Natural Remedies for ADHD & Nature Therapy

benefits of a koi pond for stress relief

“Nature, by virtue of all the feelings that aroused in me, seemed diametrically opposed to the mechanical inventions of mankind.  The less it bore their imprint, the more room is offered for the expansion of my heart.” – Marcel Proust

Do you ever have these symptoms:

  • Unintentional tuning-out
  • Only able to focus on areas of high interest
  • Hypersensitive
  • Time illiteracy
  • Hard to grasp the future
  • Feeling like you’ve never really reached your true potential
  • Always have many plates spinning at once
  • Trouble letting go of things
  • Impulsion
  • Low self-esteem
  • Disorganized
  • Difficulty handling emotional reactions
  • A feeling of duty to the whole world

If so… you (like myself) might have ADD or ADHD. Dr. Gabor Mate (Scattered; book) feels that this results from deep emotional pain.  Due to our society and human developmental environment, that causes short circuits in neurological pathways.

It results in low dopamine levels in the prefrontal cortex.

Once diagnosed, there is a fork in the road you’ll need to navigate.  One side is medication, and the other is natural remedies for ADHD.

If you research ADHD medication side effects, you will find some disturbing research showing it can damage your brain.

Medications have their place, and some people need them, but it’s worth trying some natural medicine for ADHD first.

Some ADHD natural treatments will help manage… and get this… even rewire the brain!  Through neuroplasticity.

 

We have this ability to create new circuits late into life.  Using these home remedies for ADHD can help the rewiring process:

  • Get Organized & Simplified –  Organization helps harmonize the mind.  Neglecting your environment is neglecting oneself
    • Each possession requires the mental capacity to clean, store, maintain, work for
    • The fewer material objects you have, the easier it is to keep them organized
  • Sleep – Restores the mind and body
    • Stick to a regular schedule as much as possible
  • Nutrition – Keeping blood sugar even is key
    • A Mediterranean diet helps keep blood sugars in check by adding more fat and removing processed carbs and sugars that cause spikes.
    • This book is an excellent introduction to the Mediterranean eating
    • Time magazine rated it as one of the best diets of 2018
    • The base of the Mediterranean diet is physical movement (research shows that outdoor activity is best)
  • Physical Exercise – Optimizes brain chemicals with vigorous daily exercise
    • Medical study showing just 15 minutes of exercise helps boost physical and mental performance (memory, stability, reasoning, decreased stress)
  • Nature Therapy – Helps bring peace, unity, and tranquility to the mind

“We keep forgetting that we are primates and that we have to make allowances for these primitive layers in our psyche.” – Carl Jung

Nature and physical movement is healing, “nature is medicine.”

Consistently repressing our instincts to be in nature results in a lack of soul.

When Carl Jung was 14 years old, he rode a train to the top of a mountain.  At the peak, looking out over nature, he felt, “Yes, this is it, my world, the real world, the secret, where there are no teachers, no schools, no unanswerable questions, where one can be without having to ask anything.”.

This is the magic of nature therapy.  There are no pressing demands to distract you.  You can simply be.  Modern society is plagued with implicit requests made by technology (phones/computers).

Nature also ties into primitive layers in our psyche resulting from our earlier years when we evolved in the wild.

A biologist in the 20th century named E.O. Wilson argues that we have what he calls “biophilia” (book).  A natural sense of love for landscapes makes our existence possible and which we have lived for most of our existence.

We respond to nature because we are a part of it.

Essentially, most brilliant thinkers of the past were saying that nature is our natural habit.  In which we thrive.

Think about zoo animals.  They were taken out of their evolved habitat, and they became distressed.

We are no different.   The artificial concrete boxes we spend time in are not where the body thrives.

There is one other reason nature therapy works.   When faced with the natural landscape, you feel your concerns and yourself are tiny compared to the world.  Just imagine being out in the middle of an ocean.

This helps to shrink down our ego.  At the same time, it is connecting us to something larger than ourselves… the fantastic tapestry of life on earth.

Fitting in some nature therapy doesn’t have to be a big grandiose trip into the mountains.  You can start by adding natural features to your backyard and creating your backyard paradise.

installed small pond kit

We recommend adding a pond and waterfall (easily accomplished with a pond kit).  The sound of water is tied into this primitive layer in our beings.  We are giving us a sense of a secure water source for our survival.

A perfect way to relax after a stressful day.

