How Meditation Improved my Executive Functioning
Plus an ADHD-friendly meditation technique you can try today
Time to read: 1 min & 37 seconds — 324 words. Written by Joseph Pack.
Meditation has drastically improved my executive functioning.
Some of my coaching clients are getting similar results, too.
Executive functioning makes it easier to:
Start and finish tasks
Remember instructions
Have better time management
Prioritise the essential from the non-essential
Remember where things are (laptop, phone, keys, etc.)
These have improved our life no end.
But there’s one area of our lives where meditation has made an enormous difference — our ability to handle difficult situations.
These events, that may have previously caused emotional distress, no longer get to us.
This alone has a positive knock-on effect to every other area of our lives.
In The Drug Free ADHD Toolkit I talk a lot about breathwork, cold exposure, diet, and more.
But it’s the meditation that will transform how you cope with ADHD.
Why does meditation improve executive functioning?
The reason we struggle with executive functioning is because we have 10,000 thoughts rattling around in our head fighting for our attention.
But we can only focus on one thing at once. This has been proven countless times — multi-tasking is a myth.
Meditation in essence is simple.
Meditation is the practice of creating one object of attention. This can be your breath, a candle, beads you run through your fingers. Anything other than the 10,000 thoughts for you to focus on.
Simple. But not easy.
There’s a problem with the average meditation advice for people with ADHD:
Focusing on your breath or a candle, when you have ADHD, makes the mind SO damn busy that you get more stressed — thus defeating the point altogether.
So what should we do?
ADHD-friendly meditation
Replace the 10,000 thoughts with 1 thought.
A mantra.
Repeat the sound “AYAM” over and over again for 20 minutes. Once in the morning, once in late afternoon.
Why?
Because this draws your attention away from the 10,000 thoughts and onto the 1 thought.
You’re not trying to stop your thoughts. That’s impossible.
You’re not trying to control your thoughts. Also impossible.
You’re simply creating another object of attention that gradually drowns out the 10,000 thoughts.
Try it. It’s easier than you think.
🚨 I have a very limited number of spaces available for 1:1 coaching.
If you’d like to learn The Drug Free ADHD Toolkit and find a way to work with your ADHD, rather than against it, please apply before the spaces fill up.
I am happy to accept clients with Access To Work funding.
Ayam=chicken 😆 I might pick another mantra or I'm just going to be hungry!