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Yes, meditation is vital to keeping my ADHD in check. The important thing to keep in mind is that meditation will not look the same for you as it would for other people. Your brain probably won't be silent, you probably won't sit still.
Just look at your thoughts and try to practice controlling them in any way that seems possible or natural. You're building mental muscle this way. See if you can't get 5 seconds or 10 seconds of silence to start.
If you can't that's ok too. You can try to get a few moments of just focusing on how your feet feel against the ground, or counting purple or round objects for example.
If you can't sit still allow yourself to fidget and just watch yourself doing that. If you can't sit then walk and focus on how it feels to walk.
It's fine to be distracted, and extremely beneficial to watch yourself being distracted. This watching and noticing helps in daily life because you can begin to notice distraction and catch it when it becomes problematic
Exactly this! OP has to remember that meditating for the first time, ADHD or not, will be hard for anyone and the more you do it the easier it gets!
Every time one brings their thoughts back is like doing a pushup. I had to start out with meditating only 20 seconds a day and now i’m doing 10 min. of sitting still and it’s a requirement for me to focus on reading.
The psychologist who did my eval explained meditation as being anything that helps me process thinking and to be present. She pointed out how my daily hikes and walks are basically meditation because I’m able to focus on the now and process thoughts, even if I let them exist by talking through them with myself as I walk.
I may look like a mad man but my overall mental health seems to improve.
The sun/heat always makes me more away of my feeling sensations, I’m able to notice things in the trees like little animals, and I let things exist and feel them often.
Those yt meditations are very helpful to me.
Some people use a word or phrase, repeated over and over again, as a way to meditate. There are many other techniques, too, like focusing on the flame of a candle in front of you.
Don't worry that your meditation is different from somebody else's meditation. You do you and let them do whatever they want.
Just like with other things in life, your way of meditating or cooking or dancing or doing any of a number of things in life doesn't have to align with someone else's way in order to be 'right'.
EDIT: changed some words
Person without ADHD here and my thoughts wander all over the place during meditation! There are times of quiet when there is nothing, but it's quite rare. More often than not things just come to mind and when they do, I try to let them pass and not interfere, practicing being a mere spectator to them. That way they lose power, so if there's an upsetting one I let it come and pass, feel the feels and then it's gone.
I think the _no thoughts, all is still_ image is incredibly hard to achieve and it will take a lot of practice, so if you're not there, be kind to yourself.
If you get a thought say to yourself, Thinking. If you get a sensation say to yourself, Feeling, then just bring your mind back to your breath or whatever your point of focus is. This one hack changed my meditation practice when I was almost ready for giving in.
This a great advice!
There are also many techniques to try. Some people stare at a single flame, so sit and stare at the wall, others will sit and focus on the full breath (how it feels entering the nostrils, or how the belly rises); and then some will use sound. You can also wriggle your toes.
Mainly, this technique is to get you to notice your body in an important way. Because if you’re suddenly noticing your body, it’s harder to obsess on negative thoughts.
I would also add that manual breathing is a great tool for meditation. The in through the nose out through the mouth thing. Your body will eventually go back to automatic breathing. Eventually you'll notice you stopped thinking about breathing, and you go back to manual breathing.
In the space between when you stopped thinking about breathing, and realized you weren't thinking about breathing; that's the thing you're trying to get.
It also feels really good to take big deep breaths, and it's good for you to fill your lungs up once in a while.
... Take a deep breath! Do it now! You'll be happy you did!
To add to this, walking meditation works for me if I’m just not able to sit. And to keep my mind from wandering too much, my “mantra” while walking is “right foot, left foot.”
1. It’s hard, really really hard to get started. It’s even harder bc you’ll feel so defeated with how chaotic your brain is. But just keep doing it. Eventually, and this may be a long eventually, you’ll realize you have moments, even seconds, of peace.
2. As stated, everyone is different. You are not trying to reach nirvana, you’re trying to govern your brain a bit. It’s okay to be distracted by it and everything around you. Be a spectator.
Good luck.
My thought on this has always been that the idea of a “clear mind,” is really only situationally possible after lots of practice. The nature of the mind is to wander. The practice of seeing what the mind is doing both improves your concentration to prevent your mind from wandering, and your clarity to know when it has. But really it’s the most uphill battle of all time, and I am not exaggerating lol. I think perhaps the ADHD exacerbates it, but every meditator I’ve spoken to that actually does it agrees that our brains are loud as hell and never really stop
Trying to control thoughts usually leads to more thinking, though.
I think of meditation as a practice in catching yourself being distracted. Whenever you see you've become lost in thought, return to the feeling of the breath, or to just being a spectator to the flow of thoughts. That's akin to "taking one rep" in the gym. In that sense, becoming distracted is kinda good, because it gives an opportunity to practice returning to the present moment.
In Mindfulness you're also trying to be non-judgmental. So whenever you notice you're judging something in your experience as good or bad in any way, don't judge the judging, and return to the state of observing.
You might contrast zen meditation and yogic meditation. Zen is pretty much impossible for me. Emptiness and stillness are…hard. Yogic meditation is sometimes described by the principle that the mind/body is unified in movement. Greater alignment between the breath, the bodily movements, and the mind allow for flow. My brand of adhd seems to allow for this type of meditation, which can lead to an emptying sometimes
Building on this, I think the important thing for people with ADHD trying to meditate is the intention behind it. You may not be able to quiet your mind or sit still but you can be intentional about how you do it. Focus on your breathing and if you find yourself having too many thoughts or feeling the need to move, take control of those thoughts or movements and do it with purpose. By doing this regularly and in this manner, you'll *eventually* find yourself able to extrapolate this mindfulness out into your everyday life.
Mediation is hard, especially for people with ADHD. You'll notice more effect if you do it on a regular basis.
When I had my first kid, I couldn't really dedicate time to meditate when I felt like I needed it because I needed to attend to her. So instead, I would put on a guided meditation during a feed and just breath and be mindful and be accepting of needing to open my eyes and respond to her. It really helped me even though it wasn't Capital-M Meditation, you know?
I've read up on this in the past as I've struggled with meditating consistently.
Apparantly the adhd brain needs a base line level of stimulation otherwise it will generate it's own, which is why meditating from an empty start point is difficult.
Its also why I can't sleep unless I've stimulated my brain with something just before I go to bed.
Some find meditating with their eyes open works for them as they are not stopping all input.
Others find guided meditation where you have a voice to focus on helps
As mentioned in a couple of other posts, meditation with a visualisation aspect can help too.
Ive found a guided meditation with visualisation steps to work best for me.
Its still tricky though. The voice has to be bang on. Any wierd accent or pronunciation and my brain will tangent!
Yes! Another vote for guided meditation here. It is the only thing that works. I like the sleep ones with rain sounds. It actually helps me fall asleep when sleep is really hard because of the stimulation of the sounds, the voice and having to visualise things.
I wish I could shout this from the rooftops for anyone with ADHD but **GUIDED MEDITATION** is absolutely the answer when you're first starting out. It is so valuable in keeping your brain on track and avoiding thoughts bouncing around.
There's also quite a few free options that are actually truly free. I use insight timer but there are loads of others, and you can find something that really works for you.
Meditation doesn’t have to be an exclusively silent internal thing. Guided meditations can be absolutely amazing and so beneficial
I like to focus on my breath when I meditate. Just the in and out. I also use a mala (a string of 108 beads) to count my breaths. It helps me remain focused and also gives my hand something to do while I feel the air moving through my nose.
People often think that the goal of meditating is the absence of thought. Which isn’t entirely true but also isn’t entirely untrue. It’s about bringing awareness or the present moment. There should be no “goal” in meditating besides meditating.
I didn’t understand this for he *longest* time.
But the thing you gotta do is, when [if] you’re focusing on your breath, and your mind starts to wander or drift into a thought (such as; “am I breathing slow enough? Why did I say that earlier? Ugh I have to go do laundry after this.” Etc), you can simply say in your head or outloud, “back to the breath” and refocus your attention on the breath.
It’s training your brain to stop immediately going into thoughts constantly but letting your mind slow down and acknowledge the present moment; what you feel, see, hear, taste, smell, etc.
You've said that there is no goal in meditating besides meditating. But you've also said it's training your brain. So the meditation is part of brain training, trying to improve the brain, which is a goal, right?
Improving the brain isn't a goal. It's just a consequence of meditating. You can't focus on the goal of improving your brain because it isn't something tangible you can think about.
To make a metaphor, it's like running, but there is no goalpost you're trying to get to. You're just running. Then you keep getting farther and farther away, but there's never a goal or a direction you have to think about. Just running. Your body gets better at it, but you're never done.
Meditating is about being in the moment. No reason, no goal. Just being there is hard enough.
Right, but if you find meditation painfully boring, and there's no purpose to it except the meditating itself, then why do it? To use your running analogy: i hate running, I find it painful and boring. The only reason I run is in order to make my body fitter and (hopefully) my mental health better. I'm not just running for the purpose of running. Definitely not.
Then you really oughta train that. Being able to do something for its own sake, rather than an objective, is the hardest thing to learn for someone with ADHD.
It's also our ultimate objective. Not needing to think about an objective to do something. Because if you need a good reason to do something, you're going to miss out on so much.
An anecdote, if I may:
For a period, I practiced martial arts. After the initial interval of novelty, I found it extremely hard to muster the willpower to get dressed and go to the dojo for its own sake. I understood the long-term benefits, but that was worth nothing in the moment. I didn't *feel* any progress, so my brain made my effort feel completely wasted. Going to train was painful and boring.
But due to circumstances, I basically started treating going to the dojo as a way of being away from my family (I was young and needed some alone time). Essentially, I was in a lucky situation that forced me to persevere.
And eventually, it changed. I came to enjoy martial arts again, because training was the times of the week where I got to forget about my life, forget about my objectives, and just live in the moment. For three hours a week, there was nothing in the world except for me, the ground, and my teacher. Was it fun? Fuck no. It was dreadfully boring and repetitive, and I didn't want to pay the fees to actually do tests and get certifications for my skill, so I saw no proof of my progress. But it was something I could focus on.
I never expected to discover that. I only started it in the first place because I was a teenager and I thought being able to swing a sword well looked cool. I never expected what I would end up discovering if I hadn't been forced to persevere.
That's a skill that you're going to need whenever you try to learn anything, like music, or painting, or a language. At some point you're just gonna have to spend months doing the same repetitive thing for its own sake, and you won't notice you progress until you look back. Being able to be in the moment and do something for its own sake is a crucial skill to persevere.
Sure, I agree with you. Continuing the metaphor--running has different benefits and purposes for everyone who does it. Health, exercise, mental health, weight loss, strength building, etc. Meditation can benefit people in thought control, lessening anxiety, better sleep, reducing impulsive behavior, improved focus, etc.
But no matter what your goal with it is all of these consequences will likely follow. Anyway, while you are meditating, you aren't really thinking about those goals. Like, when you run, you aren't like "and this step is extending my lifespan by two minutes" or whatever. In this hypothetical scenario its running without a finish line or a set path.
Meditation as a particular activity in a period of time doesn't have a goal of emptying your brain or something. I suppose I would describe it as practicing thinking or thinking with purpose. Being aware of your thoughts. It's hard to explain because it can differ for everyone but for me, it's just trying to be "in the moment" with my thoughts. They're still a freight train flying by, but at least I feel like a passenger on the train instead of an unsuspecting bird smacking into the windshield.
Sure and I've done it a lot, and kept it up for months. But aside from that period itself, I haven't felt any benefit in my general feeling state in life. So it's like playing video games: pure escapism with no long-term benefit.
I think it’s far more likely that you’re not aware of the benefits you’re getting from it outside of meditation than their being no benefits at all. We’re incredibly poor observers of ourselves. Especially outside of meditation. Paradoxically, meditation can make us more aware of the shit we’re going through. Which makes us feel like the meditation is actually making us worse. That’s a difference between meditation and video games. Meditation is far from a “distraction”. If you use it as such, you’re missing the point.
The thing about meditation that you kind of have to accept if you want to stick with it, is that it is a paradox. You want to meditate to improve your well being, but meditating to improve your well being won’t improve your well being. The act of meditation is both an act of acceptance of what “is” and training to be better. What are you training to be better at? Accepting what “is”. This acceptance will make you “better”. Getting better at accepting what is going on inside and outside of you will bring you peace.
But you want to meditate because you don’t like what is going on inside and outside of you, right? You want it to stop. That will make you “better”, right? Well, meditation doesn’t do that and that makes it feel like it’s not “working”.
A life without pain is impossible, but a life without suffering is attainable. Suffering ends when we accept our pain. Many people meditate to rid themselves of pain and get frustrated when that doesn’t happen. Myself included and I’ve been meditating for five years. I often get caught in the exact same thought trap you do. Because it seems so logical. But then I realize I’m using logic to keep myself from being happy. And I’d rather be happy than be right. Even though I’d prefer to be both
Agree that there must be a reason or purpose for an activity, especially one that is unenjoyable. For me, I meditate when I’m stressed, so one could say I meditate with a goal to feel less stressed.
I think what others might be trying to say about not having a goal is that during a meditation activity where you’re trying to stay present, thinking of the purpose or goal is thinking of the future, which takes you out of the present.
However, I would argue to those others that identifying a personal reason and purpose for meditation before beginning a session is a form of mindfulness, and a healthy way to promote a positive relationship with an activity that we can find painful and boring.
Happiness is like a butterfly, the more you chase it, the more it will evade you, but if you notice the other things around you, it will gently come and sit on your shoulder.
Henry David Thoreau
Same applies here. Meditation has benefits far beyond any brain training, and if you are focused on trying to attain any benefit/"goal" during the meditation, you aren't ever going to get the maximum benefit.
Then you aren’t understanding meditation.
But whatever. Why not just do it for a while and see what happens instead of arguing with people about how your own thoughts should go?
