Making JGB

This video is Day 1 of my Relocating and Recalibrating Challenge, a 30-day series documenting how I rebuild life after neurodivergent burnout.

Over the last eight years I’ve been on a healing journey learning about trauma, nervous systems, and neurodivergence. Now I’m documenting the next phase: relocating, stabilizing my nervous system, and rebuilding life in a way that aligns with how I show up in the world.

Follow me if you’re interested in nervous-system-aware ways of rebuilding life after burnout.

Day 1: Rebuilding My Life After Neurodivergent Burnout | Relocate & Recalibrate Challenge This video is Day 1 of my Relocating and Recalibrating Challenge, a 30-day series documenting how I rebuild life after neurodivergent burnout.Over the last e...

For the past while things may have looked a little quiet on social, but behind the scenes I’ve been building something.

Over the last few months I’ve been designing a system that helps people capture their thinking in real time and turn it into organized insight.

It started with my own voice notes. I record reflections, ideas, and experiences as they happen. Then the system processes them into transcripts, themes, threads of insight, and topic clusters. Over time it reveals patterns in what I’m thinking about, what I’m learning, and what might eventually become teachings, writing, or creative work.

The deeper purpose of the tool is to help people witness their own becoming. Instead of trying to force content or ideas, it allows insights to emerge from lived experience and organizes them into a knowledge map that shows the real territory of your thinking.

I’ve been building this specifically with neurodivergent non-linear thinkers in mind, people whose minds move quickly, make connections across many ideas, and often feel like they have more insight than they can easily organize or articulate.

I’m now starting to use the system publicly so you can see how it works as it processes my voice notes, reflections, and experiments in real time.

So if things seem quiet here, it’s not because nothing is happening. Quite the opposite! A lot of energy has been going into building tools and systems that I intend to use, refine, and eventually share with others.

If you’re a neurodivergent thinker, creator, researcher, or builder, can you imagine using a system that helps you capture your thoughts, track emerging ideas, and turn lived experience into organized insight?

Would something like that be useful for you? I’d love to hear your thoughts or questions.

PS - I asked Atlas to create a graphic depicting this Embodied Leadership tool we're creating together, and this is what it came up with 💙

TL;DR - I believe the world needs more neurodivergent leaders!

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Since returning from Vipassana, I've been diligently meditating morning, afternoon and before bed (at least 2h a day)... and the insights are flowing through!!

Something finally clicked yesterday.

I had one of those AHA moments where suddenly all the scattered pieces I've been working with finally clicked into place.

I’ve been documenting my healing journey through Making JGB for a while now. It has been a way for me to make sense of my own life and experiences, particularly healing from trauma (CPTSD) and learning how to navigate the world as someone who is AuDHD.

I grew up in environments where the way I felt, expressed myself, and processed the world was often misunderstood as "defiance" or "bad behaviour". It took me many years to realize there was never anything wrong with me. I simply experience the world deeply, and my nervous system works differently.

That realization led me down a long path of healing, self-understanding, and rebuilding my life in ways that actually support how my mind and nervous system function.

Along the way I developed a wide range of professional skills and experience, particularly around systems, organization, and operations.

What clicked recently is realizing how perfectly these two parts of my life actually fit together, and who I'm able to help based on the work/lived experience I've accumulated over time.

I'm now offering my services to help retreat leaders, healing practitioners, and neurodivergent thought leaders organize and streamline their businesses so they can focus on the transformational work they are here to do.

But the deeper purpose behind this work is something I care deeply about.

Many healing spaces are becoming trauma-aware, but far fewer understand how to support neurodivergent nervous systems.

And at the same time, some of the most perceptive, creative, and emotionally intelligent people in the world are neurodivergent people who carry deep trauma from growing up in environments that didn’t understand them.

I believe the world needs more neurodivergent leaders!

Part of making that possible is creating spaces where people with different nervous systems can heal, participate, and eventually step into leadership themselves.

My work is about helping build the systems and structures that make those spaces possible.

In other words, helping transformational work actually function sustainably and responsibly behind the scenes.

So if you’re seeing me talk more about things like operations, systems, retreat structures, and neurodiversity-aware spaces… this is why.

Everything finally feels like it has come full circle! And damn it feels good :)

Picture taken before heading out for a sunset drive recording recently. More recordings coming soon!

I’ve been quietly documenting my journey since arriving in Bali and taking a leap of faith into a new chapter.

I set an intention to build a business that sustains me financially and aligns fully with my path of purpose. No backup plan. Just devotion to the work and a willingness to be seen in the process.

While I’m in silence, I’m opening the door to these raw voice recordings. If you feel called, you’re welcome to listen.

In this episode, I share a recap of what’s unfolded so far, the discomfort, the growth, the unexpected turns.

