I was four years old when I first realised that I think differently and see things that others do not. I had also noticed that others understand and do other things quite spontaneously and intuitively, which I didn’t seem to be able to do. But of course, back then, I couldn’t articulate these thoughts so eloquently. So there was no way for me to communicate to my parents that my inner experience of the world was somehow different from others my age. All of those times make fascinating sense to me, since I now know about my autism.
Our lives tend to turn out very differently than most peoples’ too. For instance, I happened to have spent about two years of my life in near-complete isolation. No, I was never institutionalized for mental health reasons or in prison for any crime. My circumstances and reasons were unique too. More on that later. But when I came out of my solitude and reconnected with the world, I was certainly a different person than who had disconnected. I was wiser, more mature and far more insightful. My vision had broadened to encompass all of time and space, and I came out to be quite amused by the pettiness and insignificance of most of the concerns that we spend our precious fleeting lives fretting about.
I have always been unable to separate my autism from my spiritual inclinations, and have strong suspicions that both of them are fundamentally inter-linked in some significant ways. I’m still learning and discovering the answers to these questions, and I continue to be fascinated. But regardless, I am very thankful to have discovered mindfulness meditation in my life. It has helped me cope with my autistic challenges and also helped me profoundly in my efforts and striving to be the best version of myself. Isn’t that all any of us can do?
I hope to help others like myself discover themselves. I believe that the current approaches to help autistic people are focused on transforming them into a neurotypical-like creature, which will not only leave us feeling inauthentic all our lives, but also keep us from bringing out eveything good in us. Autistic traits are not all bad and they’re not all meant to be hidden for other peoples’ comfort and shallow ideas of what “the norm” should be. Admittedly, there are some quirks that I could live without, but it only makes sense to make the best of the mind that you got and autism does come with some profound benefits for many people. It is up to us to realize and harness these capacities/gifts. I believe that meditation will help us take more control of our own fates and dazzle the world just for being who we really are. Some of the best meditators I know are neurotypical people and I welcome non-autistic people too to explore and realise the best potentials of their own minds. We’re all really the same in some significant ways. 🙂
I created this website to bring my perspectives to the world, share my learnings and simply express myself openly like most of us do only on the internet. If this humble endeavour of mine ends up helping at least one person in any corner of the world, I shall consider its purpose fulfilled. This website is a personal expression and my way of sending out all my love to the world. Thank you for your attention.