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ADHD Productivity: Why Smart People Still Can't Start · Wired For More - ADHD & Self Mastery

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Here are the things that I wish that I knew about the nervous system.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: After years of therapy, these are the simple rules that I help my clients with to overcome distraction, to overcome dysregulation, even rewire their brain to remove addictions that are keeping them stuck.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: This is the Wired for More ADHD and self-mastery podcast where we dig into the neuroscience and the behavioral psychology and the practical strategies that you can use to lock in in real time.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: The biggest thing I see most professionals struggling with is essentially having had a history of success.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: They have a bunch of trophies, they have a bunch of accolades, they have a bunch of things that indicate that they are extremely competent at their job and in fact know logically exactly what they need to do, but are struggling, losing hours every single day to distraction, dysregulation, and are essentially waiting until the last minute from a place of panic and worry and overwhelm before they finally, in a very short burst of fury, get what they need done to then be labeled as a success.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, when we start to understand what's actually happening in the nervous system, when you're feeling blocked, when you're feeling stuck, we can actually start to create some awareness of what inputs we have control of.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the things that we don't have control of are the things that are causing the breaks, that are slowing down your ability to start, and it's creating friction for you just to initiate the task that's in front of you.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: The part of your brain that has more dopamine narpinephrine and blood flow in those moments is the basal ganglia, but more specifically the amygdala and hippocampus.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And the combination of those two things are essentially the alarm bells, which is the amygdala, it's the sirens, it's the lights, and it's just a bunch of signals saying that there is something triggering a fight, flight, freeze, fall and response, but happening inside of 300 milliseconds before you even have a conscious thought about it.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Your body is already generating the signals to prepare for the fight.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the hippocampus's job is to create context for where the fight is coming from, where is the attack happening, and it is looking at internal and external cues to be able to give context to why those alarm bells are going off.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: The hippocampus is like the security guards, the armed security guards who are shining a flashlight on the fence line, the doorways, the windows, assessing where the attack is coming from.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: Now, those two things happen so fast that your thoughts have not actually had time to catch up.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: It is only when your thoughts catch up that you actually start lobbying insults and criticism and ridicule at your own brain for how it responded to something it didn't have control of.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: So it's interesting is that one of the things that we can actually do to inject some awareness and start building a ritual for overcoming the blockage and mobilizing our energy more effectively is to just notice the cues that we have heightened amygdala activity.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Once we can notice the heightened amygdala activity, we can then start initiating mechanisms to regulate more effectively, ground our nervous system, and then direct more sustainable dopamine narpinephrine and blood flow for the things that matter most.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, what we have control of when our amygdala is active is our breath.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: We can take a prolonged exhale, which is a signal to our nervous system that there is no need to fuel a fight.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: When we inhale, we are bringing in oxygen.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's the fuel.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: We can actually see in heart rate monitors and measuring different signals in the heart rate that our body is actually not signaling rest, recovery, and peace when we inhale.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: It is only with a prolonged exhale that we are signaling there is no fight.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: So that is the first step in regulating our nervous system.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: The second is grounding our nervous system, giving inputs to the hippocampus that signaled there is no fight.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: We can start with the ground and work our way up.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: I like to start right at my feet.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'll inhale and I'll squeeze my toes, almost like directing the fight.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then I'll exhale and relax the muscles.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: Then I'll inhale and squeeze my hands and fists.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Exhale, relax my hands and fists.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'll inhale and pull my shoulders up to my ears.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Exhale, relax my shoulders.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'll inhale and squeeze my face.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Exhale and relax.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: The beauty of even these simple inputs is that now we can start to take more effective action rather than chemical reaction.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the challenge after this point is mobilizing stable dopamine, narpinephrine, and blood flow to the part of our brain that is actually responsible for planning, strategizing, executive function, logic, reasoning, and for that matter, emotional regulation.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: So what's interesting is that we have to start building habits and routines that mobilize that stable dopamine.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: One of the mechanisms that I use for my clients is something called body doubling, essentially where we get together as a group in a live online session where we will do one session for admin planning.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: We do two sessions that are for deep work.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the beauty of us being able to do this in community on a call together is we can co-regulate together.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: We create some community where you feel the sense of belonging, this sense of acceptance that helps you mobilize some of that stable dopamine.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then we go attack the deep work that's required of us to get our jobs done.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: This by itself has helped many of my clients regain 10 to 15 hours a week that they're losing to distraction and overwhelm.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: And is one of the mechanisms that you can use to start mobilizing more stable dopamine is in that deep work with that body doubling.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the next part of this in the group coaching atmosphere that I teach is essentially helping you build some awareness of what some of those patterns are for yourself.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Give yourself more context and more cues and clues for when you have heightened amygdala activity.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: You can start to create some awareness for the types of thoughts that start to arise when an amygdala activity is heightened.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: The intrusive thoughts, the inner critic, the fear of rejection, the criticism, the catastrophizing, the all-or-nothing thinking, the over-generalization type thinking, the rejection sensitivity that you're feeling, the perfectionism that's essentially waiting until it's perfect because you're avoiding criticism once you finally go deliver the thing.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: All of those patterns you can start to create more awareness on and then be able to inject the simple mechanisms for regulating in real time.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: In the group coaching environment, we start to build more awareness for what those patterns are so that you can be more effective in noticing them sooner and taking more clear interventions in real time.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: If you feel like this is something that would benefit you, I'd encourage you to apply to the execution room where we are building these mechanics to help people regain 10 to 15 hours that they're losing each week.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: Would love to have you in the group.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_00: The execution room is where we bring together highly successful professionals who still struggle losing those hours each week to distraction and dysregulation.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Build the habits, build the routine, build the structure that actually increases your focus and follow through in real time.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Would love to have you join.