Using the Power of the Pause to support ADHD was the topic for our morning ADHD Success Club module. Here’s how Maya, our guest blogger, put this into action in her life.
Making the time to take breaks and filter my thoughts are two daily challenges for me, so working through last week’s The Power of the Pause ADHD Success Club module is tough. The Pause—a time to rest, ponder, or just be—is what leads to awareness. In my mind, I inherently know that sporadic and fleeting pauses will need to become more consistent over time for me to live successfully with ADHD.
Over the years, friends and coworkers have shared what they think about me going full throttle 24-7.
It must be exhausting being you.
When do you ever shut down?
You’re so intense.
You’re like the energizer bunny.
When forging forward through life like the Energizer Bunny fueled by passion and intensity, the idea of pressing a pause button is easily forgotten. Without considering my direction or battery life, I keep going and going and going only to find myself overwhelmed on an unnavigable course or physically and mentally exhausted unable to go any further.
Living successfully with ADHD, as Dana explains, is about more than pills and skills; it’s about awareness. Learning to manage ADHD require developing consistent habits and awareness, and part of this will certainly involve learning how to use the power of the pause.
The Power of The Pause for ADHD
Dana describes two types of ADHD power pauses: intentional and in the moment.
Intentional Pauses are planned pauses to help me get quiet and relax. These pauses give me an opportunity to recharge my batteries, a necessity for the Energizer Bunny. An intentional pause can also be the type of pause that helps me stop long enough to figure out my schedule and my plans.
Last week after listening to the coaching call, I found myself longing for an intentional pause as I stopped to observe another adult intentionally pausing and taking a break. My busy principal left his office and played basketball with his son. In his work clothes and still at school, he found a way to intentionally pause to enjoy a moment with his son.
On spring break, I’m struggling to allow myself to use the power of the pause. With a lot of schoolwork to do, I have to force myself take time off to just be. Yesterday doing yard work for my mom, immersed in mowing, leaf blowing, raking, and gutter cleaning, I found that I got into the rhythm of work and was able to give myself a mental break from all the clutter in my brain, clear my mind, and focus on being in the moment. Perhaps I need to crank up a lawn mower or turn on a leaf blower each day and just sit in the garage letting the noise quiet my thoughts.
In the Moment Pauses will allow me to stop in those stressful moments where I need to pause in order to adjust and direct my thoughts, words, and actions in order to make good decisions. Using the power of the pause in the moment can make all the difference.
Dana described ten situations where an In the Moment Pause would be helpful. I’ve chunked them into categories of when I need to pause.
- I should pause in the moments I am MENTALLY STUCK (procrastinating, overwhelmed, or ruminating/over-thinking). To move forward, I should stop, breathe, and think.
- I should pause in the moments I find myself stuck in SCATTERED ACTIONS (ineffectively acting, impulsively thinking, transitioning tasks).
- I should pause in moments of CHALLENGING INTERACTIONS (heated conversation, losing control, impulsively overcommitting).
Yes, I need to PAUSE and THINK and PROCESS as I react to the stressors that come with the moments of everyday life. In addition, I need to build in regular INTENTIONAL pauses as a part of my daily life, so that I’m mentally capable of recognizing when I’m stuck in a moment, scattered in my actions, or challenged by an interaction.
When my ADHD brain is driving, it craves action and forward movement. It sees the pause as a counter-intuitive slowing of progress, yet a power pause is precisely what my ADHD brain needs.
What the ADHD brain wants is very different than what it needs. I want to GO—I need to STOP. I want to KEEP GOING—I need to PAUSE. I want to SPEED UP—I need to SLOW DOWN. I want to be a human DOING—I need to be a human BEING.
The power of the pause, an action of inaction, will slow my brain down, increase my awareness, and help me make better choices to live more successfully with ADHD.
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