Find past episodes of the show below and be sure to subscribe on iTunes so you never miss an episode.
Organizing and ADHD: How to Keep Track of Stuff
Teleseminar schedule: Wednesday, October 23, 2013 at 4pm ET and Sunday, October 27, 2013 at 8pm ET
In regard to executive function issues, organizing is creating and maintaining systems to keep track of material things and information. In this tele-seminar we will cover different types of systems and how to maintain them in order to keep your things and information organized and accessible.
Sign up for this tele-seminar to get organized and learn how to stay that way!
All New Overview of Executive Functions (w/ previously unmentioned executive functions)
Teleseminar schedule: Thursday, September 26, 2013 at 8pm ET and Sunday, September 29, 2013 at 4pm ET
You hear about executive functions and you even hear different definitions. What are they? Why are they so important to understand if you have ADHD?
This tele-seminar explains what executive functions are and describes over ten different types in short easy-to-understand definitions. Great preparation for all the in-depth upcoming tele-seminars.
Sign up. You’ll learn how executive functions are involved in your every interaction.
Abigail Wurf: ADHD and Executive Function Skills
I have been coaching adults and adolescents affected by ADHD and people suffering from chronic pain or illness. Since I have been expanding my knowledge on ADHD and executive functions (organizing, prioritizing, planning, time management, shift/flexibility, emotional regulation, task initiation, self regulation, focus, goal setting and meta-cogition) I have found that I want to delve even further. So I will be discontinuing working with people suffering from chronic pain or illness and focusing more in depth on the ADHD and executive function skills.
By working with adults, couples and parents affected by ADHD I hope to continue to coach, educate and share. Furthermore, in regards to executive function (EF) skills I plan not only to use that developing information and ongoing research to help my clients but also to educate through presentations and workshop to others about EF skills. I believe the more people know about EF, the more successful they can be and also the more understanding they can be of others who may work differently.
For example, if I talked to a group of middle to senior people in an organization about EF skills they could leave the presentation and use the knowledge they learned about EF skills in their organization to raise productivity which would make them happy. But, in addition it might change how they work with their staffs and enable them to be open to different types of learners and thinkers, like people with ADHD.
I am interested in gaining wider acceptance of people like us who may not excel within the prescribed lines of society but are intelligent and have a lot to offer provided we are in an environment that allows us to flourish. By talking more openly about ADHD and executive function skills along with my coaching practice I hope to reach a broader audience because that will benefit us all.
Impromptu Vacation…at Home
I hope all of you have organized yourselves to plan vacations for the summer. Even if you can’t take any time off from work and you only have a weekends free make sure at least one is a vacation.
A vacation doesn’t have to mean going some place; it can be a state of mind. I am not having a out of town vacation until the end of July. I found myself needing a vacation now, so I set aside last weekend for a mini-vacation. You would think I might go somewhere but I needed the vacation because I was tired. So I vacationed “in place.” I slept late on Saturday morning and lollygagged about for as long as I wanted to. Then I joined my mother to grocery shop which we did in a leisurely manner. No hurry-up-and-go then gotta get back and get something done.
When I got home I ate the piece of cake I bought at the store. Then I read all afternoon. Listened to the news on WAMU at 5pm and continued to read. Turned on Hot Jazz Saturday Night (WAMU at 8pm) to play in the background as I wrote and read the evening away.
Woke up at 5am. Instead of getting upset, I read for two hours and then went back to sleep until 10am. Got up and made a sort of strawberry short cake breakfast. As you may guess, part of vacation for me is eating fun things. I whiled away the rest of the day reading a mystery, chatting on the phone and writing. It may have lacked adventure but it was what I needed.
We tend not to listen to our body for when it needs a break. For that matter we tend not to listen when our brain needs a little TLC either. You have only one body with one brain so take care of it. When you are carrying a lot of tension or stress for days or weeks, give yourself a low-key impromptu vacation. Don’t make it about planning or doing, but about not planning and not doing.
