Latest / ADHD Strategies & Support for Women / Your Body Gives You Clues: Somatic Awareness and ADHD | Ep 152

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Your Body Gives You Clues: Somatic Awareness and ADHD | Ep 152 · ADHD Strategies & Support for Women

• 0:27
  Hello, welcome to Inspiring Women with adhd.
• 0:29
  I'm Renee Allen, the host of this podcast.
• 0:32
  Excited to be here.
• 0:33
  If you went back to very early episodes, it was so hard for me to say that, but the more you do something, the more your brain knows how to do it.
• 0:40
  I could probably still mess up from time to time, but it came out just fine this time.
• 0:45
  But I'm excited to be here on a Tuesday.
• 0:50
  And as usual, I save it till I'm just about to leave.
• 0:54
  I mean, not completely, but I wish I had more time.
• 0:58
  But I went to a movie today.
• 0:59
  I saw the new Spider man movie right after hot yoga.
• 1:02
  I had very little time.
• 1:04
  In fact, usually I stay and talk to people after my yoga class.
• 1:08
  But I said I'm meeting my family for a movie that started 10 minutes ago and you know how there's previews and stuff for a really long time.
• 1:16
  So that wasn't a big deal because I only missed maybe five minutes in the movie.
• 1:22
  And I watched the end of the last Spider man last night so that I could see, you know, be reminded of how it ended, because that's from what I read, how it began.
• 1:33
  But anyway, and it was fun to go back and watch it because Andrew Garfield, if you like Andrew Garfield as Spider man number two, he looks so much like my husband did when my husband was younger.
• 1:47
  When I met my husband, first time I saw him was in Spider man and I wasn't watching it with my husband.
• 1:54
  I don't know where I was watching it, but I was just in awe.
• 1:57
  My jaw was dropped, like, wait a minute, I'm watching this whole movie of my husband like 30 plus years ago.
• 2:05
  So, yeah, it's crazy.
• 2:07
  But anyway, here I am today talking about who knows what.
• 2:11
  I think I'm talking about interoception again.
• 2:15
  Interoception.
• 2:16
  Yeah, I'm making sure.
• 2:18
  I'm not saying that Christopher Nolan movie is that.
• 2:23
  No, it's a different thing.
• 2:24
  It's kind of like that.
• 2:26
  Yeah.
• 2:27
  Interoception.
• 2:28
  I talked about it last week, but what I wanted to get into is another word that actually applies to more how we use interoception to help adhd, and that is using somatic methods.
• 2:45
  Somatic?
• 2:46
  What does that mean?
• 2:47
  Well, honestly, as a yoga teacher, I.
• 2:49
  I receive emails from a lot of different yoga teachers that I've learned from and one has renamed, rebranded her yoga style about a somatic practice.
• 3:00
  And I knew it was calming.
• 3:02
  I knew it was thinking about the body and the mind and I thought, well, that's what I do.
• 3:08
  But does anybody even know what somatic means?
• 3:11
  Actually, I didn't.
• 3:12
  But, you know, it's one of those words that if you hear it enough, you realize that has to do with.
• 3:17
  With something.
• 3:18
  Like if you didn't know what a saddle was and someone was getting on their horse and they said, I'm going to climb up in the saddle, and you see them put their foot in the stirrup and they climb
• 3:26
  up onto the saddle, you think, that must be the saddle.
• 3:29
  That's kind of how I felt like that's what I kind of thought about somatic that term.
• 3:35
  But now I'm looking into it more because that is the way that I've been teaching yoga for years.
• 3:41
  And I didn't really realize that that somatic awareness was what I.
• 3:50
  What helped me so much as a person with adhd.
• 3:56
  And if you know my history with yoga, and maybe you don't, if you know my history with yoga.
• 4:02
  It's long, but it's surprising.
• 4:06
  Meaning that I was surprised that I liked it.
• 4:09
  I started out working out because I needed to lose weight.
• 4:13
  I needed to not have my back hurt.
• 4:15
  I needed to have energy.
• 4:16
  I needed to have.
• 4:17
  A lot of this was after having a baby.
• 4:19
  But even before having a baby, you know, I should go running.
• 4:22
  I didn't really love running.
• 4:23
  I should take a weightlifting class.
• 4:25
  I should do all these things.
• 4:26
  When I was in college and in high school, I was just naturally active, but I was never really an athlete.
• 4:32
  Like, I played softball, but that was about it.
• 4:34
  But not even in high school.
• 4:36
  By the time I was in high school, I did cheerleading.
• 4:38
  I thought it was fun to dance and stuff, but I never took dance classes.
• 4:41
  I lived in a little town.
• 4:41
  I was the only girl, do a lot of girl things, like take dance classes.
• 4:47
  But I played softball.
• 4:48
  My brothers played baseball.
• 4:49
  I love baseball.
• 4:50
  Still do.
• 4:50
  But anyway, I love to move.
• 4:54
  I love to do cartwheels.
• 4:56
  I love to do gymnastics kind of things, even though I never took gymnastics classes, but we did it at PE and stuff.
