Intuitive Insights: Harnessing the Power of Intuition + Creativity in Everyday Life
Hosted by Meghan McDonough, your No BS “Woo-Woo” Coach: Intuitive Insights is a transformative podcast. Meghan is an Intuitive Life coach who’s passion is to guide you to use your intuition and creativity for a more purpose-filled life. The podcast draws inspiration from various sources such as ancient wisdom texts, yoga, philosophical teachings, intuitive readings, interviews and personal anecdotes. Along with reflections on the intuitive messages, practical tips, exercises, and actionable steps are provided to help listeners incorporate personal growth and mindfulness into their daily lives. The aim is to empower listeners to create a more fulfilling and purposeful life knowing “You.Are.Intuitive!”
Read along https://magnetizeyourlight.blogspot.com/?m=1 @magnetizeyourlight and www.magnetizeyourlight.com
Intuitive Insights: Harnessing the Power of Intuition + Creativity in Everyday Life
Embracing ADHD: Intuition as a Neurobrillant Superpower - Interview with Ernalee Shannn
What if ADHD isn't a disorder but a form of "neurobrilliance"? In this illuminating conversation, ADHD Thrive Coach Ernalee Shannon challenges everything we thought we knew about neurodivergent minds.
Ernalee shares a breathtaking story of intuition that saved a life—receiving an unexplainable urge to call a friend who, at that exact moment, was contemplating suicide. "What really terrifies me is how easy it would have been to say 'I'll phone her later,'" she reflects. This powerful anecdote opens a doorway into understanding the heightened sensitivities and gifts that often accompany ADHD.
While mainstream approaches typically focus on medication, Ernalee advocates for holistic solutions that address root causes while celebrating inherent strengths. She introduces the concept of "neurobrilliance"—recognizing the unique capabilities that ADHD minds bring to the world. "People who have ADHD, their senses are heightened," she explains, describing how this can manifest as both challenge and superpower. This perspective shift transforms how we understand neurodivergence, especially in children.
Parents will find particular value in her creative strategies: explaining the "why" behind requests, offering meaningful choices, and incorporating play into daily routines. These approaches respect neurological differences while developing essential skills. Equally compelling is her examination of how modern technology may be rewiring young brains to mimic ADHD symptoms, raising crucial questions about environmental influences versus inherent neurological differences.
Ready to discover holistic approaches to ADHD? Join Ernalee at the ADHD Thrive Festival (May 20-30), a free online event for people of all ages seeking to understand and embrace their unique neurological gifts. Connect with Ernalee on Facebook or email ernalee@adhdthrivecoachca to learn more about transforming challenges into strengths.
Ernalee Shannon Contact: ernalee@adhdthrivecoach.ca
ADHD THRIVE Festival Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/3906401716312401
To receive your own personal Intuitive Soul Reading and personalized workbook visit: https://magnetizeyourlight.com/intuition
Hello, welcome to Intuitive Insights. I am your host, megan McDonough. I'm an intuitive guide and creativity coach, but today I have with me a very special guest. So today I have Erna Lee Shannon. She is an ADHD Thrive coach. She's the host of the ADHD Thrive Festival. That's an online festival that's actually going to be from May 20th to 30th coming up. She's also a holistic health practitioner, author, international speaker and lover of trees, beads, bees, birds and butterflies.
Speaker 2:Welcome, Renalee. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here.
Speaker 1:So we know each other through like a workshop kind of thing that we we done together and um, and then I did your thrive festival the last time and it was just I thought it was so brilliant because, as an adhd person myself and two children with adhd it was really nice to see all the different holistic angles that you can support yourself and your children with, especially in this day and age. So I just want to thank you for that and I'm excited for this new one coming up as well. Yeah, but first I have two questions for you. Sure Shoot. One is how do you define intuition?
Speaker 2:How do I define intuition?
Speaker 2:How do I define intuition?
Speaker 2:Well, I think it's and it's interesting because I just did a talk on this and it was part of one of my talks to do with happiness, right, because I really feel total health is about what you do with the body, the physical body, but also what you do with the mind, and so this talk that I'm just speaking about right now fit within this festival which is ongoing still right now.
Speaker 2:It's called the Intuition Revolution, so if you're interested in checking that out, you can check that out. So if you're interested in checking that out, you can check that out. And so it's held within the Intuition Revolution Sanctuary, but it's the Intuition Revolution. So, because I wanted to speak on my friends a dear friend of mine was hosting this I had to really then look at intuition, and so what I really felt and what I talked about was how, for me and I can only speak to my own experience, right, but for me, intuition is that sort of quiet knowing inside that comes up, inside that comes up, and for me, that is connected with my relationship to the divine, and your listeners can put whatever word they want on it.
Speaker 2:You know, if God doesn't work for you and I totally understand, I couldn't say the word God for years, right, yeah, but you know, maybe it's divine love, maybe it's peace, whatever it is, that is that higher part, higher than you part. It's those quiet moments that speak in a soft voice to my heart. And I just know things. And I gave an example on this festival. I gave an example of what I used to call mother radar. It was like when I gave birth to my kids.
