DECK YOUR HALLS

I like my own deck.

Where I can decorate how I like it.

Picking the right colour and type.

Hanging up the right images.

Expressing how I feel with the messages.

Organising how I’d understand it.

When it comes to the brief, I need space.

Or else I’ll be tangled up with other wires of thinking.

With autism we all need our own space.

Especially in moments where it requires deep thinking with big amounts of information.

And I find it works when I separate myself with my own deck.

I can offend other people (that are unaware of my autism) when moving things around.

Collapsing slides, editing other write ups, I find myself stepping on other people’s toes.

It’s never intended to insult people, my mind has its own order.

And vice versa I’ll stress when things get changed or moved around that I laid out.

It becomes a mess in my head, and I suddenly pause…

If you have a work colleague with autism you need to allow them to decorate.

Allow them to answer the brief or feedback how they understand it.

And take it from their deck.

Combining it with your deckorations.

This is a practice I’ve began to do more in this festive month.

Especially when my creative partner is away on holiday.

I don’t have the luxury of a neurotypical brain to bounce off.

Instead I’m tasked in calming my own head blizzard.

And I do that by building a warm cabin for the mind.

That cabin is bliss, where I deck the halls and invite you to my answer.

The answer that helps my team put their feet up for the festivities.

Is there a John Lewis Christmas script bubbling here?

I’d love to see something around neurodiversity.

It’s understatement to say I have OCD mixed in with my autism.

It can be very severe sometimes, and I hope to discuss that more next year.

But for now excuse the puns, this is my Christmas post to you.

Enjoy the holidays and have a Happy New Year!