Fantastic! Thanks so much for this Kate. I've really been struggling with working through alexithymia and what it means for me. It's often posed as a lack. But your writing makes it expansive and generative and an invitation to go deeper into the self and out into the world. And 'heart wind' my god. That's just hit me as feeling so right and that phrase and definition is a light I will hold up as I continue this exploration. Thank you!
“Expansive & generative” -ah, lovely. That expands it even more for me. Good luck on your journey through that-& so glad this piece was helpful. (& “heart wind” -I know!)
I enjoy greek mythology so this piece was extra interesting to read - thank you.
I often find, or think that, for me, it's as if there is so much input - thoughts and feelings about feelings that it creates a bottle neck. It cancels each other out where I'm left numb and sometimes mute. Then when there's a little gap in the input or the noise even a fraction of the original thought/feeling bubbles up and I no longer have any context for it... I don't know where to put it or how to explain it.
It's all just a lot all the time and it can take weeks, months to track it back to its source. Practicing pausing is important, it's just sometimes hard to know when to pause.
For sure, it can be difficult to pause - our brains will always be very clever in knowing that there could be pain that follows the pause. Overriding that or working out how to get *through* and not around that is often the first challenge. For me anyway.
Thank you Kate - I discovered alexithymia and interoception only very recently - I am 67, and have lived a lifetime that is only now, slowly, being explained to me. I seem to be living my life in retrospective. Your explanation of thymos is new to me - and I'm very grateful for the knowledge.
TYSM for this. I have not been on here in a while as am recently struggling with processing words (a dyspraxic trait to do with rapid recall of letters and numbers) after a recent autistic burnout (AS dx in lockdown as with many others!). I feel there’s a million things which I will have to let go of catching up on, so the chance arrival of your post popping up was perfect timing. Wonderful piece of writing. And thank you for the link to the artist and film. I do not know their work but it was so wonderful to watch and remember that, when I used to make music myself, I would make sounds from things around me as I never had been able to coordinate myself to learn an instrument. I have been wanting to revisit that approach so this really is perfect timing as it brings a wholeness to it that I had not understood before Thank you :)
Really pleased about the timeliness of this for you Lucy. I often lose words in various ways in burnout too (inconvenient in a writer). Your approach to music making sounds wonderful-am so glad that Mel Baggs’ work resonates.
Thank you so much for writing this. I literally only discovered this term at therapy this week and am fascinated by it for me and other family members. It prompts me to lblow the dust off the feelings and emotions research in my office. Hope today is all you want it to be.
Oh wow-that’s a good synchronicity then! Glad my writing found you-& good luck with further research and thoughts on this.
Fantastic! Thanks so much for this Kate. I've really been struggling with working through alexithymia and what it means for me. It's often posed as a lack. But your writing makes it expansive and generative and an invitation to go deeper into the self and out into the world. And 'heart wind' my god. That's just hit me as feeling so right and that phrase and definition is a light I will hold up as I continue this exploration. Thank you!
“Expansive & generative” -ah, lovely. That expands it even more for me. Good luck on your journey through that-& so glad this piece was helpful. (& “heart wind” -I know!)
I enjoy greek mythology so this piece was extra interesting to read - thank you.
I often find, or think that, for me, it's as if there is so much input - thoughts and feelings about feelings that it creates a bottle neck. It cancels each other out where I'm left numb and sometimes mute. Then when there's a little gap in the input or the noise even a fraction of the original thought/feeling bubbles up and I no longer have any context for it... I don't know where to put it or how to explain it.
It's all just a lot all the time and it can take weeks, months to track it back to its source. Practicing pausing is important, it's just sometimes hard to know when to pause.
That explains it brilliantly. And it feels like it’s probably good to pause often. Maybe more often than we’d think.
For sure, it can be difficult to pause - our brains will always be very clever in knowing that there could be pain that follows the pause. Overriding that or working out how to get *through* and not around that is often the first challenge. For me anyway.
Thank you Kate - I discovered alexithymia and interoception only very recently - I am 67, and have lived a lifetime that is only now, slowly, being explained to me. I seem to be living my life in retrospective. Your explanation of thymos is new to me - and I'm very grateful for the knowledge.
PS Love your poems too...
Thanks Jackie. It’s a powerful thing to be “living your life in retrospective”. Love that phrase.
Reading this made me feel (ironic I know) for the first time that my name, Alex, matches my experience on planet earth. Thanks for sharing 🤍
TYSM for this. I have not been on here in a while as am recently struggling with processing words (a dyspraxic trait to do with rapid recall of letters and numbers) after a recent autistic burnout (AS dx in lockdown as with many others!). I feel there’s a million things which I will have to let go of catching up on, so the chance arrival of your post popping up was perfect timing. Wonderful piece of writing. And thank you for the link to the artist and film. I do not know their work but it was so wonderful to watch and remember that, when I used to make music myself, I would make sounds from things around me as I never had been able to coordinate myself to learn an instrument. I have been wanting to revisit that approach so this really is perfect timing as it brings a wholeness to it that I had not understood before Thank you :)
Really pleased about the timeliness of this for you Lucy. I often lose words in various ways in burnout too (inconvenient in a writer). Your approach to music making sounds wonderful-am so glad that Mel Baggs’ work resonates.
Beautiful. The video of Amanda/Mel is extraordinary, and I'm going to share it with my readers as well.
I’m so glad-thank you
Thank you so much for writing this. I literally only discovered this term at therapy this week and am fascinated by it for me and other family members. It prompts me to lblow the dust off the feelings and emotions research in my office. Hope today is all you want it to be.