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Adult ADHD ADD Tips and Support
Adult ADHD Tips – Navigating Uncertainty as a Neurodivergent Person
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Adult ADHD ADD Tips and Support Podcast - A Podcast for Neurodivergent Creatives. Navigating Uncertainty as a Neurodivergent Person. This podcast is an audio companion to the book "The Drummer and the Great Mountain - A Guidebook to Transforming Adult ...
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Welcome to the Drummer and the Great Mountain, a podcast where we share effective tips and practices for working with adults. Add ADHD in a natural, effective way without the use of medications each episode Join me your host Batman Saram, along with the author of the Drummer and the Great Mountain, Michael Joseph Ferguson. Join Michael and myself in an interactive discussion of sharing our stories as we journey together in transforming what can be the gift of being what we call hunter types. This podcast is intended to be your audio companion to the book written by Michael, who joins me each episode where we both will strive to foster dialogue and give you our personal insights and share both of our experiences on this similar path that we are all on. Our intention and hope is that along with the book, this podcast gives you an additional perspective as you listen to us delve deeper into each chapter of the book to give you even more tools to go along with what it is that you are reading. Visit us at drummerandthegreatmountain.com to purchase the book and look for more tools, tips and updates as well as giving us feedback on this podcast. Join our growing global community of creative types, entrepreneurs and out of the box thinkers on our shared journey. Welcome to the Drummer and the Great Mountain podcast.
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Welcome everyone. Thanks for tuning in. I'm your host Michael Joseph Ferguson. I hope you're all doing okay. In today's episode we'll be discussing Navigating Uncertainty As a neurodivergent person, so taking the temperature of my coaching clients, both in the US and other parts of the world, and from my own experience, uncertainty is definitely a theme many of us are dealing with right now. So uncertainty can manifest itself in many different ways. It can be world events, well being of our family members, a negative, health diagnoses, financial, financial challenges and fears, work setbacks. The list goes on and on and on and on. Dealing with uncertainty is something we all need to grapple with, and it's something we never take the time to actually think about until we're in the midst of it. So there are times in life when everything feels settled and everything's cruising, and other times when life can feel very chaotic and uncertain. It just happens to all of us. And as we all experience during lockdown, there are times when dealing with uncertainty is is a collective journey and our brain and nervous system do not like uncertainty. So it's almost guaranteed to induce anxiety, challenges with focus, addictive behaviors, shutdowns and meltdowns which can quickly lead to relationship challenges and work challenges, et cetera. So in this episode we'll be discussing some key techniques to navigate uncertainty. So getting outside of the spin of that, that fear induced tunnel vision that we get into, and working past the guilt of taking time to nourish ourselves, that's often a big deal for many of us. And moving towards greater emotional regulation so we can have a much greater capacity to handle and navigate what life is throwing at us. Possibly even getting to a deeper sense of well being even in the face of external chaos and chaoticness. So we can't always change the external, but we can fortify our nervous system to stay more calm even in the midst of uncertain outcomes. And at the end of this episode, I'm going to walk you through an exercise that will support you in building a list of things that will help you regulate your nervous system. Okay, just one quick announcement. We have our upcoming ADHD Mind Mapping online workshop happening on June 28th and July 1st. The main session is on the 28th and the Q&A makeup session is on July 1st. This is our masterclass on mind mapping. We've taught this many times. It always fills up and it comes with lifetime access to our mind mapping software. We've designed specifically to be useful for people with adhd. So we've really refined this over time. We constantly update it. And I've been using mind mapping personally and teaching it since 1998. And we've pioneered an approach to using mind mapping specifically for people who are neurodivergent adhd. So that you can really understand here's the tool and here's how it's going to make your life better. And I want to specifically highlight if you have a son or daughter that's just graduating high school or is really struggling in college, this may be a very helpful workshop for them because it gives them a tool to take those a lot of those details that create flooding, which we'll talk about in this episode, and organize them in such a way that they can finish their assignments, plan their day, plan, plan their week. It is so useful. I so wish I had this tool and had learned it when I was in high school. There are countless uses for mind mapping from planning your day and week, mapping out large projects, fleshing out writing assignments, problem solving, brainstorming. If you have a challenge with building up those massive long action item lists that you never get to because