Health Harmony & Happiness with Cathy

#79: ADHD and Your Nervous System with Tracy Nolin Beerman

• Cathy Struecker • Season 3 • Episode 79

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ADHD is seemingly a much more common thing for adults, especially moms, to be diagnosed with.  As mom, we have so much going on in our brains and often it can feel like it's very hard to focus on all of them, even more so if you have ADHD. 

In this episode, Tracy Nolin Beerman shares:

  • What ADHD is
  • How to explore whether you have it or not
  • How ADHD impacts your nervous system and emotional regulation

Tracy Nolin Beerman is a certified Life Mastery Consultant who has passionately bundled her experience with decades of yoga, meditation, mind/body work, life transformation coaching and her own "experiment" with life as an ADHD mom. 

She helps moms with ADHD declutter their minds and forge an empowered path forward through her powerful workshops, courses, programs and the Vision Driven Mom With ADHD podcast, even if they have a million other things in their brilliant, unique minds.  

She whole-heartedly believes that it’s possible to have ADHD without ADHD having you.

Grab the full show notes and resources at www.cairnyogawellness.com/podcast79 and subscribe and listen wherever you catch your podcasts: 

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Guest Links:
Free guide:  https://www.visiondrivenmom.com/adhdsupports

Website: www.visiondrivenmom.com
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vision-driven-mom-with-adhd/id1540806660
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/visiondrivenmom/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/visiondrivenmomwithadhd


Resources:
CHADD - Improving the Lives of people affected by ADHD
ADDA - Attention Deficit Disorder Association
Psychology Today - Find a Therapist Who Specializes in ADHD

Other Episodes Like This One:
#72: Stop Overwhelm: The 1 Thing Your To-do List is Missing
#73: Habits vs. Rituals
#58: Permission to Allow the Uncomfortable

We'd love to hear from you! Send us a text and let us know what inspired you from the show.

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Cathy

ADHD is becoming a much more common thing for adults, especially moms, to be diagnosed with. We have so much going on in our brains and often it can feel like it's very hard to focus on them. Today, we're going to explore what ADHD is, how to know whether or not you have it and how it impacts your nervous system and emotional regulation, if you do have ADHD. Hey friends. Welcome to episode 79. Phew. It has definitely been a minute since I've been here and gotten an episode out to you. Life has been in full swing as it often is in the summer months when you have kids at home. And simply because summer is the time of year that represents growth, abundance, and movement outward. And that has definitely been the rhythm of my life lately. And that is the only reason I actually haven't gotten a podcast out to you. Um, I do all the production and everything myself here. I don't outsource it, uh, someday. Hopefully I will have help with that, but for now it's all me and I'm a one-woman show. So. Please. Bear with me. When, um, things don't go exactly as I would want them to, or as I would hope they would go, but it's just all lessons in also reminding me of the flow that happens. And right now, life and family has just been a little bit fuller. I don't know if that's the word more full. I don't know how it goes. Then I would naturally anticipate it to be, or, um, would hope it would be, but it is. And I've had some quality time with my kids and, uh, just. You know, running kids, taking care of kids and things that come with also running a household, as well as taking care of myself, for sure, without feeling guilty about it. And that takes paying attention to what my body is doing as well as what nature's rhythms are doing. Both the moon. And the seasons. Once you're aware of nature's rhythms and you start to pay attention to your own rhythms. You can begin to use them to your advantage so that when times of heightened activity or even stress are in your life, kind of like what's been going on in my life these days. I wouldn't say it's all been stressful. It's just been heightened activity. But so when those times come into your life, then you know yourself well enough to know how to respond to your needs or maintain the practices that you have to keep you in flow in life. Then those stressful times don't seem quite as intense. And part of that is because you are trusting something bigger than just your own thoughts or analysis, or maybe over analysis as it historically has been in my case, maybe yours too, of the events. One of the ways that you can honor your rhythms is by celebrating them. Not ignoring them, but celebrating them. And with the summer solstice coming up next Wednesday, I'm going to be hosting a solstice celebration of rhythms. It's an in-person event and it will consist of a short nature hike and yoga class at the local lake. Along with a little ritual to celebrate not only the full bloom and abundance of summer, but also the abundance of your life over the past season. It's a time to reflect and celebrate all that you've put out there or become aware of over the past year, or maybe even just the past spring. It should be a lovely evening and I'm looking forward to it. So I will drop a link in the show notes for you to check it out. If you are interested, if you don't live in this area and you still want to participate in your own solstice celebration of rhythms, I'm creating a download that will walk you through what it might look like for you to honor the energy of summer, which happens to also be the peak of nature's energy, right? Okay on what the show. This is the first in a two-part series. It was actually one interview that I broke into two episodes because there is just so much packed into this one episode. You'll catch the rest of it. In a couple of weeks when I go live with that. Enjoy the show today I'm interviewing Tracy Nolan Beerman with the Vision-Driven mom with a D H D podcast. Tracy is a certified life mastery consultant who has passionately bundled her experience with decades of yoga, meditation, mind body work, life transformation, coaching, and her own experiment with life as an A D H D mom, she helps moms with A D H D declutter their minds and forge an empowered path. Forward through her powerful workshops, courses, programs, and the vision driven mom with A D H D podcast. Even if they have a million other things in their brilliant, unique minds, she wholeheartedly believes that it's possible to have ADHD without ADHD having you. Welcome Tracy.

