Every self-care strategy you've been given assumes three things: that you have spare capacity, consistent executive function, and a regulated nervous system.
If you're a neurodivergent woman who's been masking since childhood, you have none of those things. That's not a personal failure. That's what happens when the world trains you to override every signal you have.
The ND Self-Care Architecture Guide is a 4-layer subtraction framework:
Layer 1: Sensory Environment : A room-by-room audit of the invisible inputs draining your nervous system. Lighting, sound, texture, temperature, smell, visual clutter. Identify the 2–3 that cost you the most and remove them first.
Layer 2: Schedule & Obligations: Rate every recurring commitment by masking cost (0–3). Find the ones that drain you disproportionately. Cancel, delegate, reduce, or restructure.
Layer 3: Body Reconnection : A 3x daily interoception check-in. Research shows years of masking disconnect ND women from hunger, pain, temperature, and emotion. This layer begins restoring those signals gently.
Layer 4: The Subtraction List : What to stop doing. What to stop tolerating. What to stop performing. The core of the guide.
Includes the Shutdown Day Protocol : exactly what to do (and not do) when your system shuts down. Not self-care. Harm reduction.
