Rhythms of Focus

Caught in the tug-of-war between “should do” and “want to do”? You’re not alone. In this episode of Rhythms of Focus, we unravel the hidden dance between dopamine, motivation, and the pursuit of mastery-especially for those with wandering minds and ADHD.

We’ll explore why chasing dopamine hits can leave us feeling empty, and how shifting our focus from quick fixes to meaningful learning can restore a sense of agency. Instead of forcing productivity, discover how leaning gently into challenge-and finding ease and play within it-can help you build rhythms that last.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why relying solely on dopamine or brain chemistry explanations can distance you from your own experience-and what to do instead.
• How to use the “Lean into Challenge” approach to transform overwhelm into small, achievable steps toward mastery.
• The power of play and ease as markers of true learning, not just fleeting motivation.

Three actionable takeaways:

• Pause and acknowledge your feelings before pushing forward-self-compassion is the first step to agency.
• Break tasks down to their simplest elements, slow your pace, and seek out the “level below” when stuck.
• Invite playfulness into your work-even a single note or tiny success can reignite engagement and growth.

This episode features an original piano composition, “Sky Lily” as an example of structure shaping emotion.

Subscribe and join us at rhythmsoffocus.com to keep guiding your wandering mind toward creative mastery.

#ADHD #WanderingMinds #MindfulProductivity #Agency #Mastery #PlayfulFocus #LeanIntoChallenge #Dopamine #RhythmsOfFocus #CreativeGrowth

Staring at your to-do list, you know exactly what you "should" do, but your mind won't budge. You quickly jump to something else on the list or off the list.

"I'll do it later."

Is it a lack of willpower, troubles with brain chemistry, or something else entirely?

One struggle of a wandering mind is this sense that sometimes we cannot seem to do things by our own free will. Having bashed ourselves against our internal walls trying to prove otherwise, we might find some solace in science that our free will isn't truly free.

There are at least a couple of examples of this, and one we'll look at today is found in the word "dopamine."

Dopamine is a chemical in the brain that relates to reinforcement.

The theory for ADHD at least is that the sensitivity, the receptors, the anatomic distribution and more of this chemical dopamine is somehow different.

We can even dive further into the scientific words and say things like the dopaminergic cell bodies that relate exist in the pars compacta of the substantial nigra in the ventral tegmental area. Reinforcement sensitivity may be altered as related to the DAT1 gene variable numbered tandem repeat. ... and we can go on.

There's a lot of benefit that can come from such study: medications, tools, new perspectives, and more.

But as with any perspective, we can invite problems when this is our only way of looking at it. These words tend to distance us from experience, and this may seem like a trivial point, but I assure you it is not.

The word "dopamine" can become a metaphor not only for the rest of these concepts, but for worlds we do not fully understand, and more importantly, worlds within ourselves that we do not control, at least not directly.

This doesn't mean we should toss the science out the window. There is plenty within ourselves that we do not control. Psychoanalysis formalized this concept of the unconscious, for example, which by the way means that there are things that are not conscious. Depending on which analyst you ask, dopamine might even fit into that category.

We can carry this metaphor further though, this metaphor of dopamine being that which we cannot control, calling it a button to push. That we use other things to press, for example, cold showers, video games, taking a stimulant medication, exercising. These can all help. The idea is that having bathed ourselves in dopamine's Ambrosia through this roundabout method, we can now act.

And again, these can help.

But what we lose in this perspective is the original role of dopamine.

Now we've looked at it as reinforcement, but even there we lose a closer term: learning. We can see this distinction, this loss in the word, when we also look at dopamine in reference to negative things like cocaine, risky sexual behaviors, gambling, and the like.

In other words, when using the word dopamine, we might be saying something like, "I'm tired," or "I'm struggling to engage, among other possibilities," but we have to be cautious that we're likely not saying anything about decision or meaning.

Where we place our mind, what we do with our attention while we're there, what things mean to us? Couldn't these also be paths to stimulation that would get us moving?

I come back to the same word: "learning."

I don't mean learning in the sense of sitting there staring at some teacher in the face while your thoughts are going somewhere else.

I mean truly learning. When we truly learn, it means that we are gaining things, incorporating things that feel meaningful to us, that have somehow this sense of growth of agency within us, that that can support our sense of agency. That reinforces itself, doesn't it?

When we start to get good at something, even if, and sometimes, especially if it was difficult to begin with, doesn't that turn us on?

Okay, but how do we even begin to make it through that difficult hump, that beginning of, "I don't wanna."

Well, it's a complex mix of many emotions, that simple phrase, "I don't wanna," maybe I'll come back to that for another episode. But there are several things that we can try, some more concrete, some more abstract.

And even if I were to tell you to try them all, I can't guarantee that it would help you necessarily make it through, but I can encourage a try.

So let me offer you this one possibility. It will focus on a complexity of overwhelm, perhaps, because many emotions can tie into that. And this one, this particular technique I'll get into now, I think does do a good approach for many different problems.

A Lean into Challenge.

When you begin to practice a visit- based approach, as I described in an earlier episode, the idea is that you show up to a thing and then decide. That's the shorthand of it.

