Archive for the ‘ADD treatment’ Category

John Soriano (one of my EFT for ADD buddies) already told me about it, the Zpoint technique, and I was reluctant: yet another EFT-inspired healing technique… This morning however, I checked the site out, and I decided to just give it a try. Not necessarily related to any symptoms of ADD, but definitely useful for us parents coping with our ADD children. It’s a very simple process, and there is a free MP3 meditation in which Grant Connolly leads you through the process. I literally just finished, and I am feeling in a blissful relaxed state of mind.

—- When you’re ready to go, just click here to download the MP3 file —-

So I’m not going to say much about it, I just suggest you find 15 minutes and just do it, whatever you are feeling at this moment. It is a great way to start your day, or to finish your day at night I am sure – I am going to put the meditation on my MP3 player and trying how that feels that tonight. (I’m pretty sure it will work wonders for my feeling of peace before I go to sleep!)

And now I really feel ready for a focussed and happy day – Thanks John, for sharing this!

PS: Did I say it is a process you can do anywhere, anytime, even with people around you? The effect is immediate and I do admit, Grant does not make any empty promises. Click here to download the Zpoint meditation (and if you wish, you can listen to it online too, on the same page.) Go ahead, and tell me what your experience is!

PPS: Not only for you, but for your kids too. I want to see if Grant is in for making a special version for children – I would love to hear your ideas about that: For which age group do you prefer it to be, how long should the recording be, should it be general or specific for certain ADD/ADHD problems, and if yes, which ones? Please comment below, so that we can make something which will be more than useful for you – my loyal readers!

Found on Networked blogs, a cool Facebook application which helps me to keep track what my fellow EFT practitioners and ADD/ADHD coaches write about. I would love you to become my friend on Facebook, so we can share thought and insights! See you on the other side! Click here: http://www.facebook.com/charkamman

The article I want to show you, is named “Make Do-Not-Do Lists for Better Productivity”, and is written by Lisa Hoover.

It is written for adults, but with a little imagination, it is easy to see how we can help our children to keep on track when we use the principles she talks about. My own thoughts are printed in italics, Lisa’s original article is in normal print.

“Nearly every time management system advocates to-do lists in some form to help keep us on track. Consider turning that advice on its head and make a do-not-do list instead.

Success Magazine blogger Chelsea Greenwood says to-do lists can be helpful, but only to a point. Eventually, they can get so long and unwieldy they start to take over our lives and sap our energy to get anything done. After all, who wants to confront a mile-long list of tasks staring them in the face?

Overwhelm is a very common emotion in children with symptoms of ADD or ADHD. They do not always show us, but you can be sure that they do feel that way. EFT tapping can help them to get over the overwhelm, and if combined with time management skills, it is obvious that the benefits will be numerous

Instead, take a hard look at how you spend your day and try to identify where your giant black holes of time are. Too many coffee breaks? Too much time spent surfing productivity sites (though we’ll give you a free pass on that)? Once you figure out where your time sinks are, write yourself a do-not-do list so you minimize how much time you spend doing things that aren’t particularly productive.

Fidgeting, reading comics, playing computer games, talking to friends on MSN… They are all very time consuming. We can help our children by allowing a certain amount of time for each of these activities. Children with symptoms of ADD and ADHD especially, also need time to just relax, preferably meditate and allow their busy minds to slow down for a moment. We need to help them to find this “off-time” – and we can only do that by showing them they do not need to do something the whole day long.

Depending on how drastic your findings are, implementing your do-not-do list may require persistence and teamwork. Post the list in one or more visible areas to remind yourself what you should not be doing, and enlist the support of co-workers, friends or loved ones to keep you on track.

Now, no one’s recommending that you never take a break or waste time during the day—everybody needs a little down time. Instead, use your do-not-do list as a way to stay focused on your goals and realize that the more time you spend avoiding things on your new list bring you that much closer to getting where you want to be.”

So, program the down-time for your child, and allow for this down-time by limiting his activity time!

