentric friends recently who suggested I pick up the book Autism in Heels.   I found myself within those pages, the idiosyncrasies she describes in the book rang true throughout my world.  Little pieces of my life clicked into place.  I relaxed and smiled.  It opened a space where I have an easier time knowing myself. 

I began to acknowledge the ways I function very differently.  Neurodivergent is a buzz word that describes the fact that many of us process information differently.  I love the term X-Men to describe those of us who are atypical.  It’s a nod to the X-Men movies that bring to life amazing superheroes, no two of them the same.  It’s also a parable that explores how these individuals work so hard to hide these strengths from the world so they can fit in.  Sound familiar?

One of my strengths that I now recognize as a misfit superpower is research. I am a maniac researcher. When I was a kid and they would tell us to do research projects, I hated it.  Those projects held no interest for me but I would have to do them. Now in my adult life, I will start watching a cooking show, my curiosity will ignite and I will spend the next three weeks learning every single thing there is about that cooking show. I will explore all the recipes,  all the types of recipes, all the countries they come from, the host of the cooking show and more. I'll purchase and read every book they’ve written. I’ll listen to their podcast. It's an absolute obsession, and it all makes me so happy. 

It’s also what they call being a lifelong learner. We literally grow our brain and form new neural pathways, it's the greatest way to keep your body generating.  I'm constantly forming new neural pathways and going on these new adventures, discovering new information and piecing things together. I also like to sort things to give myself the whole picture.  It creates such a level of peace in my world.  Once I have all this information, I extrapolate it with other things in other areas and create something new for my life. 

I use my superpowers in my business, with my family, for my clients and private sessions, with my body, my clothing and the way I dress.  I use these strengths of mine to curate my aesthetic reality with my clothes and my house and my yard and my garden and my kitchen and more.  Really, I use the ways I am different to create a life that actually works for me.  

If this conversation has created some curiosity about the ways you're different, you could enroll the universe in helping you explore what your superpowers are.   Ask some questions and see what awareness you receive.  

What capacities do I have that nobody else has? 

Who can I invite into my life who will always be happy for me changing and being completely different at a moment's notice? 

What awareness and what can I become obsessed with that will make my life way more fun and way more joyful?

How can I celebrate the intensity of me?