As you are there, you're bathed directly in the emotions of the work.

You may well feel any number of things. You might feel repulsed, angry, irritated, bored, confused among any number of other feelings. The nuance of emotion becomes clearer instead of the oversimplified crayon box we use of happy, sad, worried, or whatever.

In that time there, in that single deep breath, you might decide to leave. That's fine. It might be intolerable. Caring for yourself in whatever way makes sense to you is of great importance. If you're exhausted beyond your ability at that visit, pushing further would be too much- okay, fine. Put it aside.

Come back to tomorrow's visit. And even then and the next, you may only be there for that single deep breath to stare at the taxes or gather the materials for the DMV or whatever it happens to be.

But at some visit, should you decide to stay beyond that single deep breath, you might discover some natural window of challenge, something that works for you, "that I can make that little nudge forward."

Fine and sometimes not.

So what do we do if that doesn't naturally show?

And this is where we can use that tool of a Lean into Challenge. In short first pause. I find this to be vital, and I'll get into that maybe another episode as to why pausing is vital, but pause.

Second be with those feelings, frustration among any number of others, acknowledging them, seeing them, maybe even feeling them in your body.

Next search for the marker of mastery.

What is that? Ease.

Kenny Werner, the author of Effortless Mastery does a nice job of describing this sense of doing something with ease, with barely even a thought as being this marker for mastery.

We want to aim for ease and how do we do that?

Here are three things you can try.

One, reduce the scope of whatever it is you're looking at. Break it down. That doesn't mean break it into all of its parts. That can be its own overwhelming thing. I'm talking about one tiny piece.

Two, slow it down. Slow yourself down instead of looking at everything, come down to almost a standstill if you like.

Third, find what I would call "a level below", meaning find something fundamental, something simple in the work. If it's a textbook you're looking at, look at the chapter that's before. Maybe you haven't quite gotten that one down. If you're stumbling, going across the piano keys, go to the arpeggios or scales. If you're coding something, developing some computer program. Maybe there's something simple in there that you haven't quite totally gotten to that point of ease.

Keep using these three levers. Shrink it down, slow it down, level below until you can find some ease, some tiny little speck within the fog of frustration, overwhelm, or whatever the negative feeling state is.

If you can find that ease you are finding where you have some sense of mastery, even if it's just being able to breathe within it.

Another marker of mastery is the ability to play. And I mean that in the toddler sense, in that Hericlitus sense that I mentioned in episode two of a person being most themselves when they're in the heart of play. That depth of flow between self and world, where I can touch that one single note and tap it with a little bit more and a little less and see how loud and soft I can make it, just almost making a song with just that. I can adjust that one thing on the website. I can speak to my boss with this one single sentence. I can raise my eyes this far in trying to connect with somebody.

We begin to find play.

And then the question is, can we bring that spirit itself back into challenge, the little nudge forward? Because that's when we are learning. And not only are we learning, but we're doing it from a sense of depth from where we are.

And when we learn from that depth of self, it's no longer about dopamine. It might be there, but that's only one ingredient. More importantly, we have agency, again.

Beyond excitement, it becomes about engagement, discovery, creativity. And over time, it becomes about passion and even identity as we continue the visits forward. In fact, as we do this over multiple visits, it shifts from being a Lean into Challenge, into a Lean into Mastery.

There's a richness that we start to be able to hold onto, engage and develop that has meaning.

Again, now it's no longer about dopamine. It's about having agency.

So as a takeaway here, consider something you'd like to make a visit to. Maybe be there, pause, feel that frustration. See if you can find that ease within it, by slowing down, breaking it down, finding some level below.

Can you find that sense of play within that ease and then return to challenge?

Couldn't that be a nice place to build from?

  Music is this landscape of emotions. When we listen to music, we hear structure in the echoes and the repetition. Even variation requires repetition.

And within these structures, our minds create space. Within that space are the emotions that we fill it with, the emotions that we carry within us.

We're stirred by these structures every time we hear them. As our mind internalizes these trellises that these sounds have created. And we listen, repeating the song, hearing it again and again, asking our record players and apps and such to play it for us. Until we've grown through those trellises, we can now shed them.

I find this happens in the creation of a piece, and I find it happens as we listen to a piece.

This piece I'll play for you is called "Sky Lilly" and creates a world between two keys. One is in B flat minor, while the other is in a related major D flat

in reality, there's a lot more going on. There are a lot more structures that are created between individual notes and phrases. If I just told you all the notes, you wouldn't experience it. And experience is where things really seem to change, much like a Visit.

I hope you enjoy the piece.

Mentioned in this episode:

Waves of Focus YouTube Series

Look out for new episodes of the new Waves of Focus YouTube series here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJpQS5q6yvRw

What if your struggles with focus weren’t a moral failing, but simply a different rhythm—one that can be guided with care rather than shame? In this episode of *Rhythms of Focus*, we explore the well-worn path of self-blame that so many adults with ADHD and wandering minds know all too well. Together, we’ll consider how we can fall into the trap of “trying harder”, and how discover how agency and the practice of caring for our Future Selves can transform the way you organize your days.

