November 27, 2024 • 36 mins
Can mindfulness change your life when you're living with ADHD? Join me, Zac Erickson, as we explore how embracing the present moment can enhance focus, emotional regulation, and impulse control for those navigating ADHD. Discover how mindfulness transforms our wandering thoughts into a powerful tool for self-awareness and emotional acceptance. We’ll debunk common myths and provide actionable tips on incorporating mindfulness into your daily routine. From mindful eating to walking, and the use of apps like Headspace and Calm, learn how to savor everyday experiences and reconnect with the world around you.
Ever wondered why your attention feels like it's on autopilot? Let’s shift gears and embrace the beauty we often overlook. Through guided exercises and insights from Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn’s nine attitudes of mindfulness, we dive into practicing non-judgment and observing our thoughts mindfully. Also, hear about the support available at Recharge Psychology, where I'm accepting clients in Alberta, and explore how AI can assist with ADHD challenges through our comprehensive guide. Don't miss out on the chance to redefine your approach to ADHD with these valuable insights and resources.
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Episode Transcript
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Zac (00:00):
Hello, welcome to another episode of ADHD Real Talk.
My name is Zac Erickson.
Today, I am excited that we'regoing to talk a little bit about
actually, weirdly one of myfavorite topics and one of the
things that I really enjoy a lot, and it's something that a lot
of people with ADHD actually,frankly, I think, most people in
(00:21):
life in general could do with alittle bit more of, and that is
essentially broadly what'sreferred to as mindfulness.
Before we get into today'stopic, I want to let everybody
know, if you go torechargepsychologycom slash AI
guide, I have a cool guide onhow you can use AI to help with
(00:45):
a lot of ADHD related things and, yeah, it's pretty cool, so
check it out over there.
Rechargepsychologycom slash AIguide.
Today we're going to be talkingabout mindfulness, and I'm
really excited about thisbecause it is actually one of
the things over the course of, Iwould say, the past 10 years or
so, that I have personallyfound to be extremely helpful in
(01:11):
navigating my own ADHD, as wellas just figuring out what I
like, how to keep myself ontrack.
Now, what is mindfulness?
Let's talk about that first,right?
Uh, now, what is mindfulness?
Let's talk about that first,right, what is mindfulness and
what is like?
What specifically are wetalking about?
(01:32):
One way to think aboutmindfulness is in, especially in
the lens of adhd, right?
So for people with adhd,essentially there are two
different kinds of ADHD we'vetalked about before.
There is the hyperactive andimpulsive kind of ADHD.
Right, that's the like I have athought or an impulse or
(01:54):
something like that and then Ijust I'm immediately doing it,
right, like it's, it's uh, andoften there's restlessness in
there and we can really feellike we are a slave to our ADHD.
In that sense, we like it is incontrol and it controls us.
Now, what's interesting is, ifwe are, if we think of that,
(02:20):
that's the first one.
And then, within attention,it's more of difficulty focusing
, easily distracted, those sortsof things, and sometimes we can
get distracted far beyond, likeyou know, like you might go
down a rabbit hole on Facebookor Instagram or something right,
go online and all of a suddenlike hours have passed and oh no
(02:41):
, I said I was going to do thisthing.
So mindfulness, put very simply, is being present in the moment
, without judgment.
I'll say that again Mindfulnessis being present in the moment,
without judgment.
Now, in terms of sorry, I got afrog in my throat there In
(03:02):
terms of ADHD, part of what isinteresting.
Actually, there's a great bookcalled I'm looking over at my
bookshelf here the MindfulnessPrescription for Adult ADHD by
Lydia Zylowska, but she kind oftalks about mindfulness in the
context of ADHD, as well aspaying attention to the fact
(03:27):
that you can pay attention towhat you're paying attention to.
I'll say that again payingattention to what you are paying
attention to and being aware.
Another way of sayingmindfulness, or a component of
mindfulness at least, isawareness, right Present moment
awareness, and so often withADHD.
(03:48):
Sometimes, when we'redistracted, when we're kind of
like in the flow of things,we're not fully consciously
aware of what's going on, right?
And so we get so wrapped up inthings that sometimes it's hard
to be aware of what I am payingattention to and is it the thing
that I want to pay attention to, right?
(04:09):
So, what mindfulness is?
It's not a cure for ADHD, butit's a tool to work with the
brain that you have and it's away to understand yourself
better and to reorient yourselfwhen you need to.
So some of the benefits forADHD we can go through some of
(04:30):
these, and today what we'regoing to do is we're going to
talk about some of the benefits,some common myths around this,
practical ways to trymindfulness, as well as, like
you know, some of the otherthings to keep in mind with this
.
So let's talk about thebenefits, right?
So, some of the other things tokeep in mind with this.
So, so let's talk about thebenefits, right?
So some of the benefits wouldinclude, first, improved focus
and attention.
So short mindfulness practiceshelp anchor wandering thoughts I
(04:53):
love this word anchor whenwe're thinking about mindfulness
and ADHD.
If you think of your, yourattention like a spotlight, uh,
on a stage, right that?
That, ideally on a stage, ifthere is a person on a stage.
And like a spotlight on a stage, right that, ideally on a stage
if there is a person on a stagein like a stage performance.
I think Wicked came outrecently in theaters, right,
originally a theater show.
(05:14):
If there is somebody wherethere's like a spotlight on
stage, ideally the spotlight isanchored on the person that you
want the audience to payattention to, and the same thing
with our attention.
Right Is short, mindfulnesspractices help anchor wandering
thoughts.
In ADHD, that spotlight tendsto wander, and so practicing
(05:40):
mindfulness, even just in short,little spurts, right, can be
enough to help us improve ourability to maintain focus on
what we want to focus on.
Another one is emotionalregulation, right.
So noticing emotions withoutreacting can reduce overwhelm.
So let's say that again,noticing your emotions without
(06:03):
reacting, this is something thatis huge, right?
So one of the things with ADHDthat we have a hard time with
sometimes, or what a lot ofpeople struggle with, is just
what I would call, broadlyself-awareness, particularly if
we are upset about something, ifwe are feeling some intense
emotions, so if we are aware andwe notice our emotions without
(06:26):
reacting to them, that's huge.
Even better if you go above andbeyond and you accept those
emotions and don't fight againstthem.
Right, so you can see how thatwould be helpful, right, emotion
regulation for sure.
Another big improvement there.
Another benefit Impulse controlis the other one, or is another
(06:47):
one?
Sorry, creating a pause betweenthought and action.
So this is something, believeit or not, right?
I know that you knowneuroplasticity, we know that
this is a thing that we candefinitely learn.
This and we can improve.
This Is that when there is athought and an action, I'm how
I'm holding my hands out infront of me.