• 5:02
  And my body needed to be bouncy, trouncy, like Tigger.
• 5:06
  And now I'm hearing from moms of children who can't stop jumping around or their daughter's always doing cartwheels.
• 5:16
  And I think, oh, my goodness, I was that child.
• 5:18
  I could sit still.
• 5:21
  But there was a lot of evidence that that's not necessarily true.
• 5:27
  For the most part, you know, I read books and I did some things.
• 5:30
  But when I look back to even playing games with a cousin or a friend, I needed to get up and Move around.
• 5:37
  Just sitting there, you know, was stifling.
• 5:40
  And this is all bringing me to.
• 5:44
  How could somebody who loves, not even loves to move a lot?
• 5:49
  Their body needs to move a lot.
• 5:51
  You have that hyperactive component of adhd, and it's hard for you to sit still or you have some antsiness to you of, I need to be moving, I need to be going.
• 6:02
  Even if your body isn't moving and going, you just need to change how you're seated.
• 6:06
  You need to get up and walk around.
• 6:09
  Even though you might not be swaying to the music or.
• 6:12
  Today, when I was.
• 6:13
  It's Spider man, we watched all the credits because, you know, in a Marvel movie, you want to see if there's a little bit of a preview.
• 6:21
  When I say a little bit of a preview, it was very, very little.
• 6:24
  It was not very satisfying.
• 6:26
  But I.
• 6:27
  But I'm not complaining because I love watching credits.
• 6:30
  I love seeing all the words up there and wondering who the people are and how they all work together and what country their names come from and all that.
• 6:37
  But I noticed with the music, I started really enjoying the music and started getting curious about the music and who wrote this.
• 6:46
  And I was the only one that I could see that my feet were moving, my shoulders were moving because my body needs to move, and I've been sitting there for a long time.
• 6:54
  Right?
• 6:55
  But how can somebody who needs to move or has a hard time paying attention or being still or having your mind be quiet, how could you do a somatic practice?
• 7:04
  How could you do something that gives.
• 7:06
  You.
• 7:08
  An opportunity to be still?
• 7:10
  We do that when we go to sleep, but often we're wiped out or we have a hard time falling asleep.
• 7:14
  But how can you do something where you need to set some time apart to tune in to what's happening in your mind and in your body, the mind part, even though we think of meditation or mindfulness often as
• 7:35
  being something that's really difficult to sit still, When I first tried meditation, I had a little plastic kitchen timer.
• 7:43
  They used to have some that were shaped like a rooster or chicken or something.
• 7:46
  Mine was just round and white with black little numbers on it.
• 7:50
  But it would wind up to maybe like, I don't know, 20 minutes, 10 minutes.
• 7:54
  I don't know what it was, but I.
• 7:55
  But I liked the way it felt when you twisted it.
• 7:58
  And I would wind it up and go upstairs.
• 8:03
  Well, okay, the kitchen was downstairs.
• 8:05
  I was already upstairs.
• 8:06
  But I had to go downstairs, get the timer, bring it upstairs, and just sit with my back to the couch on the floor and just sit there cross legged.
• 8:15
  I started for five minutes and I thought, knew nothing really about yoga and just set the timer for five minutes and thought I wonder if I can sit here for five minutes without getting up with just breathing slowly.
• 8:26
  I had no training in any kind of yoga breathing or anything and it wasn't easy but I felt like it was a really nice way to start my day.
• 8:37
  And then I decided to see if I could up it to 10 minutes and I have no idea, idea what even motivated me to do this.
• 8:42
  I used to be a part of some video fitness forums, a couple different ones.
• 8:46
  Anybody who did that long ago there was a one called vf, another one called Yaya's forum Yaya, which is a long story.
• 8:53
  But if you are one of those people that were in that those forums, reach out to me, it'd be fun to connect.
• 8:58
  But anyway, that was my introduction to meditation and I thought it was hard.
• 9:05
  So when I heard of somebody meditating for a half hour, an hour or 20 minutes or I didn't know what a shavasana was.
• 9:11
  That's the pose that people do at the end of a yoga class or a yoga session, a yoga practice and just be still.
• 9:19
  If that had been my introduction to yoga, you're going to be still and quiet for 10 minutes, that would have been hard to.
• 9:28
  Well, I wouldn't have been drawn to it for one thing because I can't even sit still to play cards and that's more active.
• 9:34
  But once I did yoga and did that at the end, I found that that was the icing on the cake.
• 9:42
  That was ice cream with kind of like a cherry on top.
• 9:45
  But you know, that was, that was the dessert that was the best part.
• 9:49
  And not every time was I able to be still, not every time did I not get antsy, but very few times did I get antsy.
• 9:56
  And I always found a way to calm that antsiness.
• 10:01
  And that's important for us when we have adhd for a lot of reasons, but one is when we're wound up and when we're tensed up, we're not going to perform as well in all situations.
• 10:17
  Some situations we will.
• 10:18
  And it's kind of fascinating to think about the nervous system, the parasympathetic nervous system and the sympathetic nervous system.