Speaker 2:I gave birth more than just my three daughters. I gave birth to this ability to know when they were struggling, when they were in pain, when they were not safe, right, and literally my spidey radar or my mother radar would go off and I would know. And so I give this little story of I was so bang on with this with my children that my daughters would phone and say, especially if they were at a friend's house playing, they'd phone and they'd say, mom, I I fell down and I really hurt myself and I I cried a lot, but I want you to know I'm fine now.
Speaker 2:I don't want you to worry about me, I'm okay this actually happened, right so and what I didn't realize is that I thought it was just about my children, right, because that's really where it first showed up. But then I came to realize it was about sort of everybody in my life that I had a close connection with, whether it was my family, my extended family or my friends, my clients. You know, if I'd work with them for a while, I would phone them up and I just get this feeling, this feeling of you know, I got a phone so, and so I should talk to her today. And so I would call and they'd say how did you know I needed to talk to you today? I'm having such a rotten day, I'm so glad you phoned me. How did you know to call right now? And I'm like, yeah, I don't know, it's, I guess, my mother radar, which isn't so mothery anymore, except I'm mothering the world now.
Speaker 1:So yeah yeah, yeah well, I remember, and the other question I have was how to use it in your life. But you just kind of spoke to it there and, in addition to I remember you telling me a story, speaking of you know, um, feeling like you needed to call someone, and you shared a story with me before that was.
Speaker 2:Was that the story that? I had to call right now. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Is that the story? That's the story.
Speaker 2:Would you like me to share that again? I would love for you to share that story. Yes, and this is a story I share on this other festival I spoke on as well. Yeah, over the years I've learned to listen to that little nudge. You know whatever that is, because it doesn't come to me in a big, loud voice. Burnley phone, you know 7, or whoever it is right. It's just this quiet little like if you're so busy in life. You could almost miss it, or I could almost miss it, and sometimes I have.
Speaker 2:But this one time I had this feeling that I needed to phone a friend of mine. She was also a client of mine, and so I. I was doing something, my husband and I were doing a project together, and I thought, oh, that's interesting.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, I was going to wait and do it afterwards and then I got this feeling no, I need to do this right now, I need to call soon. No, I need to call right now, I've got to do this right now. So I can't even remember what my husband and I were doing and I said I'm sorry, but I've got to go and call. I named my friend and he's used to these things right, and he's used to seeing that there's value in what I do. So he quite happily said oh yeah, go ahead, go do your thing. And so I phoned her and I said and it's funny, because normally I wouldn't start a conversation like this but I said you know, hi? And I named her and I said I just want you to know I love you and I'm so glad you are in my life, I'm so glad you're my friend. And there was silence, silence on the end of the phone and I was like, oh wonder how this landed.
Speaker 2:You know you always kind of wonder if you put your kind, your heart out there, you kind of wonder how it's gonna go.
Speaker 2:Except I really knew this woman well. She was like a sister to me and she had stood up for my husband and I. She was one of my matrons of honor when I got married to my husband, so I knew her well and so I just waited and finally she said actually. I said, are you okay? And she said yes, I am now, which I thought was an unusual thing to say. And so she said I want you to know, ernie. I'm so glad you called me and I can't talk right now, I need to do some prayers. But I'm so glad you called and I'm going to connect with you really soon, okay? And I said sure, you know whenever you're ready I'm here. And so we hung up and I'm really good with sound you I've got. I got the ears of like a dog.
Speaker 2:I can hear like I can hear ants chewing in a wall.
Speaker 2:It's bizarre right so I'm highly hypersensitive with my hearing and maybe that's to do with the ADHD you know I used to experience when I was a child, but I could hear that her tone was off and I can hear a lot in a voice, right. So anyway, I waited and one day she called me back and she said Ernalee, I want to tell you that when you called me, the reason I sounded so different was, as you know, I've been in so much physical pain and emotional pain and mental pain, and the struggle is just endless. It's day and night and the only time I get any sort of peace is when I'm asleep. And I totally get that because that used to be my life, right when.
Speaker 2:I was a kid and when I was younger, a young woman that because that used to be my life, right when I was a kid and when I was younger, a young woman. And she said I had been saving my really heavy pain meds over a period of months and until I had enough and I had decided that that day was the day that I was going to, that that day was the day that I was going to swallow the whole half a bottle or whatever I had left and saved of those, and I was going to end it because I couldn't face the pain anymore. And she said, before I did, and because she was a very spiritual woman and she loved God and loved Jesus, and she basically just said God, if you want me in this life, you had better send me a sign. You had better send it now and you better make it really plain, obvious to me. And she said, honestly the words were no sooner out of my mouth, ernie, and you phoned me and you told me you love me and that you were so glad that I was in this life with you and that I was your friend.
