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.

What matches

13 practices

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A wave across the road, a joke with the man in the shop, asking someone how they are and meaning it. These unplanned seconds count for more than they look like they should.

They are also the easiest place to start when arranging a proper meet up feels like too much. Almost nothing is at stake in a greeting, so a fear of…

A minuteFeelings and focusADHD skillsQur’an 25:63One line of research

If rating a feeling out of ten means nothing to you, use something that does. Colour in bubbles, point at a picture, hold your hands apart to show how big it is today.

This began as an adaptation for children, swapping the numbered anxiety ladder for bubbles to colour in, and it is just as useful for anyone who goes…

Five minutesFeelings and focusCBTQur’an 2:286One line of research

Being far apart is not the same as being out of touch. What usually stops contact is the question of who starts it, not the miles.

Distance turns into disconnection when both people wait for the other one. It helps to fix a when rather than promising to speak soon. The same…

Five minutesFeelings and focusADHD skillsQur’an 50:16One line of research

Step in while a child is only starting to wind up, and offer something calming rather than a correction. Slow breathing, counting, a soft toy, a quiet corner for a few minutes.

Three to ten minutes in a set place is plenty. It works best when the offer is warm and matter of fact, one sentence, no lecture about what they did.…

Five minutesFeelings and focusADHD skillsQur’an 13:28One line of research

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

Shared spiritual life

Structure and routine

What worry does

Grounding and settling

Bringing the future closer

Equanimity and perspective

Growing empathy

Emotions as signals

Cool the body first

Choosing your response

Get started

Breathing

When everything feels flat

Treatment and medication

Remembering to do it

Reading, numbers and learning differences

Posture and how you carry yourself

Shame and stigma

When you use something to cope

Touch and bodywork

Tolerate distress

Being seen and judged

Making it stick

Panic and the body

Righteous anger and perfectionism

Practising under provocation

Obsessions and compulsions

Rest and pacing

Ask and say no well

The fear underneath anger

What you are actually defending

Help someone grieving

Gratitude

Fondness and admiration

Feeling from the inside

Shame

Validate yourself and others

Safety and grounding

Living with uncertainty

When you go numb

The whole value of a calming corner is that the child can take themselves there. An adult may suggest it, but if it is only ever ordered, what gets learned is obedience rather than self-regulation.

Make it clearly available rather than assigned. They go, they take their few minutes, they come back with a short hello and a nod at whatever they…

Five minutesFeelings and focusADHD skillsQur’an 2:45One line of research

Instead of sending a child out to sit and stew, send them to a side table for three very easy worksheets, then straight back to whatever everyone else is doing.

It takes them out of whatever was rewarding about the behaviour without leaving them with nothing to do and an audience to play to. Keep the work…

Five minutesFeelings and focusADHD skillsQur’an 20:26One line of research

Time with people is not the nice extra you get to once the real work is done. Put it alongside sleep, medication and exercise rather than underneath them.

It helps to treat it like any other part of a plan, with something specific in the week rather than a general intention to be more social. One…

Twenty minutesFeelings and focusADHD skillsQur’an 2:45One line of research

Belonging to the group does nothing. Going does. Having a friend does nothing either, unless you see them.

So count the actual events. How many times this week did you sit with someone, not message them. A number you can check beats a resolution to be more…

Twenty minutesFeelings and focusADHD skillsQur’an 8:11One line of research

When someone has gone flat, the question is not what they ought to be doing. It is what still has any life in it for them, however small or unimpressive, and then how to get more of that.

Activities handed out from the outside do not lift much. Someone who brightens talking about their car, or a cousin, or a game has just given you the…

Twenty minutesFeelings and focusCBTQur’an 94:1One line of research

ADHD rarely turns up on its own. If anxiety or low mood is in the room as well, it needs treating in its own right, and that includes when it is the other partner who is struggling.

This is the part that gets missed in couples. One person becomes the identified patient and everybody works on them, while the other one's untreated…

Twenty minutesFeelings and focusADHD skillsQur’an 2:153One line of research

Explain the calming corner on a quiet Tuesday, not in the middle of a meltdown. New instructions do not go in once a child is already rising.

Walk them through it when nothing is happening. This is where it is, this is what you can do there, this is how you come back. Let the whole class…

Twenty minutesFeelings and focusADHD skillsQur’an 23:97One line of research

Whatever the correction is, teach it before you need it. A routine the child already knows can be started with two words instead of a negotiation in front of everybody.

Show them the table, the worksheets, what happens when they finish, and let them try it once while nothing is wrong. After that the instruction is…

Twenty minutesFeelings and focusADHD skillsQur’an 48:4One line of research

If you run a group for people with ADHD, keep it to about five or six, or bring in a second facilitator. Past that you spend the session keeping order instead of doing the work.

The limit is not really about behaviour. It is about how many people one person can genuinely track while also holding the thread of the session.…

LongerFeelings and focusCBTQur’an 8:46One line of research