On the Secret Witch Show today our guest is Lucy Pearce. Lucy is the author of multiple life-changing non-fiction books, including Nautilus Award silver winners Medicine Woman, Burning Woman, and Creatrix. Her writing focuses on women’s healing through archetypal psychology, embodiment, historical awareness and creativity. An award-winning graduate in History of Ideas with English Literature from Kingston University, and a PGCE from Cambridge University, Lucy founded Womancraft Publishing, creating paradigm-shifting books by women for women, in 2014. The mother of three children, she lives in East Cork, Ireland   In this episode we explore how to reclaim the magic in our sensitivity - and in particular, neurodivergence.  We dive into what “neurodivergence” is, and means, and what signs might help sensitive souls illuminate that they are neuro-diverse - as well as why and how women who resonate with this label must meet their sensitive needs, rather than try to mask and fit into a culture that doesn’t suit them.  Most importantly, we shared our important worldview on how neurodivergence can actually be a gift - and especially a super-power that allows magical women to be powerful healers, teachers and guides.   What You’ll Learn from this Episode:   Highly sensitive women are often also ‘neurodivergent’ - a word which is commonly understood by labels such as autism, ADHD or things like dyslexia or dyscalculia - and mean that we have different from ‘typical’ brains Neurodivergence (ND) can show up in lots of different ways, but the main way it can present itself is having a sensitive nervous system that is over-primed - as well as feeling burned out, touched out and overwhelmed by our senses (we have a deep sensitivity to noise, scents, clothes on our skin, lights, electricity, and other things) The label of neurodivergence can be really helpful in aiding us to see that there’s actually nothing wrong with us as a sensitive soul - and that we are just wired differently, and struggling to fit into a world that wasn’t built for us; owning it this way can help us learn to navigate the world in an aligned way As sensitive women, and ND women, we must learn to honour and meet our own needs, so that we aren’t constantly overwhelmed and our nervous systems don’t reach meltdown.  As we do meet our needs, we can reclaim the gifts in our sensitivity And there are many gifts - creativity, brilliant minds, the capacity to spot patterns, entrepreneurial skills, deep passion for things, high empathy and sensitivity to other worlds (in other words, all the ‘clairs’ - e.g. clairvoyance), a capacity for lucid dreaming, a high importance for truthful expression, hyper-focus and a real affinity with nature It is common for these gifts to make sensitive souls excellent ‘healers’ - as long as we can reclaim the gifts in our sensitivity.   Resources and Things that We Spoke About:   Social: Tiktok - @archetypalapothecary Instagram - @iamnicolebarton Instagram - @archetypalapothecary You Tube - https://www.youtube.com/@secretwitchsociety Join our Secret Witch Society: www.facebook.com/groups/secretwitch  Next Crucible:  Website: www.nicolebarton.co.uk  Elain Aron - The Highly Sensitive Person - https://hsperson.com/books www.lucyhpearce.com - Lucy’s website  www.womancraftpublishing.com  - her newest books are Crow Moon: reclaiming the wisdom of the dark woods and The Kitchen Witch Companion, which she illustrated and co-authored with Sarah Robinson.  I am a Unicorn Blog - https://dreamingaloud.net/2019/02/i-am-a-unicorn/    Thank you for listening, we’d love to know what comes alive for you in this week’s episode, so please let us know.   If you loved it, there’s a fresh episode every other week - subscribe so you don’t miss it!   Thank you,   Nicole and Team Secret Witch xox