- Recognize how leveraging shame and self-criticism only deepens the cycle of overwhelm and guilt

- Begin building a foundation of trust in your own rhythms, making it easier to release shame-based strategies and foster agency

This episode also features an original piano composition, “Folktale.”

Subscribe for more compassionate strategies for wandering minds, and visit rhythmsoffocus.com for resources and inspiration.

#ADHD #WanderingMinds #MindfulProductivity #SelfCompassion #Agency #GentleFocus #CreativeRhythms #LetGoOfShame #TaskManagement #PianoMeditation

Despite your best efforts, another deadline slipping by and a familiar wave of guilt and shame rolls in. Some of us double down, hoping that shame will help us do better next time, creating this ever- worsening cycle.

But couldn't there be a better organizing force?

 As wandering minds, we often consider our troubles moral in nature. Maybe we were somehow born lazy.

If we could only muster more willpower discipline, we'd be fine. Holding things in mind harder, trying one list after the next, creating this sea of post-it notes blaring reminders in a barely balanced set of files on the desktop-- all have this way of collapsing into piles of incomplete projects and missed opportunities, each resonating more shame.

Just trying harder is like someone who's nearsighted is trying to see better by wanting to. It doesn't work and often leaves the ceiling worse, like squinting until we get headaches.

Often the world around us doesn't recognize this sense we have of this Magnified Now that I described earlier in this series. They never experience what that could possibly mean-- this Magnified Now. And they view these collisions and misplacements that we get into as motivationally- based.

The conclusion is that we are morally flawed. We hear some version of,

"If you really cared, you wouldn't forget!"

We hear that from others, and as we internalize it, we hear it from ourselves.

And so once again, we muster up the courage and try again.

With every error, we yell louder. Not only through self recrimination, but in the seas of sticky notes and the reminders and how we write our tasks and where we write them and demands and all caps and bold and saying, "Do homework!" "Write the report!" "Do the thing!" as well as the angry questions that follow, like

"Why can't you just do it?"

Maybe if we yelled at ourselves enough, that'll fix the problem.

In other words, we leverage shame.

The trouble is it can work.

For example, let's say you miss an appointment. "Well, next week I shouldn't miss that appointment because I'm going to feel bad enough to remember." But let's say you missed that one. "Well, now I'm just gonna feel worse and that'll do it."

And now if it works well, you've just reinforced that you just needed to feel bad enough.

The trouble is that leveraging shame beyond the major pain it inflict on ourselves, injures us further. We now not only have feelings of guilt and shame, but also this constant worry of gathering more simply by trying.

The world becomes increasingly painful and dangerous. All of these attacks and self- recriminations build over time. At a gut level, we regularly receive this message that the world is a place that we're incapable of navigating, and we confirm this for ourselves.

And it must then, we conclude, stem from this moral failing.

What's missing is the central notion that we can organize based on having things genuinely off of our mind, that we can use this lack of frustration, irritation, shame, and the rest as being the principle around which we organize ourselves.

If we develop these methods of putting things that we want to be reminded of, when and where they would be useful, that they would stay out of our way when we don't need them, that we'd be ready to engage them when we reach out for them. Wouldn't that be a better way of managing things? Of course, this is much more easier said than done, but this is the practice of caring for our future selves.

If, for example, you knew that an appointment reminder would appear, clear of other distractions with enough time to wrap up whatever you were doing, showed up, that it also gave you directions to wherever it is that you wanted to go, that it told you where all the things are that you needed, and if you had practiced that enough that you felt that that happened over and over- you're developing a trust between your present and future and past self.

If that were the case, wouldn't it be easier to consciously let things go? Wouldn't it be easier to not shame yourself into doing these things?

Now there are a number of skills here to practice.

Being able to wrap something up, being able to guide that momentum that you're in into something that you would hope you'd be able to return to. Clearing space to have reliable reminders and the like. Yes, there are a number of skills to practice, but they are learnable.

If you take each one and begin to practice each one, eventually you have this group of things that come together and support you.

So for those of you who are caught in this cycle, know you're not alone and that there are gentler, more effective ways of guiding your focus.

As this series continues, I hope to continue my argument of how a Visit- based system can become this nidus for change. It's not the entirety, but it is a solid foundation.

As you practice, really experience the sense that you can put things where you want them to show up, to remind you, and stay out of the way otherwise, you start to develop that trust. And maybe then you can start shedding those more shaming methods.

  Every time I sit to play a piece of music that I've composed, I'll play it differently than I did before. I quickly get bored when a piece stays the same. I suppose there's some lesson of life always being about change in there as when a piece stops changing, I stop playing it.

This piece called Folktale is one of my older pieces starting maybe 30 years ago or so, and it's had quite a while to evolve.

The piece is written in F minor. It's mostly in three-four time, this sort of waltz time. And being in a minor key, I know a lot of times we equate a sort of sadness to it, but I really wonder if we're confusing that with contemplation, with reflection.

Why does it always have to be sad? Why not thoughtful? Yeah. Maybe that's just me. In any case, I hope you enjoy it.