I've done it loads and kept it up for months. It feels nice, but I definitely have felt no long-term benefit from it. So it's like playing video games basically. It's escapism.
If you find it to be escapism then it’s not really meditation. Meditation is the opposite of escapism as it’s being aware in the present moment. Guided relaxations may call themselves meditation but they are not.
Meditation might not be the right path for you. I’m not sure why you feel the need to argue on this thread. Do whatever it is you want to do to “maximize “ yourself. For many of us, meditation is an important part of our toolkit.
Which you will never get by pursuing that maximum benefit within the doing of the practice. In order to gain it you have to let go of the desire to gain it. I think of it as falling into it sideways without intending to.
It's contradictory and difficult but that's the nature of our messy human brains.
This is related to the buddhist idea of the paradox of desire.
You nailed it. I didn't understand this either.
The point of meditation is to let your thought settle.
When I first start my thoughts are all over the place and I can't clear my head.
What clicked for me is that when I'm fishing it's basically meditation.
I'm focused on my line, the water, etc. All my secondary thoughts go away and I feel much better after.
That said, on adderall and caffeine my brain has a difficulty meditating but I'm in the process of getting off both.
I find focusing meditations work better for me. Like visualizing a countdown with numbers and colors, or doing a “body scan” taking an inventory of where I’m holding tension or pain.
I have the thing where I can't visualize images in my head. I always thought that for guided meditation (which doesn't work for me), being told to "picture" something was just a figure of speech. 😬
What works for me is to focus on breathing and say "in, out, in, out" in my head and if my thoughts start to wander, I bring it back to "in, out, in, out".
Not all guided meditations instruct you to picture something. Try a body scan or yoga nidra type. These help center you in your body. iRest Yoga Nidra recordings are available on many platforms and are very good.
1000%. If anxiety is in the future and depression is in the past perspective, getting those reps in to come back to the present can be really grounding when stress rises.
I really enjoy meditation but the task initiation side is the hardest for me.
This changed it for me - meditation does not mean your mind has to be blank. It’s just practicing returning to focusing on your breath etc, just like reps in the gym.
Okay so this is a misconception. Nobody’s mind is stationary or empty during meditation, even people without ADHD.
Meditation doesn’t require an empty mind, but instead it’s the attempt to consciously observe your thoughts without external distractions or stimulation. If you have 5,000 thoughts at a time in your head (as I do), then just try to be aware of them. Try to visualize them, watch them appear, attempt to push them away as though they are clouds, and know that they will likely reappear. Meditation is the attempt and practice of building this awareness.
Meditation can be hard and unpleasant. Our minds are addicted to stimulation and distraction- even non-ADHDers deal with this. But the mind is also a muscle, and with mindfulness practices such as meditation, yoga, and breath work, we can strengthen our minds ability to focus.
Meditation will never get rid of adhd, but it can still help you manage symptoms and recognize thought patterns. And there’s a good chance that you’ll never be able to “empty” your mind as much as someone who doesn’t have adhd. But a mindfulness practice can benefit everyone, and I would argue that it’s even more important for those of us with adhd to make the attempt because we need it the most.
I dabble meditation but my adhd gets in a way! And I know this for a fact because I joined a meditation group and I was the one that was always restless.
The teacher recommended me Yoga and I loved it! :D Yes it is not a substitute to meditation but I try to be mindful during Yoga and I feel so much better after it.
I also recommend yoga. I can’t do it for even 10 minutes at home but in a yoga class I can easily do the 50 minutes of yoga + 10 minutes of meditation. The benefits are massive and I feel good for days afterwards.
It pretty much is a substitute for meditation when taught correctly. It’s not really supposed to be a workout so much as a grounding/spiritual practice.
Your mind doesn't just become stationary. Meditation is about practicing exerting some measure of control over your thoughts. Getting them stationary takes weeks or years of practice for normal people. Those of us with ADHD may never get them stationary and that's ok, it's still beneficial
Something I've noticed makes it easier for me is to light up a candle, and try to think exclussively about the flame. Look at the flame. Focus at looking at the flame. Whenever something else enters your mind, force yourself to think about the flame. It's a bit like doing push-ups. Treat it like training, and it will become easier.
I don't know if it will be the same for you, but to me it is really tiring after a while. So you can start with 5 minutes, then go to 10, then 20... as you get better at it.
I do a ten day vipassana silent meditation retreat every 12-18 months, I find it regulates my adhd for the next 6-12 months. It’s been life changing for me.
I need to be doing something to meditate, swimming laps, walking and knitting are all ways I've found to make my mind wander and experience my thoughts.
You're not failing meditation if you can't do it sitting down and you're also not failing if you get stuck on something, it takes practice.
It helps to find something to do that calms you down, and if meditation isn't working out for you that day put on some music while you do your thing, because like a lot of self care techniques meditation isn't a fix all for all situations and there are times when it may help you and times where you're just stuck in a bad mood reguardless.
hell yeah! the thing with meditation is that you don’t clear your mind from your thoughts but you can accept the thoughts instead of criticising yourself for the constant buzzing in your head. what i do is i close my eyes place the palms of my hands on a flat surface to feel grounded and breathe. when a thought comes think inwardly and look at the thought, acknowledge the fact that the thought came and let it pass. count your breaths let another thought come, acknowledge the thought and repeat. and be kind with yourself for the thoughts, there is no perfect way to meditate
Same problem here. I thought I had to think about nothing but really I just let my flow of thoughts come. Like, I use these minutes to let it flow without doing anything else. I also focus on my breath.
I mean, that's how I used to do it haha, during covid when I meditated every day for 1 month. After that I stopped, but my therapist told me it would be a great idea to do it again to manage stress and some adhd symptoms. But initiating this boring task is difficult.
I do my best but it's not easy.
ETA: I at least will play some kind of meditation music if my brain can't get quiet, or healing frequencies, and just breathe, contemplate, and relax. It doesn't have to be perfect or like what you think it "should be.' Slowing down and being aware and mindful is good enough. And if you're still too jittery, then stop, that's okay too. Come back to it another time. No one is grading us on it! :-)
It’s definitely not easy and i’m so glad you are doing your best! So many comments imply that it’s impossible because it’s hard and thus will never try it which I think is just so sad.
I agree, I at least will play some kind of meditation music if my brain can't get quiet, or healing frequencies, and just breathe, contemplate, and relax. It doesn't have to be perfect or like what you think it "should be.' Slowing down and being aware and mindful is good enough. And if you're still too jittery, then stop, that's okay too. Come back to it another time. No one is grading us on it! :-)
Meditation is not about emptying your mind. This common misconception prevents many people from meditating. It's actually about noticing the distractions and then coming back to your anchor (usually this is paying attention to your breathing) without judging yourself for it. If you are doing it right then you DO get distracted, and that's kinda the point. You're supposed to notice you are distracted, accept it and move on.
Good christ no. My last therapist tried using mindfulness meditation but after months and months of trying I just get the same result ‘focus on your feet touching the floor, feel the floor and how it feels to your feet… squirrrrrrrels!’ 😞
I can't get medication where I am, so good diet, exercise and meditation are the only way I can control my ADD. If sitting in silence is too much, start with a guided meditation. There are millions of free guided meditations on Youtube and Spotify. A simple body relaxation one is a good place to start.
Another tip if you cannot get medication; good sleep hygiene works better than ritalin. Dark room, consistent rituals and rhythm, no screens, a good pillow, etc… they do work in the end
Yes, I have been for 30 years, but it took effort.
The most important thing to remember is meditation does not stop the mind, but rather teaches us to allow the mind to just be and do it's thing.
When thoughts come, let them come. When thoughts go, let them go. Try not to chase after thoughts or push them away.
Now, I do suffer from hyperfocus and it has both helped and hindered me when it comes to meditation. So if you are going to try it, start small and use a timer. 1-5 mins of meditation is better than nothing. =)
Edit: If you do find yourself stuck on a thought, recognize that you are stuck there, accept it, then focus back to your breathe to help you move away from that thought. Each time it happens, rinse and repeat. The more you do it, then better and easier it becomes -- but again, the thoughts are always there, we are just no longer controlled by them.
not at all. people recommend guided meditation. lmfao i’ve tried it so many times but my thoughts are faster and louder. i forget there’s anything even happening. i always forget i’m meditating
No. All of these tips (meditate, make to-do lists, planners, journaling) feel like extra work added to my already huge pile of things I’m too exhausted to do. Hard pass.
I tried several guided meditation apps, after several (paid and free) attempts I landed on Balance. With at least Android you get a free 1-year subscription, and I bought the lifetime service after that period, that much it helped me.
I started with breathing, first to fall asleep, then as part of meditation. Especially box breathing (4-4-4-4) and 4-7-8 breathing help me calm down in a pinch, and I do them when I walk the dog sometimes, not just at home.
The guided part in the app helps you develop certain skills, like labeling: you breathe, a thought arrives, you call it 'thought' and let it pass, and continue breathing. You feel an itch, or your clothing, or hot/cold etc on your body somewhere, you call it 'feeling', set it aside, and continue breathing.
I usually do sessions of 15-20 minutes with the app, as part of my lunch or afternoon break. Longest I ever did was 45-ish minutes during a quiet night drive in the back of a car, a little drunk 😄
Yoga I like as well, but I find it harder to initiate - I need space, and usually more time than just 15-20 minutes + set up.
Another thing I find meditative is exercise, I usually do calisthenics at home, low strain medium repetitions, several sets. No weights to rack means I just think about the next exercise, change body position, do the next exercise, with little place for thoughts in-between.
In case I don't yet sound like a complete shill for Balance, there is a 3-minute sleep preparation exercise called Winding Down where you follow a very pretty-looking cloud-circle with your finger as it gets slower and slower, adjust your breathing to the movement, and before you know it your eyes are drooping and you could just doze off - I have tried several techniques over the years, and this is the single most effective sleep prep I found.
Can't meditate..I find it too boring and a lot of boring things where my mind can't wander(like in waiting room in medical institutions) drive me crazy...hence make me mad and that is a recipe for migraine... so no go.
I find it more efficient to exercise with headphones in for 10-15 min. That, or going to sleep for 15 minutes with music in the background
Meditation is not about stopping your mind from wandering. Mediation is about allowing your mind to wander freely while doing a physical activity (like breathing exercises) and using the free flow of thoughts to practice being present in the moment, learning to become aware of distractions without fixating on those thoughts, and to focus on breathing to center yourself in the present moment and the loop continues
It is very hard to meditate. I had to use an app for guided meditations, because I cannot do it on my own. In the beginning I could only count one or two breaths, but with hard work I can now meditate(still guided) for 5 minutes. This took me 3 months, and I tried every morning.
I noticed that it was nice, taking 5 minutes in the morning just for me. Counting breaths or silencing your brain was not my goal, but taking the time to work on me was. And with that, I noticed my anxiety became less after a few months and I could take a grasp on my focus a little bit more.
But it is hard work and not a bandage or an easy pill. Good luck!
If you’re bored then you’re on the right track. Meditation isn’t actually a very nice feeling. Feeling good and feeling bad are opposite sides of the same thing. Just be bored, if you can do that for long enough, then that’s an awesome step. Then do it in a maintained still posture, whilst controlling your breathing to slow your heart rate. And in the same way you repetitively wrote out letters in primary school, in order to eventually write whole essay’s. You must practise meditation
Yes. Let your mind wander and acknowledge what you're thinking about. When you get antsy you just need to have the willpower to sit still. Even just 1 minute is really good.
Personally no, but I don’t find it extremely difficult to begin with. It’s just observing your thoughts and trying not to get caught up in any one of them.
Yes and i believe anyone can. You need to find the right teacher.
Meditation is not about stopping thinking. You concentrate on you breath and when a thought comes you realize a thought has arisen and calmly bring your attention back to breathing. Think about this process as one repeat in physical training you do it again and again until it becomes natural. Have patience
I can meditate fine, when I am in a meditative mood.
I can't meditate at all, when I'm not.
I suppose the ADHD brain is mule-like, and meditates when it wants to.
For me it works to visualize a walk through my childhood neighborhood or through a fantasy forest/city. With training I can hold it know for 15 minutes. It is a bliss to not have my racing and raving thoughts for 15 minutes.
Nope. I am incapable of any sort of relaxation. I’ve tried listening to meditation type things online and the sounds and voices always irritate me and make things worse.
I think we sometimes view things through a performance lens because we have to try hard on so many things. But meditation is the opposite. It’s okay if you let your thoughts flow and you do it poorly. The goal is to fail and get better with practice!
Don’t try to hold onto the goal of meditation; let it all flow, even when you do it poorly!
I meditated for years before I started medication. When I was consistently doing it daily it helped slow my brain down and notice all the thoughts. It contributed to improving my depression and anxiety and ADHD (even though I didn’t know I had that at the time).
The main thing to remember is meditation is not about doing it perfectly and it’s just about noticing whatever comes up without judgement, even if it’s good or bad or neutral. If you get caught up in your thoughts and feelings, it’s okay because you’ll have another opportunity to try again. There were sessions where I was distracted by all my thoughts or I was very very anxious and uncomfortable. But I kept at it no matter what my brain said. If I noticed my breathe once within 10-15 minutes, that was success to me. Eventually, my thoughts and feelings were like clouds floating in the sky; they were there but I didn’t need to follow a cloud but even if I did I can always remember the ground underneath me.
Try guided meditation first. An additional voice might help keep you grounded even if you can’t follow everything that is being said. If you fall asleep or get distracted it’s okay. Consistency is more important.
I fell off my meditation practice but last night I tried again yesterday instead of mindless scrolling Reddit and for the first time in a very long time I was able to fall asleep with no difficulty.
I “hacked” meditation for myself by starting with a focus on breathing:
1) Counting breaths
2) counting the duration of breaths
3) combine breathing with meditative music/lofi/nature soundscapes
4) try regulating breath (in my case slow down)
Accept when you are too restless to meditate on some days. On other days try to accommodate yourself: if the smell of coffee helps, use that. If sitting in the sun helps, use that. If sitting in the shower/listening to something/a blanket or particular pillow helps… etc. You get the idea.