The Productivity Dilemma: To Do or Not to Do? [Success Magazine]

(Source: http://lifehacker.com

Hit up the post for tips on how to develop your do-not-do list. Do you keep a list like this? Does it help keep you on track? Share your thoughts in the comments!

Dr. Mercola talks about multi-vitamins. For parents with children suffering from symptoms of ADD and ADHD, this is double important. Pay attention, and evaluate the vitamins you are using. One thing he mentions, and which you might overhear, is the decreased amount of vitamins and minerals that your vegetables and fruits contain, as compared to 50 years ago. Thanks to chemical fertilizers, greenhouses, herbicides, fungicides etc, our food is just a diluted version of what it was in the time of our grandparents… Isn’t that sad.

Which brings me to the thought that IF we would live like our grandparents did, we would probably not have so many children with symptoms of ADD and ADHD. Life was so much different back then! But, I am also pleased to have discovered, that it is still possibe to live life much more similar to our grandparents than I thought would be possible – only the good aspects of course!

Buy organic fruit and vegetables, read the labels of EVERYTHING you buy, be aware and praise yourself that you have this knowledge! Share it with others: your neighbours, family, friends, parents at school. It is shocking how many people are still stumbling in the dark when they try to give their children the best they can…

And now: Dr. Mercola.

This is the answer I gave on an e-mail by a fellow practitioner, who asked me the following question:

A recent opportunity has come whereby I am in a position to work with
children (some who may be hyperactive and with ADHD/ADD).
Have you found NLP techniques or EFT to be the better tool for working with this issue ( I realize that may depend on a lot of factors)?

I’ve always looked at attentional problems as mostly being neurological and less emotional. Although I do understand how limiting beliefs, and negative emotions may worsen the problem, I
guess I wonder whether EFT can help with attention specifically. e.g., can one tap to increase sustained attention?

My answer:

The field of children, hyperactivity and EFT/NLP is an amazing, wonderful, rich field, in which I am ever learning and discovering new possibilities and solutions to challenges!

At this moment in time, I work with a three step plan:

1. Diet
2. Tap: Every day 3 times on whatever comes up
3. Help kids to structure their hours after and before school

1. Diet:
Eliminate sugar and food additives (sweeteners, food colorings, etc). Keep a food diary, to see if some foodstuff worsen the symptoms. Have a look at this video for an insight in food allergies and their possible effects on behaviour:
http://eft4add.com/symptoms-of-add-and-adhd-linked-to-allergies/
Most often, leaving out sugar and additives does the trick already. The kids are allowed one “sweet day” per week with a limited amount of sugar, but no additives or colorings etc.

2. Tapping:
The underlying emotions sometimes get mentioned, sometimes not. We tap on restlessnes, fear, anger etc; whatever the child feels at that moment. I teach the parents how to tap with the kids, often using a tapping stuffed animal (TappyBear for example) – the parents invent a metaphor for the problem the child is facing (e.g. fear for a math test) – and do a little role play with the bear having that problem, for example the bear will have fear of a roaring contest which is coming up. The kids then helps the bear to overcome his fear by tapping, and solves his own fear at the same time. This lessens gretly the reistance kids sometimes have when working with them, especially as a parent.

3. Structure
I tell the parents: “Support them like you would do a younger kid”. Make sure that as little as possible goes wrong, that way the child gets used to the feeling that everything is under control and fine – and he will put more and more effort in to feel that way, because it feels good. Help them with their homework, good notes are addictive

So, back to your question: I use a mixture of NLP, EFT and diet.
Attention problems are definitely neurological, as is pain too, for example, and EFT is very good at adressing neurological patterns which are not functional (anymore); and NLP obviously is too!

I hope I have been elaborate enough for you to take these ideas and try them out, if I can be helpful in any way I would love to hear it!

Warmest regards,

Charlotte

There is a lot of polemic about children with symptoms of ADD and ADHD and candies. Whilst I normally do not recommend any sugar for children with hyperactivity, they do normally get one day per week when they can eat some sweet stuff. It is important that it’s just sugar, and no chemical additives, as these tend to upset the system for a couple of days at least – Sugar only gives effects for 24 hours.

