A glass of red wine, and the Hallelujah Chorus played nice and loud. Then played again, only singing along this time. In a pretty half-assed way, to be sure, because I was sight-reading and not all of it is easy.
Nonetheless, singing Hallelujah.
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Friday, August 19, 2011
Mindfulness CBT: ADHD, Anxiety, Mood, and a Helpful Hack
I've mentioned before that in addition to my crazy, I have ADHD (predominantly inattentive type). Like a lot of ADD-ers, I've been scared to death of trying meditation. I've done other spiritual practices, like guided visualizations, or trance work, but meditation "just didn't work for me".
A lot of this has to do with past trauma related to growing up with ADHD. When you've been shamed your whole life for your failures in attention, anything that sounds like paying attention will raise your defenses. I'm bad at paying attention. Everybody always said so, and then I got a diagnosis to prove it.
Since I started taking a class in Mindfulness CBT, I've come to realize something very important -- the only thing required for meditation is that you know how to breathe.
I wish I'd learned this years ago, because I can already tell that meditation is helping me a lot. It helps even though I don't do it every day like I'm "supposed" to. I've discovered that I'm calmer after meditation, whether or not I was aware of feeling anxious before. It lifts my mood if I'm in one of my late-afternoon slumps. I can't say that it's made me more mindful overall (the goal of the class is to teach us to be mindful in general, so we can recognize our depressive thoughts before they really seize hold of us) but it's definitely helpful in the moment. And "in the moment" is where you're supposed to be when you meditate anyway.
So how can you possibly meditate when you have ADHD?
A lot of this has to do with past trauma related to growing up with ADHD. When you've been shamed your whole life for your failures in attention, anything that sounds like paying attention will raise your defenses. I'm bad at paying attention. Everybody always said so, and then I got a diagnosis to prove it.
Since I started taking a class in Mindfulness CBT, I've come to realize something very important -- the only thing required for meditation is that you know how to breathe.
I wish I'd learned this years ago, because I can already tell that meditation is helping me a lot. It helps even though I don't do it every day like I'm "supposed" to. I've discovered that I'm calmer after meditation, whether or not I was aware of feeling anxious before. It lifts my mood if I'm in one of my late-afternoon slumps. I can't say that it's made me more mindful overall (the goal of the class is to teach us to be mindful in general, so we can recognize our depressive thoughts before they really seize hold of us) but it's definitely helpful in the moment. And "in the moment" is where you're supposed to be when you meditate anyway.
So how can you possibly meditate when you have ADHD?
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