you look at them, you just feel totally overwhelmed. Mind mapping can really help. During the workshop, we show you how to do mind mapping both on paper, by hand and using software. The software that we're going to give you for the workshop. So you'll be able to see how to use it from both angles and it's important to know how to do both. There'll be plenty of time for Q and A and all sessions will be recorded and available after the session. So if you're Interested, go to adhdmindmapping.com I will leave a link in the description and and I hope to see you there. Okay. So when we're talking about navigating uncertainty, as I often talk about on this podcast, we need to go towards looking at how our ancient nervous system actually works. This part of ourselves that has evolved for millennia, that's kept all our ancestors safe. We need to understand what it's doing and what it needs, especially when it touches uncertainty, the modern world and it gets overwhelmed. So we have all survived as a species by being able to predict what's going to happen and make plans for safety and well being. That's what's kept humans alive. That's why we're the dominant species on the planet. It's that particular ability to look into the future and say, okay, I predict the game will be at the river and in the afternoon and therefore I know we'll have food for the next couple days. I'll know how to predict when the crops will be growing up. So I know that we can plant now and we will be able to harvest later in the season. Our brains have evolved to do that over tens of thousands of years. However we have those brains have evolved in the presence of small groups of people for most of that time period. So maybe a group of 100 in a hunter gatherer society would be pretty large. Then as we moved into agrarian, it got a little larger. But now we are bombarded with information about every human being on the planet all the time. Our nervous system just does not know how to manage that. It can compartmentalize. Some people are better at doing that than others. But the challenge that we have as neurodivergent folk, hunter types, people with adhd, is we experience flooding when flooding is a challenge. With compartmentalization, things all tend to flood together. We're thinking about what do I need to do for work tomorrow and is that going to go okay? Is my job going to be replaced with AI? Is society going to completely break down? What's going to happen with Charlie, my uncle Charlie next week with his, his doctor's appointment? All these things tend to flood together and that can lead to quickly being overwhelmed. Coupled with our brain wants to figure it out. That part of our brain that looks ahead and goes, I need to predict what's going to happen in the future so I can be safe. That core mechanism then gets triggered, and it's like, well, I've got to figure this out. I've got to figure. I got to check the news every two minutes because is the world coming to an end? What's going on? And so that spin then gets us into this fight or flight mode where we're not thinking creatively, we're not thinking in a way where we can more actively manage what needs to happen in the next few weeks, the next few minutes. It's much more difficult. So we need to recognize, and this is what we're going to talk about in this episode, is how do we regulate our nervous system so it can creatively navigate what's happening in our life right now, in this moment, and also set some boundaries with those things that are overwhelming our nervous system so that we can actually be more able to survive and thrive in our given circumstances. So one really important thing to keep coming back to is when you're emotionally dysregulated, when you're overwhelmed, when you find yourself spinning or flooding, everything's flooding together. It is a sign that your nervous system is out of balance. That's the simplest way I can express it. Your nervous system is overstimulated, and you as conscious thinking mind needs to go, oh, here's the state that I'm in right now. I have this menu of things that I can do to get myself back to being regulated again. And checking the news or obsessively looking at Facebook or distracting yourself isn't going to do it. That's not going to get you back. But when you're in those spins of I'm nervous and then therefore I'm in some kind of addictive behavior, It. It's a spin. And you, you can break the spin by telling yourself, here's what's happening in this moment. I'm feeling overwhelmed, I'm feeling scared. I. I just read this particular news article and it's freaking me out. That's actually what's happening right now. Okay. Do I have control over the situation? Not that situation, no. But I can control what I do in reaction to reading that article. That. That's one way to dialogue about it. But the important thing to remember is when you're in a state of fight or flight, you are less creative. You usually will make poor decisions, and it is predicated on you and no one else to regulate yourself to get your back, get yourself back to center again. So here's the big issue. When we're dealing with uncertainty, when we're dealing with people around us and we're feeling emotionally dysregulated, we can often feel guilt and shame around stopping and taking care of ourselves. And the dialogue usually is, if I take care of myself, things will really fall apart. I just don't have time for it. There's just too much going on that. I hear that a lot from clients. I just. I don't have time to take care of myself. And I just know as a coach, that's not accurate. I know for