Introduction

Please watch the video below to begin your training.

Resources: download your self reflection journal below.

Summary of learning:

1. Why You’re Here

Common experiences that bring people to this course:

• Difficulty focusing
• Finding tasks that require attention boring or dull
• Frequent procrastination
• Hours of scrolling with little to show for it
• Lack of motivation
• Losing or forgetting things

These are increasingly common in the modern world.

2. Purpose of the Program

This program will:

• Build awareness of your own mind
• Train attention and focus
• Teach you to work with distractions
• Develop self-regulation
• Create space for daily peace and calm
• Provide a practical toolkit for everyday life

3. About the Instructor

• Will Fraser
• Has ADHD
• Experienced hyperactivity, impulsiveness, and difficulty sitting still as a child
• 15 years teaching in secondary schools
• School leader specialising in teacher training
• Extensive experience working with SEND students, including ADHD
• Fully certified meditation instructor (British School of Meditation)

Meditation made ADHD more manageable by:

• Increasing awareness of triggers
• Noticing urges as they emerge
• Learning to work with distraction

4. Who This Course Is For

• Not only for diagnosed ADHD
• For anyone who identifies with attention deficit traits
• For anyone who feels their focus has deteriorated
• Tools apply regardless of diagnosis

5. The Modern Attention Crisis

Three major contributors:

1. Dopamine Hacking

• Constant notifications provide micro dopamine hits
• Dopamine = reward chemical
• Daily activities feel less stimulating by comparison
• Brain structure is affected
• Attention span shortens

2. Cognitive Overload

• More information consumed in one day than previous generations encountered in years
• Constant stimulation
• No mental rest
• Reduced resilience for attentional tasks
• Compounding negative effects

3. Lack of Attention Training

• Few opportunities for quiet, low-dopamine activity
• Reduced reading and reflective time
• Focus skills deteriorate

The goal is not abandoning technology, but learning tools to function effectively within this environment.

6. Attention Deficit Traits

Three core categories:

• Inattention
• Impulsiveness
• Emotional dysregulation

Students are asked to self-identify traits to understand their starting point.

7. Neurophysiology of Attention Deficit Traits

Observed differences include:

• Reduced prefrontal cortex (attention, planning, inhibition)
• Altered dopamine and noradrenaline activity
• Differences in amygdala and hippocampus (emotion and memory)
• Brain changes also occurring in the general population

Key concept: Neuroplasticity

• The brain adapts and changes shape and size
• Changes are reversible
• Meditation can positively reform brain structure

8. Reframing ADHD Traits

Attention deficit traits can become strengths:

• Hyperactivity → energy and enthusiasm
• Lack of attention → curiosity
• Impulsiveness → creativity

Goal: learn to use these traits advantageously.

9. What Meditation Is

Simple definition:

Practicing focus to still the mind.

• Using attention to settle internal experience
• Creating space from mental “whirring”
• Ancient practice used across cultures
• Scientifically verified through fMRI and EEG research
• Accessible to anyone

10. What Meditation Is Not

• Not a belief system
• Not religious (though sometimes associated with spiritual traditions)
• Not about stopping thoughts
• Not hypnosis or trance
• Not breathwork
• Breath is used as an anchor, not manipulated

11. Definition of Mindfulness

Intentionally bringing attention to the present moment.

• Noticing what is happening right now
• Integrating awareness into daily life

12. Benefits of 10 Minutes Per Day

Scientifically supported improvements in:

• Focus and thinking – notice distractions sooner and return faster
• Impulse control – create a pause before reacting
• Stress and calm – signal safety to the nervous system
• Physical health – improved sleep, reduced tension and inflammation, improved immune function
• Relationships – increased empathy and less reactive listening
• Self-awareness – observing thoughts without fusing with them

13. Three Training Angles in This Course

1. Attention Training

• • Repeated exercises strengthen focus

1. Impulse and Energy Regulation

• • Notice urges and regulate energy levels

1. Emotional Calm

• • Improve emotional regulation

14. Course Structure

• 3 Modules
  • Attention
  • Regulation
  • Calm
• 9 meditation techniques (3 per module)
• 10 micro-practices for daily life
• Structured self-evaluation journal

Journal includes:

• Weekly self-scoring of attention deficit traits
• Logging meditation practice
• Rating perceived difficulty
• Tracking gradual improvement

15. Introductory Micro Practice: Shisa Kanko (“Pointing and Calling”)

Japanese method used for safety and mindfulness.

Purpose:

• Reduce autopilot behaviour
• Improve awareness of actions
• Strengthen memory encoding

How to use:

1. Look at the object
2. Point at it
3. Say it aloud

Examples:

• “The keys are on the desk.”
• “The door is locked.”
• “The car is parked on this street.”

Speaking and pointing embeds memory and increases present-moment awareness.

16. Closing

• Begin applying Shisa Kanko immediately
• Proceed to the first formal meditation lesson