Scenic Route — Mindset, Society & Mental Health for Tired Perfectionists

Weekly Affirmation – Rest

Exhale. TGIF This weekly affirmation is for you if you've been told that you need a five-year plan when you can barely figure out what you want for lunch.This week's affirmation:"I release the belief that I have to earn my rest."New Soft Landings every Friday. Save this. Share it. Come back to it when you need the reminder. 🤍About Soft Landings:Every Friday on The Scenic Route, one grounded affirmation to help you rest, reset, and remember you're way back home to yourself.Send me a DMSupport the show_____________________________________________________________________ Visit jenniferwalter.me – your cosy tree house where tired perfectionists and those done pretending to be fine find space to breathe, dream, and create real change. 💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION Follow on Instagram Follow on TikTok Follow on Threads 🔮 DAILY DOSE OF CHILL The Scenic Route Affirmation Card Deck is your online invitation to trust your inner voice again. What does your card say? Share it with me! 👉 Pull Your Free Card ⭐ LOVE THE SHOW?If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating and review. It helps other women find their way to the Scenic Route.

ADHD Superpower? Gifts, Capitalism, and Who Really Benefits

"Everyone has ADHD now."You've heard it. Maybe someone said it to you — with a half-joke, half-accusation edge. Like, neurodivergence is just the trend of the season.But what if that reaction tells us less about ADHD and more about the systems we're living in?In this conversation with Kristina Kyser — psychotherapist, educator, and creator of the Neurodivergent Rising course — we pull apart the "ADHD superpower" narrative that's everywhere right now. Because yes, there are gifts: innovation, nonlinear thinking, deep passion, hyperfocus. Those are real.But who benefits when we only talk about the parts of capitalism that it can extract?What We Cover:ADHD masking: the invisible labour of appearing "normal" From childhood, neurodivergent people — especially women — calibrate to a world that says: you're too much, you're wrong, you're different. Kristina breaks down what masking costs and why perimenopause often unmasks ADHD in midlife.The construction of "sanity" and who it was built to serve Normalcy isn't neutral. The DSM, psychiatry, the witch burnings — all of it is tangled with patriarchy, colonialism, and capitalism's need for compliant workers. Kristina traces the historical roots of how neurodivergence gets pathologised.The superpower question: what's true, what's missing, who profits Yes, ADHD comes with strengths. But when we only celebrate the traits capitalism values (innovation! hyperfocus! productivity!) while erasing the lows, the burnout, the 13-year shorter life expectancy, the systemic barriers — who does that serve?Why ADHD is a disability under capitalism — and that's not your fault ADHD isn't a medical deficit. But in a society built for neurotypical brains, it is disabling. Kristina explains the difference between individual healing and systemic change, and why we need both.Meet Kristina Kyser:Kristina (she/her) is a late-diagnosed AuDHD educator, former psychotherapist, and course creator with a PhD in English Literature and over 13 years of clinical experience. Her work bridges trauma healing, animist practice, and systems-level critique. She creates initiatory spaces that blend science, soul, and lived neurodivergence in service of collective remembering and repair.Learn more: Neurodivergent Rising Course Send me a DMSupport the show_____________________________________________________________________ Visit jenniferwalter.me – your cosy tree house where tired perfectionists and those done pretending to be fine find space to breathe, dream, and create real change. 💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION Follow on Instagram Follow on TikTok Follow on Threads 🔮 DAILY DOSE OF CHILL The Scenic Route Affirmation Card Deck is your online invitation to trust your inner voice again. What does your card say? Share it with me! 👉 Pull Your Free Card ⭐ LOVE THE SHOW?If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating and review. It helps other women find their way to the Scenic Route.

Weekly Affirmation - Purpose

Exhale. TGIF This weekly affirmation is for you if you've been told that you need a five-year plan when you can barely figure out what you want for lunch.This week's affirmation: "I release the pressure to figure out my purpose. I start with listening inward what I need in this moment."You don't have to have it all mapped out. What you need right now matters more than what you think you should want five years from now.New Soft Landings every Friday. Save this. Share it. Come back to it when you need the reminder. 🤍About Soft Landings: Every Friday on The Scenic Route, one grounded affirmation to help you rest, reset, and remember you're way back home to yourself.Send me a DMSupport the show_____________________________________________________________________ Visit jenniferwalter.me – your cosy tree house where tired perfectionists and those done pretending to be fine find space to breathe, dream, and create real change. 💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION Follow on Instagram Follow on TikTok Follow on Threads 🔮 DAILY DOSE OF CHILL The Scenic Route Affirmation Card Deck is your online invitation to trust your inner voice again. What does your card say? Share it with me! 👉 Pull Your Free Card ⭐ LOVE THE SHOW?If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating and review. It helps other women find their way to the Scenic Route.