Speaker 2:And she said in that moment I knew that this was God speaking through you that, whatever reason, god had queued up your heart to phone me that day and I knew I was meant to live. So she said, I went and I flushed those pills down the toilet, those extra ones that I had saved, and I want to thank you for saving my life. And what really? I mean it still brings tears to my eyes when I think of it and what really almost terrifies me is how easy it would have been for me to have said oh, I'll phone her later. I'll finish what I'm doing with my husband, because this is important and.
Speaker 2:I'll just phone her later. And I would have got busy and I would never have known she would have died, and I would never have known she would have died and I would never have known how close that line of life and death had been. So yeah, she was a great teacher for me.
Speaker 1:A great teacher.
Speaker 2:And so I really attempt to listen to that quiet voice, and everybody expects it's going to be the big booming voice, you know, of intuition, uh, or creativity or whatever it is that's being inspired within you, but for me it it's soft, yeah, and and that means I can't allow myself to get too busy, too crazy, like to be too crazy around me, because it overrides all of that right, and then I can't hear. So stillness is really important. I believe it's really important. It's really important in my life. I meditate twice a day, you know I do. I'm praying mightily for the world right now, whatever I can to pour into this human container of life. You know, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, you mentioned something and I want to touch on this a little bit because you know so ADHD, the way it's phrased, it sounds like you can't focus on anything. But when you get inside of it and you understand it, and you know it, it's the complete opposite. It's that you're noticing everything. You just can't pick what to focus on, the everything, or something like that. Maybe you could speak to that better.
Speaker 1:But my question is and this is an opinion, but I feel like those of us with ADHD or in general, possibly anyone who is neurodivergent, you know, is like tapped into that extra level of listening or that more subtle level of listening, and that's where the intuition is found. So I wrote down you know intuition as an adhd superpower and I want to kind of toss that your way and see how that feels to you. I mean, I believe we all have intuition. I believe we're all creative. Those are two things that I find adhd thrives in creativity and intuition, or using your intuition through creativity to problem solve or create something, whatever. But I don't know. I'm just asking from the professional point of view how do you?
Speaker 2:feel about that. I can only give you my. I don't know how professional it is, but I'll give you my opinion.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I believe ADHD comes with what I call neurobrilliance, right.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, neurobrilliance, because people who have ADHD, their senses are heightened. Now I've never really figured out why I can hear ants in a wall, like how can I make this work in the real world, right? Except, I did know when we had an ant infestation. So I don't know. But you know, the guy came and said have you seen any sign of ants? And I'm like no, you haven't seen anything. No, sawdust, no. He said well, how do you know there's ants? I said well, I can hear them.
Speaker 2:He said you can hear them, you can hear them. So he pulls out his stethoscope and I'm pointing to this wall and he goes yeah, right, you know. And he listens and he goes you can hear that. So I need a stethoscope to hear this. Right, that's amazing, that's pretty funny. Yeah, so I've got the hearing of kind of like a dog. Yeah, but it also means that I'm sensitive to loud noises. Yes, I love spending time with my grandchildren, but I have to tell them when they get really exuberant and they shriek a real high pitch. Yeah, I love it Like it's painful.
Speaker 2:It's actually physically painful to my ears yeah. And I'm like okay, nanny's ears are very delicate, so just shh.
Speaker 1:My son is very sensitive and he has a scream, especially since he was a baby, and his scream would, I would say, make my brain bleed.
Speaker 2:That's what it would feel like. I totally get it. It's painful.
Speaker 1:I was like oh yeah.
Speaker 2:But the other thing is and there's lots of people who say, let these kids be who they are, Let them scream. But the other thing is is my husband wears hearing aids, right, Ooh, that's hard. So when you got somebody with hearing aids and somebody's screaming really high pitched, it's painful for them too.
Speaker 1:So we need to honor our elders, and on that note, I know we're getting back to it. Yeah, but on that note, I find that this is just a separate philosophy of let the kids be who they are. Yes, but also let them be aware that they're in a society where you have to pay attention to the other people around you and make sure that you're not. Your being free isn't at the expense of someone else's pain.
Speaker 2:Yes, totally, totally, that's all. Yeah, yeah, um, and I think that's really important. I think compassion teaching kids compassion and kindness and respect for other people is really important. It's going to help serve them well in this world, right, and the world needs more of this. So back to the ADHD superpower and I love the concept of superpower, and there's many parents that I've talked to who say I can't even see a superpower here because I'm just going crazy, you know. The thing is is you have to handle those difficult symptomology, the symptoms that, the ones that pretty much drive you crazy. You know the kid can't focus, they can't sit still, they're all over the map, they're jumping off the couch, they're swinging off the chandelier or the curtains, whatever it is. So you need to handle those things so that that actual neural brilliance that is lying underneath can then shine. And I often say I'm all for letting kids be kids, you know really.
