Sense of Soul - Unmasking Autism

Episode Date: January 14, 2025

Today on Sense of Soul we have Masha Pavlova she is a three-time #1 international bestselling business book author, and coach. Having paved the way to overcoming obstacles, she seeks to unite heart-centered individuals as well as organizations to create personal, professional, and social change, working locally while thinking globally. Masha’s journey includes being a young immigrant overcoming trauma, undiagnosed neurodiversity, and homelessness on the pathway to becoming a successful entrepreneur, only to have that taken away thanks to crumbling health. Since then, by mastering perseverance, she has since rebuilt her dreams from the ground up.
Today, Masha serves as the Founder of the 24-Hour Pause for Peace  - a worldwide concert uniting hearts with music and love, guided by future generations. Working within PEAC Institute, an international NGO, along with a member of the 2017 Nobel Peace Prize-winning team and other extraordinary, like-minded, beautiful individuals, this mission invites the whole world to witness a day where peace is not just a hope, but a reality. 
 Watch her Ted Talk “Unmasking Autism in Adulthood” https://youtu.be/SOI0VMuEN8g Visit her website https://connectwithmasha.com Follow her Journey @connectwithmasha


Hey listeners, for some time I've been following the disappearance of an autistic boy named Sebastian Wayne Drake Rogers. He was last seen in Hendersonville, Tennessee. A National Amber Alert was issued February 26, 2024. Sebastian is a Caucasian, 16-year-old boy who is 5'5", 120 pounds. He has blondish brown hair and hazel brown eyes. Sebastian's case has captivated the attention of law enforcement authorities who have conducted an extensive investigation into his whereabouts. The FBI is offering a $50,000 reward for information leading to Sebastian's safe return. Dog the Bounty Hunter also joined the search and is offering a $250,000 reward as well for Sebastian's safe return the Sumner County Sheriff's Office at 451-3838 or the TBI at 1-800-TBI-FIND. To submit a tip online, you can go to tips.fbi.gov. Dog the Bounty Hunter's team is actively collaborating with confidential sources to pursue

leads. You can also contact Dog the Bounty Hunter at 833-TELL-DOG or emailing mostwanted at manhunts.one. Let's bring home Sebastian Wayne Drake Rogers. Today on Sense of Soul, we have Masha Pavlova. Masha is a three-time number one international best-selling author. She is a coach and seeks to unite heart-centered individuals as well as organizations to create personal, professional, and social change, working locally while thinking globally. Masha has been on a journey of pain to purpose, but she is a true example of perseverance. She has rebuilt her dreams from the ground up. She has served as the founder of the 24-hour Pause for Peace, a worldwide concert uniting hearts, music, and love guided by future generations. And she's been putting this together for years now, a big mission

where like-minded, beautiful individuals come together for a day of peace in October 2025. She just landed her very first TED Talk, which you can listen to now, just released this past week. She is unmasking autism in adulthood using her experience and her voice. This topic is super close to my heart as I have ADHD, several of my children do, and I have one on the spectrum. So I'm excited to have Masha with us today to talk about this very important subject that is not talked about enough. So Masha, thank you so much for joining me again today. So interesting fact that I just recently learned is actually adhd and autism overlap like 41 percent of symptoms for sure and i think it's a different kind i mean because i have very bad adhd as well as my oldest daughter but my third child definitely he was diagnosed with both but

his adhd is totally different than mine. I would almost say that his ADHD is just part of something within that spectrum. But mine's like true ADHD. It's very difficult. But like so many things go through my brain. I could never do Jeopardy. Give me a minute. I can get the answer.

Mine is the opposite so i learned that my brain works in like 93rd 95th percentile of like the speed of it which doesn't help because i mean the accuracy is somewhat there but then it's like like my brain just gets there and sometimes it gets the wrong place or something else happens and it's just i process too fast and it's just it's anxiety and everything and it's interesting like process too fast and it's just it's anxiety and everything and it's interesting like before you have before you have any of the like titles it just feels like it's all in your head and there's something wrong with you and then you learn what it is and you're like that i wish i had known that and my gosh can i just vent for a second? Because I'm so frustrated beyond, like, I just, I don't understand. I don't understand this.

