Category Archives: Blog

All my fellow neurodivergents out there, tell me if you relate to this. Sometimes, food just doesn’t sound good. No matter how hungry I am and no matter how weak my body feels, I cannot fathom the idea of consuming any food. Since I cannot decide what sounds good to eat, I get overwhelmed and decide not to eat at all, and I end up in this vicious cycle of feeling nauseous when I don’t eat but the idea of food also making me nauseous and it’s the worst.

A few months back, I learned about “safe foods”, and it has helped severely decrease the amount of anxiety that comes with choosing what to eat. Safe foods are the foods that you know you’re able to eat 100% of the time. They’re typically easy to make or access, and when all else fails you can turn to these foods.

The idea of safe foods has made my life a million times easier. I keep my safe foods in my apartment at all times so I know I’m always going to have something to eat, even if it’s unhealthy or just a small snack. This helps me avoid having dizzy spells and feeling weak and tired throughout the day.

In addition to my safe foods, I keep Ensure Nutrition Shakes in my apartment for the days where the simple act of eating is revolting. When all else fails, at least I can drink something that tastes like chocolate milk.

Everyone’s safe foods are going to be different, and your safe foods can change over time, but I highly recommend making a list of your personal safe foods and making sure they’re accessible to you at all times. It can spare you a lot of anxiety and help you function as the best version of yourself.

• Safe Foods
  For neurodivergents, eating isn’t always a simple task, but keeping a list of your safe foods can help remedy that.
• Why I Love My Sorority
  With my final sorority recruitment starting, I wanted to share the 6 things that make me love my sorority that I hope potential new members are excited for.
• 5 Nightly Habits to Wrap Up Your Day
  After years of feeling overwhelmed by responsibilities and working right up until my head hits the pillow, I decided enough is enough. I’ve implemented these 5 habits into my nightly routine to help me to de-stress and sleep better each night.
• 2022 Planner With Download
  A 2022 planner with a variety of pages and a link for download.
• 21 Things I Learned In 2021
  This year has been… well it’s been a year. That being said, this year taught me a lot about myself and the world around me, and I wanted to share 21 different lessons I learned in year 2021.
• Study Tips for Neurodivergents
  Having ADHD or another neurodivergency means your brain learns and processes information differently, so these are a few tips that I have found help me to study as someone who was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult.

I joined Alpha Xi Delta Women’s Fraternity during my freshman year of college, and I’m so thankful I did. Today is the first day of my last recruitment and I’m sad that I have so little time left with my sisters, but I’m simultaneously so excited to have a new group of sisters and to watch them fall as in love with the chapter as I have. Of course, that’s a bit sappy and emotional, so instead of focusing on the mushy stuff, I want to share the things that I have loved about being in AXiD and the Greek Community that girls interested in rushing or going through recruitment can look forward to.

01. My sorority is where I met my best friends

My college experience would not have been the same if I hadn’t joined a sorority. So many of my closest friends, including my roommates, are people I met because of AXiD and the bonds I’ve formed are ones that will last a lifetime.

02. You never have to sit alone in class again

Once I joined a sorority, gone were the days of not knowing where to sit during class. Almost every class I’ve had since joining has included one of my sisters. With over 100 people in the chapter, there’s bound to be people you’re not close with, but no matter how close you are, you can always count on being able to sit and talk to your sisters during classes. They’re built-in study buddies and group project partners.

03. CUTE. CLOTHES.

This is admittedly incredible superficial, but what can I say? I love all of the sweatshirts and t-shirts and hats and tote bags that we get throughout the year with our letters on them. It makes getting ready for class a breeze!

04. You have a whole house of sisters to support you

In addition to being a member of Alpha Xi Delta, I am also the executive director for Syracuse University’s Dance Marathon. The amount of support I receive from the chapter is incredible. Everyone registers and fundraises for the event and shows out to support me and the other girls involved in Dance Marathon from our chapter and I can never thank the girls in my chapter enough for their support.

05. You get to have a positive impact on the community

In a sorority, as a chapter you put on philanthropy events to fundraise for a variety of causes, depending on what chapter you’re in. We’ve also held food drives, feminine product drives, and volunteered around campus and around the community. It was important to me to get involved in something in college that helped give back to the community I’d be living in, and I definitely found that within my sorority.

