Tools for Your Environment

What can you gather and install around you to create a creative and welcoming space?

Transcript

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 the tools that you're creating or using to create your world.
0:14 So what are the things that you surround yourself with that make your life brighter and easier and create this environment that you can thrive in?
0:27 So, a lot of times when, especially with kids when we talk about having IEPs 504s and having accommodations at school, it's looking at how can a child integrate into a system and an environment that wasn't made for them?
0:51 That I think we can look at a lot of school systems in a lot of schools, some of the independent ones, maybe Montessori can you know, be a bit more inviting for neurodivergent people.
1:07 But when you're looking at just public schools, it can be very, very hard for neurodivergent kids, kids with autism kids who have adhd, any kind of quirky differences that it can be very hard for them to exist in those worlds.
1:33 They, they're noisy, they are can be bright lights. They can have you know, sun streaming through the windows, just like the bright lights can, that can just be very distracting.
1:46 They can have kids very close to one another so that kids can like sense each other. Someone who has sensory difficulties need space around them.
2:00 And so in those kind of more tightly packed spaces, or when kids are bumping up into to one another, it can be really hard to exist there.
2:10 And there's a myriad of other things going on as well, but I, I really like to take those thoughts and notions and apply them to grownups as well and workplaces.
2:24 And I've been in many office type, you know, cubicle type office settings where it can feel just like, I don't belong and this doesn't work for me.
2:40 Working in a much smaller office, maybe if you're like one or two people in a very smaller, like very small business can work for those who need to have some space, have some, a lot of Quiet time, kind of adjust their environment.
3:01 It can be a lot easier. And especially if you run your own business like I have, I did not do well in a very open environment where I could hear everyone's conversations around me.
3:15 I can pick up conversations from across the room and listen to them and listen to somebody else right next to me have a conversation as well.
3:22 I can kind of tap in between those to understand both conversations, but also that's part of my audio processing condition.
3:33 Is that because I'm hearing these, I can't concentrate on what is being said right in front of me. So I want you to kind of think like in your own environment, what are the things that actually do help?
3:50 What are those things that you are constructing around you that create your environment? Is it that your chair is super soft or supportive in, you know, it's not just a desk really cheap desk chair.
4:05 Maybe it's ergonomic, maybe it's tilted at a certain angle, maybe it's made out of a certain fabric that really suits you.
4:16 Do you use blankets or like some kind of footrest or have the blinds closed so you can have just warm light from a lamp?
4:30 What are these things around you that you are creating your environment that you have control over that really help you focus and be in your own element and be in your, it it, to me, it, it's kind of like a terrarium, right?
4:51 There's this glass kind of container that you can see out of, but everything around you is containing the moisture in the air.
5:03 Keeping that moisture at a constant level is shading you is allowing the right amount of light to come through. And it can be just this beautiful space that you create just for yourself.
5:20 And then having the specific tools in there, whether it's having insects in there, <laugh>, I'm just thinking of a terrarium not your desk area to have insects, but like what are those magical ingredients for you?
5:36 What are those things that you can get just right so you can grow and thrive? And it can be a lot of trial and error.
5:47 It can be knowing what you liked as a child. Maybe when I was describing, you know, a school setting from childhood.
5:57 Could you picture some of that as like, yeah, wow, I had a lot of trouble there and I have those same difficulties now as an adult, is it possible for me to invite some of the things that I did as a child and bring them forward?
6:14 And maybe that's doing work in some kind of glider or rocking chair. Maybe that's I personally <laugh>, I remember so many times, especially as like a tween teenager, I loved laying belly down on the floor, you know, kicking my legs up in the air.
6:33 It just felt so good to stretch my back that way because I hunch over sometimes I don't have really strong back muscles and stuff.
6:43 So I love to go the other way, bend my body the other way to really help stretch it out. And I also feel more grounded in that way.
6:53 And I would spread out my homework all around on the floor. I remember doing this in my living room growing up.
7:00 And I would have all this space and I could look at my book on one side and my notes here, and then I had a snack here or something, <laugh>.
7:07 I had everything lined up and then maybe a, a blanket over top of me. So that was my environment and I could control that and I could really get into what I was actually studying, what I was actually learning at the time.
7:23 And it helped me focus and be me. And so when we think about this, this world that we're in, that it's just so hard to be here sometimes with just functioning on a day-to-day with it.
7:37 Just like, ugh, what along with the adulting, having to do things in maybe a bright and loud store that you're going shopping in or going to the DMV <laugh> or like just conducting basic things that you do every day and it just feels unwelcoming.
8:03 Now, I'm not saying like everybody loves doing these things. I know people who love to go grocery shopping and they enjoy some of that and they, maybe they go to stores that have different lighting because they really like that environment that they're in and they avoid other stores that just do not suit them.
8:27 And that's okay. Like thankful that we're all have this power of choice to, to go where we wanna go. So what does that mean when you're setting up that environment around you?
8:39 What are those tools around you? What do they look like? What do they feel like? Is it that special pen that you always reach for?
8:46 I know I always reach for a mechanical pencil that, and I have two of them because I need at least one of them to do all my Work every day.
8:57 And then I have one special pen in there too, A Wonder Woman Pen that a great friend gave me just recently <laugh>.
9:06 Yeah, like having those really special tools around you to know that this is the environment that I create and that I can create within.
9:17 So I hope that helps and I would love to hear about your tools and what you enjoy. Feel free to write me if you'd like or DM me on any social platforms.
9:28 And until next time, thank you for joining me on the My Senses, My Space podcast.