“On the human spectrum” with Katherine May

“Trust your gut instinct, rather than the instincts of other people who don’t understand you.” – Katherine May

Katherine May is a writer, the author of many books including the New York Times bestseller Wintering, and most recently Electricity of Every Living Thing; and a teacher and mentor. She lives with her husband, son, dog and two cats, and is one of those inspirational/crazy people who swims in the depths of winter. We had a heartwarming conversation about the many shades of life, creativity, neurodivergence, mental health, and the value of simply being human.

Episode Notes

Things we talked about:

Allowing ourselves to feel good when things actually go well
The synchronicity of things happening when they’re supposed to (and when you’re ready)
Defining success for ourselves (and it’s not always what we assume it might be)
How lockdown taught Katherine to create her own “sense of safety” following the success of her book, by creating courses to shore up her income
Finding ways to own your own story, message and brand
How Katherine’s approach to Instagram evolved from “sharing pictures” to “telling stories”
Katherine’s experience of coming back from “an anxious pattern of behaviour” around social media
The quiet activism in the premise of Katherine’s book,Wintering, which is all about periods of life in which we feel cut off from the rest of the world
Not always having to be “on” and “up.” As Katherine says, “The vision of us being always up discounts useful wonderful things like thinking, reflecting…”
How we’ve all learned things about ourselves during lockdown, and the way our priorities (and what we are willing to accept) have changed
Being diagnosed as autistic, quite late in life, allowed Katherine to make the personal changes she needed: “How to meet my own needs, rather than how to solve me”
The experience of living life as a neurodivergent person
Finding your right people online (if you lose followers after sharing your true self, then you’ve lost the right followers – you don’t want them)
And this piece of wisdom from Katherine, for anyone who identifies with our “neurodivergent” conversation: “Your identification is yours. It doesn’t need the approval of a doctor or your mum.”
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