a fact when I work with people that 99% of the time when they actually stop and take care of themselves, they get better, things get better. Another dialogue could be, I will get even further behind. I'm just being lazy. I'm weak because I can't handle this. And I can see other people around me can handle their emotions in a way that I can't, that I don't care. Maybe people say, like, well, you're unplugging right now. Do you care about what's happening? Maybe you're dealing with a care situation where you're caring for someone who's, who's sick or is not well, or, I'm letting everyone down. That's a classic one that we all tend to go through from time to time, right? Because we feel like we can't hold it up and other people around us can. But the truth, from what I've seen from coaching over and over and over and even from my own experience, it's the exact opposite. When you actually stop and rest and take care of yourselves, you are far more able to deal with life and what life throws at you. We have more energy and our nervous system is much more able to handle these life situations. So the absolute key to dealing with uncertainty is knowing how to regulate your nervous system. You are in charge of your own nervous system. There's no one else that's going to do this for you. It's up to you to learn what your nervous system needs to get back into balance again. And it's going to be different for you than it is for me. Everyone's different. When I'm coaching people, it's a. It's wide open. There may be some similarities, there may be certain things, and we'll talk about some basic tips, but only you know what gets you back into a space of balance. Clarity. When you know that feeling. When your nervous system is like, you're clear, you're calm, and you can deal with life. If you're, if you haven't experienced that in a while, then really pay attention to some of the tips that I'm going to mention and do the exercise at the end of this episode. So I work with a lot of people in the entertainment industry and I'm continually reminded that we want to catch ourselves before we hit that wall. When we get to a place when we've, you know, you've probably heard stories about people that were performers and they just hit a wall and they just, they couldn't handle doing the work anymore. It's because they weren't aware of what their nervous system, what the bounds were of their nervous system, and they pushed it too hard. And then the nervous system, when it's really pushed to its edge, takes a long time sometimes for it to regulate itself again. You know, it's in the realm of trauma. Your nervous system is traumatized, and so the process of getting it back to baseline can take some time. And it's sad when I see that happen. I'm just like, ah, that person, if had they just learned earlier how to manage their nervous system, they could have done so much more. But they hit that edge and then they. It's really hard for them to come back. So most of us have a sensitive nervous system. And you've heard me talk about this constantly. I'm constantly reminding my coaching clients, we all tend to forget that it's something we often just completely forget. We'll remember it one day and then the next day we're like, oh, no, I'm just like everybody else. No, your nervous system is sensitive and you need to manage it a certain way. We only fully experience our gifts when we've learned to take care of ourselves. That's what I've seen from coaching. When we really get skilled at knowing, okay, here's the boundaries of what I can handle and I need to make plans for when I'm going into a situation where it's going to really tax me in some way and how do I get myself back to center after that experience instead of scheduling back to back to back situations that are going to be very challenging for you. Most people have the ability to plan their life even in work situations where it does feel like it's more regimented. There's usually ways in which you can find times to take care of yourself. And it's also important to build support systems and habits that reinforce emotional stability. So it's not just all on your willpower. You've built a life where you have certain things scheduled into your day to day that gets you back into balance so you're not struggling to get yourself back after you've really been crushed. So my advice is be the best friend to your nervous system. Be your nervous system's best friend. Know what it needs, know what it likes and doesn't like. And when it's well fortified, we're often totally unstoppable. I know that experience when I'm just taken down and tired and overwhelmed. I can't do. I am literally worthless to anyone. I am just a ball of blah and just negative self talk is screaming at me. It's terrible. But I can rest for a day and I'm back to normal. Like it's just like flicking a switch. So I've learned over time when I get to those places, even though I think I've got to get some stuff done. And I've had this experience recently, if I just rest, I get better. I like the next day I wake up, I'm okay and I'm functional again. But if I feel like I have to or I should or I'm going to let someone down, I. There's times when obviously we have to show up, there's no choice, but most of the time there's some wiggle room. So I really want to talk about some tips that may help you regulate your nervous system so that you can deal with uncertainty. Because when you're dealing with uncertainty, at the end of the day, what you're dealing with is something stressful. I can't figure out what I need to do in this moment to fix that