Claudia Von Boesalager  0:00  
Your number one success tip is to have compassion for themselves. Yeah. Because that inner criticism, like if you're your biggest bully, how are you showing up for yourself for others, whereas if you're your biggest cheerleader and being like, I got this and like, celebrate just the little wins. That mindset piece is so critical. And learning to be the thermostat, not the thermometer in your life, right? You choose how you show up each day and you choose to be the best version of you and like other things are gonna happen. Yes, but be like, That's okay. It's just how it's flowing today.

Brooke Schnittman  0:33  
Welcome to successful with ADHD, I'm Brooke Shipman. And if you have ADHD and are feeling overwhelmed, chaotic and negative self beliefs, you're in the right place. The successful with ADHD podcast shares my guests journeys of overcoming challenges offering their tips and strategies for success to empower you to take control of your life, and thrive with ADHD. Let's get started. Today, I have a very special guest, her name is Claudia Von Boesalager, and she's a peak performance and longevity coach and serial entrepreneur, passionate about helping people reach their next level from life and business optimization to increasing health span for longer. And so wonderful, Claudia is on a mission to help 1 billion people optimize their lives and reach their fullest potential. And she's done 10 plus years of research, countless interviews with global pioneers. And she's uncovered the key strategies and tools to live in a peak state and have a biological age 15 years younger than her chronological age. Come on, Claudia, share your secrets.

Claudia Von Boesalager  1:48  
A pleasure to be on today. Brooke, thank you so much for having me. I'm delighted. And yes, I'm happy to share some of the tools that I've done used to do that, which are very helpful for ADHD years as well. So yeah, pleasure to be here.

Brooke Schnittman  2:01  
Yes. And I'm sure audience cannot wait for you to share that. So I'm 39. Now 15 Years Younger would make me 24. I'm okay with that. 

Claudia Von Boesalager  2:11  
Yeah, I'm 26. And my goal is actually to biologically 20. And keep it. Okay, lots of fun along the way, because it's about increasing healthspan. Right. So 

Brooke Schnittman  2:24  
absolutely. So you're not officially diagnosed with ADHD? Correct? Correct. Yeah. So what got you to think that you, in fact, do have it because you're self diagnosed? 

Claudia Von Boesalager  2:37  
Exactly. So I'd say about a year and a half ago, my daughter now nine, I could tell like, when I sat with her did certain things with her, she could really, you know, focus and do that if there was that inspiration. But like, if music came on or something, she'd have to get up and dance do different things as well. And I was noticing around her schoolwork and spoke to a doctor about it. And she was like you should have her diagnosed or, you know, assessed basically. And so in that journey of researching around her, and I'm looking at things and I was like, oh, tick the box up, tick the box. And I was like, Okay, this is quite obvious as well. So yes, she got her diagnosis. I think just purely from a timing perspective, I haven't gotten an official diagnosis yet at some point, I may or may not. But for me, obviously, it's like what you do with the diagnosis, right? So thereafter, I think for some people who maybe have no idea about it, is it a big thing to get that diagnosis, and everyone's obviously different? I think for me, it's like, it's quite obvious. And I know what I can do to manage it better so that I can be at my best and I know when things are being triggered, or whatever, and what causes are, I'm not always but a lot of the time and to be a bit kinder to myself around around it as well. So yeah, that's that's brought me on that journey. 

Brooke Schnittman  3:54  
Okay, so since you seem to have a lot of things to help you manage your ADHD, given the fact that you don't have an ADHD diagnosis from a medical professional, I'm guessing you're not on medication for ADHD.

Claudia Von Boesalager  4:07  
Correct. Yeah.

Brooke Schnittman  4:09  
Okay, so you right now feel like behaviorally, you haven't managed the way that you want to? Is that correct?

Claudia Von Boesalager  4:18  
No. So I implied that before what I meant no isn't. Okay. So what what I what I have or what I do are certain routines, some, you know, best practice strategies that allow me to thrive, if you will, my shape or form of doing that, that allow me to thrive and not go down some of the rabbit hole issues of you know, ADHD, as well. And obviously, everyone with ADHD has different symptoms and different things as well, but I have managed very well without medication.

