For many adults and children with attention deficit hyperactivity (ADHD or ADD), two persistent daily challenges are paying attention and maintaining self-regulation. So it stands to reason that some kind of attention training that also hones self-control would be invaluable — and incredibly powerful — as a natural remedy for ADHD. Research suggests that mindful meditation for ADHD can train the brain to better concentrate and hold focus. Could this natural remedy help you better control your ADD symptoms?
Is “mindful awareness” spiritual?
Mindful meditation, or mindfulness, is part of many religious traditions. For example, Buddhism features a form of mindfulness meditation known as vipassana.
But mindfulness is not necessarily religious or spiritual. It involves paying close attention to your thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations; in other words, developing a greater awareness of what’s going on with you from moment to moment. It can be used as a tool to foster wellness, especially psychological well-being. Similar techniques have been used to lower blood pressure and to manage chronic pain, stress, and mood disorders.
How can mindfulness help people with ADHD?
Unlike many ADHD treatments, mindfulness develops the individual’s inner skills. It improves your ability to control your attention by helping to strengthen your ability to self-observe, to train attention, and to develop different relationships to experiences that are stressful. In other words, it teaches you to pay attention to paying attention, and can also make people more aware of their emotional state, so they won’t react impulsively. That’s often a real problem for people with ADHD. Researchers have talked about using meditation for ADHD for some time, but the question was always whether people with ADHD could really do it, especially if they are hyperactive. The versatility and flexibility of mindfulness allows individuality in the approach, to make it work for you.
Can I learn to practice mindfulness on my own?
Yes, the basic practice is very simple. Just sit down in a comfortable place where you won’t be disturbed and spend five minutes focusing on the sensation of breathing in and breathing out, pay attention to how it feels when your stomach rises and falls. Soon, you may notice that you’re thinking of something else — your job or some noise you just heard or your plans for later in the day. Label these thoughts as “thinking,” and refocus your attention on your breath.
Do this mental training daily. Every couple of weeks, increase the length of time you spend on the exercise: 10 minutes, 15, up to 20 or more if you feel you can. Try the same thing throughout each day, focusing on your breath for a few minutes as you walk from place to place, or when you’re stopped at a red light or sitting at the computer.
You can actually practice mindfulness at any time, even during conversation with others. Turning on the mind-awareness state at any time during your day, even if only for a few minutes, is great training. It’s essentially letting go of the busy-ness of your thinking, and bringing your attention to what’s happening in the present moment in everyday life.
What if you just can’t keep your mind focused? Will the exercise still do any good?
It’s the nature of the mind to be distracted. Mindful awareness isn’t about staying with the breath, but about returning to the breath. That’s what enhances your ability to focus and this emphasis on re-shifting your attention, of outwitting the mind’s natural tendency to wander, is what makes this technique especially helpful to someone who has ADHD.
Is it Effective?
In 2008, we completed a study involving 25 adults and 8 adolescents, half of whom had the combined [both inattentive and hyperactive] form of ADHD, and the results were very promising. We observed significant improvements in both inattention and hyperactivity. In cognitive tests, the participants got better at staying focused, even when different things were competing for their attention. Many of them also felt less stressed out and sad by the end of study.
More research is still needed on the efficacy of mindfulness on ADHD symptoms, but the research about this natural remedy for ADHD is promising so far.
Can children practice mindful awareness?
There seems to be a growing consensus that children can successfully practice mindfulness, although the program would have to be modified for young children. In fact, there is one mindfulness program that’s designed just for preschool and elementary school children [InnerKids.org], and it has been quite successful. The program has yet to be used specifically for children who have ADHD, but we plan to do future studies with them, and with ADHD adolescents and adults.
Does scientific evidence support the effect of mindful awareness on the brain?
Researchers have shown that, compared with people who don’t meditate, long-time meditators have different EEG and MRI patterns, particularly in the brain’s frontal region — the region that is involved with ADHD. Another study found a rise in the level of dopamine, the very neurotransmitter in short supply in ADHD brains, during meditative states.
Is there evidence that mindfulness can reduce one’s need for ADHD medication? We hope that, by practicing mindfulness, one can learn to better self-regulate and, over time, lower the need for medication. But we need to study this question further.
Reference
Website: https://www.additudemag.com/mindfulness-meditation-for-adhd/
