I am reading “Unmasking Autism” by Devon Price and the introduction has an exercise that requires you to come up with 5 moments in your life where you felt fully alive. I have spent the better part of yesterday trying to remember such moments, but I am not even sure what it means… I was hoping the community here can provide some insights, either by sharing their moments or their definition of being “fully alive”.
Full text of the exercise for anyone interested:
Instructions: Think of five moments in your life when you felt like you were FULLY ALIVE. Try to find moments from throughout your life (childhood, adolescence, adulthood; school, work, vacation, hobbies).
Some of the moments might leave you with a sense of awe and wonder—“wow, if all of life was like that, life would be amazing!” Some of the moments might leave you feeling deeply recharged and ready to face the next challenge, or satisfied and fulfilled.
Write down each of these moments. Tell the story of each moment in as much detail as possible. Try to think specifically about why the moment stuck with you sodramatically.
Thank you so much!
I can definitely see a few parallels as well. I drifted into role playing as well, which helped with a bit of my anxiety and autism. It helped me role play myself out of weird situations and help allow me to behave better in some social cues.
The clutter is interesting, because despite the fact it exists and may be an eyesore to others, I know exactly where things are. Maybe some of the agoraphobia is caused by not knowing where or what things are around you. I get flustered when I don’t create the mess. Heh.
I had a Fitbit watch for a while, but all the data it was offering me felt overwhelming.
I appreciate all the tips and descriptions about yours. :) Thank you!
My pleasure, really hope something out of that wall of text makes something click on your end!:D
To be honest, it was quite counterintuitive, I’d say acting actually helped me get in touch with myself more than anything, actually dropped a lot of the “etiquette” I’d adopted in day-to-day life and just started being myself. There was a slight shift in others’ perception of me, but it only went to “eccentric and mostly harmless”:)) Did, indeed, help with the conversing aspect, helped me get rid of awkward pauses and be more attuned to the conversation.
Exactly! It’s an orderly kind of chaos, and that’s a very good point about levels of familiarity, could explain my tendency to mentally map out environments as well! Huh, my turn to thank you!
I own a Garmin watch and their interface is pretty straightforward on the watch itself. Gives you in-depth statistics in-app, but the stress level monitor, heart rate monitor, and BloodOx read-out are all readily available. Even has some in-built breathing exercise routines.
Again, my pleasure!:D It’s genuinely satisfying discussing about these things, not a lot of opportunities…