Tag: questions

ADHD · fitness

Audience Participation Time: How do you reset?

Christine Hennebury7 Comments

I had a very careful plan for my Monday, some writing, a few administrative tasks, outlining, and organizing details for an event next week. But instead of doing all that perfectly reasonable and very doable stuff, I fell into a trap composed of inertia and ADHD hyperfocus and spent most of the day organizing notes and info from a few of my files.

a tidy stack of groups of white papers held together with paper clips are sitting next to pair of glasses, the corner of a silver and white keyboard can be seen on the right. ​
Obviously, my stack of papers would never be this tidy, this is a stock photo. Image description; a tidy stack of groups of white papers held together with paper clips are sitting next to pair of glasses, the corner of a silver and white keyboard can be seen on the right.

Those are useful things to have done and they will be helpful for me in the long run but I wish that I had broken that task down in a half hour sessions throughout the week.

Instead, I spent most of my day sitting down, poring over papers, making all kinds of small decisions about what to keep, what to scan, and what to recycle.

It was only when I started to get annoyed with myself for not wanting to deal with the last two papers in a folder that I realized that I was tired and that I had spent too much time doing this one thing. (For the record, I did stop for lunch and for several cups of tea, I wasn’t that far gone.)

At this point you may be thinking, “Yeah Christine, that sounds frustrating but what does it have to do with fitness?”

That’s where the audience participation part is going to come in, hang on a sec.

You see, when I pulled myself away from the papers, after finishing those last two, I realized that I needed to do something. I needed to move in some way but damned if I could figure out what it was.

Did I want to stretch?

Do some yoga?

Go for a walk?

Practice my patterns?

Do something a bit more intense?

I wanted to do all and none of that.

I actually wanted a magic wand to give me my day back and take this meh feeling away but I guess my fairy godmother is on holiday today because she didn’t answer. Everyone needs their rest, right?

Anyway, I decided to start with a few stretches and then I headed out for a walk. Seeing as my fairy godmother was incommunicado, I figured that hanging out with Khalee was the most practical magic I could access.

A light haired dog in a red sweater covered in white hearts stands on a sidewalk looking toward the camera.
Khalee, a light-haired dog wearing a red sweater covered in white hearts, stands on a sidewalk with snow next to her. She is looking toward the camera and I swear she looks impatient. She is wearing a blue and black harness and since I am holding her neon yellow leash, you can see it extending from her harness toward the camera.

But, I’m curious, what do YOU do when you find yourself feeling all meh and grumpy?

Do you need gentle movement to ease your brain and body back into gear?

Or do you go for something more vigorous so you can get a jump start?

Do tell!

PS – For the record: I was a bit cranky about losing my day to sorting papers but, ultimately, my effort will be useful. I wasn’t hard on myself about it. ADHD is tricky and being mean to myself about my symptoms and tendencies won’t make it any easier. You may not have ADHD but I hope you can be kind to yourself about the detours your brain takes too. We’re all just doing our best out here, right?