Can Adults with ADHD Meditate?
In this blog post I share a client story about how she discovered Yoga Nidra meditation. This is a type of meditation that can be practiced by people with ADHD, and other types of neurodivergence, that actually works. Netta shares her personal experience of meditation and how it has impacted her life.
If you’re wondering how can meditation help parents and caregivers with ADHD in adulthood, specifically during parenthood. Then this article offers you an answer. The following dialogue is in Netta’s own words.
Please note: Yoga Nidra meditation is not a replacement for any treatment or medication you receive as a neurodivergent person. The content in this post should not replace any medical advice you have received and is not intended to be medical advice.
Background
Hi, I'm Netta. I am an ADHD life and wellness coach, homeschool mom of five amazing, wonderful kids, in which three I have graduated successfully. I'm a birth and postpartum doula, small business owner, and the host of Chatterbrain Mommy podcast. Basically I am the Netta of all trades so to speak and I live with ADHD.
I've had ADHD probably since I was a kid but I was not diagnosed until I was about 33, 32 or 33 years old. And I was misdiagnosed to start with and then I was rediagnosed first was ADD and then it was ADHD.
I am so, so passionate about supporting neurodivergent parents. I've worked in behavioral health for over 20 plus years from children and adult, registered behaviour technician to kids that have autism to ABA therapy to you know children and adults with an intellectual disability. You name it. I've worked with them and it's just a joy to be able to do so.
So I'm so passionate about supporting neurodivergent parents and caregivers because I am one. I am a neurodivergent parent. So I know firsthand what it's like to just be constantly juggling things, responsibilities, while your brain is just bouncing in different directions. I mean, just back and forth, back and forth.
Before practicing Yoga Nidra meditation
And I'm gonna tell you, before I found Yoga Nidra, it was like...everything was always hate word now I can coach others and I can help others. But sometimes you as a person need that extra help. You're just like okay, I just need to just like I've been doing mindfulness for 10 years you know, I do my scriptures, my prayer, my meditation and I just needed to find something else I needed to learn some sort of yoga practice without actually having to do the the yoga itself, if that makes sense. I did yoga, but I needed to do something to just make me stay still because my mind doesn't matter how many people I help and I can get them calm and I practice mindfulness.
I just needed something extra, something different. I just needed something different to make me be still and in the present. And that's when I found my beautiful friend, Natasha. And I reached out to her and I asked her about yoga and all these different things. Her as a yoga instructor, she was telling me about her course and told me about Yoga Nidra. I was like, what? Yoga Nidra?
Overwhelmed and overstimulated to calm
I mean, I was just overwhelmed. I was overstimulated. Honestly, I...to be completely honest, I was just exhausted by everything. I was just exhausted as you see I do so many things and I do more than that I just didn't tell you everything, but I was exhausted so even when I I try to lay down I try to rest my brain would not let me so the first time when Natasha from Butterfly Minds told me about Yoga Nidra, I was like, what's a Yoga Nidra? I had never heard about it, never heard about it and I purchased it, I was like, you know what? I tried everything else, right? Like even though I can centre for a few minutes, I can get myself calm, you know, during my regular grand rising routine. But then after that, the days of life just go, like I'm constantly going throughout the day.
When I purchased Yoga Nidra from her, I absolutely loved it. At first it was hard for me to sit still. I'm not gonna lie. I was like, okay lay down be still It's almost like being in a just laying completely still. But oh when I say a blessing when I say God sends the right people at the right time and shows up and shows out or the universe or your your mother God or whoever you believe in I it was like something finally clicked.
I didn't have to force anything I didn't have to sit Indian style or crisscross applesauce I just laid there and listened and for once for once i mean like I mean it takes moments it takes time but for once and a long period of time my mind got quiet I help others quiet their mind.
I help others with managing tasks, and I do this on a regular basis with coaching, ADHD coaching, life coaching, wellness, and helping others to get to where they need to be, showing natural practices and techniques. And I couldn't do it for myself, but for this one time, I'm just ecstatic because I'm smiling because I'm just so grateful, so grateful to find this Yoga Nidra.
