Hi, everyone.

Welcome back to another episode of the ADHD Women's Wellbeing Podcast.

I'm Kate Moore Youssef, your host here, as always.

And actually today it's a solo episode.

Today is the last episode.

I'm going to put out now for a few weeks.

I'm going to have a bit of time off over the summer.

And so I just wanted to come here and be able to tell you where I'm at at the moment and maybe just have kind of a bit of a conversation with you as to what's going on with me.

And I think that you'd probably all relate in some capacity for yourselves as well.

So right now I'm recording this in the middle of July.

My kids have just broken up from school and we have a summer ahead with lots of different things going on and kids in different places and trying to chuggle, work, and we're going on holiday and it's, it's all good, but it's also really overwhelming and it's full on.

And I'm hearing from a lot of you that just life right now does feel intense.

It does feel full on and overwhelming and high pressured.

And there's.

Not only is that all from an external perspective, with adhd, we have so much internal noise and pressure and expectation that we put on ourselves.

And with that combination of the external world feeling difficult to navigate and our internal world still feeling treacherous and difficult, challenging, we just have to give ourselves quite a bit of grace and love and compassion and recognize that we are holding a lot.

And I talk actually from a collective perspective, it feels that there is a lot of kind of fatigue and burnout and just feeling drained in the air.

And this is not an episode where I'm going to start just like telling you how dreadful everything is, because it really isn't.

But it's a recognition that we need to kind of just notice where we are right now, just noticing where we are in our bodies and I guess where we are feeling maybe the tension and the stress and all the pressure and the intensity, how it shows up for you, I guess how it manifests for you, whether it's in your emotions, in your body, in your sleep, your, I guess your motivation as well, and what you're yearning for, what you're desiring for, what you would do if you could just wave that magic wand, you could click your fingers.

A lot of the conversations that I'm having right now is this huge desire just to surrender.

But there's a fear there, a fear to surrender to what it is that we want, because we are, I think we're very much in a bit of a transitional period in history in just the way we are.

We're post pandemic.

We are politically.

We couldn't be more disparate if we tried.

We're disconnected.

There's war.

And from a very kind of granular level for those of us who are neurodivergent, we are also discovering a lot about ourselves and recognizing what we are no longer wanting to hold on to, what we're ready to shed.

But we're also in this sort of transitionary period of, well, we kind of know what's going on.

We kind of see the pattern, and we've seen what.

What's been going on in all our lives.

We now have some answers, maybe not all the answers.

And we're able to look back over history and our past and the generations and our childhood and maybe recognize where there was lots of undiagnosed neurodivergence going on in our families as well.

So we're holding a lot.

We are holding a lot.

And there's a very high chance that if you're listening to this right now and you're a parent, there's probably neurodivergence in the mix with one or many of your children and holding them.

And I mean that in sort of like the more spiritual sense that we worry about them, we are trying to help them and support them and help them heal and find ways of living that work for them while also doing that for us can feel exhausting.

So I am inviting you maybe to.

It's not that easy to disconnect.

I understand that.

And many of us are working throughout the summer.

But if there is a small way, if there's an ability to be able to just see where you are right now without judgment and notice those signs and the pointers that are telling you to slow down or to remove that pressure or to release some of the burden that we've been holding on to, whether that's shame or guilt or resentment or anger.

I mean, these are very heavy energies to hold.

And I just maybe invite you to just notice that and recognize what it is that you are holding on to, maybe to who you're holding on to and who you're attributing that to, and maybe giving yourself a moment to say, what if?

What if I chose to let go?

What if I chose to accept that this is how I'm feeling right now?

What was if I chose to send myself some love and healing and compassion Instead of the constant negative self talk loop that many of us find ourselves in, what if we chose to trust or believe that things could feel better, that we can create a different future, and we can choose to maybe see things differently as well.

And none of this just happens overnight.

But I would say probably the biggest thing that's helped me make a big difference to the outlook of my life, my mindset, how I feel every morning when I wake up, is I choose to lean into something positive.

I choose to lean into gratitude.

I choose to lean into something that I can hold on to that will take me through that day, whether it's support from a team member or it's a friend, or something good that's happened within the house, or something positive that's happened in, in my work.

And I lead with that instead of leading with the negative.

And I think time out and making space can really, really help with this.

Because if we are on constantly listening to output, there's social media, there's podcasts, there's emails, there's just noise, just noise from everywhere.

It can drown out what's going on intuitively for us and intuitively what we want and desire and what our gut's trying to tell us, maybe from a spiritual perspective, what guidance we're being shown.

And so I invite you maybe to have some time to kind of disconnect a little bit in a way that feels good to you, that feels right to you.

And that can be many different ways.