You can't see it, but they're,they're sort of like right next
(07:10):
to each other, and what I do is,if you spread those apart,
right, create space betweenthought and action.
Hey, something happened.
Okay, before I, before I react,I'm going to stop, I'm going to
think, I'm going to reflect,I'm going to be mindful and
(07:31):
aware and have somebody cut meoff in traffic before, let's use
the traffic analogy, shall we?
Let's say there's this likesurge of emotion that comes up.
(07:55):
Oh, that's interesting.
There's an emotion that justshowed up here, right, like I'm
quite frustrated.
Part of this as well is, withthis building of self-awareness,
creating a level of separationfrom your emotions, right, oh
right, that you observe thoseemotions.
(08:18):
Next one here is stressreduction.
So mindfulness reduces stress,which stress in and of itself
can worsen ADHD symptoms.
So obviously managing thatstress is going to help, but not
just with ADHD, but just withoverall quality of life.
And it also has been shown toimprove executive functioning.
So boosting skills likeplanning and organization, if we
(08:40):
are able to wrangle and wrestleour mind through practices like
mindfulness, then our abilityto do planning, organization and
executive functioning.
We're intentionally using thosesame circuits that we will then
use later to do planning andorganization.
Right?
So there's tons of benefits.
(09:01):
I could sit here and list themall day long, right?
So there's tons of benefits.
I could sit here and list themall day long, right.
I will say just from ananecdotal perspective, when I
was I first was introduced tomindfulness, meditation and to
mindfulness practice.
When I was doing my master'sdegree in neuroscience, before I
(09:22):
got into counseling and allthat sort of stuff, I was doing
a thesis, and man is masterslike doing a graduate program
stressful, it's very stressfuland you have to juggle a lot of
things, and one of the thingsthat was really great about this
is that I at the time wouldnoticed that I would sit down to
like do some work and wouldthink, oh, I'm just gonna check
(09:42):
facebook for five minutes, orwhatever it was at the time, and
all of a sudden, like two hourswould go by and I was just
realizing, like what is going on?
Like no, this, this doesn'tmake sense, this doesn't this, I
can't do this, this is crazy.
Uh, and at about that time Isaw a sign for like a go sit
down mindfulness.
I also had like written a paperat this point about mindfulness
(10:05):
that I think that it wasbeneficial for stress and for
like ADHD as well.
And and so I there was a, therewas an on campus.
This was in Lethbridge, at theUniversity of Lethbridge.
On campus they had like amindfulness meditation group
that they were running once aweek for several weeks.
(10:28):
I went in and they just sort ofgently direct your attention,
right, you sort of sit quietly.
Some of them are like deepbreathing exercises, some of
them are more repeating mantrasand things like that.
But I distinctly remember thisexperience of okay, I'm going to
sit here and focus on mybreathing and then my mind
(10:49):
wanders and then you know, theperson guiding the meditation
just sort of reminds okay, yeah,just notice when your mind
wanders, acknowledge and bringit back to your breath again.
And that's all we really did.
But what I noticed after doingthat for half an hour is that
there were several times wheremy mind would wander.
(11:10):
I'd notice it, I'd acknowledgeit and then I would bring it
back to the breath and sometimesthe things that I'd get
distracted by are oh, I'mthinking about things that I
should be doing.
Sometimes the thoughts thatcame up was wow, this is really
boring and difficult and I wantto stop that.
And every time that I had athought come up, acknowledge it,
(11:32):
even if it's wow, this isboring and I hate it and I want
to quit.
Oh, that's interesting.
That's a thought that I'mhaving.
I'm having the thought that Ihate this.
I am experiencing discomfort asI sit here and brought a sense
of curiosity to it.
Okay, that's fine, bring yourattention back to the breath.
(11:54):
I'm in charge here.
I'm going to do that right.
Interestingly, when I went backto go do my schoolwork later on,
those distractions stillhappened, but they were way less
often and they were much morelike, they were less often and
also they didn't take nearly aslong before I noticed my actual
(12:18):
self-awareness of what I wasfocusing, focusing on had
improved in doing that and itwas.
For me, it wasn't that long ofa difference.
It was almost more of thisrealization again that I could
pay attention to what I waspaying attention to, and even
just that realization washelpful.
So, uh, let's talk a little bitabout this.
So a couple of quick myths ofuh uh about mindfulness We've
(12:40):
got.
I've got a couple here.
Of uh uh about mindfulnessWe've got, I've got a couple
here.
I can't.
Myth Number one I can't clearmy mind, so I can't do
mindfulness.
A lot of people think of doingmindfulness meditation, like
they need to sit down somewhereand uh, and they need to, like,
(13:01):
clear their mind.
And if they, you know, and if Ihave had racing thoughts or my
mind's going everywhere, uh,that must mean I'm doing it
wrong.
No, that's not.
That's not the case at all,right, it's not about that at
all.
It's about being present, right, it's about observing and
noticing your thought.
It's not about clearing yourmind.
(13:23):
Now, yes, there are some peoplewho have been doing this for a
long time and maybe havepracticed a particular kind of
mindfulness.
That is where they're likepaying attention to their
breathing, as an example, andthey can go a long time being
(13:43):
able to focus on the presentmoment without any mind activity
, without any distractions.
That's great, and what I wouldsay about that is there are also
a lot of people who can run amarathon without stopping, and
that does not mean that peoplewho run a 5k or a 10k and have
(14:05):
to stop to walk sometimes, thatdoesn't mean that it's not
worthwhile and it's not worthdoing, right?
In fact, the reason that youcan't run a 5k without stopping
to walk half of it is actually.
It actually supports the ideathat if you keep doing this, you
might get get better.
Right, and that's the sameprinciple.
Right, that you serve tobenefit even more by just going
(14:28):
on a daily run as an example.
Right, same principle appliesthere's more room to grow when,
if you have a really hard timewith this, and not that you need
to focus on, like, improvingyour time or whatever it is Like
you can if you want to, but youdon't have to.
Right, this is not aboutclearing your mind.
It's about noticing yourthoughts, it's about observing
(14:51):
them and even separating fromthem, if you can.
Um number two uh, I do not havetime for mindfulness.
Uh, the reality is is that evena minute counts and mindfulness
can be quick and simple.
So I'm going to actually guideus through some of these very
quickly today, not too quickly,but we're going to take a moment
(15:12):
, actually being mindful of thismyself.
I'm going to intentionally slowthis down for us.
So I want to actually to inviteyou wherever you're at.
I want you to simply, if youcan, close your eyes.
If not, that's fine, but I wantyou to bring your attention to
(15:35):
the room that you're in rightnow and I want you to imagine
that the past and the future,for the time being, we're not
going to worry about them.
