Hello Beloveds and welcome to today's ADHD meditation.
A meditation for focus and task starting.
This meditation is designed for an ADHD mind.
The instructions are shorter,
More direct and more varied than a typical meditation.
Your mind will wander.
That is completely expected and completely okay.
There is no such thing as doing this wrong.
So just sit however feels comfortable for you.
You don't need to sit still.
If you need to shift then shift and if you need to fidget or stim then that is okay.
This is your practice and your body.
Now take a deep breath in.
Make it a really big one.
Like you are filling up from the bottom of your belly and let it out with a sigh.
And again a big deep breath in.
And again letting it out with a sigh.
That sigh is your nervous system saying okay I'm here.
I can land here now in this moment.
You may have come to this with a long list in your head.
Things to do.
Things you haven't done yet.
Things you are worried you'll forget and that's okay.
The list will still be there after this meditation.
For right now it can wait.
Let's do a quick check-in with your body and I mean a quick one.
We're just going to visit a few spots.
Feet.
Feel them on the floor.
Press down gently.
Notice that pressure.
You are here now.
Your hands.
Where are they?
Rest them somewhere comfortable if you would like.
On your knees,
In your lap.
Feel their weight.
Your jaw.
Is it clenched?
See if you can let it loosen a little.
Let your tongue drop away from the roof of your mouth.
Shoulders.
Are they up near your ears?
Roll them back and down.
Notice that your body might already feel slightly different from when you arrived.
In just a few minutes you didn't have to do anything complicated.
You just had to pay attention just briefly to what was already here and that's all focus is.
Brief repeated moments of attention.
Not a long unbroken stretch.
Just returning again and again to what is in front of you and you can do that.
Your mind will wander during this meditation.
It may have already wandered several times and that is not a problem to fix.
It is not a failure.
For a brain that thinks the way that ours think,
The moment we notice our mind has wandered,
That moment of noticing,
That is the whole practice.
That is what you are training.
Think of it like this.
Imagine your attention is a puppy.
A very enthusiastic puppy.
It runs off constantly after every smell,
Every sound,
Every interesting thing.
When you are meditating,
You are not training the puppy to sit still forever.
You're just practicing calling it back gently without frustration over and over again.
Every time your mind runs off and you bring it back,
You are doing the thing.
That's the exercise.
So when you notice you've been thinking about lunch or a conversation or something on your to-do list,
Just say to yourself quietly,
Mind wandered and come back.
No drama,
No judgment,
Just mind wandered and come back.
That's it.
That's the whole practice.
Now let's use the breath as a simple anchor.
Not because breathing is exciting,
It isn't,
But just because it's always here,
Always in the present,
Always in the now,
And it gives your attention somewhere specific to land.
So breathe in through your nose for a count of four.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four.
Hold for just a moment.
Now exhale through your mouth for a count of five.
One,
Two,
Three,
Four,
Five.
And repeat this cycle now,
Reading the counts aloud each time if it helps.
And out.
Do this a few more times.
Now notice how your mind feels compared to a few moments ago.
Is it even slightly slower?
Slightly less scattered?
Because you gave your brain a simple specific task,
Counting.
Our brains don't do well with vague instructions like just concentrate.
They do much better with specific concrete targets.
One breath,
One count,
One thing.
And that's what we're going to use now.
So bring to mind the task you need to do or want to do after this meditation.
Just one,
One task,
Not the whole list,
One.
Now think of the very smallest possible first step.
Not the whole task,
Not even a significant part of it.
The tiniest action that counts as starting.
So if it's writing,
It might be open the document.
If it's cleaning,
It might be pick up one item.
If it's a phone call,
It might be find the number.
Just the first step,
The one that takes 30 seconds or less.
Notice if your brain immediately jumps to everything else that comes after it.
All the steps that follow that one,
All the complications,
All of the reasons it feels overwhelming.
That's normal.
That's what ADHD brains do.
They see the whole mountain at once and it can freeze us before we've even begun to find our boots to put on.
So gently bring it back.
Just the first step.
That is all you are committing to right now.
Say to yourself quietly,
My only job is to begin.
I only need to do the first small thing.
After that,
I can decide what comes next.
Starting can be the hardest part for us with ADHD.
Not only is it the hardest part,
Because we are lazy,
Not because we don't care,
But because our brain struggles to initiate without a spark of interest or urgency.
This is our neurological reality and not a character flaw.
This meditation is your spark right now.
You've already started the process of engaging.
The door is already open,
A crack.
Take one final slow breath in and let it go.
Bringing your awareness back into the room now.
Wiggle your fingers.
Wiggle your toes.
When you open your eyes,
You are going to do the one thing.
The first step.
Just that.
Give it two minutes.
If after two minutes you want to stop,
Then stop.
But most of the time,
Starting is the wall.
Starting is the block.
And once you are through it,
Momentum takes over.
You are not broken.
You are not lazy.
You are a person with a brain that works differently.
A wonderful brain that is creative,
Fast,
And capable of extraordinary focus when the conditions are right.
When you are ready,
Open your eyes.
Your first step is waiting for you.