So when you look up anything about autism, all of the research is from Great Britain. They are doing so many different movements and research and support and all of these things. And the United States, the information that you find is everything up until getting the diagnosis. different movements and research and support and all of these things and the united states the information that you find is everything up until getting the diagnosis no resources past that point and everything that you read it's talking about it like a disease like the language is completely different and it's like i know that first time we talked about language a lot as it's one of those things it's like we can't expect anything to change until the language around this changes because if we're researching it like a disease or there's something wrong

with you or this needs a cure, it's like, no, my brain is wired differently. Like this is not the same thing. It's not. It's totally okay. Yeah, exactly. It has superpowers. I have freaking superpowers. Thank you very much. Absolutely. I mean, I, Oh mypowers. I have freaking superpowers. Thank you very much. Absolutely. I mean, I, oh my God, I'm so glad you said that. I can relate. When I first discovered that I had ADHD, the perception I had of ADHD was some little boy jumping around, right? Like he's

high on sugar, you know, not listening to his parents, running around circles, you know, that's like, that was my idea of it. So I was like, I'm not like that. There's all these stigmas. Yeah. I did a lot of like sitting within, before I even started speaking it out loud. And then I spoke it out loud loud did a preliminary with my therapist and got like 86% and I'm like oh huh interesting so kind of started like took like seven or eight months to get in to actually find somebody and get into a clinic that that does uh actual diagnosis on adults and I went to talk to my parents and my friends and like the different levels of responses my mom really really tried like you can tell like she was she she became very quickly aware of the stigmas that were coming out of her mouth a little bit and

so I noticed her like really putting an effort to change her own language around it which was really curious but the first thing was really like um it's like what oh what do you mean you like you like look at you you're you're fine like you're from thanks thank you that i'm fine i'm glad to know this and my best friend is like um i love her to death and anytime that there's something wrong she like her love response is getting angry so she gets that for you but that's also something stressful but she goes she's like oh well at first she was trying to fight me on the fact that i have it and then she said oh well i guess i understand they just give that diagnosis to everyone nowadays and i'm like wow don't to adults i i must tell you so i have a friend she's pretty sure that she is on the spectrum as well she does know

that she has adhd i want to say they didn't even have anybody within her insurance group that even did a diagnosis and it was extremely expensive if she went outside of that yeah you know the interesting thing too it's it's the weirdest thing because i feel like this is going to come off kind of strange like it has the same framework as the me too movement in the sense that it's one of those things that i feel like a lot of us have held on to and kind of hid and self-isolated because i thought that it was something that was you know know, not going to be accepted and wrong. Or something wrong with us, right? Yes. And then as soon as people started opening up and talking about their experience, it was like, oh no, here are all of these like overwhelming amount of people that have the same experience. And similarly with

this, I don't know if this has maybe been your experience as well, talking about ATHE and talking about, you know, some of the experiences of that. And I cannot tell you how many people are like, oh my gosh, I can actually really relate to that diagnosis or not. The elements are there. And it's interesting to me. And I think a lot of it is maybe human nature and that gets just exaggerated through the different functions of the brain, maybe, I'm not sure, or how we adapt to things but it's just it's curious to me that so many people can relate to the experiences of it well when you think about all the great minds in the world most of them were on the spectrum that's another thing I find is very interesting they have more of an inner landscape than they

do an outer landscape which has been judged by the world that says something wrong with that. Even I have a child who, if you want to call her, quote unquote, an introvert, right? Her world is felt very much an inward and she doesn't care to entertain the outside world. Is that wrong? I remember one of her teachers one time saying, how about her go to a homework club? And I said, oh, is she not doing well in school? Because she's also very smart.

She goes, no, she's doing well just for social. Like you want to punish her and make her stay after school and go work more because she doesn't want to stand up in front of the class and scream look at me and actually my daughter's smart enough to also have said why is she not comfortable with who I am brilliant and I think that these conversations is what kind of really drives the openness too it's It's giving people permission. And I don't know, right? Maybe there's also, I mean, there's a lot of influence, of course, from the outside world. But to me, that also says that she grew up around you and around people who are open to having that conversation, who feel safe to say, hey, this doesn't seem right. This doesn't feel right. Something is off here. I didn't have that. And so for me, my whole experience of my life, I'm like, I'm kind of unfolding going, oh my gosh, all of this is here, is this idea of masking because without that, I would not have been okay or safe. It was not safe to be something other than the expectation that was had at the time. Coming from a Soviet family, it was very like, it was strict. It was, I think my parents maybe were less strict than others perhaps, but they were very, very strict.

They had expectations for, you know, a certain way that education looked, a certain way that homework looked. I don't agree with homework, by the way. Yeah, no. Not at all. Nope. Oh my gosh, so much anxiety from that.

