Knowledge, Understanding, Acceptance: A Framework for Neurodivergent Wellbeing in Practice

What yoga taught me about supporting neurodivergent folk (including myself)

Whenever I share the Two Spirals Model, whether that’s with clients or other professionals, it isn’t just based on academic learning, it’s based on my lived experience as an autistic person who had to learn this from the ground up. In the space of twelve months I received an autism diagnosis, developed long covid and had to pivot my work; all to the background of a global pandemic.

Yoga was a huge part of my self-care before the pandemic, it kept me grounded and regulated in so many ways I didn’t really understand before I knew I was autistic. When my world got turned upside down and I would have benefited from it the most, I had to figure out new ways to find my balance (literally and figuratively).

 Learning to meet myself with curiosity, kindness and compassion helped me navigate the many layers of grief that I experienced. As I started sharing this way of working with other professionals and clients, I realised that it resonated with them too. The Two Spirals Model developed out of these conversations as I looked beyond the specifics of what helped me to the principles that underpinned them: Knowledge, Understanding and Acceptance.

As part of my recovery from long covid, I’ve finally been able to get back to a regular yoga class. In the ‘before time’ I practically lived at my local studio (The Ministry of Yoga in Crewe) and could attend multiple classes a week, so being able to get back has been a huge source of joy.

Having had such a strong practice in the past (I had considered training as a yoga teacher at one point) I have found it to be a very different experience in the present, after five years of being mostly sedentary. My body had not been shy about letting me know what is different now and it has once again been an opportunity to practice what I preach.

Just like the Two Spirals Model it is not about being perfect, or being able to get into every pose, it’s about exploring what is possible for me. By meeting myself with curiosity, kindness and compassion I have begun to weave together strands of Knowledge, Understanding and Acceptance as I meet myself where I am.

Knowledge

This is not only knowledge about myself, but also the structure in which I’m practicing. I’ve gone back to hatha classes and started with those run by my first teacher so I already had a fair bit of knowledge about what to expect. The classes all follow a similar structure, and the cues are mostly familiar. But there are new areas of knowledge that I need to develop alongside what I remember.

Knowledge about my little t-rex arms which make certain poses more challenging.

Knowledge about what my body’s limitations are now, my inability to sit cross-legged was a shock I hadn’t expected.

Knowledge about how my hypermobility is showing up, re-acquainting myself with which joints I need to be more aware of.

Understanding

It isn’t enough to just know these things, the understanding is figuring out what it means in practice, how it shows up and impacts my life.

Understanding that my short arms means that some poses are unlikely to ever be accessible to me without the use of props, because my anatomy just can’t make certain shapes.

Understanding that the difficulty in sitting cross-legged comes from tightness in my hips, which I know is exacerbated by the way I sit when I work.

Understanding that just because my hypermobile joints will bend a certain way, doesn’t mean they should and there are some postures I need to be extra vigilant in to avoid doing myself harm.

Acceptance

Acceptance happens when I am able to take this knowledge and understanding and meet it with compassion and kindness.

Accepting my short arms means I give myself permission to use a strap to help me move towards the best expression of a pose I can find with my anatomy. Rather than being frustrated in certain poses, that leads me to avoiding them, it frees me to do it in the way that works for me, without the pressure of it being perfect.

Accepting that my tight hips will take time to open but that I can support that by being more intentional with how I sit when I work and introducing some gentle stretches. Acceptance helps me to be patient and not try and force an opening that would just lead to injury.

Accepting my hypermobile joints means that I understand that sometimes the win for me is not going as deep into the posture as I might be able to physically manage. It’s about what can I do safely and learning when and how to use props to support myself to hold back.

As I am coming back to yoga I am realising that the model was always there, it was something that I lived. All I did was make this implicit knowledge explicit and found a way to share it that made sense to other people.

As I am re-evaluating what balance and sustainability looks like for me now, I’m ready to share what I have learnt more widely, which is why, alongside the publication of my book, I am also running a masterclass on working with the Two Spirals Model. On the day, we’re going to take a deep dive into the model and how it can be integrated into your existing practice, supporting you to make the adaptations you need to make it work. If you want to join us, early bird tickets are available now.