Meditation (with trauma and/or ADHD) isn't impossible

I’ve been meditating daily (at least once a day) since March 2013. Sporadically since 2001. And teaching different types of meditation since 2003.And I still find it really challenging. But I can’t imagine life without it. I hope that by sharing some of the joys and challenges of different types of meditation and ADHD and trauma, my own history (with a deeper, more personal dive for the Sole to Soul Circle members tomorrow), that you’ll be kinder to yourself around any challenges you have in keeping your focus on the meditation.Remember, it’s a practice.Some days it’s easier than other days but the noticing when our attention drifts and bringing it back is the key.Let me know how you get on! Email [email protected] or comment.le grá (with love),EveiFull transcriptAnd when I treat it like punishment, like I don't know about you, but I used to get told off a lot for talking in class, again, ADHD, for distracting other people, and of course, I distract myself. So it's figuring out what length of time would work for you. And when I'm talking about a 12-hour silence, that's not all meditative, but it does help me get quieter.Welcome to The Feel Better Every Day Podcast. Every Tuesday, I release new episodes to help you feel better every day. They're trauma-informed and VAST/ADHD friendly, (Self with an uppercase S and lowercase s) self-care ideas designed to support you in connecting with and taking care of your Self, that highest, wisest, truest, wildest, most joyful, brilliant, and miraculous part of yourself. To create a life you don't need to retreat from. So I hope you enjoy this new episode.And if you haven't already listened, access older episodes at thefeelbettereverydaypodcast.com or at selfcarecoaching.net or through whatever platform you prefer.You can also access lots of free resources to find out more about how we might work together at selfcarecoaching.net.And through the book, 365 Ways to Feel Better: Self-care Ideas for Embodied Wellbeing, and for deeper dives into each podcast episode, there's a bonus interview with my guests, where I have guests or into the theme, as well as access to the complete archive, including the entire Love Your Whole Self chakra journey. And you can access all of that by joining the Sole to Soul Circle. So that's S-O-L-E for the Sole of your feet.It's a fully embodied approach and soul S-O-U-L. It's a transpersonal approach. It's very holistic.You can find out more at selfcarecoaching.net and evemc.substack.com. So thanks again for listening. And I hope you enjoy today's episode for World Meditation Day.Today's topic is meditation. Episode 589. We're looking at the challenges and benefits of meditation for trauma survivors and VAST/ADHD brains. While I've already shared hundreds of meditations for you, I have several in the book, 365 Ways to Feel Better: Self-care Ideas for Embodied Wellbeing, as well as on my YouTube, in newsletters, blog posts, articles.And you can access loads through the site selfcarecoaching.net or through my YouTube channel. I'm sharing shorter trauma-informed and VAST/ADHD meditations every Friday, starting soon, not this Friday. But I thought it would be a lovely way actually to show the huge degree of variation in meditations. They have different benefits, different feelings, different ways of applying them.When my psychiatrist told me that if anyone told me I should try mindfulness to cure my ADHD, I should tell them to F off, I laughed. I agreed with her AND shuddered to even imagine the state of my brain had I not been meditating for decades and daily since 2013. And I teach mindfulness meditation as one of the forms I do teach.It's been amazing and it remains challenging. In recent years, since 2012, understanding more about my brain and other trauma survivors’, and then more recently VAST/ADHD brains, the meditations I've been guiding and facilitating for myself and others have all been trauma-informed and in the last few years, VAST/ADHD friendly. Even so, I still struggle with meditation.I'm still waiting to try ADHD medication, but I also know that even though I struggle with my daily meditation, it is so worth it. In today's episode, I'm going to share part of my own personal journey with meditation and hope that it will inspire you to keep practicing. It is, after all, a practice.This is another episode that I have scripted. I'm just moving the recycling bin a little bit closer. I hopefully won't wave too many papers in too many directions as I go through it.In my twenties, the first time I tried meditation, I thought I was having a heart attack and I wasn't, but I was so conditioned to not cause a fuss. I just kind of sat there thinking I was having a heart attack and not looking after myself. Apparently my heart chakra was just opening, but there are