Mentioned in this episode:

Waves of Focus YouTube Series

Look out for new episodes of the new Waves of Focus YouTube series here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJpQS5q6yvRw

In this episode of Rhythms of Focus, we explore the paradoxical power and challenge of living with a wandering mind, whether of ADHD or otherwise.

Ever notice how, when the winds are right, you can ride a wave of creativity and clarity—only to later find yourself scattered, lost, or exhausted when the tide shifts?

In this episode, we’ll consider the troubles of even describing what is happening. While diagnoses can help, they can hinder has well.

We’ll consider why “just try harder” and rigid productivity hacks often fail wandering minds—and what actually works instead

This episode features an original piano composition, “Bunnies on the March.”

Subscribe for more and visit rhythmsoffocus.com for resources designed for ADHD and wandering minds.

#ADHD #WanderingMinds #FocusRhythms #Agency #Mindfulness #SelfCompassion #GentleProductivity #Creativity #FlowState #Neurodiversity

 When conditions are right, we're sailing strong, getting more done in a shorter time than most. Ideas click. Insights seem obvious, if not simple.

In diving deep, the world fades away and this inner critic mercifully loosens its grip.

We are creative.

Feeling that free flow. We might wonder, why can't we just be here all the time?

 As I described in the opening, when conditions are right, we're sailing strong, and we can wonder why can't we always be here? The trouble is, conditions are ephemeral, a mysterious muse drifting off far sooner than we'd want.

Trying to hold on beyond its natural end, creates tension, exhaustion, and a blindness to other matters.

We can fall into scatter. Maybe we walk into a room forgetting why we went there in the first place. Maybe we need so many reminders to navigate our day that they blend into the background, leaving us lost once again.

Losing things, forgetting things, struggling to engage, buried under feelings of "I don't want to", and we sigh:

Maybe we even vaguely believe ourselves despite the repeated failures to fulfill that promise. So we plot some path forward with whatever we have at hand. Maybe deadlines will work, maybe following the moments whims will work, but there are no control levers to either one.

Due dates and interests exist without our input. Neither can they be faked. As painful as they are, they may seem to be our only tools, but their faults and pains leave us wondering,

There's a paradox of potential. We're told we're smart. We might even suspect it ourselves, but how can that possibly be true, especially when we cannot bring ourselves, our minds to a place to do a thing that feels important. That disconnect between perceived potential and the realization of that potential creates a powerfully painful point for the wandering mind.

Minds wander for some more so than others. Some season, some days, some hours more than others, sometimes well beyond some threshold where it can become quite difficult to navigate the day, running in fits and starts, excelling than crashing.

The struggles that come with a wandering mind go beyond a simple trouble of focus. How do we explain to someone, anyone, others, or ourselves that we can do this, but not that, focus here, but not there, now, but not then?

"What's wrong with you? Why can't you just get started?"

Well we've already been going through enough, we've got enough going on, enough troubles trying to move forward, keeping up with responsibilities desperately searching for a moment of joy and relief where we can, having to explain how our mind wanders is just one more difficult task on the pile.

Some people get a diagnosis, anxiety, sleep deprivation, attention deficit among other possibilities. Diagnoses are sometimes helpful. They give us common terms for the mysterious forces that are affecting us. Psychiatrists, neurologists, and others examine neurotransmitters, pathways, behaviors, and more. Checklists say "this many" meets criteria. Perhaps we find and use medicines and treatments along the way, many of which can be helpful, but none of these address either meaning or decision.

In ADHD, for example, medications can be very helpful for reducing distractibility. But how and where do we choose to place our attention to begin with?

Further, medical terms can sometimes even be used against ourselves. Inherent is a sense of "This is abnormal. How do we make it normal?" We may even use these diagnoses to shield ourselves from further, admittedly painful attempts to forge new paths forward.

I gave this example of a fever in the first episode, and let me describe it once again. When a person has a fever, they often reach for medication to reduce it, but there are at least a few considerations that could be helpful.

One, we don't know where the fever's coming from. What if it's acting as a messenger? This sort of downstream effect.

Two, fevers can often, in fact be helpful. Could it be acting as a support?

And three, meanwhile, there are also times when a fever can be damaging. How do we know when and how to reduce it? Perhaps a wandering mind's situation might be similar.

It's not arrived at in some singular way. Our troubles, after all, aren't static. They're better or worse in different days, different times of day. They flare in certain conditions and not in others. They're beneficial in some ways and not in others, and there are many ways that we can magnify the Now.

Further, what if many of these troubles are downstream effects of something more central?

In other words, what if there's meaning behind, if not utility to, the troubles, which could then be understood if not guided into strengths?

Reading and listening to online discussions, many recognize the strength that might be there, some even calling it "awesome" and a "superpower". Meanwhile, others understandably so bristle at that idea that there can be anything super about it, as debilitating as it can be.

Meanwhile, for those of us who don't qualify for a diagnosis, we're often left more confused than before.

There's no word, no physical thing to point to. We're at a loss to know what's going on. Even with a diagnosis, there's still a mystery to it. In other words, pointing at a word, what are we even pointing at?

In the coming episodes, we'll be staying with these sort of rough, icky parts.

I do think there are positive paths forward, but it's important to recognize the ways that we try to make things better can often make things worse.

