Inside the Pickle Jar: Connecting with the Spectrum

NeuroWell (Applying Brain Science to Build Safe, Supportive, and Proactive Schools)

In this second half of the conversation, Lisa Riegel continues the discussion on how our brains shape the way we learn and behave. She talks more about her book NeuroWell and reminds us that every child and every grown‑up, too, carries a whole world inside their mind. When we understand a little more about how the brain works, it becomes easier to see behavior not as “good” or “bad,” but as communication.

Lisa helps us notice how much context matters. A child’s actions often make perfect sense when we understand what their brain is trying to manage. Sometimes, misunderstandings about the brain can make teaching harder than it needs to be, so she encourages us to prepare educators with the science that helps them see children with compassion and clarity.

She also talks about creating school communities where everyone feels supported...teachers, students, and families alike. Big changes don’t have to happen all at once; even tiny steps can lead to something wonderful. And when we walk together, especially with our neurodivergent neighbors, those steps feel a little lighter.

Lisa offers simple, practical ways educators can build classrooms where every child’s nervous system feels welcome, understood, and safe. It’s a gentle reminder that when we care for the whole child, we help them grow into who they’re meant to be.

✨You can find Lisa connections here:

www.lisariegel.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisariegel/

www.epinstitute.net 

Lisa's author page

JAKAPA About Us | JAKAPA

Connect with Me:

🥒 Grab something from the shop: https://shop.insidethepicklejar.com 

📬 Get "4 Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain" (free): https://www.insidethepicklejar.com 

💌 Join the Pen Pal Club: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com/the-jar/ 

🕸️ Website: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com & https://www.risingtidecoaching.org 

🚇 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach 

📸 Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach 

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606 

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver

Be gentle with yourself, pickle friend. I'll see you next time inside the jar. 💚

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NeuroWell (Applying Brain Science to Build Safe, Supportive, and Proactive Schools)

In this first half of the conversation, Lisa Riegel invites us to slow down and take a kind look at how our brains shape the way we learn and behave. She talks about her book NeuroWell and reminds us that every child and every grown‑up, too, carries a whole world inside their mind. When we understand a little more about how the brain works, it becomes easier to see behavior not as “good” or “bad,” but as communication.

Lisa helps us notice how much context matters. A child’s actions often make perfect sense when we understand what their brain is trying to manage. Sometimes, misunderstandings about the brain can make teaching harder than it needs to be, so she encourages us to prepare educators with the science that helps them see children with compassion and clarity.

She also talks about creating school communities where everyone feels supported...teachers, students, and families alike. Big changes don’t have to happen all at once; even tiny steps can lead to something wonderful. And when we walk together, especially with our neurodivergent neighbors, those steps feel a little lighter.

Lisa offers simple, practical ways educators can build classrooms where every child’s nervous system feels welcome, understood, and safe. It’s a gentle reminder that when we care for the whole child, we help them grow into who they’re meant to be.

✨You can find Lisa connections here:

www.lisariegel.com

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisariegel/

www.epinstitute.net 

Lisa's author page

Connect with Me:

🥒 Grab something from the shop: https://shop.insidethepicklejar.com 

📬 Get "4 Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain" (free): https://www.insidethepicklejar.com 

💌 Join the Pen Pal Club: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com/the-jar/ 

🕸️ Website: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com & https://www.risingtidecoaching.org 

🚇 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach 

📸 Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach 

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606 

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver

Be gentle with yourself, pickle friend. I'll see you next time inside the jar. 💚

Enjoyed the episode?
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🌿 Summary

In this episode, I wander into the heart of radical self‑acceptance and what it really means to love myself on purpose. I talk about the “pickle jar” as a way to understand how I’ve been shaped, and sometimes trapped, by expectations that were never designed for my particular wiring.

I explore how shadow work helps me meet the parts of myself I once hid away, not to fix them, but to understand them. I share the small, doable steps that have helped me begin this journey, especially as a neurodivergent human learning to celebrate my own flavor. I also read a portion of the book Love by Leo Buscaglia, a childhood favorite author (I explain why and you might relate). My hope is that listeners feel invited to soften toward themselves, to honor their uniqueness, and to remember that self‑acceptance is something we practice, not something we perfect.