Speaker 2:But I say to parents, like the behavior that your child will exhibit as a child with ADHD. You know the things that are difficult for you or difficult for them to be in the world or be in school or be around other kids. What if it doesn't have to be that way? You know what if you could tone down those difficult symptoms and then embrace those? You know beautiful gifts that come with ADHD. You know the ability to really hyper-focus. You know and really focus on what's important to them. Important to them and that's the thing I tell parents too is that they need to learn that an ADHD child needs to know the reason why. Yes, oh my God, they need to know the reason why.
Speaker 1:Crazy that you say that because as a kid I was like I'm not going to learn it unless you tell me why.
Speaker 2:Exactly there you go. It's not going to stick, unless you tell me why and that's for my son and I.
Speaker 1:You know, my husband and I butt heads about this a lot, but like when he gets in trouble or whatever, I'm always like he has to understand why and if he doesn't see that it's just or makes sense.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:He's going to have an issue with it. Yeah, so it can't just be a blanketed, because I said so, because that'll never fly for him.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:He'll never learn that way.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly, and I mean back in the day. I remember being in school, in grade school, and I knew I was never going to go into math. Math was not my thing.
Speaker 2:No, writing was my thing, you know. Stories were my thing. Storytelling was my thing, you know. Stories were my thing. Storytelling was my thing, writing stories. But math in my heart. I knew it was not good to be my best friend, right, right. And no one attempted to say to me well, ernalee, you know if you ever want to go into business yourself, if you ever want to, you know if you ever get maybe a whole lot of money in your, in your life, you need to be able to count it.
Speaker 2:You need to be, able to understand what to do with it and how much interest you're going to be getting.
Speaker 1:You know if they'd put it in though that framework for me I always went oh, you know, practical yeah tell me how I'm using that practical knowledge in my life. Otherwise it's frivolous. So I cares.
Speaker 2:So I tell parents, you know, if you got a little kid who's really into pirates, right, but doesn't want to learn how to, how to read, tell them that. If they're gonna, of course they're not gonna grow up to be a pirate at least I hope they won't, right. But if tell them anyway, you know, if you want to be a pirate, you need to know how to read in order to read the pirates map. Right, that's it, yep.
Speaker 1:And if you want to be a pirate, you need to know how to read in order to read the pirate's map.
Speaker 2:right, that's it, yep. And if you're going to amass treasure, like pirates, do you need to know how to count it? So you need to be learning math. That's going to be really important for you. So put it in the context of where their brain is at in the moment and what you find is it's good, it's going to um, soothe their nervous system and prevent that fight or flight uh, triggering the fight mode of the fight or flight uh thing that happens in our brains. No, I don't want to do this. It's no fun. Whatever it is like, get creative right, right. Kids need creativity, especially kids with ADHD, to let them see what the possibilities are for themselves in their life, and you can have a whole lot of fun with it. I make up wacky, silly songs and various things Me too. Oh good, I'm glad I'm not the only one.
Speaker 1:I have a whole like repertoire of songs just to get kids to do things or teach them, things you know, yeah you're very part of a frequency thing.
Speaker 1:like you know, kids, um, and and elderly to a certain extent. You know, um, it's like the veil is thin between this world and where they came from before the womb or where they're going to after the physical body, and so the veil becomes thinner and so it's easier to hear all of that other frequency stuff, whether it's higher mind or whatever. You know energy in general, whether it's higher mind or whatever you know energy in general. And song is such a heightened frequency, right Singing something, that it's like, if a kid can't hear language, like just speaking to someone, I always find that singing it, whatever it is, it's like they're automatically like magnetized to it. You know they're automatically like oh what?
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:You know, and then they hear it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, and I think that's so brilliant because it also brings in sort of a sense of play into general learning, which I think is so important. Kids learn so much better. I mean, I learn so much better. I mean, look at my age and my hair color. Right, I still learn better if it's fun right, it's fun, yes. Like, why would we want to do something boring Like yeah? Like it's too short for this right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's really important that we bring fun back, and I often think of, you know, kids who don't want to eat at the table, right? Yes, you know I've got grandkids who have fallen into that category and their parents are like you have to hurry up, you have to finish eating, and they're like mm-mm. And I'm like can I maybe help a little bit? And oh sure, just do whatever you got to do. So I just make a game out of it, right? So I just make a game out of it right.
Speaker 2:So I just make a game out of it. And I remember there was this one little girl. She wasn't even family, but she was having a really hard time eating.
Speaker 2:She was a really picky eater and, incidentally, picky eaters often have a mineral deficiency, so that can really help with picking a picky eater and getting protein into kids is a big issue, as well, I know that's hard, um, so I just made up this wacky little song and I told her well, if you, if you uh, eat some of your food right now, I'll do my wacky silly song for you I didn't even have a wacky silly song you're just gonna make it I just made something up and then I did this weird little dance and she was just enthralled.