I do believe that a Visit- based approach, as I mentioned in this series, can be helpful in engaging a sort of positive feedback loop to help get us out of that pit and becomes less about avoiding that sort of magnification of the moment and more about engaging and using it to power the moment.

Early in this episode, I described trying to hold on to something beyond a natural end, and I found this to be a very important matter in creating music in the individual session or visit while creating, improvising, writing, performing.

If I sit there and push something beyond its natural end, I create a headache. There is a sort of working through of challenge that's always important. There are these sort of frustrations that we need to sit through, but there's this feeling of meaning behind it as vital. In mastery, things move in these sort of plateaus and bursts, but it'll be hard to know when is it that I'm working through a challenge that's useful, and when might I be grinding my gears in a way that's going to create troubles?

I believe we can best answer that question at a Visit itself within a pause where we can look at the Windows of Challenge that sit before us and decide.

Once we decide that something works or does not work, that it might be time to step away. There can be a mourning that happens. And with practice, I've learned to listen to a piece of music to tell me when it's ready to end.

We can get excited by its thrills, but in paying attention to its passing on, we give it more than just dignity, but a power and elegance in that beauty that can stay with us.

How about I present a piece in a major key? This one is called Bunnies on the March, and it's written in F Major. You can hear a single bunny in the beginning that then sees this march going by and decides to join up, and then it leaves and does its own thing again, and then rejoins.

Why? I have no idea, but I hope you enjoy it. 

Mentioned in this episode:

Waves of Focus YouTube Series

Look out for new episodes of the new Waves of Focus YouTube series here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJpQS5q6yvRw

What do you do when you struggle to engage? In this episode of Rhythms of Focus, we explore how wandering minds-especially those with ADHD-can find a gentler, more sustainable path to meaningful productivity.

We'll explore a "Visit" as a unit of work, a simple, agency-enhancing practice that transforms focus from a battle into a series of mindful, approachable steps.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

- Why honoring your mind’s natural rhythms can unlock creativity and reduce overwhelm

- How the “visit” approach helps you engage with work through curiosity, not force

- Practical ways to build momentum and agency-one gentle step at a time

Key takeaways:

- Try a “visit”: Show up for a task, even for just a deep breath, and decide your next step from there

- Use rhythm, not rigidity: Let daily, mindful visits build sustainable progress

Plus, enjoy a piano performance of Beethoven's Sonata number 14, second movement, a result of a series of visits.

Subscribe for more at rhythmsoffocus.com

• Waves of Focus: Guiding the Wandering Mind

#ADHD #WanderingMinds #MindfulProductivity #Agency #GentleFocus #CreativeMomentum #VisitMethod #Neurodiversity #RhythmOverRigidity #SelfCompassion

Is a wandering mind really about a lack of discipline? What if it's instead more about being deeply attuned to the present moment, experiencing The Now with vivid intensity? When we see it that way, we might be more inclined to honor our mind's, natural rhythms rather than fight them. We might then be able to connect with a kinder, more effective approach to guiding our focus.

One tool that I suggest in helping to do this is called a Visit.

Today's episode begins with a common joke in the ADHD community. It goes something like this. There are only two forms of time, the Now and the Not Now. That's the joke. I do think it's funny. This exists and everything else doesn't.

But this insight, captures really the deepest truth of the issue at hand.

This is the source of the river, the beginning of the story for many wandering minds. We have this magnified view of the present moment, the Now vivid, urgent, demanding attention. Meanwhile, this Not Now, whether it's next week's deadline or tomorrow's grocery list or something that's off in the past, these can feel mythical.

Imagine looking through a magnifying lens. At its center, everything is vivid and detailed, but then the edges blur into this obscurity. This magnified mind works similarly, not in space though, but in awareness. We amplify the Now, making it rich and intense. While the Not Now --future plans, past commitments, meanings outside of our current awareness-- these fade into this distant haze.

This heightened focus can be both a gift and a challenge. On the one hand, it allows for deep engagement and creativity. While on the other, it can make navigating daily life feel overwhelming. Imagine walking around with magnifying lenses over your eyes all day.

This magnified awareness can be the centerpiece of a wandering mind's beauties and troubles.

There are many ways that a magnified awareness can lead to so much of what we see, and I'm sure I'll get into several of these in future episodes. For the moment though, I'd like to highlight that our emotions themselves are huge. The emotions of worry of, "I don't wanna" of, "I'd really rather do that"- all of them in this massive size- become consuming.

They become our worlds. The feeling of working against them, such as when some important task is projecting dread, or even the difficulty of transition from one state to another, from one work to another, from the couch to somewhere else. We're often faced with that internal sense that says,

As I mentioned in the introduction, there is this particular tool that I find to be powerfully helpful, a wonderful ally for a wandering mind to deal with this magnified world.

It helps in managing procrastination and the difficulty of engaging in as well as finding play and a sense of agency and much more.

It brings a gentler approach to focus. Rather than forcing yourself into action, we're looking for some way to be deliberate, but at the same time flexible.

This unit of work is called a Visit.

Now, what do I mean by a visit? Well, a visit is this.