Brooke Schnittman  4:53  
Wonderful. So when did you start learning about those tools? Was it after your daughter's official diagnosis or before Uh,

Claudia Von Boesalager  5:00  
well before just because of my interest around health optimization, life optimization, and noticing, so, you know, looking back now, you know, at the journey, you know, as a child in school, like the struggling to have, you know, attention the whole time and focus and getting easily distracted. But, you know, I was reflecting on it as well, if we, you know, take a step back that I had such a drive or motivation to do really well, that that, like, superseded my attention deficit, right. And so I really was able to bring it back and, you know, went on to do three masters and learn four languages, you know, just like, obviously, you know, over the top and really

Brooke Schnittman  5:38  
overload, right?

Claudia Von Boesalager  5:40  
Totally. But anyway, um, so looking back, you know, how I used to study, right, I used to write copious notes, so I wouldn't ever be listening to the professor, the teacher, whatever. And I'd be writing notes, notes notes, as a form of like, part of the brain is distracted, because I'm actually doing something while I'm listening instead of just sitting there listening, and I obviously would zone out 10,000 other things as well.

Brooke Schnittman  6:01  
So it also probably means you are a visual learner, rather than an auditory. Okay.

Claudia Von Boesalager  6:07  
Correct. Yeah. And you know, going back circling, having a highlighter, like I'm such a nerd, right. So different highlighter colors

Brooke Schnittman  6:13  
and highlight the entire notes. Not entire,

Claudia Von Boesalager  6:16  
but a lot. And a lot of like, I'd have like probably five different color. People were like, this is like the rainbow like, how do you learn from this? I'm like, I have instant recognition, the exam because I can remember exactly what it is. So I think all of us as humans, like we're great at finding mechanisms that work well for us. But I think the more deep dive into things started happening sort of fast forward, mid 30s. Having kids hormonal changes in sight. I saw you were 26. Yeah, no, I love the way chronologically, right. So chronologically, now, we six years old as a biological age, right? So we'll focus on the 26th, of course, but hypothetically, speaking as a 35 year old right now, with hormonal changes and stuff with kids, is when obviously, symptoms can be really triggered, right? And so that's when I really started taking it more seriously in terms of what can I be doing and testing. So it went from researching and just playing around with a few things before then, to actually like coming up with protocols and trying different things. Some people call it bio hacking. So just, you know, trying different tools and strategies that would work really well for me. And I'm super happy to share sort of my top 10, if you will, that I found really helpful. Yeah, so one, and it seems super obvious, is getting enough sleep. And everyone's like, Oh, yeah, I need to sleep. But it's like, understanding how fundamental this pieces right, we spend all starts and ends with sleep. It's so important. I mean, what goes on the processes in the body, we have this beautiful system that like cleans us detoxes us overnight, if we give it enough proper sleep, and we have that sleep rejuvenation, that's happening. And so, you know, we need to be looking at getting those seven to eight hours of sleep, which means typically eight to nine hours in bed, right?

Brooke Schnittman  8:05  
Yeah. And for the ADHD brain to It could even be longer. Last week, I was very tired. And I was averaging I would say maybe five to six hours of sleep per night. And my husband says, I don't understand why you're so tired and like, Okay, you might be okay with the four hours of sleep a night, but I need nine. I've always needed at least. So yes to your point.

