Mindfulness: A Secret Weapon Against ADHD (And How to Get Started)

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the act of being present. It is acknowledging and accepting your feelings, thoughts, and bodily sensations in the moment. Now, you might be asking what the heck this has to do with managing ADHD. Let me help you!

Why Does Mindfulness Matter?

Practicing mindfulness has a lot of benefits for everyone, BUT it’s incredibly beneficial for people with ADHD and I’m going to tell you why.

Thickening of the Prefrontal Cortex

Practicing mindfulness regularly helps to thicken the prefrontal cortex of your brain.

Why is this important?

The prefrontal cortex is the section of your brain right behind your eyes and regulates your thoughts, actions, and emotions. When we practice mindfulness, it activates and thickens this area of the brain and allows us to improve our focus, impulse control, and planning skills.

I don’t know about you, but all of those are areas I could use a LOT of improvement in.

Improves Attention Regulation

Exercising mindfulness helps teach us how to recognize our distractions and then reign our focus back to the task at hand. As you work on mindfulness, you are essentially rewiring your brain and making new neural networks. These new connections allow you to better deal with stress and keep your thoughts from wandering when you start getting overwhelmed.

Improves Emotional Regulation

People with ADHD tend to struggle with emotional control. Improving your emotional regulation with mindfulness exercises can help you learn to recognize emotions as they arise and respond thoughtfully. As you get better at this, you will start being less impulsive and more careful in your actions and reactions to other people and situations.

Enhances Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is the ability to understand your thought processes, triggers, and behaviors. You can use that understanding to help determine what is or is not worth your time/energy to deal with and the steps necessary to resolve any issue.

How is this beneficial?

It allows you to step back and evaluate who you are and what you are doing at the moment. To see the bigger picture. Strengthening this skill will allow you to work on approaching tasks, planning tasks, time management, and measuring completion.

How Do You Practice Mindfulness?

Practicing mindfulness may seem like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be. Start with baby steps and work your way up.

Pick a time of day that works best for you; A lot of people prefer first thing in the morning or right before they go to bed
Turn off your phone or any other distractions
Get in a comfortable position whether that be sitting or lying down
Decide which exercise you would like to do (details below)

Mindfulness exercises

Breathing

Deep Breathing

Deep breathing exercises help to relieve stress and zero in your focus. To do this:

Take a deep breath through your nose, filling your lungs and allowing your chest and stomach to expand fully
Slowly exhale through your mouth.
Note: It’s OK if your mind wanders, just acknowledge and come back to breathing
Continue to do this for a set amount of time. Start with 1 minute and then work your way up to 10 minutes.

4-7-8 Breathing Technique

The 4-7-8 breathing exercise helps to manage/reduce anxiety.

Sit in a chair and bring your attention to your breathing
Take a deep breath in through your nose for 4 seconds
Hold this breath for 7 seconds
Exhale slowly through your mouth for 8 seconds
It is recommended to practice twice a day and start with only four cycles before working your way up to eight cycles

Breathing Space

The 3-minute breathing space exercise pulls you out of auto-pilot mode and allows you to come into the present moment. To accomplish this:

Sit and bring awareness to yourself; your thoughts, feelings, and sensations of the body. Don’t try to change anything just BE
After a couple of minutes, gather your attention to your breathing
Breath deeply, filling your lungs and expanding your stomach
It is expected for your mind to wander, especially at first. It’s okay, just bring your focus back to breathing
Finally, expand your awareness to your body as a whole, almost as if your body were breathing
Notice your thoughts and feelings again, and even the outside world
Slowly come back to the present and open your eyes

Full Body Exercises

Body Scan

Performing a body scan can help you bring focus to your body and become more connected with your physical and emotional self.