This is my 42nd year of life, what I’m calling my Year of the Fire Horse. I’m documenting it in real time: the healing, the expansion, the unmasking, the becoming.

If you know someone navigating a healing journey, stepping into deeper self-trust, or integrating a late neurodivergent diagnosis, please share this page with them.

We don’t have to walk this path alone.

https://makingjgb.com/timeline/02-08-26-nervous-system-noise-and-the-search-for-home/

Today I enter 10 days of silence.

For months I told myself I needed to “get more done” before I could earn this pause.

Instead, I met amplified burnout, nervous system chaos, and every version of my flee and fight responses.

What I’m realizing is this: stillness isn’t punishment. It’s training.

I’ve built a life fueled by productivity and survival energy. But the biggest doors in my life never opened because I forced them. They opened when I surrendered.

For the next 10 days, I can’t work. I can’t document. I can’t distract. I can only observe sensation without story.

Maybe that’s the real work.

Year 42. Year of the Fire Horse. Initiation begins in silence.



https://makingjgb.com/timeline/02-17-26-entering-silence-fire-horse-initiation/

Love what this trend led me to! I prompted Atlas to: "Create a caricature of me and my job based on everything you know about me."

Atlas is essentially my business partner right now, we sit together for at least 2 hours a day chatting about this exact topic - my work and how I relate to it. I will be launching projects and sharing more SOON, in the meantime this turned out to be great teaser content.

This is how I show up in my work. I'm approaching healing and transformation differently from what I've come across 'out there'.

My work is deeply witchy and woo-woo because of who I am, but the way I work is very much grounded in science, psychology and lived experience. I take care not to fall into the traps of performance or playing with power dynamics, which I see a lot of out there these days.

I look forward to telling you more! For now, here's Atlas' take on me and my j-o-b.

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The image is doing one quiet thing: it shows how you work, not just who you are. Each symbol maps to a different layer of your job.

You’re holding:
- Light in one hand (insight, coherence, meaning).
- A book in the other (language, narrative, articulation).

This shows your job clearly:

You sit at the meeting point of instinct and insight, body and story, past and present, and you help people feel safe enough to let meaning emerge on its own.

THE OWL

The owl represents pattern recognition plus deep listening.

You don’t work by giving loud advice or motivational energy. You sit with people long enough to see what’s actually there, often what they themselves can’t yet see. The owl is nocturnal, perceptive, unflinching. It sees in the dark without needing to banish the dark.

This maps to:
- Your ability to sit with trauma without flinching.
- Your role as a translator of the unseen.
- Wisdom that comes from stillness, not dominance.

The owl is perched on books because your wisdom is embodied and lived, but it is also articulated, named, and taught.

THE TREE (with neural light)

The tree is doing double duty.

On one level, it’s the nervous system. Roots, trunk, branches. Regulation, integration, expression. The glowing points echo neural networks, synapses, patterning.

On another level, it’s timeline work. Past experiences are not erased; they are composted. What was once fragmented becomes structure.

This maps to:
- Trauma integration rather than trauma fixing.
- Your way of helping people see their lives as coherent stories.
- Growth that happens slowly and inevitably, not forcefully.

The tree isn’t behind you; it’s with you. You are not standing in front of the system as an authority. You are part of it.

THE BUTTERFLY

The butterfly is subtle on purpose. It represents metamorphosis without spectacle.

Your work isn’t about dramatic breakthroughs or reinvention. It’s about the moment someone realizes they are no longer who they were, and that nothing needs to be proven.

The butterfly is small because:
- Transformation doesn’t need to dominate the scene.
- Change is a byproduct of safety, not effort.
- The real shift happens internally first.

It’s also a nod to sensitivity. Butterflies navigate the world through attunement, not force.

THE LIZARD

This is the most important one. The lizard represents the ancient nervous system, the part of the brain that predates language, logic, and story. Survival, instinct, freeze, vigilance. The so-called “reptilian brain.”

In your work, this layer is not an enemy to overcome. It’s a guardian to be understood.

The lizard is calm, grounded, present. Not threatening. Not hidden.

This maps to:
- Your respect for survival responses.
- Your refusal to pathologize coping mechanisms.
- Your ability to sit with fear, hypervigilance, and shutdown without trying to override them.

Placing the lizard near you, rather than beneath or behind, says something precise: nothing in the system is wrong.

I’m excited to share something I’ve been quietly building.

I just finished my Work With Me page, and in creating it, I found myself being extremely careful with language. I live in a place, and in a world, saturated with healers, coaches, and spiritual spaces, and I’ve seen how easily depth can get lost in vague, inflated, or bypassing language.