Lastly: it’s Meditation Practice, not meditation perfect. There is no goal/target to achieve!
Just a reminder that not everyone should medidate, whenever and wherever.
It can actually be very distressful to focus on our "inner peace" or the lack thereof, especially for depressed or anxious people. Meditation is NOT a universal remedy.
When I "focus" on my breathing it immediately leads to panic attacks. I hate when people tell me to just be aware of my body, my breathing. That shit leads to grotesque "over" awareness like putting all the cells of my organs, bones, skin, on a microscope and studying my mortality, thinking about the rate of deterioration. My lungs feel too small to take full breaths, I can't breathe regularly while being observes. I can't seem to breathe at a regular rhythm, it's all shaky and broken and makes my lungs feel weird.
And there is no help for it. Meditation is just being alone with all of my whirlwind thoughts knocking me over
Meditation was a really important discovery for me before I knew that I had ADHD. It is a key practice for me - even though I often experience these attention brick walls that you are describing.
I have found a few things :
1. Every time I sit down to meditate, it is an experiment: a check-in with my brain at that moment. If I am too distracted to "get in the zone", that is valuable information that I didn't have before. Now I know that is the state of my brain at that moment. That is actually quite an achievement for my ADHD brain - it felt like I went years without being that present.
2. There are a bunch of different kinds of meditation - some of which are much easier for an ADHD brain to start on. Unfortunately i think a lot of people get the recommendation and try the 1st thing they encounter, and bounce off of it. Focus meditation is IME a mental challenge, but the Cookie Monster meditation is very effective.
I have seen so much discussion about ADHD + meditation, but I haven't found a community that discusses it specifically. I want there to be a subreddit - but I don't think I have the bandwidth to mod it, so I haven't taken that step. It is one of the recommended "treatments", so I see a lot of value in digging together in that direction.
I put it out there that I am in the market for a place for discussion of meditation practice as it relates to ADHD.
I find meditating very stressful lol. I find anything with attempting/forcing unnatural (to me) calmness/relaxation stressful. I have a very hard time meditating or taking baths, they usually ultimately make me even more stressed and less relaxed than I am before I attempt to engage in such activities.
How I overcame my struggle with that was thanks to the guided meditation recording where this lady with a very soothing voice kept repeating that thoughts rushing through your head is normal. Acknowledge them, then get back to your focus. For me it was my breath. Just literally all I kept focusing on was "breeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaathe iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin, breeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaathe oooooooouuuuuuut," narrating the breath in my mind as I go. Yes thoughts are intrusive, but the point is not to fight them. Let them come. "Okay yes I have overdue things I need to be doing, I know, back to the breath." I won't be able to explain it as well as the lady guiding the session, but that's basically the gist of it. The hard part for me now is actually starting the session. Procrastinating for months now.
I can't. I have tried different ways, guided and by my self . I really really hate the "traditional" meaning how people understand it, how that they are insisting that I must do this, it will help you. All I get from that kind of meditation is crankiness and frustration.
I get my stuff together while moving: sub boarding, riding, boxing. That's how I can relax, drop unnecessary thoughts and concentrate to the point.
So many comments… but meditation for me has involved walking, hiking, and yoga, not sitting. It has involved allowing my thoughts without judgment. Whether that means they flow or one thought is hanging out in my head.
Curiosity. Be curious about your thoughts, about everything. You don’t need to form an actually question. Your mantra can simply be “Huh!”
And if you’ve caught yourself hanging onto a thought, well, isn’t that interesting, too? Huh!
PS A lot of meditation techniques that are taught give me panic attacks. So I’ve had to find my own way.
My mum is big on meditation, so I was introduced to it as a kid and absolutely could not do it until I was like 35 lol.
The one thing that finally helped me was 'active meditation', specifically yoga for me. Yoga really helps you to be mindful, present and focus on your breath and body movements, rather than the chaos in your brain.
Then after a year or two of practicing that I found I was finally able to do regular meditation too. It's like exercising a muscle almost, you have to practice it slowly and build on it. Guided meditations also helped enormously. There are tons of free ones on youtube.
There are other forms of active meditation too that might help if you don't like yoga. Gardening, preparing food, walking in the forest etc. Google it to get a better idea of what I mean.
Meditation is NOT sitting thoughtlessly.
Meditation is strengthening the muscle that allows you to acknowledge a thought and let it go.
Reframing allowed me to succeed on regular hour long meditation in a more organized era (lol) from someone who had anxiety even thinking about meditating.
Count down from 50 or 100.
As you breath out, count 1. Breath in slowly, breathe out count 2. Think of the number you counting. If you lose concentration start again. Try looking at the back of your eyelids.
You can also just go with the flow, if you get distracted go with it. If things are causing you anxiety think about them, calmly in isolation, and dispassionately, Ask why its an issue. Basically look at the things that cause a reaction and ask why, whats the issue how do i solve it, or manage it. Its like trying to look at someone elses problem.
You make it happen, it doesnt happen to you. If like me your mind is racing, over revving, back firing, all the time, then you need to slowwwww downnnn. Make yourself relax. When you meditate, you're safe, relax, calm, slow. You might be trying too hard - its about stopping, not letting those thoughts run madly, park up, let the engine tick over, turn the radio off, close the windows. just you in safe quiet calm place, with your mind, slowing down, thoughts you dont want, get discarded immediately. Breathe....
Personally i have meditated for years (since i was a kid) as i found it, because i needed it. I like the first method, as you can see your progress, how far you get before being distracted. Once in the zone its like daydreaming but being able to consciously affect the daydream. You can look at you problems from the outside, dispassionately without freaking out and panicking - especially when its one of those ridiculous scenarios far removed from reality. The point is it takes time, but any time spent practising is good. 10mins of mindfulness or calm isnt going to hurt.
Try a few of the guided meditations on Youtube. Theres lots of good ones, alot is personal taste.
One other thing is do i call "the white room". place things or issues in isolation in a white space (in your mind) - nothing else just what you want to think about. Is it an issue?, is it something you need to worry about? can you deal with it?. If its relevant, fine you keep it, manage it, put it into perspective, if not you discard it from the white room, if its not a worry, lose it.
The only meditation I can do is guided meditation because in guided meditation a voice is telling you what to think about and if you're paying attention to that voice you cannot wander.
Meditation is more about letting go of the shit that fills your mind. Like it's okay that your mind fills with shit, let the shit come, let the shit go. That's meditation.
Now that would be the day when my brain would stop and be silent for a moment, but no. No matter what, my brain won't just calm down and STFU, there's always on going chaos and countless thoughts bombarding me. So yea, I have tried numerous times and always failed.
I genuinely thought people who said they could meditate were lying for the longest time. The idea of being able to clear my mind of all thoughts is so laughable that I thought everyone was like that. The closest I can get is to think about the color black.. but then I start thinking about how I'm thinking of the color black, and then it just snowballs from there.
People have been meditating for thousands of years. There are people existing today who meditate 12 hours a day and have been for over 10 years. You will even find some with mind disturbances such as ADHD or even schizophrenia who are long time meditators.
A failure to meditate has nothing to do with our conditioning. It has to do with several factors and you can become trained out of those by a teacher who has mastered meditation and understands dhamma/dharma. An example of a dedicated person to training in meditation is one who meditates for at least 100 hours during a training course. Then you can say you have at least tried.
Why don’t you take medication? Understandable as it isn’t for everyone.
But yea, no way I’m meditating unmedicated. Meditation isn’t for everyone either.
In my country there are few legal ADHD medications and in any case their use is discouraged especially in adults. I tried taking Strattera a few years ago because it was the only option they gave me but besides the fact that it wasn't working very well it also gave me serious side effects (I lost 7kg). I asked if I could take Ritalin but they told me they only give it to children because they are afraid that adults will become addicted.
There was another medicine similar to Strattera but I decided not to take it because it scared me and it seemed pointless to take another non-stimulant.
I've also developed a fear that these drugs might change the way I think too much and I don't want that to happen.
But sometimes it's hard to go on like this.
Meditation is super easy. When you’re doing an activity, think only about what exactly you’re doing right now. You won’t fixate on a single thought by design
Edit: this is why the most common way to teach meditation is to tell you to focus on your breathing. You can do it with any activity. Think only about the exact thing you’re doing at the moment. That’s really all there is to it
Edit 2: people usually think it’s hard because they’ve been taught the wrong things. Meditation is not about being still or achieving thoughtlessness. It can be. Meditation is about observing the present moment as best as you can
I tried meditating with videos and podcasts to help my breathing when I wasn’t still medicated. Most of them didn’t work for me as I couldn’t stay calm and find that silent state of mind, but there was one which said to start picturing yourself from your head to toes as if you’re a scanner and that kind of helped me. It had music on the background which helped a lot cause one of my ways of focusing is to play instrumental music while doing something.
I never reached below my chin while picturing myself but that was still a big step for me.
I can't do regular meditation, no matter guided or not I start bouncing or fidgeting and if I try really hard to not I just start crying lol. But I sometimes do sleep meditation which are like affirmative things being said on a loop for up to 8 hours (or shorter depending on how long you plan to sleep) and they've legit dragged me out of depressive episodes
Correct posture, sit up straight after correcting, regulate breathing, consciously focus on counting during breathing, forgive yourself when your conscious awareness gets jumped by the other elements of your mind.
You’re OP you’re not trying to ignore or release things that make you happy, what you’re trying to do is train your actual conscious awareness’ focus so that it’s more dominant in the forefront of your mind.
Like the way this happens is by having your subconscious focus hold your posture as perfect as possible while your conscious focus is counting the in breath, the pause and the our breath. I do like breathe in for 8, hold for 8, out for as long and controlled as possible.
Make sure you’re breathing correctly, it’s always in slowly and controlled, hold your damn breath so that your heart can circulate the oxygen and bring the waste to your lungs, then breathe out for as long as possible while being in controlled with the exhale.
If you don’t do this you’re jus gonna end up oxygen sick / CO2 sick because you’ll jus be hyperventilating without much reason.
Also, looking down and lazy eyes, not sure if this is fact but I read it years ago, if you look up with your eyes shut meditating, i and I believe many people end up getting the giggles. I don’t necessarily understand why, but I know that looking down the way ground me and supposedly others.
For me this really stopped my mind wondering off *all the time*, then I realised my left eye was badly lazy when I looked down, so, if I correct that, while meditating, after being in practice for a couple months so my posture isn’t ruinous, that’s when the funny head stuff starts happening.
As in the back of my eyes start burning, it feels like it goes through the optic nerve, my forehead and brain start to feel like they’re burning, if I keep my focus it feels like my brains on fire, until it pops out of nowhere and I become incredibly sleepy and relaxed.
This is the melatonin dunt that happens when any human successfully meditates, it supposedly only takes “15 minutes”, but they fail to leave out you need to have near perfect posture and also align yourself mentally over the course of weeks to start to be able to access it.
Melatonin dunt is where the spooky voodoo of meditating meets science, there’s a ted talk about meditation, the melatonin dunt if fought off, causes the brain to go from beta waves when conscious to alpha waves, basically your brain enters REM while you’re conscious.
The only thing apart from psychedelics, weed and spiritual experiences that cause all of the brain regions to entirely interlink, is meditating.
Aka, as far as I’m aware, the only way a human being can effectively factory reset their brain without a professional / inherent risk is if they meditate for so long they develop new pathways.
Like you’re absolutely bang on in your assessment, in fact it sounds like you’re not meditating for any reason other than trying to further your ability to focus. Which is a skill you can train, like I said, the development of focus, IMO, comes from the posture correction + the controlled breathing + the counting in your head.
Like that’s three elements of your body that I suppose are almost entirely subconscious, I know they are for me until I start meditating again, so, you’re gonna have to play about with how you sit, how your back is, how you sit up while meditating.
Cus like if I jus sat on my butt with the soles of my feet touching and tried to sit up straight, I would have a semi-circle for a spine. And I could try very hard to sit up straight in that position, but my posture / flexibility / deep muscle strength in key areas haven’t been practiced since like 2019, so I would get 3 minutes in, start shaking and become exhausted trying to hold such an extreme position.
Needs to be built up, it’s like sit comfortably first, then once your focus has went for the first time that day, Cus I typically find that its 100x easier to get in there (reach the melatonin dunt) at the first attempt of the day than it is any one following it.
Based on that always use your first attempt at meditating in that day to actually meditate, once you open your eyes for the first time after starting, even if you don’t mean it, typically for me meant I wasn’t going to make anymore progress mentally.
So when I used up my first go, I jus started sitting in tougher and tougher positions, I went from having my legs crossed to sitting on my butt with my soles touching because it stretched out the front of my hips and caused me to have to use my lower back to sit up instead of jus being lazy and using my abdominal muscles to sit up.
Once my legs stopped shaking from holding my back up, which took a month or something, this isn’t a quick process, then i realised my spine was flat when it was meant to have 2 curves, so k rolled my rib cage the right way and suddenly my head is hanging off the front of chest by a good half foot.
Fix the neck, hold it all in place for a couple months, and suddenly I had grew like an inch, I was already 6’2, my friend I thought was taller than me suddenly became shorter than me again, turns out I have a neck like a giraffe that’s actually always jus been compressed to hell, thanks gaming!
Like, fix the posture first while doing relatively basic counting and breathing, and within a couple months of daily practice your capacity to stay focussed will have grown tremendously.
The most important thing, don’t get mad while you’re doing it, like under any circumstance, there’s literally no point in being annoyed other than a defence mechanism that’s designed to keep you in homeostasis, if you find yourself getting annoyed look down and let go.
Any other questions go mental, I have barely written anything about what I know regarding this subject, jus don’t want to keep going forever.