Dr. Mercola writes about healthy choices in chocolate:

Few snack foods evoke as much passion and desire as chocolate.

ADHD and ADD symptoms : healthy chocolate?

And if you have children, Halloween provides you with a wide assortment of sugary chocolate temptations — all part of this family fun event.

Regardless of whether or not it’s Halloween… if you’re a chocolate lover, the idea of giving it up even for health reasons is often not an option you consider.

As far as your kids go… well, most kids love chocolate. Asking them not to eat any from their Halloween trick-or-treat stashes is pretty much wishful thinking.

Believe it or not, this is one instance when you can have your chocolate and eat it too… more and more studies confirm some types of chocolate are actually very good for you.

Since I realize many people simply refuse to give up their chocolate, and there are actually healthy versions of chocolate, I put my team to task to create guidelines to help you select and eat chocolate at a healthy level.

Especially at Halloween time, this could help give you some direction for the healthiest chocolate for you and your kids.

I do feel it’s important to remind you about wholesome foods like organic vegetables and fruits that provide you with healthy nutrients — without the sugar content of most chocolates.

With Halloween just around the corner, the potential for you and your family to consume even more chocolate is simply a reality that you will have to contend with. However, if you follow the guidelines my staff and I created for you, you can now enjoy one of your passions, and boost your health at the same time.

If you’re a chocolate lover, or even occasionally indulge, I strongly recommend you follow these guidelines… which will allow you to enjoy your chocolate and help you protect your health at the same time.

• Find chocolate made from the least destructive processing techniques — Organic is always best as over-processing reduces your healthy nutrients and can introduce lead contamination.
• Restrict your intake to dark, organic chocolate — Consuming chocolate as close to its original raw state (unprocessed cacao) provides you the best health benefits.
• Avoid chocolate made from milk or milk byproducts — Adding milk to the chocolate process can diminish your antioxidant benefits.
• Select chocolate with low sugar content — Sugar can seriously impact your immune system
• Consume chocolate in moderation — When you eat too much chocolate, you potentially diminish and defeat any health benefits due to the sugar.
• Avoid chocolate if you’re struggling with a health challenge — Sugar can suppress your immune system.
• Choose a chocolate made to the highest standards of social and environmental responsibility — Fair Trade certification should be part of your selection process.

I’ll get into more details on each of these selection and consumption criteria in just a minute…

But first do this — very thoroughly…

In addition to the above guidelines, there are certain “spooky” ingredients you should stay far away from when choosing your chocolate.

If you have kids, you might want to take a closer look at the chocolate they bring home from Halloween trick-or-treating. Not an easy task, I realize… but these ingredients are just plain bad for you.

Even many so-called “natural” chocolates may contain some of these unhealthy ingredients — avoid them at all costs…

• Trans fat — An artery-clogging type of fat that forms when vegetable oils are hardened into margarine or shortening.
• High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) — Contains no enzymes, vitamins or minerals, and leeches micronutrients from your body. Raises your blood sugar levels beyond acceptability, and leads to insulin resistance and weight gain. It really is a metabolic poison and, in many ways, acts identical to alcohol with chronic exposure when eaten in high amounts.
• Artificial sweeteners — Never allow anything “artificial” in your chocolate.
• Soy proteins — Unfermented soy can cause digestive distress and a weakened immune system.
• Monosodium Glutamate (MSG) — An excitotoxin, which over-excites your cells to the point of damage or total destruction. Can potentially cause brain damage and other disabilities to varying degrees.
• Preservatives and stabilizers — Avoid anything artificial and look for only organic ingredients.
• Milk or milk byproducts — Could impact how well you absorb the healthy antioxidants in the chocolate.

The bottom line — you need to carefully read the label on chocolate packages. By ‘reading’ the label, I mean, ‘thoroughly scrutinize the nutrition facts and ingredients’. Not just a cursory glance.

To enjoy the healthiest chocolate possible, always look for selections with wholesome, organic ingredients — artificial ingredients are just too risky. (…)

Source: http://products.mercola.com/organic-dark-chocolate/

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