Your Neuro Normal is Mind, Body and Spirit

I’ve been intentionally crafting a path forward for myself over the last few years. Gaining my degree in neuroscience, leaving corporate leadership to work in social justice, setting up a coaching business to support neurodivergent folx to decolonise. Every step has helped me feel closer to my purpose, though it has not been easy. It has been deeply challenging emotionally, spiritually, physically, financially. I have never once felt that this was the wrong path though. The day I walked through the bluebell wood and realised ‘If I don’t change things, I won’t make it’ remains the single most significant day of my life, and I turned onto a new path that was, as it turns out, the only one that could have existed.

Since then I have had a persistent call on my spirit. That call has always been there in some form but, like much of my true self, I squashed and hushed it in order to neuro-perform and be accepted by whiteness. It’s a call towards my ancestry, towards clarity and alignment, towards connection and peace. This force has been a vital component in coming to understand my neuro-normal and it is what drives me to help others find theirs. With all the neuroscience and frameworks and coaching and writing, there is something else that adds a dimension that cannot be accessed through thinking. Or at least, not through thinking alone.

I am ‘in my head’ a lot of the time. Receiving new information, analysing, managing executive functioning, thinking about the past, thinking about the future, thinking about how I want to show up for myself and others, thinking about the impact of my actions, thinking about the world and it’s inhabitants and what they need, thinking about what I need, thinking about how to navigate systems of harm, thinking, thinking, thinking. All this thinking can actually disconnect us from ourselves, and therefore from our connection and oneness with everything and everyone else. We analyse and intellectualise and forget that we hold wisdom in our cells, that our DNA carries memories, that we are only able to think because we are inhaling and exhaling life-force energy, that we came from the same stars as the rocks and the sand. That we are mind, body, spirit. In some ways, I am surprised the missing element didn’t come to me sooner, I have been practicing it for years. In other ways, I recognise that we often can’t perceive some connections until we are ready to. By the beginning of last year, the connection came into view… Yoga.

I can almost hear the groans and moans and dismissals of this revelation. ‘I can’t do yoga’, ‘yoga doesn’t work for ADHD’, ‘yoga isn’t Autism friendly’, ‘I’m not flexible enough’, ‘It’s boring’, ‘It doesn’t do anything for me’, ‘what does it have to do with learning and neurodivergence?’. The bastardisation and appropriation of yoga means that there are far too few folx who have been able to share in the the true purpose and practice of yoga. It is not all headstands and downward facing dogs, it doesn’t even need to include them. Asana, or ‘positions’, is one aspect of yoga. In the Patanjali branch of yoga, there are four different types of yoga, and Asana is one limb of eight that sits underneath those four different types. There are also many other branches of yoga, all of which developed from the root teachings of ancient, Indigenous populations of South Asia, with influences from the East and in the last few hundred years, the West. Colonialism and capitalism have reduced yoga to an exercise class for thin, cis, white women. Many classes are clinical, appropriative, fatphobic, ableist and harmful. Had I signed up for any number of the white-washed teaching courses available, I would not only have missed out on much needed connection to my heritage, I would have likely experienced all sorts of harm and inherited ways to perpetuate harm in my teaching. Through much research and patience, at the end of last year, I found Susanna Barkataki and Ignite Institute for Yoga Instruction and Social Change. And I found a home.

I shared five months studying for my yoga teacher certification with Susanna, my mentor Sunaina, the other teachers, guest teachers and my student colleagues. The course seeks to honour the roots of yoga through giving attention to the many elements of this science, philosophy, practice and way of living. Every aspect of me not only felt welcomed, but nourished. There was a celebration of my South Asianness in a way I have never experienced outside of India. My transness, my queerness, my neurodivergence, all embraced and honoured in ways I have never experienced in combination with my South Asianness. There are moments when we know we are exactly where we are supposed to be. Almost every moment of that five months felt like that. I found a framework, a lens, a compass, a catalyst, a conduit, a science, a faith, a connection to oneness in a way I didn’t know was possible. This is not hyperbole, it was a transformative and profound experience of connection and unity (Yoga means unity in Sanskrit, and I came to understand why). I was so deeply sad for it to end, but so grateful for the community I had found, and so excited to share yoga in my own way.

Throughout the course there was something emerging - the way I wanted to share yoga in alignment with my purpose. I thought about how often I see folx trying to grow and have an impact but they can’t get past the disconnect. They read books, take courses, manage executive functioning, manage RSD, manage PDA, manage meltdowns, manage shutdowns, manage communication differences all while navigating colonialism, capitalism, white supremacy, patriarchy, multiple genocides, ecocide and trying to live with meaning and joy. How could we possibly survive this diabolical combination of things without connection? Connection to stillness, to peace, to space, to compassion, to our highest selves, to the divine (whatever your version of the divine is, and yes it includes the wonder and science of the universe). These are not things that you find in books. These are things that you find in yourself, when guided to them.

I am so excited and honoured to be able to share yoga with others, and to integrate it into my work to help people in a holistic way. I’ve created The Neuro Embodiment Programme - combining neuroscience, coaching and yoga to support my clients to depathologise their neurodivergence, decolonise their lives, and to dismantle systems of harm. I’m taking new clients from August 2024 - UK clients may be able to pay through Access to Work. You can book an exploration call with me here, or email me at [email protected] if you prefer written communication. Quote ‘mindbodies’ when you contact me to get a 20% discount. I’m also going to be running online Neuro Embodied Yoga classes once per month (I’ll increase this if there is demand) with accessible, trust based pricing - I encourage folx who attend to choose the pricing tier that aligns with their financial situation and in the spirit of redistribution. I have also started a free, monthly, accessible yoga class for my local queer community.

Thank you for being here with me as I embark on this evolution of my work and alignment with my purpose. I’m very grateful for all of you and your continued support, and I’m looking forward to sharing this next stage of my growth with you.

—AJ

Today’s Neuro-Embodiment Prompts:

Suggestions and questions to help you engage with mindbody decolonisation:

• How are you accessing presence, peace, connection? How can you bring more of this into your life? How can access this regularly?

• What ideas do you have about yoga that might be based in appropriation, racism, ableism, fatphobia? How can you challenge these beliefs?

• What is missing from your own decolonisation journey? How can you access it? What support do you need?