What activities make you feel good about yourself

Oakling said:

I do. I’m always in pursuit of the best shape, size and texture for each specific mineral or rock. I never know what that is, but I have a criteria that fits each individual rock and I know it when I see it. It’s a very sensory thing for me. I think it demonstrates the beauty that nature creates, rather than something man made.

Some rocks must be really stimmy, each one has their unique properties. Your criteria sounds really cool, you are always in search of the perfect rock. I thought your passion must be a sensory thing, maybe our different sensory experience makes us appreciate the beauty of nature more. There is so much diversity in the natural world, so you can find joy in the smallest of things.

I have researched and I agree Australian opals, particularly the Yowah Nut is stunning. It’s beautiful.

This is a picture just because it’s beautiful.

Your collection of rocks and minerals will look great on your display shelf. 

You are welcome for the link. You may be interested in the podcast Aucademy run called Especially Interesting. You can just info dump to other autistic people about your love of Australian opals. I am sure other people will be interested.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge, it is very much appreciated.

I really enjoy walking. My dog does too, so that definitely helps! I’ve found the restarting of exercise to be of real benefit so far, so I hope you do too.

NAS80060 said:

how absorbed I can get and how active my imaginative world is.

And this I can most definitely relate to. Imagination is important to me and I need time for this each day.

I admire those who can play music. It’s something I’ve tried in the past, but never really committed to. I can see why you’d enjoy it though.

I also agree with the notion of synthesis of podcasts/audiobooks with mundane tasks in order to make them more than they are. I find this works for me too.

It can hit very hard. I used to go through phases pre diagnosis and not know what it was. I never had the words to describe to people what I was experiencing, until now anyway. I am very sorry to hear of the impact of it on you- it sounds like a particularly rough bout of it. 

I’m a teacher. I love the lightbulb moments when a pupil of mine makes a connection/ discovers something of interest to them. I also am very grateful for the opportunity to help present things of potential interest to groups of people who may then go on to pursue them like I do my interests. The workload is intense though, as are the amounts of sudden change I have to deal with each day (not a particular skill of mine). I can find communication tricky too, so it can be quite the juggling act at times. It is an instance where my intense practice of masking comes in useful though.

I do. I’m always in pursuit of the best shape, size and texture for each specific mineral or rock. I never know what that is, but I have a criteria that fits each individual rock and I know it when I see it. It’s a very sensory thing for me. I think it demonstrates the beauty that nature creates, rather than something man made.

I’m not too sure about obscure facts, but I’m really interested in Australian Opals at the moment. The formation of opal is fascinating and the variations on offer in Australia are incredible and vary diverse. The Yowah Nut in particular is a favourite of mine. A mix of iron stone and opal- it’s truly stunning in my opinion.

Thanks for the link- I’ll check it out. I have seen Aucademy mentioned a few times on here.

Exercise is good - which reminds me I need to restart!  Going for long long walks in the countryside in particular.  Or finishing a book - reminds me how absorbed I can get and how active my imaginative world is.

Playing piano is probably the one that gives me most satisfaction of that sort - that process of maintaining some pieces while gradually learning others. 

Exchanging views on the Discord forum I'm on, as well as here, is another. 

Combining little upkeep jobs around the house with listening to something though-provoking or mind expanding, or just intellectually engaging: podcasts, audiobooks etc. Household tasks without listening become paralysingly dull, but when combined with these things... pleasingly therapeutic. It's the synthesis that seems to be important. 

I concur.

Monotropism is a theory developed by autistic people that describes our neurology and the way we use our attention. Typically autistic people are monotropic and this means we tend to use our processing resources and attention much more intensely on a single or a few interests. This means we can become specialists on anything that captures our attention.

Monotropism is the reason why we can hyper focus and our interests are more meaningful to us.

Alternatively, neurotypical people are polytropic this means they can spread their attention across multiple tunnels with much less depth.

Hopefully, these videos and links will help you understand your neurology in more depth:

https://eisforerin.com/2015/08/10/tendril-theory/

https://monotropism.org/

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PEpGMQ4XXK6e9L18BN1SHzmf4HpgW7Qt/view?fbclid=IwAR3-MIU_ZNRqzpuFvVMy-9hGEtu4getCP_bM5PvaszR8vx4-nbbobNkWGmQ

Cool, personalised name plaques is a great idea. Do you like the feel of different rocks in your hands?

