What is neurodiversity-affirming yoga?

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'Neurodiversity-affirming yoga is an approach to yoga that understands we are all having our own experience, unique to ourselves'. - Amy Nairne

I always knew that I was different to my peers, after being diagnosed with PTSD in 2015 as a teenager, which was then later confirmed to be C-PTSD, my differences increased ten fold, but even with that diagnosis something about myself still felt significantly different. That was until I received my autism diagnosis in 2022 and everything clicked into place.

Trying to find my place in both the world and the yoga community was difficult to say the least! That's when I learnt about neurodiversity and my whole life changed for the better.

What is Neurodiversity?

Neurodivergent is an umbrella term used to describe anyone with a brain and nervous system that significantly diverges from the norm due to genetics (innate neurodivergence) and/or through lived experiences (acquired neurodivergence). 'Neurodivergent' is often used as a social label by those who have (or self identify) with clinical diagnoses such as Autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, P.T.S.D, psychosis, other mental health conditions etc.

Both the language and concept of neurodiversity came from the collective efforts within the online autistic community in the 1990s (Reference- Botha et al 2024). Neurodiversity includes all of humanity and describes the differences in the way each individual experiences the world including how we sense, think, learn, focus, remember, communicate, move, feel and love.  Neurodiversity is the recognition and acceptance that each person has a unique brain, body and nervous system. 

The Neurodiversity Movement is a social justice movement that seeks civil rights, equality, respect and full societal inclusion for neurodivergent people (Walker 2022). Neurodivergent folks don’t need to be fixed, rather we need to be accepted and supported.

Understanding Neurodiversity-affirming practices

Neurodiversity-Affirming is an approach or environment in which neurodivergence is accepted & celebrated. Differences are valued over conformity, needs are supported and strength based language replaces pathologizing (treating someone as psychologically abnormal) and deficit-based language.

Some examples of non neurodiversity-affirming practices include:

• Associating low empathy with a lack of compassion or inability to care

• Generalising all people diagnosed with personality disorders as abusive or bad

• Deciding what well-being looks like for an individual

• Using 'narcissistic' as a synonym for abusive

Neurodiversity-affirming yoga

Every human is having their own unique experience in the world, neurodiversity-affirming yoga recognises these differences, it understands that we all have our own experience with practicing yoga. For example, the way that we; experience a practice, a posture, a cue from a teacher, choose to show up, choose to move our body and communicate etc. What works for one person may not work for another and the neurodiversity-affirming approach to yoga supports and uplifts this idea.

Neurodiversity-affirming yoga spaces and teachers embrace and accept differences, they welcome any marginalised person into the space and encourage agency of choice over how that student will practice or experience yoga.

If neurodiversity-affirming is about expressing your belief and dedication to neurodiversity and the variety of ways that we can exist and function as humans. Than neurodiversity-affirming yoga is about understanding and expressing the ways we each experience yoga differently due to neurodiversity.

How to teach neurodiversity-affirming yoga

It's not enough to simply say "I'm neurodiversity-affirming" or "I welcome neurodivergent people into my class" if you don't then take the continual steps to learning about neurodiversity and your neurodivergent students.

Here are some other topics you need to research up on if you want to be truly neurodiversity-affirming:

• LGBTQIA+ equity, understanding and support

• The body positive movement

• The mad community

• Hypermobility, connective tissue disorders and

  other health conditions linked to neurodiversity

• Accessible yoga

• Trauma-informed yoga

• BIPOC rights and support

You may be reading these thinking 'but what do these even have to do with neurodiversity-affirming yoga?'

Many of those within the neurodivergent community are LGBTQIA+, live in larger bodies or have an ED, identify as mad, have health conditions linked to their neurodivergence, are disabled, have trauma and may be marginalised due to being BIPOC.

Like I said before its not enough to simply say I am neurodiversity-affirming, you have to take the steps to truly support EVERY neurodivergent person, not only those that are just autistic or have ADHD.

Learning from teachers like Becky Aten from 'Yoga for Neurodiversity' for example, is so important!

“So many neurodivergent folks have gone through life, either consciously or unconsciously, hiding their differences as a self-protective mechanism for survival against abuse and discrimination,” Becky says. “When we get into a space where differences are being celebrated over conformity, it allows people to unmask, be more authentic, and feel a sense of belonging without having to hide their differences.”