First, choose some focus, something you want to engage with, whatever it is. It could be something fun, or it could be something you're dreading or anything in between. An example could be playing a game it could be dealing with taxes. Whatever it is that you decide.

Second, be with that focus. Either go to it or bring it to you.

Third, not at all necessary but preferable is to set distractions aside.

Fourth, stay for at least one deep breath of time. That's it. One deep breath.

What you've done is brought yourself to the Edge of Action. You're not forcing yourself, you're not making yourself do anything beyond being there for that single deep breath. At this Edge of Action, you can take a step forward as easily as you can take a step back.

It's no longer about you getting there. It's about you deciding for yourself. Is this a good idea at this moment or not? Weighing whatever emotional world you have in you and around you.

Now, fifth, optionally, you can nudge it forward, you can take that small step if it feels like something you'd like to do. You can take another step and even get into a flow and keep going for as long as makes sense to you. Or

Sixth vitally. You can leave at any time, including after that single deep breath, having done absolutely nothing.

Lastly, seventh, if the work is not done, consider if you'd like to make another visit sometime. And if so, would it be useful to schedule that? It's often useful to do this with some daily pace, and the seventh one takes care of itself that way.

At this point, mark it complete. You've made the visit whether you did anything beyond that deep breath or not.

Again, a Visit can be as short as one single deep breath, or it can extend into deeper work. It's entirely up to you. The key is to be there to fully engage that present sense of agency where you can make a decision for yourself in that moment.

Doing this might seem odd. What do you get out of it? Especially if you wind up doing nothing?

In directly exposing yourself to the emotions of the work where it can start bubbling up in mind, maybe between visits or just in the moment. Primarily what a visit does is that it heightens your sense of agency. This central concept of agency is about how do you help support yourself, make your own decisions in the moments that make sense to you.

In this way, visits become powerful. They help you gain that curiosity and kindness because they come from a place where you can decide for yourself if this makes sense to you or not, even in difficult conditions. And this is how visits align with how a wandering mind naturally operates.

They can help us to organize our work in ways that honor our unique rhythms, where we are in the moment. They transform overwhelming tasks into approachable moments as they become their own units of work, things that we can manage and orchestrate throughout our days.

When engaged regularly and in a rhythm, for example, daily, we can start leveraging this powerful wave of momentum that we can ride and carry ourselves on. With practice, you can even release your dependency on deadlines.

Instead of battling against our minds tendencies, visits help us work with them, turning this magnified awareness into an ally rather than an obstacle.

Certainly there's more to be said about this. How do you start things? How do you end things? How do you stay with things? How do you arrange the day? And much, much more. But this is a good place to start. Clients and students of mine who have given this a try, especially a daily try, often come away, noting how surprisingly engaging and useful a visit can be.

As a takeaway, maybe consider some piece of work that you have in your world, whether you dread it or you like it, whatever makes sense to you. What if you tried to approach it as a visit, where you show up, take one single deep breath, and then decide what you'd like to do at that time?

If you want something written down that'll help you walk through this, even show you how to do this with a simple reminder app , head over to RhythmsOfFocus.com/Visit. So rhythms is plural and rhythm starts with RHY RhythmsOfFocus.com/Visit.

And you can enter your email address somewhere on there. You will sign up for the Weekly Wind Down newsletter, and then you'll get this free PDF that'll walk you through it.

Now this idea of a visit being a unit of work was born as a result of a lesson that I'd received from my piano teacher, Marie, years and years ago. She's someone that I respect deeply and more so with every day that passes.

There was a series of weeks where I just wasn't practicing. I thought the lessons themselves were enough, and my teacher Marie thought otherwise and said,

It seems odd to just touch the piano keys, but she was right. There's something absolutely crucial to that daily visit that happens in any craft, in anything we do.

Even if it's for only a moment, we expose ourselves to the emotions that are there. It helps keep the fires burning and gives wind to the sails. It starts the spark. This idea of touching the keys has since become so much of how I conduct my day and get through to things.

It's the reason why I can have a podcast, play at the piano, conduct my business as a therapist, a psychiatrist, be with my family, and more.

The following piece of music is a result of a series of visits, it's not my own music, it's not my own composition. It's Beethoven's. It's a lovely piece. It's a second movement of the Sonata, number 14, also known as the Moonlight Sonata, and I hope you enjoy it.

Mentioned in this episode:

Waves of Focus YouTube Series

Look out for new episodes of the new Waves of Focus YouTube series here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJpQS5q6yvRw

In this episode of Rhythms of Focus, we explore the hidden struggles behind the appearance of success. Many people believe that achieving a goal—whether it’s landing a job, excelling in school, or maintaining relationships—will bring relief. Yet, even after “making it,” the challenges often persist in subtler and more exhausting ways. We delve into the pressures of maintaining the veneer of success, the misunderstandings neurodivergent individuals face, and the relentless mental gymnastics required to stay afloat.

We discuss how wandering minds can embrace their unique rhythms instead of hiding them. You’ll learn practical strategies, including a simple exercise to support your thoughts during conversations, reclaim agency in relationships, and lighten the invisible weights of daily maintenance.

This episode is an invitation to rethink success and discover ways to navigate life with greater ease and authenticity.