Claudia Von Boesalager  8:29  
And then the ADHD brain kicks in over and overdrive right when we're not getting enough sleep and the emotional roller coaster like all these other knock on effects like we are not our best selves, right? Cognition, mood, et cetera, et cetera. And part of that is understanding sleep hygiene, right? So that lead time routines like what is needed to get quality sleep like no blue light near bedtime, right? Like those screens and things like that put on the yellow light or ideally no screens. Sleeping in a cool room, it should be dark. Be aware of like EMF radiation, electromagnetic field radiation. So having all devices on new your head at night, that's a lot of radiation that's just seeping into your brain and affecting, as well put it on airplane mode, right? Then if you like hard data, which I love, right, I'm a bit of a nerd, right a numbers person as well. There's sleep trackers that you can use to really understand what's going on. And so when my ring I've got the aura ring, I have an Apple Watch, but I charge it overnight, I get enough data from the ring. And once I started understanding what was happening, it really helped me to understand like sleep cycles and for a while I was optimizing my sleep and actually realizing that I was waking up in during the night I didn't know what was going on. And it was because I was intermittent fasting thinking that was really healthy for me but for women actually just word of caution around that. And it was causing a hypoglycemia, so low blood sugar levels during the night which I sold with having some almond butter near bedtime. So understanding yourself and with personalized medicine. In these days, it's really exciting, actually what you can find. So that's around that, that sleep piece and really taking that seriously. Sure. Number two, again, it's kind of obvious, but you know, nutrition and hydration. You know, our brain needs to function at its best, we need to supply it with the best nutrition. So if you even think of food as fuel, which isn't super sexy, right, but it's so important, and keeping the brain hydrated, it's 80% water. So it just needs that amount of hydration too. And I think in terms of nutrition, just to call out a few kind of important food items, if you will. So you're looking for foods like the avocados and blueberries and broccoli because of the vitamin K. You know, chocolate, I love chocolate, but getting that high percentage, right? 85 90% Because of the flavonoids, their eggs are great with choline, walnuts. Also looking at what they call the Smash fish is great. So the sardine macro, anchovy, salmon and herring, right, so they're high in Omega three, which again, are amazing for the brain, as well. A lot of people are low on that omega threes, especially for ADHD. Yes, yeah, yeah. And then diversifying organic vegetables as well and green leafy vegetables for the source of vitamin A vitamin E and the folate. And then for people who might be inflamed, right, tumeric some people like oh my god, I can't be tumeric. It doesn't taste great, but it's a beautiful, it's like an anti inflammatory, and it also improves the brain's oxygen intake. So anything we can do to actually help them support the brain and like I even put an omelet, my kids don't like it, they don't know what's in there. And so we get together. And then obviously, the obvious things like reducing sugar, right, we want like MIT to maintain blood sugar levels. This is not going to help you know the ups and downs or ADHD brains. There's alternatives like using organic stevia instead, right? Before you move on

Brooke Schnittman  11:50  
from nutrition and hydration. I love chocolate. Chocolate. If I was allergic to it, I don't know what I would do. In fact, I drink chocolate shakes. And one thing that I've noticed is eating chocolate before bed. There's no need to speak to that a little bit because it has caffeine in it right?

Claudia Von Boesalager  12:12  
Yeah, exactly. So there is that option or that that danger that it will trigger that sort of wake you up during the night state. So if you have a try to have it earlier in the day, and also because you want the health benefit from it, so like why not have chocolate and but just try to maybe have a mid afternoon. So you have enough hours in order for it to not be causing a biochemical reaction during during the night. So I'd recommend Yeah, yeah, I have a chocolate and smoothies as well. But I try to use 100% cacao and then I add the organic stevia to give this sweetness. So there are ways around it, right. Yeah, yeah. So number three exercise again, everyone's ago exercise, but let me tell you two really important things about exercise. One is and I don't know if you've talked about this before on your podcast, but with exercise, it produces BDNF, which is brain derived neurotrophic factor that supports it's essentially like a growth factor and a key molecule that's involved in plastic changes of the brain, and getting at least like 15 minutes of exercise. And what I tried to do is really in the morning, first thing to get the blood flowing through the brain, and to stimulate that nootropic factor is just so fundamental. It helps also with regulating hormones like estrogen and testosterone helping with energy levels throughout the day. The next one I want to touch on is with cold exposure. I don't know how your listeners are with this for so many people's like, oh my goodness cannot imagine that dopamine, but that up to 500% of dopamine M goes up and also over a prolonged period. Right? It's like just a game changer super tough. At the beginning I was literally like one arm in the other arm in like one leg in like that chicken dance right?

