Gratitude re-trains your brain

I'm not going to write long articles here - would you read them if I did? ;-)

I've been reading Dr. Daniel Amen's blog (www.amenclinics.com) and he has a recent piece about how practicing gratitude can make your brain healthier.

When we have AD/HD we get stuck and so anything positive, productive, fun thing that can get us unstuck is certainly welcome!

I've heard of making a gratitude list at night but I need to make one several times a day. I want to be as "unstuck" as possible so that I'm not missing out on the best life has to offer.

If you're new to gratitude lists (I'm grateful for sushi, I'm grateful for my family, I'm grateful it's not snowing in Seattle today, etc.) or if you're a generally crabby person (no offense) you can start with this formula: "Even though..." 

So your list would look something like this:
"Even though I hate the snow, I'm grateful that I have snow tires." or "Even though I don't have the attention span to do my financials, I'm grateful that I know some great Biznik people who would be happy to help me" or "Even though Margit said this would be short and it's not, I'm grateful that she started this group."

See how easy it is? Time for some brain re-training!

Now, on another note... did you know that these articles have to be 500 words long? Really? That doesn't seem quite fair. In fact, Dan! Lara! I think there should be special dispensation for those of us with AD/HD. How 'bout it?

How are we going to write tips that take up 500 words? Any of you have suggestions? Maybe we should post our tips as discussions instead? Yes, that's what I'll do from now on but in the meantime, I'm trying to get my word count up here.

You're not going to rate me, are you? Do these articles get rated like the other Biznik articles? If so, please rate me high (over 8). I'll be your best friend... (if it's ok with my husband, which I have to say probably won't go over well with him).

OK, I'm going to try to post again and see if I've made my quota.

Nope, I'm still about 150 words short, so here's what I've decided: I'm going to include a tip from my book STOP THE STRUGGLE: Solutions for Parenting Gifted Tweens and Teens. It will be available from my website in April, 2009:

#29 – How can I help my ADD teen do better in school?

Here are 5 things you can do THIS WEEK to help your ADD child improve in school:

1. Give him/her more structure at home. Be present with your teen without hovering. Your teen is not yet responsible enough to regulate his/her studying time. You will need to sacrifice some of your free time so that you can be with him/her during homework time. For instance, you could sit in the room and read a book, periodically checking on his/her progress.

2. Rewards. ADD kids respond to rewards because they also provide structure. "If I do X, Y will happen." This makes it much easier to accept the task. Don't go overboard with the reward though. Here are some examples of effective, yet easy to implement rewards. See which ones work for your family:
• Your child gets to pick the next night's dinner
• He/she gets to stay up an extra ½ hour
• You will take the trash out for him/her
• He/she gets the front seat for the next week
• He/she gets to purchase a song on iTunes
 
3. Keep in contact with your teen's teachers and counselors. Tell them you want to help them help your child. Ask them what you can do to make their jobs easier. Most teachers would swoon at the thought of a parent who wants to support the teacher's efforts. If your child has an IEP or 504 plan, make sure that you're upholding YOUR part of the contract. These are legal documents and they're as binding for you as they are for school personnel.

4. Find your child as much organic food as possible. If you go online and check out the effects of organic food on behavior you will find that many prisons and continuation high school cafeterias have switched to organic food to calm their inmates/students. I've also read that if your child has the type of ADD characterized by angry outbursts feed him/her more whole grains. If he/she has Inattentive ADD, feed him/her more protein.

5. Aerobic exercise will stimulate the body's immune response and keep all systems running at optimal levels. It also encourages healthy brain function.

go to my website for more!