Mindfulness. Being mindful.
Being present.
Living in the moment.
Slowing down.
Slowing the ADHD mind.
Slowing the ADHD body.
Meditation? Breathing? Focus? Stillness?
How? How long?
Is it even possible? What if I fail?
There are many reasons that I always believed that meditation was beyond me as a hyperactive ADHDer. I considered my exercise to be my meditation, as that was the closest I got to clearing my head and “resetting” myself. And, I do still consider my working out to be somewhat mindful and definitely an ADHD management tool. But I have had my relationship with mindfulness change quite a bit in the last few years.
Here’s the short version. I started meditating with my oldest son when he did a trail through our doctor at MGH of using the “kids calm” meditation on Head Space. I found out that a five minute meditation designed for kids works great for an ADHD adult. I’ve subsequently moved on to mostly doing semi-guided or unguided meditation. But I still enjoy doing the kids one with my kids when I can get them to sit still.
What I learned is that meditation isn’t pass/fail and that you don’t have to do it for a half an hour to get a benefit. Sometimes I can get enough benefit from 7-10 minutes that I can control my anxiety enough that I don’t need an Ativan. That’s pretty powerful. And, no, I don’t think I’ve ever really cleared my mind. But, if I can get down to only thinking about one thing, instead of the 20 things I’m usually batting around between my ears, that seems like a victory. And how I feel afterwards would seem to back that up. So, I say, give it a try. Or do some research on other forms of mindfulness, particularly those for kids. It doesn’t even have to be meditation. But mindfulness is essential… in my humble opinion. Good luck!