…don’t forget “during and after”

Of the two, “during” might be the most confusing. For internalizing the type of breathing I do, making it habit, it’s been the most important. Adopting habits is never easy for ADHD adults. For one thing, as Marla Cummins tells us, “…when you are trying to adopt new habits, you also need to unlearn old habits that might be getting in the way of adopting the new habit. These old habits might include ones you’ve used to compensate for your ADHD challenges. […] In addition, your ADHD symptoms, such as distractibility impulsivity, inability to tolerate boredom, challenges with decision making, etc. also make learning new habits and unlearning old habits hard.” “Motivation” and “willpower” mean nothing after the life I’ve led: they come and go like other shiny objects.

It’ll be just like starting over

I noticed long ago that I can “practice” guitar on autopilot, and when I stop paying attention I don’t improve at what I’m practising. On the contrary, I’ve been practising my mistakes. I need to form new neural pathways. Fish oil is an asset! Meditation, walks outdoors… I do these more purposefully now, to “identify the source of [my] overwhelm,” (Cummins, same post). With ADHD it’s arguably even more important to come up with a new habit to replace the old before beginning the attempt to break the old habit. Ouch! Replacing bad musicianship practise habits specifically, in my case, has required some creativity!

A creative mindset is by its very nature an experimental mindset. It’s easy to say “replace the habit of beating yourself up by being more kind to yourself,” but what will that look like? I start small.

The Buddhist connection

I’ll end this page spotlighting something of which I was only very superficially aware for a long time, namely the direct connection between the “mindfulness” meditation I’m doing with Medito, contemporary brain research and the ancient Buddhist practice I learned about from the Beatles when I was 10. Watch Dr. Joe Hanson’s How Habits Can Change Your Life (and Your Brain). Buddhism recognizes 3 types of cravings. One “…should contemplate every phenomenon, and try to see everything as it really is,” adopting curiosity in place of judgment.

If you’re already meditating it’s very likely, like me, you’ve heard those words before. Now I’m able to link them to history and science, piquing my curiosity and spurring my creativity!