To quiet your mind, use focus techniques like deep breathing (e.g., 4-7-8 method) or counting breaths, engage in absorbing activities (coloring, knitting, nature walks, exercise), practice mindfulness to observe thoughts without judgment, and create mental space by reducing screen time or scheduling "blank" time. These methods redirect attention from mental chatter to a specific sensation or task, activating your body's relaxation response and calming the nervous system.
Practicing mindfulness can help change your thought patterns. For instance, try counting your breaths. Close your eyes and count to yourself as you take slow, steady breaths: count one on the inhale, two on the exhale, etc. When you reach 10, start over and repeat the process until you calm down.
How to Quiet Your Mind
Even though you had a long day and are exhausted, you feel like your mind is racing and your thoughts are louder than ever. Loud, racing thoughts while lying in bed at night are known as rumination and are almost always the result of stress and anxiety.
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Imagine the sound of rumbling thunder or a raging sea in the background. These sounds are called brown noise. Brown noise is an ambient sound that is said to help tackle inattention in adults with ADHD.
Relaxation can additionally be challenging for people whose brain's emotional systems are on overdrive from anxiety and/or depression. Other people may struggle to calm their nervous system due to the effects of past emotional trauma and anxiety. All that late night doomscrolling so many of us do is a culprit as well.
Egged on by caffeine, anxiety or everyday stress, our brains start acting like a pinball machine as thoughts ricochet from one place to another. Psychologists call it rumination or mental perturbance. It's a repetitive pattern of negative thinking, and some of it is not even conscious.
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Symptoms of hyperactivity in adults are more subtle than in childhood ADHD, showing up as inner restlessness, racing thoughts, or frequent fidgeting. Impulsive decision-making and engaging in risky behaviors are also common among adults with ADHD.
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The 20-minute rule for ADHD is a productivity strategy to overcome task paralysis by committing to work on a task for just 20 minutes, leveraging the brain's need for dopamine and short bursts of focus, making it easier to start and build momentum, with the option to stop or continue after the timer goes off, and it's a variation of the Pomodoro Technique, adapted for ADHD's unique challenges like time blindness. It helps by reducing overwhelm, providing a clear starting point, and creating a dopamine-boosting win, even if you only work for that short period.
The ADHD "30% Rule" is a guideline suggesting that executive functions (like self-regulation, planning, and emotional control) in people with ADHD develop about 30% slower than in neurotypical individuals, meaning a 10-year-old might function more like a 7-year-old in these areas, requiring adjusted expectations for maturity, task management, and behavior. It's a tool for caregivers and adults with ADHD to set realistic goals, not a strict scientific law, helping to reduce frustration by matching demands to the person's actual developmental level (executive age) rather than just their chronological age.
The top 3 core symptoms of ADHD are inattention (difficulty focusing, staying organized), hyperactivity (excess restlessness, excessive movement), and impulsivity (acting without thinking, poor self-control). People with ADHD often experience a combination of these, though some might primarily struggle with inattention (inattentive type) or hyperactivity/impulsivity (hyperactive-impulsive type).
Increase stress relief by exercising outdoors—people with ADHD often benefit from sunshine and green surroundings. Try relaxing forms of exercise, such as mindful walking, yoga, or tai chi. In addition to relieving stress, they can teach you to better control your attention and impulses.
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Distract yourself from your voices
You may experience symptoms such as:
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Stress symptoms can affect your body, your thoughts and feelings, and your behavior. Knowing common stress symptoms can help you manage them. Stress that's not dealt with can lead to many health problems, such as high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, obesity and diabetes.