I want you, as much as possible,to bring your attention to the
here and now of the presentmoment and as you do that, I
(15:57):
want you to just take a few long, slow, deep breaths, so just in
and out and with each breath,just bringing your attention
(16:18):
either to the rise and fall ofyour chest or where your breath
enter and leaves your nose, andjust bringing that spotlight of
your attention to the, to thebreath, with an openness,
without any sort of judgment,just being here, and this is
(16:45):
something again being mindful,being aware and being present.
So often in our day-to-daylives we're stuck in our head.
When was the last time younoticed what the bottom of your
feet feel like, or the beauty ofnature, or the drive that you
(17:08):
tend to make, or the things thatyou have within your home that
you appreciate?
There's so much beauty aroundus that we just miss, and part
of this is learning to bepresent and mindful with this.
So if you notice your thoughtswander, that's fine.
(17:36):
Bring them back to the breathand noticing as well, right
again, your mind may wander ohthere's a thought it's okay
(17:59):
feeling.
Oh, he stopped talking.
Did the podcast?
Podcast stop?
No, still here.
Acknowledge and bring yourattention back to the breath
again.
So what we just did ismindfulness just brought your
(18:28):
attention.
So often our attention is onautopilot, we are allowing our
attention to do whatever itwants and we are intentionally
turning off the autopilot of ourattention and we are steering
at this point.
So that's the first exercise.
You can do this with anything,right, you can do this in terms
(18:50):
of, you know, in any kind oflike day-to-day life, when you
are eating something mindfuleating and you can google these
things right, like mindfuleating exercises, mindful
walking.
Next time you eat something,your next meal, really take it
in.
Each time you take a bite of it, take a moment to smell the
(19:12):
thing that you're about to eat.
Pay attention to the tastes,the subtleties of the tastes,
the textures, all those sorts ofthings.
Right, really take them in anddon't let them just pass you by.
And I think that this is a bigpart of it too.
Is that really the journey ofmindfulness is learning how to
(19:33):
enjoy the journey in general andto not be swept up by those
sorts of things.
Mindful walking is another one,noticing how your feet feel
when they hit the ground,actually being present with that
.
Interestingly, you can alsomake a game of these kinds of
things Right.
I know that some people arevery mindful and intentional
(19:58):
when they when they go for awalk.
They go for a walk and, you know, instead of having a podcast or
music, just leave it at homethat time or, like, at least
turn it off for a part of it.
Pay attention to the soundsaround you.
Again, going back to the bookof the mindfulness prescription
(20:22):
of adults, adhd, um, dr Zylowskatalks about how there are three
real, what you would almostcall portals to the uh, to the
present moment, your breath,your senses, right?
So either what you see, whatyou can hear, hear uh, and then
(20:43):
the third one is any sort of asensation that's in your body.
So checking in with your body,a lot of times in in somatic
work, which is basically a formof mindfulness, essentially uh,
and as, as well as a way of sortof processing uh, traumas and
things like that.
We won't get into thetherapeutic mumbo jumbo of it,
(21:04):
right, but a lot of it ischecking in with your body and
when we are stressed, we tend tocarry tension in our body,
maybe in our shoulders or a pitin the stomach, or your heart
rate increases or there's amillion other things that might
happen, right?
So just paying attention andbeing mindful of those things.
There are a lot of great appsthat you can find.
(21:25):
Headspace is one, insight timer, calm, uh.
There's a great guy online, uhthat I'm blanking on on.
Where is?
I believe he is somewhere inthe uk.
I believe I could be wrong onthat.
Um, I believe he's.
He's got like this great Celticaccent, scottish accent, andrew
(21:46):
Johnson is his name, and he wasone of the very first people
that I ever did with like aguided meditation online.
But I think ultimately find andI mean obviously on YouTube
there's a bunch of stuff as well, and if you're interested out
there, please let me know, and Ican even put together some
guided meditations as well.
I think that can be reallyhelpful.
(22:07):
But, yeah, finding those things.
And again, they can be shorter,they can be longer, but it's a
great way to anchor yourself inthe present and to learn more
and get more familiar with yourattention in general.
(22:28):
Another I want to close thisepisode.
Actually, there's another great.
There is a great, oh, whatwould you call?
I think he's a researcher,anyway, clinician.
His name is dr john cabot zinnand he is, uh, the creator of
what's known asmindfulness-based stress
(22:49):
reduction, uh, which is a greatuh form of therapy for stress
reduction and for just likegeneral mindfulness stuff, right
.
But he talks a lot about whathe refers to as the nine
attitudes of mindfulness.
Now, I like this because it'sless about what you do and more
(23:09):
about your stance towards thepresent moment, or in other
words, like a lens that youbring to the present moment.
Right, because so often we'renot very intentional about this,
we aren't actively choosing tohave this, and so I'm going to
just go through each of theseand you can look this up more in
(23:31):
depth.
But we'll go through each ofthese and discuss them a little
bit.
The first attitude ofmindfulness that Dr Kabat-Zinn
talks about is non-judgment, sothis refers to the skill of
observing what's happening inour own minds and around us,
without jumping to theconclusion that they are good or
(23:53):
bad.
Instead, we experience themlike, just simply experience
them, right.
So, for example, let's sayyou're practicing watching your
breathing, at a certain pointyou may find your mind saying
something like this is boring,or this isn't working, or I
can't do this.
These are judgments.
When they come up in your mind,it's very important to
(24:15):
recognize them as judgmentalthinking and remind yourself
that this is just that.
We're going to suspend thatjudgment, right, we're going to,
we're going to, we're going totry, and you know, pump the
brakes on those things andinstead just watch your
breathing.
And so non-judgment is thefirst one, and that is something
(24:35):
that you can do in all sorts ofthings, right?
Imagine that you are a parentand your child does something
that usually you would judge asbad or obnoxious or something
undesirable.
Instead, simply observe them.
Now, I get that sometimes yougot to like save your kid from
themselves, right, but a lot oftimes you don't right.
(24:59):
So simply observing, okay,that's fine.
Or you can do this as a stancetowards the thoughts in your own
head, and you'll notice as wellthat there is a difference
between non-judgment and tryingto say that it is good, this is
(25:19):
not a judgment Like no, no, no,that's a good thing.
It's like no, it's not a goodthing or a bad thing, it's just
a thing.
It's a thing that's happening.
Apparently, my voice, by theway, is um, adolescent again and
I don't know what's going on.
My voice must be tired.
Anyway, that's not a good thingor a bad thing either.
It's just a thing that'shappening.
My voice is cracking a littlebit during this episode, so
(25:40):
you're welcome there at home.
Next one, number two patience.