Like I said, it can be disconnecting from emails, from social media, or just from a recognition that you want to spend more time in nature, that you want to feel more grounded, or you want to start journaling and opening yourself up to maybe prayer or meditation or visualization.

There these are just little nuggets and you don't have to do it all.

Just choose one that can help soften the difficult time that many of us are going through.

So for me, I'm going to take some time away from the podcast of bringing out new content, and I'm going to just have a bit of time to reflect and have a little think about where I've been over the past year and where I want to go.

Because this podcast is just, we're just beginning.

And I have lots of ideas and I have lots of plans and there's lots of things that have been going, going on behind the scenes that I'm really excited to talk about when the time's right.

But it's also taken a huge amount of energy, all of this advocating and all the passion and the hyper focus and the interest and the feeling of wanting to make a difference and this sense of justice that why does the world not know enough about neurodivergence?

Why are women not understanding themselves?

Why are they not getting the support from doctors?

Why are we only just understanding that ADHD and hormones are completely interconnected?

And why are we only understanding that actually women's voices need to be heard and that our health matters and that we deserve to feel well and we deserve to thrive and life is not about just trudging along and feeling exhausted and drained and burnt out by life, that it's okay and good and wonderful to feel fulfilled and doing something meaningful and purposeful while also being rewarded financially and with abundance and with joy and with free will and choice, that we get to do life on our terms and we get to be authentic and we don't have to live to the conformities of other people's expectations and societal pressures that we found ourselves in historically and that we as women, we are in this very sort of pivotal moment, you know, of unshackling and disrobing, I guess, these layers that we've been put on us.

It's weird because I noticed there's a pattern with many neurodivergent women, that there's sort of like a bit of a martyrdom complex that we just kind of think, well, we have to do this, but it's fine for a little while while we are doing something that we are really passionate about.

But if we don't put ourselves in that position of.

But I also deserve to feel the rewards from my hard work.

I also deserve, whether it's that promotion, I deserve that bonus.

I deserve to be paid accordingly without feeling greedy, without feeling that.

So people are going to think I'm selfish or who am I to ask for a raise or something that I know that so many of us deserve.

And I speak from on behalf of so many people that I speak to who still don't believe in their worth and they don't believe in their positioning and their power and their right to stand side by side, whether it's men or the people who they, you know, they deem more powerful than them.

I say to you right now that look at the work that you're doing, look at how much you've invested, the time, your energy, your health, relationships, friendships, whatever that is, and know that you this value, you have value in the world and you are worthy of being rewarded for it.

And so I am rewarding myself this summer with some time off.

I'm rewarding myself this summer with deep reflection and recognition of all that I have achieved with the podcast and work and the workshops and all the clients that I'm seeing.

And you know, we hit 2 million downloads recently, got runner up at the International Women's Podcast Award.

We have made big changes.

I've spoke to amazing guests.

I'm absolutely adoring finding experts I know are life changing for many of you that you'd never be able to get access to.

But this also comes at a cost, and it comes at a cost of my energy.

It comes at a cost of feeling burnt out.

It feels that my nervous system feels quite unsettled right now.

So I'm going to have a rest now.

What I want you to know is that I have been working hard behind the scenes over the past few months to ensure that the next few weeks you're going to get a curated back catalogue of some of the best, most interesting and insightful snippets of interviews that I've been doing over the past few years.

And I send you all love.

And I send a collective message of deep healing and rest and calming of our nervous systems and grounding and recognition that we're worthy of taking time out and recharging and re nourishing ourselves and rejuvenating ourselves in whatever feels good to us.

So I send you all love.

I'm excited to come back in September with new content, new options, new ideas, announcements.

But for now I feel that rest is very much overdue.

So enjoy.

I hope you get sun.

I hope you get time out.

I hope you get a moment or several moments to recognize all that you've done over the past year as well and reflect and all that you've achieved and all the things that you have done.

I'm sure to advocate for this community as well.

And also just to let you know that if you are struggling for help and support over the summer, I want you to know that I have lots of workshops on my website.

I have created sort of new bundles of wherever you are in your journey.

So whether you are further along after a diagnosis or you're waiting for a diagnosis, or perhaps you are looking for some support with your health and your wellbeing, or maybe finding that purpose and that clarity in your career.

I've tried to create different packages for you of wherever you are in your journey so you can then help and support and empower and advocate for yourself.

So there's anything from hormones to anxiety to nutrition to understand gut health, understanding the overlap between ADHD and autism.

It's all there and I really hope that you have a look on the website and find something that works for you.

So head to adhd womenswellbeing.co.uk that's adhd womenswellbeing dot co.uk you'll find all the resources, workshops and lots of free content there as well.

Take care.

So take care and I will see you all very soon.