00:00 A Wandering Mind's Struggles with Success

00:24 The Veneer of Success

02:29 The Pressure to Perform

04:16 The Burden of Misinterpretation

06:06 A Simple Exercise: Supporting Your Wandering Mind

08:12 Lifting Unnecessary Weights

08:36 Risk

09:28 Rolling Clouds

#ADHDstruggles

#WanderingMind

#SuccessPressure

#FocusChallenges

#Neurodivergence

#ProductivityTips

#SelfCompassion

#CreativityAndGrowth

#MentalHealthSupport

#RhythmsOfFocus

#ADHD

 Do you ever find yourself sitting in a meeting with no idea of what's going on? You might wonder, do these people know what they're even talking about? It seems like they're responding to each other. Why am I not getting it?

So then you nod politely and try to figure out what's going on later.

Later comes and you need to be doing something else. And meanwhile, you've just received two calls, five emails, and they all need responses, too.

It can be a terrible struggle to just make it, to get a job, to do well at school, to maintain a relationship or something similar. If I could only just get there, things will be so much better. And then for many of you who do appear to have made it, the pain doesn't let up. It only changes.

You've got a job, you show up to work. Maybe even on time, people seem to think that you know what you're doing, but inside, sometimes it feels like the seams are barely being held together. Your mind continues to race just as it ever has. You've, uh, set a hundred timers and think, wait, is this the one that I should be paying attention to? And maybe blow this one off and keep doing what you're doing. Or maybe you're in a meeting and someone adds a thought and your mind goes somewhere else.

Boredom will swallow you at any moment, and you catch yourself tapping your foot again and No, no, I gotta stop and maybe I'm bugging other people. Or maybe that's just not the sense of what's going on. Or maybe it's just me or I don't know.

"I wonder if these people know what they're talking about?" While you're sitting in the meeting.

It seems like other people are responding. You clearly know what's going on. Why am I not getting it? So then you nod politely and try to figure out what's going on later. Later comes and you need to be doing something else. And meanwhile, you've just received two calls, five emails, and they all need responses, too.

And then you decide, okay, I'll stay late again. The thing is, is that you do have strengths, so you maybe decide to rely on that part of your mind that runs fast, that part of you, that can get a ton done under a lot of pressure, but now you're chronically under pressure and it's exhausting and above all, you don't wanna look incompetent.

You want to keep that veneer of success. It means so much though that you've been able to make it there. So it's, how dare I even call it a veneer? It's a thing. It's there! The years of work, medications, therapy, teachers, even loved ones who didn't think you could make it. Maybe you can't let them have the satisfaction or the knowledge of seeing that you've feel like you've barely kept it together.

Maybe you care about them too much to let them know how much you continue to suffer. Every day, the struggles to keep it together continue.

We can wonder how is this so easy for everyone else?

A Wandering Mind's difficulties are not simple.

It goes beyond just getting there. That may not seem fair, but that does seem to be the way it is.

I've heard in a number of situations where a person's gone in to see a psychiatrist and they're told, "Well, you've been able to get there. You've got the PhD, you've got whatever degree, you've got, whatever job relationship. Clearly you don't have it."

They've missed the idea of how much work you've put into creating those compensatory measures, and now it's as if they're punishing you for it.

And the same thing goes beyond the professionals we meet. It's in the people that we see every day. You're talking and your mind seems to have gone elsewhere. They just said something and you have to say, "oh, I'm sorry I wasn't listening." If you can even get to that place. Suddenly you're assigned this idea of, "Oh, I don't think you care," as opposed to, "No, I had an association and my thought ran somewhere else."

It's not like it's easy to wrangle a thought, bring it somewhere, place it somewhere without the fear that you'd lose it eventually.

It doesn't mean that we're not responsible for ourselves. I don't say these things in order to say, "Hey, world accommodate us!"

One of several unfortunate things about accommodations is that they can often create resentment and as much as we might like them, we're still responsible for making it through the day, for dealing with time, dealing with clocks in a way that's beyond our own self time and more.

But I think it's too often that we confuse these pressures to be something that says we need to hide that sense of wandering. I would rather consider how we can use it . How can we find some rhythm between that playfulness, that creativity, that intuitiveness, that flow of associations in a way that works with the worlds that we're in, in a way that helps us connect with sometimes even the mundane or the slower parts of the worlds that we need to be in.

I'll give you a simple, concrete exercise. Simple, but I don't think it's easy.

You may well have heard it before and I'll even lighten it up a bit. The usual suggestion starts with encouraging you carry a pad of paper and pen with you wherever you go, and I do like that suggestion. I'm a big fan of it and do it myself, but I encourage even a smaller step, which is try this once, one day, see what happens, and here's what to do with it.

At some point that day while you're in a conversation with someone, my guess is that, as a wandering mind, you're gonna have a lot of associations, thoughts that relate to whatever, multiple thoughts and emotions that are already on your mind right now. Some related to the conversation and some not.

But the worry is, is that you can't interrupt them without being considered rude or something along those lines. But now you're also dealing with that part of you that says that if I lose the thought, now I'm going to lose it for good, unless I do something with it right now.

