The last couple of months we’ve focused on both body and mind techniques to help us cope with the unhinged news cycles of our unprecedented times.

We also get that sometimes all we have is a couple of minutes in between tasks or less than a spoon left to try and self-regulate. So here’s one of the quickest, easiest vagus nerve exercises we’ve come across so far. You can do it lying down, no deep breathing involved:

1. Interlace your fingers and put your hands at the base of the skull (this is optional if you have difficulty with it)

2. Look with your eyes only to the right (3 o'clock position). Do not turn your head

3. After a few seconds or longer, you will sigh, cough, or have some other physical indicator of relaxation

4. Repeat a couple of times if your body-mind feels like it.

That’s it! You can find the video for this technique here.

Let us know if it worked for you on the Community Feed in the NEUROMANCERS Circle app. If you’re not a member yet, click here.

NEUROMANCERS Mental Health Survey

As part of our research efforts, we surveyed the community to evaluate the impact of both traditional/mainstream and peer/community mental health services. This reflects our commitment and accountability to the wider neurodivergent+ community.

The survey enables us to implement your feedback into our ongoing programs and contribute to the landscape of peer-led mental health care.

We will soon get in touch with the winner of 3 free months in NEUROMANCERS membership community! Alongside this, to express our appreciation, EVERYONE who completes our survey receives a 10% discount for their first month of membership.

Click here to complete the survey before the end of day, 31st of July.

To celebrate Mad Pride, we’ve had a brilliant workshop that made us feel seen and proud to be mad:

📝 In our words, by @embracing.ambiguity

The first portion of this workshop was dedicated to exploring how limiting language is used as a tool of oppression, and why it’s critical to reclaim linguistic agency. The second portion of the workshop featured a guided and communal activity encouraging attendees to rewrite their own stories in language that felt most affirming and accurate to themselves.

ONLINE WORKSHOPS

Decolonizing and Re-Indigenizing Our Mind-Body-Spirit Connection through the Baobab Tree

This event is open to Black and Brown people only (i.e., those who are part of the global majority, the African, Asian, Indigenous, & Caribbean diasporas who are racialised as Black or Brown).

DATE: Sunday, 17th August 2025

TIME: 4:00 PM - 6:00 PM UK TIME/ 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM ET / 8:00 AM - 10:00 AM PT

Facilitator: @ngoma_mulema_se Elmina Bell is an Indigenous African Psycho-Spiritual Practitioner. Her work as a trauma-informed peer support facilitator, crisis worker, sidereal astrologer, sound healer, medium, and sound healer is guided by Ngoma Mulema Se philosophies of their various African ancestors, spanning Sawa Bantu from Cameroon, Ewe/ga peoples in Togo, and many more across the continent.

About the workshop: A knowledge-share integrating ancestral understandings of the Baobab tree to nurture mind-body-spirit connections through Disability Justice values and Indigenous lenses that allow us to witness our mental states in liberating, heart-centered ways.

Indigenous knowledge systems worldwide have looked to nature to better observe and understand various mental conditions, states, and experiences now called neurodivergence in the Western world.

In many African regions, the tree is a meeting place, a point of ancestral connection, and provides much nutritional value that can help us nurture our mind-body-spirit connections.

For access to the recorded session AND a discounted ticket price, become a member.

Care Practice Collective

The Care Practice Collective is a group of neurodivergent+ people with lived experience of mental distress or difficulty, who align with NEUROMANCERS’ values.

A Care Workshop is a space where neurodivergent+ peers come together to support a single person -or system for our plural family!

When you apply, we’ll ask you to share some information about what you’d like help with. We’ll get in touch if we can offer you a Care Workshop.

You will lead your Care session. We will provide practical support to help you identify areas in your life where you can make beneficial changes. You can invite a support person or friend, but please note that the session will focus on your care needs, not theirs.

We could…

• Brainstorm solutions and co-think through problems

• Research and gather resources

• Help with life and disability admin

• Hold space for your emotions and feelings

• Watch a film or YouTube video together

• Share in our despair and exhaustion about the world and its problems

• Sit quietly together and do nothing

It’s truly your space!

Applications are open from the 1st to the 8th of each month.

To apply, you need to be 18+, neurodivergent+, and have access to the internet.

So what are you waiting for? You DESERVE care and community!

Email [email protected] if you want to join the collective and practise your care-building skills.

Death to the DSM

DATE: 28th August 2025

TIME: 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM UK TIME / 1:00 PM - 3:00 PM ET / 10:00 AM - 12:00 PM PT

This project is a community-driven initiative where we collaborate on a peer-led zine that explores the diverse experiences of the neurodivergent+ community. Each monthly session focuses on a different neurodivergent+ 'trait' or experience. 

You do not need research experience to join us. We just need you, the trust to share your experiences, and an interest in discussing neurodivergent+ and disability theory!

For access to the recorded session AND a discounted ticket price, become a member.

BLOG

This is the first of a new series of personal/reflective blog pieces from those in the NEUROMANCERS volunteer community.

Keen to become a guest blogger? Send an email to [email protected]

Body doubling: Focus Sessions

DATE: Every Wednesday

TIME: 6:00 PM - 7:00 PM UK TIME / 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM ET / 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM PT

Messy room? Unfinished art projects? Nappy hair? No problem! Our focus sessions will help you clean, colour, and comb your way to success.

Focus Sessions are encouraging and empowering weekly events for NEUROMANCERS members only. Through body-doubling, you will boost your productivity and celebrate your wins, big and small! ✨ We centre what productivity means to YOU.