🧡 Takeaways 

• Radical self‑acceptance is something I choose...an active, loving decision I make about myself.
• I can’t offer others what I haven’t learned to give myself.
• Understanding what makes me unique helps me feel more at home in my own life.
• Shadow work helps me explore the parts of myself I’ve tucked away.
• Naming my patterns without judgment is the first step toward accepting them.
• Journaling helps me notice my emotional rhythms and truths.
• Small moments of authenticity help me build trust with myself.
• Celebrating tiny victories nourishes my sense of self‑worth.
• My neurodivergence is a meaningful part of who I am, not a flaw.
• Radical self‑acceptance is a practice I return to again and again.

Connect with Me:

🥒 Grab something from the shop: https://shop.insidethepicklejar.com 

📬 Get "4 Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain" (free): https://www.insidethepicklejar.com 

💌 Join the Pen Pal Club: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com/the-jar/ 

🕸️ Website: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com & https://www.risingtidecoaching.org 

🚇 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach 

📸 Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach 

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606 

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver

Be gentle with yourself, pickle friend. I'll see you next time inside the jar. 💚

Enjoyed the episode?
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🥒In this episode of Inside the Pickle Jar, I come back to the second part of our conversation about shadow work. It’s a tender kind of inner exploration, inspired by the ideas of Carl Jung. In the last episode, I talked about how easy it is for any of us to get tangled up in our own thoughts — especially when we’re carrying old beliefs or wearing a persona we think the world expects from us.

🌟Today, I take your hand a little more gently and walk with you through some of the ways we can meet those hidden parts of ourselves. I talk about simple, comforting practices — like journaling, pausing to visualize what we’re feeling, and giving ourselves permission to be curious instead of afraid. These are small steps, but they help us turn toward our shadows instead of away from them.

💚My hope is that, as you listen, you’ll feel encouraged to challenge the beliefs that have been holding you back and to welcome every part of who you are. Because when we do that, when we let all our pieces come home, we grow into more authentic, wholehearted versions of ourselves. And that’s such a lovely thing to witness.

Visit my Patreon to join our community of neurodivergent souls: https://www.patreon.com/InsideThePickleJar

🥒Connect with Tonya:

🕸️Website - http://www.risingtidecoaching.org

👏Patreon - https://www.Patreon.com/InsideThePickleJar

📣Etsy - https://www.etsy.com/InsidethePickleJar

🔗 LinkedIn ~ www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver/

🚇https://www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach

Support the show

In this episode of Inside the Pickle Jar, I take a quiet little walk into something called shadow work. It’s a tender kind of inner exploration, inspired by the ideas of Carl Jung. I talk about how easy it is for any of us to get stuck inside our own heads especially when we’re carrying old beliefs about who we’re supposed to be, or when we’re wearing a “just‑fine” mask for the world.

I share how each of us has a shadow self... those feelings, memories, and traits we’ve tucked away because they felt too big, too loud, or too confusing at the time. And just like a neighbor who’s been waiting patiently on the porch, that shadow part of us is always hoping we’ll open the door and say, “I see you. You matter too.”

Together, we explore how understanding these hidden parts can help us grow into kinder, more authentic versions of ourselves. It’s gentle work. Brave work. And it’s something we don’t have to do alone.

Takeaways — 

• Shadow work is a way of turning toward the feelings we’ve tucked away.
• The persona, that social mask we wear, can sometimes keep us from being our truest selves.
• Learning about the ego helps us understand why we react the way we do.
• Being authentic means welcoming every part of who we are, even the parts we’re still getting to know.
• Many of our inner conflicts come from the tug‑of‑war between who we think we should be and who we really are.
• Shadow work invites us to gently integrate those forgotten or hidden traits so we can feel more whole.

Connect with Me:

🥒 Grab something from the shop: https://shop.insidethepicklejar.com 

📬 Get "4 Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain" (free): https://www.insidethepicklejar.com 

💌 Join the Pen Pal Club: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com/the-jar/ 

🕸️ Website: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com & https://www.risingtidecoaching.org 

🚇 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach 

📸 Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach 

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606 

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver

Be gentle with yourself, pickle friend. I'll see you next time inside the jar. 💚

Enjoyed the episode?
Help us grow by leaving a review on your favorite podcast app! Your support helps us reach more listeners in the neurodivergent community.