You Can't Even Pick What You Want for Lunch. Let's Talk About That feat. Jillian Reilly

Here's the thing nobody tells you: the way you order at a restaurant says A LOT about how you move through life.Are you the person who waits to hear what everyone else is getting before you decide? Do you need everyone's opinion before you can choose? Are you picking what you want, and it feels weirdly vulnerable?Yeah. We need to talk.In this episode, I sit down with Jillian Reilly, author of Ten Permissions: How to Stop Waiting and Start Living, to talk about why so many of us can't make the smallest choices for ourselves, and what that says about the bigger life we're (not) living.We dig into:Why approval-seeking starts at lunch and ends with your whole identityThe terror of wanting something no one else validatesHow to build choice-making muscles before you blow up your lifeWhy pleasure isn't selfish (and might be the most strategic thing you can practice)What happens when the old rules stop working, and there's no new manualThis conversation is for the overthinkers, the people-pleasers, the ones who've spent decades being "good" and are now sitting in the rubble of what that actually got them.About Jillian ReillyJillian Reilly is a founder, author, and keynote speaker. Having spent her 30-year career working in social, organisational, and individual change across Africa, Asia, and Central Europe, Jillian’s focus is on helping people unlock their ability to navigate change and accelerate growth and learning. Jillian’s book, The Ten Permissions, guides readers in permitting themselves to update how they operate in the 21st century and design lives that fully leverage the possibilities of this disruptive world. Jillian is a TEDX speaker and podcast host who has been published on international affairs in the Washington Post, Newsweek and the LA Times. Find JillianWebsite: tenpermissions.comSend me a DMSupport the show_____________________________________________________________________ Visit jenniferwalter.me – your cosy tree house where tired perfectionists and those done pretending to be fine find space to breathe, dream, and create real change. 💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION Follow on Instagram Follow on TikTok Follow on Threads 🔮 DAILY DOSE OF CHILL The Scenic Route Affirmation Card Deck is your online invitation to trust your inner voice again. What does your card say? Share it with me! 👉 Pull Your Free Card ⭐ LOVE THE SHOW?If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating and review. It helps other women find their way to the Scenic Route.

When Everything Feels Too Much: One Small Change Still Matters

There's a particular moment many of us know well — when everything feels like too much. Not dramatically, but quietly, heavily, relentlessly. You're still functioning, still showing up, but inside, something is fraying. And the most painful part? The story you tell yourself about it: I should be able to handle this.In this episode, we explore why overwhelm isn't a personal failure — it's a predictable outcome when multiple vulnerabilities align. Using insights from the Swiss Cheese Model and Paul Gilbert's three emotional systems, we unpack why your nervous system can't "just cope" when recovery is structurally unavailable.This isn't about becoming stronger. It's about understanding why one small change can still matter — even when everything feels impossible.We'll explore:Why overwhelm is rarely about one thing — it's an accumulation of pressures that alignHow the Swiss Cheese Model explains why burnout happens when recovery becomes impossibleThe three emotional systems (Threat, Drive, and Soothing) and why modern life keeps two constantly activatedWhy your nervous system needs recovery cycles, not just more willpowerHow one small change can close one vulnerability — and why that mattersWhy resistance to small changes is often a sign of how depleted you areSend me a DMSupport the show_____________________________________________________________________ Visit jenniferwalter.me – your cosy tree house where tired perfectionists and those done pretending to be fine find space to breathe, dream, and create real change. 💬 JOIN THE CONVERSATION Follow on Instagram Follow on TikTok Follow on Threads 🔮 DAILY DOSE OF CHILL The Scenic Route Affirmation Card Deck is your online invitation to trust your inner voice again. What does your card say? Share it with me! 👉 Pull Your Free Card ⭐ LOVE THE SHOW?If this episode resonated with you, please leave a rating and review. It helps other women find their way to the Scenic Route.