Social Networking or The Bermuda Triangle of Cyberspace

Posted on September 20, 2008 by Judi Jerome

Hello from 'Learning Central…'
ADHD and multitasking is another posting, so for today I will say that I am NOT very good at  "ADHD Multi-tasking".  I've been lost in an ADD-ADHD ocean of Social Networking for the past month, aka; The Bermuda Triangle (OK,perhaps a teeny, tiny bit of ADHD obsessing – hmm another posting emerges…).

I started out with an invitation from Tara McGillicuddy to befriend her on LinkedIn. Soon to follow was Facebook and I shortly added Twitter.  Well, next thing you know bloglines, blogger, Yahoo, MySpace, delicious… IT NEVER ENDS, and apparently neither did my attention span.

Thanks to Tara I now have a service that I only have to write ONE post to and it will 'ping' them all. 

I am a business owner, a writer, a therapist, a coach, and a person with an actual personal life.  So, how to balance them all. Ask for help comes to mind. OK, got that covered. Revamping my website so it will all be easier to organize all of the Web 2.0 end of the business. Now I am heading back to basics and I feel much freer. (is that a word?).

Being mindful for me means meditating each morning. What came to me very clearly was, ASK FOR HELP.  That was the rescue boat, the life saver that pulled me out of the WEB 2.0 Bermuda Triangle. ASK FOR HELP was the rescue lifesaver that gave me back my balanced life and allowed me to be on an 'ADD experts panel' on a blog radio show that Tara sponsors. It allowed me to be able to answer your questions at the ADHD Awareness Marathon and attend next week's ADHD Virtual Conference – and still go to work every day. WOW, asking for help is smooth sailing on a sunny day on Lake Champlain. Lake_Champlain_240px_1

I am writing about this topic to help myself and my readers to enjoy all that the web has to offer and still be creative and productive with a balance to all we are producing. 

Sometimes we have to go out and find a new lifeguard because the people that we usually ask for help just can't help us with our current quest. Hopefully they will give you their blessing, as I do today.  mindfulness matters.

Mindfulness Matters Coaching®

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MINDFULNESS REMAINS (as does ADHD!)

Posted on August 24, 2008 by Judi Jerome

I keep trying to figure out how to make new pages (like this one), and be able to place what I want to on it and on my front 2 pages.  I am like a bulldog with a chew toy.  As an ADHD Coach I know that it is time to give up and ask the professionals. the end.  oh darn, mindfulness matters!

Mindfulness Matters Coaching®

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ADHD & GIFTS

Posted on July 20, 2008 by Judi Jerome

ADDer’s have a tendency to hold on to thoughts, possessions, ADD moments, ADHD embarassments, and just plain everything else, way longer then people without ADHD.  It always amazes me when good things happen, gifts from my higher power or the universe [depending on your beliefs] when I was least expecting it.  Yet, as I examine what has happened the past week or so, I realize that all of the wonderful gifts that have come my way did so because I was accepting the difficulties that came along without obsessing over them, without ‘negativeizing’ them, and without complaining about them.  So, it is my understanding that because of my openness I was ‘here’ (aware, open and accepting) to the things that popped up at the moment that they did, the gifts.  Wow, combine mindfulness with the law of attraction, and life really perks up, especially when ADD matters arise. (Like when do they NOT arise?).

Moral of the story is to remember that mindfulness means non-judgment of our thoughts, others statements, and all that happens in our moments and therefore our lives.  Be present for the ‘gifts’ so that they can be given to us, so that we can recognize them AS gifts.  Living in the moment means acceptance of that moment. It makes it much easier to deal with “ctca” (crap that comes along), and makes for a happier and more peaceful life.  Remember that mindfulness matters!


Mindfulness Matters Coaching®

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ADHD is Here to Stay, I’ll Mindfully Live Life Anyway!

