# This is my Substack journal about redesigning and curating life from the inside out - with capacity, connection and joy at the centre. It’s for neurodivergent mothers and creatives who are done trying to optimise themselves into someone else’s version of success, and are instead learning how to build lives that feel **liveable**, **nourishing** and **true**. Here you’ll find essays, notes, and reflections on motherhood, home, creativity, relationships and the slow work of unlearning the systems that taught us to override ourselves. This isn’t a place of polish - sometimes it’s instructional (when I’ve landed on something amazing that WORKS), sometimes it’s in the messy middle, but it’s always honest, grounded and true. --- ### Hi, I'm Amy. I’m a New Zealand-based writer, mother, former teacher, and lifelong systems thinker. Burnout, motherhood, and a late ADHD + autism diagnosis changed everything I thought I knew about life, learning, and myself. What once felt like personal failure revealed itself as a nervous system stretched too far inside systems that weren’t built for bodies like mine - or for many of ours. When my daughter was just under two, I made a quiet but life-altering decision: we weren’t going to school. That choice cracked open how we live, parent, work, and learn, turning our home into an ongoing experiment in rhythm, connection, and agency. Softly Wired grew from that same place - the kitchen table, the notebook, the noticing. ### What this journal is really about Softly Wired is for people who are: - redesigning and curating life either after burnout or because they just want to feel more like themself - parenting and creating while neurodivergent - questioning inherited rules about productivity, success, and “doing it right” - building homes and lives that support real nervous systems, not idealised ones At its core, this work is about **capacity** - learning how to live within it, honour it, and design around it. I believe: - life doesn’t have to look the way we were taught - calm doesn’t come from control, but from fit - messy, imperfect homes can be deeply regulated ones - and that rest, leisure, creativity, and connection are not rewards - they are foundations --- ### What You’ll Find Here Writing on Softly Wired tends to move through a few recurring themes: - **Redesigning a Life** - burnout, capacity, seasons, rebuilding gently - **Home as a Sanctuary** - home as a nervous-system container, rhythm, analog living - **Leisure, Creativity & Whimsy** - making without productivity, play, beauty - **Motherhood & Connected Family** - ND parenting, homeschooling, regulation - **Connection** - relationships, intimacy, repair, and relational life - **Writing & Books** - essays, fragments, and notes from works-in-progress Some weeks are longer letters. Some weeks are shorter notes. Everything is written with care, not urgency. I publish quietly through the week when something is alive to write. Once a week, I send a **gentle roundup** - a single email that gathers what’s been shared, so you never have to keep up or check in constantly. This is designed to be a place you can return to when you have the capacity - not another thing demanding it. --- ### Want In? All writing is currently free to read. In time, there will be a paid tier for those who want to support the work more directly and access deeper or slower offerings. Subscriptions help keep this writing going and visible - but there is no pressure here. Being here is enough. ## If this feels like your kind of place You’re very welcome. Pull up a chair. Read what calls to you. Leave questions if they arise - I return to them when I can. This is a journal for redesigning life softly, deliberately and in your own time. --- ### A Bit More About Me - Former teacher from New Zealand, lifelong systems thinker, and relentless experimenter. - Degrees in Commerce, Hospitality, and Education; lots of businesses (the true ADHD curse of never sticking to what I want, but instead following joy). - Herbalist and founder of a [wellness supplement business](https://wakeupsupplements.com/) supporting nervous system health. - Dreamer of writing books, Master’s, and PhD-level projects - once the kids are a little older. - Believer that **the best ideas happen at the kitchen table**, with coffee, a notebook, and a bit of chaos in the background.