“I can’t meditate! I have ADHD! I tried! It’s too hard and I suck at it!”
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this excuse from people with ADHD as to why they can’t meditate. But this is just an excuse, I know because I’ve been diagnosed with ADHD myself, so I know what’s like not have an ounce of concentration. But through meditation, your concentration can be vastly improved. I did it, and so can you. Anyone can meditate, no matter how bad your concentration is.
How Long?
The key in the beginning is to just do short periods, many times. Try 5 minutes. But commit to those 5 minutes. Do no get up before those 5 minutes, no matter what. Aim for 20 minutes a day (eventually longer), and do 4 sessions of 5 minutes. Then when you get better , 2 sessions of 10 minutes, and then finally one session of 20 minutes. When you can do a 20 minute session, that is when you will really notice the benefit to your day.
How To Meditate?
Now sit down in a chair, keep your back straight and just watch your breath. If thoughts come in, that’s ok. Thoughts are always going to be there unless you are an expert meditator. The goal is to just keep focusing on your breath and let your thoughts do whatever they do. Thinking is not a problem, it’s only a problem if you forget to follow the breath as you think. Of course..in the beginning this will happen quickly and often..
Maybe even after one or two breaths, your thoughts will carry you away and you will forget that you are supposed to following the breath. You will be lost in a daydream. That’s fine. When you ‘wake up’ and notice that you were lost in thought, go “aha”, congratulate yourself for noticing that you have forgotten the breath and go back to following the breath. Always positively reinforce that ‘wake up’ from daydreaming. That way your brain will want to ‘wake up’ and will do it on it’s own. Your goal in the beginning is to have as many “aha” moments as you can. To simply reduce the time you spend daydreaming and not following the breath at all.
You can also try counting the breath. Breathe in, breathe out (never forcing the breath, just letting the breath be) “1”, breathe in, breathe out “2”. Go up to 10. Can you make it to ten? Start back at one. Got to ten again. Forget what number you are on? Lost in a daydream? Start back at 1.
Over time you will get better, enjoy it, and can’t believe you spent so much of your life not meditating.