Brooke Schnittman  13:59  
You suggest that people consult with a medical professional when starting cold exposure

Claudia Von Boesalager  14:04  
with anything I'm saying definitely speak to your healthcare professional people have different medical issues and things like that as well. The challenge I see very often is a lot of medical professionals don't have understanding or training in this so it's always a bit of a thing but obviously please disclaimer, you know, I want everyone to be safe and happy. These are general tools which will work for a lot of people not for everybody right? So just to be safe with that right? If you know it does work for you just even start with the one minute of cold water at the end of your shower. You know working up towards if you live by the ocean if you live by it, you know you can jump into a pool somewhere cold and just that like full plunge. You're gonna feel amazing.

Brooke Schnittman  14:49  
Plus, on fact if you started it in the shower at the end of it, it closes your follicles so it you're less exposing of oils coming in and out Acne and same thing with your hair too. So yeah,

Claudia Von Boesalager  15:03  
it's good for your hair as well. from an aesthetic point of view you're doing. So yeah, I love that as well. Another one is also breathing rights. And so I used to very much sort of hold the ribs in and breathe with the shoulders, and really, really learning about breath and breathing, and especially nasal breathing, to make sure you're getting that beautiful, deep breath breaths in and that oxygen flow is super important. And there are obviously different breathwork exercises that can be done to just retrain that to strengthen the diaphragm to do those beautiful belly breaths, right. So that kind of expands. But also what I really encourage people to do is like posture chickens during the day, like how are you sitting, if like for scrunched over like this, blood is not flowing into our brain, oxygen is not flowing to our brain, right. And so just doing something simple, like getting up stretching, re breathing, taking a few steps, will also help with focus, attention, feeling better, feeling more energized so that we can perform better in our day to day lives. And also with with or without ADHD to number six is a regular meditation practice. And I think this is a major game changer for me. I love the way neuroscience has come into meditation and understanding what's actually happening looking at the synchronization of brainwaves through meditation, accessing different states as well. And I think people who still struggle with ADHD or even sort of more general monkey mind and always in their head, that ability and through training through regular meditation practice of being able to draw into that lower frequency state where you can access more creativity and intuition. You know, science is showing that actually, the corpus callosum, which connects the left and right side of the brain actually thickens over time, more creativity, more insight, more depth. I mean, just the benefits are so fundamental. And I think an easy way in is one of these apps like headspace or calm, there's like this take 10 working up to different things. You know, I've done the TM meditation training, which ended up

Brooke Schnittman  17:08  
as well, that's really hard after a while, especially for individuals with ADHD, the transcendental meditation, it is one of the best meditations I 100% agree. I actually did it for the first time in a while yesterday, but it requires 45 minutes of your day, and who wants to sit down and meditate for 45 minutes?

Claudia Von Boesalager  17:28  
This isn't as well, I think it's finding what works. And I don't do the same thing. Typically every day, I have a short one in the morning, and then I'll try to do something midday and I have some biohacking tools that I use it I'll share in a moment,

Brooke Schnittman  17:40  
I think it's important to note that you don't have to do the typical meditation, you don't have to use the apps to meditate. It's just noticing your thoughts. Right,

Claudia Von Boesalager  17:49  
warm. Yeah. And even so one is the noticing that thought and also just like focusing on the breath, whatever it is that somebody needs. But one thing I'll share with you, I heard from navall Raava. Khan, some people might have heard of him, he was using a Buddhist meditation teacher, a monk. And what really resonated with me and this is for more maybe advanced meditators is that if you do a one hour meditation session, which is a long time, but the golden stuff is after 40 minutes. And I've been able to do that a few times, I try to do it once a week, I don't always manage because I find a lot of time navall Does it every single day because of the benefit.

Brooke Schnittman  18:28  
Because that's where the transcendental piece comes in.

