Well, they didn't. They enhanced it.
Now look, I am not one of those people that can sit in complete silence, close my eyes and shut the world out (let alone the 8 TV channels in my head constantly flicking through, plus the 10 radio stations playing all of the songs I love!) Well, not just yet. But I am practicing most days!
I first learned about guided meditation about 5 years ago during the Covid Pandemic, just when I was starting my awesome little breakfast burger business, Cheffy Chelby's.
Prior to Covid I was 33 years old - mum to Miss 9, both of us avid Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitors and I worked 6 days a week in a cute Brunch Café called Cantina 61. Then BOOM! Shut the fornt door... everything was shut. I lost my job. Jiu Jitsu Club closed and so did the gym.
Tell you what - like MOST of you my mind was racing - ALL of the time. How would I pay rent? How would I feed my kid? How would I keep busy!! It was about then I went to see a GP (not my current very amazing ones) to inform them that I didn't feeeel like everyone else and wasn't reacting the same as everyone else (hoarding TP and living off of out of work benefits the Government handed out to it seemed everyone but me!). It was she who passed me a piece of paper and asked me to circle the answers to a bunch of questions to loosely determine something I had never ever considered.
Now I didn't know what the point of this was until she took it back from me, skimmed it over and announced - "oh yes, you have ADHD."
To say I left angry is an understatement. I was furious, and left with no information other than knowing THAT piece of paper had LIED to her and told her I had some mental health condition only 12 year old boys have. How dare she! I fumed and thought it over and over again... until I did some research. I googled ADHD in Adult Women. Guess what I found...
Yeeahhhhh! Basically a full diagnostic about me. Yup. Google had done it's homework and here I was reading about alllll of the things about me that apparently were real but made me feel like an alien. I continued to read... I read more about how ADHD presents differently in young women. How they hide it by being withdrawn and/or blending in to the crowd so as not to be socially outcast. Because we all know that in your youth and teens the WORST thing (well, back in the early 2000's) was to be a loner.
Things started to make sense. That's why I hung out with the boys in primary school who wanted to build things and use their imaginations to play in the sandpit and to create with Lego. I hated the "girly" things - especially dolls. I had them, but I didn't really get it. Oh and makeup and haircuts, don't even! I cried every single time someone touched my hair.... and that was it. I had a label. I made sense to myself for the first time in my life...
Quickly I looked into how I could help myself overcome this - surely there was a cure or some way of controlling this so I could be normal - right? Well - I mean there were a million answers to this, and there still are. (I have some sneaky-yet-cool ones to share in my next post!)
But one thing I found helped me the most - the absolute most, for the situation I was in. Was meditation. YES. Meditation. NOT MEDICATION (that story will come later)
Through chatting about this newfound information at a million miles a minute, a friend of mine suggested I listed to guided meditation at night to sleep. Shonnie, a lovely lady I met through my cute little cafe Cheffy Chelby's. Oh that lass taught me so much bless her. She suggested looking up a man by the name of Jason Stephenson. So I looked him up and that night, I played his meditation through YouTube whilst I slept. I shared this with my daughter also, to help her young mind soothe into the night. BONUS! He is Aussie - just like me #bias
I can't tell you exactly which session I listened to - but omg did it help. When I woke up in the morning, my whole world felt - clearer. Not perfect, but calmer. I felt like I had rested for the first time in forever... have you ever opened a Cafe during Covid as a single mum?? Dude - that was hectic and do not recommend if you enjoy calm and quiet in your life.
So I continued this habit night after night - and continue to practice this meditation now. However since finding other forms of guided meditation such as Breathwork and Kirtan Kriya, I only practice on nights where I am struggling to quiet the noise and I would rather listen to the calming noise of Jason (haha sorry Jason, you aren't noise in the bad way!)
So there you have it - Meditation is sweeeeeeet and definitely helps manage ADHD. This stuff isn't just spiritual "woo" it is scientifically proven and continues to be studied today. Here is a link to a REALLLLY long article about it all :)
However, I am not one for long Blogs and in all reality, this is aimed at busy Mummas who don't have all of the time in the world to read and research.
SO - if you are looking for a great way to get to sleep at night and want a soothing voice to walk you through some lovely meditations and mantras - I highly recommend Jason Stephenson on YouTube. There are many many videos to choose from, some for Health and Wealth, Inner Calm, Meeting Your Higher Self. Just like the old Goosebumps books - now you pick the adventure!
Have a most wonderful day!
Wishing you Thrive in 2025!
Wishing you Thrive in 2025!
Michelle Gregory
xxx
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