Speaker 2:nobody had ever did that before with her right, yeah. So I just kept on going and she finished her plate and her parents were like, but the thing is often parents are, they're exhausted.
Speaker 1:They're so tired. Yeah, I was going to say the bandwidth is gone.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they can't seem to think. And I've even had family members say to me I'm too tired to do this. And I'll say are you too tired to fight with them for the next half hour to get them to eat? Because that's what it's going to take to get this to happen. It's a fair question. This will make you feel happier and it's going to make them happier too to do what you are asking them to do. And the other secret I give parents um, you want your child to do something? Kids want choices. Right, we all want choices. I like choices too. So I give kids, only give them. I tell parents, only give them two choices, both things you want them to do. It's like a trojan horse thing, it's hidden all things you want them to do I like's, like a Trojan horse thing.
Speaker 1:It's hidden, all the things you want them to do.
Speaker 2:I like that. So they feel like they're getting the choices and you get one of the two things you want them to do. So it works like a hot darn. I mean, especially when they're little. I mean they don't know the difference. They don't stop and say, wait, I don't actually like that choice, take that out and give me another one, or give me this when they're really little. It just works like a charm.
Speaker 1:Yeah, unfortunately mine have caught on too much by now. They'll be like yeah, I don't like those choices, give me some more. But it's funny that you say that with the food too, because I remember as a kid my dad, who was most never diagnosed but 1000% ADHD would have us if there were carrots on the table. He told us they were good for eyesight, so then we would eat them. And then we go around the table and we go to him and be like look at our eyes, are they better?
Speaker 1:And he'd be, like, oh my God, it's great, you know. Or if, and eat it. And we'd be like, oh, these are good for muscles. And then we'd be like, fill my muscles, fill my muscles.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:You better eat some more.
Speaker 2:That's a good one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but that's how we ate my parents used to say.
Speaker 2:my mom used to say, and I thought afterwards I mean, it would have been so good to have encouraged me to eat some carrots and then turn the light off and just say, okay, let your eyes adjust, now can you see in the dark and of course you'd be able to see a little bit right.
Speaker 1:And go. Yeah, I can see in the dark.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, yeah. So I think, truly I think kids with ADHD, when they grow up to be adults, with who they have come to be, they're the people you want to be Like if you're stuck on a mountain somewhere and you need help getting helicoptered off, you want the pilot to have ADHD, because they will never leave someone behind. They know what it's like to be left and abandoned in life. You know, because often kids with ADHD don't have a whole lot of friends. I know I didn't right. I remember being the only girl in my entire grade school class who didn't get an invite to an all-girl birthday party.
Speaker 1:So the boys didn't get one.
Speaker 2:I didn't get one right. So these things they hurt, right. So people who grew up throughout childhood having ADHD, they know what it's like to not get invites to places or to birthday parties or for playdates or things like that. So they tend to be very compassionate people as adults, especially if they have worked through their issues and it makes them ADHD can make them really hyper-focused on their job. Well, you know what, if you're in trouble, that's somebody you want to be on your side, right? You know what, if you're in trouble, that's somebody you want to be on your side, right?
Speaker 2:So I really feel that right now, what's happening in the world, everything that's happening in the world, whether it's pollution, whether it's contamination of our food system, whatever it is these little beings are coming into the world because they've got gifts and keys for all of us, and I think they're kind of like the canaries in the coal mine. I mean this is what's coming for all of us. If we do not clean up what we eat, what we drink, what we feed our kids, the air we breathe, the ground we walk on, we're not doing a very good job of stewarding our planet here and we need to do better, and I think right now we see so many kids with ADHD just because of everything that is you know babies who are in utero are being bombarded with.
Speaker 2:I often say that there's a trigger and there's a fuel. You can't do anything about the trigger that triggers that thing that happens in the brain with ADHD, but you can change how you feed it, right? Yeah, I love that?
Speaker 1:I actually wonder, because when I've taught in, I used to teach with a vendor of the Chicago Public Schools and teach yoga, and so I went to several different schools and a lot of the younger I love the younger ones. I mean I have high schoolers too, but a lot of the younger kids. I have high schoolers too, but a lot of the younger kids.
Speaker 1:I noticed in the classes that it seemed, even over just the last couple of years, that the amount of what appeared to be neurodivergent behavior either ADHD, autism, spectrum, whatever, um was increasing, meaning like when I was a kid there was, like what, what? One or two kids in the class, a couple of kids that you know were the weird ones in the corner making noises and fidgeting you know that was me but um, but there was only a couple, and now it's more than half. There's less kids that are what people and I don't like this word neurotypical. I just feel like the word here's my opinion I feel like neurotypical is just the type of neurology that fits into the system we've had, not necessarily correct, because typical would mean more so and it feels like that's not really the case anymore.