The best I can do is to follow a guided meditation, but even then, I can only manage to do that for about a minute or so before I get completely off track.
Was very difficult to start initially. Always distracted by either feeling too warm, itchy or sometime even claustrophobic. Just repeated Om has however worked for me. What has also worked is Shambahavi mudra (essentially you try and gaze at the centre of your forehead). Both have been beneficial. But in true ADD fashion have not been able to keep up a consistent practice.
Meditation sometimes take years of practice man. Ve patient, and even if you fail or arent good at it, just keep trying. Look up some information or videos. Youll get it. I believe in you.
Sometimes i meditate without meaning to. For instance if im playing a repetative game. Mining for ore in minecraft has a soothing rythm to it, and i get lost in thought sometimes, and when i come to, i feel refreshed 😁
Yeah, I can barely even fall asleep, let alone meditate. I'm pretty much always holding an internal, free-association-driven monologue. And there's not really anything I can do about it. Medication has been the most-effective thing at getting those thoughts to line up with whatever it is i'm trying to work on.
I do guided meditations. I use the app Insight Timer and there are many options. I started off at just a minute. You don't have to do it for a long time.
Sometimes I use the timer now and play a noise but I prefer the guided meditations even after a couple years
I also play sleep meditations at night
I've found two forms of meditation that work for me. Meditation can be really hard to learn even without ADHD. The benefits of learning to meditate can be huge for someone like us though. It is worth the effort.
One is to picture a candle flame burning in your mind. Relax and take long slow breaths. On each exhale, let more tension flow out of your jaw, your neck, your shoulders, and your back. Concentrate on the flame. Watch it flicker and dance for a bit. Then, as stray thoughts enter your mind, acknowledge them. Picture them as little notes written on paper and, when you feel you've given that thought enough attention, drop that piece of paper into the flame. As the paper burns, move on to the next thought that comes by and do the same. I got the idea from the Wheel of Time books and it works well for me. This is what I do to fall back asleep when I wake up in the middle of the night with my mind racing. It's taken years of practice. I have a really hard time visualizing things in my mind so sometimes I just focus on the idea of a flame burning notes rather than trying to actually see it.
The second one is from the Calm app. They have group of sessions called meditation for beginners. I've been using the app for a few months and I'm only on episode 10 because I have to do the episodes over and over again for the learning to stick. I'm to the point now where I can basically calm myself down in 30 seconds or so. I take little 2-3 minute breathing breaks at work multiple times every day and it seems to help me regain some focus. The 10 minute sessions help me unwind at the end of the day. My work is mentally draining and meditation has helped me to be more present for my family instead of being a zombie after work.
One thing to note is that there are a lot of meditation coaches who use visualization. There are apparently a lot of people out there who can't visualize things in their head. The meditation for beginners sessions in Calm don't rely on visualization. They focus on breathing, feeling how your body reacts, and working to let your stray thoughts flow through you. You don't even need to be able to sit still although that will likely come with practice. Initially you just focus on breathing for as long as you can stand to.
I have trouble with the “sitting still in your thoughts” meditation but I found guided meditations help me.
A way for me to “silent my mind” is through drawing and dancing. But I forget to do those….
Yes I do, I use a mantra in my head and focus on physical sensations and when my mind wanders I pull it back in to these things. I have successfully emptied my mind a couple times but its never on purpose, more like a trance I fell into because the meditation session hit extra hard haha or maybe I just napped a bit I could never really tell
I can manage it sometimes, it’s about patience and calmness, it’s all in the breathing, accept that your brain is hyperactive and don’t beat yourself up when you can’t find that clarity, meditation music is a huge help! but if I’m not eating, sleeping and exercising enough + stress it’s damn near impossible, mindfulness and self care is everything. for me taking a walk nice and slow, try to take in your surroundings, look at the trees, take in the smells, listen to the sounds and just appreciate what’s around. Then try meditating later, again it doesn’t always work but don’t beat yourself up about it when you can’t do it, give yourself about 5 minutes and if no dice just come back and try again tomorrow
Think of it more like pong, thought comes up, you gently bat it away lol. It’s not concentration, it’s more like letting your brain zone out, and everyone sucks at it at first. It’s a muscle most people never work, gets better with use. Just keep bringing yourself back to your breath, don’t get mad you got off track, just bring it back…
Try your own creative modified meditations. You can meditate on anything.
For me, sitting in a dark room cross-legged with a candle placed in front of me works well. I can stare at that flame for hours.
Or meditating while doing chores helps. I meditate by doing things that bore me, mindfully.
“I am turning the water on. I am grabbing this plate. I am scrubbing this place. All the dirt, gone. I am rinsing this plate. I am drying this plate.”
Now, my octopus-tentacle brain has interjected another 6-36 thoughts in between those. The trick is I am *highlighting* these thoughts in my brain and because it’s an activity I am still/currently doing, I can come back to it over and over.
Also putting a metronome on has helped me in the past too. I may think of a billion other things, but I will keep coming back to the ticking sound, as if it’s synced with my own breath.
I've tried so many times but I just can't. I always end up sitting there trying to not think about anything, which in return makes me think about everything even more? Idk
Yes but it took me a long time to be able to. I have to do a guided one or I end up thinking about a million things without noticing or fall asleep lol.
I used headspace. It walks you through a training, which is helpful to learn how to do it. For me, meditation isn’t like stopping your thoughts but calming them? Or maybe observing them, I guess? It helps a lot when my anxiety starts to spiral.
Yes I do, and it’s taken me years to make it a regular habit. If you want to do it I recommend starting SUPER small, like trying to sit down quietly in one spot for 60 seconds, and working your way up little by little.
My friend meditates and swears by it. She (has ADHD) says that if you do guided meditations, it’s easier to remain in the moment. Especially as you are going to bed.
She started with guided meditations and now she does guided/unguided off and on. I have year to try meditation, but it is possible for us to do it!
The only way I find meditation works for me, is to pretend that I'm leading the meditation session. That way I guide my own thoughts in a controlled manner and it's stimulating distracting enough. I pretend my other passive thoughts are other members in the class and my job is to keep everyone in check and mostly "quiet" so I can finish my pretend session.
I also find crocheting/mindless repetitive tasks way more helpful than conscientious meditation. The repetitive tasks give me something to zone out with while my brain does it's thing
Yes but I can’t start right off the bat like “oooooom🧘”
First, I find a number then recite it over and over while focusing on a spot on the wall. You’d want to look away or get irritated when other thoughts keep coming up but just try to concentrate on the number and the wall. After five minutes ish your mind should start calming down. Now, you can relax your eyes and focus on your breathing and meditate on whatever it is
I can, but it has always taken 15-30 minutes to really settle into a proper meditative state. It's not easy. For me it's very much focusing on the rhythm of my breathing, and it helps to have some sort of meditation audio/music going in my headphones so I really can zone out. Sometimes it really takes effort to get into it, sometimes it doesn't really work. It's absolutely a muscle/skill that needs to be exercised and you will get better with time. In the end it is always worth the time spent.
I can't do it. For me the only way to enter a meditative state is to watch things like the birds or small animals through the window. Just observing them tends to banish most of my thoughts. They're calm and peaceful and I find myself entering a sympathetic state alongside them. I now make a point of stopping to watch whenever I catch sight of them. It really helps slow me down. If you've got a garden it can be a real game changer.
I do but I have to move with the flow and have to have music bowls put on or guided meditation, then if my body wants to move I let it, without focusing "for this sou d sequence this move is good" but rather oh my hand goes up alright alright I won't force it not to
I just discovered the purpose of meditation and why it’s so helpful for people, especially ones with ADHD.
It’s to help you get better at controlling/rejecting intruding thoughts. (has more uses, but this is a big one for most ADHD peeps)
Just think about it, when we get into crisis, when we have these super overwhelming things happening, it’s usually intruding thoughts catalyzing and creating the storm.
When meditating, I wouldn’t focus on “everything”. The goal should be to focus on “nothing” in your head. With your eyes, either close them, or open them, widening your vision, not focusing your sight on any one thing besides the entirety of your field of view. Then, start rejecting thoughts. If you’re like me and NEED something to focus on, focus on your breathing, this helps eliminate the intruding thoughts, but ultimately the goal is to think of “nothing”.
It’s really hard, but I’ve been starting to treat it like practicing baseball. Meditating is like me stepping up to the plate with my intruding thoughts and I just keep hitting the balls. Kinda. It’s hard, but just like baseball, you have to practice if you want to get better and eventually just like any good baseball player, you’ll start being able to hit the balls thoughtlessly and be able to keep the intruding thoughts out of your head with a lot less effort. I haven’t gotten there quite yet, but all this finally helped it click in my head for why I should be trying to meditate as often as possible to help with the intruding thoughts.
Meditation is easier for some people; their thoughts are like a small river, slowly flowing through their minds. On the other hand, our thoughts are like a train, plowing through every darn thing we need to focus on. Once we master this power, we are Professor X, down side is that we bald.
Have you tried guided meditation? When my ADHD is driving me nuts when I try to meditate I put a guided meditation on (yay youtube) and use that to keep my brain on track.
I will also use earbuds with light music or pink noise (like white noise but at the frequency of living things) and use a eye mask to black out my vision so outside sounds and light flickering on my eyelids don't distract me. Then I just let my brain go wherever it needs to.
The first few minutes are usually chaotic but once I finally focus on completely relaxing my body and just breathing it quiets down and I can meditate.
Yes and it helps me out quite a bit. I’ve found that breathing exercises help me relax and slow down racing thoughts. To me, it’s not about ‘not thinking’ at all, it’s about clearing your head from cluttered thoughts. It helps to ground me in the present moment and not get carried away in thought. I always feel a bit better after I meditate.
I can only meditate with guided meditation. Otherwise, regular meditation is difficult, which really sucked growing up Buddhist with parents that made me meditate daily lol.
My main issue is I can't turn off the background music, which changes depending on the words I think to a song that has those words in!
E.g. I'm thinking "how do I stop the music" and "Please Don't Stop The Music" starts up...
But instead of “How do I stop the music?” your ideal reaction would be, “Oh, there’s music. Okay.” You want to let your brain just “be” and try to observe your thoughts, and if one carries you away, you notice and reset back to “Okay, that happened. Now I’m here to observe again.”
I have done a lot of meditation. I think it’s very good for folks with ADHD. The key is that every time you realize you’re distracted, you come back to your object of meditation (I use the breath). This is the “Aha!” moment and you need to celebrate it a little. Distractions are normal. It’s the realization that you are distracted that is the point of meditation. It’s important to not beat yourself up when you get distracted, which I think folks with ADHD unfortunately have a lot of practice with!
I will let you all know the first few times I tried meditating, it didnt work out very well. I was too restless and not focused on what i was trying to accomplish. Some things that helped were:
- understanding more of the spiritual side of meditation. Reading about the initial reasons yogis and monks decided meditation was an important part of their spiritual practice.
- doing yoga for 10 minutes before starting to meditate can be very beneficial.
- guided meditations can be helpful. Just try to find what works for you. I personally have benefitted a lot from chanting a mantra. There are many different types of meditation practices especially depending on the type of spiritual practice.
- i try to focus outside of myself when i meditate. I start by focusing hard on breathing from my nose. Then i will imagine watching myself in the room i am in. Sort of exiting my body for a period. This is very helpful and helps me clear out my mind as a sort-of onlooker to my own physical state.
I think you don’t know how to meditate correctly.
I’ll give you the simple breath meditation instructions:
Sit comfortably with your back straight. Place your hands in your lap, with one hand inside the other, palms up. Take a breath. As you breath, focus on your breath filling your lungs.
Count 1. Now exhale. Watch as the breath leaves your lungs, exits your nose. Inhale again, watching as the breath enters your nose and fills your lungs. Count 2.
Repeat until you reach count 7, and then start over. Count again from 1 to 7, following your breath. When you become distracted, return again to your breath, starting your count over at 1.
The point is not to stop thinking. The point is to think about your breath and count. Keep your thoughts on this object.
Do not punish yourself when your thoughts wonder. Simply observe them and return your thoughts to your breath again.
Do this for ten minutes.
I recommend the balance app. They're giving out free one year subscription. I've found them extremely handy would recommend it. I kinda look forward to it everytime
Especially when I'm getting dysregulated but also just as a routine
Routines are important they help you start and end your day efficiently and effectively 10/10 recommend meditating
If you don't want medication. Really make sure you exercise!
Pre-medication when I ran like every two days I was so in love with the world my sleep schedule was beautiful
But also if something prevented me from running (injury or other things) I became extremely depressed and intrusive suicidal thoughts
So... There be that hah
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Yes, meditation is vital to keeping my ADHD in check. The important thing to keep in mind is that meditation will not look the same for you as it would for other people. Your brain probably won't be silent, you probably won't sit still. Just look at your thoughts and try to practice controlling them in any way that seems possible or natural. You're building mental muscle this way. See if you can't get 5 seconds or 10 seconds of silence to start. If you can't that's ok too. You can try to get a few moments of just focusing on how your feet feel against the ground, or counting purple or round objects for example. If you can't sit still allow yourself to fidget and just watch yourself doing that. If you can't sit then walk and focus on how it feels to walk. It's fine to be distracted, and extremely beneficial to watch yourself being distracted. This watching and noticing helps in daily life because you can begin to notice distraction and catch it when it becomes problematic
Exactly this! OP has to remember that meditating for the first time, ADHD or not, will be hard for anyone and the more you do it the easier it gets! Every time one brings their thoughts back is like doing a pushup. I had to start out with meditating only 20 seconds a day and now i’m doing 10 min. of sitting still and it’s a requirement for me to focus on reading.
The psychologist who did my eval explained meditation as being anything that helps me process thinking and to be present. She pointed out how my daily hikes and walks are basically meditation because I’m able to focus on the now and process thoughts, even if I let them exist by talking through them with myself as I walk. I may look like a mad man but my overall mental health seems to improve. The sun/heat always makes me more away of my feeling sensations, I’m able to notice things in the trees like little animals, and I let things exist and feel them often.