Tracy

Thank you, Cathy. Thanks for having me. I'm excited about today.

Cathy

Absolutely. I am too. I feel like you and I kind of speak to a lot of the same or similar people, similar women out there. Right. I don't have specifically A D H D in my, um, niche, I guess, or in the group of people that I'm talking to, but I'm sure there are a lot of those moms out there who actually do have ADHD either diagnosed or undiagnosed that

Tracy

mm-hmm.

Cathy

Fall into this group of women who Work with this group of women who are, um, do it all kind of women who, right. Um, feel the need to over function at times and. Need the reminder that it's okay to under function a little bit, and kind of that warrior type woman who who has always done it and is going to keep powering through and pushing through, even if it's uncomfortable, even in your case, if she is all over the place at times, and I know there are times right when I am that way, I'm all over the place and I just, it's really hard to focus. Now, what I can relate that to with energetic rhythms is that, Sometimes that's cyclical and that also plays into, and I'm sure you can speak to this a little bit more, but it also speaks into where our hormones are with our cycle.

Tracy

Absolutely.

Cathy

And so when you have a D H D and then you compound the fact that there are times of the month that you naturally don't have as much focus. Mm-hmm. You gotta do a little bit of extra work to, to stay focused, to do the things that you want to actually do. Right.

Tracy

Absolutely. Yeah. Hormones play a huge part in, um, in, um, in your, in h d and kind of in magnifying everything

Cathy

I would imagine. I would imagine. And then not only hormones, but also because I speak to the moon and the universe and nature cycles around us, we feel all of that energy around us all the time.

Tracy

Mm-hmm.

Cathy

So, When you're a person with ADHD, and we're gonna get into what is A D H D here in just a moment, but when you're a person with A D H D and you're feeling the outside pull of the energy around you, as well as your internal energy and those hormones, right, I can understand how sometimes it might really feel like, you can't get anything done or you can't do anything, or you're, you're just, you're kind of lost or floundering in this world. Would you say that that's true?

Tracy

Absolutely. And, and, um, and I think that we've spoken about this before, but I am highly, highly, highly sensitive to the moon and to the cycles of the moon, and I've always been, and it used to be, Like my, my, um, well, we can talk more about it, but the, my used to feel like I was always like, there was always some kind of energy, was it, whether it was my menstrual cycle or the moon cycle or, you know, and my A D H D, which I didn't know about, but there was always probably, there was always this energy that I was like, oh my gosh. Like the rollercoaster.

Cathy

Yeah. Yeah. When did you learn that you had adhd?

Tracy

So I've known for about 20 years.

Cathy

Wow. What is D H D and why do people need to know about it?

Tracy

So technically. It's a neurological disorder. And I say with air quotes because I hate that word disorder, you know?

Cathy

So what would you call it? I just listened to you on a podcast, talk about what you would call it if you didn't call it a neurological disorder.

