Practices

Every practice in the library, in one list. Narrow it by how long you have, who it is written for, and where you are right now.

Narrowed down

1888 practices
Area
How long you have
Who it is written for · Me
Where you are right now
On your own, or with someone · On my own
Theme
Your nervous system 105Medication and how it works 82What anger actually is 78The moment before you snap 76Choosing your response 73Get started 65Systems for daily life 62Grounding and settling 59Equanimity and perspective 57The fear underneath anger 56Cool the body first 55Your sense of time 52Touch and bodywork 52Food, caffeine and fuel 49Moving your body 48Bringing the future closer 46What ADHD actually is 42Exercise, food and other supports 41When everything feels flat 39Feelings and focus 37Staying regulated in conflict 36Practising under provocation 36Shame and stigma 30Treatment and medication 29Making it stick 29Getting assessed and diagnosed 28Breathing 28Screens and attention 28Structure and routine 24Tolerate distress 23Feeling from the inside 23Being seen and judged 22What worry does 21What you are actually defending 21Treatment and medication 20Growing empathy 20Remembering to do it 20When you use something to cope 18Fondness and admiration 13Answering bids 13Breaking the worry loop 13Righteous anger and perfectionism 12Emotions as signals 12Self-compassion 12Obsessions and compulsions 12Question the thought 11Knowing your partner 10Shame 10Facing it a step at a time 10Use your strengths 9Posture and how you carry yourself 8Anger, alcohol and the body 8Repair after rupture 8Shared spiritual life 7Gratitude 7When anger turns to harm 5When you go numb 4Letting it out safely 4Meaning after harm 4Living with uncertainty 4Name what you feel 3Notice the pattern and flex 3Your worth is not conditional 3Let the wave come 3Rebuilding trust 3Working with anger 3Rest and pacing 3Act on your values 3Calm the body 3Safety and grounding 3Affection and touch 2Ride the urge 2Rituals of connection 2Your window of tolerance 2Work with your brain 2Listen to the body 2Reading, numbers and learning differences 2Keep the bond 2Hold a boundary 2Get it out of your head 2Find meaning 2Face it gently 2Care for yourself in loss 2Patience and trust 2Listening and understanding 1Validate yourself and others 1Panic and the body 1The cost of avoiding 1
Approach
When

Megavitamins, antioxidant products such as pycnogenol and assorted trace minerals have not beaten placebo for ADHD. They stay popular on the strength of a good story about how they ought to work.

The gap between a mechanism and an outcome is the thing worth teaching, because it will still be useful when the next product appears. Ask what…

Five minutesExercise, food and other supportsMedical and treatmentQur’an 7:31

Chiropractic neurologic organisation training, the kind involving manipulation of the skull, has no credible theory behind it for ADHD. The main harm is not the treatment itself but the months and the money that go into it.

Families meet this because it is marketed at them at the exact moment they are most willing to try anything. Naming it plainly, once, is usually…

Five minutesExercise, food and other supportsMedical and treatmentQur’an 17:27

With EEG neurofeedback, the weaker the study, the better the results look. Six large trials using sham feedback, with parents and teachers kept unaware of who received what, found nothing beyond placebo.

That shrinking with rigour is itself the finding. Blinding matters especially here because the outcome is a rating made by adults who have watched…

Five minutesExercise, food and other supportsMedical and treatmentQur’an 10:67

Brain training makes you better at the game, and at things that resemble the game. It does not seem to reach the parts of life you bought it for.

Cogmed, the several hundred apps, the balance based programmes: they all hit the same wall when someone independent tests them with a proper control…

Five minutesExercise, food and other supportsMedical and treatmentQur’an 3:191

One senior researcher in this field is approached by ADHD app startups roughly once a month and no longer takes part, on the view that the companies are not seriously trying to build something that works.

You do not have to share his judgement to borrow the question. Before paying for a digital product, ask who tested it, whether those testers were…

Five minutesExercise, food and other supportsMedical and treatmentQur’an 28:26

Peripheral biofeedback, the sort that tracks skin conductance and heart rate rather than brainwaves, has more behind it than neurofeedback does. You practise letting the body drop into a calmer state while a monitor shows you it happening.

Once that state is familiar, pair it with a distinctive scent used only for this. After enough repetitions the smell starts pulling the state along…

Twenty minutesExercise, food and other supportsMedical and treatmentQur’an 13:28

If you are going to take supplements, it is worth paying a small subscription to a service that assays what is actually in them. ConsumerLab is one, at roughly sixty dollars a year.