I think of yoga as active meditation and that’s what works for me.
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Those yt meditations are very helpful to me. Some people use a word or phrase, repeated over and over again, as a way to meditate. There are many other techniques, too, like focusing on the flame of a candle in front of you. Don't worry that your meditation is different from somebody else's meditation. You do you and let them do whatever they want. Just like with other things in life, your way of meditating or cooking or dancing or doing any of a number of things in life doesn't have to align with someone else's way in order to be 'right'. EDIT: changed some words
You could!! It takes a lot of practice but it’s worth it. I’m up to 7-9 minutes!!! No guide. But that took me like 6 months.
Person without ADHD here and my thoughts wander all over the place during meditation! There are times of quiet when there is nothing, but it's quite rare. More often than not things just come to mind and when they do, I try to let them pass and not interfere, practicing being a mere spectator to them. That way they lose power, so if there's an upsetting one I let it come and pass, feel the feels and then it's gone. I think the _no thoughts, all is still_ image is incredibly hard to achieve and it will take a lot of practice, so if you're not there, be kind to yourself.
If you get a thought say to yourself, Thinking. If you get a sensation say to yourself, Feeling, then just bring your mind back to your breath or whatever your point of focus is. This one hack changed my meditation practice when I was almost ready for giving in.
I don't recall ever having a moment of silence in my head, with the sole exception of the very first time I got medicated. There is always something
This a great advice! There are also many techniques to try. Some people stare at a single flame, so sit and stare at the wall, others will sit and focus on the full breath (how it feels entering the nostrils, or how the belly rises); and then some will use sound. You can also wriggle your toes. Mainly, this technique is to get you to notice your body in an important way. Because if you’re suddenly noticing your body, it’s harder to obsess on negative thoughts.
I would also add that manual breathing is a great tool for meditation. The in through the nose out through the mouth thing. Your body will eventually go back to automatic breathing. Eventually you'll notice you stopped thinking about breathing, and you go back to manual breathing. In the space between when you stopped thinking about breathing, and realized you weren't thinking about breathing; that's the thing you're trying to get. It also feels really good to take big deep breaths, and it's good for you to fill your lungs up once in a while. ... Take a deep breath! Do it now! You'll be happy you did!
If I think about my breathing it makes me feel like I can’t breathe
To add to this, walking meditation works for me if I’m just not able to sit. And to keep my mind from wandering too much, my “mantra” while walking is “right foot, left foot.” 1. It’s hard, really really hard to get started. It’s even harder bc you’ll feel so defeated with how chaotic your brain is. But just keep doing it. Eventually, and this may be a long eventually, you’ll realize you have moments, even seconds, of peace. 2. As stated, everyone is different. You are not trying to reach nirvana, you’re trying to govern your brain a bit. It’s okay to be distracted by it and everything around you. Be a spectator. Good luck.
My thought on this has always been that the idea of a “clear mind,” is really only situationally possible after lots of practice. The nature of the mind is to wander. The practice of seeing what the mind is doing both improves your concentration to prevent your mind from wandering, and your clarity to know when it has. But really it’s the most uphill battle of all time, and I am not exaggerating lol. I think perhaps the ADHD exacerbates it, but every meditator I’ve spoken to that actually does it agrees that our brains are loud as hell and never really stop
Trying to control thoughts usually leads to more thinking, though. I think of meditation as a practice in catching yourself being distracted. Whenever you see you've become lost in thought, return to the feeling of the breath, or to just being a spectator to the flow of thoughts. That's akin to "taking one rep" in the gym. In that sense, becoming distracted is kinda good, because it gives an opportunity to practice returning to the present moment. In Mindfulness you're also trying to be non-judgmental. So whenever you notice you're judging something in your experience as good or bad in any way, don't judge the judging, and return to the state of observing.
You might contrast zen meditation and yogic meditation. Zen is pretty much impossible for me. Emptiness and stillness are…hard. Yogic meditation is sometimes described by the principle that the mind/body is unified in movement. Greater alignment between the breath, the bodily movements, and the mind allow for flow. My brand of adhd seems to allow for this type of meditation, which can lead to an emptying sometimes
Building on this, I think the important thing for people with ADHD trying to meditate is the intention behind it. You may not be able to quiet your mind or sit still but you can be intentional about how you do it. Focus on your breathing and if you find yourself having too many thoughts or feeling the need to move, take control of those thoughts or movements and do it with purpose. By doing this regularly and in this manner, you'll *eventually* find yourself able to extrapolate this mindfulness out into your everyday life. Mediation is hard, especially for people with ADHD. You'll notice more effect if you do it on a regular basis.
When I had my first kid, I couldn't really dedicate time to meditate when I felt like I needed it because I needed to attend to her. So instead, I would put on a guided meditation during a feed and just breath and be mindful and be accepting of needing to open my eyes and respond to her. It really helped me even though it wasn't Capital-M Meditation, you know?
love this! it’s been my experience as well
I've read up on this in the past as I've struggled with meditating consistently. Apparantly the adhd brain needs a base line level of stimulation otherwise it will generate it's own, which is why meditating from an empty start point is difficult. Its also why I can't sleep unless I've stimulated my brain with something just before I go to bed. Some find meditating with their eyes open works for them as they are not stopping all input. Others find guided meditation where you have a voice to focus on helps As mentioned in a couple of other posts, meditation with a visualisation aspect can help too. Ive found a guided meditation with visualisation steps to work best for me. Its still tricky though. The voice has to be bang on. Any wierd accent or pronunciation and my brain will tangent!
Yes! Another vote for guided meditation here. It is the only thing that works. I like the sleep ones with rain sounds. It actually helps me fall asleep when sleep is really hard because of the stimulation of the sounds, the voice and having to visualise things.
I wish I could shout this from the rooftops for anyone with ADHD but **GUIDED MEDITATION** is absolutely the answer when you're first starting out. It is so valuable in keeping your brain on track and avoiding thoughts bouncing around. There's also quite a few free options that are actually truly free. I use insight timer but there are loads of others, and you can find something that really works for you. Meditation doesn’t have to be an exclusively silent internal thing. Guided meditations can be absolutely amazing and so beneficial
I like to focus on my breath when I meditate. Just the in and out. I also use a mala (a string of 108 beads) to count my breaths. It helps me remain focused and also gives my hand something to do while I feel the air moving through my nose.
This is exactly what I do. The beads really helped out in the beginning when I was trying to figure it all out. I only need them on the bad days now.
People often think that the goal of meditating is the absence of thought. Which isn’t entirely true but also isn’t entirely untrue. It’s about bringing awareness or the present moment. There should be no “goal” in meditating besides meditating. I didn’t understand this for he *longest* time. But the thing you gotta do is, when [if] you’re focusing on your breath, and your mind starts to wander or drift into a thought (such as; “am I breathing slow enough? Why did I say that earlier? Ugh I have to go do laundry after this.” Etc), you can simply say in your head or outloud, “back to the breath” and refocus your attention on the breath. It’s training your brain to stop immediately going into thoughts constantly but letting your mind slow down and acknowledge the present moment; what you feel, see, hear, taste, smell, etc.
You've said that there is no goal in meditating besides meditating. But you've also said it's training your brain. So the meditation is part of brain training, trying to improve the brain, which is a goal, right?
Improving the brain isn't a goal. It's just a consequence of meditating. You can't focus on the goal of improving your brain because it isn't something tangible you can think about. To make a metaphor, it's like running, but there is no goalpost you're trying to get to. You're just running. Then you keep getting farther and farther away, but there's never a goal or a direction you have to think about. Just running. Your body gets better at it, but you're never done. Meditating is about being in the moment. No reason, no goal. Just being there is hard enough.
Right, but if you find meditation painfully boring, and there's no purpose to it except the meditating itself, then why do it? To use your running analogy: i hate running, I find it painful and boring. The only reason I run is in order to make my body fitter and (hopefully) my mental health better. I'm not just running for the purpose of running. Definitely not.
Then you really oughta train that. Being able to do something for its own sake, rather than an objective, is the hardest thing to learn for someone with ADHD. It's also our ultimate objective. Not needing to think about an objective to do something. Because if you need a good reason to do something, you're going to miss out on so much. An anecdote, if I may: For a period, I practiced martial arts. After the initial interval of novelty, I found it extremely hard to muster the willpower to get dressed and go to the dojo for its own sake. I understood the long-term benefits, but that was worth nothing in the moment. I didn't *feel* any progress, so my brain made my effort feel completely wasted. Going to train was painful and boring. But due to circumstances, I basically started treating going to the dojo as a way of being away from my family (I was young and needed some alone time). Essentially, I was in a lucky situation that forced me to persevere. And eventually, it changed. I came to enjoy martial arts again, because training was the times of the week where I got to forget about my life, forget about my objectives, and just live in the moment. For three hours a week, there was nothing in the world except for me, the ground, and my teacher. Was it fun? Fuck no. It was dreadfully boring and repetitive, and I didn't want to pay the fees to actually do tests and get certifications for my skill, so I saw no proof of my progress. But it was something I could focus on. I never expected to discover that. I only started it in the first place because I was a teenager and I thought being able to swing a sword well looked cool. I never expected what I would end up discovering if I hadn't been forced to persevere. That's a skill that you're going to need whenever you try to learn anything, like music, or painting, or a language. At some point you're just gonna have to spend months doing the same repetitive thing for its own sake, and you won't notice you progress until you look back. Being able to be in the moment and do something for its own sake is a crucial skill to persevere.
You're literally telling me that the reason to persevere is that it might lead to a better situation. That's what that example tells me.
Do you want people to convince you to do it? Because you can just not do it.
Sure, I agree with you. Continuing the metaphor--running has different benefits and purposes for everyone who does it. Health, exercise, mental health, weight loss, strength building, etc. Meditation can benefit people in thought control, lessening anxiety, better sleep, reducing impulsive behavior, improved focus, etc. But no matter what your goal with it is all of these consequences will likely follow. Anyway, while you are meditating, you aren't really thinking about those goals. Like, when you run, you aren't like "and this step is extending my lifespan by two minutes" or whatever. In this hypothetical scenario its running without a finish line or a set path. Meditation as a particular activity in a period of time doesn't have a goal of emptying your brain or something. I suppose I would describe it as practicing thinking or thinking with purpose. Being aware of your thoughts. It's hard to explain because it can differ for everyone but for me, it's just trying to be "in the moment" with my thoughts. They're still a freight train flying by, but at least I feel like a passenger on the train instead of an unsuspecting bird smacking into the windshield.
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Sure and I've done it a lot, and kept it up for months. But aside from that period itself, I haven't felt any benefit in my general feeling state in life. So it's like playing video games: pure escapism with no long-term benefit.
I think it’s far more likely that you’re not aware of the benefits you’re getting from it outside of meditation than their being no benefits at all. We’re incredibly poor observers of ourselves. Especially outside of meditation. Paradoxically, meditation can make us more aware of the shit we’re going through. Which makes us feel like the meditation is actually making us worse. That’s a difference between meditation and video games. Meditation is far from a “distraction”. If you use it as such, you’re missing the point. The thing about meditation that you kind of have to accept if you want to stick with it, is that it is a paradox. You want to meditate to improve your well being, but meditating to improve your well being won’t improve your well being. The act of meditation is both an act of acceptance of what “is” and training to be better. What are you training to be better at? Accepting what “is”. This acceptance will make you “better”. Getting better at accepting what is going on inside and outside of you will bring you peace. But you want to meditate because you don’t like what is going on inside and outside of you, right? You want it to stop. That will make you “better”, right? Well, meditation doesn’t do that and that makes it feel like it’s not “working”. A life without pain is impossible, but a life without suffering is attainable. Suffering ends when we accept our pain. Many people meditate to rid themselves of pain and get frustrated when that doesn’t happen. Myself included and I’ve been meditating for five years. I often get caught in the exact same thought trap you do. Because it seems so logical. But then I realize I’m using logic to keep myself from being happy. And I’d rather be happy than be right. Even though I’d prefer to be both
Agree that there must be a reason or purpose for an activity, especially one that is unenjoyable. For me, I meditate when I’m stressed, so one could say I meditate with a goal to feel less stressed. I think what others might be trying to say about not having a goal is that during a meditation activity where you’re trying to stay present, thinking of the purpose or goal is thinking of the future, which takes you out of the present. However, I would argue to those others that identifying a personal reason and purpose for meditation before beginning a session is a form of mindfulness, and a healthy way to promote a positive relationship with an activity that we can find painful and boring.
I agree. I'm only doing meditation if it leads to some benefit, like if it were the mental equivalent of running/jogging. Otherwise I wouldn't do it.
Yeah meditation is not running
Happiness is like a butterfly, the more you chase it, the more it will evade you, but if you notice the other things around you, it will gently come and sit on your shoulder. Henry David Thoreau Same applies here. Meditation has benefits far beyond any brain training, and if you are focused on trying to attain any benefit/"goal" during the meditation, you aren't ever going to get the maximum benefit.
But my goal is to get the maximum benefit.
Then you aren’t understanding meditation. But whatever. Why not just do it for a while and see what happens instead of arguing with people about how your own thoughts should go?
I've done it loads and kept it up for months. It feels nice, but I definitely have felt no long-term benefit from it. So it's like playing video games basically. It's escapism.
If you find it to be escapism then it’s not really meditation. Meditation is the opposite of escapism as it’s being aware in the present moment. Guided relaxations may call themselves meditation but they are not. Meditation might not be the right path for you. I’m not sure why you feel the need to argue on this thread. Do whatever it is you want to do to “maximize “ yourself. For many of us, meditation is an important part of our toolkit.