• 10:24
  Those, those states of fight or flight or the rest relax, you know, rest and digest.
• 10:31
  But I say rest, relax, you know, be calm.
• 10:34
  And we tend to think of, oh, we need to be in the parasympathetic.
• 10:38
  That's the calm because we're stressed out society, which is true.
• 10:44
  We're just always tense.
• 10:46
  We're always just going, going, going.
• 10:47
  We need to slow down.
• 10:48
  Yeah.
• 10:49
  People take vacations and they go to bed at night and sometimes they take naps.
• 10:52
  There is some slowing down.
• 10:54
  But the point being is that we're in that mode of tension and stress more during the day than is good for our bodies or is needed in our bodies.
• 11:07
  And yet there's a purpose for it.
• 11:08
  And I've always thought of it as how, how do I act in a time of danger?
• 11:14
  So if something happens that's dangerous and I think I need to get out of here.
• 11:22
  It could just even be like when you're a kid and someone you know and you're playing chase or tag or something, and you're standing there and you're like, okay, I'm, I'm fine.
• 11:30
  And then someone's run runs over to you.
• 11:32
  As soon as you see them, you think, ah, okay, what do I need to do?
• 11:35
  And you hurry and you, you, you get into gear and you do it.
• 11:39
  And what happens anytime that you're in that time where you do need to run the flight mode, the fight or flight.
• 11:47
  Fighting or flighting.
• 11:48
  Fighting or flighting.
• 11:50
  So if somebody's gonna, if somebody's gonna punch you.
• 11:54
  I don't know if you've ever done kickboxing.
• 11:56
  I've done kickboxing, but not to have anybody punch me.
• 11:59
  So I guess I haven't done kickboxing with an opponent.
• 12:01
  I've done it as a fitness class.
• 12:04
  I haven't done boxing with an opponent, but I've.
• 12:06
  I've hit a punching bag or a heavy bag.
• 12:09
  I love doing that.
• 12:10
  I really love doing that.
• 12:12
  And what I found, even without an opponent is when you go to punch and everything inside is really tight, you have to have tight shoulders, your abdominals naturally tight.
• 12:24
  And my waist is slimmer when I am punching a heavy bag.
• 12:29
  Even more than just doing a kickboxing video.
• 12:31
  Punching, punching, punching, kicking, kicking, kicking.
• 12:34
  Because I'm constantly contracting.
• 12:36
  And the reason I'm contracting my muscles, which is tensing up, right?
• 12:40
  The reason I'm tensing up is because I need to be firm and strong to be able to hit with a degree of strength, right?
• 12:50
  So when you need to run, you need to do the same thing.
• 12:54
  You think of, you know, when someone's gonna start a race and they say.
• 12:57
  I don't know if they still say this, but they used to say, on your mark, get set, go.
• 13:01
  And if you think of, if you're that person in that race.
• 13:03
  When they say, on your mark, you're like, you kind of tense up, like, okay, am I ready?
• 13:07
  Get set.
• 13:07
  And then you, you know, you're ready again.
• 13:09
  You can tense up again and go.
• 13:11
  And then you can just bolt because you're just so ready.
• 13:13
  And you're just waiting and waiting and waiting and you're tensing up so that your muscles, everything will act and do what it's supposed to do.
• 13:21
  And there's a need for you to be in that state of, I've got to go, I've got to go, I've got to go.
• 13:30
  But if you're always in that state, it's not healthy for your body, and it's not appropriate for every situation.
• 13:36
  If you're talking to a friend and you're in that state of fight or flight and everything they say, you're kind of like, well, why are you saying that?
• 13:47
  Well, I don't know.
• 13:49
  And I've noticed myself sometimes where I'm in these modes of wanting to be more on the defense or.
• 13:56
  And it's not even a situation where I should be.
• 13:59
  But it's also just not healthy for us to always be in that state.
• 14:02
  Our bodies aren't designed to be that way.
• 14:05
  Other times that might happen.
• 14:07
  That's not a dangerous thing.
• 14:08
  But we might sense it as stressful, like.
• 14:14
  Well, public speaking.
• 14:15
  Right.
• 14:16
  Public speaking is known as one of the most scary things to do for, I guess most people like the number one thing.
• 14:24
  I don't know.
• 14:25
  I've always loved public speaking.
• 14:27
  I've always thought it was really, really fun.
• 14:30
  And there must be other people besides me who think that.
• 14:33
  But I think it's super energizing.
• 14:36
  I think it's my body and my brain just thrive on that.
• 14:41
  And it's not like I'm volunteering all the time.
• 14:43
  Or.
• 14:43
  Yeah, I mean, maybe I would if I thought it was appropriate.
• 14:46
  But I don't know that people are asking.
• 14:48
  But the times that I've gotten to do it, I love to do that.
• 14:51
  I just think it's really fun.
• 14:53
  But for people who don't like it, there's a reason, because they're sensing, they're noticing all these things.
• 15:01
  So just like you might notice, ooh, there's.
• 15:05
  There's a coyote coming.
• 15:06
  And you're like, I.
• 15:07
  I'm aware of that coyote.