The thing to check about any such service is who funds it, because a tester paid by manufacturers is a marketing department with a laboratory…

Twenty minutesExercise, food and other supportsMedical and treatmentQur’an 2:247

When omega levels are low, everything about ADHD tends to get louder: attention, mood swings, holding things in mind. Low omega does not cause ADHD, but it can be sitting on top of it.

Think of it as one more layer to lift off rather than the thing underneath. Specialist labs can measure levels if it seems worth checking, and…

Twenty minutesExercise, food and other supportsMedical and treatmentQur’an 23:21

One woman's ADHD symptoms climbed and her thinking slowed as each B12 injection wore off, then settled again after the next one. The deficiency came down one side of her family and the ADHD down the other.

The two lived in the same person without either causing the other. What made it findable was the timing, because difficulties that follow a cycle are…

Twenty minutesExercise, food and other supportsMedical and treatmentQur’an 23:21

Play therapy and insight based psychotherapy do not treat ADHD. There is no buried, unexpressed feeling driving it that talking will let out.

The difficulty sits in executive control and how it develops, not in hidden conflict. That said, a child with ADHD can also be anxious, grieving or…

LongerExercise, food and other supportsMedical and treatmentQur’an 2:153

The speed is why these work and also what they cost. Relief that lands within the half hour is the most teachable kind there is, and what it teaches is to reach for it sooner next time.

How fast a drug comes on drives that learning more than how long it hangs around afterwards. Better to name it out loud with someone than leave them…

A minutePanic and the bodyMedical and treatmentQur’an 13:28

When loss hits, remember it was named in advance as a test, and that good news was promised to those who hold.

The pain is real and expected, not a sign that something has gone uniquely wrong with you.

A minutePatience and trustGriefQur’an 2:155

On the days you can only endure, endure. Patience through grief is not wasted; it is counted.

Some days the work is simply to bear it without turning bitter. That bearing is itself worth something.

A minutePatience and trustGriefQur’an 39:10

You are not here for a longer hamstring. You are here for a nervous system that can change gear, work when work is needed and settle when it is not.

An ordinary class measures you against the shape, and that measuring is the same self driving that wore you out in the first place. The therapeutic…

A minutePosture and how you carry yourselfBody basedQur’an 31:19

When attention has nowhere to settle, give it something. A fixed point on the floor, the breath, the shape your hands are making, or the plain feel of the position you are in.

Which one you choose matters more than people expect. Focusing on the breath turns attention inward, and inward is the wrong direction for anyone…

A minutePosture and how you carry yourselfBody basedQur’an 22:26

Once a shape feels safe, it becomes somewhere to explore from. The question stops being am I doing this right and turns into how does my body want to move now.

Stay in an easy position long enough for it to go slightly dull. Dull is the sign that the ground under you is steady. From there, small experiments:…

Five minutesPosture and how you carry yourselfBody basedQur’an 3:191

Picture a cat getting up from a nap. One side lengthens and reaches while the other side curls in, then they swap over. Do that. Add breath and sound if you want them.

After a minute of copying the animal, drop the instructions and let your body carry on however it likes. That is the reason for starting here:…

Five minutesPosture and how you carry yourselfBody basedQur’an 19:58

Find the place that is always tight, your jaw, your shoulders, the top of your back. Take it over deliberately. Squeeze it harder than it holds itself, then let it go.

Do that a few times and something changes. The holding stops being weather that happens to you and becomes something you are doing, which means it is…

Five minutesPosture and how you carry yourselfBody basedQur’an 22:77

Take a shape that asks something of you, warrior or mountain, eyes open, the middle of your body switched on. Then, without coming out of it, drop your attention inside and let the pose hold you instead.

Two things get practised in one position. First the doing: strong legs, clear gaze, a body that is ready. Then the yielding: still there, still…

Five minutesPosture and how you carry yourselfBody basedQur’an 2:238

Grounding and relaxing are two different prescriptions. A squat with your back against a wall puts you back into your legs. Deep guided rest takes you downwards. Reach for whichever one is missing.

When someone has gone numb or absent, often from the waist down, weight bearing work in the legs gives the body something loud and unmistakable to…

Five minutesPosture and how you carry yourselfBody basedQur’an 17:37

Looking for a whole subject rather than a single practice? Start from the nine areas.