And yeah, I know, right? You have PTSD bringing it up years later. Thank you. And so much anxiety. It's like, what does that actually teach us? And in practice, it's important, but give me practice in a way that A, I understand and B, I'm passionate about. And I understand being able to, okay, saying, well, we need to standardize this. We need to have something that can be taught. But I feel like don't know there's something that needs to give there just it's not it's not working it's not working in a way that's that's producing adults that can feel like they can be open which then limits us the limits it limits us so much and then creates just so much unnecessary stress and anxiety and

overwhelm and then that creates other problems you know i knew something was up with my son ethan by the newborn he was my third child so like i i knew what to expect and you know there's those milestones right but you know at first you know you you think, well, we'll just wait till they catch up or we'll just wait till they do the norm, right? To those milestones. And I was not awakened back then, for sure. I remember other people, especially the older generation, my older generation was like, there is nothing wrong with him. Absolutely nothing wrong with him. And yes, I look at it now and I don't feel like there's anything wrong, quote unquote, with him. But had I not gotten him the support that he needed from the beginning,

and we're talking things that actually could help all children. Like how to play, like instead of having a ginormous toy box full of stuff that was, that when he would look at it would be way too overwhelming. You couldn't learn that way. If we separated every toy by like all the cars here, all the blocks, their building stuff, all of the arts and only pulled out for him one thing that he could accomplish and focus on and do. He was very successful. So literally, he just learned differently. There was nothing wrong with him. He just learned differently in his own unique way. And I wish I would have done that for all my kids because you never get to see the toys at the bottom of the box.

That's right. Or you never play with the toy properly, you know, its purpose and how it's supposed to help with motor skills or whatever, just because, you know, it's thrown in a box with everything else. So it was actually amazing. What I learned as a mother, how to move with him in the direction rather than forcing, like I did with my other two. This is what you're going to do. You're going to go to this. You're going to learn this and you're going to be a player you're gonna be a dancer you know people who are on the spectrum are unique i feel in that way because they can't be molded necessarily in the way that society would like them to yeah just doesn't work we can we can fake it very well we can we can force the box but it doesn't last we're miserable we make

other people miserable it just doesn't work it just doesn't stick and if it does like I've been the master of masking and hiding behind things and saying I can just push through this that's fine but then the amount of turmoil and like energetic drain that that creates it's like well all of a sudden why do I have these extreme mood swings why do I why am I always anxious why am i then that says bleeding into the quality of of work or the quality of how i show up with people i care about and it's just it's like well why is all that there oh well of course of course it's all there right what else would you expect yeah yeah huh you know ethan was like that too And I would always have to warn his teachers because the first half of the school year, they'd be like, do you understand this? He'd be like, yes, I totally

understand this. Yes. But he didn't, but he wanted to fit in. And so we noticed from a young age, actually this, because I was like, no, he doesn't, he never understood this. That's why he never, you know, would do it. It wasn't a lack of him not trying or a lack of interest in doing it. I'm sure it stressed him out very much, but he couldn't do it. And he didn't want to admit that he didn't so once i caught on to that that was like the first thing i'd tell the teachers he's really good at pretending he's got it he understands it one of the reasons i even started talking about this to be honest because at first i was like oh you know i i don't know i'm not ready i need to process this myself and i was

uh i was getting a haircut the tedx edition by the way I'm like I'm making this all about the haircut because I was that was just like absurdly like that moved me beyond anything I could even express I was sitting in the chair and my hairdresser is known if like I've been seeing her for 15 years because prior to that I would cry literally every single time somebody gave me a haircut it was just it was traumatic every time to my parents I'm like did you guys not know like why did nobody notice any of this like all of these signs were there why did not nobody people not pay attention did they not look for it like what what happened but i was sitting in her chair and she's used to my crazy stories you know how i have all the

things going on always and just these extraordinary things going in this happening and all these updates i always you know have something to share so she's kind of used to that at this point. And I shared this part. I'm like, you know, I actually just got this diagnosis. And I was explaining something about it. And she stopped everything that she was doing and like leaned over my chair. And like, just, it was extraordinary to see because everything else kind of just disappeared and she was just tuned in a hundred percent.

And she goes, oh my gosh, can you tell me more about the sensory experience and i told her a little bit more about that and she goes so my son she said he's a little bit older but he was when he was a baby he was having a really hard time with certain fabrics he was having a very hard time with touch he was having a hard time wearing certain clothes and she said at the time his doctor gave us some brushes to use to get him used to those things yeah ethan had those yeah and she said you know i kind of forgot about them and i thought he got over it but now that you're telling me this and i'm thinking about it and he only wears his favorite sweaters he actually

avoids certain clothes still i think he was over it but i think he's just masking and for us on the other side of it it's so easy to because we have an expectation of how the world should look and so we're constantly seeking to see it that way and so it's easier for us to just accept you know oh yeah they they just grew out of that that was just a phase or you know oh this is just a kid's thing. This is just a, no, like, like look past that for a second, you know, take the time to look at this and see it. It's not laziness. It's not choosing not to do this. That's the other thing is I think there's a feeling of, well, I'm choosing to do this or have a choice in not doing this.

