07/09/2026
I’ve learned something about meditation as an Autistic ADHD woman:
My mind doesn’t need meditation to be empty. It needs somewhere useful to put its attention.
For years, meditation was presented to me as sitting still, closing my eyes, focusing on my breath and somehow making my very busy brain go quiet.
Yeah… no. 😂
What I’ve discovered is that meditation works much better for me when I add something.
✨ A visual element - light, movement, a candle, flowing colours or something beautiful to rest my eyes on.
🎧 A sound element - music, nature sounds, crashing waves, flowing water, singing bowls, rhythmic sound or a guided voice.
Sometimes both.
And there’s some interesting science behind why this can work.
Meditation is fundamentally an attention practice. You give your attention an anchor, notice when your mind wanders, and bring it back.
Research suggests mindfulness practices can help with attention and executive functioning in people with ADHD, although the evidence is still developing and the size of the effect varies between studies.
But here’s the bit I find particularly interesting:
The breath doesn’t have to be the anchor.
Researchers have compared meditation using bodily, auditory and visual anchors and found substantial individual differences in what people preferred. Some preferred breath. Others preferred sound. Others preferred a visual image.
That makes so much sense to me.
When I give my busy brain a sound to follow and something visually engaging to rest on, I’m not “doing meditation wrong”.
I’m giving my attention enough structure to stay connected to the practice.
And perhaps that’s a much more useful way to think about meditation for neurodivergent people.
Not:
How do I force my brain to meditate the way meditation is usually taught?
But:
What conditions help my brain access meditation?
Because the goal was never to become really good at sitting still with your eyes closed.
The goal is finding a way of being present that your own nervous system can actually access.