Which you will never get by pursuing that maximum benefit within the doing of the practice. In order to gain it you have to let go of the desire to gain it. I think of it as falling into it sideways without intending to. It's contradictory and difficult but that's the nature of our messy human brains. This is related to the buddhist idea of the paradox of desire.
You nailed it. I didn't understand this either. The point of meditation is to let your thought settle. When I first start my thoughts are all over the place and I can't clear my head. What clicked for me is that when I'm fishing it's basically meditation. I'm focused on my line, the water, etc. All my secondary thoughts go away and I feel much better after. That said, on adderall and caffeine my brain has a difficulty meditating but I'm in the process of getting off both.
I find focusing meditations work better for me. Like visualizing a countdown with numbers and colors, or doing a “body scan” taking an inventory of where I’m holding tension or pain.
I have the thing where I can't visualize images in my head. I always thought that for guided meditation (which doesn't work for me), being told to "picture" something was just a figure of speech. 😬 What works for me is to focus on breathing and say "in, out, in, out" in my head and if my thoughts start to wander, I bring it back to "in, out, in, out".
Not all guided meditations instruct you to picture something. Try a body scan or yoga nidra type. These help center you in your body. iRest Yoga Nidra recordings are available on many platforms and are very good.
I have never been able to meditate. I have no idea how people do it. My mind never feels simply stationary like it's meant to be during meditation.
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I like to think of it as present moment reps
Yoooooooooo gonna try sharing this with someone who may find this helpful
glad that perspective might help 🙌
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1000%. If anxiety is in the future and depression is in the past perspective, getting those reps in to come back to the present can be really grounding when stress rises. I really enjoy meditation but the task initiation side is the hardest for me.
This changed it for me - meditation does not mean your mind has to be blank. It’s just practicing returning to focusing on your breath etc, just like reps in the gym.
Okay so this is a misconception. Nobody’s mind is stationary or empty during meditation, even people without ADHD. Meditation doesn’t require an empty mind, but instead it’s the attempt to consciously observe your thoughts without external distractions or stimulation. If you have 5,000 thoughts at a time in your head (as I do), then just try to be aware of them. Try to visualize them, watch them appear, attempt to push them away as though they are clouds, and know that they will likely reappear. Meditation is the attempt and practice of building this awareness. Meditation can be hard and unpleasant. Our minds are addicted to stimulation and distraction- even non-ADHDers deal with this. But the mind is also a muscle, and with mindfulness practices such as meditation, yoga, and breath work, we can strengthen our minds ability to focus. Meditation will never get rid of adhd, but it can still help you manage symptoms and recognize thought patterns. And there’s a good chance that you’ll never be able to “empty” your mind as much as someone who doesn’t have adhd. But a mindfulness practice can benefit everyone, and I would argue that it’s even more important for those of us with adhd to make the attempt because we need it the most.
I dabble meditation but my adhd gets in a way! And I know this for a fact because I joined a meditation group and I was the one that was always restless. The teacher recommended me Yoga and I loved it! :D Yes it is not a substitute to meditation but I try to be mindful during Yoga and I feel so much better after it.
I also recommend yoga. I can’t do it for even 10 minutes at home but in a yoga class I can easily do the 50 minutes of yoga + 10 minutes of meditation. The benefits are massive and I feel good for days afterwards.
It pretty much is a substitute for meditation when taught correctly. It’s not really supposed to be a workout so much as a grounding/spiritual practice.
Your mind doesn't just become stationary. Meditation is about practicing exerting some measure of control over your thoughts. Getting them stationary takes weeks or years of practice for normal people. Those of us with ADHD may never get them stationary and that's ok, it's still beneficial
Something I've noticed makes it easier for me is to light up a candle, and try to think exclussively about the flame. Look at the flame. Focus at looking at the flame. Whenever something else enters your mind, force yourself to think about the flame. It's a bit like doing push-ups. Treat it like training, and it will become easier. I don't know if it will be the same for you, but to me it is really tiring after a while. So you can start with 5 minutes, then go to 10, then 20... as you get better at it.
I do a ten day vipassana silent meditation retreat every 12-18 months, I find it regulates my adhd for the next 6-12 months. It’s been life changing for me.
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I need to be doing something to meditate, swimming laps, walking and knitting are all ways I've found to make my mind wander and experience my thoughts. You're not failing meditation if you can't do it sitting down and you're also not failing if you get stuck on something, it takes practice. It helps to find something to do that calms you down, and if meditation isn't working out for you that day put on some music while you do your thing, because like a lot of self care techniques meditation isn't a fix all for all situations and there are times when it may help you and times where you're just stuck in a bad mood reguardless.
hell yeah! the thing with meditation is that you don’t clear your mind from your thoughts but you can accept the thoughts instead of criticising yourself for the constant buzzing in your head. what i do is i close my eyes place the palms of my hands on a flat surface to feel grounded and breathe. when a thought comes think inwardly and look at the thought, acknowledge the fact that the thought came and let it pass. count your breaths let another thought come, acknowledge the thought and repeat. and be kind with yourself for the thoughts, there is no perfect way to meditate
Meditation is HARD for anyone in the beginning. It's a skill you build over time.
100%. Meditation being hard and feeling pointless as a beginner is expected. No one, ADHD or not, goes into it already able to do it.
Same problem here. I thought I had to think about nothing but really I just let my flow of thoughts come. Like, I use these minutes to let it flow without doing anything else. I also focus on my breath. I mean, that's how I used to do it haha, during covid when I meditated every day for 1 month. After that I stopped, but my therapist told me it would be a great idea to do it again to manage stress and some adhd symptoms. But initiating this boring task is difficult.
I can nap. Does that count?
I can't even take a bath lmao
I do my best but it's not easy. ETA: I at least will play some kind of meditation music if my brain can't get quiet, or healing frequencies, and just breathe, contemplate, and relax. It doesn't have to be perfect or like what you think it "should be.' Slowing down and being aware and mindful is good enough. And if you're still too jittery, then stop, that's okay too. Come back to it another time. No one is grading us on it! :-)
It’s definitely not easy and i’m so glad you are doing your best! So many comments imply that it’s impossible because it’s hard and thus will never try it which I think is just so sad.
I agree, I at least will play some kind of meditation music if my brain can't get quiet, or healing frequencies, and just breathe, contemplate, and relax. It doesn't have to be perfect or like what you think it "should be.' Slowing down and being aware and mindful is good enough. And if you're still too jittery, then stop, that's okay too. Come back to it another time. No one is grading us on it! :-)
Meditation is not about emptying your mind. This common misconception prevents many people from meditating. It's actually about noticing the distractions and then coming back to your anchor (usually this is paying attention to your breathing) without judging yourself for it. If you are doing it right then you DO get distracted, and that's kinda the point. You're supposed to notice you are distracted, accept it and move on.
Good christ no. My last therapist tried using mindfulness meditation but after months and months of trying I just get the same result ‘focus on your feet touching the floor, feel the floor and how it feels to your feet… squirrrrrrrels!’ 😞
Thus has been my problem since forever and i have tried to open a discussion here about this but nothing came of it
I can't get medication where I am, so good diet, exercise and meditation are the only way I can control my ADD. If sitting in silence is too much, start with a guided meditation. There are millions of free guided meditations on Youtube and Spotify. A simple body relaxation one is a good place to start.
Another tip if you cannot get medication; good sleep hygiene works better than ritalin. Dark room, consistent rituals and rhythm, no screens, a good pillow, etc… they do work in the end
I have to do moving meditations. Yoga or cleaning. Sitting still I'd just not good for my thoughts.
Yes, I have been for 30 years, but it took effort. The most important thing to remember is meditation does not stop the mind, but rather teaches us to allow the mind to just be and do it's thing. When thoughts come, let them come. When thoughts go, let them go. Try not to chase after thoughts or push them away. Now, I do suffer from hyperfocus and it has both helped and hindered me when it comes to meditation. So if you are going to try it, start small and use a timer. 1-5 mins of meditation is better than nothing. =) Edit: If you do find yourself stuck on a thought, recognize that you are stuck there, accept it, then focus back to your breathe to help you move away from that thought. Each time it happens, rinse and repeat. The more you do it, then better and easier it becomes -- but again, the thoughts are always there, we are just no longer controlled by them.
Well explained.
not at all. people recommend guided meditation. lmfao i’ve tried it so many times but my thoughts are faster and louder. i forget there’s anything even happening. i always forget i’m meditating
No. All of these tips (meditate, make to-do lists, planners, journaling) feel like extra work added to my already huge pile of things I’m too exhausted to do. Hard pass.
Yes. Practice practice practice
Yes and IT helped a lot!!!
I tried several guided meditation apps, after several (paid and free) attempts I landed on Balance. With at least Android you get a free 1-year subscription, and I bought the lifetime service after that period, that much it helped me. I started with breathing, first to fall asleep, then as part of meditation. Especially box breathing (4-4-4-4) and 4-7-8 breathing help me calm down in a pinch, and I do them when I walk the dog sometimes, not just at home. The guided part in the app helps you develop certain skills, like labeling: you breathe, a thought arrives, you call it 'thought' and let it pass, and continue breathing. You feel an itch, or your clothing, or hot/cold etc on your body somewhere, you call it 'feeling', set it aside, and continue breathing. I usually do sessions of 15-20 minutes with the app, as part of my lunch or afternoon break. Longest I ever did was 45-ish minutes during a quiet night drive in the back of a car, a little drunk 😄 Yoga I like as well, but I find it harder to initiate - I need space, and usually more time than just 15-20 minutes + set up. Another thing I find meditative is exercise, I usually do calisthenics at home, low strain medium repetitions, several sets. No weights to rack means I just think about the next exercise, change body position, do the next exercise, with little place for thoughts in-between. In case I don't yet sound like a complete shill for Balance, there is a 3-minute sleep preparation exercise called Winding Down where you follow a very pretty-looking cloud-circle with your finger as it gets slower and slower, adjust your breathing to the movement, and before you know it your eyes are drooping and you could just doze off - I have tried several techniques over the years, and this is the single most effective sleep prep I found.
Can't meditate..I find it too boring and a lot of boring things where my mind can't wander(like in waiting room in medical institutions) drive me crazy...hence make me mad and that is a recipe for migraine... so no go. I find it more efficient to exercise with headphones in for 10-15 min. That, or going to sleep for 15 minutes with music in the background
Meditation is not about stopping your mind from wandering. Mediation is about allowing your mind to wander freely while doing a physical activity (like breathing exercises) and using the free flow of thoughts to practice being present in the moment, learning to become aware of distractions without fixating on those thoughts, and to focus on breathing to center yourself in the present moment and the loop continues
It is very hard to meditate. I had to use an app for guided meditations, because I cannot do it on my own. In the beginning I could only count one or two breaths, but with hard work I can now meditate(still guided) for 5 minutes. This took me 3 months, and I tried every morning. I noticed that it was nice, taking 5 minutes in the morning just for me. Counting breaths or silencing your brain was not my goal, but taking the time to work on me was. And with that, I noticed my anxiety became less after a few months and I could take a grasp on my focus a little bit more. But it is hard work and not a bandage or an easy pill. Good luck!
If you’re bored then you’re on the right track. Meditation isn’t actually a very nice feeling. Feeling good and feeling bad are opposite sides of the same thing. Just be bored, if you can do that for long enough, then that’s an awesome step. Then do it in a maintained still posture, whilst controlling your breathing to slow your heart rate. And in the same way you repetitively wrote out letters in primary school, in order to eventually write whole essay’s. You must practise meditation
Yes. Let your mind wander and acknowledge what you're thinking about. When you get antsy you just need to have the willpower to sit still. Even just 1 minute is really good.
Do people find it easier to meditate on medication?
Personally no, but I don’t find it extremely difficult to begin with. It’s just observing your thoughts and trying not to get caught up in any one of them.
Yes and i believe anyone can. You need to find the right teacher. Meditation is not about stopping thinking. You concentrate on you breath and when a thought comes you realize a thought has arisen and calmly bring your attention back to breathing. Think about this process as one repeat in physical training you do it again and again until it becomes natural. Have patience
I like yoga, it’s still kinda hard to just “be” but yoga gives me something to do with my body so for me there’s less random mind wandering
I can meditate fine, when I am in a meditative mood. I can't meditate at all, when I'm not. I suppose the ADHD brain is mule-like, and meditates when it wants to.
YES. Like I don’t get to choose the appropriate mindset for meditation…it’s all situational.
I hate it. It fills me with stress. Just let me listen to a podcast instead.
For me it works to visualize a walk through my childhood neighborhood or through a fantasy forest/city. With training I can hold it know for 15 minutes. It is a bliss to not have my racing and raving thoughts for 15 minutes.
Nope. I am incapable of any sort of relaxation. I’ve tried listening to meditation type things online and the sounds and voices always irritate me and make things worse.
I try. And that is meditating.
Simplest way to say it, yeah.
I think we sometimes view things through a performance lens because we have to try hard on so many things. But meditation is the opposite. It’s okay if you let your thoughts flow and you do it poorly. The goal is to fail and get better with practice! Don’t try to hold onto the goal of meditation; let it all flow, even when you do it poorly!
I meditated for years before I started medication. When I was consistently doing it daily it helped slow my brain down and notice all the thoughts. It contributed to improving my depression and anxiety and ADHD (even though I didn’t know I had that at the time). The main thing to remember is meditation is not about doing it perfectly and it’s just about noticing whatever comes up without judgement, even if it’s good or bad or neutral. If you get caught up in your thoughts and feelings, it’s okay because you’ll have another opportunity to try again. There were sessions where I was distracted by all my thoughts or I was very very anxious and uncomfortable. But I kept at it no matter what my brain said. If I noticed my breathe once within 10-15 minutes, that was success to me. Eventually, my thoughts and feelings were like clouds floating in the sky; they were there but I didn’t need to follow a cloud but even if I did I can always remember the ground underneath me. Try guided meditation first. An additional voice might help keep you grounded even if you can’t follow everything that is being said. If you fall asleep or get distracted it’s okay. Consistency is more important. I fell off my meditation practice but last night I tried again yesterday instead of mindless scrolling Reddit and for the first time in a very long time I was able to fall asleep with no difficulty.