My mind was just quiet. I felt a sense of peace and serenity and I hadn't experienced that in a long long time. I'm not talking about peace just sitting outside or going to the beach or or you know vacation. I'm talking about inner peace when my mind was completely quiet and I tell you what.
How Yoga Nidra benefits ADHD
Now, it is a regular part of my routine. It helps me sleep. I listen to it the majority of the week before I take a nap, before going to work at night. I'm a nighttime doula. I listen to it on my days off before I go to sleep. I put on my headphones and I listen. When I tell you, you get so deep into a sense of inner peace that you've probably never experienced before and it's just as you know in the ADHD mind as a neurodivergent person myself with ADHD, you long for something like that it's a dopamine fix. It's like I gotta have it and that's what Yoga Nidra is for me. It's my dopamine fix. I have to have it.
Even if it's just 20 minutes, I need that and I lie to you not usually by the time I get to the end of it I'm knocked out. Gone. Knocked out asleep and it's just I love it. I love it and like I said, it's part of my regular routine.
It helps me to sleep better. It helps regulate my emotions and I actually feel rested.
This is the best natural fix anybody can have. You don't need all these sleeping medications and you know chamomile tea and all these different things you can just literally listen to this wonderful, this impeccable, this immaculate yoga meditation by Butterfly Minds.
When I say you get the sense of inner peace you never knew you could have your mind gets quiet that you never knew you can feel. It is a win-win. It honestly made a huge difference and how I mean getting that proper rest helps me to show up. It helps me to show up and helps me to do what I need to do for my family, for my clients, and most importantly definitely for myself.
How to start meditating when you have ADHD
So it's just it's oh man, all I can do is just tell you what I know as a person with severe ADHD I don't have a little bit. I have combined type ADHD and if it can quiet my mind I who if they can quiet my mind a Jacuisha of all trades trust me.
Trust me when I tell you you cannot go wrong and it's so affordable. It's so affordable. Let me say that again. It's so affordable so if you if you are a parent or you're a caregiver, you know, you navigate in life as ADHD or neurodivergent brain or you're even raising a neurodivergent kid, I got you, I see you, I understand you and I would not, trust me, I would not, I would not lead you astray.
If you are that parent and you just need a break, a respite, you just need respite just for, just for 30 minutes because you're taking care of your ADHD kid or you're taking care of your child, your neurodivergent child, family member, sibling, or parent or whatever the situation is or if you are that neurodivergent parent. I promise you real rest, real rest is possible.
So, Yoga Nidra from Butterfly Minds helped me find it and I know and I truly believe in my heart, it can help you find it too. So I hope you guys, if it's a link, click the link. I don't know if she has a link, but I just have to show my testimonial and I want to share. I'm sharing this with everybody, everybody. My niece took advantage of Yoga Nidra. My daughters will be taking advantage of Yoga Nidra, everybody, because it is the best dopamine fix for inner peace you can ever have.
Closing words
I would like to thank Netta for providing such an in-depth and insightful insight into her experience of Yoga Nidra meditation. I hope it helps reassure you if you’re worried about your mind being too busy to meditate.
If you would like to find out more about Netta you can do so at:
Next Steps: Meditation for Neurodivergent Parents
If you would like to practice a beginner-friendly guided meditation for ADHD adults, another form of neurodivergence, or you're a parent or caregiver in a neurodiverse family, I can support you in the following 3 ways:
Download an audio Yoga Nidra meditation (the same one Netta listens to). Receive instantly and gain unlimited access.
Join my Deep Rest 3-month programme to support neurodivergent parents with feeling more rested by using Yoga Nidra meditation as a tool of self-discovery and relaxation.
Visit my Etsy shop where I share a bundle that includes a Yoga Nidra audio and Yin Yoga ebook. This is an ideal beginner yoga for neurodivergent parents, and parents/carers in neurodiverse families, to help you slow down. Followed by a deeply relaxing Yoga Nidra meditation that you can practice at any time.
Prefer to listen to an audio of this blog post? Hear Netta’s words by tuning in below.