Practices

Every practice in the library, in one list. Narrow it by how long you have, who it is written for, and where you are right now.

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419 practices

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Heading towards the shape is the whole job. A perfect triangle is not what the pose is for, and nobody is marking it.

Perfectionism and going too hard tend to travel together, and between them they produce most of the injuries and most of the quitting. If you are…

Twenty minutesBreathingBody basedQur’an 20:26One line of research

Go slowly enough to learn something about yourself, rather than only a technique. What is worth keeping is knowing which breath does what in your body.

One round is rarely enough to tell. Try a breath for a minute or two, stop, and check what shifted: the chest, the shoulders, how loud your thoughts…

Twenty minutesBreathingBody basedQur’an 73:4One line of research

Give the later self a name and be a bit silly about it. Is Thursday you going to be furious with Monday you again? Is Thursday you always the one clearing up?

This lands with teenagers and with anyone bristling at being told what to do, because it is funny and the joke is what does the work. Turning the…

A minuteBringing the future closerADHD skillsQur’an 53:39One line of research

If the deadline is six weeks off and you can really only see three days ahead, do not try to grow the horizon. Move the deadline closer with a checkpoint.

A five minute catch-up with someone every couple of days does more than a beautifully drawn plan for the whole six weeks. In work with little…

Five minutesBringing the future closerADHD skillsQur’an 84:19One line of research

Looking for a whole subject rather than a single practice? Start from the nine areas.

Growing empathy

Grounding and settling

Equanimity and perspective

Facing it a step at a time

Posture and how you carry yourself

Exercise, food and other supports

Treatment and medication

What worry does

What ADHD actually is

Cool the body first

When you use something to cope

When everything feels flat

Structure and routine

Getting assessed and diagnosed

Tolerate distress

Emotions as signals

Your sense of time

Practising under provocation

Being seen and judged

Rest and pacing

Panic and the body

What you are actually defending

Help someone grieving

Gratitude

Ask and say no well

Fondness and admiration

Touch and bodywork

Shame

Making it stick

The fear underneath anger

When you go numb

Obsessions and compulsions

Safety and grounding

Validate yourself and others

Living with uncertainty

When you ask a manager for regular check-ins, ask for them as a way of staying pointed in the right direction. That is a different conversation from asking to be watched.

Something like: could we take five minutes twice a week, so I can be sure I am working on what matters most to you. You are the one proposing it, so…

Five minutesBringing the future closerADHD skillsQur’an 9:105One line of research

'It's bad for your health' and 'grades matter later' move nobody, least of all someone who has never seen what either one looks like.

If you want a future to carry any weight, it has to be pictured rather than stated. What does the day look like. Who is in the room. What is…

Five minutesBringing the future closerADHD skillsQur’an 87:17One line of research

Ask people how it went. How was that meeting, how am I doing, what did you make of it. Nobody enjoys asking, and the information is not available any other way.

Ask one specific person about one specific thing rather than the room in general. If your read on yourself has been bent out of shape by years of…

Five minutesBringing the future closerADHD skillsQur’an 65:3One line of research

Someone who will tell you the part that was not good is someone whose 'that was fine' you can believe. That is what settles the doubt, not reassurance.

Blanket praise carries no information, so it slides off and the doubt is back within the hour. If you tend to worry about how you came across, ask…

Five minutesBringing the future closerADHD skillsQur’an 99:8One line of research

If the only real deadline is the fortnightly meeting, invent some smaller ones. A couple of short catch-ups a week will do more for the work than the formal review ever does.

Ask for them as something that helps you, because it is true and it also lands better: five minutes on Tuesday and Thursday keeps me pointed at the…

Five minutesBringing the future closerADHD skillsQur’an 84:19One line of research

Do not only correct the thought, correct the sentence. Rather than do not shout at me, try can you take those off, I want to talk to you.

Telling yourself to stay calm gives you nothing to do, and the ready-made sharp line is still the only thing in your mouth. A plain request gives all…

A minuteChoosing your responseCoreQur’an 33:70One line of research

Before you walk out, say three things: this is getting heated, I need a bit of space, I will be back and we will carry on. The sentence is the skill, not the walking.

An exit with no words is read as punishment, and the other person will usually follow you to finish it, which is how a break turns into the worst…

A minuteChoosing your responseGottmanQur’an 33:70One line of research

If you are helping someone set up a practice like this, ask them for ideas before you offer yours. Keep a few in your back pocket for when they run dry.

What people invent for themselves fits their actual life, and they are far more likely to do it. Have suggestions ready anyway, because a brainstorm…

Five minutesChoosing your responseCoreQur’an 3:159One line of research

Offer a practice as a question rather than an instruction. What do you think it would be like to wake yourself up once a day? That is a very different sentence from you should.

People argue with instructions, particularly people who were sent rather than came. A question leaves them to make the case, and the case they make…

Five minutesChoosing your responseCoreQur’an 16:125One line of research

You can tell someone they have hurt you without your voice showing it. The message and the heat come apart, and it is usually the heat that stops the message being heard.

Worth saying, because plenty of people believe the only options are swallowing it or letting it out. There is a third, which is saying the whole hard…

Five minutesChoosing your responseCBTQur’an 17:53One line of research

Open with the difficulty instead of the accusation. "This is hard for me to say" and "I am worried you will not like this" buy you a hearing that "you always" never will.

Two things happen at once when you start this way. The other person stops preparing a defence, because nothing has been thrown at them yet. And you…

Five minutesChoosing your responseCBTQur’an 16:125One line of research

Under the anger there is usually something you wanted and did not get, or something you are afraid of losing. Say that, and you have handed the other person something they can actually do.

"You never help" gives someone a charge to deny. "I needed you to take the kids for an hour and I was too proud to ask" gives them a job. The second…

Five minutesChoosing your responseCBTQur’an 5:8One line of research

When a fight starts, name the pattern you both fall into, not the fault in them.

We are doing the thing where I push and you go quiet. The cycle is the enemy, not you.

A minuteStaying regulated in conflictEmotionally focusedQur’an 3:103Seen more than once

Say it out loud in the next argument: it is us against this pattern, not me against you.

Realign the sides. The two of you on one team, the cycle on the other.

A minuteStaying regulated in conflictEmotionally focusedQur’an 49:10One line of research

Notice if one of you chases and one retreats, and name that gently.

The more I push, the more you pull back, and round it goes. See the loop, out loud.

A minuteStaying regulated in conflictEmotionally focusedQur’an 41:34One line of research

If you both go silent and distant, name the freeze rather than waiting it out.

We have both gone quiet and cold. One of us has to reach first. Let it be you.

A minuteStaying regulated in conflictEmotionally focusedQur’an 4:35One line of research