And it's not the case. It's like an on and off switch. It's a dial. People said, oh, you know, my whole life in education, I, I'm, it sounds like maybe your son has similar experiences with this where you're like oh we'll try harder yeah i don't understand what do you mean try harder i'm either doing it when i'm doing it i'm giving it my all or i'm not doing it what do you mean try harder like i don't understand what do you mean i just wish more people would hear and understand and see this. Absolutely. Masha, it's like, if you haven't been exposed to it, I mean, like I hadn't at the very beginning,

I didn't know what to look for, kind of like your hairdresser. Sure, I thought this, but I thought, well, we'll grow out of that or whatever. But it's processing. I think that's often, you know, whether it's processing, you know, what you're wearing before he eats, he smells his food. How brilliant is that? That's something that naturally happens to us. Before we put our food in our mouth, we're going to smell it. The whole thing is going to happen and it happens naturally for us. But for him, he learned that it wasn't happening.

So he learned to smell it. That's brilliant, actually. So the things that he's learned on his own just to survive and be in this world as it is, is genius. I don't like the word special needs. I really don't. I call them special souls. And actually, I think I'm thinking about people who are a little bit more disabled, like can't speak or can't take care of themselves. My oldest son, he helped take care of a child who is, he's not a child anymore. He's an adult. He was Down syndrome. You know, he can't talk. He's, you know, very, he's very low on that spectrum.

And my son would go in and watch him and he took care of him. And he was his like para, you know, at school, his assistant. And he even played basketball. So cute. I have so many amazing, beautiful pictures. My son took him to a dance one time. That kid, what he did to my oldest son's life, it's like he lit him up. He lit him up. Even though they couldn't speak to each other. They had a relationship that was so deep, pure love, pure love. So I start calling them special souls because like that child, his name is Caden.

He has hardly any ego. You know, on our spiritual journey, we're trying to shed our ego. And that's one thing that most people who are on the spectrum, down syndrome or whatever challenge they have, they're blessed with that, that less ego. Most of what they are challenged by or struggling with is their senses what i see as hyper empaths they're so sensitive and they have such little ego i think the more struggle they have i feel like they're like angels on earth because you go and you meet their family. I mean, they're totally different because of that child. That child has blessed their lives. That's turned them into compassionate humans, patient, and the challenges that they face that they get through

every day to still be able to smile. some of them have great challenges I've noticed that too it's it's interesting it's I have so many curiosities about how all of that works because like it is a spectrum right so there's a there's this whole path to it and something about how people are built differently and at the same time to your point interact with the outside world like that how that's and where that's created I one of the things is that's been coming up a lot too is one of the first things that my mom said as she was kind of starting to accept this what she went down this whole list of like at first she started talking about how you know there's some things that she remembered from from childhood and then she started talking about well that's not our fault you know that's our fault so

there's like this idea of there's something external that caused this. And I'm like, that's not quite how that works. There is a formation of that interaction, how that can go and how that can shape both, you know, the individual and the people around them. But it was just so fascinating. And here it's almost the same conversation in the reverse of the beauty of what it can look like in a positive interaction and in the effect of of how it impacts the people around them that are maybe neurotypical or more neurotypical

it's it's so fascinating and i just i wish people would ask these questions more often i wish people would approach this with curiosity i wish that people would seek this out and these interactions out to see what happens because I think it's magic I think it's just pure magic and interestingly enough my partner way back when used to lead uh be a leader on the ground here for the Down Syndrome Society so they actually opened the center here locally and I was just thinking if your son is interested in that kind of work and if that inspires him if that lights is interested in that kind of work and if that inspires him if that lights him up maybe that's something to look into and maybe go and see if there are any opportunities of of either volunteering or some kind of participation

or if he's into leadership you know stepping into one of those roles um if it's at all helpful for him to talk to my partner and hear his experience of that work might be interesting. He should. Because he was so good at it. Because my son has such a kind heart, my oldest son. You know, so he was an assistant teacher there. And then also coached them in basketball and football. Yeah. I mean, they had so much fun. I have some of the best stories around that time

when they were all playing sports together. Ethan had never been a part of anything like that before, but his siblings were super into sports and super involved. So this gave them an opportunity to be a part of something. It was so damn sweet. When you're able to connect with someone who can't speak if you can connect with them on a soul level you know what someone once told me this and maybe we even talked about this once that if you're looking to find purpose like what moves you what makes you cry