situation. I don't physically have the ability to do it in this moment. Therefore, the default is I take care of myself. I come back to myself, I nurse myself so that I can get insights into what I can do in this situation. And often the insight is I can't do anything. I don't know anything I can do about that particular situation somewhere else in the world. But I may go, oh, you know what? I can volunteer for this group over here. I can support this person over here. I can make sure that I'm taking care of my family, family in a better way. And by being nourished myself, my kids will get a sense of like, oh, things are safe because mom and dad feel more centered. So let's talk about some tips. What are some general tips that are going to help? And many of you have heard these before, so I want to encourage you to not just listen to my tips, but take them in and then Go, okay, how do I do this for myself? What actually works for me? And at the very end, we're going to do an exercise just on that so you can actually sit down and create a list for yourself. And I'm intending you follow through with it in the next couple days so that you can really fortify yourself so you can feel very nourished, strong, and stable. So the first suggestion is mindful self dialogue, which is what we've talked about a bit already, which is, let's say you just read an article on how AI could possibly replace your job, and you find yourself thinking about it, you're ruminating on it, you're anxious, and then you stop yourself and say, okay, wait, wait, wait. I just read an article about this. I'm feeling scared because I have a need for safety and stability. I'm concerned about my future and maybe my family's future. Oh, yeah, I really have a need for security. Recognize when it comes up, name it. And often naming it can bring you back to center again without having that little piece of like, okay, here's what's happening. I'm sitting here, I'm looking at my phone. That's okay. That's what's happening in this moment. I read an article, then I can look around and go, okay, well, is the world coming to an end around me? Like, there's a tree over there. I can see my cup. Like, the world seems safe in this moment where I'm at. Okay, Grounding yourself in the moment can be extremely helpful. And it starts with just recognizing what's happening in the moment. And then you can say to yourself, which is, I really encourage talking to yourself, maybe not out loud, but internally to say, okay, that freaked me out. I need to go for a walk. I need to shake that off. There's nothing I can do about this in this moment. I'll maybe plan to do some research about it, maybe I'll talk to someone about it. But in this moment, there's nothing I can do. I'm going for a walk. I'm setting my phone down. I'm going for a walk. I'm dysregulated. Based on me reading that article. I need to take a break. I need to go out in nature, do something that's just going to get me back to center again. Mindful self dialogue inserts awareness into the spin and get you back to center again. And mindfulness practice, as we've often talked about on this podcast, is, is a way to strengthen the muscle so that when those triggers come up, you have a greater ability to extract yourself, whether you're doing qigong or meditation or yoga. All those, or exercise even can give you a little extra oomph that you can use in those situations. So you're not just pulled into it and you're spun. And then there's another thing that comes to you and now you're spinning on two different things and now there's a third thing and it just goes on and on and on. We have to learn the ability and to step into our stream of thoughts and say, here's what's happening. I just read this article, I'm staring at my phone. This is the reality of the situation. I'm safe. I need to do something else that's gonna regulate me so I can process that situation. So maybe sometimes things come through, you do have to process it. You may get a work email that you definitely have to have taken action on. That's another thing that could have triggered you. Okay, same situation. Okay, I read that. When I read that email, I feel scared because I have a need for effectiveness. I have a need for respect, I have a need for self esteem. And I have no idea how I'm going to deal with that particular email. Okay, same response. I'm going to set things down. I'm going to go for a walk, get myself clear, come back and see if I can make a list of three or four things that may address that particular scenario. That is where mindful self dialogue can be really helpful in pulling yourself out of the spin and especially out of the spin of uncertainty. If it's something you have no control over, then mindfulness helps you say, I have no control over that situation. I'm safe in this moment. Maybe I need to have a conversation about this with someone. But in this moment, I have no control. And that is enough often to turn the brain out of that. I've got to figure this out. There's uncertainty here. I need to be safe. It's that old brain getting triggered. You can stop that spin and come back to your center again. Now, in no particular order, a mental health day off. Many of us, and I find many of our clients never take them off. They're actually given to them as part of their work life and they don't take them off. So if you have a job where you have mental health days off or you haven't taken a day off in a while and you're spun and you know it, take the day off. Now, in terms of nervous system regulation, I really want to highlight a Few things that I know