Posted on July 12, 2008 by Judi Jerome

Mindfulness and hyper-focusing:

What is the difference? One of my amazing Coaching clients with ADHD recently asked me this question. When you sit down at the computer at 7:30am and look up to see the clock and it is 5:30pm, you have to ask yourself, what have you been doing for 10 hours? If you can answer that question with a full accounting of each time your egg timer went off, then you had a very Mindful Day; (hopefully filled with all that you planned to do each hour). If at 5:30 you keep staring at the clock in disbelief cursing your ADD, and your stomach is rumbling, and the cat drank the very last sip of water hours ago but you weren’t listening to his polite meows (personally, mine scratches the computer tower to get my attention), then you were truly, without ANY doubt, hyper-focusing.

When you have ADHD it can be as difficult to stop hyper-focusing as it is difficult to focus. Actually, I think that it is harder to stop the hyper-focusing because you get lost in time. When you are having trouble paying attention you are very much aware of time as you continue to glance at the clock waiting for it to move.

I hope that we all can take some advice from that clock on the wall; what, your clock doesn’t give you advice? Awwh, what a shame! Seriously, time is a precious commodity and whichever form of focusing or not focusing or hyper-focusing that you are experiencing, the bottom line is that you are giving a chunk of your life away. Take back that chunk. Practice mindfulness. Breathe in and breathe out, stay in your moment, keep thoughts non-judgmental and as your mindfulness and spirituality grow stronger, focusing will emerge as a much healthier and certainly a much more guilt free experience. mindfulness matters!

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Where Have I been?

Posted on July 5, 2008 by Judi Jerome

Well, I can't imagine how so much time has gone by since I last posted. The truth is, I've been trying to lasso my ADHD and be a great coach, and be a great therapist and write/publish and be a business owner.  I was up most of the night just 'working' Facebook, which I am still trying to get a clue about how to keep up with it. So, I had a lightbulb idea (sorry, lack of sleep) and decided to gather all of the posts that I wrote all over everyone else's blog or Facebook page,(I hope I did not just give the world the 'keys' to my Facebook account) and post them here. SO, here goes:  (OH MY, please don't click on any of these links till your finished with my blog because they will probably take you away from here and I would be very sad and you would miss my musings!). Remember, Mindfulness Matters!

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Blog? Mindfulness? Oh yeah, do it daily.

Posted on April 21, 2008 by Judi Jerome

Ok, I admit it, I haven’t written in a month.  Excuses, I have so many, but like many things that people with ADHD want to do on a regular basis, it has to be scheduled to become a habit.  When it comes to writing I prefer to be a bit more ‘free spirited’.  I put too many restrictions on myself about how this blog had to be perfectly done before I could just let my thoughts flow.  Or, how I had to have my website and the words ADD and ADHD in every sentence in order to promote my blog on Google.  It is these perfectionist expectations that hold us back.  Today, while reviewing my weekly goals, and amidst the reality of all that I want to accomplish, I said to myself, "Just Do It".  So here it is. And when my Tele-Class titled "Mindfulness VS ADHD" that I am presenting on ADDclasses.com is over and done with Wednesday, April 23rd, 3:00 – 4:00 EST, I will again feel relaxed and satisfied and finished and ready to move on to the next project.

OH, wait, this entry IS moving on even in the midst of all my preparations and emotions about Wednesday’s presentation.

YEAH ME!  whew, that feels a lot better.  A reminder to myself and others that we do not have to do everything perfectly and that staying in my moment will help me to accomplish a whole lot more then I could have ever imagined while being elsewhere in my head. 

Thanks for ‘listening’ and remember, Mindfulness Matters.

 

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ADHD LIFE SKILLS COACHING–WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?

Posted on March 14, 2008 by Judi Jerome

Maximizing Strengths and Potential with
Structure, Encouragement and Accountability

Judi Jerome of MINDFULNESS MATTERS COACHING® is an ADD Coach who
helps creative adults and young adults, professionals, small business owners, practitioners and
graduate students living with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder to decrease their procrastination and stress by increasing
their organization, time management, motivation, meditation,
mindfulness and AD/HD affected life skills. Judi’s ADD Coaching with
self-employed therapists in private practice, business owners, college
and graduate students and moms and dads with ADD – ADHD, among others,
has helped people to move beyond chaos, under-achievement and
relationship issues and on to the success of achieving their goals.
Judi’s experience with co-morbid conditions such as substance abuse,
depression and anxiety enriches the level of work being accomplished in
the coaching partnership.

Women and men with ADD – ADHD are creative, exuberant,
intelligent people that need help organizing all of their hidden
strengths and talents. Balance your work and personal life and receive
encouragement, support and accountability by forming a partnership with
an enthusiastic ADHD Coach. Judi enjoys helping people with ADD – ADHD to
use their self-expertise in a motivated, consistent, and spiritually
healthy life affirming manner. Help yourself to follow through with
your goals and multitude of ideas along with the ‘must do’ necessities
that keep piling up. Completing projects on time gets easier with ADHD
Coaching. When you gain empowerment by purposefully staying in your
moment, you can experience the peaceful, proud feelings and positive
results of success.  Mindfulness Matters.

Empowerment, growth and maintenance for positive life changes

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ADHD and Instructions OR I’m In Widget Hell

Posted on March 13, 2008 by Judi Jerome

GEEZ, I really thought that I had gotten past the point  where ‘you’ build the computer desk or use a new voice recorder first and then when ‘you’ run into trouble ‘you’ frantically scan through the instructions to find out how to do or fix what is not working: apparently not! I was so excited about getting my blog published that I didn’t really read or see or process anything on TypePad that said not to publish your blog until you have totally set up every little design and techie thing AND have written at least 2 entries. It says that on page one of the "Get Started with…", which I also did not see.  Oh well, no one knows that this exists yet, I think.

Ok, what is with these widget things? I mean I’m clicking on and signing up for everything that the TypePad instructions are ‘pointing out’ to me that would get people to know about my blog through all these "feeds".  Ah geez, here comes a contrite confession from a real true computer geek, I have only subscribed to one "feed" and I think I did it wrong because I have never gotten any notification about anything like entries or whatever it is supposed to notify me about??? 

The thing is, I read too much.  My mentor/teacher/coach/friend, Sandy Maynard told me so many years ago.  Most of it is trying to stay abreast of the latest research, journals, ‘how-to’s and news so that I can continue to learn and grow as a Coach and Therapist.  Some of it is getting distracted by so many wonderful websites full of information during my ‘free computer time’ (confession: I was about to make that quote a link to my website so you could read a book review that I wrote for ADDitude Magazine last month, but it isn’t added to my articles page yet, oops). AND, some of it is just plain curiosity and fun.

So, back to the blog instructions and these widgets.  By the way, this is my second blog entry that I was supposed to have had posted already.  I have added a bunch of widgets but I need to go back to the instructions and find out if I did it right.  I mean really, I have to keep signing up for all these websites so the widgets will work and it is really making me nervous!  Then I have to move on to the rest of the ‘chapters’ so that I can find out all the other things that I have done right or wrong and that I still have to do or add or just plain learn for fun! Whew! This blogging thing is kind of complicated. I am reminding myself and whoever might read this in the near future (I hope) that, Mindfulness Matters.

Mindfulness Matters Coaching®

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A SANE Beginning

Posted on March 12, 2008 by Judi Jerome

Structure
Accountability
Negotiate
Efficiency

That is the Acronym on the top of my websites home page.  This is my welcome post, my very first blog entry for me, mine, my very own blog!  So, what am I supposed to be doing at this very moment?  Well, I am supposed to be getting ready to leave for my Burlington office, finished paperwork stored in my briefcase, water bottle filled and lunch ready to go.  I have been SO HYPERFOCUSED on getting a blog set up and which site to use, for the past 3 days that my eyes hurt from looking at the computer screen.  I tried SO hard to learn WordPress because it was free and attached to my websites hosting server.  I gave up this morning when I came out of my hyperfocusing haze.

I will forgive myself.  I will stay off of the computer for the whole rest of the day. I will stop typing now and get my stuff together.  I will remind myself and anyone who might see this entry that we with ADHD get so excited and exuberant over new projects that our ideas flow faster and freer then the spring ahead clock has hours to spare.  Mindfulness Matters.

Mindfulness Matters Coaching®

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