• 15:08
  It's coming toward me and you're tensing up.
• 15:10
  If you're on stage, you're like, I'm aware of those people.
• 15:13
  I'm aware of those People.
• 15:14
  Oh, I'm aware of a hundred people.
• 15:15
  Oh, my gosh, what am I doing up here?
• 15:16
  What do I look like?
• 15:17
  What am I just gonna say, I'm gonna mess up?
• 15:19
  You know, you have all that heightened sensitivity and you're sensing danger.
• 15:24
  You're sensing it as being something that is scary, something that's frightening.
• 15:29
  And so your body's gonna tense up and as a result, you won't die.
• 15:33
  Do as well with your speech, with your presentation, because you're not in a mode of being able to perform well.
• 15:46
  You can have an energetic mode, like you're gaining energy from it.
• 15:50
  You're excited to do it.
• 15:52
  I'm pumped up.
• 15:52
  This is going to be great.
• 15:54
  That's different from, oh, no, this is horrible.
• 15:57
  I'm stressful.
• 15:58
  I need to get out of here.
• 15:59
  That's your flight or fight.
• 16:01
  Flight or freeze.
• 16:02
  I'm freezing.
• 16:03
  I'm stressing out.
• 16:05
  I feel that way when I play the piano in public.
• 16:07
  And it doesn't happen very often, but I used to get asked to play the piano at baptisms when my nieces and nephews would get baptized and I'd be asked to play.
• 16:16
  And I played the piano growing up, too, and had piano lessons, but I didn't go far enough that I feel really confident about it.
• 16:25
  And I don't remember ever being afraid to play in a recital, except for once.
• 16:30
  And maybe that was the last time I did.
• 16:32
  But I remember my mom told me that I was playing and then while I was waiting for the next song, that I kept taking my hands and rubbing them on my legs.
• 16:41
  And I thought, yeah, they were getting.
• 16:43
  Like, I wasn't sweating, but I think they were.
• 16:47
  Maybe that was a tension release, but I also think I was kind of feeling like they're not as dry.
• 16:52
  They're not going to move like I want them to.
• 16:54
  And for some reason I was sensing that as not a comfortable situation anymore, of not a joyous, I'm just going to play the piano, and there's just people here to hear.
• 17:03
  And whenever I played at a baptism, and I kind of hated that they asked me to do it and played a song or something, you'd always have to play an introduction part where no one's singing with you when
• 17:16
  they're singing with you.
• 17:17
  I wouldn't mess up.
• 17:18
  Or if I did, nobody could tell that much.
• 17:20
  But in the little intro part, where.
• 17:23
  Or at the end sometimes there's a few extra notes at the end of a song after someone says sings a word.
• 17:30
  And for some reason I'd Always get those last few notes wrong.
• 17:35
  Yeah, I am clearly still having a problem with it.
• 17:39
  But because I was sensing it at some point as a situation that I didn't enjoy, it became more of a stressful situation.
• 17:47
  I didn't perform as well.
• 17:49
  And I've noticed that in the times that I'm very, very bumbly and very scattered in public.
• 17:58
  And I wouldn't just say, I mean, public sounds like, you know, like you're at the store, you're at a concert, you're at a baseball game, you're out on a walk.
• 18:06
  There's people all around that you don't know.
• 18:09
  That could be it.
• 18:09
  But it can also even be around other people in a situation.
• 18:14
  Like, I think of it as not like your natural place, like your workplace, your home place or something in an unusual situation or not with people that you always have that experience with.
• 18:26
  Does that make sense?
• 18:28
  So, I mean, I guess it could happen with people you are always around.
• 18:33
  But at least for me, when I can't hold onto things that are in my hands, I drop things, I lose things.
• 18:42
  And it happens too, for sure.
• 18:44
  But it's a greater tension when there are other people around, when now we don't really have change anymore.
• 18:52
  But in the olden days, you know, and you're trying to find how many dollars or your cents and stuff, it used to be that I could just do that or get out a credit card and put it in.
• 19:05
  And for some reason, when other people are there and they're waiting, maybe that's it.
• 19:09
  Maybe I'm stressed out by the time element and I feel pressure from people who are waiting.
• 19:14
  Because if I go through the, the checkout, the self checkout, I don't do that.
• 19:20
  Like I think I have all the time in the world, you know?
• 19:23
  Yeah, there's maybe there's a few people waiting, but there's six other registers that are self checkout and they're not just waiting for mine.
• 19:30
  And I just do the things and it's easy.
• 19:33
  And now it's time to put these bags in my basket.
• 19:36
  And now it's time to take my credit card out.
• 19:38
  Do I have my receipt?
• 19:40
  Oh, they're emailing it to me.
• 19:41
  Fine.
• 19:42
  And then I just go.
• 19:44
  But if I'm there with a person, an employee in front of me, and maybe somebody behind me, I bumble a lot more.
• 19:54
  And that's because I get into that more stressed place, that place in my body where my shoulders are tensing up.
• 20:04
  And sometimes I'll stop and notice it, and sometimes I Have to tell myself to do a few things.
