Using Sensory Awareness to Access the Present Moment

Imagine: you’re driving home from work, and your mind is leaping to the evening ahead.

Before you know it, you’re home on the couch -- when your partner comes in with your keys in their hand and announces that you left the keys in the ignition AND forgot to close the car door! 

Sound familiar? Dr. Ari Tuckman describes ADHD as the “dysregulation of attention over time.”

This dyregulation is why your attention is often not focused on what is happening in the present moment. This is what has happened when you find yourself asking, “How did I get here?” or “What did I miss?” 

To help you manage your attention, you have a tool that you may not be using: your body. You think of yourself as your mind - your thoughts; but remember: you also have a physical component that contributes to your experience!

Your body is another part of your awareness. It picks up and relays sensory information to your brain -- heat, sound, sight, touch, taste -- as well as peripheral information that flies below the awareness of your conscious mind. 

Your body is a tool for being present and aware in this moment -- which then enables you to connect your actions in this moment to the past and future. Continuity. Sense-making. Progress.

Consider why this is important: How can you remember - and make sense of - what you never noticed? How can you plan for the future when you aren’t aware of where you are now? 

The opportunity I suggest to you is to use your physical senses to be here now

When your mind begins to jump ahead, use physical cues such as what you see and hear to bring it back to the “now.” 

What is happening now?

Noticing what your body is aware of in the moment will calm your mind, allowing you to transition naturally into the ability to choose your next step by asking, “Is there an action I want to take at this time?” 

That’s the practice: bring your attention to your senses and let them inform your mind. Breathe. Where are you now? What will you do in this moment? 

Let each moment, and each breath, take you, step by step, as a path into your desired future.

ADHD Life Support is the blog of
Susan McGinnis, CALC of ADHD Impact Coaching LLC
Coaching adults with ADHD
www.adhdimpactcoaching.com

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Learning to Be Here Now