We're not going to go in thatmuch detail with all of these.
Patience is the second one.
Right and so, recognizing thatthings will unfold in their own
time and allowing things tohappen at their own pace,
sitting with patience.
This is something that you mayneed to cultivate within
(26:02):
yourself and draw on.
In other words, you might haveto intentionally be patient and
tell yourself that you're goingto be patient a little bit.
Right, ok that I'm.
I'm recognizing that thingswill unfold in their own time
and I'm going to allow that tohappen.
I don't need to set that pace.
(26:24):
I will go at the pace that theuniverse or whatever is setting.
That's okay.
The third one is a beginner'smind, seeing things as if, for
the first time, with opennessand curiosity.
This is one of my favoritethings, because everything is so
cool.
So imagine, like right, so justlike.
(26:47):
Look around where you're atright now.
You know, maybe you're intraffic or you're at home, but
imagine, I mean just like.
Even my guess is most of youare listening to this on a
smartphone.
When was the last time that youapproached a smartphone with a
beginner's mind, where you like.
Imagine that you were just likefrom a different planet, like
(27:08):
an alien showed up.
They'd never seen a smartphonebefore, and.
Or imagine that somebody fromlike a hundred years ago showed
up and they had your smart andthey just picked up your
smartphone and you're like, waitwhat it will like literally
answer any question, question.
You can just go online and lookand and anything like.
It's incredible, right, and andseeing these things as though
(27:29):
with the first time.
Sometimes, I think that we thereason this is also so powerful
is because sometimes we're sofamiliar with something that we
get stuck in a rut and we feellike we can't learn anything new
and it's like, ah, it's all thesame.
And it's like, ah, it's all thesame, whatever right, it's like
no, no, no, no, no.
Like be open and curious aboutit and bring a beginner's mind
(27:51):
to what you're doing.
Be mindful about that.
The fourth one trust.
Trusting in yourself and yourfeelings and believing in your
own wisdom, intentionallycultivating an attitude of trust
.
Number five I really like thisone non-striving, focusing on
the process rather than strivingfor a particular outcome.
(28:15):
I really like that right.
I think that sometimes we're sofocused on a particular outcome
, or what we should be doing orwhat right, like how it should
be or whatever it's like no, no,no, just focus on what you're
doing right, focus on theprocess.
Be present, don't worry aboutstriving to achieve something
(28:37):
right, like, sure, set goals foryourself or whatever, just to
make sure.
That is more about steeringyourself in the right direction
and aligning yourself with yourvalues and your goals.
But, like, once you've pointedyourself in the right direction,
like man, enjoy the journey,just be here and focus on the
process.
So that's number five,non-striving.
(28:59):
Number six acceptance.
Acknowledging things as theyare in the moment, without
trying to change them.
I have two different ways thatI think about this.
One of them it's a very commonphrase that a lot of people use.
It is what it is.
Right, something happened andyou, you know, if you are in the
(29:20):
present moment, just justaccept it.
Right Because and I'm nottalking about like that you
should accept it forever and youshouldn't try Like that's not
what I'm saying.
Right Because I think thatthere's a lot, of, a lot of
power and a lot of benefit thatwe can have from setting goals
for ourselves and working atthings.
(29:40):
But in the moment, right now,if there is something that is
unpleasant or pleasant, for thatmatter.
Accepting it and acknowledgingit.
Right For as they are and notthe way we wish them to be.
We don't need to change them.
So it is what it is.
Is the first one, or so be it.
(30:02):
That's the other one, right,okay, right, actually, okay, is
probably a third one, okay, sure, why not?
Number seven letting go,releasing attachment to certain
thoughts, feelings or emotionsor experiences.
Right, sometimes we get sowrapped up in things, but once
(30:22):
we've acknowledged thesethoughts or these feelings, we
don't have to hang on to them.
Right, we can, we can releaseour attachment to them and we
can just sort of let them go,can release our attachment to
them and we can just sort of letthem go.
Number eight recognizing andappreciating the positives in
life.
This one is huge, right.
I think that human beings ingeneral, we have a negativity
(30:43):
bias.
It's easier for us sometimes,especially when we're stressed
and going through hard things,that we can focus on the
negative.
But if we are intentional aboutrecognizing and appreciating
the positives, hallelujah, it'sso much better, it's so much
better.
And that is not the same astoxic positivity, by the way.
(31:05):
Still, acknowledge and acceptthe negative, but go a step
further and find gratitude forthe positives as well.
Don't let the negative thingsovershadow.
And then finally, the last one,number nine generosity.
Cultivating a spirit of givingand sharing with others.
(31:27):
This is the I mean this one's.
I think that this one actuallyis again there's, there's an
intention to that, and so oftenin modern society, right, it can
be so much about like me, me,me, what do I have, what do I
get out of this?
And instead thinking, well,hang on a minute, like what do I
have to give and am I going tolike what can I give?
(31:48):
And being very intentionalabout that.
So, yeah, so those are mygeneral thoughts about that.
We went actually a little bitlonger than I.
Well, I guess we were abouthalf an hour in.
That was pretty good time.
It's where I like to try andkeep these episodes not too long
.
I want to leave you with alittle bit of a challenge, right
(32:09):
?
So mindfulness doesn't have tobe perfect and doesn't have to
be time consuming.
It's just having more contactwith the present moment,
learning to enjoy the journey alittle bit more and just
learning to experience life asit is in the present moment.
Uh, one of the greatest books,or one of the most helpful books
that I have read in recentmemory, uh, is the power of now
(32:31):
by Eckhart Tolle.
He was in Edmonton what was itsix months ago and spoke, and I
went and attended that, andthere's a lot of wisdom in that
book, the Power of Now and hejust describes that contact with
the present moment as well.
It's interesting becausethere's a lot of overlap, you
probably notice, between betweenmore like the psychology
(32:54):
therapy side of things and whatwould almost be considered like
spiritualness, um, notnecessarily religious as much as
just spiritual, in the sensethat um, uh, you know, sort of
transcending our own experienceand trying to be able to be more
in touch with ourselves, to beable to be more, uh, to release
(33:17):
some of the suffering that wehave and to be more present and
intentional and bringing good tothe world.
So in that sense, I think thatreally there's a lot of overlap
there, and so, um, I I found alot of value in that and I think
that, in general, I would justinvite those of you at home, you
know, try to to find some timeuh to to be more mindful and
(33:41):
more present in your day-to-daylives.
Thank you so much for listening.
By the way, um, again, my nameis zac erickson.
You can go to rechargepsychologycom, uh, and you can
find links there to the podcastyou can find if you are in
Alberta and want to be, want toattend like therapy with me.
I am accepting clients.