Claudia Von Boesalager  18:33  
Yeah, and that's really, really phenomenal. And again, the more you do it, the more easier it is to access that states. So even with ADHD and mind you just accessing it much quicker and faster as well. So huge fan of meditation, big game changer. You know, I speak with a lot of these, you know, scientists and peak performers. This is like, everyone has some sort of meditation mindfulness practice. So yeah, really big piece. Taking regular movement breaks, you know, typical, he just get up, move around, you know, make it okay to do that. eliminating distractions, obviously very obvious. We know, multitasking is not conducive to productivity, it's much better than any material. I keep my phone on focus mode all of the day. And then when I wanted to over schedule, the time, I go in and check the messages, or sometimes use you know, on as a Chrome extension on my browser then noisily and no, I s li don't if you know that no extension and you can put on white noise you can put on sounds of the ocean, a train of fine waterfall, whatever you like. It's actually free, which is great. They always have a upgraded version as well. And then what I'm trying to access more is this like flow state, which is obviously very difficult for people with attention deficit, but creating that environment and knowing that there are certain factors to provide for that and then planning for other times of the day for the phone calls for the distraction for the email inbox and things like that, that distract

Brooke Schnittman  19:58  
us what Does your personal flow state.

Claudia Von Boesalager  20:03  
So my personal flow state and I think this is how I interpreted is when you access that state of bliss in terms of flow and like Time flows by and hours go by, and it's defined as sort of just outside of your comfort zone. So it needs to be a little bit challenging, you need to be well rested, you need not to be hungry, you need to be free of distractions, and then the ideas and the creativity, you're in this flow state and you don't even notice time going by. So that's how I define

Brooke Schnittman  20:33  
and how do you get into your flow state I know we all get into our flow states differently like water on the head in the shower right before nap, what hard chargers, you know, exercising, what? What's yours.

Claudia Von Boesalager  20:47  
So mine is the having that morning priming routine, which includes the exercise breathwork, meditation, I do different things visualization, setting myself up to win for the day, making sure I'm hydrated, making sure but a really good night's sleep and block them the time in my schedule, I'm freeing distractions even around my desk, I literally take except for like maybe flowers off and away even like I have an external monitor, I don't want to see that because it's again, triggering work. And just having that like white space, if you will to be like I wanted to do a brainstorm or download on this. And just making time for that. I know some people, they'll have a separate laptop that doesn't have internet connection to work on something because the temptation to like go into, you know, let me just research that quickly or whatever. It's too high. I like to have some sort of background music on typically either a song on repeat, or a soundtrack on repeat just so it's not mixing up too much. And my brain is getting distracted as well. So yeah, those are different ways that I like to try to access that flow state.

Brooke Schnittman  21:48  
Wonderful. And I know I cut you off, you had your next tip,

Claudia Von Boesalager  21:51  
we had the some other bio hacks lines mean, I don't know if you discuss that. On your whole, we haven't. Four Sigmatic, I want to say it's like it's a mushroom extract. But it's really, really great for focus. And you can either mix it in your coffee, you can have it as like a coffee, it has a very earthy taste to it. Red light therapy for mitochondrial support is also great. There are things called like nootropics, aka smartphones and unnecessary smart drugs, but there's different supplements within them that help you to you know, focus more on them. If you have like a presentation is something in particular, we want to be at your best. My final one number 10 is self care and compassion. This was a big piece also for me. Because I always thought that I had to be at my best all the time and had to be perfect and perfectionist and a type and all the rest of it. And it's understanding that you're gonna have really great moments and then other moments where like, it just ain't happened. Really.

Brooke Schnittman  22:48  
Just riding that wave. Yeah.

Claudia Von Boesalager  22:50  
And it's just like, that's okay, you know, I wanted to go back to that book, let me take a half hour break. And let me just focus on that book or like, I want to make a walk my dog, whatever it is, as well. And to not beat yourself up consistently. So

Brooke Schnittman  23:02  
I love that ends, I think that it's really important for people to understand that, the more we try to be a certain way, and it just isn't fitting for that day, whether it be you have other thoughts going on, or you know, you haven't had that sleep that you need, you haven't had that proper nutrition, or it's just not your day. And when we try to like fit into this peg hole, we are going to get stressed, anxious and depressed. So I love the last one where you say give yourself compassion, because no one expects you to do all 10 of Claudia's tips every day, you know, you got to figure out what works for you. And you could do the meditation for a minute. You could do it for an hour. You know, it's really whatever fits into your ADHD schedule.