for Many of you who listen to us to this podcast are creative individuals. That's the bulk of the people who come to our workshops. Many of you are creative professionals. Make sure you're taking time doing nourishing, unplugged activities. Play a musical instrument, do art, do crafts. Take time with friends. Play a board game with someone. Find things that you can do unplugged, either by yourself or with other people, to get yourself back into center again. Things that, you know, when you were younger, you felt like you had plenty of time and you could sit down and you can relax and do those things. And then when we get older, things tend to pile up. We start to feel like there's never time to do anything. And the problem is then our life gets more and more constricted and we feel more and more stressed. We need to schedule unplugged, nourishing, creative activities into our lives to ensure that we remain balanced in terms of in the moment. When you're stressed and you're feeling overwhelmed, breathing and checking your heart rate can be very helpful. And I'm fresh off an experience of I had a urinary tract infection that came out of the blue and I was in the hospital for 24 hours. First time since I was 4 years old that I was in a hospital overnight. And it was awful. It was terrible. But what helped me was I've got a Fitbit watch that shows my heart rate. And what helped me through the experience because I was feeling very stressed. I was dealing with a lot of uncertainty because I was like, okay, is this going to get worse? Worse? Is this going to get to my kidneys? It was a real intense experience of dealing with uncertainty. And what I found was looking at the watch, checking my heart rate, and as I breathe, my goal was to just get my heart rate down. And I know what my baseline heart rate is. And that really helped. And what I found was coming out of that experience that lasted. I'm still able to go through and do that even if I don't have my watch with me. It helped. There was like a neuro pathway that was forged from that specific experience that I'm finding. My nervous system actually conversely calmed down even more as a result of going through somewhat of a traumatic experience because I was really working the mindfulness as I was doing it. So the practice is, if you've got a Fitbit or your Apple watch or whatever, you can get these simple fitness trackers for 30, 40 bucks on Amazon. Some of them are really cheap and my suggestion is just get ones that just have your heart rate, maybe your oxygen level, maybe it measures a few things. Don't get something that's got your email and everything. If you can't, if you don't have to, don't add more stuff. But this is one area where the digital can be very helpful. So heart rate monitor, start to get in touch with what is your resting heart rate. Most of the fitness trackers will show this and then see if you can. Throughout the day, when you're feeling stressed, look at your watch, look at what your heart rate is. Practice some deep breathing. Longer, longer out breath than in breath, look at your heart rate and start to consciously try to move that heart rate back down to what your resting heart rate is. Is. That's a very simple mindfulness practice. And for many of us, there's a little stimulation connected to it because it's like a digital thing. We're looking at it where there's some. It's not just sitting and breathing quietly, closing our eyes. So for some of us, this may be easier. So that would be one suggestion I would have if you're in the midst of it. Also making sure you're getting enough sleep. When we're emotionally dysregulated, we tend to not get as much sleep. We all, most of us have challenges with sleep anyway. So if you feel like you're a quart low and you haven't slept in a couple days, you may need to take a day where you're gonna plan to sleep in and let your nervous system do its regulation work. That only happens when you sleep. Now, in terms of spending time with other people, it's important to remember that there is something called mirror neurons. So when you are with other people and they're calm, it tends to affect you in a way where you feel calm as well. So if you're around maybe family members or people that are constantly triggered, constantly spinning, you need to have friends in your life or people or relatives that you can hang out with that tend to be more calm. Maybe they're more neurotypical. Spending time with them is telling your brain, oh, it's safe. Your brain basically does the calculation. It must be safe because they're not freaking out. So having that exposure to community or other people that are more relaxed and maybe a little more unplugged or just better able to navigate, they just don't have the sensitive nervous system that you do is often helpful. Not always. There's. Sometimes we're judging ourselves against them, but there are times when that can actually be very nourishing to you. So recognize mirror neurons are there to your benefit and you can use them as such. Now, if you're an introvert, time alone can be helpful to a degree. However, if you tend. Many of us introverts tend to over introvert. And that leads us to getting too in our heads, too spun on what's happening. We're just staying in our thoughts. We need to expose ourselves to other people. If we're extroverts, then it's really important that you do schedule time with other people. Dinner dates. Schedule things into your weekly schedule to ensure you are getting your community connection. Because what I've seen from a lot of my extroverted clients, when they