I’m Dr. Elliot Gavin Keenan. I’m going to be talking about mindfulness practice exercises designed specifically with neurodivergent (autistic, and also others, like ADHD and bipolar) individuals in mind. I have a PhD from UCLA and I study clinical psychology; I’m also (you guessed it) autistic, bipolar, and ADHD. Not too long ago I wrote an academic paper about adaptations for Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)—this was more geared at clinicians (and at least a few have found it useful) but you can email me for the full copy if you’re interested. Now, I’m writing more for the audience of neurodivergent adults.
Mindfulness can be especially beneficial in helping neurodivergent people recognize cues about their bodies and emotions, and it may play a role in reducing anxiety and depression, along with other challenging emotions—all of which disproportionately affect autistic and neurodivergent people.
Not every exercise will work for everyone—try a few out and hopefully one will work for you!
Mindfulness isn’t supposed to be dreadfully boring; actually, in my experience riding rollercoasters is pretty mindful. It’s important for neurodivergent people to be able to choose from multiple alternatives, so they can find something that suits their current arousal needs.
What Does It Mean to Be Mindful?
Being mindful means you are fully aware and in the present moment. You’re not thinking about the past or trying to predict the future—you are just experiencing the moment for what it is, using your senses. When thoughts about the past or future (or “commentary” thoughts) occur, you brush them aside for the time being and return to the present moment.
Have you ever been listening to a song, when at some point you realize you stopped paying attention to the lyrics? Mindfulness is hearing every lyric.
Why Would I Want to Practice Mindfulness?
Practicing mindfulness can increase your awareness of your own thoughts, feelings, and sensations. Mindfulness has been shown in research to improve interoception (your sense of your own body and its cues, such as hunger or thirst). In turn, it might improve anxiety as well as (potentially) physical health issues.
It can be difficult to maintain the state of being mindful. At times, your thoughts and feelings may overwhelm you. This is OK—if you struggle with mindfulness, just focus on one thing: describing.
Describing Your Experience
Whether you describe in your head only, speak your descriptions aloud, or write/type your description, the act of describing your experience can help you stay mindful. Pay attention to all the sensory information in your environment, as well as your own thoughts, feelings, and body sensations. Describe everything you experience non-judgmentally—meaning without determining it to be good or bad, or to have any number of inferred attributes. Try using description with the following exercises.
Five Senses
This exercise is also known as a grounding technique, and it may be suitable for use in a crisis. There are some variations: Some ask for 1 observation from each sense, while others ask for 5 things you can see, 4 things you can hear, 3 things you can touch, 2 things you can smell, and 1 thing you can taste. It can be difficult once you get to the smells and tastes, but that is by design.
I recommend practicing this skill when you are not in crisis, so that you will be able to use it when you are in crisis.
Mindful Stimming
Listen to your body and stim when you need to. In fact, you can stim mindfully—pay attention to how the stim feels in your body, and what effect it’s having (for example, are you less tense, or more alert)? You can try being mindful while pacing, swinging, rocking, flapping, or using stim toys. Sensory toys like slime and putty may be a good fit.
Listening to Music
Choose music that interests you, or music that is new to you. Turn it on repeat and listen a few times. First focus on the lyrics (if there are any), then individual instruments. Then, try listening to the whole song and being aware of it completely. Feel free to stim and move your body.
Take a Break With a Hot Beverage
Sometimes, when I get overwhelmed, I make a big mug of Earl Grey tea and sit on my balcony, sipping the tea and noticing the flavors, the aroma, the temperature—I notice these things in each and every sip. You could do this exercise with any hot beverage. Coffee, hot chocolate, hot apple cider, or any kind of hot tea (including herbal tea) would work.
Sudoku Puzzles
Something that works strangely well for me when I need to clear my mind of distressing thoughts is to play Sudoku. I only play easy puzzles, and I often play them on paper with ink! You can also use an app and have this available wherever you go. Don’t aim for the fastest time—aim to make the fewest mistakes possible. See if you can solve a puzzle without making any mistakes. This exercise does test your frustration tolerance, so it’s one of the more advanced exercises on this list.
Take a Bath
If you’re like most people, you usually take a hurried shower, but have you considered taking a bath? You could try bubble bath or bath bombs for additional stimulation. These come in many scents and give the bath different textures and/or colors.
If you don’t have access to a bath, there are also ways to use both hot and cold showers. Cold showers, in particular, may be helpful in a crisis to bring the emotion level (usually painful emotions) down.
Vibe With It
I gave this advice to a friend struggling with a presentation the other day: “Just vibe with it.” This is a slang phrase which means to resonate with or understand something. In this case, I was telling my friend to accept his mistakes and live in the present moment.
It can be helpful to use a phrase or idea to motivate your mindfulness practice and create a bridge for mindfulness to “come online” in times of anxiety or stress. The ideal bridge would be a special interest or something you know very well.
Here are some examples: being like a Jedi in Star Wars or being like Spock or Data in Star Trek; practicing observation just like a favorite great detective (such as Sherlock Holmes).
I think a bridge can also be very useful when you are “stuck.” for example, perseverating on mistakes and not being able to move forward.
There are many other ways for neurodivergent people to be mindful, of course, but if you are just starting to practice mindfulness some of these examples may be helpful.