Claudia Von Boesalager  23:49  
Yeah, exactly. And even like looking at the schedule as like a month and being like, Oh, like this Monday and this Saturday, like, split it out. Don't try to do it all at once like that overwhelm effect we want to avoid, right? Yes. And just figure out like one or two things that you enjoy, and that are fun, you know, that you like to do. Because that's what life is about, right? We do things to try and apply ourselves to be in a better place to be happier and have more fun with things as well. So yeah,

Brooke Schnittman  24:17  
I love it. I love it. So would you say out of all 10 of those tools, your number one success tip is to have compassion for themselves?

Claudia Von Boesalager  24:27  
I think so. Yeah. Because that inner criticism, like if you're your biggest bully, how are you showing up for yourself for others, whereas if you're your biggest cheerleader, and being like, I got this and like celebrate just the little wins. That mindset piece is so critical. And learning to be the thermostat, not the thermometer in your life. Right? You choose how you show up each day and you choose to be the best version of you and like other things are going to happen. Yes, but be like that's okay. It's just how it's flowing today.

Brooke Schnittman  24:59  
I love have that be the thermostat, not the thermometer. So you're being proactive rather than reactive?

Claudia Von Boesalager  25:05  
Correct? You set the tone. Yep. Yep.

Brooke Schnittman  25:08  
I love that. So Claudia, if people want to get in touch with you, what would be the best way for them to reach out to you?

Claudia Von Boesalager  25:15  
We're on pretty much all social media channels. So it's longevity and lifestyle, all written out for Instagram, longevity. And with the ensemble, after I founded, my company realized that and symbols are not a good idea names for the year well, the longevity and Lifestyle Podcast website is longevity, dash and dash lifestyle.com. So yeah, please reach out anyone who's interested to find out more and would be delighted to connect with you.

Brooke Schnittman  25:46  
Wonderful. Well, I love how you're giving yourself compassion for the name with the and I did the same thing with coaching with Brooke, when we grew to eight coaches, I said, well, not everyone is broke. What do we do? Do we change our names? Or do we just keep it because we have the brand recognition. But for all of you new entrepreneurs out there, think about that. So it's a pleasure to have you on here. And I'm sure Claudia has a lot of these tips. Also on her website and on Instagram. A lot of those tips also in an ADHD friendly way are on our free ebook coaching with Brooke, forward slash ebook. So I'm glad that we're speaking the same language here. And the lion's mane piece has been particularly new for me. So we'd love to hear more about that as well. Do you? Do you drink that in your coffee?

Claudia Von Boesalager  26:40  
Yes. So I have from Four Sigmatic. I just found it. It's a good brand. I'm not affiliated with them. So I just mix it in the coffee or I'll just have it like I don't have coffee in the afternoon. So I'll have that in like as a coffee replacement. And you actually can like feel neurologically sometimes like a different shift and change as well. So it does I find it personally works really, really well. I know a lot of people who are big fans as well.

Brooke Schnittman  27:06  
Wonderful. Thank you so much. And thank you for being on successful with ADHD.

Claudia Von Boesalager  27:10  
My pleasure. Thank you for having me such it's such a pleasure to come on and share. And yeah, I just hope everyone realizes life is here to be beautiful and joy and there are great tools out there. So hope this helped.

Brooke Schnittman  27:23  
Thanks for listening to this episode of successful with ADHD. I hope it helps you on your journey. And if you need any additional support for you or a loved one with ADHD, feel free to reach out to us at coaching with brooke.com and all social media platforms at coaching with Burr. And remember, it's Brooke with any Thanks again for listening. See you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai