Lidia Zylowska - The Mindfulness Prescription for Adult ADHD: An 8-Step Program for Strengthening Attention, Managing Emotions, and Achieving Your Goals

A superb book, an important book, a book that breaks new ground. Anyone who is interested in the treatment of ADHD in adults must own this. Rigorous in its research, accessible in its style, convincing in its argument, and novel in its premise, this book keeps its promise of offering a reliable mindfulness prescription. I hugely recommend this book!

Edward Hallowell, MD, author of Driven to Distraction

A great many people stand to benefit from Zylowskas eight-step program. Structured to be accessible for its target audience, this supportive guide to managing ADHD through mindfulness offers a clear and detailed program for putting an effective treatment in the hands of consumers and is a great contrast to the many didactic, jargon-laden self-help books available.

Shelf Awareness

ABOUT THE BOOK

Do you:

• Have trouble paying attention and staying on task?
• Suffer from disorganization, procrastination, or forgetfulness?
• Have difficulty with restlessness or trouble managing strong feelings such as anger and frustration?
• Struggle with self-doubt and difficulty following through?
• In a way that causes problems in your relationships or your work?

If so, you may have Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)like an estimated 8 million adults in this country. Physician-researcher Dr. Lidia Zylowska has created an 8-step program for using mindfulness practice (attention and awareness training) to overcome the symptoms of ADHD. The program includes practices such as sitting meditation, body awareness, thoughtful speaking and listening, development of self-acceptance, mindful self-coaching, cultivation of a balanced view of thoughts and emotions, and more. Dr. Zylowska educates readers about ADHD, helping them to understand how their ADHD brain works and how they can use mindful awareness to work with their challenges. She also explains how the mindful approach can be combined with other treatments, including medications, to boost self-improvement.

This book is accompanied by an audio program of guided mindfulness exercises for successfully managing ADHD.

LIDIA ZYLOWSKA, MD, is a psychiatrist specializing in mindfulness-based approaches to mental health. She is a cofounder and faculty member at UCLAs Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC). A recipient of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Fellowship, Dr. Zylowska also maintains a private practice in West Los Angeles, where she treats adults with attention deficits.

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The Mindfulness Prescription for

Adult ADHD

An Eight-Step Program for Strengthening Attention, Managing Emotions, and Achieving Your Goals

LIDIA ZYLOWSKA, MD

Foreword by Daniel J. Siegel, MD

TRUMPETER

Boston & London

2012

Trumpeter Books

An imprint of Shambhala Publications, Inc.

Horticultural Hall

300 Massachusetts Avenue

Boston, Massachusetts 02115

trumpeterbooks.com

2012 by Lidia Zylowska

Cover art and design by Jim Zaccaria

reprinted courtesy of the Mountains and Rivers Order National Buddhist Archives.

.

The World Health Organization is reprinted with permission.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Zylowska, Lidia.

The mindfulness prescription for adult ADHD: an 8-step program for strengthening attention, managing emotions, and achieving your goals / Lidia Zylowska; foreword by Daniel Siegel.

p. cm.

eISBN 978-0-8348-2770-7

ISBN 978-1-59030-847-9 (pbk.)

1. Attention-deficit disorder in adultsAlternative treatmentPopular works. 2. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorderPopular works. 3. Mind and body therapiesPopular works. 4. Self-care, HealthPopular works. I. Title.

RC394.A85Z95 2012

616.8589dc23

2011025174

To the memory of my father, Jozef Zylowski

Contents

Do Something Different This Time

You Can Train Your Mind

The Eight-Step Program

Attention and the Five Senses

Mindful Breathing

Mindfulness of Sound, Breath, and Body

Mindfulness of Body Sensations and Movement

Mindfulness of Thoughts

Mindfulness of Feelings

Mindful Listening and Speaking

Mindful Decisions and Actions

Using Mindfulness in Your Daily Life with ADHD

Daniel J. Siegel, MD

In your hands you have a practical approach to helping you focus attention, balance your emotions, improve your relationships, and enhance your life. Sounds too good to be true, doesnt it? Well, research supports the suggestions made in this book: The way you focus your mind can actually change the structure of your brain. No kidding. By taking the practical steps in this book, you can strengthen the connections in your brain that support a more focused way of living. People with and even without ADHD can benefit from learning to develop mindful awareness in their lives. This book is tailored for those with attentional challenges, who will find it especially relevant and accessible to use.

But why would it help to be mindful or to learn to have mindful awareness? Think of it this way: Our attention is the way energy flows through us. Sometimes we can focus that energy, say, into listening to what someone is saying to us. But then a radio program catches our ear or a television screen catches our eye, and the words of our friend are far from the focus of our attention. Such distractions can make us lose our ability to remember what the other person was saying and they put stress on a relationship. Not so good! If that person is a friend, a spouse, a teacher, or a boss, such distractions can lead to big and lasting problems. We can feel bad, and the other person can feel disrespected. Its tough for everyone when attention is on the run. And for young people, being unable to focus attention can make challenges to creating a positive sense of who they are. It is hard to be told that you are not doing what you are supposed to do, and being told this over and over and over and over and over and over again. Enough is enough!

Now there is a new prescription to such challenges to ADHD, a practical approach that can be used alongside commonly prescribed medications, if they are being used. Lidia Zylowska, MD, headed up our pilot study at the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center. With our coworkers at the center, she created a mindfulness-based program that has a potential to dramatically improve focus and other executive skills in adults and adolescents with attentional difficulties. The lessons learned from this initial pilot study need to be confirmed through additional research, but the studys findings and Dr. Zylowskas clinical experience with her patients are offered here for you in this easy-to-use, readily accessible guide for those with ADHD.

Whats in this for you? You can use these practical tools to transform your life. By learning to focus attention in a new way, you can actually strengthen the very brain areas that are creating challenges in focusing and maintaining attention. Youll also learn how to balance your emotions and create and nurture more rewarding relationships. Its amazing, but true. You dont have to be bullied by your brains wandering focus anymore. Now you can actually befriend your brain by learning mindful skills of attention as practiced in the helpful exercises throughout this book.