Struggling not to act on my impulses all the time, doing foolish things before thinking and not being able to go more than a brief period without embarrassing myself. I thought everyone dealt with impulse control issues. Oh hey Adhd, nice to see you.
As somebody with diagnosed ADHD, it doesn’t work to “sit down and meditate” if I’m not rnaodnly finding myself in a setting where it would be a guided meditation where somebody else would lead. I am saying randomly because due to the fact that I cannot sit down and just do it, I don’t have much experience doing it, thus its hard to make the practice an interest and therefore ultra hard to make it a routine or a something I’d do. I could want to do it super bad but I won’t.
I would feel stressed attempting to relax and spending the time to meditate.
What helped me is doing it in small sessions.
Like only for 5 minutes or just 2-3 minutes or just doing breathing exercises and not doing the mindful part.
Before sleep worked best when I was super tired, sometimes I just fell asleep while meditating and that was really sweet. You can do it lying down as well.
But yeah, not going to lie, it’s difficult to get that “mindful” state.
I know you mean well, but it bothers me whenever people say this. “Just clear your mind” - says the person who thinks everyone’s mind works like theirs. I’m tired of being told that the solution to the thing I can’t do, is to try to do the thing I can’t do.
Ah, lol, meant it as a joke. I apologise if it seemed “just get a planner, duh!”
I have ADHD(enough to disrupt life quite a bit), and you are right, it is very difficult to just concentrate. I hate concentrating, it’s frustrating and I lose every time.
But for me, none of the medicines available to me work or help any of the problems with ADHD and I don’t have money for it. So I’ve been deciding to raw dog life and instead meditation in part has helped me with handling some things.
I’ve been meditating for past 6 months straight now (not very successfully). But I continue to do it because of the discipline’s gentle nature. There are no hard and fast rules. I can be meditating and it won’t be what most people call meditating but it helps me calm down and I like that. Brief moments/seconds of calmness are worth it for me.
And over time, while reading up more about meditating, I’ve learnt that it’s also very very normal for the mind to wander, that’s like the default mode for it. More so for people with ADHD. I think you aren’t supposed to be perfectly focused (at least for most people). All you are supposed to do is to acknowledge what you feel and try and move on and feel what you are feeling in the moment without any judgement. It’s very difficult and not being able to do it is fine. Over time, you get a little better at it while you incur other benefits of Meditation.
It’s more than just trying to attain peace, it’s about learning to be gentle with yourself, giving yourself time for yourself, living in the moment and enjoying what little time you have.
Meditation can mean to be different things for different people.
I was lucky or call it unlucky to have had found the time to add meditation into my daily routine(life reasons). And even now it’s difficult to do every day, with what the ADHD not rewarding me to do it. For this, the work around is to do it as much as you can but consistently and being okay with missing out on days. (It’s not do or die, it’s the cumulative effort). Do it for 5 minutes or three minutes, not more. Forget about doing it for hours or something, consistency matters more than the time you put in.
There’s also different methods to choose from, some are easier for folks like us. I haven’t gotten into any of those, but I see people discussing it often to know. I would highly recommend the free app - medito. It has a lot of different options, courses to follow and is very beginner friendly. There’s no shady backdoor, you won’t be pushed into buying anything. Though It’s run by an NGO and they will ask for donations time to time.
If you have a quiet and calm place to do it, I’d highly recommend that. It really helps when the environment isn’t fighting you. I forget example recently did it twice in the forest and It was beautiful.
Also this is just my experience, try and see what works for you.
I don’t disagree but I will say I’ve found an adhd friendly meditation technique that helps (doesn’t cure). I walk or bike and let my mind wander and wander until it has wandered itself out. It takes practice but it helps me.
My mind wanders with ease, that’s the problem. My mind wanders whether it’s an appropriate situation or not, both when I need to focus on something (like during a film or a presentation) and when I need to NOT be focusing on something (like when I’m trying to fall asleep.) I suffer from insomnia because of it.
On numerous occasions, people have suggested meditation to me as a way to practice “clearing” thoughts from the mind. They may admit it “takes practice,” but they assume everyone can do it, which makes it all the more frustrating when your brain seems incapable of shutting up. It’s like the “I know you’re depressed, but have you tried being happy?” of ADHD.