that's where you need to be in your life that's beautiful right yeah isn't it so a lot of times we're thinking opposite we're thinking what's going to make us more money what's going to make us you know you know what brings you to tears in your life because you are so passionate about it yeah it's like there's a call in your heart for it there's a call in your life because you're so passionate about it yeah it's like there's a call in your heart for it is a call in your soul for it to recognize it's not a logical thing it's not a based on the reason or or you know the market or anything like that it's like no this is what this is what you respond to on the soul level and that's it's everything it's everything right it's meaningful that's the meaning of life that's the purpose right if you can connect with that yeah and i if i may add one thing that's just been a huge

discovery too it's not just it's not just the the tears i've actually noticed like you know what are the things that give you frustration what are the things that like what are the things that truly stir up your emotions that you're watching and you're going like I am frustrated this I'm upset by this or I'm saddened by this or you know I get really excited when you know those are the signs because it's that emotional response that is deeper than just your thoughts that's deeper than just you know your your logical understanding of things and it's something that I think a lot of people once they when they're talking about that that purpose which you just mentioned about that it's like just look at the path of the big emotions that you've had and and what were they linked to what were they caused by what did they what were

they in response to and follow that what I can tell you from my experience which is you know everybody has their own my parents were very much like the opposite from you they kind of kicked me out when I was 18 or 18 or 19 I don't remember they're like yeah you're done you're out like out of the house out of you know 18 or 19, I don't remember. They're like, yeah, you're done. You're out. Like, out of the house, out of, you know, you're an adult now, go figure it out. And so, it was kind of on my own. And I actually, I was, there was a, huh, that's a block I haven't run into in a while. There was an experience, there was an experience in the childhood, and then there's experience at the age of 18

of having been sexually assaulted. So things happened. A lot of things happened. There was a lot of challenges with relationships, actually my whole life. And so at the same time, what I can tell you moving past all of those things is at the end of the day, I figured it out. At the end of the day, the experiences that I had were, I think, mine to have one way, shape or form.

And they helped create the person I am today who is able to persevere and do the things that I'm doing. so even though if you could think of it from a like like if i could if i could have a bird's eye view and and step into my mom's shoes and say if she could have predicted that that's what happened right i she doesn't know some of these things i never told her because i didn't want her to take it on as her own or put fault on herself for it right but let's say she knew i don't know that i don't know that that would have changed anything because if she would have kept me safe I think I would have still found I still needed to have some experiences I needed to go out there and understand for myself and naive is an interesting word because it's something that has been used so often for me my whole life and even today like even today I think people

people who really know me like my family has given up on that word but there was this this idea of naivety due to either lack of experience lack of understanding seeing oh my gosh the what my parents used to say like seeing the world through the pink lenses things like that and to be honest with you and I don't know that I could have told you this as a as a as a younger person that was a choice always always always always like the things that I've gone through I like I have your PTSD since I was you know since I was seven to ten was my was was a time that I was that I I had some of those things that came up. And I've had a lot of experiences since of different things that have gone not ideally,

that have traumatized, that have created problems. So the idea of lack of experience doesn't apply. Lack of negative experience does not apply and yet there's an internal compass that tells me that i will be choosing to see the world differently i will choose to see people as good i will choose to give people the benefit of the doubt i will choose to approach things as if they were the ideal in my mind and now there's almost a driver to build that reality because I see it. Use it as an inspiration. So at this point, I'm not so much afraid of those experiences because I know I can live through them.

And so that way I can say, okay, so that didn't work, but I still see this vision of what I want to see in people. So how can I create that as a reality for myself and others and teach others how to do the same thing so they're not running into those horrible experiences that I had to go through? But it's not, for me at least, it wasn't naivety. It may have appeared that way, but again, it was a choice to see things differently

and believe something different. I saw it. I saw it. I saw it in my heart. I saw it. I saw it. I saw it in my heart. I saw it regardless of, of, you know, the things that maybe at the moment didn't quite match. But because of that today, I'm able to do the things that I'm doing and be in the places that I am and be around the people that I'm surrounded by. Tell me that that would be the case, you know, 10, 15 years ago in my, you know know in my 20s and before that i would have called you crazy i'd be like yeah that's that's you know there was a hope for that but there's

not a feeling of this could ever be my reality but if there's a desire to create that you know and it you know i think you're right but the thing so and that's the thing too with the spectrum there's so many different levels of that. But I would say that my son is in a place where it's dangerous. There's this trusting, which is so sad because I do believe that he's wanting to see the good in the world, the good in people. He doesn't see anything else. He doesn't ever have that judgment on people. So very easily taken advantage of, or could be. However, when I think about all the things that he struggles with are actually not bad traits. My older children tell me all the time, I wish I was

more like Ethan. I wish I didn't care what people thought about me. I wish I didn't care about what college I had to go to or how much money I had to make or where my place would be in the world. I wish I didn't care at all. Like he doesn't. He just is. He's very present. You know, he doesn't have that judging so much. He might judge a football team

or something like that, but just to meet somebody and judge them. So being naive in many ways, it's not naive. It's not a bad thing. It's a simple way of seeing the world instead of all of the labels and all of, you know, the things that now, unfortunately, because people are not so good that we have to be cautious of. That's really beautiful, actually. So the curiosity then is what is the balance? Because the balance is what comes to mind. Because on the one hand, we do want to, you know, we do want to protect.

