I ran across an interesting article yesterday discussing how ADHD is not actually a "disease". http://themindunleashed.org/2014/10/adhd-real-disease-says-leading-neuroscientist.html. It is a subject of great interest to me. It seems to me that there are inherent problems in our general environment and the way that kids are taught in school these days- and not just "these days" but for many, many years. Our schools and our society do not nurture the way that kids minds and bodies naturally operate- which is pretty much to be full of energy and, to some extent, all over the place due to their rabid curiosity about the world! Kids minds are so expansive, open and free and from the minute they walk into their first day of school, with few exceptions (the great progressive schools and alternative learning environments), they begin to be constricted and stuffed into one box or another. Also, there is so much mental and auditory stimulus directed at them (and at all of us) through today's technology as well as serious EMF pollution that it's a wonder any of us can think straight!

Personally I think there are numerous contributing factors to the disproportionate rise of so-called ADHD. One obvious one is diet- we have to make a concerted effort seek out food with good nutritional value and we are limited by time. If a growing body is not being given good whole food it will impact the development of the brain. The brain is part of the body- hello. We live in a fast-food society- not necessarily just the food we ingest in our bodies but also how we feed our minds. We have kids (and adults) that are addicted to video games, cell phones and computers. It is easier these days to find out about whatever bit of trivia- or important information- we need at any given moment by googling or reading a quick summary on Wikipedia than by actually reading a book.

Multitasking was once the job of computers. It has fallen into our language as a desired "skill" which does not encourage focusing on one task until it is completed. I know people who take pride in their ability to multitask. If we can talk on the phone at the same time as we are doing research on the computer, eat lunch at our desk, watch a webcast while making a necklace, or listen in on a call while we are out for a run, we have just collapsed time a little bit more and bought ourselves a few extra minutes. I had a massage client once who wanted to be on a conference call while she was receiving her massage! I told her no, if she wanted to have a massage with me at that time she had to forgo the phone call. I suppose for some people that is part of their "normal". It is definitely not how I work though, as a healer. When the mind is under that much pressure, to be constantly busy, how can it learn to relax and let go? It is being pushed to the max.

Julian Treasure's talk on sound health also brings up a point which seems very relevant to this topic. He talks about "schizophonia"- the dislocation between what we see and what we hear. I am in my kitchen but I am talking to my sister in Arizona. How much attention am I paying to my present space- or am I present at all? This issue has become very pervasive because today we have the opportunity at all times to be connecting with those who are not present with us- who are not in our space, in our house, in our time zone. On one level I believe that this is one of the gifts of the internet- and in fact I actually think that it is the higher purpose of the internet. On the flip side I feel that it can be very damaging to our sense of self and to our sense of place in time. It may be even more so to young people because they have barely begun to develop a strong sense of self and they are actually being encouraged by our technology to split off from it. We must vigilant about how we use our technology and, in some sense, "protect" our minds.

And how does this relate to sound healing? (It better relate because I have a whole chapter on it in my book!) Sound has the ability to bring us fully into the present literally in a matter of seconds and sometimes in less than an instant. One of the simplest ways to do this, when you feel you are scattered, disconnected or not fully available to the person or the task before you is simply to pull your attention back to your breath. Stop- and listen to the sound of your breath with your very next inhale. Where are you now?