Speaker 1:Would mean more so and it feels like, that's not really the case anymore, and so I'm wondering if the environment we're creating like, with our attention spans being so short, with the internet, with the phones, with all the technology that's evolving. That's evolving and it's almost like it's triggering the ADHD symptoms, whether or not that's the symptomology of the neurology. Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 2:Exactly, and there's a study that was done in the United States I think it was in 2019, at a Cincinnati hospital and it was an MRI study, and so they studied the brains of children and what they found is that children who were between the ages of three to five who had one hour every day of screen use, they had smaller white space development of their brain. It was less than other children who did not use screens and various things. That's the part that is about communication and focus and all these things. And then there was further studies done that indicate, you know, kids with too much TV time had certain symptomology, kids with too much screen time had certain symptomology. You take all those things together, package them up and look at it. It is exactly the symptomology of adhd. Yeah, so how much uh? I mean, I'd really like, as a practitioner, I'd really like to know how much actually is because their brains are wired that way and how much uh of having adhd and how much is it's also being exasperated or even created through screen use.
Speaker 2:And for certain for a child who has a short attention span. You don't want them to necessarily be on screens because what they're doing is they're getting a dopamine hit. Every time they're doing something on the screen, right Bang, they got a dopamine hit and then they get another one, another one. It's training their brains to seek and want more of the same, so that when you go to take that screen away, you know what happens with a young child.
Speaker 2:They have a meltdown Because basically, all of a sudden, the dopamine that's been flooding their system from their brain is no longer there and it's like the dopamine train has just pulled out of the station and their nervous system and their body just doesn't know what to do and usually a meltdown will follow. Yeah, so we're really not doing our kids any favors by letting them have as much screen time as they do.
Speaker 1:Yeah and yeah well, having said that, I mean, and I agree with that, but at the same time we try and get them out in nature and do other things and have projects, you know, so that they don't. We don't like to have them have as much screen time, but at the same time it's part of the lexicon of our society. Now, yes, yes.
Speaker 1:So there is a part of it like you don't want your kid to be the weird kid that never watched TV. So when you grow up as an adult, you know and you're in a group of people and people are making references to old shows and you're like what you know, like there's an element to that that you're like how can we stay societally in tune without going over Like there's that fine line, without going over to the exasperating the situation?
Speaker 2:you know, yeah, going over to the dark side.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah To making it like a. Literally it's become a drug.
Speaker 2:It has, I find myself addicted to the drug myself. It's a brain chemical. Yes, right, it's a hit all the time. So if you've got a child with adhd, so you already got symptomology of lack of focus. Um, can't sit still, all the all of these things they got hyper focus when they really is something that they are interested in?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's why you have to give them a reason why they should be interested in what you want them to do, right? Yeah, so you want them to hyper-focus on positive things as well? Yeah, but if you've already got that symptomology going on in your child, then you need to really pay close attention to how much screen time they are using, yeah, and really not make those symptoms any worse than they are. So to have frequent breaks, like you said, get outside, in nature, being outside, whether they're walking in nature, hugging a tree, climbing a tree, hands in dirt, in the grass or the dirt are great ways for them to ground.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah and sorry I've got. Of course you get on camera, folks, and you get this itchy nose.
Speaker 1:It's driving you crazy and you just don't want to touch it, but it's driving you nuts.
Speaker 2:So call it out as what it is Itchy nose syndrome when I get on camera.
Speaker 1:We can edit that out, no worries. So talk to me about the ADHD Thrive Festival that's coming up.
Speaker 2:Sure, I'm really excited. This is our second time of doing this Now. The first time we did it earlier in the year, it was basically for parents or grandparents or people who worked with children, and I held it to that framework. But I had so many adults who were saying, or so many people who were contacting me saying hey, if you ever open this to adults, ever open this to women, ever open this to men, please let me know. And, looking at the world the way it is right now, I thought, yeah, why not?
Speaker 2:why, not have it open to everybody. So that's what we're doing this time around. So it is the adhd thrive festival holistic solutions to claim your neurobrilliance at any age.
Speaker 1:So any age goes.
Speaker 2:Even if you have gray hair like I do, you are welcome. You're welcome to come in as a speaker. I'm going to be speaking and you're also welcome to come in as an attendee, and what I really, really love about this style of festival is that there is no charge for the attendees to come in and watch either live the video, the videos or as replays. So in a lot, of, a lot of summits and things you can watch for maybe, you know, 24 hours, maybe, if you're really lucky, 48 hours, and then they close the doors on that and then you have to pay a fee and then you have access to it for the rest, however long you want. I don't know about you, but I have signed up for these sort of summits before, been totally gung-ho and really wanted to get all this great information within that time window and got the flu or somebody in my family got sick, I had to go take care of the grandkids, whatever it was, and that window slammed shut and I was left feeling well. That doesn't feel fair.
Speaker 2:So, anyway, I did end up signing up, but it left kind of a funny taste in my mouth. So this is a way for anybody, regardless of if they can afford to or not. They can come in and they can view these talks live or as replays. And there is a small sponsorship fee paid by the speakers and I mean it's really nothing and we've actually shrunk the cost of that down. We've taken a look at what's happening in North America, especially now in the world, and decided as our gift we wanted to really make this really super, super affordable now it's also doing it in canadian funds.