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🥒In this episode, I wander into the twisty bramble of procrastination. Not as a flaw to fix or a sign that we're “bad at time,” but as a deeply human, deeply neurodivergent (and sometimes neurotypical) experience. I peel back the layers and show how procrastination has never really been about calendars or willpower. It’s about emotions, safety, and the way our uniquely wired brain responds to stress, pressure, and the promise of reward. 

🥒I'll explain the backstage of the mind, where the limbic system and prefrontal cortex negotiate like two travelers trying to share the same map. Sometimes the emotional brain grabs the wheel. Sometimes the planning brain mutters from the backseat. And sometimes… everything just goes still. 

🥒With a blend of science, kindness, and some storytelling, I share the strategies we can use that help unstick ourselves, breaking things into tiny, workable steps, shaping environments that feel like focused landings, and acknowledging the emotional waves underneath the delay. 🥒It’s not about forcing ourselves into productivity. It’s about understanding our wiring, honoring our nervous systems, and finding our way back to forward motion with kindness instead of shame. 

Check out the cool links below: 

https://www.sciencenewstoday.org/why-we-procrastinate-a-neuroscientific-view https://insightspsychology.org/the-neuroscience-of-procrastination/ https://scitechdaily.com/the-science-of-procrastination-a-neuroscientists-guide-to-getting-things-done/ https://scienceofmind.org/is-procrastination-harmful/ https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/why-wait-the-science-behind-procrastination

Connect with Me:

🥒 Grab something from the shop: https://shop.insidethepicklejar.com 

📬 Get "4 Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain" (free): https://www.insidethepicklejar.com 

💌 Join the Pen Pal Club: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com/the-jar/ 

🕸️ Website: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com & https://www.risingtidecoaching.org 

🚇 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach 

📸 Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach 

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606 

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver

Be gentle with yourself, pickle friend. I'll see you next time inside the jar. 💚

Enjoyed the episode?
Help us grow by leaving a review on your favorite podcast app! Your support helps us reach more listeners in the neurodivergent community.

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🥒Hello Pickle friends… In this episode, I invite you to rethink executive function. It's an issue that so many neurodivergent hearts quietly wrestle with... overwhelm, procrastination, restless nights, and feeling 'other'. I speak to these struggles offering compassion instead of criticism.

💚So, I encourage you, dear listener, to build gentle structures that feel like easy scaffolding or a framework rather than forcing a square peg in a round hold, and to move through change in micro‑steps. Micro-steps that are small enough to not rattle your nervous system but powerful enough to shift a life. Self‑trust is a kind of inner leadership, grown slowly through tiny promises kept.

💚I'm calling you to community: a circle of humans who hold one another with warmth, accountability, and encouragement. A place where no one has to pretend to be more put‑together than they are, and where every small victory is honored.

Visit my Patreon to join our community of neurodivergent souls: https://www.patreon.com/InsideThePickleJar

Connect with Me:

🥒 Grab something from the shop: https://shop.insidethepicklejar.com 

📬 Get "4 Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain" (free): https://www.insidethepicklejar.com 

💌 Join the Pen Pal Club: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com/the-jar/ 

🕸️ Website: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com & https://www.risingtidecoaching.org 

🚇 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach 

📸 Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach 

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606 

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver

Be gentle with yourself, pickle friend. I'll see you next time inside the jar. 💚

Enjoyed the episode?
Help us grow by leaving a review on your favorite podcast app! Your support helps us reach more listeners in the neurodivergent community.

Follow Inside the Pickle Jar for more stories, advice, and resources tailored for the neurodivergent journey.

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🥒Hello friends… in this episode, I wander into the tender, tangled world of productivity apps through a neurodivergent lens...the hope they spark, the overwhelm they stir up, and the quiet shame that can settle in when the systems we’re “supposed” to use end up using us instead.

💚I’ve been moving through my own inner turmoil with these apps. Sometimes bright optimism on occasion and then a little overwhelm in the other. I'm trying to make sense of why some apps feel like gentle companions while others feel like tiny digital judges wagging their finger at me. Finch feels like a soft friend who celebrates every small win; Duolingo… well, some days it feels more like a mean teacher with opinions.

💚I know there is a deeper truth: our brains aren’t meant to be disciplined into submission. They’re meant to be supported and met with compassion. Community matters. Emotional validation matters. Tools that honor our nervous systems rather than scold them matter more than we’re often taught to admit.