Tracy

Oh yeah. Was it the creative? Uh,

Cathy

I think so, yeah.

Tracy

Intentionality. I was just thinking about that. Yeah, I would totally call it, um, creative intentionality. You know, A D H D stands for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and if you have a D H D or if you, you know, anything about it or you're starting to, um, to explore it, it is absolutely not a deficit. Right. What would be a better, you know, a better definition I'll get to into the creative intentionality, but would be, it's not that we have a deficit of attention, it's that we are getting signals sensor. We, we are, we are feeling everything right. We almost, we don't necessarily have a, uh, um, a meter for what's the most important thing. Does that make sense?

Cathy

Yeah.

Tracy

So it's not. A deficit because we can hyper-focus like no one's business, but then we can also have the complete opposite of not being able to focus. So it's not, and we're focusing on like these, these minuscule things that mean nothing. But we can't, but we don't have a meter, I guess, is that, that's kind of the, you know, you can, you can go and you can look up, up A D, H, D and it's all this clinical, you know, it's in the D S M right? Which is the, yeah, the diagnostic. I, I don't know what the, for, um, for psychology. Right. Um, but when you, if you ask somebody who has it, It's different for all of us, which makes it really difficult because some of us are, there are different types. There's, uh, there's the hyperactive hyperactivity, um, which is one type. There's inattentive, which is another type, and then there's the combo type, which is hyperactive and inattentive. So you're talking like this really big, you know? Yeah. It, it's, it's very, very different for every single person. You know, there, there are hormones and there are different sensitivities and there's the way that we were brought up, like there are all these different ways and, and my sister and I both expressed differently as well. So it's a very interesting, it's an interesting, um, diagnosis, but incredibly helpful because then you have information.

Cathy

How does someone go about getting diagnosed then? Is it something they can take like a, an online, um, kind of questionnaire to. Help walk them through, like, these are some of the signs and symptoms, or do they need to seek out medical, a medical professional to help?

Tracy

So you can, you can do both. I highly recommend, um, getting a diagnosis so that you have the information. Some people are hesitant cause they don't want the, um, the label, but I don't see it as a label, Cathy, I, I. See it as information, and then you get to decide what direction to take. You know, some people, some people take the, the, uh, the, the medical, like the, the drug, um, the drug route and you know, there's therapy and there are skills, you know? Yeah. Like life skills that, like what you teach. Well, I think that's, you teach life skills, right?

Cathy

I, yeah. And I think that that's, I mean, that's a lot of what you do too. And I think that, so say someone wants to just explore it. They do a questionnaire online or something. Mm-hmm. They realize, oh, I've got these really, these tendencies. Even if they don't have that formal diagnosis, they can certainly find use in the skills that you teach and the skills that, um, that I teach on habits, on just performing, I don't wanna say performing because performing sounds like we're performing in life, but on. Right. Um, On just how to do things, how to get things done and flow with it instead of

Tracy

flow.

Cathy

Feeling like

Tracy

this key. Yeah. Yes,

Cathy

exactly right. Instead of feeling like there's just chaos around you all the time. Right, right. I mean, I've been listening to your podcast and it's, it's just filled with beautiful tips on

Tracy

Thank you,

Cathy

how to do all of those things and how to manage, and I'm thinking, I don't even know if I have adhd. I've never even thought it as a possibility. A lot of. People I know like within the past year, a lot of it's been coming into my awareness a lot more, and a lot of people have been like, oh, well I have ADHD now. I have adhd, I have adhd. And I'm thinking, what is going on? Where? Where, right. Where was the, where were these diagnoses? Diagnoses a long time ago, or what is the, why is there such an influx maybe, you know, it feels like there's an impact of people being diagnosed.

Tracy

There is, especially, of course, I work in the mom world, right? This is, this is my world. The pandemic. You know, the pandemic did lots of things. The pandemic brought to light everything that was not working right in all areas of life. Like worldwide, right?

Cathy

Yeah. Yeah.

Tracy

So it also brought to light that many of us were, uh, Especially when you have a D H D, we tend to do what's called masking.

Cathy

Hmm.