(34:05):
This time of year Always getsbusy, but I please reach out and
even if you're, you know, justwanting to chat or something you
know, feel free to reach outthere.
Let me know Um, also onInstagram at recharge psych and
again head over to rechargepsychologycom slash AI guide and
(34:27):
check out that guide there ofhow to use AI to help, uh, help
troubleshoot and manage ADHD.
It's just a good list of ideasand prompts that kind of can
help you get started in using AIto help with ADHD related
issues.
(34:47):
So thank you for everything,thanks for listening and I will
talk to you next time on ADHDreal talk.
Thank you.
Hello, welcome to another episode of ADHD Real Talk.
My name is Zac Erickson.
Today, I am excited that we'regoing to talk a little bit about
actually, weirdly one of myfavorite topics and one of the
things that I really enjoy a lot, and it's something that a lot
of people with ADHD actually,frankly, I think, most people in
(00:21):
life in general could do with alittle bit more of, and that is
essentially broadly what'sreferred to as mindfulness.
Before we get into today'stopic, I want to let everybody
know, if you go torechargepsychologycom slash AI
guide, I have a cool guide onhow you can use AI to help with
(00:45):
a lot of ADHD related things and, yeah, it's pretty cool, so
check it out over there.
Rechargepsychologycom slash AIguide.
Today we're going to be talkingabout mindfulness, and I'm
really excited about thisbecause it is actually one of
the things over the course of, Iwould say, the past 10 years or
so, that I have personallyfound to be extremely helpful in
(01:11):
navigating my own ADHD, as wellas just figuring out what I
like, how to keep myself ontrack.
Now, what is mindfulness?
Let's talk about that first,right?
Uh, now, what is mindfulness?
Let's talk about that first,right, what is mindfulness and
what is like?
What specifically are wetalking about?
(01:32):
One way to think aboutmindfulness is in, especially in
the lens of adhd, right?
So for people with adhd,essentially there are two
different kinds of ADHD we'vetalked about before.
There is the hyperactive andimpulsive kind of ADHD.
Right, that's the like I have athought or an impulse or
(01:54):
something like that and then Ijust I'm immediately doing it,
right, like it's, it's uh, andoften there's restlessness in
there and we can really feellike we are a slave to our ADHD.
In that sense, we like it is incontrol and it controls us.
Now, what's interesting is, ifwe are, if we think of that,
(02:20):
that's the first one.
And then, within attention,it's more of difficulty focusing
, easily distracted, those sortsof things, and sometimes we can
get distracted far beyond, likeyou know, like you might go
down a rabbit hole on Facebookor Instagram or something right,
go online and all of a suddenlike hours have passed and oh no
(02:41):
, I said I was going to do thisthing.
So mindfulness, put very simply, is being present in the moment
, without judgment.
I'll say that again Mindfulnessis being present in the moment,
without judgment.
Now, in terms of sorry, I got afrog in my throat there In
(03:02):
terms of ADHD, part of what isinteresting.
Actually, there's a great bookcalled I'm looking over at my
bookshelf here the MindfulnessPrescription for Adult ADHD by
Lydia Zylowska, but she kind oftalks about mindfulness in the
context of ADHD, as well aspaying attention to the fact
(03:27):
that you can pay attention towhat you're paying attention to.
I'll say that again payingattention to what you are paying
attention to and being aware.
Another way of sayingmindfulness, or a component of
mindfulness at least, isawareness, right Present moment
awareness, and so often withADHD.
(03:48):
Sometimes, when we'redistracted, when we're kind of
like in the flow of things,we're not fully consciously
aware of what's going on, right?
And so we get so wrapped up inthings that sometimes it's hard
to be aware of what I am payingattention to and is it the thing
that I want to pay attention to, right?
(04:09):
So, what mindfulness is?
It's not a cure for ADHD, butit's a tool to work with the
brain that you have and it's away to understand yourself
better and to reorient yourselfwhen you need to.
So some of the benefits forADHD we can go through some of
(04:30):
these, and today what we'regoing to do is we're going to
talk about some of the benefits,some common myths around this,
practical ways to trymindfulness, as well as, like
you know, some of the otherthings to keep in mind with this
.
So let's talk about thebenefits, right?
So, some of the other things tokeep in mind with this.
So, so let's talk about thebenefits, right?
So some of the benefits wouldinclude, first, improved focus
and attention.
So short mindfulness practiceshelp anchor wandering thoughts I
(04:53):
love this word anchor whenwe're thinking about mindfulness
and ADHD.
If you think of your, yourattention like a spotlight, uh,
on a stage, right that?
That, ideally on a stage, ifthere is a person on a stage.
And like a spotlight on a stage, right that, ideally on a stage
if there is a person on a stagein like a stage performance.
I think Wicked came outrecently in theaters, right,
originally a theater show.
(05:14):
If there is somebody wherethere's like a spotlight on
stage, ideally the spotlight isanchored on the person that you
want the audience to payattention to, and the same thing
with our attention.
Right Is short, mindfulnesspractices help anchor wandering
thoughts.
In ADHD, that spotlight tendsto wander, and so practicing
(05:40):
mindfulness, even just in short,little spurts, right, can be
enough to help us improve ourability to maintain focus on
what we want to focus on.
Another one is emotionalregulation, right.
So noticing emotions withoutreacting can reduce overwhelm.
So let's say that again,noticing your emotions without
(06:03):
reacting, this is something thatis huge, right?
So one of the things with ADHDthat we have a hard time with
sometimes, or what a lot ofpeople struggle with, is just
what I would call, broadlyself-awareness, particularly if
we are upset about something, ifwe are feeling some intense
emotions, so if we are aware andwe notice our emotions without
(06:26):
reacting to them, that's huge.
Even better if you go above andbeyond and you accept those
emotions and don't fight againstthem.
Right, so you can see how thatwould be helpful, right, emotion
regulation for sure.
Another big improvement there.
Another benefit Impulse controlis the other one, or is another
(06:47):
one?
Sorry, creating a pause betweenthought and action.
So this is something, believeit or not, right?
I know that you knowneuroplasticity, we know that
this is a thing that we candefinitely learn.
This and we can improve.
This Is that when there is athought and an action, I'm how
I'm holding my hands out infront of me.
You can't see it, but they're,they're sort of like right next
(07:10):
to each other, and what I do is,if you spread those apart,
right, create space betweenthought and action.
Hey, something happened.
Okay, before I, before I react,I'm going to stop, I'm going to
think, I'm going to reflect,I'm going to be mindful and
(07:31):
aware and have somebody cut meoff in traffic before, let's use
the traffic analogy, shall we?
Let's say there's this likesurge of emotion that comes up.
(07:55):
Oh, that's interesting.
