DOES MINDFULNESS HELP ADDERS?

Yes, it does. Mindfulness is learning how to be aware and focus on the here and now, that is, to be in the present moment. In my coaching experience, ADDers are far from mindful. They are easily distracted or not paying attention to the task at hand. Mindfulness is helpful to ADDers because it teaches people how to have more self-control and not have wandering thoughts or internal distractions. There are many routes to mindfulness. Since I’m an ADDer I searched and found meditational yoga. At first I couldn’t sustain the breathing necessary to focus and relax. In fact it was boring, so my mind wandered a lot of the time. But soon I was able to practice breathing and focusing on the breath with less distractibility. Then I took a yoga class where the breathing was paired with strength training using weights. It was much easier to concentrate on my breath since using weights requiring this skill. Also, I was less anxious than I am normally, which of course made paying attention easier.

So I think meditational breathing will help an ADDer, particularly if paired with some activity. I did find that my focusing and reduced anxiety could generalize to everyday life only if I practiced it at least twice a day for 15 minutes. Importantly, if you don’t want to take classes, your ADD can coach you to reach a mindful state.