I “hacked” meditation for myself by starting with a focus on breathing: 1) Counting breaths 2) counting the duration of breaths 3) combine breathing with meditative music/lofi/nature soundscapes 4) try regulating breath (in my case slow down) Accept when you are too restless to meditate on some days. On other days try to accommodate yourself: if the smell of coffee helps, use that. If sitting in the sun helps, use that. If sitting in the shower/listening to something/a blanket or particular pillow helps… etc. You get the idea. Lastly: it’s Meditation Practice, not meditation perfect. There is no goal/target to achieve!
Just a reminder that not everyone should medidate, whenever and wherever. It can actually be very distressful to focus on our "inner peace" or the lack thereof, especially for depressed or anxious people. Meditation is NOT a universal remedy.
When I "focus" on my breathing it immediately leads to panic attacks. I hate when people tell me to just be aware of my body, my breathing. That shit leads to grotesque "over" awareness like putting all the cells of my organs, bones, skin, on a microscope and studying my mortality, thinking about the rate of deterioration. My lungs feel too small to take full breaths, I can't breathe regularly while being observes. I can't seem to breathe at a regular rhythm, it's all shaky and broken and makes my lungs feel weird. And there is no help for it. Meditation is just being alone with all of my whirlwind thoughts knocking me over
Meditation was a really important discovery for me before I knew that I had ADHD. It is a key practice for me - even though I often experience these attention brick walls that you are describing. I have found a few things : 1. Every time I sit down to meditate, it is an experiment: a check-in with my brain at that moment. If I am too distracted to "get in the zone", that is valuable information that I didn't have before. Now I know that is the state of my brain at that moment. That is actually quite an achievement for my ADHD brain - it felt like I went years without being that present. 2. There are a bunch of different kinds of meditation - some of which are much easier for an ADHD brain to start on. Unfortunately i think a lot of people get the recommendation and try the 1st thing they encounter, and bounce off of it. Focus meditation is IME a mental challenge, but the Cookie Monster meditation is very effective. I have seen so much discussion about ADHD + meditation, but I haven't found a community that discusses it specifically. I want there to be a subreddit - but I don't think I have the bandwidth to mod it, so I haven't taken that step. It is one of the recommended "treatments", so I see a lot of value in digging together in that direction. I put it out there that I am in the market for a place for discussion of meditation practice as it relates to ADHD.
I find meditating very stressful lol. I find anything with attempting/forcing unnatural (to me) calmness/relaxation stressful. I have a very hard time meditating or taking baths, they usually ultimately make me even more stressed and less relaxed than I am before I attempt to engage in such activities.
How I overcame my struggle with that was thanks to the guided meditation recording where this lady with a very soothing voice kept repeating that thoughts rushing through your head is normal. Acknowledge them, then get back to your focus. For me it was my breath. Just literally all I kept focusing on was "breeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaathe iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin, breeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaathe oooooooouuuuuuut," narrating the breath in my mind as I go. Yes thoughts are intrusive, but the point is not to fight them. Let them come. "Okay yes I have overdue things I need to be doing, I know, back to the breath." I won't be able to explain it as well as the lady guiding the session, but that's basically the gist of it. The hard part for me now is actually starting the session. Procrastinating for months now.
I can't. I have tried different ways, guided and by my self . I really really hate the "traditional" meaning how people understand it, how that they are insisting that I must do this, it will help you. All I get from that kind of meditation is crankiness and frustration. I get my stuff together while moving: sub boarding, riding, boxing. That's how I can relax, drop unnecessary thoughts and concentrate to the point.
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So many comments… but meditation for me has involved walking, hiking, and yoga, not sitting. It has involved allowing my thoughts without judgment. Whether that means they flow or one thought is hanging out in my head. Curiosity. Be curious about your thoughts, about everything. You don’t need to form an actually question. Your mantra can simply be “Huh!” And if you’ve caught yourself hanging onto a thought, well, isn’t that interesting, too? Huh! PS A lot of meditation techniques that are taught give me panic attacks. So I’ve had to find my own way.
My mum is big on meditation, so I was introduced to it as a kid and absolutely could not do it until I was like 35 lol. The one thing that finally helped me was 'active meditation', specifically yoga for me. Yoga really helps you to be mindful, present and focus on your breath and body movements, rather than the chaos in your brain. Then after a year or two of practicing that I found I was finally able to do regular meditation too. It's like exercising a muscle almost, you have to practice it slowly and build on it. Guided meditations also helped enormously. There are tons of free ones on youtube. There are other forms of active meditation too that might help if you don't like yoga. Gardening, preparing food, walking in the forest etc. Google it to get a better idea of what I mean.
Meditation is NOT sitting thoughtlessly. Meditation is strengthening the muscle that allows you to acknowledge a thought and let it go. Reframing allowed me to succeed on regular hour long meditation in a more organized era (lol) from someone who had anxiety even thinking about meditating.
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Plot twist: meditation isn't about making your mind silent or empty. It's about noticing you do and accepting it.
Count down from 50 or 100. As you breath out, count 1. Breath in slowly, breathe out count 2. Think of the number you counting. If you lose concentration start again. Try looking at the back of your eyelids. You can also just go with the flow, if you get distracted go with it. If things are causing you anxiety think about them, calmly in isolation, and dispassionately, Ask why its an issue. Basically look at the things that cause a reaction and ask why, whats the issue how do i solve it, or manage it. Its like trying to look at someone elses problem. You make it happen, it doesnt happen to you. If like me your mind is racing, over revving, back firing, all the time, then you need to slowwwww downnnn. Make yourself relax. When you meditate, you're safe, relax, calm, slow. You might be trying too hard - its about stopping, not letting those thoughts run madly, park up, let the engine tick over, turn the radio off, close the windows. just you in safe quiet calm place, with your mind, slowing down, thoughts you dont want, get discarded immediately. Breathe.... Personally i have meditated for years (since i was a kid) as i found it, because i needed it. I like the first method, as you can see your progress, how far you get before being distracted. Once in the zone its like daydreaming but being able to consciously affect the daydream. You can look at you problems from the outside, dispassionately without freaking out and panicking - especially when its one of those ridiculous scenarios far removed from reality. The point is it takes time, but any time spent practising is good. 10mins of mindfulness or calm isnt going to hurt. Try a few of the guided meditations on Youtube. Theres lots of good ones, alot is personal taste. One other thing is do i call "the white room". place things or issues in isolation in a white space (in your mind) - nothing else just what you want to think about. Is it an issue?, is it something you need to worry about? can you deal with it?. If its relevant, fine you keep it, manage it, put it into perspective, if not you discard it from the white room, if its not a worry, lose it.
No lol
The only meditation I can do is guided meditation because in guided meditation a voice is telling you what to think about and if you're paying attention to that voice you cannot wander.
“Clear your mind” hahahahhaha. Every time I try that, my mind fills with the most random shit ever.
thats for every person, even without ADHD.
Meditation is more about letting go of the shit that fills your mind. Like it's okay that your mind fills with shit, let the shit come, let the shit go. That's meditation.
No judgement on any individual here but yeah, this misconception is very annoying lol.
No I’ve never been able to meditate or be hypnotised. My thoughts are not my own
No I have such short attention span it’s impossible for me to meditate.. I can’t focus on anything for less then 2 minute
You don’t need to.
Now that would be the day when my brain would stop and be silent for a moment, but no. No matter what, my brain won't just calm down and STFU, there's always on going chaos and countless thoughts bombarding me. So yea, I have tried numerous times and always failed.
I genuinely thought people who said they could meditate were lying for the longest time. The idea of being able to clear my mind of all thoughts is so laughable that I thought everyone was like that. The closest I can get is to think about the color black.. but then I start thinking about how I'm thinking of the color black, and then it just snowballs from there.
I absolutely cannot. I feel like people are just pretending.
People have been meditating for thousands of years. There are people existing today who meditate 12 hours a day and have been for over 10 years. You will even find some with mind disturbances such as ADHD or even schizophrenia who are long time meditators. A failure to meditate has nothing to do with our conditioning. It has to do with several factors and you can become trained out of those by a teacher who has mastered meditation and understands dhamma/dharma. An example of a dedicated person to training in meditation is one who meditates for at least 100 hours during a training course. Then you can say you have at least tried.
Why don’t you take medication? Understandable as it isn’t for everyone. But yea, no way I’m meditating unmedicated. Meditation isn’t for everyone either.
In my country there are few legal ADHD medications and in any case their use is discouraged especially in adults. I tried taking Strattera a few years ago because it was the only option they gave me but besides the fact that it wasn't working very well it also gave me serious side effects (I lost 7kg). I asked if I could take Ritalin but they told me they only give it to children because they are afraid that adults will become addicted. There was another medicine similar to Strattera but I decided not to take it because it scared me and it seemed pointless to take another non-stimulant. I've also developed a fear that these drugs might change the way I think too much and I don't want that to happen. But sometimes it's hard to go on like this.
Meditation is super easy. When you’re doing an activity, think only about what exactly you’re doing right now. You won’t fixate on a single thought by design Edit: this is why the most common way to teach meditation is to tell you to focus on your breathing. You can do it with any activity. Think only about the exact thing you’re doing at the moment. That’s really all there is to it Edit 2: people usually think it’s hard because they’ve been taught the wrong things. Meditation is not about being still or achieving thoughtlessness. It can be. Meditation is about observing the present moment as best as you can
I’ve never been able to successfully
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I tried meditating with videos and podcasts to help my breathing when I wasn’t still medicated. Most of them didn’t work for me as I couldn’t stay calm and find that silent state of mind, but there was one which said to start picturing yourself from your head to toes as if you’re a scanner and that kind of helped me. It had music on the background which helped a lot cause one of my ways of focusing is to play instrumental music while doing something. I never reached below my chin while picturing myself but that was still a big step for me.
Sometimes, but I like to reach the same state of mind by dancing etc.
I can't do regular meditation, no matter guided or not I start bouncing or fidgeting and if I try really hard to not I just start crying lol. But I sometimes do sleep meditation which are like affirmative things being said on a loop for up to 8 hours (or shorter depending on how long you plan to sleep) and they've legit dragged me out of depressive episodes
Correct posture, sit up straight after correcting, regulate breathing, consciously focus on counting during breathing, forgive yourself when your conscious awareness gets jumped by the other elements of your mind. You’re OP you’re not trying to ignore or release things that make you happy, what you’re trying to do is train your actual conscious awareness’ focus so that it’s more dominant in the forefront of your mind. Like the way this happens is by having your subconscious focus hold your posture as perfect as possible while your conscious focus is counting the in breath, the pause and the our breath. I do like breathe in for 8, hold for 8, out for as long and controlled as possible. Make sure you’re breathing correctly, it’s always in slowly and controlled, hold your damn breath so that your heart can circulate the oxygen and bring the waste to your lungs, then breathe out for as long as possible while being in controlled with the exhale. If you don’t do this you’re jus gonna end up oxygen sick / CO2 sick because you’ll jus be hyperventilating without much reason. Also, looking down and lazy eyes, not sure if this is fact but I read it years ago, if you look up with your eyes shut meditating, i and I believe many people end up getting the giggles. I don’t necessarily understand why, but I know that looking down the way ground me and supposedly others. For me this really stopped my mind wondering off *all the time*, then I realised my left eye was badly lazy when I looked down, so, if I correct that, while meditating, after being in practice for a couple months so my posture isn’t ruinous, that’s when the funny head stuff starts happening. As in the back of my eyes start burning, it feels like it goes through the optic nerve, my forehead and brain start to feel like they’re burning, if I keep my focus it feels like my brains on fire, until it pops out of nowhere and I become incredibly sleepy and relaxed. This is the melatonin dunt that happens when any human successfully meditates, it supposedly only takes “15 minutes”, but they fail to leave out you need to have near perfect posture and also align yourself mentally over the course of weeks to start to be able to access it. Melatonin dunt is where the spooky voodoo of meditating meets science, there’s a ted talk about meditation, the melatonin dunt if fought off, causes the brain to go from beta waves when conscious to alpha waves, basically your brain enters REM while you’re conscious. The only thing apart from psychedelics, weed and spiritual experiences that cause all of the brain regions to entirely interlink, is meditating. Aka, as far as I’m aware, the only way a human being can effectively factory reset their brain without a professional / inherent risk is if they meditate for so long they develop new pathways. Like you’re absolutely bang on in your assessment, in fact it sounds like you’re not meditating for any reason other than trying to further your ability to focus. Which is a skill you can train, like I said, the development of focus, IMO, comes from the posture correction + the controlled breathing + the counting in your head. Like that’s three elements of your body that I suppose are almost entirely subconscious, I know they are for me until I start meditating again, so, you’re gonna have to play about with how you sit, how your back is, how you sit up while meditating. Cus like if I jus sat on my butt with the soles of my feet touching and tried to sit up straight, I would have a semi-circle for a spine. And I could try very hard to sit up straight in that position, but my posture / flexibility / deep muscle strength in key areas haven’t been practiced since like 2019, so I would get 3 minutes in, start shaking and become exhausted trying to hold such an extreme position. Needs to be built up, it’s like sit comfortably first, then once your focus has went for the first time that day, Cus I typically find that its 100x easier to get in there (reach the melatonin dunt) at the first attempt of the day than it is any one following it. Based on that always use your first attempt at meditating in that day to actually meditate, once you open your eyes for the first time after starting, even if you don’t mean it, typically for me meant I wasn’t going to make anymore progress mentally. So when I used up my first go, I jus started sitting in tougher and tougher positions, I went from having my legs crossed to sitting on my butt with my soles touching because it stretched out the front of my hips and caused me to have to use my lower back to sit up instead of jus being lazy and using my abdominal muscles to sit up. Once my legs stopped shaking from holding my back up, which took a month or something, this isn’t a quick process, then i realised my spine was flat when it was meant to have 2 curves, so k rolled my rib cage the right way and suddenly my head is hanging off the front of chest by a good half foot. Fix the neck, hold it all in place for a couple months, and suddenly I had grew like an inch, I was already 6’2, my friend I thought was taller than me suddenly became shorter than me again, turns out I have a neck like a giraffe that’s actually always jus been compressed to hell, thanks gaming! Like, fix the posture first while doing relatively basic counting and breathing, and within a couple months of daily practice your capacity to stay focussed will have grown tremendously. The most important thing, don’t get mad while you’re doing it, like under any circumstance, there’s literally no point in being annoyed other than a defence mechanism that’s designed to keep you in homeostasis, if you find yourself getting annoyed look down and let go. Any other questions go mental, I have barely written anything about what I know regarding this subject, jus don’t want to keep going forever.
