Meditation - so easy! NOT!

I too was diagnosed with ADHD at an early age. I have found that listening to classical (especially Beethoven) calms my mind a lot. But, there are still times when I am easily distracted; even after years of practice.

Although, I do not view my ADHD as a handicap. Rather a unique way of viewing the world around me. I am very intense when I get excited so I try to not get excited. I still do though, sometimes! It just takes a conscious effort to "tone it down" so that I do not get on everyone's nerves.

I feel that meditating has helped me to center my life and my mind. And when I am done I feel a certain unity with all things that brings me to a kind of serene ADHD... If there is such a thing!

You and I are in the same boat, Wescli. Thoughts travel through my head so quickly and often. I come up with so many great songs, short stories, novels, and movies but they travel so fast I can't jot them down, and even when I start to, something SQUIRREL! Huh? Where was I? Oh yeah, something comes along and distracts me or I just get bored within a few seconds. This is something i'll be trying to overcome throughout my huh, where did that freckle come from? Um...through my training.

I actually somehow managed to finish a book I was reading (Star Wars: Darth Plagueis) so if I can do that, I must have some self control in me.

But yeah. meditation has always been a difficult task for me. Which does kind of suck. As a child, during Sunday church when I would close my eyes, my mind actually would relax, and I would always see very bright, vibrant, clear colors phasing in and out. The older I got, the less often it happened until it eventually stopped and my mind would run a million miles an hour. I really want to get back to the way it used to be...the colors were so beautiful and relaxing and brought warm feelings in me. It's a shame I was too young to realize what was going on. Hoping I can get that back now that I can appreciate it. But only time will tell. Can't rush it or it'll never happen. You can't catch a finicky cat by rushing up to it, you have to casually walk around and just take your time getting closer and closer. If it dashes away, just keep doing the same thing...you'll eventually catch it (this metaphor is easy for me as living in the country, I had 25 cats, most were wild because we had trouble finding the litters when they were born, but I was usually able to eventually win them over to be more tamed and less skiddish).

In aviation pilots are taught to use a scan routine with their eyes, because the cockpit can become a busy place at times and they should not let other tasks distract them from keeping an eye on the important instruments - the thing is it allows little bits of progress to be made on multiple things by having a routine eg; in a cockpit the panel is a physical thing so its usually an imaginary inverted V or something which covers about 6 most important instruments and ignores the rest for less periodic checks depending on the other tasks as workload changes through different phases of the flight. I dont know if a conceptual scan strategy of Jedi beliefs would benefit but it sounds like ADHD mind is a busy place to be. I guess I thought perhaps it might compartmentalise the thoughts a bit and eventually perhaps make it comfortable for short term memory to work with multiple concepts better. Just thinking out loud again

Ya know Adder, that's actually partly how I am able to fall asleep quickly, sometimes. An old pin pal of mine had taught me a trick after I talked about how it would take me at least an hour or more to fall asleep. I have, in my mind, sections. Each section contains certain...subjects...we'll call it, in which certain types of thought go int. This helps to organize my thoughts that come spilling in. Just before I go to bed, I gather as many thoughts as I can, and then I imagine a bubble forming around those sections, and I just let the bubbles carry those thoughts away. Just as more thoughts come pouring in, they go straight into their category instead of just bouncing around all over the place, then the bubbles begin to form and just carry them away. Eventually, bubbles form around the thoughts before they even hit the mind. Thoughts end up being carried away before they can pile up. My mind ends up being able to rest, and out like a light I go.

This doesn't always work, but 9 times out of 10 it does, and I quickly fall asleep. With those bubbles keeping the thoughts from really settling into my mind, I can focus on other things like the white noise coming from my little fan (that's used solely for white noise) and can concentrate on my breathing, which helps sooth me to sleep.

The problem I have is using this method during any other time. I think I will try your tip for controlling my thoughts during those other times that I need peace, but am not going to bed. Thanks for sharing that. That was really good and i'm writing that one down to remember.

An alternate method is simply letting all those thoughts be part of your meditation. Rather than letting them be a barrier, direct your attention to each thought and be aware of your shifted focus, soon the task of conciously acknowledging each thought and shifting your awareness as new ones arrive becomes a process which directs your attention to it instead of the thoughts and therefore the present moment.