We do want to understand how to create. It's not even protect so much as creating a container that maybe fills some of the gaps that we are seeing, right? So we're seeing there's a gap in this judgment and this opportunity to, at least to the safety line, right? Yeah. Just made me think of a pool, right? You have that, you know, the line that says, hey, past this point,

you won't be able to stand anymore, you know? And to not have that is dangerous because if you don't have that line, if you don't have perception, and if you can't swim, well, you're not gonna do very well there, right? And so what is the balance between that and, at the same time, being able to have there be a process where the individual can start identifying that and being able to adapt that perception as their own, not necessarily that, you know, everything is dangerous, but something that's closer, something that says, here's what to look for when, here's how to identify this. You know, here are some of the markers that you might not naturally be able to see, but can still learn and adapt as your own to be able to have that judgment, to be able to make your own you know to be able to

exercise your own agency in the in the which we all have to do whether you're on the spectrum or not that's my point about all of this is that we are so trying to teach the world to be this american it doesn't fit for everyone and now you have one in 22 children who are on the spectrum. That's not including all the people who are just ADHD and all the other things. Dyslexia. There's so many things. So maybe stop trying to just teach this norm over here because it's no longer the norm it's no longer the norm you're leaving out an entire population yeah which everyone like you said has a gift if not a superpower i believe that too absolutely and there's nothing to change or fix it's not

no whether you acknowledge it or address it or understand it, it doesn't make it go away. It's there. It's apparent. And this is the other thing is that we think this is a brand new thing. So we're trying to look for, it's worth it. How many adults, one thing that blew my mind is blew my mind. Shannon, like, this is, this is something that tell me if this makes sense to you. So I was digging around for statistics for the TEDx talk, right. And I was looking at, I'm like, I want to understand how many people are thought to have autism that you know or actually I was looking for the statistics for how many adults get get um that and how those numbers have shifted and changed and what I found is that they say okay so the ratio of women to men that yeah even children in children right yes it's not even i mean that is huge but the gap of the unknown the ratios range between two to one meaning two women for every one man

16 to 1 what give me that whole statistic again one more time because i'm going to wait what the range is for women to men and adults is two to one which is two women to one man okay to 16 to one which is 16 to women to one man i did the math on that so according to the cdc if we're looking at the number of men that got diagnosed with with autism and we apply those statistics that two to one to 16 to 1 that gap is almost 2 million women in the unknown and we don't even know and they're masking it's like well it could be anywhere between you know zero to two million somewhere in there is right because theirs isn't as obvious usually from what i understand however my youngest is on a 504 and I went and fought for that for her because

she doesn't advocate for herself, which is dangerous. She's even put herself in danger by not asking for water, stuff like that. Or she won't turn in things. If that time has passed and she wasn't there, she won't turn it in because she can't go up and do that afterwards. There's certain things. And so I'm like, I know that she could be a successful student. So these accommodations need to be made for her to be. But she's not unique in this, Masha. Every kid in that class could get on a 504 if they wanted to. One in two kids have anxiety since i think it was 2020 one in two

one in 22 diagnosed with autism god knows how many were also you know we're talking like what's the norm here then exactly we're talking about as neurodiversion versus neurotypical. And it's like, well, what is neurotypical even, right? What does that mean? And the systems is what needs to change, not the people. Thank you. Amen. And you know what I have suggested?

Because they still have homework at my kid's school. If every single kid would go get a 504, what would they have to do? Because now every kid has individual accommodations. The system has to change. It is a broken system that's trying to put everyone in a box. It's not us. It's not humanity. It's also environmentally. Because my daughter had 18 places that were highly lead in the water fountains, high levels of lead. So it's in our environment, it's in our water, it's in the things that we eat. Absolutely. And it's I think it goes past even America, I think this is a I think it looks maybe different in America, but I think it's a world challenge. I know that there are a lot of innovations around school systems and education. Here's my call out to

anybody, really anybody. I want us to step away from having this awesome them and putting the responsibility on others, because in my mind, I'm always like, well, what can I do? What can I really do? Because individuals are powerful. And it's when we give that power away, when we say, oh, well, somebody else has to fix it. Like, no, stop it. Like, what can we do? Because I think if enough people start saying this isn't right, or if enough people start looking for solutions, let's say you're not a leader, or let's say you're not a researcher, let's say you're not a whatever you think is needed for the solution, what part do you have? Who do you know? What can you accomplish? And not necessarily by, you know,

maybe the system, maybe expecting the system to just change overnight is maybe unrealistic, or maybe it's not, but little things. What are the little everyday things that can happen that can start shifting the world around you we're all unique souls this just a meat suit and i just respect you so much for one seeking answers and being curious and allowing this to come forth i think it'll be a blessing in your life. And I think that you will bless other people because of it. I hope so. I hope so.