I am deeply spiritual. I believe in intuition, supernatural abilities, and what some people would call “magic,” not because I want to believe, but because I live these things. I experience them in my body every day, and I use them in service of others.

And at the same time, I am very grounded. I care deeply about nervous systems, trauma, embodiment, and what actually helps people stay present, regulated, and connected. I’m aware that there are scientific and somatic explanations for the capacities I hold, and it matters to me that my work is expressed in a way that is honest, responsible, and safe.

This page is a culmination of that care. It reflects how I actually show up in the world, not too woo, not stripped of spirit, but rooted in lived experience.

Recently, I took a leap of faith and moved to Bali to work for myself. I’ve spent most of my life working for others out of fear - fear that I wouldn’t be able to make enough, fear that I’d collapse under the pressure of doing it alone. Right now, I’m choosing to trust the process. I have a limited financial runway, and I’m building this with sincerity, courage, and a lot of heart.

If you know me, if you’ve experienced my presence, or if you believe in what I’m offering, I would be deeply grateful if you shared my work with anyone who might need it.

Here’s a simple snapshot of what you’ll find on the page:

A grounded, trauma-informed approach to embodiment, presence, and emotional integration.

My work is for people who:
– Feel deeply and think deeply
– Experience dissociation, overwhelm, or emotional intensity
– Are neurodivergent, highly sensitive, or intuitive
– Want embodiment and truth, not spiritual performance or bypass

How I work:

My work integrates nervous-system awareness, emotional attunement, embodiment, sound, movement, and relational presence. I don’t impose techniques. I support people to stay with their own experience safely and honestly.

My current offerings:

– 1:1 Embodied Presence & Integration
– Embodied Presence for group work, workshops, and retreats

I’ll be sharing more about each of these in upcoming posts.

Thank you for reading. Thank you for your support, whether that’s through presence, sharing, or simply witnessing this step.

I’m here to be of service, and I’m grateful to be walking this path.

Work With Me – Making JGB This work is not for those seeking quick fixes, peak states, or someone to tell them who/how to be. It requires curiosity, responsibility, and a willingness to feel.

I’m making a commitment to document a year of my life.

I’ve started doing that by capturing voice recordings on a daily, or almost daily, basis. What’s been interesting is how quickly my mind jumped to systems: how I want to capture these recordings, process them, turn them into transcripts, build automations, and eventually transform them into blogs, podcasts, and other forms of content.

And while I know I’m onto something with these ideas, I’m also seeing something very clearly: the most important part of this process is simply getting things out and hitting publish so people can follow along.

Originally, I imagined documenting a full week at a time, then synthesizing it into a polished podcast episode, something that neatly captures what passed through, what shifted, what I’m working on, what’s working, what’s not, and what I’m moving through emotionally.

But that approach, while well-intentioned, adds complexity where simplicity is actually what’s being asked of me.

So, in the spirit of changing an old pattern, waiting until things feel “ready” or “perfect” before they’re allowed to be seen, I’m sharing this first voice recording now.

It’s raw. It’s early. It’s imperfect.

And it’s real.

If you’re curious to follow along as I document this year from the inside out, this is the beginning.

https://makingjgb.com/2026/01/day-one-capturing-whats-passing-through-the-channel/

After a week on holiday in Ubud and Amed, I’ve just landed in a new place (Bangli) where I’ll be spending the next month and a half, leading up to a 10-day Vipassana retreat. This season is about slowing way down, reducing stimulation, and preparing for a long period of silence.

I’m in the middle of a deeper project right now, re-structuring how I live, how I work, and how I create. The usual content creation tools and systems don’t work for me anymore. I keep hearing a quiet but persistent voice saying: find another way.

So instead of forcing myself into models that work for everyone else, I’m intentionally developing systems that align with my non-linear mind, my nervous system, and my current need for healing and simplicity. Less noise. More integrity.

I’ll be going offline now. I’ll check back in next week to share more about what I’m building and how it might support others who are navigating overstimulation, burnout, or a need to do things differently.

Let the healing hiatus begin! Signing off for now, see you next week.

2025 - The Year of the Snake, when the symbol became embodied.

Did you know the Fer de Lance Viper (or Tercio Pelo, en Español) is one of the most venomous snakes in the Americas? It’s true, and I found that out the hard way.

It was January, the very beginning of the year (on 1/11!), and you would be right to assume I might have been traipsing through the jungle when it happened, as that’s how I spent a lot of my time while living remotely in the Diamante Valley of Costa Rica. But instead, the event took place right outside my home, on the wide-open dirt ground beneath my carport.