There's an emotion that justshowed up here, right, like I'm
quite frustrated.
Part of this as well is, withthis building of self-awareness,
creating a level of separationfrom your emotions, right, oh
right, that you observe thoseemotions.
(08:18):
Next one here is stressreduction.
So mindfulness reduces stress,which stress in and of itself
can worsen ADHD symptoms.
So obviously managing thatstress is going to help, but not
just with ADHD, but just withoverall quality of life.
And it also has been shown toimprove executive functioning.
So boosting skills likeplanning and organization, if we
(08:40):
are able to wrangle and wrestleour mind through practices like
mindfulness, then our abilityto do planning, organization and
executive functioning.
We're intentionally using thosesame circuits that we will then
use later to do planning andorganization.
Right?
So there's tons of benefits.
(09:01):
I could sit here and list themall day long, right?
So there's tons of benefits.
I could sit here and list themall day long, right.
I will say just from ananecdotal perspective, when I
was I first was introduced tomindfulness, meditation and to
mindfulness practice.
When I was doing my master'sdegree in neuroscience, before I
(09:22):
got into counseling and allthat sort of stuff, I was doing
a thesis, and man is masterslike doing a graduate program
stressful, it's very stressfuland you have to juggle a lot of
things, and one of the thingsthat was really great about this
is that I at the time wouldnoticed that I would sit down to
like do some work and wouldthink, oh, I'm just gonna check
(09:42):
facebook for five minutes, orwhatever it was at the time, and
all of a sudden, like two hourswould go by and I was just
realizing, like what is going on?
Like no, this, this doesn'tmake sense, this doesn't this, I
can't do this, this is crazy.
Uh, and at about that time Isaw a sign for like a go sit
down mindfulness.
I also had like written a paperat this point about mindfulness
(10:05):
that I think that it wasbeneficial for stress and for
like ADHD as well.
And and so I there was a, therewas an on campus.
This was in Lethbridge, at theUniversity of Lethbridge.
On campus they had like amindfulness meditation group
that they were running once aweek for several weeks.
(10:28):
I went in and they just sort ofgently direct your attention,
right, you sort of sit quietly.
Some of them are like deepbreathing exercises, some of
them are more repeating mantrasand things like that.
But I distinctly remember thisexperience of okay, I'm going to
sit here and focus on mybreathing and then my mind
(10:49):
wanders and then you know, theperson guiding the meditation
just sort of reminds okay, yeah,just notice when your mind
wanders, acknowledge and bringit back to your breath again.
And that's all we really did.
But what I noticed after doingthat for half an hour is that
there were several times wheremy mind would wander.
(11:10):
I'd notice it, I'd acknowledgeit and then I would bring it
back to the breath and sometimesthe things that I'd get
distracted by are oh, I'mthinking about things that I
should be doing.
Sometimes the thoughts thatcame up was wow, this is really
boring and difficult and I wantto stop that.
And every time that I had athought come up, acknowledge it,
(11:32):
even if it's wow, this isboring and I hate it and I want
to quit.
Oh, that's interesting.
That's a thought that I'mhaving.
I'm having the thought that Ihate this.
I am experiencing discomfort asI sit here and brought a sense
of curiosity to it.
Okay, that's fine, bring yourattention back to the breath.
(11:54):
I'm in charge here.
I'm going to do that right.
Interestingly, when I went backto go do my schoolwork later on,
those distractions stillhappened, but they were way less
often and they were much morelike, they were less often and
also they didn't take nearly aslong before I noticed my actual
(12:18):
self-awareness of what I wasfocusing, focusing on had
improved in doing that and itwas.
For me, it wasn't that long ofa difference.
It was almost more of thisrealization again that I could
pay attention to what I waspaying attention to, and even
just that realization washelpful.
So, uh, let's talk a little bitabout this.
So a couple of quick myths ofuh uh about mindfulness We've
(12:40):
got.
I've got a couple here.
Of uh uh about mindfulnessWe've got, I've got a couple
here.
I can't.
Myth Number one I can't clearmy mind, so I can't do
mindfulness.
A lot of people think of doingmindfulness meditation, like
they need to sit down somewhereand uh, and they need to, like,
(13:01):
clear their mind.
And if they, you know, and if Ihave had racing thoughts or my
mind's going everywhere, uh,that must mean I'm doing it
wrong.
No, that's not.
That's not the case at all,right, it's not about that at
all.
It's about being present, right, it's about observing and
noticing your thought.
It's not about clearing yourmind.
(13:23):
Now, yes, there are some peoplewho have been doing this for a
long time and maybe havepracticed a particular kind of
mindfulness.
That is where they're likepaying attention to their
breathing, as an example, andthey can go a long time being
(13:43):
able to focus on the presentmoment without any mind activity
, without any distractions.
That's great, and what I wouldsay about that is there are also
a lot of people who can run amarathon without stopping, and
that does not mean that peoplewho run a 5k or a 10k and have
(14:05):
to stop to walk sometimes, thatdoesn't mean that it's not
worthwhile and it's not worthdoing, right?
In fact, the reason that youcan't run a 5k without stopping
to walk half of it is actually.
It actually supports the ideathat if you keep doing this, you
might get get better.
Right, and that's the sameprinciple.
Right, that you serve tobenefit even more by just going
(14:28):
on a daily run as an example.
Right, same principle appliesthere's more room to grow when,
if you have a really hard timewith this, and not that you need
to focus on, like, improvingyour time or whatever it is Like
you can if you want to, but youdon't have to.
Right, this is not aboutclearing your mind.
It's about noticing yourthoughts, it's about observing
(14:51):
them and even separating fromthem, if you can.
Um number two uh, I do not havetime for mindfulness.
Uh, the reality is is that evena minute counts and mindfulness
can be quick and simple.
So I'm going to actually guideus through some of these very
quickly today, not too quickly,but we're going to take a moment
(15:12):
, actually being mindful of thismyself.
I'm going to intentionally slowthis down for us.
So I want to actually to inviteyou wherever you're at.
I want you to simply, if youcan, close your eyes.
If not, that's fine, but I wantyou to bring your attention to
(15:35):
the room that you're in rightnow and I want you to imagine
that the past and the future,for the time being, we're not
going to worry about them.
I want you, as much as possible,to bring your attention to the
here and now of the presentmoment and as you do that, I
(15:57):
want you to just take a few long, slow, deep breaths, so just in
and out and with each breath,just bringing your attention
(16:18):
either to the rise and fall ofyour chest or where your breath
enter and leaves your nose, andjust bringing that spotlight of
your attention to the, to thebreath, with an openness,
without any sort of judgment,just being here, and this is
(16:45):
something again being mindful,being aware and being present.
So often in our day-to-daylives we're stuck in our head.