Struggling not to act on my impulses all the time, doing foolish things before thinking and not being able to go more than a brief period without embarrassing myself. I thought everyone dealt with impulse control issues. Oh hey Adhd, nice to see you.
Meditation helps with this. Well at least it’s better than nothing. Well at least you can feel superior over others because you meditate.
As somebody with diagnosed ADHD, it doesn’t work to “sit down and meditate” if I’m not rnaodnly finding myself in a setting where it would be a guided meditation where somebody else would lead. I am saying randomly because due to the fact that I cannot sit down and just do it, I don’t have much experience doing it, thus its hard to make the practice an interest and therefore ultra hard to make it a routine or a something I’d do. I could want to do it super bad but I won’t.
I would feel stressed attempting to relax and spending the time to meditate.
True.
What helped me is doing it in small sessions. Like only for 5 minutes or just 2-3 minutes or just doing breathing exercises and not doing the mindful part.
Before sleep worked best when I was super tired, sometimes I just fell asleep while meditating and that was really sweet. You can do it lying down as well.
But yeah, not going to lie, it’s difficult to get that “mindful” state.
I know you mean well, but it bothers me whenever people say this. “Just clear your mind” - says the person who thinks everyone’s mind works like theirs. I’m tired of being told that the solution to the thing I can’t do, is to try to do the thing I can’t do.
Ah, lol, meant it as a joke. I apologise if it seemed “just get a planner, duh!”
I have ADHD(enough to disrupt life quite a bit), and you are right, it is very difficult to just concentrate. I hate concentrating, it’s frustrating and I lose every time.
But for me, none of the medicines available to me work or help any of the problems with ADHD and I don’t have money for it. So I’ve been deciding to raw dog life and instead meditation in part has helped me with handling some things.
I’ve been meditating for past 6 months straight now (not very successfully). But I continue to do it because of the discipline’s gentle nature. There are no hard and fast rules. I can be meditating and it won’t be what most people call meditating but it helps me calm down and I like that. Brief moments/seconds of calmness are worth it for me.
And over time, while reading up more about meditating, I’ve learnt that it’s also very very normal for the mind to wander, that’s like the default mode for it. More so for people with ADHD. I think you aren’t supposed to be perfectly focused (at least for most people). All you are supposed to do is to acknowledge what you feel and try and move on and feel what you are feeling in the moment without any judgement. It’s very difficult and not being able to do it is fine. Over time, you get a little better at it while you incur other benefits of Meditation.
It’s more than just trying to attain peace, it’s about learning to be gentle with yourself, giving yourself time for yourself, living in the moment and enjoying what little time you have.
Meditation can mean to be different things for different people.
I was lucky or call it unlucky to have had found the time to add meditation into my daily routine(life reasons). And even now it’s difficult to do every day, with what the ADHD not rewarding me to do it. For this, the work around is to do it as much as you can but consistently and being okay with missing out on days. (It’s not do or die, it’s the cumulative effort). Do it for 5 minutes or three minutes, not more. Forget about doing it for hours or something, consistency matters more than the time you put in.
There’s also different methods to choose from, some are easier for folks like us. I haven’t gotten into any of those, but I see people discussing it often to know. I would highly recommend the free app - medito. It has a lot of different options, courses to follow and is very beginner friendly. There’s no shady backdoor, you won’t be pushed into buying anything. Though It’s run by an NGO and they will ask for donations time to time.
If you have a quiet and calm place to do it, I’d highly recommend that. It really helps when the environment isn’t fighting you. I forget example recently did it twice in the forest and It was beautiful.
Also this is just my experience, try and see what works for you.
I don’t disagree but I will say I’ve found an adhd friendly meditation technique that helps (doesn’t cure). I walk or bike and let my mind wander and wander until it has wandered itself out. It takes practice but it helps me.
My mind wanders with ease, that’s the problem. My mind wanders whether it’s an appropriate situation or not, both when I need to focus on something (like during a film or a presentation) and when I need to NOT be focusing on something (like when I’m trying to fall asleep.) I suffer from insomnia because of it.
On numerous occasions, people have suggested meditation to me as a way to practice “clearing” thoughts from the mind. They may admit it “takes practice,” but they assume everyone can do it, which makes it all the more frustrating when your brain seems incapable of shutting up. It’s like the “I know you’re depressed, but have you tried being happy?” of ADHD.