I am thinking like the meat suit component, right? It's, I think, I wish people would understand and see past their own perceptions of what they're seeing on the outside because you never know right my closest people to me never knew they didn't know like you know maybe they did they just didn't know what it was and you know maybe they chalked it off for this or that or maybe they even saw some of it in them that could be true too because i tell you what me and my older kids have all sat around and said i think i'm autistic i think i'm on the spectrum i do that too we can all find similarities in all of these things we're all humans yeah yeah and if we come to things with that perception with that curiosity with that you know seeking the mirroring inside ourselves i think that the world could be a lot kinder and we would we would erase some of the

expectations that we have and you know associations with our own perceptions of people well this person is smiling so therefore they're happy this person is quiet so therefore you know they're they're shy or there's you know or this person is angry therefore like it's wrong with me or it's wrong yeah it's wrong and it's like you never know like you never know right it's right have kindness have compassion have patience have you know that you would want yourself that maybe you're not even giving yourself be that for yourself first and then start seeing that in others start seeing past what your first initial perception of something is and and be curious amen to that and being okay with that part looking different it gets to look different and that's part

of we wouldn't have any of the, you know, the inventions, the, some of the great, I mean, businesses, companies, I mean, those are some of the most brilliant minds and they are different. They are different looking through history, looking through, you know, everything. I mean, we can, some people actually had, had the diagnosis. Some people we can look into and there's a lot of, you know, you can tell, you can tell, you can absolutely tell. And again, it's thinking about how does, how does somebody, how does the system support that? And how do we as individuals do that? How, you know, what, what is one thing you can do? What is something that can, you can shift in yourself and in interactions to see that, you know, to be able to understand and i think there's um i think when other and we know this right we know this on a on some level where

when some senses are are dimmed let's call it other senses are brighter right there's that balance there's not an i think oftentimes we think there's an imbalance it's i don't think it's an imbalance i think it's just less of one and more of the others which allows us to be more connected spiritually more open more aware of things and that's a commonality that i keep seeing and hearing about over and over again if we can create a world that can be open to experiencing everything around us through that lens, how much more can we gain? I think that's what happened with your son, right? He was open enough to seeing through the lens of this boy and he saw it. He experienced it as much as he could because it's something that can be shared it's not

something that's a unique gift for any one individual because it's something that radiates from from it radiates radiates and and i i'm serious the more challenged they are i swear the more impactful they have on this earth i know that that sounds like opposite but it's a hundred percent true it's 100% true. It's the polarity. It makes all the sense in the world that polarity exists. And the further we know this, one of my biggest mentors, you talked about this in love, right? The more you love, the more you grieve, right? It's the same concept. It's that polarity of life. You have that, you know, if you're in the center, you're going to think about physics, right? If you have that,

what is that? That's like swinging, you know, little balls that you you know let go and it goes another side i don't know what the name for that is oh that pendulum yeah yeah yeah the ones where you have multiple balls and you got like yeah yeah it's like that right the higher one goes the higher the one on the other side goes simple it's it's physics it's energy it's the same right yeah so so what what is your what is your thoughts that like what's the most important thing you feel so far since this journey is still new for you what do you think is like your biggest message that you want people to know right now one of the and i think this is because it's very new, one of the most painful and at the same time beautiful things is asking all of the what-ifs, right? The what-if, what if

this had been different? And when those questions come up, instead of just putting it in the past and saying, well, this is just about me and my journey and me as a child not having these things or having something else that wasn't ideal or that could have been different i'm applying it to the world today so i wonder if i guess it goes back to putting yourself in someone else's shoes and assuming challenging your own assumptions challenging your own belief systems right because the labels that got put on me the the the whole of the what ifs i had is because of the labels that were put on me the the whole of the what-ifs I had is because of the labels that were put because of the expectations of society and so if the people on the other side

of this if the people who are just going through life and let's say you experience something that you know impacts you in any way right we're going back to the emotional reaction if you're having a reaction to something being curious enough about it and putting yourself in the other person's shoes and asking what if you know what if the story is different what if i don't see everything what what else could it be you know and it could be anything from well maybe this person's just having a hard day or maybe this person is it has has things that they're dealing with that i don't know about on a regular basis. I don't know. And because of that, if I ask them what if, if I put myself in their shoes, not only does that open my world, it puts me at peace because I'm no longer experiencing that burst of emotions.