When was the last time younoticed what the bottom of your
feet feel like, or the beauty ofnature, or the drive that you
(17:08):
tend to make, or the things thatyou have within your home that
you appreciate?
There's so much beauty aroundus that we just miss, and part
of this is learning to bepresent and mindful with this.
So if you notice your thoughtswander, that's fine.
(17:36):
Bring them back to the breathand noticing as well, right
again, your mind may wander ohthere's a thought it's okay
(17:59):
feeling.
Oh, he stopped talking.
Did the podcast?
Podcast stop?
No, still here.
Acknowledge and bring yourattention back to the breath
again.
So what we just did ismindfulness just brought your
(18:28):
attention.
So often our attention is onautopilot, we are allowing our
attention to do whatever itwants and we are intentionally
turning off the autopilot of ourattention and we are steering
at this point.
So that's the first exercise.
You can do this with anything,right, you can do this in terms
(18:50):
of, you know, in any kind oflike day-to-day life, when you
are eating something mindfuleating and you can google these
things right, like mindfuleating exercises, mindful
walking.
Next time you eat something,your next meal, really take it
in.
Each time you take a bite of it, take a moment to smell the
(19:12):
thing that you're about to eat.
Pay attention to the tastes,the subtleties of the tastes,
the textures, all those sorts ofthings.
Right, really take them in anddon't let them just pass you by.
And I think that this is a bigpart of it too.
Is that really the journey ofmindfulness is learning how to
(19:33):
enjoy the journey in general andto not be swept up by those
sorts of things.
Mindful walking is another one,noticing how your feet feel
when they hit the ground,actually being present with that
.
Interestingly, you can alsomake a game of these kinds of
things Right.
I know that some people arevery mindful and intentional
(19:58):
when they when they go for awalk.
They go for a walk and, you know, instead of having a podcast or
music, just leave it at homethat time or, like, at least
turn it off for a part of it.
Pay attention to the soundsaround you.
Again, going back to the bookof the mindfulness prescription
(20:22):
of adults, adhd, um, dr Zylowskatalks about how there are three
real, what you would almostcall portals to the uh, to the
present moment, your breath,your senses, right?
So either what you see, whatyou can hear, hear uh, and then
(20:43):
the third one is any sort of asensation that's in your body.
So checking in with your body,a lot of times in in somatic
work, which is basically a formof mindfulness, essentially uh,
and as, as well as a way of sortof processing uh, traumas and
things like that.
We won't get into thetherapeutic mumbo jumbo of it,
(21:04):
right, but a lot of it ischecking in with your body and
when we are stressed, we tend tocarry tension in our body,
maybe in our shoulders or a pitin the stomach, or your heart
rate increases or there's amillion other things that might
happen, right?
So just paying attention andbeing mindful of those things.
There are a lot of great appsthat you can find.
(21:25):
Headspace is one, insight timer, calm, uh.
There's a great guy online, uhthat I'm blanking on on.
Where is?
I believe he is somewhere inthe uk.
I believe I could be wrong onthat.
Um, I believe he's.
He's got like this great Celticaccent, scottish accent, andrew
(21:46):
Johnson is his name, and he wasone of the very first people
that I ever did with like aguided meditation online.
But I think ultimately find andI mean obviously on YouTube
there's a bunch of stuff as well, and if you're interested out
there, please let me know, and Ican even put together some
guided meditations as well.
I think that can be reallyhelpful.
(22:07):
But, yeah, finding those things.
And again, they can be shorter,they can be longer, but it's a
great way to anchor yourself inthe present and to learn more
and get more familiar with yourattention in general.
(22:28):
Another I want to close thisepisode.
Actually, there's another great.
There is a great, oh, whatwould you call?
I think he's a researcher,anyway, clinician.
His name is dr john cabot zinnand he is, uh, the creator of
what's known asmindfulness-based stress
(22:49):
reduction, uh, which is a greatuh form of therapy for stress
reduction and for just likegeneral mindfulness stuff, right
.
But he talks a lot about whathe refers to as the nine
attitudes of mindfulness.
Now, I like this because it'sless about what you do and more
(23:09):
about your stance towards thepresent moment, or in other
words, like a lens that youbring to the present moment.
Right, because so often we'renot very intentional about this,
we aren't actively choosing tohave this, and so I'm going to
just go through each of theseand you can look this up more in
(23:31):
depth.
But we'll go through each ofthese and discuss them a little
bit.
The first attitude ofmindfulness that Dr Kabat-Zinn
talks about is non-judgment, sothis refers to the skill of
observing what's happening inour own minds and around us,
without jumping to theconclusion that they are good or
(23:53):
bad.
Instead, we experience themlike, just simply experience
them, right.
So, for example, let's sayyou're practicing watching your
breathing, at a certain pointyou may find your mind saying
something like this is boring,or this isn't working, or I
can't do this.
These are judgments.
When they come up in your mind,it's very important to
(24:15):
recognize them as judgmentalthinking and remind yourself
that this is just that.
We're going to suspend thatjudgment, right, we're going to,
we're going to, we're going totry, and you know, pump the
brakes on those things andinstead just watch your
breathing.
And so non-judgment is thefirst one, and that is something
(24:35):
that you can do in all sorts ofthings, right?
Imagine that you are a parentand your child does something
that usually you would judge asbad or obnoxious or something
undesirable.
Instead, simply observe them.
Now, I get that sometimes yougot to like save your kid from
themselves, right, but a lot oftimes you don't right.
(24:59):
So simply observing, okay,that's fine.
Or you can do this as a stancetowards the thoughts in your own
head, and you'll notice as wellthat there is a difference
between non-judgment and tryingto say that it is good, this is
(25:19):
not a judgment Like no, no, no,that's a good thing.
It's like no, it's not a goodthing or a bad thing, it's just
a thing.
It's a thing that's happening.
Apparently, my voice, by theway, is um, adolescent again and
I don't know what's going on.
My voice must be tired.
Anyway, that's not a good thingor a bad thing either.
It's just a thing that'shappening.
My voice is cracking a littlebit during this episode, so
(25:40):
you're welcome there at home.
Next one, number two patience.
We're not going to go in thatmuch detail with all of these.
Patience is the second one.
Right and so, recognizing thatthings will unfold in their own
time and allowing things tohappen at their own pace,
sitting with patience.
This is something that you mayneed to cultivate within
(26:02):
yourself and draw on.
In other words, you might haveto intentionally be patient and
tell yourself that you're goingto be patient a little bit.
Right, ok that I'm.
I'm recognizing that thingswill unfold in their own time
and I'm going to allow that tohappen.
I don't need to set that pace.
(26:24):
I will go at the pace that theuniverse or whatever is setting.