Tracy

And it's not necessarily, it's not lying or trying to be something that you're not. It's just that we're trying to fit into this world full of people. You know, the, our world is, was designed for neurotypical people.

Cathy

Mm-hmm.

Tracy

We have neurodiverse minds. We we're, our, our minds are, so, most of the world is, is, uh, typical. It's the way the world, you know, the, the society was, um, was developed and the things that we do. Time for instance, is, you know, that's one of the things that we really struggle with. But I really believe ever since the pandemic, the pandemic brought everything to light. You know, I can't even tell you. For myself. You know what? I had it. I had it all together. I've got my rhythms, I've got my, you know, I've got my, my, the things that I teach, the things that I've been doing for decades. But having all the people at home, uh, just, I mean, I went nuts. Yeah, because I was off my game. Like everything was different. Everything changed. And I think this is one of the reasons, Cathy, that, that we are now seeing like this influx of people getting diagnosed and I don't know if the, like Adderall, which is one of the, one of the, uh, medications that's prescribed for A D H D, like there's been a shortage and, um, because of all this influx. Now, here's one thing I wanna say about, you know, you're asking me how do you, um, how do you go about, you know, like what do you do if you think that you have a d h D

Cathy

mm-hmm.

Tracy

Or one thing? Those, the, the online tests. Definitely, you know, if you can see, if you, if it relates to you. And then working with someone, being, uh, being, having an evaluation done, um, by someone who is, uh, well versed in a D H D. And I'll tell you why. Um, before I was diagnosed, uh, I was diagnosed with, um, clinical depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder, right? So, and I was on all of these different medications and you know, like all of these. Things that were wrong with me. And I never really, for one thing, the medications didn't work for me, and some of them actually made me feel crazier than I, than I actually already felt. Um, and because they weren't the right thing for me. Mm-hmm. I was, I was misdiagnosed. Right.

Cathy

Yeah.

Tracy

So then when I finally was diagnosed, I was like, I am so done. I am so done with drugs. I am so done. And I kind of let it sit for a long time. I kind of, um, avoided it. Um, and then once I started embracing it, I'm like, oh my gosh. Oh, this is why, and this is why, and this is why it was kind of explained my whole life. Yeah. When I started really, really diving into it. So, I just said a lot, but, um, but I think the most important, um, point that I wanted to make that is that if you go to your, like, I would not recommend going to your doctor for an A D H D diagnosis.

Cathy

Okay?

Tracy

The, the number one. You know, the number one, um, uh, support that you might get if you, if you, um, go to somebody who is not well-versed in A D H D is drugs. And that's not, it's, it works for some, it works really brilliantly for some, but you know, drugs, Cathy, right? Yeah. The drugs are not going to, um, change your, um, your belief system. You know, the drugs are not going to. Um, change your relationships or anything like that. Like the drugs can help with focus or, you know, anx anxiety depending on what you're, what you're, um, what you're struggling with. Um, but you need like different supports. You need the skills. Sometimes you need a therapist or a coach. Yes.

Cathy

Like the community of of, of tricks of things to do basically.

Tracy

I love this is a bag of tricks. Yes. Yeah. That's it.

Cathy

Your tool bag. If, if you don't wanna call it a bag of tricks. It's a tool bag.

Tracy

It's a tool bag. Yeah. I call it the toolkit. Yes. Yeah, exactly.

Cathy

Yes. Yes. See, yeah. Okay, so, uh, I had another question then. How do you find someone who is an A D H D professional or someone who is, um, primarily works with that? Like would you, do you just go to a therapist? Do you just go, is there a place that you can go online and look up, Hey, I want someone who actually specializes in A D H D.

Tracy

So you can, these days especially it's, it's more, um, it's more available, but the, the A D H D professionals, the peop, the, the people who are, um, the practitioners who are, who specialize in A D H D, they are taxed right now. I mean, mental health is taxed first of all.

Cathy

Yeah, yeah.

Tracy

Um, but they are out there. Right. So I think it's, um, is it Psychology Today? I can't. I wish I, I, I can't remember the, um, if you, if you ask me at the end, I'll look it up. But there's a, there's a website that you can go to that has, um, you can, you can enter,

Cathy

yeah. Different psychology today and you can filter down to different,

Tracy

Yes. Than it is Psychology Today

Cathy

specifications. Yeah.

