How Summer Chaos Affects the Neurodivergent Brain
Nervous system recalibration—what hinders us and what helps
Dearest Reader,
Welcome to Grounded & Wild: Our 8-Week Summer Series.
This is the beginning of our series together for the summer, where you might find recalibration—an exhale for the overwhelm, a place you can come for respite and renewal amidst the chaos of it all through grounding and connection.
Summer gets busy, so you are welcome to drop in anytime—wherever you are at and whatever you are facing.
Click here to join (just $5 a month—or $10 to be a part of the whole series this summer). You will also gain full access to your very own growing private bookshelf here to read whenever you’d like.
Wishing you love and light, no matter where your journey takes you this season,
Alice Wild
P.S. Please note, Thursday posts are still completely FREE. So, if you are at a place where you simply desire to enjoy free content in your inbox or on the Substack app, worry not—there’s a free preview below and a free post coming to you in two days.
Click to listen to a preview of this post’s audio voiceover:
Right this second, I am in the MIDST of chaos.
We’re a couple of hours into a family road trip, all crammed inside what feels like a small, bumping shell—with little room to breathe and smooth walls that seem to shrink by the mile.
Inside this shell, music blares—currently: Big Bad John by Jimmy Dean. I wince at the beat and tighten my noise-canceling headphones. Meditation frequencies hum in my ears, clashing against the chaos as I balance my iPad on my knees, typing this to you in real time.
In the backseat, my children are laughing, squealing, and flinging Chex Mix at each other. Our dog, after repeatedly attempting to claw his way into the front seat, has finally curled into a tight, anxious ball on the floor between us.
The car we rented is unfamiliar—bumping on the road strangely. Our dog hates it. I do too.
Two hours down—six more to go.
Oh the glorious summer family road trip!
But it hasn’t been all bad. There have actually been some truly beautiful moments—glimmers in the midst of the wild—that maybe only a neurodivergent eye would catch… (more on that later).
But let’s be honest—family road trips and summer busyness in general, can be incredibly taxing on the neurodivergent in very particular ways.
So, as we venture into our second week of the Grounded & Wild series this summer, gathering here for moments of recalibration, reset and peace—I want to take a curios look inward, to the neurodivergent specifics of summer chaos in three different ways.
The good. The challenging. The recalibration.
The good—because as I type this post mid-road trip (with plenty of kid-oriented breaks along the way), we’ve already experienced so much soul-rich goodness. And I want to say this: neurodivergent nervous systems often get a bad rap. But there is incredible beauty and overlooked brilliance that comes from a neurodivergent brain.
The challenging—because this is also the reality of how our neural synapses fire: tuned into details, sounds, emotions, and energy. So often, we feel flooded by what others feel, and our bodies seem to absorb—at a cellular level—the entire sensory world around us.
And the recalibration—because here’s the truth: when your brain doesn’t fit the mold, the world often hands you shame in exchange for your wonder. Most of us, at one point or another, have been met with furrowed brows or harsh tones—made to feel too much, too sensitive, too reactive. So when chaos strikes and your nervous system sounds the alarm, the inner critic doesn’t whisper—it roars.
Especially in summer. A season that should be ease and softness often swells with noise: social obligations, sun-drenched “obli-cations” (the kind of family gathering you attend out of fear, not freedom), unpredictable schedules, overstimulation, and the children—conjuring a chaos so layered and loud it reverberates straight down the spine.
So, if you’re someone who feels deeply, who scans every room like a radar tower tuned to the moods of others, I invite you: make a cup of something soothing, nestle into a quiet corner if you can, and take a curious stroll with me through the wild garden of our neurodivergent minds—messy, magical, and brimming with untamed beauty.
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