Some days, probably mostly Mondays, we probably all wish we had more ADHD relaxation techniques we could turn to. Those of us with ADHD have minds that always seem to run and run. We jump from one thought and one activity to another one without a moment’s pause.
This quick processing can provide benefits for innovation and creativity. For instance ADHD and creativity are closely related. As a result, most people with ADHD tend to be very innovative.
At the same time, though, this ADHD mind tends towards stress, anxiety, and becoming overwhelmed easily. ADHD and stress also are closely connected. Most people with ADHD find themselves mentally overwhelmed and exhausted quite frequently.
More than most others, people with ADHD sometimes just wish they could take a moment and rest. More than anything, we want our minds to take a vacation or a nap and let us relax. After all, many people might argue that relaxation exists in the mind to begin with. Ultimately, we could all use more pointers on how to use our mind to relax.
In this article, we cover some helpful ADHD relaxation techniques you can use almost anywhere to settle and calm your mind. These techniques can help you settle thoughts that run on and on. They can also help you relieve some of the stress that you grapple with on a daily basis. Read on to find some great strategies for relaxing your mind, soul, and body.
Practice Deep Breathing
The first of our ADHD relaxation techniques involves deep breathing. For the most part, we all can understand what deep breathing involves simply from its name. Still, if you look around you will see very few people actually taking a moment to focus and breathe in deeply.
Breathing deeply provides a number of benefits and can help you relax in a number of ways. First, breathing deeply requires concentration. You have to pause and actually focus, simple as it may be, on the act alone of breathing. Focusing on breathing forces you to clear your mind and helps to give you a moment’s clarity.
Secondly, deep breathing helps to release endorphins as well as helps to clear your body of toxins. Endorphins help you feel better overall and getting rid of toxins in your body can improve your overall wellbeing.
To practice deep breathing all you really need to do is pause for 30 seconds to a few minutes, close your eyes, and focus on nothing other than your breathing. If you have more time to really get into, you can even lay down and close your eyes. You can then put your hand on your stomach and feel the breathing as you focus your mind on breathing deeply in and out. The more time you can devote to this, the more relaxed you will feel overall.
Try Journaling
A second helpful option for ADHD relaxation techniques includes taking time to put your thoughts on paper. In writing out or drawing out your thoughts, you actually allow yourself to unload some of the stress from your day. Additionally, putting your feelings on paper lets you express things you may have been holding back.
Through getting out your stress and expressing your feelings, you give your mind and body a chance to relax. For these reasons, journaling or doodling aimlessly can act as an excellent avenue for relaxation. The best time for journaling then falls at the of the day when most of us have the most stress. We get home from a hard day at work and a bad drive with traffic. As a result, we find ourselves frustrated and angry. Before you go to bed and carry all of that with you, take 15 to 30 mins to sit down and journal.
If you don’t think journaling is right for you, think again. You can get plenty creative with journaling ideas. As we already mentioned, you can draw or write out your feelings, or even write a fictional story with you as a character. For more creative ideas for relaxation through journaling, you can try the ideas found at this link or in this post.
Learn Meditation
A third great tool to include with your ADHD relaxation techniques is to learn and practice meditation. Simply speaking, meditation is a practice to relax your mind. It can involve deep breathing or reflection on something. Typically, meditation involves finding inner peace and calm.
Many people practice meditation both religiously and practically on a daily basis. Meditation doesn’t have to act as part of a religious exercise, though. Instead, you can view it as an activity to take your mind away from outside activities and refocus on your inner spirit.
Meditation helps you relax through taking your mind off of all external stress. Instead of thinking about the work you have to get done, you instead can reflect on your feelings and your heartbeat and your innermost thoughts. To start practicing meditation, all you need to do is find a quiet space and some time to be alone. In that space you can sit and close your eyes and reflect on your inner thoughts and remove every outside influence.
Meditation can really help to provide a window of time to get away from your daily stresses. To help find more relaxation and alone time, start planning out times in your day to simply sit and meditate. You can do this first thing in the morning or as the last thing you do before going to bed. Whenever you do it, though, you can be certain you can find rest through it. For some ideas on getting started with meditation try out the guides in this link and in this article.
Maintain Boundaries
Another great strategy for ADHD relaxation techniques involves maintaining good boundaries. Every one of us only has so much hours in the day and so much energy and capacity to get things done. This means that we have to prioritize some activities and relationships over others.
Some of us think of boundaries as bad things. We see them as barriers to keep us from moving ahead. In reality, though, healthy boundaries keep us on track in much the same way guardrails keep your car on the road. We need boundaries to keep us safe. If we don’t have proper boundaries, we end up completely drained of energy and emotional capacity.
If you find yourself overly stressed, this is a good sign that you need more boundaries in your life. For instance, if stress makes up the most part of your day, start looking at the things that stress you out and start saying no to them. For instance, if you work too much at your job working after hours even, start saying no and stop responding to phone calls and emails after work hours end. If you have too many relationships to maintain, you need to start saying no to the ones that demand too much from you. You can’t cut out all relationships, but you should start focusing your time and energy on the ones that matter most.
To help you get back to relaxing your mind and spirirt, start reassessing your life boundaries. This practice might be hard, but it also can be cathartic in a way as you assess what activies and relationships drain you the most. Once you know which things you need to limit, commit to cutting back. In the end, you will find that you will have more time to simply rest and relax.
Take an Exercise Break
As a final item for helpful ADHD relaxation techniques, we would encourage you to take an exercise break. Breaks in general can provide an excellent way to relieve pressure on our minds and senses. Whenever we get overwhelmed, whether at work or at home, simply taking 15 minutes to separate from our task can help us eliminate some of our stress.
When we take a break, though, we need to actively do something so that our mind simply doesn’t wander back to the task we’re trying to avoid. Exercise then acts as a great way to pull our minds away. We all should know by now that exercise can provide anyone tremendous benefits. For instance we should know that physical activity helps to improve ADHD symptoms. Additionally, exercise helps to make us feel better and additionally helps to relieve stress.
When we talk about an exercise break, this doesn’t have to mean anything too intense. This could include getting up and going for a jog. Alternatively, you could take some time to do some push ups or situps or simple stretches. You want to do something that can get your body moving and get your mind off of what provides stress. For some more ideas on simple easy to do exercises for quick breaks try some of the ideas in this article or at this link.
Use ADHD Relaxation Techniques as You Go About Your Regular Day
More than ever, we all seem to want to find the perfect balance in our lives, and we should all strive for this. After all, when our lives get out of balance we tend toward unhealthy habits and behaviors. Additionally, for those of us with ADHD, when we get out of balance, our symptoms generally just start getting worse.
A well balanced lifestyle helps us stay healthy, get rest, and keep stress away. Some ways we can help maintain balance are through having an ADHD daily routine and through maintaining a healthy diet. Additionally, we maintain balance through making sure we find time and use tools to help us relax. This is why having some ADHD relaxation techniques on hand that we can use each day is so critical.
We hope this article helps give you some ideas on how to build relaxation into your day. Additionally, we hope that you find ways to use these tools every day. We tend to not think about relaxing because we have so many other thing to do and think about. Regularly practicing ADHD relaxation techniques each day, though, helps us maintain a right balance in our lives. Use these tools and tips today to help you get back on track with moving towards that right balance.