4 ways to practice and teach neurodiversity-affirming yoga

Movement vs stillness

Understanding that stillness looks different for each person, for example for those that may be autistic or have ADHD it may be really difficult to stay still or stillness may look like movement. Giving cues like 'Come into stillness, whatever that looks like for you', 'if you need to move, fidget or stim you can' or 'let your body move how it wants to and if you don't know what that looks like, that's okay'. Letting people show up differently, move their body, make noises and be neurodivergent is vital to ensuring you and the people you may be teaching feel accepted.

Universal accessibility

Focusing on promoting and learning about accessibility is essential, one example of this can be giving many communication options from letting students be completely non-verbal in class, to giving people the option to stay muted and have cameras off on online classes. The yoga studio Zenly in Sydney Australia has perfect examples of accessibility within yoga studios, with no speaking today stickers, quiet corners and stim toys on hand for anyone in need. Focusing on learning about universal accessibility will help you not only in your own practice, but help you be truly inclusive in teaching your students.

Flexible expectations + Diverse experiences

How yoga is taught and experienced is all informed by our nervous system, so allowing for diverse responses to yoga and flexible expectations is incredibly important. Many neurodivergent people (for example those with Autism and ADHD) may have interoception, proprioception challenges or experience alexithymia. Our bodies and minds may not work in sync so it can be difficult sometimes to identify and express the way we feel.

Give space for each person to experience what they feel differently. Giving cues that don't tell the person how they should be feeling can be really helpful. For example, 'Check how your feeling, you may feel nothing at all or really struggle to identify how you feel and that is okay' or 'Scan over your body, this may be really difficult to do and you may not notice anything, that is completely normal.' I like to give options for example in body scans meditations for people to physically hold an area of their body to help them feel into the sensation or to tighten their muscles to help release them to help with the disconnection of the felt sense.

A practice may not work for that person or they may find it difficult and this is why having flexible expectations is a game changer, it's okay if someone wants to just sit back and watch or even do their own thing alongside as a form of parallel play/body doubling.

Touch consent

Some people who are neurodivergent can have touch aversion or may have experienced trauma. Consent is a must have in a neurodiversity-affirming yoga class. Also giving people different options for how they consent, for example for those that may be non-verbal or struggle to communicate, giving stickers or consenting place mats for them to put by their yoga mat with yes or no on them is crucial. Also the option of letting students change consent at any point throughout the class should be given.

Disclaimer:

It's important to note that some adjustments/options may work better for some students than others, so if you want to teach students with specific conditions its best to take a specialised training to work with these people. Yotism does a specialist training course for teaching autistic people.

Neurodiversity-affirming yoga is beneficial for everyone

Many people think there's no point in them learning about neurodiversity and that it's too much effort to cater to each student when teaching to a large group. But in reality the entire of humanity is diverse and neurodiversity encompasses each and every human being. So understanding this, we can see that a neurodiversity-affirming approach to yoga can benefit every single person we come into contact with.

Vishnudevananda Saraswati, a famous yoga master used to say that spiritual life was about seeing the "unity in diversity". This means being able to see that we are all connected and at the same time completely different, and that is a part of yoga.

Yoga is not just for the athletic, slim, white, neurotypical, perfectly able woman. Yoga philosophy actually shuns this idea and sees the idea that we are all interconnected. In yoga philosophy the purusha (consciousness) that controls matter (prakriti) takes form in everything in life we know, so it is varied and ever changing. We are each different but also one in the same. The philosophy of 'Unity of Diversity' offers a means to honour different perspectives, interests, cultures, religions, habits, values and life forms by honouring the unifying divine essence which gives life to all beings.

Yoga is for everyone but through the westernisation of yoga we have lost this perspective and as a result neurodivergent people are finding it hard to navigate the yoga community. That's why its more important then ever to learn about neurodiversity and accessibility, to lift up the voices of those that may be marginalised in the yoga community and the wider world. Neurodivergent people deserve to access the support they need through yoga and deserve to have spaces where they can practice and teach comfortably, that works for them.

Getting to know your students individually and understanding the ways in which we’re each different will help make it easier to recognize opportunities, to celebrate our differences and help people feel seen and supported. Not only in yoga but in the world at large.

Want to learn more about the Neurodiversity-affirming approach to yoga?

Then try my low cost 60-minute on-demand class 'Understanding the Neurodiversity-affirming approach to yoga'

What's included?

• Discussion over the fundamentals of a neurodiversity-affirming approach to yoga

• Learn accessible adaptations to poses (chair yoga friendly)

• Includes Neurodiversity-affirming practices

Try it here!