Travel back in his mind's eye, until you felt a healthy exhaustion after hiking, biking, playing sports .., and let them re-live that moment as vividly as you can.
ADHD children
Then, remember to re-experience, a loving exchange that really touched you. Pause. Look at your partner. Look at the moment. Smell it. Hear what happened around you.
Next, visualize the most caring gesture you have ever received, as full details as possible. Who gave you the gift of care. How you feel.
Now, travel to the most magnificent place you have seen. Enjoy the views. Pause. Listen. Smile. Appreciate.
Congratulations. You have trained your brain. Both Newsweek and Sharon Begley explained recently:
"But now neuroscientists to have a documented how" mere "thoughts can also sculpt the brain. Just thinking about playing a piano piece, over and over again, may extend the motor cortex that controls those fingers just thinking about depressive thoughts, new modalities How can a phone with activity in one part of the brain that underlies depression and increase in another, leading to clinical improvement. "
We talked about the value of meditation before. Just a few days ago, in predicting brain health trends for the next 5 years, I wrote that:
"Noncomputer-based programs will also be an effective tool. Research is increasingly confirming the value of such methods as meditation to train attention and regulate emotions, using cognitive therapy to build self-motivation and ability, and leadership gratitude journal to acknowledge the positives in human life and improve self-reported happiness.
A fascinating new study (mindfulness meditation training in adults and adolescents with ADHD. Bulletin of the disorder, 11, 737-746) suggests the benefits of mindfulness for adolescents and adults with attention deficits.
Here's what Dr. David Rabiner, Director of Higher Studies in the Department of Psychology and Neuroscience at Duke University, is therefore on this topic:
"Mindfulness meditation is described as involving 3 basic steps: 1) addressing the" attention "anchor", such as breathing, 2) states that the distractions and let go of distractions and 3) the focus back to the "attentional anchor". This sequence is repeated many times during each meditative session. Since the individual becomes better able to maintain attention on the attentional anchor, the concept of "pay attention to attention" is introduced and individuals are invited to bring their attention to present moment frequently during the day. "
"Thus, directing one's attention to the process of attention to notice, notice when it becomes distracted one, and refocusing attention when distraction occurs, the mindfulness meditation training to be thought of as an" attention training "program. As such, examining the impact of such training on individuals with ADHD becomes a very interesting question to pursue. "
Results of the study?
Seventy-eight percent of participants (25 of 33) completed the study. On average, participants attended 7 of the 8-week training. Adults reported an average of 90 minutes and 4.6 sessions per week of at-home meditation practice, teenagers on average 43 minutes and 4 sessions weekly at-home practice. Both adolescents and adults who have completed the program reported high levels of satisfaction with it - average scores above 9 on a 1 to 10 satisfaction scale.
Seventy-eight percent of participants reported an overall reduction of ADHD symptoms, with 30% reporting at least 30% of symptom reduction (30% reduction in symptoms is often used to identify clinically significant improvement in ADHD medication trials). Since most of the participants received drug treatment for many these declines represent improvement beyond what benefits have been granted to drugs.
On neurocognitive test performance, significant improvements were found at the level of attention to the conflict and on several other neuropsychological tests (ie, Stroop color-word test, and trails A and B), but not for measures of working memory.
For adults, reported a significant reduction in depressive and anxiety symptoms. Comparable reduction of these symptoms were not evident in adolescents
In a nutshell: in order to fight Attention Deficits ... may not make sense to develop a "mental muscles" to pay attention?