Tracy

Right. So, perfect. That's helpful. I, I would also, you know, um, maybe if there are, so Chad, c h a d D is a, an organization for, uh, children and adults with a D H D. So you can find a chapter in your area and start asking around, um, Uh, what is it? Uh, a d d A, which is the adults with, um, with a d d. That's another organization. So they, the, these organizations have chapters everywhere and you might just start getting into local, um, local communities and start asking around. Or, you know, you might even, you might even go to your, your, your doctor or if you have a therapist and, Hey, I'm exploring this. Do you know anyone who is well-versed? And I, I, um, I say that because I had been to so many psychologists and psychiatrists, um, and I was misdiagnosed and I could have, you know, like those de you don't get those decades back.

Cathy

Right, right. Yeah. And you treat those diagnoses different than what you would treat

Tracy

Yes.

Cathy

ADHD and your, your mind mentally treats them differently as well. Mm-hmm. So you're just doing different things for them. So I can definitely see how, like, if you've got this misdiagnosis of something else that. You're not actually going to be helping yourself. You're not actually going to be getting what you need.

Tracy

And here's the thing too, is that with adhd, it's so complex. Um, anxiety and depression. Often they, they're called comorbidities, which I hate that word, but, um, there are also conditions that can come alongside of A D H D.

Cathy

That's what I was just gonna ask, is it like a both and what it, you know?

Tracy

Yes.

Cathy

How does that work?

Tracy

It is, it is a, it is an A D H D and. Right. So I do have anxiety, right? But I have ADHD as well. So just treating the anxiety is not, that's not the answer. Mm-hmm. Because I also have depressive moments. I mean, my energy goes all over the place. So the longer you wait to get the diagnosis, uh, or if you are misdiagnosed, the more intense those, um, those, uh mm-hmm. Uh, disorders get right. So the, the depression gets deeper, the anxiety gets, you know, gets deeper. And actually, now that I'm saying this, I can think, um, back to, I think my kids were in elementary school. They're in, um, they're, my youngest is going to high school next year. Um, but I started having panic attacks. Right. So the anxiety that I was feeling was finally just like it was, it was growing and growing where it was, it was in my body, right? Um, scary. You know, I thought I was having heart attacks and, and all of that. Once I, it was so interesting, once I understood, oh, you're having a panic attack. Like, like I think I stopped having them. Yeah. Oh, it's just a pa a panic attack. Oh, well I know what to do for anxiety. It's just, it was a, it was an interesting,

Cathy

yeah,

Tracy

it was an interesting thing. So sometimes it's just the knowing, you know, the Oh, okay.

Cathy

Yeah.

Tracy

Things that I can do for that.

Cathy

Yeah. And it, it kind of takes the pressure off or it relieves some of that. I don't know what to do. I'm feeling this in my body. My body feels out of control and Right. Oh, but wait, I know what this is. I can name it. I can identify it. I can say yes to it, and then I can move forward with how to nurture it. Yes. And how to nurture it in my body.

Tracy

Beautifully said right there. Yeah.

Cathy

So is there an age that is too old to be diagnosed with a D H D?

Tracy

No. Mm-hmm.

Cathy

So someone in their sixties. Say they felt this way for a long time.

Tracy

And there's a myth that A D H D is a childhood disorder and it's not kids with adhd, I mean, you know, we all. Kids don't know what to do with their bodies. They don't know what to do with their energy. Like that's, that's across the board, right? I mean, you know, mo most kids, you know, they'll like,

Cathy

have you seen'em around a full moon?

Tracy

They're learning. Absolutely. I was a preschool teacher before I had kids. Yes. Full moon. Are you kidding me? But um, but it's not a childhood disorder. We don't grow out of it. We learn. Coping mechanisms healthy or not? You know, one of my coping mechanisms in high school was, uh, was drinking and, and drugs. Right? Which is what, which can also be a, um, uh, it is a way, it's unfortunately a way that people with A D H D, um, that it's self-medicating.