Lie down in a comfortable position
Bring attention to your breathing for a few seconds
Focus on your toes and the way they feel
Slowly scan up, one body part at a time, working your way up to the top of your head
Notice any sensations whether it be pain, tingling, pressure, or nothing at all
Don’t worry about what you notice or try to change anything, just acknowledge and move on
If your mind starts to wander, acknowledge it and the redirect focus back to your body
Once you’ve completed this body scan, make sure to get up slowly as some people are prone to becoming dizzy

5,4,3,2,1 Grounding technique

This exercise is great for coming back to the present moment. It uses the 5 senses to ground you in the moment. Identify:

Five things you can see: These can be anything in front of you such as a cup, pen, chair, anything
Four things you can touch: Again, anything in front or around you works. What does it feel like? Warm? Coarse? Soft?
Three things you can hear: What sounds are around you? Focus on one at a time.
Two things you can smell: Are there any smells? Your laundry detergent? A candle?
One thing you can taste: Did you eat or drink anything recently? If not, grab a small snack and savor the taste.

By doing this exercise, you are taking a pause. It stops racing thoughts and brings you back to the “now.”

Guided meditations

Guided meditations are great for beginners in the mindfulness realm. They offer easy instructions on how to start your mindfulness journey and help with stress reduction, increasing positive emotions, and giving a sense of control.

There are many resources for finding guided meditations for ADHD.

I like to use YouTube for guided meditations. They have multiple options to choose from of varying styles and lengths.

There are also many apps such as:

Yoga

Yoga is beneficial for people with ADHD as it helps to improve focus and brings bodily awareness. It also gives you an outlet for extra energy that may be pent-up.

Always start easy. Yoga can be very complex but there is no reason to jump the gun. Start with simple yoga poses and work your way up.

Poses such as the cobra, tree pose, downward dog, and cat-cow pose are beginner-friendly and helpful.

I will write a separate post regarding yoga and poses as it would make this post much too long!

Mindful Coloring

Coloring, especially intricate patterns and designs, shifts focus. It brings focus to the color and design. This can get you into the current moment. Try buying a coloring book with very detailed pages and just sit. Let your artistic juices flow.

Connect with Nature

Connecting with nature has many aspects that help with ADHD. By allowing yourself time to get outside, you are reducing stress, improving short-term memory, and bringing yourself back to the present with all of your senses.

Some ideas for getting outside are:

Grounding/Earthing

Grounding, also known as Earthing, is a technique that has been around for centuries. It is the process of connecting our bodies to the earth’s natural electrical charge. Connecting ourselves to this energy has many benefits such as pain reduction and reduced inflammation, natural sleep cycle restoration, stress relief, and an overall sense of well-being. Ways to do this include:

Walking outside barefoot and feeling the earth beneath your feet
Digging your hands down in the soil, whether that be gardening or just running your hands through the grass
Lying on the ground for a while and taking in your surroundings
Swimming in a natural body of water

Cloud Watching

Another activity you can practice while grounding is Cloud watching. I know this one may sound silly but I promise it’s not.

While lying on the ground, just watch the clouds. Notice the different colors and shapes. Does one look like a T-rex eating an ice cream cone? Well, maybe not, but just taking the time to notice the small things will help bring you back into the present and release tension.

Hiking/Walking

If you aren’t comfortable or can’t go outside barefoot, you can still reap the benefits of getting outdoors. Just being outside and going for a walk or hike engages all of your senses. Exercising also increases dopamine and serotonin production which are both very important for those of us with ADHD.

Walking is a natural form of meditation. The more you get out and walk, the less you will notice racing thoughts and anxiety. You will begin to feel calmer and more focused.

Creek Walking

Okay, this is one of my favorites. I love going to a park and hunting down a creek. If you can stand it, try to walk it barefoot. If not, a good pair of water shoes is a must.

This activity ties multiple techniques into one. Walking through the water is grounding. The earth under your feet, the water over your feet is all grounding.

You can engage your senses here. The feel of the rocks and water, the sound of water rushing, the smell of the creek, watching the wildlife teeming through the water. It is a wonderful experience.

Can you find any geodes along the bank? Is tumbled glass just waiting to be picked up? There are so many things about creek walking that are beneficial.

The Wrap Up

There will be more posts down the road that expand on mindfulness and its benefits for people with ADHD but I wanted to introduce the topic and give you guys a good place to start for now. This process is something that you want to start small and grow upon. It takes a lot of practice to get better so don’t be discouraged if you struggle at first with some of these.

Let me know if you have any questions, comments, or even suggestions!