Hello friends,
You are so welcome here.
This particular practice is designed for ADHD people who struggle to sleep or to relax.
My name is Stella Billory.
I'm a Senior Mental Health Occupational Therapist and I work in private practice with ADHD folk.
And my experience of working with these demographics is that issues around sleep are very,
Very common for those of us with ADHD.
And sleep issues might look like issues falling off to sleep or issues waking up in the night or the early hours of the morning and not being able to go back to sleep.
And sleep is so important for our health and vitality.
And when you can't sleep,
It can be very challenging.
And so this practice is based on relaxing various different parts of your body.
And the invitation will be to let your focus rest in its entirety on the named body part.
And there we will practice a very simple breathing technique.
So the invitation will be to take a breath in and simultaneously clench that body part.
So really holding,
Really contracting the muscles,
Really creating tension.
And then as you exhale,
You will exhale through the mouth and consciously relax that body part.
And as we move between the body parts,
There will be time for you just to breathe normally and regularly through the nose.
And so if you're willing,
We will begin.
And really encouraging you to be in a laying down position if that's available to you.
So no need to adjust anything.
And you can be exactly as you would be if you were trying to sleep in your bed.
So no need to make any adjustments.
And we'll start our journey in the feet and the toes.
So first of all,
Just bringing all of your awareness so that your mind is full of the experience of your feet and your toes.
And keeping the awareness there in the extremities.
And now you're invited to take a breath in through the nose and as you do so,
Clench your feet and clench your toes.
And then when you breathe out through the mouth,
Really relax the toes,
Relax the feet.
Just feeling the difference between tension and relaxation,
Breathing in and out through the nose.
And then let's shift our focus to the glutes and the back line of the body.
And once again,
The invitation now is to breathe in through the nose and simultaneously clench your glutes,
Really tightening,
Really holding that tension.
And as you breathe out consciously,
Audibly through the mouth,
Relaxing the glutes,
Letting them go,
Letting them be soft.
We just catch our breath here,
Coming back to nasal breathing.
And then let's shift our focus to the abdomen,
So the space around the navel,
The belly button.
Letting your focus really rest there.
Now invitation as you take your breath in through the nose is to clench your belly muscles,
Pulling the navel back towards the spine,
Pulling up the pelvic floor,
Holding,
Holding,
Holding.
And as you release through the mouth,
Relax,
Let it go.
Notice nasal breathing.
And then we shift our focus up and into the shoulders,
So the two shoulders and the space between the shoulder blades.
And then as you're ready to,
We take a deep breath in through the nose and either lifting the shoulders up into the ears or pushing them back into your bed or whatever you're lying on.
And then as you breathe out through the mouth,
Really letting the shoulders melt away from the ears,
Letting them go,
Letting them hang heavy.
Now shifting our focus to our hands and our fingers.
And perhaps you run your thumb over your fingers as you do so.
Again,
Coming into the extremities.
And now as you're ready to,
We take a breath in through the nose and we tighten the hands into fists,
Tight balls,
Holding,
Holding,
Holding.
And breathing out through the mouth,
Just letting them go,
The forearms relaxed,
The wrists,
The hands all relaxed.
So observing that nasal breathing as we move between the body parts,
In and out through the nose.
And then let's shift our focus towards the tongue.
And you might just start to articulate your tongue around inside of your mouth.
The invitation is to bring the tip of the tongue towards the roof of your mouth.
And as we take a breath in through the nose,
Push the tongue into the roof of the mouth,
Really creating tension there.
And as you breathe out through the mouth,
Releasing,
Relaxing,
Letting go.
And see if you can consciously create some space between the upper teeth and the lower teeth now.
Let the jaw hang.
And then let's shift the focus to all of the facial muscles.
And the invitation now,
As you take a breath in,
Is to pull the ugliest face that you can.
Hopefully you're in the dark by yourself.
And then as you breathe out,
Again,
Relaxing the facial muscles,
The space between the eyebrows,
Corners of mouth,
Jaw relaxes once again.
And we just come back to our nasal breathing.
So in and out,
Rhythmic breath through the nose.
Good.
And now we will take two final rounds,
Beautiful people.
And this time the invitation is to encompass the whole body.
And we'll take a breath in together now.
And as you do so,
Create tension in the hands,
The feet,
The glutes,
The abdomen,
The face,
The shoulders.
Holding,
Holding,
Holding.
And then release,
Exhaling through the mouth.
Relaxing,
Releasing.
Letting the body be heavy.
And then our final round.
So a repetition of movement.
As you're ready to now,
We take a breath in.
We hold tension in the fingers,
The feet,
The glutes,
The forearms,
The shoulders,
The back of the head,
The facial muscles.
And then we release,
Breathing out,
Relaxing and letting go.
Just having a sense of the difference between holding on to tension and letting it go.
Body awareness.
Embodiment.
As you're ready to,
Beautiful people,
There's nothing for you to do now.
No one for you to please.
All that's left is rest and relaxation.