06. You can enact positive change from within

It’s no secret that Greek life isn’t perfect. In fact, it’s far from it. However, there’s no opportunity to fix a broken system from the outside. During my time in Alpha Xi Delta, I’ve gotten the opportunity to take a variety of trainings on bias and racism on college campuses. We’ve been trained on how to be allies to marginalized communities as well as how to intervene in situations of sexual assault and how to support survivors.

Personally, the most positive change I’ve been able to be a part of was being a part of the group of women who advocated for the end of Alpha Xi Delta’s national partnership with Autism Speaks. For anyone unfamiliar with Autism Speaks, it is an organization that is widely un-supported by the autistic community. It was founded on a basis of finding a “cure” for autism, and it takes little input from autistic individuals. A lot of their messaging is harmful and they lack transparency about where donations go. Overall, it was not the greatest thing for us to be supporting them. We wrote letters and had open forums with leaders from our national headquarters, and thankfully, Alpha Xi Delta ended its partnership with Autism Speaks in 2021. Being a member of my sorority helped me to get involved in making this change, and it’s a legacy I’m proud to leave behind.

Overall, I’m so thankful for my sorority and I am sad to only have one semester left. To all the girls getting ready to go through recruitment, good luck, be yourself, and get excited for all that’s to come in the next few years.

• Safe Foods
  For neurodivergents, eating isn’t always a simple task, but keeping a list of your safe foods can help remedy that.
• Why I Love My Sorority
  With my final sorority recruitment starting, I wanted to share the 6 things that make me love my sorority that I hope potential new members are excited for.
• 5 Nightly Habits to Wrap Up Your Day
  After years of feeling overwhelmed by responsibilities and working right up until my head hits the pillow, I decided enough is enough. I’ve implemented these 5 habits into my nightly routine to help me to de-stress and sleep better each night.
• 2022 Planner With Download
  A 2022 planner with a variety of pages and a link for download.
• 21 Things I Learned In 2021
  This year has been… well it’s been a year. That being said, this year taught me a lot about myself and the world around me, and I wanted to share 21 different lessons I learned in year 2021.
• Study Tips for Neurodivergents
  Having ADHD or another neurodivergency means your brain learns and processes information differently, so these are a few tips that I have found help me to study as someone who was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult.

Between school, social life, extra-curricular activities, etc., it can be really freaking difficult to find balance in my life. I find myself constantly overwhelmed and working right up until my head hits the pillow each night.

Last semester, I decided I’d had enough. I was constantly exhausted by everything I had to do, and since I never wound down before bed, I wasn’t sleeping great on top of it all. I ultimately decided that I needed a nighttime routine that helped me unwind, but didn’t take a monstrous amount of time, so I could try to still go to bed at a reasonable time. I came up with 5 habits that I aim to do every night (or at least every school night) that help me de-stress, sleep better, and feel more refreshed each morning.

1. Clean up for 5-10 minutes
2. Fill water bottle before bed
3. Moisturize!
4. Update to-do list for tomorrow
5. Journal

CLEAN UP FOR 5-10 MINUTES

Cleaning is a daunting task for me personally. I get overwhelmed thinking about how much there is to do and my executive dysfunction takes over and nothing gets done. To combat this, I have found that the best approach is to start my nighttime routine by setting a timer for 5-10 minutes (depending on how late it is) and I clean my room until the timer goes off.

It’s typically the perfect amount of time to take any dishes downstairs, pick up my laundry, and clear off anything that’s piled up on my bed and desk. This small chunk of time each day ends up making a huge difference throughout the week, because the remaining cleaning tasks are less intimidating. Then I can focus on things like vacuuming and dusting throughout the week without having to set aside several hours in a day to clean my room.

FILL WATER BOTTLE BEFORE BED

Before bed, I always take one last trip downstairs to refill my water bottle and refill the Brita. This started because I usually just need some water to take my nighttime medications with, but it’s ended up serving so many more purposes than just that.

I firmly believe that one of the worst feelings in the world is when you wake up in the middle of the night feeling like Spongebob in Sandy’s house and then having nothing to quench your thirst. If you fill your water bottle before you go to bed, you’ll never face this problem again. Not to mention, I typically save a little bit of water so I can take my morning medications right when I wake up, and because of that, I never forget to take them anymore! This one small action, solves so many of life’s smallest and yet most annoying problems.