And in that case, I could exchange that for compassion. That improves my world, but it also improves the world around me and opens the space for the people who are brilliant to shine and people who are hurting to heal absolutely that's the message it's beautiful and it's like assume like don't make an ass out of you and me yeah don't assume that this person doesn't have so much value in this world and can teach you something. Yeah. Well, most of us who are awakened, you know, are more accepting of all the things that separate us because we're all one.

I think you and I know that. We're all one. You know, Neal Donald Walsh said it best. It's simply different individual expressions of the same single thing. So I've learned in my life, Shannon, that what I do for you, I do for me. And what I fail to do for you, I fail to do for me. Because there's only one of us here. It looks like there's two of us.

But there's only one of us. But there's only one of us. Now when I get that, when I speak to other people, when I interact with the neighbor across the street, much less the person across the pillow, with that understanding, with that awareness, oh I see. I see. You're simply me looking a little different. We're all fingers on the same hand. We're individual.

Each of our fingers looks different, functions differently, but they're not separate. They're all part of the same hand. We are all fingers on the hands of God. It's really quite simple. I believe that very much. And I just wish that the system has to change altogether,

not just the school system. The fact that Elijah McClain. Here in Aurora. Which I can barely talk about. He was just walking down the freaking street. He told those police officers. That he loved them. Before you know they. Killed him.

Just. Things have to change. On all levels. Because. Not everyone is the same. And they get to change on all levels because not everyone's the same and they get to change and we get to change this we get to change this we get to see this look different and stop putting it on other generations stop saying god please please please for the love of all good stop saying well we're not going to see this change in our lifetimes but at least we're planting the seeds for the next generation too many people have said that for too many generations this gets changed now today all of the parts are there everything is

here everything everything it just needs to be activated we just need to believe it we just need to step into it we need to go and seek out the people who are making this reality possible and join them yeah i agree you're such a beautiful soul thank you right i catch you love you thank you so much for the incredible work that you're doing in the world well it makes me cry so i must be doing something good i must be right where i'm supposed to be always it's that's always always true This is an important conversation. Yeah. This is something that is not talked a lot about.

There's not a whole lot of people advocating. You know, because it's hard just for a mom to advocate for her one kid. There's no book for it. I mean, there's many books for it, but there's no, so every state does things differently. Every single, there's no general thing. And it's, I think it's because of the spectrum because, you know, of that distance between one side to the other. But I've had meetings with people and talk about this.

It's very frustrating because I would have never known the things that I know to have done for Ethan as an adult if I didn't have just one person at a grocery store happen to mention a few things to me. There was no doctor, no education. Nobody was going to tell me these things. I don't know why. Maybe they don't know. They probably don't know why. Maybe they don't know. They probably don't know.

So I was really fortunate to run into this old friend from high school who said, you know, make sure you get Ethan on a waiver at 12. You don't have that everywhere. Everywhere is different. There's not a lot out there on it, which I think is ridiculous when you have one in 22 children and you have many girls so overlooked as a child right yeah wow the U.S. just needs to catch up it's this is this is an invitation for the United States and the rest of the world to catch up Great Britain is doing great they have some really like yeah many other countries yeah I've heard other countries too. Many, many. Yeah. US needs to catch up because either they're going to be paying off the ass social security to the majority of, of, of Americans, or they can change their system, the school system,

all the things and catch up. Yeah. We get to, we get to catch up tell everybody where they could find you um your website and talk about your beautiful peace movement so well my website they can read all about it there as well it's simple connect with masha.com that's m-a-s-h-a connect with masha.com we are after global peace, which might feel like a very, very far idea, but at the same time,

if we're working on the peace of what that world looks like, we are basing it around youth and music. So that is something that has been proven to be very effective around the world. And so it's a 24-hour concert, every single time zone. Our goal is to have at least 90- It reminds me of a Woodstock. Yep.

So this is, imagine, yeah, just nonstop 24 hours music, as well as stories from like elders around the world, but the music itself is youth driven, having leadership from youth around the world. And, but we're truly going after like 50% of the countries to participate in the musical piece, at least, and at least 75% of the countries to participate in the musical piece at least at least and at

least 75% of the world countries to sign a petition for a 24-hour ceasefire so we're very very excited about that work and what's the date again October 4th 2025 thank you so much I appreciate you being on anything I can express thank Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate you too. Thanks for listening to Sense of Soul Podcast. And thanks to our special guest. If you want more of Sense of Soul, check out my website at senseofsoulpodcast.com. It's time to awaken.