Emotions

Patience doesn’t mean making a pact with denial, ignoring our emotions and aspirations. It means being whole heartily engaged in the process that’s unfolding, rather than ripping open a budding flower or demanding a caterpillar hurry up and get that chrysalis stage over with…Sharon Salzberg. I am learning raising  an autistic child  build within you an inner strength founded on hope and faith. I am so thankful for family, friends and M’s autism community to help with challenges or difficulties. Living with and loving an individual with autism takes on a different perspective in life. For example, understanding how M communicate emotions or feelings takes a lot of patience. M can have meltdowns due to sensory overload in trying to express tiredness, hunger, pain, scared, or excitement especially all at once. Imagine canoeing in a peaceful stream of water, then all of a sudden hitting turbulence waters that begin tugging or pulling the canoe in different directions. Now, imagine how hard it would be to navigate those turbulent waters without a paddle or proper training on how to handle such situations. Life causes us to feel so many different emotions or feelings sometimes all at once. Our brain quickly process such rapid emotions or feelings in order for us to make adjustments. In M’s case connections to what emotions goes with what response along with adding words all at once can be overwhelming. However, M is making some progress in connecting words with objects and emotions by means of therapy. This morning M awoke at 3:45 a.m. He was emotionally tired, scared and frustrated. I had to find my inner strength to remain patient and calm while M worked out his emotions. He used his sensory calming strings and his music (JW.ORG children series Caleb & Sofia) to adjust emotions. Yes this process took some time, around 5 a.m. but he achieved emotional PEACE! M is teaching me emotions can derail our communication but exercising patience along with faith can help us overcome.

Simply an autism mom learning