MOISTURIZE!

Especially during the harsh winter months, it is so important to keep your skin moisturized. I typically use SkinMedica on my face and Hempz Blushing Grapefruit and Raspberry Creme Body Moisturizer on my body. This prevents my skin from getting cracked and chapped, and while the face lotion doesn’t smell like anything, the body moisturizer smells delicious!

UPDATE TO-DO LIST

The beauty of your personal to-do list is that it’s personal to you and you can edit it however you see fit. Every night, I look at my to-do list from that day and figure out what I didn’t get done that day. I reassign it for a later time in the week and set my priorities for the next day. This helps me visualize and mentally prepare for the next day. It also helps me to keep realistic expectations for myself, because if I plan too much one day, then I know to adjust for the next day.

It’s important to remember a to-do list is a tool; it’s not an end-all-be-all list of things that have to be done before you allow yourself to relax for the day. It’s a tool that can require practice. I know when I first started keeping daily to-do lists, it overwhelmed me if I didn’t finish everything. However, with practice and adaptability, updating my to-do list has become an integral part of my nightly routine.

JOURNAL

One of my resolutions in 2022 has been to journal more, therefore it’s been the newest addition of my nighttime routine. It’s been a great way for me to reflect on my day and process any emotions I’m experiencing. Sometimes I write in a narrative format, sometimes I just make bulleted lists of things I did and feelings I experienced throughout the day, and sometimes I just draw something to represent how that day went. Having flexibility in my formatting has made journaling a more enjoyable experience and has helped me to maintain this resolution several weeks into the new year.

SO IN CONCLUSION…

So in conclusion, implementing these five habits as a nightly routine has had an incredibly positive impact on my life. I now have structure to my night and a decent amount of time to relax my brain before jumping under the covers. If you use or implement any of these habits in your own life, let me know how it goes! Hopefully it does for you what it’s done for me and helps you de-stress and sleep better.

• Safe Foods
  For neurodivergents, eating isn’t always a simple task, but keeping a list of your safe foods can help remedy that.
• Why I Love My Sorority
  With my final sorority recruitment starting, I wanted to share the 6 things that make me love my sorority that I hope potential new members are excited for.
• 5 Nightly Habits to Wrap Up Your Day
  After years of feeling overwhelmed by responsibilities and working right up until my head hits the pillow, I decided enough is enough. I’ve implemented these 5 habits into my nightly routine to help me to de-stress and sleep better each night.
• 2022 Planner With Download
  A 2022 planner with a variety of pages and a link for download.
• 21 Things I Learned In 2021
  This year has been… well it’s been a year. That being said, this year taught me a lot about myself and the world around me, and I wanted to share 21 different lessons I learned in year 2021.
• Study Tips for Neurodivergents
  Having ADHD or another neurodivergency means your brain learns and processes information differently, so these are a few tips that I have found help me to study as someone who was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult.

I created this neutral aesthetic planner for 2022 which includes a yearly calendar, class schedule pages, monthly calendars, habit trackers, weekly planning sheets, monthly reviews, and daily planning sheets. The daily planning sheets include due and to do lists, daily schedule, and sections for gratitude, tracking water intake, and notes. It was created to be imported to GoodNotes 5, but can be used however each individual sees fit.

• Safe Foods
  For neurodivergents, eating isn’t always a simple task, but keeping a list of your safe foods can help remedy that.
• Why I Love My Sorority
  With my final sorority recruitment starting, I wanted to share the 6 things that make me love my sorority that I hope potential new members are excited for.
• 5 Nightly Habits to Wrap Up Your Day
  After years of feeling overwhelmed by responsibilities and working right up until my head hits the pillow, I decided enough is enough. I’ve implemented these 5 habits into my nightly routine to help me to de-stress and sleep better each night.
• 2022 Planner With Download
  A 2022 planner with a variety of pages and a link for download.
• 21 Things I Learned In 2021
  This year has been… well it’s been a year. That being said, this year taught me a lot about myself and the world around me, and I wanted to share 21 different lessons I learned in year 2021.
• Study Tips for Neurodivergents
  Having ADHD or another neurodivergency means your brain learns and processes information differently, so these are a few tips that I have found help me to study as someone who was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult.