Speaker 2:I was gonna say you're in canada, you are america. You are getting one heck of a deal, yeah, and that's our gift to the world right now. I mean, that's our gift to the world right now. I mean that's what we can do, right so? Yeah so May the 20th to 30th, and, yes, we are still accepting speakers. We've got some great speakers lined up and really hoping, megan, that you're going to come in again. Are you coming? I know?
Speaker 1:I've got to look at the. You sent me the. Yeah, you sent it to me.
Speaker 2:I did. Yeah, it's been such a busy month. I really enjoyed it. I very much enjoyed it last time. Yeah, we loved having you. It was great, yeah. So, yeah, hope, hope, everybody can come in. And what I really want with this is I. I want, I want to change the narrative that medication is the only way for ADHD. Now, I was put on a lot of medications for my health, but never on anything for ADHD because of my age. It was just something that was starting to come out into the world at the time I became an adult and, like you have said, it used to be that there was. I can remember maybe myself and another child in our class you know, grade school class that were obviously had trouble sitting still and paying attention and focusing and various things. I was in so many fights on the playground like and I often say that my only you too that my only extracurricular activities were, uh, detentions, because that's all I had time for right.
Speaker 1:I was like the queen of detentions me too me too but I have to say like I mean I would always. Here's what I thought as a kid.
Speaker 2:I mean I would always here's what I thought as a kid.
Speaker 1:I was like there's nothing wrong with me, my brain just works different than yours.
Speaker 2:Thank goodness, you thought of that.
Speaker 1:Do you know what I mean? I was like yeah you're just. Your system isn't set up for my brain.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Is how I thought. Wow, you were so far ahead of the pack.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. I just thought I was just plain bad, because that's what people told me, right?
Speaker 1:Well, I also thought that because I was told that often. But you know, and then that's the thing, like with my kids, I see it more in my son than my daughter. My daughter, if she has ADHD it's extraordinarily mild, you know. So it may be like what we were talking about, a symptom of the times, less than her neurological functioning, but my son is more just textbook, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And he's even started saying you know, and because that's the other thing is that ADHD has a relationship with depression. That I was unaware of until I grew up and maybe you could speak to this a little better but I believe it's because of the influx or the inconsistent regulation of the dopamine and serotonin levels in the brain. But I just thought this was this thing that I had. You know this, this depression was a part of me, it was a, it was a relationship I had that I had gone through some gnarly times with, especially, you know, during hormonal changes. But, um, as I grew up to be an adult, I realized like this is, I thought it was something separate and now I'm like, oh, this is just part of the package of my neurological functioning, you know, yes, yeah, I remember for myself.
Speaker 2:I remember I finally created a rule for myself not to make any major decisions a week before my period and during my period, because I was kind of nuts no, I said.
Speaker 1:I said to myself, like what, what date is it? And I look at the phone I go, oh yep, I can't trust my brain.
Speaker 2:This week, that's it exactly, just not trusting my brain. Yeah, and I thought it was just part of being a woman, but at the time of course it was.
Speaker 1:It was everything else all rolled into one package and yeah, I mean it's lovely to not have you know, like as I see my for my son, looking down the line, like, like, I found ways to help me, but it took me a long way to get there. You know to to help me naturally, to um, combat the depression or to combat ways around it. But you know um, and for the focus and everything you know I found, I have like tools you know, I carry everything in my bag.
Speaker 1:I don't forget things. Yeah, I mean like there's little tricks and tools, but with the um, with the I'm bad thought that I've heard my son say and how I felt I'm like I and this is also an issue. It's like I don't want him to ever feel that if he doesn't have to Do. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:If there's the opportunity to not go down that path. But at the same time and this is probably going into a whole other conversation which I don't want to do it for, but it's something that I've been thinking about a lot with my generation of parenting, which is we have so many tools now at our disposal that we can do our best to let our kids avoid pain at all costs, but what does that do to our kids? You know how do they grow that Like? If you don't and this is kind of like contemplating out loud but if I didn't have the depths of pain that I experienced through some of those depressed, you know spots, would I have the compassion?
Speaker 2:that I do.
Speaker 1:Would I have the drive to rise above and be the better version of myself?
Speaker 2:like I do. Yeah, and I totally agree that it's sad. It seems to be human nature that we learn often from our greatest pain. Yeah, and there's been times in my life where I go, okay, I'm ready to learn from the good stuff now, like, just make this an easy one, right? Yeah, because there's been some really difficult times in my life, probably like there has been for yours. Difficult times in my life, probably like there has been for yours, and I certainly went through a period of depression as well and actually not wanting to live, and there's a higher rate of suicide in people with ADHD than there is in the general public. So that is something to be aware of and to work with. And also, I think it's important to tell our kids it's okay to feel how you feel and to be sad, just know how, especially if it's that you're not feeling happy or maybe you're feeling very sad or you're frustrated. It's not going to last. You're going to get through this. I promise you you're going to get through this.