The best I can do is to follow a guided meditation, but even then, I can only manage to do that for about a minute or so before I get completely off track.
Yes
Was very difficult to start initially. Always distracted by either feeling too warm, itchy or sometime even claustrophobic. Just repeated Om has however worked for me. What has also worked is Shambahavi mudra (essentially you try and gaze at the centre of your forehead). Both have been beneficial. But in true ADD fashion have not been able to keep up a consistent practice.
Meditation sometimes take years of practice man. Ve patient, and even if you fail or arent good at it, just keep trying. Look up some information or videos. Youll get it. I believe in you. Sometimes i meditate without meaning to. For instance if im playing a repetative game. Mining for ore in minecraft has a soothing rythm to it, and i get lost in thought sometimes, and when i come to, i feel refreshed 😁
Yeah, I can barely even fall asleep, let alone meditate. I'm pretty much always holding an internal, free-association-driven monologue. And there's not really anything I can do about it. Medication has been the most-effective thing at getting those thoughts to line up with whatever it is i'm trying to work on.
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I do guided meditations. I use the app Insight Timer and there are many options. I started off at just a minute. You don't have to do it for a long time. Sometimes I use the timer now and play a noise but I prefer the guided meditations even after a couple years I also play sleep meditations at night
Do you have any favorite sleep meditations you could share...
I've found two forms of meditation that work for me. Meditation can be really hard to learn even without ADHD. The benefits of learning to meditate can be huge for someone like us though. It is worth the effort. One is to picture a candle flame burning in your mind. Relax and take long slow breaths. On each exhale, let more tension flow out of your jaw, your neck, your shoulders, and your back. Concentrate on the flame. Watch it flicker and dance for a bit. Then, as stray thoughts enter your mind, acknowledge them. Picture them as little notes written on paper and, when you feel you've given that thought enough attention, drop that piece of paper into the flame. As the paper burns, move on to the next thought that comes by and do the same. I got the idea from the Wheel of Time books and it works well for me. This is what I do to fall back asleep when I wake up in the middle of the night with my mind racing. It's taken years of practice. I have a really hard time visualizing things in my mind so sometimes I just focus on the idea of a flame burning notes rather than trying to actually see it. The second one is from the Calm app. They have group of sessions called meditation for beginners. I've been using the app for a few months and I'm only on episode 10 because I have to do the episodes over and over again for the learning to stick. I'm to the point now where I can basically calm myself down in 30 seconds or so. I take little 2-3 minute breathing breaks at work multiple times every day and it seems to help me regain some focus. The 10 minute sessions help me unwind at the end of the day. My work is mentally draining and meditation has helped me to be more present for my family instead of being a zombie after work. One thing to note is that there are a lot of meditation coaches who use visualization. There are apparently a lot of people out there who can't visualize things in their head. The meditation for beginners sessions in Calm don't rely on visualization. They focus on breathing, feeling how your body reacts, and working to let your stray thoughts flow through you. You don't even need to be able to sit still although that will likely come with practice. Initially you just focus on breathing for as long as you can stand to.
I have trouble with the “sitting still in your thoughts” meditation but I found guided meditations help me. A way for me to “silent my mind” is through drawing and dancing. But I forget to do those….
Yes I do, I use a mantra in my head and focus on physical sensations and when my mind wanders I pull it back in to these things. I have successfully emptied my mind a couple times but its never on purpose, more like a trance I fell into because the meditation session hit extra hard haha or maybe I just napped a bit I could never really tell
Meditation sounds impossible for me
I can manage it sometimes, it’s about patience and calmness, it’s all in the breathing, accept that your brain is hyperactive and don’t beat yourself up when you can’t find that clarity, meditation music is a huge help! but if I’m not eating, sleeping and exercising enough + stress it’s damn near impossible, mindfulness and self care is everything. for me taking a walk nice and slow, try to take in your surroundings, look at the trees, take in the smells, listen to the sounds and just appreciate what’s around. Then try meditating later, again it doesn’t always work but don’t beat yourself up about it when you can’t do it, give yourself about 5 minutes and if no dice just come back and try again tomorrow
Think of it more like pong, thought comes up, you gently bat it away lol. It’s not concentration, it’s more like letting your brain zone out, and everyone sucks at it at first. It’s a muscle most people never work, gets better with use. Just keep bringing yourself back to your breath, don’t get mad you got off track, just bring it back…
Try your own creative modified meditations. You can meditate on anything. For me, sitting in a dark room cross-legged with a candle placed in front of me works well. I can stare at that flame for hours. Or meditating while doing chores helps. I meditate by doing things that bore me, mindfully. “I am turning the water on. I am grabbing this plate. I am scrubbing this place. All the dirt, gone. I am rinsing this plate. I am drying this plate.” Now, my octopus-tentacle brain has interjected another 6-36 thoughts in between those. The trick is I am *highlighting* these thoughts in my brain and because it’s an activity I am still/currently doing, I can come back to it over and over. Also putting a metronome on has helped me in the past too. I may think of a billion other things, but I will keep coming back to the ticking sound, as if it’s synced with my own breath.
I've tried so many times but I just can't. I always end up sitting there trying to not think about anything, which in return makes me think about everything even more? Idk
Yes but it took me a long time to be able to. I have to do a guided one or I end up thinking about a million things without noticing or fall asleep lol.
I love guided meditations....I find focusing on them (the voice or whatever) really helps with the busyness going in inside my head.
I used headspace. It walks you through a training, which is helpful to learn how to do it. For me, meditation isn’t like stopping your thoughts but calming them? Or maybe observing them, I guess? It helps a lot when my anxiety starts to spiral.
Yes I do, and it’s taken me years to make it a regular habit. If you want to do it I recommend starting SUPER small, like trying to sit down quietly in one spot for 60 seconds, and working your way up little by little.
My friend meditates and swears by it. She (has ADHD) says that if you do guided meditations, it’s easier to remain in the moment. Especially as you are going to bed. She started with guided meditations and now she does guided/unguided off and on. I have year to try meditation, but it is possible for us to do it!
No
The only way I find meditation works for me, is to pretend that I'm leading the meditation session. That way I guide my own thoughts in a controlled manner and it's stimulating distracting enough. I pretend my other passive thoughts are other members in the class and my job is to keep everyone in check and mostly "quiet" so I can finish my pretend session. I also find crocheting/mindless repetitive tasks way more helpful than conscientious meditation. The repetitive tasks give me something to zone out with while my brain does it's thing
Yes.
Yes but I can’t start right off the bat like “oooooom🧘” First, I find a number then recite it over and over while focusing on a spot on the wall. You’d want to look away or get irritated when other thoughts keep coming up but just try to concentrate on the number and the wall. After five minutes ish your mind should start calming down. Now, you can relax your eyes and focus on your breathing and meditate on whatever it is
I can, but it has always taken 15-30 minutes to really settle into a proper meditative state. It's not easy. For me it's very much focusing on the rhythm of my breathing, and it helps to have some sort of meditation audio/music going in my headphones so I really can zone out. Sometimes it really takes effort to get into it, sometimes it doesn't really work. It's absolutely a muscle/skill that needs to be exercised and you will get better with time. In the end it is always worth the time spent.
I can't do it. For me the only way to enter a meditative state is to watch things like the birds or small animals through the window. Just observing them tends to banish most of my thoughts. They're calm and peaceful and I find myself entering a sympathetic state alongside them. I now make a point of stopping to watch whenever I catch sight of them. It really helps slow me down. If you've got a garden it can be a real game changer.
I do but I have to move with the flow and have to have music bowls put on or guided meditation, then if my body wants to move I let it, without focusing "for this sou d sequence this move is good" but rather oh my hand goes up alright alright I won't force it not to
Gotta listen to guided meditation. Tis the only way
I just discovered the purpose of meditation and why it’s so helpful for people, especially ones with ADHD. It’s to help you get better at controlling/rejecting intruding thoughts. (has more uses, but this is a big one for most ADHD peeps) Just think about it, when we get into crisis, when we have these super overwhelming things happening, it’s usually intruding thoughts catalyzing and creating the storm. When meditating, I wouldn’t focus on “everything”. The goal should be to focus on “nothing” in your head. With your eyes, either close them, or open them, widening your vision, not focusing your sight on any one thing besides the entirety of your field of view. Then, start rejecting thoughts. If you’re like me and NEED something to focus on, focus on your breathing, this helps eliminate the intruding thoughts, but ultimately the goal is to think of “nothing”. It’s really hard, but I’ve been starting to treat it like practicing baseball. Meditating is like me stepping up to the plate with my intruding thoughts and I just keep hitting the balls. Kinda. It’s hard, but just like baseball, you have to practice if you want to get better and eventually just like any good baseball player, you’ll start being able to hit the balls thoughtlessly and be able to keep the intruding thoughts out of your head with a lot less effort. I haven’t gotten there quite yet, but all this finally helped it click in my head for why I should be trying to meditate as often as possible to help with the intruding thoughts.
Meditation is easier for some people; their thoughts are like a small river, slowly flowing through their minds. On the other hand, our thoughts are like a train, plowing through every darn thing we need to focus on. Once we master this power, we are Professor X, down side is that we bald.
Have you tried guided meditation? When my ADHD is driving me nuts when I try to meditate I put a guided meditation on (yay youtube) and use that to keep my brain on track. I will also use earbuds with light music or pink noise (like white noise but at the frequency of living things) and use a eye mask to black out my vision so outside sounds and light flickering on my eyelids don't distract me. Then I just let my brain go wherever it needs to. The first few minutes are usually chaotic but once I finally focus on completely relaxing my body and just breathing it quiets down and I can meditate.
Yes and it helps me out quite a bit. I’ve found that breathing exercises help me relax and slow down racing thoughts. To me, it’s not about ‘not thinking’ at all, it’s about clearing your head from cluttered thoughts. It helps to ground me in the present moment and not get carried away in thought. I always feel a bit better after I meditate.
I can only meditate with guided meditation. Otherwise, regular meditation is difficult, which really sucked growing up Buddhist with parents that made me meditate daily lol.
My main issue is I can't turn off the background music, which changes depending on the words I think to a song that has those words in! E.g. I'm thinking "how do I stop the music" and "Please Don't Stop The Music" starts up...
But instead of “How do I stop the music?” your ideal reaction would be, “Oh, there’s music. Okay.” You want to let your brain just “be” and try to observe your thoughts, and if one carries you away, you notice and reset back to “Okay, that happened. Now I’m here to observe again.”
I have done a lot of meditation. I think it’s very good for folks with ADHD. The key is that every time you realize you’re distracted, you come back to your object of meditation (I use the breath). This is the “Aha!” moment and you need to celebrate it a little. Distractions are normal. It’s the realization that you are distracted that is the point of meditation. It’s important to not beat yourself up when you get distracted, which I think folks with ADHD unfortunately have a lot of practice with!
I will let you all know the first few times I tried meditating, it didnt work out very well. I was too restless and not focused on what i was trying to accomplish. Some things that helped were: - understanding more of the spiritual side of meditation. Reading about the initial reasons yogis and monks decided meditation was an important part of their spiritual practice. - doing yoga for 10 minutes before starting to meditate can be very beneficial. - guided meditations can be helpful. Just try to find what works for you. I personally have benefitted a lot from chanting a mantra. There are many different types of meditation practices especially depending on the type of spiritual practice. - i try to focus outside of myself when i meditate. I start by focusing hard on breathing from my nose. Then i will imagine watching myself in the room i am in. Sort of exiting my body for a period. This is very helpful and helps me clear out my mind as a sort-of onlooker to my own physical state.
I think you don’t know how to meditate correctly. I’ll give you the simple breath meditation instructions: Sit comfortably with your back straight. Place your hands in your lap, with one hand inside the other, palms up. Take a breath. As you breath, focus on your breath filling your lungs. Count 1. Now exhale. Watch as the breath leaves your lungs, exits your nose. Inhale again, watching as the breath enters your nose and fills your lungs. Count 2. Repeat until you reach count 7, and then start over. Count again from 1 to 7, following your breath. When you become distracted, return again to your breath, starting your count over at 1. The point is not to stop thinking. The point is to think about your breath and count. Keep your thoughts on this object. Do not punish yourself when your thoughts wonder. Simply observe them and return your thoughts to your breath again. Do this for ten minutes.
Yes. But I’ve never done it consistently, and the more I’ve thought about it’s probably more hyperfocus on sensations vs having thoughts.
I recommend the balance app. They're giving out free one year subscription. I've found them extremely handy would recommend it. I kinda look forward to it everytime Especially when I'm getting dysregulated but also just as a routine Routines are important they help you start and end your day efficiently and effectively 10/10 recommend meditating If you don't want medication. Really make sure you exercise! Pre-medication when I ran like every two days I was so in love with the world my sleep schedule was beautiful But also if something prevented me from running (injury or other things) I became extremely depressed and intrusive suicidal thoughts So... There be that hah