so many different styles and there are ways if you want to try it and you're struggling, there are ways to go easier on yourself.There truly is something for everyone. And the more compassionate you can be with yourself as you practice, and it is a practice, the more beneficial you'll find it. Even when we fail. I got distracted in this morning's beditation. If you want to find out more about ‘beditation’, I refer you to Caroline Shola Arewa’s episode of the Feel Better Every Day Podcast, episode three, I think it was.We still gain benefits even when we get distracted. It's about noticing when the mind wanders, congratulating yourself for noticing and gently bringing the awareness back to whatever the focus of that particular meditation is.Research has found that, I mean, there's been so much research around meditation and many of these practices are ancient, whereas the modern neuroscience is just catching up. Some research shows that in as little as eight minutes, we get psychological, mental and emotional benefits. And that's for anyone.A lot of the research has been done on seasoned veteran meditators and people who are monks and in other ways of life where it is an enormous part of their day-to-day. With practice, it rewires our brain.If you're interested in some of the ever-increasing research using cutting-edge neuroscience and technology to find out how some of these ancient practices have been helping people, in some cases for thousands and thousands of years, I highly recommend Sharon Begley's beautiful book, The Plastic Brain.It's a great start, a great place to start. In a nutshell, our brains are plastic. Everything we do either entrenches old beliefs or habits or helps us to cultivate newer, more helpful approaches.While it's easier for children to, for example, learn a new language, learn new skills, learn anything new, their brains are more plastic when they're developing. It's never, ever, ever too late to learn even though it takes more effort. Dr Daniel Siegel was a guest lecturer when I trained and I remember him telling us about a man in his 90s who had healed his attachment issues even at that stage.Every time you struggle with meditation practice or any kind of mind-body practice, I hope that you will remind yourself that all humans struggle and it can of course be even harder for our brains as Dr Ned Halliwell puts it, Ferrari engine, bicycle brakes, but it's still beneficial.So even this morning, my not stellar effort had me start the day feeling much more centred, much more grounded, much more focused and calmer than if I hadn't bothered. If you were to imagine a jungle well-worn pathways are the old unconscious patterns and beliefs and habits that are our defaults.We don't think about them. As Donald Hebb said, neurons that wire together, neurons that fire together, wire together. The more we do anything, whether that's helpful or less helpful, the stronger those neural pathways become. As we consciously change these, initially it might be like trying to find our way through dense thicket.You might need a metaphorical machete to cut through, but the more we do it by practicing meditation and other new habits we're consciously cultivating, the more familiar and the better trodden those newer pathways, those newer neural pathways, new ways of being become.That doesn't mean that we won't have tougher practices, but even noticing like I did this morning and persevering and like kind of giving myself more slack, cutting myself more slack helps us enormously. Just having a daily practice, having a regular practice and noticing some days your concentration is better. Some days your focus is better.I hope that my sharing some of my experiences and some different practices, which you're going to find in instructions for in the new mini meditation series, will help you build, create or restart and maintain a regular meditation practice that supports you and your unique glorious brain.I remember from childhood, I did a lot of drama, but I was so self-conscious and we did a lot of like relaxation, guided relaxations and meditations. And I remember pretending to relax. My mind was whirring the gazillion miles an hour. I remember on one occasion, I was so wound up. I looked relaxed, but someone kind of touched me gently and I kind of flew down a split of stairs at the Towngate Theatre in Basildon, because my startle reflex remains high, but it was really, really high. I would pretend to be relaxed, but I could not relax. I didn't understand anything about either ADHD or trauma.I mentioned earlier my crystal therapy introduction to meditation as an adult, and I'd chosen some rose quartz to support my heart chakra. And I was palpitating so badly, I thought I was having a heart attack. In the Sole to Soul Circle, I'm sharing some of the crystals that support different