• 20:10
  One might be just breathing more slowly, you know, come on, just take this one by one.
• 20:17
  And usually I have to talk myself through the one thing at a time that I'm trying to do because my mind's trying to think of all the things that I need to do quickly.
• 20:28
  And then I don't do anything of.
• 20:30
  Well, does that make sense?
• 20:32
  Like, I can't find the credit card.
• 20:34
  And then when I do find the credit card, it falls out on the ground.
• 20:36
  When I go to pick it up, I hit my head on the cart, and then I drop my bag.
• 20:40
  And then it's like my hands can't do what they're supposed to do because my head's trying to tell myself to do everything at once.
• 20:49
  And that's when, you know, like, I knock over a water bottle or whatever.
• 20:52
  And it doesn't mean it doesn't happen when it's not stressful situation.
• 20:57
  But it certainly happens more in public in a time where I sense other people are waiting, other people's eyes are on me.
• 21:07
  And there are a lot of reasons to sense stress besides danger.
• 21:13
  But just thinking of inconveniencing somebody or what they might think about you can be a sense of danger for us.
• 21:22
  Especially if you have the rejection sensitivity or even just sensitivity of, I don't want those people to wait.
• 21:29
  I don't think they're mad at me that I respect their time.
• 21:32
  So I need to hurry.
• 21:33
  And the more I try to hurry, the worse I make it.
• 21:36
  It may have the worst I make it be, the worse I make it.
• 21:39
  And now I've spilled something.
• 21:40
  Now they have to come and clean it up.
• 21:41
  Now they really can't come over here.
• 21:43
  And it's crazy that, you know, I'm.
• 21:47
  I've been an adult for many, many, many, many, many years.
• 21:50
  Decades.
• 21:51
  And yet something as simple as checking out at the store can be complicated.
• 21:58
  Not all of the time, but a lot of times it is.
• 22:00
  And whatever that is for you, if you have times it's time to go and you go out, get in the car, everybody's.
• 22:07
  And then you go, oh, my goodness, I didn't bring the keys.
• 22:09
  And then you go back in the.
• 22:10
  Get the keys, and then you put your purse on the counter and you get back out.
• 22:16
  I don't have my purse.
• 22:17
  And, you know, it can.
• 22:18
  It can happen.
• 22:19
  You can just go back and forth with it.
• 22:23
  And even when I do that kind of thing just to keep myself from tripping on the way back or whatever it is, all those disasters that can happen.
• 22:33
  The message that I give myself, even when there's just one thing to do, like, oh, just go back to the car and get.
• 22:40
  I went with my daughter and her kids to their swimming pool the other day, and I had all of the things and said, oh, should I get the book?
• 22:48
  Because I brought a book to read.
• 22:49
  And she goes, yeah, get the book.
• 22:50
  Well, when I go grab the book, then I left my water bottle, and then we started walking, and I noticed my daughter had her water bottle.
• 22:57
  And I said, oh, I forgot the water bottle.
• 22:59
  Car and the kids and my daughter were closer to the gate, and it probably wasn't a big deal, but in my mind, they're going to have to wait a whole minute or two for me to take her keys
• 23:10
  and go back to her van and get the water bottle, and they're going to get less swimming time.
• 23:15
  In my mind, that was monumental for a few minutes.
• 23:18
  And I had to consciously tell myself to calm myself down.
• 23:22
  It's okay.
• 23:23
  They don't mind.
• 23:25
  You're important to them.
• 23:27
  You can get your water bottle.
• 23:29
  I wouldn't care if somebody had to get their water bottle from my car.
• 23:33
  I'd say, sure, we'll wait.
• 23:35
  And yet I don't want to inconvenience people.
• 23:38
  I don't want to have them do something that I know is because of my own brain glitches.
• 23:44
  Right.
• 23:45
  And yet my daughter and one of her children right now are both diagnosed with adhd.
• 23:50
  They get it.
• 23:50
  You know, we all have our things, and yet I can still be sensitive to that.
• 23:55
  So anytime that you find part of your ADHD or another reason for getting stressed out and sensing stress and having it impact just a few moments, that can lead to something else, because especially if you trip like I
• 24:14
  do, you know, I don't need to have something like that get in the way of my ability to walk back to a car, go off a curb, and break my foot for the fourth time.
• 24:22
  I don't.
• 24:23
  I don't need that to happen.
• 24:24
  So.
• 24:25
  So, yeah, even though it might sound a bit psychotic, and I know, I know I shouldn't throw around the word psychotic, but it might sound, you know, that I'm overthinking all these things.
• 24:33
  I.
• 24:33
  I kind of have to.
• 24:35
  To be able to help myself through these moments, and I hope it helps you.
• 24:41
  And I.
• 24:41
  And I, you know, I always say these things like, I think nobody else is going through this, and they're going to think that's a little extreme, Renee.
• 24:50
  But honestly, when the more I Go online and read from other women with adhd.
• 24:55
  So many of us are going through this.
• 24:57
  So let me put my glasses back on.
• 25:00
  Let's see Somatic awareness.
• 25:03
  So again, researching without AI.