Speaker 2:I wish somebody had told me when I was a kid I was going to get through this. I promise you you're going to get through this. Where somebody had told me when I was a kid I was going to get through everything that I ended up going through. And of course, they never did. They probably never thought of it right, but it would have given me something to hang on to and to have some hope for yeah and yeah. So I can totally relate to that and it's really important that you know, we tell our children that they're not broken.
Speaker 2:I don't believe that there's anybody on this planet who has been made the way they're made. That is by accident. There's no faulty humans yeah, no faulty humans. Sometimes what we've gone through has been so difficult, sometimes it has caused us to have certain coping mechanisms or certain behaviors. But yes, and I often tell kids with ADHD that you know you are special in a very good way.
Speaker 2:You know you are bringing something to the world that a lot of other people don't have, and I want you to believe in that and know whatever you've been going through that's been hard it's going to serve a purpose in your life, because I had been through so much stuff as a child.
Speaker 2:You know I've been. I was sick for seven, seven years back and forth, to a hospital, on hospital, in a hospital ward where most kids didn't make it. I wish somebody had told me that all that pain and suffering was going to help me understand what other people heard and to be kind and compassionate and to make a difference in the world. Because that's really what it was. It built the foundation for who I am and I love who I am right now and yeah, it's like there are no mistakes I need to learn how to support other people and how to be there for other people who are struggling and who were working through hard stuff, and I can honestly say now you know, regardless of what it is you're going through, I might not totally understand what is happening with you, but I want you to know you have my heartfelt compassion for what it is and I promise you, as long as you do not let this make you bitter, you can grow something beautiful out of this.
Speaker 1:I'm going to cry when you say that that's absolutely beautiful, perfectly said, yeah, and I feel like that's a perfect place to end and just throw it back to this Thrive Festival, which where will it be?
Speaker 2:It's going to be in the Facebook group ADHD Thrive Festival. Okay, yeah, so you can, but you have to. If you're going to come in as somebody who's going to watch these wonderful talks, you're going to have to come in and register. Register a little ahead. So if we're really busy or whatever, because we have to let you in, right?
Speaker 2:So, it's free to register. You just put in your info and you know you don't have to pay anything. It's free for you to be there and you can watch all the talks and some really great speakers who are coming, and I'm so, so, so, so excited.
Speaker 1:I'm excited. I'm excited for you too.
Speaker 1:And also, you know, speaking of the world we're living in. I mean, even adults are getting diagnosed with ADHD at like rapid pace right now. So the fact that it's opened up to everyone's neurobrilliance at whatever age is just perfect, in addition to if we're realizing we've had coping mechanisms that have been cloaking our heightened sensitivity and now we find ourselves highly sensitive and not knowing what to do with it. You know, this is a beautiful way to kind of embrace that superpower part of self and channel it into something wonderful.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, and there's going to be some wonderful, um, you know, skills that could be shared, that people can take, yeah, coping skills that people are going to be able to take away, that are going to be really powerful. So you're going to get some good stuff and often there's a free, even a free gift afterwards certain speakers will be offering that. I'll be offering that too, so um yeah I love it.
Speaker 1:And where can people find you if they are looking for an adhd or a holistic health practitioner? Adhd coach or holistic health practitioner?
Speaker 2:uh, they can find me online. I am, um, you can find me on facebook, earnalee, that's. That's spelled E-R-N-A-L-E-E, all one word, and then S Shannon. My last name is the easiest part of my name, so Erna Lee S Shannon. You can find me on there, and otherwise I've just changed the email over. Let me see, I've just changed the email over. Let me see, it's Erna Lee at ADHDthrivecoachca.
Speaker 1:Thrivecoachca Okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, but your best bet is just shoot me a message on facebook. On facebook, perfect. I'll get that, and I just want to say it's so lovely to be with you again yeah, this was so lovely.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for joining me and thank you for having me, and there are some beautiful lessons, um, not only with the ADHD, but the trust of the intuition.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And knowing what you need to do to access. Keep that channel access open. You know whether it's. You know.
Speaker 2:Cut out the things that create too much noise you need to have, you know, a certain amount of stillness in your life, right, yeah, noise you need to have. You know, a certain amount of stillness in your life, right? Yeah, to be able to. Whether it's intuition or imagination I'm also a writer, so or creativity, however that expresses through you, whether it's through cooking or art or however it is, you need to be able to let that come through you. And you know you can't fill't fill your life up with too much busyness or you won't have space for all the good stuff that's coming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, agreed, absolutely. Yeah, all right, thank you so much, erlen Lee. Thank you, I will talk to you soon. My love, you will.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for joining us. Have a wonderful, wonderful week. Make some magic this week.
