“On the human spectrum” with Katherine May
“Trust your gut instinct, rather than the instincts of other people who don’t understand you.” - Katherine May Katherine May is a writer, the author of many books including the New York Times bestseller Wintering, and most recently Electricity of Every Living Thing; and a teacher and mentor. She lives with her husband, son, dog and two cats, and is one of those inspirational/crazy people who swims in the depths of winter. We had a heartwarming conversation about the many shades of life, creativity, neurodivergence, mental health, and the value of simply being human.
Hashtag Authentic - for creatives, dreamers & business owners online · Sara
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Show Notes
Things we talked about:
- Allowing ourselves to feel good when things actually go well
- The synchronicity of things happening when they’re supposed to (and when you’re ready)
- Defining success for ourselves (and it’s not always what we assume it might be)
- How lockdown taught Katherine to create her own “sense of safety” following the success of her book, by creating courses to shore up her income
- Finding ways to own your own story, message and brand
- How Katherine’s approach to Instagram evolved from “sharing pictures” to “telling stories”
- Katherine’s experience of coming back from “an anxious pattern of behaviour” around social media
- The quiet activism in the premise of Katherine’s book, Wintering, which is all about periods of life in which we feel cut off from the rest of the world
- Not always having to be “on” and “up.” As Katherine says, “The vision of us being always up discounts useful wonderful things like thinking, reflecting…”
- How we’ve all learned things about ourselves during lockdown, and the way our priorities (and what we are willing to accept) have changed
- Being diagnosed as autistic, quite late in life, allowed Katherine to make the personal changes she needed: “How to meet my own needs, rather than how to solve me”
- The experience of living life as a neurodivergent person
- Finding your right people online (if you lose followers after sharing your true self, then you’ve lost the right followers - you don’t want them)
- And this piece of wisdom from Katherine, for anyone who identifies with our “neurodivergent” conversation: "Your identification is yours. It doesn’t need the approval of a doctor or your mum.”
- The Insta Retreat - My tell all, best selling course for Instagram creatives and business owners.
Where to find Katherine online:
- Katherine’s website, katherine-may.com [https://katherine-may.co.uk] where you will also find her books
- Katherine on Twitter: @_katherine_may_ [https://twitter.com/_katherine_may_]
- Katherine on Instagram: @katherinemay_ [https://www.instagram.com/katherinemay_/]
- Katherine’s podcast, The Wintering Sessions [https://katherine-may.co.uk/winteringsessions]
- The True Stories Writing School [https://www.truestorieswritingschool.com], home of Katherine’s online courses
Books we mention in this episode:
- Wintering: the power of rest and retreat in difficult times [https://bookshop.org/books/wintering-the-power-of-rest-and-retreat-in-difficult-times/9780593189481]
- Electricity of Every Living Thing: a woman’s walk in the wild to find her way home [https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-electricity-of-every-living-thing-a-woman-s-walk-in-the-wild-to-find-her-way-home/9781409172512]
- The 52 Seductions [https://uk.bookshop.org/books/the-52-seductions/9780755362530]
Where to find Sara
- meandorla.co.uk
- Instagram - @me_and_orla
- My website designer - stories studio
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