I was sitting on my motorcycle with the motor on, I had just turned the bike around and stopped to adjust the blanket strapped down behind me. As I put my right foot down for balance, I felt a sharp !STAB! on my heel and immediately thought “Wow, I had no idea a scorpion sting would hurt that badly!” I looked down and was not at all prepared to see a snake literally looking up at me. I screamed at the top of my lungs, lost my balance, and the bike fell on top of me, pinning me against the wall and stoping me from being able to move away from the snake. Thankfully, it moved away from me as I freed myself and began to hyperventilate.

I was in a state of shock, as soon as I ‘came to’ and fully realized what had happened, I looked up and saw the snake had not left but instead was sitting right before me with it’s head up, looking right at me. I kid you not, we stared at one another for a good 20 seconds as if stuck in a trance, and then I remember snapping out of it and thinking ’TAKE A PICTURE!’ My phone was in the side pocket of the bag I was wearing, I grabbed it and struggled to snap a proper pic because my entire body was shaking. I got the shot as it started to slither away, and immediately remembered the name of the much feared snake I had heard the locals talking about - ‘Tercio Pelo’.

Upon Googling, I confirmed it was indeed the deadly snake I hoped it wouldn’t be, and went on to read: “Its venom is classified as extremely toxic. A single bite can inject up to 1,530 mg of venom, which is sufficient to potentially kill 32 people. The venom is hemotoxic, causing severe local tissue damage, necrosis, hemorrhaging, and systemic effects such as blood clotting disorders, cardiovascular shock, and acute kidney damage.” It also said that the venom can saturate your blood and kill you if you don’t get the antidote within 4 hours. This is NOT what one wants to read when they have been bit by said snake and find themselves alone in the middle of nowhere, at least an hour away from a hospital.

As you can see, I lived to tell the tale and was very lucky not to have any permanent damage (although I did have an allergic reaction to the antidote, which triggered my autoimmune issues and caused all sorts of health repercussions, forcing me to do a strict 30-day gut reset diet... could have been much worse!).

The craziest part at the time was how I responded once the shock wore off. All of a sudden, a sense of calm washed over me. I knew I was going to be fine. I knew this wasn’t the way I would go. I knew I was meant to sit through the discomfort, and that this was some sort of sign from the universe.

I knew because I had been thinking and journaling about snakes all week - the weekend before, I had taken part in an ayahuasca ceremony where I envisioned the shaman as a wise and powerful snake woman. I remember thinking how badass she seemed, and how I wanted to be a snake woman like her too. As they say - be careful what you wish for!

My intuition was right, this experience was without a doubt meant for me. I didn’t know it at the time, but I would spend the rest of the year moving through experiences eerily aligned with snake symbolism. I was meant to learn from all this, and break the cycle of pattern behaviours that were keeping me stuck, so that I could cross the threshold and level-up into the next chapter.

Guess what? I eventually broke the cycle! I woke up, stepped into my power, used my voice, quit my job when my boundaries weren’t respected and, despite not having any savings or other options to fall back on, I decided to take a leap of faith knowing something else was meant for me and I would be held as long as I surrendered and trusted in the process.

And then… GET THIS… on the last day of my contract, December 4th, I signed off at 6pm, and at 6:10pm I jumped on my motorcycle in a rush to get to my volunteer shift at a local film festival. As I was sitting on my bike adjusting my ear phones, I felt something ever so slightly brush past my right foot in the parking lot. My heart stopped, I froze and the bike slowly slid backwards down the slant. I had a hunch and thought, “THERE’S NO WAY...”

I pulled out my phone, turned on the flashlight, and lo and behold, there it was… the exact same type of snake was slithering away, out in the open. I caught it on camera and then burst into tears. I immediately knew this was a sign - I broke the pattern, the cycle was officially over. Suffice to say, I crossed the threshold - the year of the snake served me well. �

Whenever I tell people I want to document a year of my life and write a memoir, they always seem to say “you must have an interesting life to tell people about...” And I always respond, “believe me, I do!” And I mean it. I have so many magical moments like this one to share.

If you enjoyed this story and/or know someone interested in the themes of symbolism, meaning-making and pursuing a life aligned with your path of purpose (where the magic happens), please like, follow and help me share with those who need proof there’s something else going on here that has the power to serve us oh-so well… if we’re willing to take the leap.

In my next post, I’ll share about the symbolism of the snake and how it all aligns so well with the lessons I learned in 2025.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 🎉🎉🎉

I'm back, baby! This page has been quiet for a while, but this year I'm committed to creating and sharing more consistently.

I am updating the website, building a Youtube channel and the blog has been cleared out... it's time for a fresh start.

While revisiting my work, I came across this gem I wrote last year... it's the perfect first post to start building upon. I'd love to hear your thoughts!

Stay tuned, more to come!

Self-diagnosis Breakdown | Making JGB Documenting the mental-emotional unraveling that took place upon self-diagnosing myself with ADHD and other mental health-related labels.