ADHD calming strategies are essential to any ADHD management plan. Unfortunately, ADHD can raise stress levels for both parents and kids. Higher stress causes many additional issues that many of us don’t have the time and energy to deal with or address. You don’t have to take our word for it, you find out the effects of stress on your body from many sources.
The good news is that while ADHD might be frequently challenging, it doesn’t have to always be stressful. Here at Fastbraiin, we believe that ADHD and stress don’t have to rule your life. Additionally, we believe that with the right tools, patience, and time, all of us can learn ways to manage ADHD stress.
To help beat stress and the hectic environments ADHD sometimes creates, we want to explore some helpful ADHD calming strategies. You can use these strategies to help yourself or your child manage ADHD stress. Hopefully, these tools can provide some alleviation from anxiety caused by ADHD in your life.
#1 Accept Your ADHD
We all need to relax more. For those of us with ADHD, this might be especially true. Many people with ADHD find each day to be a struggle. Many environments and processes just do not work well with how the ADHD brain works.
Work and life can be stressful enough on their own. Don’t add to that stress by constantly critiquing yourself and trying to make your mind work differently than it does.
The first step of ADHD calming strategies should be to accept your ADHD. You will always find some activities or processes difficult. Accept that and move on. Don’t keep going back to your failures, but rather accept your limitations and work with others to find success in your weak spots.
#2 Talk About Your Feelings
Part of relaxing and finding rest involves stopping and reflecting. Another key aspect of effective ADHD calming strategies should be pausing and talking with someone about how you feel. Stress needs an outlet. Too often, due to pressures and our natural tendency to hold feelings inside, that outlet can become destructive.
To avoid adopting destructive and negative habits for dealing with stress, you need to practice activities to provide a positive release for stress. In talking through your feelings, you both acknowledge and identify with your stress as well as allow yourself to let it go.
We would recommend talking through your feelings with a spouse, friend, or coworker. Through sharing your stress and feelings, you no longer have to feel as if you are all alone. You can release the negative feelings and find compassion and empathy in talking through your feelings.
#3 Take Some Time for Yourself
We all have our limits. Stress oftentimes gets the better of us when we feel overwhelmed or suffocated by work and responsibilities. Before you find yourself getting to that breaking point, you need to take some time for yourself.
Helpful ADHD calming strategies should incorporate opportunities for you to express yourself in positive ways. For many with ADHD, this might involve doing something creative like drawing, painting, or writing. For parents, this might look like finding ways to encourage ADHD and creativity in your children.
Taking some time for yourself doesn’t have to be a selfish activity. You shouldn’t see this calming strategy in that light. We all need a break and need some time to refuel. Through taking some time for yourself, you can get away and reenergize.
#4 Get Active
Stress and worry oftentimes live just in our minds. To relieve stress, many times, you need to get yourself out of your own head. One of the best ways to get out of your mind is to get active.
Good ADHD calming strategies should encourage you to get moving. We’ve known for some time that physical activity helps to reduce stress. Additionally, exercise and sports provide further benefits. For instance, we know physical activity improves ADHD.
Getting active can look different for different people depending on your personality. Some times this could mean exercising at a gym and sometimes this could mean playing competitive sports.
Just make sure, though, that getting active doesn’t add to the stress. If playing competitive sports adds to your anxiety, stick with walking or running instead as part of your ADHD calming strategy.
#5 Rest
The most basic of ADHD calming strategies can also be the most effective. Of course, that strategy is simply to rest. Again, rest can look different to different people.
For some people, rest might look like a relaxing warm bubble bath. For others, rest might actually look like taking a morning to sleep in and do nothing else.
Most importantly, you want to build in rhythms of rest into your life. In our modern fast-paced society, many of us might need to start with learning to rest. Many of us may not have rested in quite some time. To kick it off, maybe try with taking an extended vacation. A little bit of rest can go a very long way.
Using ADHD Calming Strategies to Balance Your Life
Our daily lives are filled with constant moving, activities, and stress. We all need more balance to maintain a healthy lifestyle. To create this balance, you should find more ways to incorporate ADHD calming strategies to level out your highs and lows and eliminate stress.
To find balance in your life, start by using the ADHD calming strategies talked about here. Expand on these tips by utilizing other strategies and ideas to balance both your resting and working lives.