I do everything based on tension.
I feel the level of tension in my body, and then I slowly increase or decrease the pressure.
For example, I had something intense planned for today (kickboxing). But I’ve already had a busy, intense week. I’ve had deep personal contact, and I have a birthday tomorrow evening.
Sometimes it then feels right to take something “out of the cart” and lower the overall level of tension.
I noticed I was a bit too high. The level of tension in my body was so high that I couldn’t think normally anymore. That didn’t feel very pleasant. I couldn’t focus on my work. I think you’re unconsciously anticipating a heavy training session later that evening.
When I removed kickboxing from my schedule, I felt mental calm again and I could think normally. I think it’s healthy to move up and down like that — to regulate your level of tension consciously.
Taking the Fear Out of the Equation
Today, I want to talk about ADD.
Since a whole group of kids is getting bombarded with diagnoses, I think it's important to look honestly at what we are actually scared of.
We are scared of thoughts and feelings following up quickly on each other.
The waves you ride, in that sense, are faster. So you get a new idea, a new thought, a new feeling relatively fast after the previous one.
This is in contrast to other people, who maybe spend 15 minutes per thought I made that up). Somebody with ADD might spend 10 seconds per thought.
The real fear, of course, comes from parents who think that dreamy children who can’t pay attention will fall behind in school, and therefore in society. In that sense, this whole problem is purely instigated by scared parents who think their children will lag behind.
What does being distracted actually mean?
I could argue: you are the one who is distracted from my new thought.
Or: people who don’t look at reality at the same depth are distracted from the underlying current the whole time.
“No, no, you don’t understand the underlying suffering people have, yada yada.”
It’s annoying to them. But it’s more annoying when you fear something.
Thoughts that follow up quickly — why is that scary?
* Important notes when you have ADD
Energy spent per thought is lower, so your judgment can appear more superficial.
If your energy spent per thought is higher (“normal people”), there is more room for judgments along the way.
You can redistribute energy by reducing the total number of thoughts. For instance, by watching less news. Then you don’t have to spend that extra energy.
Another important thing for people with ADD is increasing the total amount of energy you spend (with less thinking). So working out, for example, is an excellent strategy to increase total energy expenditure while reducing the amount spent on thinking.
People with ADHD function either at maximum tension (hyperfocus)
or at minimal tension
— throughout the entire body.
People without ADHD more often operate at a level of tension somewhere in between.
I wasn’t impressed by theories of the brain.
So I started looking myself.
I literally asked my own brain:
Brain, how do you work?
I started getting answers.
A brain is like a central station.
A central station is only important because it connects cities and villages.
Without cities and villages, a brain has no value.
This often goes wrong: we tend to overvalue the brain in absolutes versus its relative position in the body.
Simply put: we think a depression is important, but a depression exists in the lack of relations you have with other people, your work, your environment.
The moment you isolate a brain, it has zero value. It’s a connection box, a relationship device.
A brain alone is just very… sad.
Above is what I thought when I was 6 years old, dreaming about consciousness and its relation to the inside of my body.
If only I would know all my thoughts and feelings, I thought.
If you think you can’t figure out from the inside out how a body works, you are in trouble.
People who are good at life spend a very big portion of their time figuring out where their good and bad feelings come from, and how they can fix that.
If I have a sad feeling that prolongs, I fix that thing, because it’s dangerous long term.