That's okay.
The third one is a beginner'smind, seeing things as if, for
the first time, with opennessand curiosity.
This is one of my favoritethings, because everything is so
cool.
So imagine, like right, so justlike.
(26:47):
Look around where you're atright now.
You know, maybe you're intraffic or you're at home, but
imagine, I mean just like.
Even my guess is most of youare listening to this on a
smartphone.
When was the last time that youapproached a smartphone with a
beginner's mind, where you like.
Imagine that you were just likefrom a different planet, like
(27:08):
an alien showed up.
They'd never seen a smartphonebefore, and.
Or imagine that somebody fromlike a hundred years ago showed
up and they had your smart andthey just picked up your
smartphone and you're like, waitwhat it will like literally
answer any question, question.
You can just go online and lookand and anything like.
It's incredible, right, and andseeing these things as though
(27:29):
with the first time.
Sometimes, I think that we thereason this is also so powerful
is because sometimes we're sofamiliar with something that we
get stuck in a rut and we feellike we can't learn anything new
and it's like, ah, it's all thesame.
And it's like, ah, it's all thesame, whatever right, it's like
no, no, no, no, no.
Like be open and curious aboutit and bring a beginner's mind
(27:51):
to what you're doing.
Be mindful about that.
The fourth one trust.
Trusting in yourself and yourfeelings and believing in your
own wisdom, intentionallycultivating an attitude of trust
.
Number five I really like thisone non-striving, focusing on
the process rather than strivingfor a particular outcome.
(28:15):
I really like that right.
I think that sometimes we're sofocused on a particular outcome
, or what we should be doing orwhat right, like how it should
be or whatever it's like no, no,no, just focus on what you're
doing right, focus on theprocess.
Be present, don't worry aboutstriving to achieve something
(28:37):
right, like, sure, set goals foryourself or whatever, just to
make sure.
That is more about steeringyourself in the right direction
and aligning yourself with yourvalues and your goals.
But, like, once you've pointedyourself in the right direction,
like man, enjoy the journey,just be here and focus on the
process.
So that's number five,non-striving.
(28:59):
Number six acceptance.
Acknowledging things as theyare in the moment, without
trying to change them.
I have two different ways thatI think about this.
One of them it's a very commonphrase that a lot of people use.
It is what it is.
Right, something happened andyou, you know, if you are in the
(29:20):
present moment, just justaccept it.
Right Because and I'm nottalking about like that you
should accept it forever and youshouldn't try Like that's not
what I'm saying.
Right Because I think thatthere's a lot, of, a lot of
power and a lot of benefit thatwe can have from setting goals
for ourselves and working atthings.
(29:40):
But in the moment, right now,if there is something that is
unpleasant or pleasant, for thatmatter.
Accepting it and acknowledgingit.
Right For as they are and notthe way we wish them to be.
We don't need to change them.
So it is what it is.
Is the first one, or so be it.
(30:02):
That's the other one, right,okay, right, actually, okay, is
probably a third one, okay, sure, why not?
Number seven letting go,releasing attachment to certain
thoughts, feelings or emotionsor experiences.
Right, sometimes we get sowrapped up in things, but once
(30:22):
we've acknowledged thesethoughts or these feelings, we
don't have to hang on to them.
Right, we can, we can releaseour attachment to them and we
can just sort of let them go,can release our attachment to
them and we can just sort of letthem go.
Number eight recognizing andappreciating the positives in
life.
This one is huge, right.
I think that human beings ingeneral, we have a negativity
(30:43):
bias.
It's easier for us sometimes,especially when we're stressed
and going through hard things,that we can focus on the
negative.
But if we are intentional aboutrecognizing and appreciating
the positives, hallelujah, it'sso much better, it's so much
better.
And that is not the same astoxic positivity, by the way.
(31:05):
Still, acknowledge and acceptthe negative, but go a step
further and find gratitude forthe positives as well.
Don't let the negative thingsovershadow.
And then finally, the last one,number nine generosity.
Cultivating a spirit of givingand sharing with others.
(31:27):
This is the I mean this one's.
I think that this one actuallyis again there's, there's an
intention to that, and so oftenin modern society, right, it can
be so much about like me, me,me, what do I have, what do I
get out of this?
And instead thinking, well,hang on a minute, like what do I
have to give and am I going tolike what can I give?
(31:48):
And being very intentionalabout that.
So, yeah, so those are mygeneral thoughts about that.
We went actually a little bitlonger than I.
Well, I guess we were abouthalf an hour in.
That was pretty good time.
It's where I like to try andkeep these episodes not too long
.
I want to leave you with alittle bit of a challenge, right
(32:09):
?
So mindfulness doesn't have tobe perfect and doesn't have to
be time consuming.
It's just having more contactwith the present moment,
learning to enjoy the journey alittle bit more and just
learning to experience life asit is in the present moment.
Uh, one of the greatest books,or one of the most helpful books
that I have read in recentmemory, uh, is the power of now
(32:31):
by Eckhart Tolle.
He was in Edmonton what was itsix months ago and spoke, and I
went and attended that, andthere's a lot of wisdom in that
book, the Power of Now and hejust describes that contact with
the present moment as well.
It's interesting becausethere's a lot of overlap, you
probably notice, between betweenmore like the psychology
(32:54):
therapy side of things and whatwould almost be considered like
spiritualness, um, notnecessarily religious as much as
just spiritual, in the sensethat um, uh, you know, sort of
transcending our own experienceand trying to be able to be more
in touch with ourselves, to beable to be more, uh, to release
(33:17):
some of the suffering that wehave and to be more present and
intentional and bringing good tothe world.
So in that sense, I think thatreally there's a lot of overlap
there, and so, um, I I found alot of value in that and I think
that, in general, I would justinvite those of you at home, you
know, try to to find some timeuh to to be more mindful and
(33:41):
more present in your day-to-daylives.
Thank you so much for listening.
By the way, um, again, my nameis zac erickson.
You can go to rechargepsychologycom, uh, and you can
find links there to the podcastyou can find if you are in
Alberta and want to be, want toattend like therapy with me.
I am accepting clients.
(34:05):
This time of year Always getsbusy, but I please reach out and
even if you're, you know, justwanting to chat or something you
know, feel free to reach outthere.
Let me know Um, also onInstagram at recharge psych and
again head over to rechargepsychologycom slash AI guide and
(34:27):
check out that guide there ofhow to use AI to help, uh, help
troubleshoot and manage ADHD.
It's just a good list of ideasand prompts that kind of can
help you get started in using AIto help with ADHD related
issues.
(34:47):
So thank you for everything,thanks for listening and I will
talk to you next time on ADHDreal talk.
Thank you.
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