don't get that, they get depressed, they get, they ruminate, they go to really dark spaces fairly quickly because their nervous system really loves connection. Not everyone has that. I'm not, I'm more of an introvert. I'm fine staying by myself for long periods of time, no problem. But that can get excessive. So when in doubt, connection with the right group of people can be very nourishing. Especially when we're dealing with uncertainty. It's good to be around people, especially people that are a little more regulated. Okay. And moving on to nature connection. So there's some really key things you need to know about exposure to nature and your nervous system. We've talked about this before, but every time I explore this topic and I'm working with some groups that really go deep into the science of nature connection. And one thing we absolutely know, and you know this intuitively, is that human beings are drawn to running water. Large bodies of water. We know that that is relaxing to our nervous system. That's why you can download or listen to a YouTube video that's got nature sounds that has 10 billion people who have watched it in the past. It's because our brain registers running water, specifically like a waterfall, to safety. It's fresh water. It's wired very deep into our nervous system that when we have that in our environment, we're safe. Same with the ocean. That's why we like the sounds of the lapping of the ocean tides coming in. Our brain registers the ocean is nearby. We have food sources that are available to us. Our brains then calm down. This is deep survival instincts that are wired very deep in the brain. And that's why exposure to nature is one of the most easy ways from A to B in terms of calming your nervous system down. There's a predictability in sitting by the ocean or even by a lake. And knowing that that's been there for tens of thousands of years, it'll be there long after you're gone. There's a stability that comes from that that really nourishes our nervous system. Rivers, sitting under a tree, sitting in a park. Make sure that nature connection is part of your day to day. If you can find a way to make nature just a part of your regular routine instead of something you just do on vacation, it will play. It'll give you many, many benefits just by making up, making it a part of your regular routine. And if you want a little extra support on that. One of the things that I found with some of our workshops is download the Merlin app. It's by the. I'm trying to think of the university, Cornell University is the one that put that out. And so you can take that app clicking on and it will listen to the sounds of the birds around you and it'll show you the different birds that are in your local vicinity. And so just making that connection with the environment that's always around you every single day, these are part of, these are your neighbors, these are part of your overall ecosystem. And just learning about the birds can just be a little bit of an interesting doorway into nature connection. And it's speculated that the reason why human beings like the sound and find pleasant the sound of birds singing, which you think, well, of course we just enjoy it, but why? There's got to be a reason why we find that pleasant. It may be because birds tend to alert the ecosystem around it when there's a predator around. So you'll notice that if you listen to the bird singing and a cat comes by and you'll hear a more screeching sound, they'll go chirp, chirp, chirp. And you'll feel it and you'll feel kind of uncomfortable. It's because they're alerting all of the other animals in the ecosystem that there's a predator in the ecosystem. Now, clearly we're predators as well, but for many birds, they don't register us as that as much. So the sound, when birds are singing, they're relaxed, they're not in fight or flight themselves. And so some part of our psyche may register that as it's safe. Now, in terms of meditation, many of us struggle with that. I know sitting and trying to focus your breath and sitting quietly, even with an app, sometimes can be very difficult for us. So the things I would recommend you explore are try doing a yoga class, maybe a restorative yoga class. I've mentioned that many times. One of the best things you can do for your nervous system, regardless of how physically fit you are, restorative yoga is easy and very relaxing to your nervous system. I'd also recommend qigong. So that's Q I G O N G. Look online, see if you can find some classes. Go to a class. Tai chi and qigong are very interrelated. That's another form of moving meditation that may be helpful to you again, in regulating your nervous system. So when you're dealing with uncertainty, you have these go tos at your disposal. Now, immersion into warm water is a classic. It's one of the best, most predictable ways you can regulate your nervous system. You're basically cueing the part of your brain that remembers embryonic fluid. For most people, warm water exposure, taking a bath, going to a jacuzzi is very helpful in quickly calming your nervous system and finally nourishing your spiritual life. There's a reason why humans for millennia have cultivated spiritual practices. Religions. Some of us are very. I know many of you are like, I'm not into religion. But some form of spiritual practice can be very nourishing to us, especially if it's collective. It's just very. It's again, wired very deep into our psyche that when we're around other people and we have some kind of spiritual practice happening, even if it's like a yoga class, it can