Swimming is my favorite.
I can swim for hours.
I swim oddly. I don't do laps.
(We have a pool, so its usually empty and quiet. Or the loud is my loud or people whose loud I know so it is more ok than strangers' loud).
I like wearing sweatshirts and pants. I like feeling them on my skin. It makes me feel safe and seccure. But I hate being hot. So in summer I wear dresses and tank tops and shorts (usually not all at once. but sometimes, I suppose, since I often wear shorts under dresses). But then in summer my skin gets all tingly and I feel all floating away. I need to be weighed down.
But it is ok because summer is for swimming.
And swimming weighs you down.
(And swimming cools you down.)
In swimming, you are balanced. In swimming, you can feel the effects of your motion. You can feel the moving through the water. You can feel where your body is and feel how and when you move. When I swim, there is the joy of being completely even. My whole body can feel the same thing. It is a nice, even pressure, all over, even my face.
Summer is swimming.
Labels: autism, coping mechanism, me, sensory, stimming