• 25:06
  It's not that I have never used it or will never use it again, but I am being more selective and making sure I have some good resources.
• 25:14
  And I'm going to sip some water, so pardon me, because I don't feel like pausing.
• 25:19
  Okay, so somatic awareness, it's what I talked about last week with interoception.
• 25:25
  But instead of just noticing what's happening, body signals like, oh, my stomach hurts or I just burned myself, second degree burn on my arm, those kind of things.
• 25:37
  That's, that's noticing what's happening in your body.
• 25:40
  Somatic awareness is connecting the mind and the body and doing this in a way that's beneficial to your nervous system, that's beneficial to your overall well being.
• 25:54
  I don't know where the word soma comes from or somatic, I can look it up, but I'm not going to right now.
• 25:59
  So.
• 26:01
  So it's a part of our well being that is perceiving what's going on in your mind and in your body and interpreting, interpreting it.
• 26:15
  And if I can think of anything that caused me to want to do yoga more than once the first time I tried it and want to do it again and again and share it with others, had no goal
• 26:29
  of being a yoga teacher, had no goal of doing yoga at all.
• 26:32
  But once I started doing that, and that's the way that I connected with yoga, is this is my opportunity to notice what's happening in my body, to experience what's happening in my body.
• 26:46
  We often ignore it.
• 26:48
  And I'm the only person who gets to do this.
• 26:51
  Like I'm the only person that knows what it, like what it's like to be in my body and feel what it feels like to be this way.
• 26:57
  And it's important to do that.
• 26:58
  It's important for you to do that.
• 26:59
  And it's important for you to notice how your emotions come up when they do, how your brain works, how it's not working, working the way that you wanted it to.
• 27:11
  And when you have this awareness and then you make a little story with it or interpret what that means once you start making those connections of okay, I woke up late today and my morning didn't go well, that
• 27:31
  might seem like you could just see it on the surface, but then when you start to notice, how do I feel because I woke up later?
• 27:37
  Well, it Might be that you feel better because you got more sleep, and maybe that's good.
• 27:41
  And you just change your night routine so you have less to do in the morning and you're noticing how you feel.
• 27:47
  And so that becomes your new routine.
• 27:50
  Or because you woke up later, you say, no, I really need more time in the morning.
• 27:56
  I'm more alert in the morning.
• 27:58
  I need that time.
• 27:59
  I need that quiet time before other people wake up.
• 28:02
  I know not everyone's like that, but those of you who are, if that's important for you, go to bed a little earlier.
• 28:07
  So that can happen.
• 28:11
  And just noticing moods, heightening when they're heightening, or anger about something that normally wouldn't make you angry.
• 28:25
  If you're more critical of other people than you used to be.
• 28:29
  I feel like I am.
• 28:30
  I hate that about myself.
• 28:32
  But I feel like.
• 28:33
  I feel like I am and I'm.
• 28:37
  And that's something.
• 28:37
  And that's a good thing to be aware of, right?
• 28:40
  Is that I'm more critical in my mind.
• 28:42
  I'm not critical out loud, but I'm more critical in my mind.
• 28:45
  And I think, why are you doing that?
• 28:46
  At the same time, I'm also, like, understanding of a lot of people.
• 28:52
  So now I just need to.
• 28:54
  I guess you can be critical of the people that are not being kind.
• 28:59
  So we do need to judge some things.
• 29:01
  I think the.
• 29:02
  No judging at all.
• 29:03
  I think I need to judge because that's a safe thing to do.
• 29:07
  But anyway, yeah, noticing what's going on.
• 29:11
  So when we can sense and interpret what's going on in our minds and our bodies, then we can act upon it and help ourselves be more balanced mentally, physically, and be in a better state to handle what we
• 29:29
  need to do in life.
• 29:30
  And earlier I had talked about how it's important to have times where our body acts prepared for a stressful situation.
• 29:41
  Or it's time to go, okay, I gotta get up.
• 29:44
  I gotta do this.
• 29:45
  And we're in that acting mode.
• 29:47
  I gotta get out of here.
• 29:48
  It's, you know, I'm, you know, market set, go, I gotta run a race.
• 29:52
  You know, whatever it is.
• 29:54
  Sometimes we need to be in that state of alertness of running, fighting, fighting, fighting, fighting.
• 30:02
  And other times, a lot of times to be able to.
• 30:08
  To respond to what we need to do in our lives.
• 30:11
  We need to calm our nervous systems so that we.
• 30:15
  Because that's the more natural state for most of what we need to do.
• 30:19
  And if we're always in that high state of alertness, we're not going to be as healthy, we're going to get sick more easily, all those things.
• 30:25
  But we also might not be as pleasant to be around and we might not be able to handle as much, even though it might feel just understanding that somatic awareness and mindfulness are similar, because somatic awareness does include
• 30:40
  noticing your thoughts, noticing what's going on in your mind.
• 30:43
  It's also what's going on in your body.
• 30:45
  Sensing tension.
• 30:46
  Oh, there's my phone.
• 30:47
  It just beeped.
