WHO ARE YOU? ♥️

By Lian Brook-Tyler

An autistic client sent me an excellent article recently about the differences in identity between autistic and non-autistic folk.

In a nutshell, non-autistic people tend to base their identity around their role in or affiliation to a collective (e.g. father, Buddhist, Liverpool FC fan, Italian, doctor), whereas autistic people tend to base their identity around what they love to do, things they’re passionate about, and their deeply held values, or they don’t have a clear sense of identity in the typical sense (“I’m me.” or “I don’t know who I am.”)

I’ll link to the article in the comments for those of you who want to dive into this more deeply - I see you, fellow autistics who need to know all the things.

This was one of the most illuminating things I’ve ever read about autism, it explains SO much.

Anyway, the point of this post isn’t to go deep on this but to share the stuff about me that a non-autistic identity is created around.

After all, I spend most of the time sharing what I love to do, what I’m passionate about, and my deeply held values, and one of those values is my devotion to union, which includes union between folk of different neurotypes… so I’m going to speak your language for once!

So who am I?

I’m a mother of two children.

I’m a wife.

I’m Devonshire born and bred - which also makes me English.

I’m a vegan (for 26 years, a lifelong vegetarian before that).

I’m the co-founder of an organisation that helps people to become the Medicine they came here to be - which also makes me a multi-six figure business owner.

I’m a soul guide and teacher of the metaphysical laws of ascension, descension and sovereignty, I guess I’m what some might call a spiritual teacher (see aforementioned thing re autistic identity - I never know what to call myself when people ask “What do you do?”)

I’m a podcaster.

I’m a shaman-in-training (this one was so hard to write, I contemplated leaving it out. I’m unlikely to ever call myself a shaman or a shamanic practitioner, however many years I’ve practised it. See link in comments for the reason behind that).

I’ve been a martial artist off and on for my whole adult life (kickboxing, aikido, boxing, most recently Kung fu).

I’m a designer (I’ve studied and/or worked in several different kinds of design, including user experience and website design, so I guess it could be said that that is who I am).

Oh and I’m autistic, and have a bunch of other neurodivergences (ADHD, dyscalculia etc).

Now some questions for you:

1. Those of you who aren’t autistic, do you feel you know me better now than before?

2. Who are you?

And for bonus points, share your identity in a way that’s not your usual way of doing so.

P.S. I’m loving the irony of the ‘autistic’ identity here!

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