Cathy

Mm-hmm.

Tracy

So it's not, it's not a childhood disorder. It is, it is something that continues. And like I said, as you, um, as you grow and as you, as you, um, as you continue on not being diagnosed or misdiagnosed, those, those, those things grow with you. Right. The depression or anxiety or,

Cathy

yeah, that's a beautiful way, way to say it. The other. Comorbidities grow with you?

Tracy

They do. They do? Yeah.

Cathy

Oh man.

Tracy

You know, when you, you said something about, um, about spirituality.

Cathy

Mm-hmm.

Tracy

I, now, when I look back on my life, My spiritual journey, which started decades. Okay. My spiritual journey started when I was a kid. Really was my mother, was my, my mother would give me all these amazing books. Um, but my spiritual journey really began, um, and continues as a way to, um, support myself and my adhd. There's like, there's gotta be something. There's, I know that there's gotta be something else. And, and it kind of, it led me to what I do now, so I'm grateful. But it was, you know, it was my spiritual journey started at a, you know, I need help. Right. Please help me. And I hear that very, that a lot of people kind of start from

Cathy

self understanding.

Tracy

Yeah. It's a self-understanding. That's exactly it.

Cathy

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So I've heard you say that people with ADHD have a different kind of nervous system.

Tracy

Mm-hmm.

Cathy

What do you mean by that?

Tracy

So the autonomic nervous system, which is the, uh, the sympathetic parasympathetic, the, um, the, uh, no, I get them mixed up sometimes, but the, the rest and digest and the fight or flight, right? Those are the two responses of the autonomic nervous system in people with a, uh, neurotypical people, people with a, with a, again, air quotes, normal, um,

Cathy

right

Tracy

nervous system. It shifts automatically. Really, um, kind of, uh, it, it shift the, we shift between the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous system more easily and more naturally. With a D H D, with a neurodiverse, uh, nervous system, we sometimes get stuck, you know, like, we'll get into a fight or flight and we can't get out.

Cathy

Mm-hmm.

Tracy

Or it take, or, or we're just shifting it. It's, it's not, it's, it's not as smooth, right? So we have to, we have to learn our nervous system. We have to learn how, we have to learn our triggers. We need to, we have to learn, um, you know, we have to really know ourselves really well. So that we can manage that so we can be able to shift back, you know, shift, shift back into the rest. And what do I need to do? What do I, that's what, that's the toolkit, right?

Cathy

Yeah.

Tracy

What, what helps me, what helps me? Something that I can bring in immediately. And you know, the more you know yourself, you more, you know your rhythms, the more you know your triggers, the easier it is to shift back. Does that make sense? Does that answer your question?

Cathy

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. So it's about emotional regulation.

Tracy

Mm-hmm.

Cathy

And learning how to smoothly transition as best you can because you don't, right. That doesn't come naturally to you.

Tracy

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you know, we still do, we still do transition, but it's just, it's not, it's not as smooth. It's not, the shift is not as easy and we need more help. What might it, and here's the thing. With people with adhd, we tend to struggle, struggle with, um, with what's called the executive function skills. So things like, things like memory, things like, um, like, uh, tasks, you know, um, starting them, maintaining them, completing them. Um, uh, distraction and, um, and just, just like the, the things that we need, especially in mom life, right?

Cathy

Mm-hmm.

Tracy

All of those things that we need to prioritizing, organization, all of those things. Emotional regulation is one of those executive function skills, right? Mm-hmm. But what I do, and, and I think that what makes what my work a little bit different is that. I mean, we're gonna start with the emotional regulation because if we are not emotionally regulated, we can't focus, we can't recall things, we can't organize like we have to, you know, cuz we're, we're stuck in that, in that, um, that fight or flight or in that, does that make sense? Like your brain.

Cathy

Absolutely.

Tracy

Your brain almost goes offline when you're in that fight or flight, um, response. So you wanna bring your brain back online so then you can, you know, then you can, um, that focus and all of the other things.

Cathy

Yeah. I was just gonna ask, what does that look like when you are, when you have those executive function struggles?

Tracy

That's hard as hell.