• 30:49
  Sensing tension, sensing.
• 30:50
  Let me turn off my alarm super fast.
• 30:52
  Oh, that was my little notification from the app that I bought that was going to solve all my problems with adhd.
• 30:59
  It's actually pretty good that I just, you know, was scheduling and stuff, but okay, I'm just going to turn that off.
• 31:06
  They're similar, but the somatic awareness includes the body scanning.
• 31:14
  Feeling.
• 31:16
  Noticing if your hands are clenching, your shoulders, coming up, your neck hurting, you know what's going on.
• 31:22
  Have I been standing too long?
• 31:24
  Do I need to lie down?
• 31:25
  Do I need to let my body relax?
• 31:27
  Sometimes when you lie down on your back, put your feet up or something, you really notice how tense you've been so that you can tell the difference when you're just letting go and let your body settle down.
• 31:38
  But sometimes it can happen.
• 31:40
  Not being still.
• 31:41
  You don't have to be still to have a somatic awareness.
• 31:44
  You don't have to be still to have mindfulness.
• 31:46
  You could just be in your kitchen trying to figure out what.
• 31:51
  What to make for dinner and nothing sounds good and you don't want to eat anything and.
• 31:58
  Or maybe you're just like feeling like.
• 32:00
  Like you have no ideas and all I want to do is this.
• 32:04
  Nothing sounds good and just noticing what's going on in your mind, if it's going well.
• 32:11
  If it's not, you can rethink the situation.
• 32:15
  Is it really important for me right now to make dinner?
• 32:19
  Can I just find something to eat that's quick and easy?
• 32:23
  Do I have a family that I'm responsible for?
• 32:26
  Can I go buy something?
• 32:27
  Can I order something?
• 32:28
  Can I just make a smoothie?
• 32:30
  You know, just noticing what's winding you up or how you're feeling, or if you're just feeling apathetic about it.
• 32:37
  Like, here I am having to eat again.
• 32:39
  I don't feel like eating.
• 32:41
  I'm kind of angry.
• 32:41
  Why do I have to stop and eat?
• 32:43
  I have got so much to do.
• 32:44
  You know, eating can be stressful when, honestly, with adhd, it is a big topic on Facebook.
• 32:52
  Different places I've been of what do you do when nothing sounds good?
• 32:56
  I don't feel like making dinner.
• 32:58
  I'm too tired to make dinner.
• 32:59
  I need food.
• 33:00
  But quick and easy.
• 33:01
  Quick and easy.
• 33:02
  But doesn't mean I always make the best choices.
• 33:04
  But yeah.
• 33:06
  So just noticing in any time and even having a practice.
• 33:11
  So there are practices that can help you with this, like yoga, like sitting down and setting a buzzer for 10 minutes or even going for a walk, getting fresh air, listening to a song, you know, just having.
• 33:25
  Listening to some relaxing music or energizing music.
• 33:28
  And you know, there are a lot of things that you can do, and I'm not going to cover them right now, but if you even just think of one and that could just be noticing what's happening in your
• 33:41
  mind without doing something different with your body or noticing what's happening in your body.
• 33:46
  You usually need to be still for a bit to do that.
• 33:50
  You can even do a little stretch.
• 33:52
  You know, wherever you are, you can be in the store.
• 33:53
  I've done this a lot at TJ Maxx.
• 33:55
  You know, bring my arms up overhead like, like a sun salutation arm and just bring my arms up and down just to release my shoulders a bit.
• 34:02
  And you know, I haven't run into anybody so far doing that.
• 34:06
  I've done it just with my own shoulder elbow.
• 34:09
  Just walking past people.
• 34:10
  But not anytime I've done any kind of yoga y thing or stretch thing in the grocery store, TJ Maxx or something.
• 34:17
  Never.
• 34:18
  I think I'm more aware at those points.
• 34:21
  I haven't run into anyone.
• 34:22
  But anything where you can have some kind of increased awareness about tensing in the muscles or.
• 34:30
  Are my feet tired of standing up?
• 34:32
  Maybe I should sit down.
• 34:33
  Maybe I should put my feet up higher and just give yourself that relaxation and just slow down a little bit and you can evaluate it and you can make sense of it.
• 34:45
  Yeah, I've been on my feet all day.
• 34:46
  It can be as simple as that.
• 34:48
  Or it could be I was just on the phone, you know, ON hold for 45 minutes.
• 34:53
  I do like that our phones tell us how long we're on hold.
• 34:57
  It's like getting a trophy at the end of the phone call.
• 35:01
  I was on hold for an hour and 11 minutes.
• 35:05
  I've had too many of those phone calls lately.
• 35:06
  But I'll talk about this a little bit more and the benefits of it and more specifically, what to do.
• 35:13
  I can even guide you in some of those things.
• 35:15
  I love doing that kind of thing.
• 35:17
  But there are a lot of benefits that will help you with adhd, with the struggles that you have, because as I mentioned in the last episode, the brain and the spinal cord, the whole, it's all the same.
• 35:32
  It's all the same.
• 35:34
  So it's all part of that neurodevelopmental disorder that you have if you have adhd.