This year has been… well it’s been a year. That being said, this year taught me a lot about myself and the world around me, and I wanted to share 21 different lessons I learned in year 2021.

1. Not everyone is meant to be in your life forever
2. Pain is temporary, but it’s still okay to acknowledge when something hurts
3. Vulnerability is not a weakness
4. People will always reveal their true colors
5. The universe has a plan that we might not understand and we have to accept that and enjoy the ride
6. You should never be afraid to ask questions
7. You have to be okay with embarrassing yourself sometimes
8. People are rarely going to live up to your expectations
9. It’s okay to demand the respect you deserve
10. Being alone is not only okay, but it can help you grow tremendously
11. Peaking in college is just as bad as peaking in high school
12. No one is going to make you happy but you
13. If you’re scared to do things because your friends might judge you, you might need better friends
14. Keep your expectations low and let yourself be pleasantly surprised
15. You shouldn’t force yourself to do things that make you unhappy just because it’s what you think you’re supposed to do
16. You can’t do everything on your own and that’s okay
17. You can’t convince people to care about you
18. Clothes aren’t meant to fit you. You are not meant to fit clothes.
19. There’s ways to dress cute without compromising comfort and causing sensory overload
20. My parents were right; we have food at home
21. The world was not built for neurodivergent brains and life gets easier when you acknowledge that and start finding ways to make adjustments

Some of these things may seem simple, but they’re the things that most stuck out to me when I reflected on this year as a whole.

• Safe Foods
  For neurodivergents, eating isn’t always a simple task, but keeping a list of your safe foods can help remedy that.
• Why I Love My Sorority
  With my final sorority recruitment starting, I wanted to share the 6 things that make me love my sorority that I hope potential new members are excited for.
• 5 Nightly Habits to Wrap Up Your Day
  After years of feeling overwhelmed by responsibilities and working right up until my head hits the pillow, I decided enough is enough. I’ve implemented these 5 habits into my nightly routine to help me to de-stress and sleep better each night.
• 2022 Planner With Download
  A 2022 planner with a variety of pages and a link for download.
• 21 Things I Learned In 2021
  This year has been… well it’s been a year. That being said, this year taught me a lot about myself and the world around me, and I wanted to share 21 different lessons I learned in year 2021.
• Study Tips for Neurodivergents
  Having ADHD or another neurodivergency means your brain learns and processes information differently, so these are a few tips that I have found help me to study as someone who was diagnosed with ADHD as an adult.

In January of 2019 I was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Prior to this point, I knew how to do my work and it was on-time for the most part, but I didn’t know how to study. No matter how hard I tried, I struggled to sit down and study any material for a better understanding.

This diagnosis ended up being so beneficial because it completely changed the way I study. Traditional study methods often don’t work for people with ADHD and other neurodivergencies, and my diagnosis helped me to find study tips that work for me. Now I want to share some of those same tips in hopes of helping another student like me who finds out they have ADHD as an adult.

1. Keep a “due” and a “to do” list to help you keep track of all your final projects. It’s especially helpful if you break down your assignments into simpler steps that you can keep track of with your “to do” list. I typically plan about a week or a week and a half in advance to make sure I’m on track with all my assignments.
2. It’s okay to not take a break. There’s nothing wrong with taking a break, but people with ADHD tend to get hyper-focused on a topic so it becomes difficult to stop and start every 25 minutes. That being said, if your body is telling you that you need a break, then take a break. Don’t let yourself skip meals or other obligations because you’re too hyper-focused on studying.
3. Find the study environment that works best for you. If I had a dollar for every time someone told me it’s not good to study or do work in your bed, I’d be a millionaire. However, I don’t care what others say, because that’s the study environment that works best for me. It’s important to find a space where you feel comfortable and where you won’t be distracted.
4. Develop a routine. If you plan your studying routine, you can over time start to train your brain that that is focusing time.
5. Physically write your notes instead of typing them. Hand writing things helps increase your retention and memory.
6. Remember that your brain works and processes information differently. If you’re looking for study tips and none of them seem to be working, don’t give up. There’s something that will work for everyone, it just might take a little longer for some people to find.