Lives Well Occupied with Megan Flood: Two Keys to Understanding Ourselves and any Human
0:00 Introduction:
This is a conversation with occupational therapist, Megan Flood about one of the most fundamental concepts to understanding why we do the things we do in occupational therapy and as Megan reminds us, also why we do what we do as humans. This was a conversation among Megan, Kary, and occupational therapy students in which students offered some of their questions to Megan by email ahead of time.
As you listen, you may benefit from looking at the key moments listed below to guide your focus or to help you advance to areas of most interest to you.
Our goal is to increase your awareness and compassion for the impact that all the sensory information humans take in daily has on all of us. You may notice similarities in your own preferences and simultaneously notice how everyone being wired differently can lead to misunderstandings, miscommunication, and unintended consequences.
As Megan shares– we hope this information allows you to increase the frequency of experiences that allow you to connect with greater ease, take actions to calm your own body and the bodies of those of which you are sharing space at the moment.
And with that, we invite you to enter into this conversation with us. Grab what you need to settle in– perhaps a warm beverage, your walking shoes, a cozy place to sit, or maybe your headphones. We hope you enjoy taking time to reconnect with what your bodies are communicating.
Key Moments in Megan Interview
0:00 – Introduction to Megan’s background.
3:06 – An intro to the two areas that inform everything Megan does as an OT and as a human: sensory integration and somatic experiencing.
3:30 – What is sensory integration?
4:05 – 5 +3 senses: What are the 3 lesser talked about internal senses and why do they matter? (vestibular, proprioception, and interoception).
5:02 – What is somatic experiencing? How does this connect to our nervous system?
5:43 – Appreciating we are all wired differently when it comes to how our bodies take in and respond to senses (Megan gives an example).
8:25 – Megan gives us her definition of a sensory strategy and some examples of tools she uses in her practice.
9:05 Becoming aware of sensory preferences, sensory needs, and what we can do to help us function best.
9:20 – What are some ways we can become more aware of these sensory strategies?
11:50 – How are sensory strategies beneficial to your work in mental health?
12:30 – How the body and our senses are essential to communicating you are okay and safe– honoring that words alone cannot communicate this information.
13:02 – How learning about our sensory and nervous systems impact us helps us to become kinder, gentler, and more compassionate with ourselves and others.
15:15 – Having multiple sensory pathways to connect and communicate; Greg Santucci, OT– Change the Channel visual (Santucci, 2021).
16:26 – We’re all learning from each other - all carrying forward our understanding of what we’ve witnessed and learned from others.
16:45 – Reflecting on this conversation with Megan as a way of increasing what we notice.
Image description: Concentric circles in white on a yellow background with a key. Center circle reads: The Key to Understanding our Senses. In bottom right corner: lifewelloccupied.com is written.
18:10 – OT Recap begins
OT Recap
As you heard in this conversation, if there was one essential ingredient to understanding why we do what we do; as well as to the why for our preferences to what we do not do– a conversation that does not include how the 8 senses combine or what our bodies are experiencing is incomplete. Sensory integration and somatic experiencing, as Megan calls them, are fundamental in understanding our decision making.
You may find that you know taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing well– yet those internal sensations of vestibular, proprioception, and interoception sound unfamiliar or foreign to you. Whether the words are familiar or not, your body manages all eight sensations daily.
As Megan shares with us– no two people are likely wired exactly the same. We come with our own unique sensory preferences and needs that can vary depending on what is happening at any given moment.
You’ll notice we offered key moments and time stamps to aid you in reviewing important points.
Additionally, we’d like to issue an invitation to you. Feel free to choose one or more of these questions for further reflection.
How do your decisions change when you consider your body a valuable, seasoned member of your team?
What if your body is a bestie– a best friend?
What is your body communicating to you?
How does your body respond when you listen to it vs. ignore it?
How do you make space for people in spaces you share to honor their own sensory needs even when they differ from yours? (e.g. families, work or learning teams, friend groups, etc.)
How does the team function when you allow for variable sensory needs vs. determining one way is required for all?
Closing Thoughts:
If this is new or unfamiliar information to you, you are not alone. I was in graduate school and nearly 30 by the time I first learned more fully (and I’m still learning) about our sensory and nervous systems. The ramifications of living my life thus far without knowing this felt overwhelming. Even more so, I was deeply saddened at the idea of those around me viewing themselves as defective due to this misunderstanding and disconnection from understanding our sensory and nervous systems.
From then on, I’ve been working on learning more about what this means not only in my own life but in how these conditions, our awareness of them, and lack of awareness impact the environment in which others grow. It has been an aha to think— no wonder we responded that way!
Our solutions, often guided by a belief that is only fair to expect the same for all– can lead us to judge actions that are really just a symptom of our nervous systems being amped up or shut down. Recognizing what our nervous system looks like at various stages and having tools to adapt are among the most valuable skills we can have. For more information on what this can look like and for more tools see ROI link in the reference list. (ROI, 2022)
So what do we do next? To this day, I find myself grieving about what is lost when we do not understand or value that everyone has unique sensory preferences and needs. Responding to these needs actually allows us to successfully engage in daily rhythms of occupations/activities that promote wellness and build connection/community. They likely cannot be the same expectations for all of us, if we are to truly function as to how each of us are wired. Creating space to wonder what the sensory and nervous system needs actually are seems to be one of the most essential actions we can take.
This sets the stage for continually recommitting to notice how the ways in which we ignore those needs impact us so we can make room for realizing what does work and what actually helps all of us function better. There is indeed loss in realizing the possibilities that have gone unnoticed and the gift in this is—
There is great relief and hope in recognizing what can happen when we reconnect to our bodies and sensory/nervous systems as helpful guides.
We recognize this is only an introduction to this topic and is abbreviated. Look for further conversations and opportunities around this topic in the future.
For now, we’d like to direct you to additional resources–
Rural Opportunity Institute: This is a great organization in North Carolina who is actively facilitating these conversations at the community level. Check out their articles, website, offerings, and resources for more information.
https://www.ruralopportunity.org/resilience-cards/
Interoception: To learn more about our 8th sense— check out the website of occupational therapist, Kelly Mahler.
https://www.kelly-mahler.com/
Your Sensory Health Matters, Here’s Why: YouTube video with OT, Virginia Spielmann
https://youtu.be/kkuFYKb1Acw
My Grandmother’s Hands
Book by Resmaa Menakem about somatic experiencing and how incorporating practices with our bodies are essential to healing.
https://centralrecoverypress.com/product/my-grandmothers-hands-racialized-trauma-and-the-pathway-to-mending-our-hearts-and-bodies-paperback
References
Rural Opportunity Institute. (2022, November 14). Build Resilience Skills with Resilience Cards. Rural Opportunity Institute. Retrieved December 22, 2022, from https://www.ruralopportunity.org/resilience-cards/
Santucci, G. (2021, August). Kids not listening? [web log]. Retrieved from https://www.facebook.com/gregsantucciOT/photos/an-updated-postof-all-the-sensory-strategies-i-teach-families-this-one-is-probab/362468775535707/?paipv=0&eav=Afaf0KBzgOelP-Cp-6S62K8qK2kiiAoEVF9xH1rxA76Zn2WQm4SNuJhG_EyXI5O7smQ&_rdr .