• 35:43
  It's all in there.
• 35:45
  It's all tied together with how our bodies respond, how they react, how we feel emotionally, and tapping into anything that we can recognize in our own bodies and see.
• 35:56
  Oh, that's happening.
• 35:59
  We can see.
• 35:59
  Is it a good thing?
• 36:00
  Yeah, it's good.
• 36:01
  I heard a noise and I got up and I ran and I took care of it.
• 36:05
  That was a good thing.
• 36:06
  You did your fight and flight when you were supposed to and.
• 36:08
  And now I need to calm down.
• 36:11
  I need to read a story to my grandchild, to my child or something.
• 36:14
  I need to slow down.
• 36:16
  I need to not be hyped up.
• 36:17
  I need to not be looking at my phone thinking about other things.
• 36:20
  I need to just relax and do this more calming thing, enjoy the time and have that slow down mode.
• 36:28
  Because that somatic awareness brings us into that slow calm state that we need to be in.
• 36:40
  Which reminds me, I also want to talk about gaba.
• 36:42
  Have you ever heard of a supplement called gaba?
• 36:44
  GABA is actually something that's produced by our brains and when we have more gaba, we're in more calm state.
• 36:53
  And I was just reading about GABA and adhd.
• 36:57
  It's the nervous central nervous system's main inhibitory transmitter.
• 37:05
  It tells the overactive neurons to quiet down.
• 37:08
  Without enough gaba, we, or if it doesn't work properly, we might have a harder time calming down.
• 37:16
  So if you're worried that you can't calm down, it's fascinating because yoga actually helps produce GABA in the brain, which makes sense, right?
• 37:24
  There's a reason we're feeling more calm.
• 37:25
  There's a reason the nervous system slowing down.
• 37:28
  But some of the things that help produce GABA are flexion and extension in the spine.
• 37:32
  Flexion and extension is bending one way, bending the other, so you know, like arching your back one way and then the other.
• 37:37
  Cat and cow, if you've ever done yoga, you're on your hands and knees, you lift up your head and your tailbone.
• 37:43
  You're.
• 37:43
  It's like you're a sway back horse or a cow.
• 37:46
  That's your cow pose and that's extension of the spine and then flexion.
• 37:51
  You're bringing your face and your pelvis in Your back's lifting.
• 37:54
  That's your cat pose.
• 37:55
  You're arching the back the other way.
• 37:57
  Doing something as simple as that is producing GABA in the brain and helping your body be calm.
• 38:02
  Isn't that fascinating?
• 38:03
  It reduces anxiety.
• 38:06
  And it's kind of interesting because from what I read that ADHD you can have, you might have problems with mood regulation, sleep quality and stuff because of the GABA disruption or not having enough gaba.
• 38:24
  So kind of fascinating.
• 38:26
  But all of these, all these episodes that I'm.
• 38:29
  Then I want to dive into this more the mind body connection and why it's important because that's what ADHD is.
• 38:39
  It's a mind body disorder.
• 38:41
  Fascinating, huh?
• 38:43
  Fascinating.
• 38:44
  So I think that's it for today.
• 38:46
  Thank you for being patient with me.
• 38:48
  I have just out of the shower here, I haven't done anything and I've decided it doesn't matter anymore if I wait to.
• 38:54
  It's not like my hair looks great.
• 38:55
  Usually I just have it in a ponytail but I still straighten it and because Florida makes my hair curly.
• 39:00
  It wasn't curly before, but yeah, yeah.
• 39:04
  If I wait to look all to some standard to be on here and film it, then I'll never do it.
• 39:12
  Thank you for listening.
• 39:13
  I will be back.
• 39:14
  I don't even know how long this was because I think I did stop for half a second but.
• 39:18
  And it won't tell me.
• 39:19
  But thank you, thank you, thank you.
• 39:21
  Oh and I finally.
• 39:23
  I know it's.
• 39:23
  It's taken me over a year and when I've redone my website, I finally got my newsletter email sequence linked properly.
• 39:34
  So if you go on my website renee-allen.com and click on newsletter it'll have a sign up.
• 39:40
  Or if you go to the bottom or on the homepage, I think you can get a free ADHD guide, Understanding ADHD Guide.
• 39:47
  All of those will put you in touch with me by email.
• 39:49
  We can be in touch and I can send you some little tips and support with adhd.
• 39:56
  Thanks for being here.
• 39:58
  I'll be back again.
• 39:59
  Bye.
• 40:01
  Help other women find the show rate review Share with someone you know Help other women find my show rate, review Share with someone you know Hurry before you forget.
• 40:26
  I butter my toast spread on some grape jelly I don't mean to fast but I'm a chef and a good one.
• 40:39
  My grandma can't hear me the breakfast is done and I'm getting colder forever older so I run.
• 40:54
  Open windows broken shadow Frozen dreams are left for tomorrow.
• 41:12
  Time for a pause.
• 41:27
  Rewind I run out of time to sing melodies and harmonies I'm cut short.
• 41:37
  The silence of sound has yet been found but not by me.