Cathy

You kinda answered it, you know? Yeah. But what does it, what does it look like when someone is stuck and they're not, I don't know. Paint that picture.

Tracy

Yeah. I mean, um, I can, the most vivid. Picture it for me is, uh, is the pandemic. So all of that time at home, right? Yeah. And so we, we also kept our kids, um, they had the option to go back to school, I think it was like for the last half at some point. But we, I have aging parents, so we were trying to keep every, and they all have, they're all compromised. They all have health, health issues, so we mm-hmm. Kept our kids home so that our, the parents weren't isolated anyway. We were home for a long time. Yeah. And trying to manage my, I have business, right? I have a life.

Cathy

Yeah.

Tracy

And I managing my business, my kids' life. And we live in a 1400 square foot home. Right. Which is perfect for us. But when all of us were home, my husband was working, my kids were doing virtual school, um, not be a, not being able to, I was spread so thin and I already have focus issues. I was just a basket case. Right. I was kind of in a perpetual state of fight or flight trying to put out all the fires. You know what, that's an exa that's a great example of what that looks like. Whack-a-mole, right? I'm playing a game, a whack-a-mole all the time. Yeah. Like trying to, trying to just whack down the, just as quickly as they come. Um.

Cathy

That's a beautiful picture.

Tracy

And doing with a spoon.

Cathy

Yeah.

Tracy

Not doing it.

Cathy

You don't have that big mallet.

Tracy

Doing it effectively. Yeah. Right, right.

Cathy

Oh man.

Tracy

But when you are able to emotionally regulate and bring yourself back to this, you know, the rest of digest or as much as you can, then you can. You don't have to play the whack-a-mole, you know? Mm-hmm. You can tend to the things more easily. Now, I'm not saying that, you know, tend to your nervous system and you can do everything perfectly. It's not that way. Right. We still have executive function challenges, but the more you have tools and and tricks and you know, I call them supports, you have your supports in place, your ADHD supports in place, then it's easier. Makes life easier.

Cathy

Sure. The more knowledge you have and the more self-awareness, we keep going back to that, like it's about self-awareness and

Tracy

that's exactly it.

Cathy

When you start on that spiritual path, that's what it is. It's self-understanding and it's

Tracy

mm-hmm.

Cathy

The awareness of how you move through this life and who you are. And when you don't have that, you're just going about your business, not even. Realizing that everything is interconnected and that's kind of the root of mindfulness, right? We are all

Tracy

exactly

Cathy

connected and our actions impact everything else in life. Tracy. And I continued our conversation with the keys to staying focused when living with ADHD and why living a vision driven life is crucial to living with a D H D and the next part of this series. Tracy. And I continued our conversation with the keys to staying focused when living with ADHD and why living a vision driven life is crucial to living with ADHD in the next part of this series. Tracy shares tools and practices from her vibe care toolkit that you can use to stay ahead of your emotions so they don't get away from you. Which is all super beautiful. And I will include links to Tracy's contact information, as well as her ADHD supports guide for moms, with ADHD and some other helpful resources we mentioned in the show. In the show notes, you can grab the show notes at Karen yoga, wellness.com. Forward slash podcast 79, the link will also be in the episode description, I guess. If you're, if. If you are curious, or if you or someone you might love might have. If you're curious if you might have ADHD or someone you love might have ADHD, it might be worth seeking out a medical professional who can help you look further into this. It's a treatable condition. And as Tracy shared with the right tools, it can absolutely be manageable. It's simply another way of knowing yourself more deeply. And knowing how to respond to the things that come your way into this world. So it's all about what we talk about on this show with deepening yourself, understanding and getting to know yourself better. And then having the tools to support you in doing that so that you don't feel like you're surrounded by chaos all the time, because. Heaven's knows. We are always going to have things going on around us. We're going to have chaos around us. But if we have the right tools and the right viewpoint and perspective of how to look at things, then you can continue to navigate and flow with your time, energy and focus, even when things don't go exactly as you'd hoped. Until next time. I'm Cathy Struecker helping you find and use the rhythms around you to flow with life. Cheers to cultivating your own version of health harmony and happiness in your life