even be going to a concert for you. That's your experience of your sense of communion with, with the. Whatever it is that that undefined something that's animating all of life. Just experiencing some kind of regular spiritual practice in your life can also be extremely helpful in regulating your nervous system. Okay, so in wrapping up, here's the activity. We've done similar activities like this in the past on the podcast, but I really want to highlight it now because I feel like it could be very useful for many of you. So what we're going to do is make a list of activities that we know regulate our nervous system, calm ourselves down. So either on a sheet of paper or in a notebook or on your phone, I want to encourage you to take a moment, take a breath, center yourself, and make a list of activities that you know from experience bring you a sense of calm, stability and safety. Hit pause, and then when you're done, come back and I'll ask you one more question. Second list. You can either draw a line and write it on the other side or just write it below it. Make a list of activities you Think may bring you more peace, stability, calm. Based on the list that I gave you or just speculating on? Oh, it's not something I've done before, but I may want to explore it. Take a moment. Write that list. Okay, now look at the list and I want you to circle three items on one. It could be from either list. I just want you to pick three items from the list that you made. Or it could be like two from the top list, one from the bottom list. Circle three things that you know you can do and want to do and schedule in the next week. Okay, so as I'm going to talk to you like I would be talking to a coaching client, it is now your responsibility to your nervous system to schedule those three things into your schedule this coming week. Make a commitment. And what you may want to do is say, I'm going to do one for three days in a row. So I'm going to do this one for the first day, this one for the second day, this one for the third day. Go three days in a row where you've done something that you know, regulates your nervous system that you're not normally doing. And make sure you have a couple on your list there that are. That don't involve a lot of effort. Like something that might be simple that you can do. Like take 15, 20 minutes out of your day to do it, and then maybe have one that's a little more involved, that maybe, okay, that one, I've got to schedule that, that becomes a little more involved. But you have that on your schedule. So it's important to remember that these things are available to us all the time. And so when life feels uncertain, when things feel stressful, when things feel overwhelming, the default reaction to uncertainty and stress is that list. It's going back to that list. Maybe you want to make a version of that. Put it up on your refrigerator, put it on a sticky, put it on your. Your desktop somewhere. Find a place where you can remind yourself that these are available to you. And you schedule them as a regular part of your routine. So they're not things that you reward yourself with, but they're things that are necessary as a part of you nourishing your nervous system so you can be fully functional. And if you're not going through anything right now, that it's even more important to do this, because we want to build these habits of in. So that if life does throw something at you, which it will inevitably do, that you will be prepared because you'll know, okay, I've got these things already kind of wired in, and I know that I can go to those when I need that stabilizing force in my life. Okay, I want to recommend a couple other episodes that may go along well with this episode. The first one would be episode 98, the Importance of Self Care. That's going to be go more in depth in some of the things we talked about today. Episode 71, mindfulness. That's another very good episode in relation to what we've been talking about. And episode 82, the Science of Nature Connection. That's my interview with Kathleen Lockyer. Very good episode. Well worth your time to check that out as a companion to this particular episode. Okay, that's it. And as a reminder, we have our upcoming mind mapping workshop happening on June 28th and July 1st. You can find out more at ADHD mindmapping.com and specifically, if you have a college student in your life, or a son or daughter that's just graduating high school, this may be a very useful workshop for them. So if you're Interested, go to ADHD mindmapping.com and I want you to all take good care of yourselves and do those assignments that we talked about today of just taking time to nourish your nervous system. And we will talk soon. So until next time, be well.
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Thanks for joining us. If you'd like to learn more about the book the Drummer and the Great Mountain, visit Drummer and the Great Mountain.com to join us on social media, click the links at the top of the homepage. Help us spread the word. We're a small press and reviews really help. If you've been enjoying the podcast or the book, consider writing and review. Review on itunes, Amazon, Goodreads, or your podcast app. If you're new to the podcast and want to quickly get up to speed on the concepts we discuss, check out our free 5 day mini course. Visit drummandthegreatmountain.com minicourse if there's a topic you'd like us to cover on future episodes, we'd love to hear from you. Please send us an email@infodrummerandthegreatmountain.com.
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