💚So, wherever you are in your own season and you’re trying again or shutting down or starting over or simply catching your breath, I’m wishing you gentleness. May you find a tool, a practice, a moment that feels helpful and supportive. 

💚Thanks for listening, subscribing, sharing ... Tonya 🤗

Visit my Patreon to join our community of neurodivergent souls: https://www.patreon.com/InsideThePickleJar

Connect with Me:

🥒 Grab something from the shop: https://shop.insidethepicklejar.com 

📬 Get "4 Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain" (free): https://www.insidethepicklejar.com 

💌 Join the Pen Pal Club: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com/the-jar/ 

🕸️ Website: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com & https://www.risingtidecoaching.org 

🚇 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach 

📸 Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach 

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606 

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver

Be gentle with yourself, pickle friend. I'll see you next time inside the jar. 💚

Enjoyed the episode?
Help us grow by leaving a review on your favorite podcast app! Your support helps us reach more listeners in the neurodivergent community.

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I'm taking a risk here because some of the words used in Transactional Analysis could be twisted to mean something else BUT I think the principles are worth the risk. In this episode, I explore the concepts of Transactional Analysis through the 1970s book "TA for Kids". I focus on the three parts of the self: Parent, Adult, and Child. I also discuss the importance of understanding these aspects for neurodivergent individuals and how they affect interpersonal relationships. I'm trying to convene the significance of 'warm fuzzies' and 'cold pricklies' as forms of emotional exchanges and emphasize the need for positive strokes in our lives. I also provide some practical exercises to enhance emotional connections and improve relationships. I hope you find this helpful as you navigate relationships and can get a feeling of how to relate to others.

Visit my Patreon to join our community of neurodivergent souls: https://www.patreon.com/InsideThePickleJar

Connect with Me:

🥒 Grab something from the shop: https://shop.insidethepicklejar.com 

📬 Get "4 Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain" (free): https://www.insidethepicklejar.com 

💌 Join the Pen Pal Club: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com/the-jar/ 

🕸️ Website: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com & https://www.risingtidecoaching.org 

🚇 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach 

📸 Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach 

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606 

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver

Be gentle with yourself, pickle friend. I'll see you next time inside the jar. 💚

Enjoyed the episode?
Help us grow by leaving a review on your favorite podcast app! Your support helps us reach more listeners in the neurodivergent community.

Follow Inside the Pickle Jar for more stories, advice, and resources tailored for the neurodivergent journey.

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Support the show

🥒 Have you ever felt anxiety as a quiet storm swirling beneath your calm? In this episode, I invite you into my own journey with anxiety, unfolding gentle ways to navigate its waves. I try to carefully explore anxiety not as an enemy, but as a natural rhythm of the body, offering practical tools like breath work and movement to soothe the spirit along with neuroscientist, Wendy Suzuki. I talk through the science of the nervous system and hopefully shine a light on the parasympathetic pathways that lead us into relaxation and emotional balance. I hope you see these as heartfelt insights on weaving these practices into everyday life, crafting a sanctuary of mental wellness and gentle strength.

Please visit (or revisit) my other podcasts on this subject: 'Pause Practice' and 'Observe Your Feelings, Not Your Emotions'.

Visit my Patreon to join our community of neurodivergent souls: https://www.patreon.com/InsideThePickleJar

Connect with Me:

🥒 Grab something from the shop: https://shop.insidethepicklejar.com 

📬 Get "4 Things I Need the People in My Life to Know About My Brain" (free): https://www.insidethepicklejar.com 

💌 Join the Pen Pal Club: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com/the-jar/ 

🕸️ Website: https://www.insidethepicklejar.com & https://www.risingtidecoaching.org 

🚇 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TonyaWeaverCoach 

📸 Instagram: https://www.Instagram.com/tonya_weaver_coach 

🎵 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/tonyaweaver606 

💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tmweaver

Be gentle with yourself, pickle friend. I'll see you next time inside the jar. 💚

Enjoyed the episode?
Help us grow by leaving a review on your favorite podcast app! Your support helps us reach more listeners in the neurodivergent community.

Follow Inside the Pickle Jar for more stories, advice, and resources tailored for the neurodivergent journey.

Support the show

Support the show