When people talk about spring cleaning, they usually mean cupboards, wardrobes and junk drawers.

But if you’re an autistic or ADHD adult, the place that often needs the most decluttering isn’t your home.

It’s your nervous system.

By March, many of us are running on low reserves. The pressure of January goals we may be failing to meet, the work or study demands that may be pressing - it all adds up. Instead of pressuring yourself to do more or push harder, what if this season was about removing what’s quietly overwhelming you?

Here are 10 things you might consider decluttering from your life.

1. Unrealistic expectations

If you constantly feel behind, check the standards you’re measuring yourself against. Neurotypical productivity norms are not cast in stone and don't suit everyone. Adjust the target where you can to realistically reflect your capacity.

2. Sensory micro-stressors

That buzzing light. The itchy jumper. The notification sounds. Individually small, collectively e...

No, this has nothing to do with the idea that money makes you happy. I’m no financial guru and I’m not about to share tips on investing in stocks and shares. But one thing I know from the financial masters is that investing succeeds because of compounding.

Albert Einstein described compound interest as “the eighth wonder of the world”. It’s a faster way to grow money because you earn interest on interest. In a nutshell, you invest money which earns interest giving you a bigger sum of money. The following year, you earn interest on that bigger sum and this cycle continues causing exponential growth.

Now the miracle of compounding, as it’s sometimes called, doesn’t just apply to money. It works equally well in other areas including our emotional health.

There are many things we can do to take care of our emotional well-being. Each time, we make one of those “investments”, we lift our baseline mood to a higher level. The next “emotional investment” now has a different starting point. A...

If you’ve lived for a minute, you’ve probably seen the words “keep calm and carry on” written somewhere. That was the slogan put out by the British government to prepare people for World War 2. More recently, it makes for good marketing and you can find it’s cousin on just about anything from socks for woman in labour (“keep calm and push”) to mugs for stressed out teachers (“keep calm and pretend it’s on the lesson plan”).

I know the intention is good but actually, it’s terrible advice! As some wise soul said, “never in the history of calming down has anyone calmed down by being told to calm down”.

Staying calm is about keeping things under wraps. But emotions are unpredictable. They make us feel vulnerable. And in a heightened emotional state, we are prone to saying or doing things that we later regret. So, we resort to control. 

Through our childhood years and beyond, we are very likely to hear messages like, “boys don’t cry”, “calm down”, “don’t worry”, “stop being angry”, “man...