Do you know any obscure facts?

My interest is autistic experience and community, particularly Aucademy currently.

This is the YouTube channel if you are interested:

https://youtube.com/channel/UCLsMY1ZY9-8IReQfGX-CvBQ

Thank you, that means a lot. Yes burnout is so tough, this is the first time Ive experinced it for a few years and its hit me hard. I had to give up a job I loved with people I love working with because I had a complete breakdown, I couldnt even get off the floor to go to work in the morning.

What job do you do? Sorry to hear it is so full on, I can really empathise with that 

I know the difficulties of burnout, so I wish you all the best of luck with your writing. My job is pretty full on and so I’m constantly thinking of things that I could transition into. No luck yet, but I’ll keep thinking. 

I hope you continue to find success in what you do. Seeing your work published must be a great feeling.

No its tough. I left my job a couple of months ago due to autistic burnout so now I am trying to do this full time. Its not easy but when you get something published and see your work in print its the most amazing feeling in the world 

I forgot to say, most people I encounter enjoy writing fiction, so it’s nice to see someone referring to non-fiction too. 

I used to love drawing too. I don’t have any of my art work from the past though as I would either rip it to pieces or screw it up once complete. I was very critical of myself, so if I found anything ‘wrong’ with any of my art, I’d destroy it. It’s a shame really, as my perspective is a little different now to back then. Oh well, you live and learn I suppose. Now I channel my creativity into wooden things. I’m glad you get satisfaction from drawing though- it really is nice to put something out there from nothing.

Getting something published must be very satisfying. I don’t imagine it’s particularly easy to do so though.

Drawing. I feel a real sense of achievement when I see my finished drawings looking back at me. It can take a while to complete but I feel amazing when I finally finish.

Congratulations to you for your own achievement. You should be very proud of yourself 

im not entire sure what my dads game has been as of late but it seems more i forgot the correct word as i drunk a bit too much, advancing aggressively or whatever, provocative, as if he is taking chance and detected my emotionless outer shell and trying to break it, which is really bad as he wont like the explosion if he succeeded, especially as he often tried to do it very provocatively getting in my face shouting and and squaring up to me and accusing me of being a bad person and so on and me of being the shouty violent person when hes literally doing that and im quiet lol as if he detected whats beneath my quiet emotionless shell and is trying to smash through it and thats his goal maybe, not really a good idea. its a pretty tough shell though but if it breaks whoever breaks it will likely get hurt for pushing through it so hard and cornering me emotionally and being overly aggressive. most people would have hit him for how he acted to me just a day ago. came back from his holidays just a day ago and first thing he does is get in my face and shout at me for no reason, well he had things hes shouting about but i cant understand it as they are pointless little things, no reason things, such as me not using a mortgage broker he recommended a month ago which he already shouted at me for before and decided to again when he came back for no reason and then accusing me of being a big head thinking i know better and thinking i think hes wrong and so on then going on to claim i do nothing when i literally work longer hours than him. claim im shouty and aweful and and treat everyone like *** when i hardly have any interaction with anyone as im pretty much a shut in. dudes a nut case. and his arguments and attacks dont make sense, i cant really explain it as they dont make sense. its just hate and bile for no reason, and all in my face getting closer and closer with slight movement threat as if hes going to hit me at times. i had to put up with that *** all my life from him.

hmm although i often get harassed and shouted at by my dad which makes me angry and sad, then i go to my room think on it and the emotion releases then, then i kill and control it and go disconnected again.... this is why im thinking now im perhaps more szpd than asd, my dads a narcissistic bully, and szpd is just a natural product of someone coping with such a douchebag all their life. not to mention all through school everyone there was abusive when i was younger. and at home i get given no privacy as my dad always goes in my room and roots around my stuff whenever im out which pisses me off. i release anger more than i used to, but when people are not around to see, probably better that way but things can get broken. neighbours can probably hear me shout sometimes, especially when im filling out stupid forms with stupid questions for things like getting a mortgage lol

The main activity that makes me feel good about myself is my writing. I write mainly sports articles, football and cricket, and a lot of it is historical stuff and ties into my main special interest which is European history and culture, especially Germany and the former GDR. I feel good about myself when I write something and it gets published