Tag Archives | coaching

Spirituality and ADHD – Oldest Known Written ADHD Reference

By Maureen on October 28, 2016

Does ADHD enhance or interfere with your spiritual development?

Play a ‘wandering minds want to know’ game with me! It’s called:

What is the oldest known written reference to ADHD?

It is an everyday activity for me to read new research about ADHD and coaching and therapy to better serve my clients. I also nurture my personal search for spiritual growth and development online. I think my ADHD is an asset to my spiritual growth and development. On my spiritual search, I was sent to an ancient text called The Cloud of Unknowing written by an unknown but influential author. The author was Christian, probably a monk, and his writing influenced Christian thought from AD 500 to the present.

The ADHD nerd that I am loves that I got no further in my reading than the introduction page where I found the presently undisputed and oldest known written reference to the behavior now known as ADHD. The 1922 translator prefaces the mentioned ancient quote with an explanation of the nature of the unknown author:

Nothing is known of him; beyond the fact, which seems clear from his writings, that he was a cloistered monk devoted to the contemplative life. It has been thought that he was a Carthusian. But the rule of that austere order, whose members live in hermit-like seclusion, and scarcely meet except for the purpose of divine worship, can hardly have afforded him opportunity of observing and enduring all those tiresome tricks and absurd mannerisms of which he gives so amusing and realistic a description in the lighter passages of the Cloud. These passages betray the half-humorous exasperation of the temperamental recluse, nervous, fastidious, and hypersensitive, loving silence and peace, but compelled to a daily and hourly companionship with persons of a less contemplative type: some finding in extravagant and meaningless gestures an outlet for suppressed vitality; others overflowing with a terrible cheerfulness like “giggling girls and nice japing jugglers”; others so lacking in repose that they “can neither sit still, stand still, nor lie still, unless they be either wagging with their feet or else somewhat doing with their hands.” Though he cannot go to the length of condemning these habits as mortal sins, the author of the Cloud leaves us in no doubt as to the irritation with which they inspired him, or the distrust with which he regards the spiritual claims of those who fidget.

I love it! I especially love that there are spiritual claims of those who fidget! Imagine that?

I believe the text stands alone in an early written message that people with ADHD are mistrusted in their spiritual sincerity. So, does spirituality require that a body doesn’t move? Yet I suspect that many pastors, rabbis, and imams live with ADHD because it allows easy access to their spirit, hence the phrase moving in the spirit.

Let’s take a message about ADHD Awareness to our churches, synagogues, and mosques. And, the next time you see a squirmer in church remember they nurture their spirit in ways that look like fidgeting.

Call Maureen Nolan, the ADHD Whisperer at 404-713-0488 for information about professional support for your fidgeting needs.

http://catholicspiritualdirection.org/cloudunknowing.pdf

Coaching for the ADHD Whispers

By Maureen on September 22, 2016

I am an ADHD Whisperer…

I am your ADHD Whisperer…and I Hear Your Whispers

‘Do I have ADHD’, you whisper to yourself when no one can hear you. Why can’t I pay attention? What’s wrong with me? Why do people get so angry with me? What am I doing wrong?

Maybe you have ADHD and if you do you are a survivor and it’s time to thrive.

I hear your whispers:

I’m afraid, I’m not smart, I’m confused, Something is wrong with me, I’ve felt like something is wrong for so long that nothing feels right anymore…

Your whispers are the real source of your strength. The opposite of every whisper is the truth…

I’m brave, I’m smart, I understand, All is right in my world.

With a calm, down-to-earth, and natural manner, Maureen Nolan, LAPC aka the ADHD Whisperer connects to clients using methods like centering and deep breathing. Her adept interpersonal skills permit Maureen to communicate to clients a new level of self-respect using the principle of Gradual Progress of Mind. Capable of perceiving the nuances of body language and the movement of the brain, she helps clients develop a new belief in themselves and hope for the future. She speaks a language built on respect and compassion, and every individual feels the confidence she has in him or her to be led out of the maze.

Maureen knows whispers are more important than yelling.

It is easy to compare the ADHD Whisperer to a horse or dog whisperer and the comparison is valid. A Whisperer uses his or her knowledge of the mammal brain and mind and gently applies it to the errant behavior being discussed. A client’s intentions behind the behavior are regularly misinterpreted by others in their lives causing grief and sadness. Maureen whispers that there is hope for the future.

ADHD is a human explanation of an irregularity in thought and movement. It shows up in a neuro-diverse person when least expected. Children and untreated adults do not know why they do the things they do but an astute observer like Maureen will discern the true nature of their intent and separate the truth from the myths or wild explanations that they have lived with for so long.

Contact Maureen Nolan, LAPC for your first Whisper session. 404-713-0488

My clients bring their secrets and sorrows, and their aspirations and challenges into our sessions. They are brave and bold enough to find out how to make changes in their lives. They are innately creative, resourceful, and strong and so are you.

Will you bring your whispers to life? Let your innate curiosity and creativity breathe and thrive with self-knowledge and new choices. What do you want? What do you need? Bring to life a new, true, and dynamic self by coaching with Maureen Nolan, LAPC.

I hear you whispering: Can Maureen help me?

Call Maureen Nolan, LAPC now at 404-713-0488 and find out how she will help you. Coaching with Maureen is good for your health and your life.

ADD Coaching for Attention

By Maureen on May 18, 2009

Do You Take Attention for Granted?

Want my attention?

It sounds so simple – coaching for attention. We all have attention, but how often does it wander? Where does it go? Why? What does it matter? How does attention serve you? (I just stopped writing for a moment to send an email) (just answered the phone, too)

My attention is a commodity that I trade for attention, that I give to my loved ones, that is a source of my pleasure through its stimulating function. Prospective clients are looking for ways to anchor down their attention and to have it serve them better in their lives. On the other end of the spectrum are those who don’t want their attention and move toward addictions to avoid experiencing attention on parts of their lives that cause pain.

I coach for your attention. No longer do I take sweet young faces (my son, Matt for instance when he was young) between my hands and gently guide eyes toward mine for a chance at obtaining attention. Nor do I shout, plead, please, outline, wave, bump, throw, threaten, manipulate or initiate any other sort of attention grabbing activity. If you are my client we agree, disagree, negotiate, honor, value, respect and enjoy each other while working on your goal.

Together we understand your experience of attention; how and when it shows up and how and when it doesn’t. We coach to your strength (when it shows up) and allow the rest of your life to unfold. This is a glorious process of trial and error, cooperation, vision, mission, passion and acceptance. It is creative and sometimes mundane.

But ADD coaching works. When would you like to start coaching with me?

Navigation