Do your best to schedule a daily time to reboot in nature for therapy.  Your life depends on it.  And when you do, take note of the effects.  People will often report better focus, organization, and less stress and tension.

ADHD and Nature

“There is matchless unity, harmony, and peace in nature- all that is lacking, in other words in the ADD mind.” – Gabor Mate.

Some propose that ADHD should be relabeled as NDD (nature-deficit-disorder).

A tour in nature will provide kids and adults with:

  • Unfettered attention with the ability for the mind to roam
  • Physical movement
  • No rules, by just being present
  • Stimulation

ADHD diagnosis, in large part, maybe due to our sedentary lifestyles.  Causing us to express our energy in unproductive ways because we’re not being stimulated in a way that only nature can do.

Science is starting to catch on.  A recent study showed an improvement in ADHD symptoms in a broad range of people, adding elements of nature.  Something as small as being in a building with a window to a green environment was an improvement.

There is a saying with the brain, “what gets fired gets wired.”  Time spent exercising in nature promotes new circuits that create long-term gains in impulse control and attention—proving ADHD and nature to be a truly wise mental health investment.

  • Slow Down – Stop making yourself so busy and make time for development
    • “Civilized man… is in danger of losing all contact with the world of instinct- a danger that is still further increased by his living an urban existence in what seems to be purely an artificial environment.  This loss of instinct is largely responsible for the pathological condition of contemporary culture.” – Carl Jung.
    • Pueblo chief Jung spoke, ” The Americans are quite crazy.  They’re always seeking; we don’t know what they are looking for.”  there is too much head, and there is too much will, too much walking about, and nothing rooting.  Jung felt the modern man was overstrained from his endless activities.  Despite diets, exercise, reading, etc., man still cannot find a way to live a meaningful life. His advice is as follows:
      • Live in small communities.
      • Work less (minimizing possessions/debt makes this possible)
      • Have a plot of land to cultivate such instincts come back to life (there is also nothing more nutritious than produce freshly picked)
      • Minimize technology
    • We need to stop prescribing stopgap answers to huge problems caused by how we live.
  • Creative Expression – Gets you into flow states (book) and boosts self-esteem.
  • Meditation and Mindfulness – Spiritual practice is essential to the self-treatment of ADHD.  Meditation helps weaken innate neurological responses.
    • Deep meditation can lead to a sense of interconnectedness. As Carl Jung often experienced during his times at his lakeside tower: “At times I feel as if I am spread out over the landscape and inside things, and am myself living in every tree, in the splashing of the waves, in the clouds and the animals that come and go, in the procession of the seasons.  There is nothing… with which I am not linked.”.  See how this also ties back into nature, and both practices will strengthen one another.
    • Some experts think religion is also to blame. People have been taught that this life is not the real thing.  That we live only for heaven. In which case, our loss of connection with nature is neither a practical or psychological problem but a religious one, as Joseph Henderson explains: “Nature has lost her divinity, yet the spirit is unsure and unsatisfied.  Hence any true cure for the neurosis…. would have to awaken both the spirit and nature to a new life.  The relevance of this theme for us  today may be that it is a problem we are still trying to solve on too personal, psychological a level, or a purely cultural level without fully realizing it is at the bottom a religious problem and not psychological or social at all.”
    • Remember the saying with the brain, “what gets fired gets wired.”  Mindfulness helps you gain awareness of what circuits you are firing and wiring.
  • Compassion – Accept that you will not be perfect.  Just practice making attempts. As they say, 90% of success is just showing up.
  • Skills – Learning basic skills to complete tasks, organization, and attention can boost accomplishment.

Conclusion

Notice (as mentioned above) how many of these methods work together.   As Gabor Mate says… healing from ADHD isn’t fixing a disorder; it’s a process of becoming whole.  To thrive requires a lifestyle shift to a simple life.  And in the simple and forgotten things, you’ll find yourself.

 

August 10th – 1956 Jung Letter

Dear N.,

I was happy to hear that you now have a house and land of your own.  This is important for chthonic powers.  I hope you will find time to commit your plant counterparts to the earth and tend their growth. The world always wants children-houses, trees, flowers- to grow out of her and celebrate the marriage of the human psyche with the Great Mother, the best counter-magic against root-less extraversion!

Always you’re faithful.

C.G. Jung 

Last Updated on February 25, 2022 by Davin

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