I chose reading, writing and listening to the radio because those are activities that are relaxing to me and I don’t often have time to indulge in them as much as I would like. OK and eating treats too!
What are the things that you can do for yourself in a stay-in-place vacation that brings you peace, relaxation and maybe even some joy? Indulge!
ADHD: Abigail Wurf: A Positive Position
I have ADHD and am an ADHD coach so I meet lots of people with ADHD and think a lot about the subject. I spend a lot of time researching and I am always learning from my clients, other coaches and teachers. What I am realizing is the pain we feel about our experiences growing up with ADHD whether diagnosed or not often gets in our way of moving forward and having aspirations. The feelings are valid. Life is not easy growing up with ADHD. But what I want to put forth is an idea I came to while dealing with chronic pain.
Initially, professionally and before that, all through my life I danced. At the age of thirty I was member of a modern dance company and co-owned a dance studio. But there was a problem, I was in incredible physical pain that was getting in my way. It was getting difficult to dance much less get out of bed in the mornings.
After many doctors, I found a specialist in New York City who could perform a new type of back fusion that would allow me to dance afterwards. I had the operation. Woke in even more pain, but now not only was the pain still in my back but also down my right leg and to top it off, I couldn’t walk.
After about a year of hard work I finished my last day of physical therapy, though still in some pain, my dance career basically over, I was driving home from the clinic and was rear ended by a car. This of course put me back about another year.
Things are getting better, I am working out, strengthening my body and unbeknownst to me the medicine for nerve pain I have been taking has weakened my bones and I break my back. Another year of recuperation.
Why am I telling this. Well It took basically 7 years for me to get back on my feet literally and figuratively. I had to find a new career and I am still in some pain. But, amazingly enough I am not bitter and this is where the ADHD comes in.
I found out about the ADHD after the initial operation. (Oh, I forgot to mention the two follow up operations I had that year.) It was like a mystery had been solved and the medication was a revelation that it was possible with help that I could be on time and get things done more often. I wasn’t a bad person. There were chemical reasons to why I failed at so much.
But back to my story, what I learned and continue to learn from my pain experience is I can manage just about anything. I am strong. Maybe not physically but mentally. And I am because of my experiences.
ADHD makes us strong, if we keep getting back up, after we have been knocked down, dust ourselves off and keep moving forward. Our experiences build our internal fortitude if we let them. So instead of, I have ADHD and it makes me weak. I have ADHD and I am stronger for it. I fight battles everyday. I may not win all of them. But my strength is in I keep showing up.
That is how I think about my chronic pain and my ADHD. It could pull me down but instead I let it pull me up. I am a fighter and conquerer. Each day I get up and attend to my responsibilities, whether I succeed at all of them or not, is still a victory because I keep showing up.
Washington DC ADHD Coach Abigail Wurf
I am a Washington DC ADHD Coach. You may wonder why I am making this pronouncement. For those of you who have read my blogs for awhile you are aware of this. But like many who live in DC I have recently been getting the inevitable question. So I want to clear it up right now.
“Where are you located?”
“Washington DC.”
“Ya but Maryland or Virginia?”
“Washington DC”
“I know, but are you in Maryland or Virginia?”
“No, actually Washington DC.”
“So you only take phone clients.”
“No, I see people in person, on the phone or over the computer.”
“But how do you see people in person?”
“Well, they drive or take public transportation, some may even walk for all I know.”
“You can park in DC?”
“Yes”
“So where do you park, Maryland or Virginia?”
“Argh!”
OK, so I may be exaggerating a bit, but only a teensy bit. In coaching we believe our clients are whole, competent, creative and intelligent people. Sometimes, I get these strange calls where the focus seems not to be about my coaching services but geography and people’s disbelief that people live, work and breath in the district. We even have trees. I was even born here.
Anyway, I rarely rant in my blogs, so I felt it was about time.
Please look to my other blogs for actual information on coaching, ADHD and chronic pain or illness. I also have a newsletter you can sign up for which has real information.