So in this video,
I wanted to take a moment to.
.
.
Talk about what the idea of mindfulness in ADHD care is.
You know,
One of the,
I think,
Most important things I.
.
.
Find when I'm talking about mindfulness in general is there's a centuries-old teaching of ask yourself of everything you hear,
Is it true?
You know,
Really question everything.
You don't have to take anything I say at face value.
It's only going to be useful If it means something to you,
The word mindfulness gets used so many different ways now and honestly oversold sometimes.
So ADHD is a very complicated condition.
If it's correctly diagnosed,
Somebody is struggling with this day-to-day life management skill set called executive function.
And executive function is required for just every part of everyday life.
It's required,
You know,
In younger kids for school and over in adults for managing work perhaps,
But it also is involved with communication and sticking to health routines like sleeping well and eating healthy and sticking to exercise routines,
And really struggles with executive function can be very overwhelming because they can impact just about anything.
There's a famous quote in the field that ADHD isn't a disorder of not knowing what to do,
It's a disorder of not doing what you know,
Which is a really impactful statement when you think about what it's like living that way.
Children with ADHD,
It's been noted,
Are sometimes being corrected more than praised at almost a three to one ratio by the time they hit kindergarten,
Which has implications about their self-image and can really amplify the.
Mental habit we often call the inner critic.
So ADHD is a very complicated condition to live with.
It's one people can do really well with if they see it for what it is and manage it with a lot of care.
Effort over time,
It's not easy.
And that really is a starting point of mindfulness and ADHD care.
I think there's sometimes a hope,
And it's a totally understandable one,
That we're going to meditate ourselves out of having ADHD.
As far as I'm aware,
That's not what the research shows up until today.
It's an incredibly valid support.
And when you look at all the things mindfulness can help with.
You can see that it is foundational for integrating into ADHD care as an additional piece.
It can be kind of the glue that holds everything together,
But it doesn't replace all the rest of ADHD care.
So mindfulness is vitally important because ADHD leads to emotional dysregulation often,
And a hugely loud inner critic,
And it increases day-to-day stress because it involves all the skills that help us manage all the stuff we have to do day-to-day.
It undermines relationships sometimes,
And that,
Of course,
Affects our resilience and how we feel.
So the practice of mindfulness seen from the perspective of one of my favorite definitions,
Joseph Goldstein,
Is that we're training the skills that help us relate to whatever's going on with as much ability as possible.
You know,
Coming back to our best intentions,
Developing compassion helps us manage life so much easier.
So mindfulness in ADHD care is really about building a foundation that supports everything else.
It is a way of developing self-regulation,
Dealing directly more than other interventions that I'm aware of,
Maybe the most direct application.
Of mindfulness and ADHD care for many people is working with the emotional regulation part.
The fact that mindfulness allows us to develop awareness of our emotions and the capacity to manage those emotions.
Certainly you can develop your ability to attend some and that's useful.
Maybe even shift attention a little when it's useful.
But the foundational thing has to do with emotional management,
Self-regulation,
Resilience,
Feeling better,
So that we can then go out and do all the rest of what ADHD requires.
And just before I end,
Because I don't know if I emphasized it enough.
You know,
One huge part.
Of mindfulness practice,
Of contemplative practices,
The development of compassion for self,
Compassion for others.
If you haven't practiced much,
That might sound a little odd,
But I'd encourage you to explore it.
And when it comes to living with ADHD,
You know,
That inner critic,
That shooting on ourselves can really undermine so much of what needs to happen,
You know,
When we're really consumed by the inner critic.
That makes it hard to make changes.
That makes it hard to problem solve.
That makes it hard to persist when these challenges arise trying to get an ADHD plan all together.
So the aspect of contemplative practice,
Seeking out things like self-compassion practice,
Compassion practice,
Are also life-changing.
So I would encourage you to explore that with an open mind,
Looking at the idea of integrating contemplative practice into all of ADHD care.
And certainly my experience of that in teaching it has been that it can be profoundly life-changing.
So thank you so much for listening.