Pull out the pad and take notes.

Here you have the pen and paper to write down your thought. You can support yourself. You can still ask for a moment, perhaps you can say, uh, maybe even telegraph that by writing itself, just pulling out the pad and pen and starting to write.

Maybe write something down about the conversation you wanna come back to. That way you can continue with the flow where it is. Or maybe you're just writing down some grocery list item that came to mind. Whatever it is, you can return to that conversation more fully engaged now.

Yes. You are advertising that you're supporting yourself and your thoughts, and in advertising you may well be rejected, scorned, looked down by whoever's there that you're talking to.

They can decide however they want to conduct the relationship with you, but so can you, so, as I said, simple but not easy.

Even though you may well have made it or maybe you haven't made it, whatever, making it means to you, if you still have that sense of struggling, I wonder if there's still ways that you can make things easier for yourself.

And I also wonder how much of those ways might be hidden from yourself in trying to lift weights of maintenance that don't really need to be there.

One thing you might notice about the music I tend to write is that it has a unique voice, and that comes from playing with what I find to be the fundamentals of the work of the, of the music.

It also comes from taking on risk. And in this case, when I was beginning this particular piece, it sounded silly childlike. Somewhere I decided though that if someone heard it as silly and childlike well, I'll let them. That's fine. But it's easier to say that than to work through the feelings of it.

I can't ignore it. I don't think I've ever really won an argument with an emotion. I can be with it though. Anyway. In this case, this is called Rolling Clouds. It's in B Flat major. Another sort of gentle piece, and I hope you like it.

‌

Mentioned in this episode:

Waves of Focus YouTube Series

Look out for new episodes of the new Waves of Focus YouTube series here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJpQS5q6yvRw

In this episode of "Rhythms of Focus," we explore the intricate relationship between work, play, and the wandering mind. We consider how an overabundance of creativity can lead to focus challenges, and consider a fresh perspective on productivity that embraces playfulness.

1. The struggles of a wandering mind often stem from an overabundance of creativity.

2. Mastery and meaningful work develop from guided play.

3. Success is a continuously shifting flow of question, movement, discovery, and curiosity.

Dr. Dini challenges the cultural divide between work and play, encouraging listeners to find strength in their union. He emphasizes the importance of organizing and developing processes that honor individual creativity and work styles. The episode concludes with a musical piece composed by Dr. Dini, illustrating the ephemeral nature of creative work.

00:00 Work, Play, and the Wandering Mind

02:24 The Seriousness of Play

03:43 Guiding Play Into Meaningful Work

04:18 The Cultural Divide Between Work and Play

04:51 A Seinfeld Lesson: The Cost of Disconnected Work

06:50 Flow as Success: A New Definition of Work

07:46 The Individual Spirit: Organizing Without Stifling Creativity

09:34 One Approach in Guiding Play Into Mastery

#ADHDCreativity #GuidedPlay #MeaningfulWork #ProductivityMindset #WorkPlayBalance #WanderingMind #CreativeFlow #MasteryJourney #FocusChallenges #NeurodivergentThinking

 Sometimes work is simply a drudgery.

There's no getting around it. But I do wonder how often that sense might also come from how we're defining work. Maybe more to the point how we define our success in doing it. Maybe we use these external benchmarks of achieving some score or some milestone and the like.

And certainly these can be important, vital, even. But I also wonder, could we be leaving out something even more vital, something that connects to us. Could we instead look at it this way? That success instead is a continuously shifting flow where that nameless wordless spirit of question and movement, discovery and curiosity offers something to the world, which then that world in turn supports us in our paths of maturing that spirit.

I like that definition of work.

I want to start by sharing a quote.

 "Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play." Hericlitus, 535 to 475 bc. Now, I don't know anything about this guy, but I really do like that quote.

Now, how does this relate to a wandering mind, like ADHD, among others?

One view I like to take is that the struggles of a wandering mind can come from an overabundance of creativity.

Right? That spirit of creativity. And the soul of it itself is play, is it not? It's where creativity flows within and through.

It's when that flow becomes over abundant that we can struggle with how we relate to the worlds that we're in. One moment we can be deeply engaged, thrilled to be there, and other moments were overwhelmed, jumping from one thing to the next, never fully catching anything, forgetting, losing things, trying to figure out what the next deadline is.

The boundaries can just somehow become too porous to hold on to anything. It's hard. And then we crash, exhausted, unable to engage much at all, let alone deal with those things that feel that might be important, but somehow continue to elude our attention.

We can't really tell play what to do. Meanwhile, it's a powerful force. So the importance of figuring out ways to guide it within us, I think is there. I like to think of things in this almost positive way however-- that there's this playful, creative force that we're trying to deal with, that we need to guide. Because then it becomes more about practicing for a goal rather than trying to run away from something else.

I've said before, and I'll say it again:

Too often, I think because of the troubles we get into with that overabundance of creativity, we end up seeing that spirit of play to be at odds with work. And our culture supports that sense too. We raise our geniuses and champions on our shoulders and say, "Hey, aren't they amazing in how they work" without ever truly acknowledging relishing, thinking about that practice of harnessing and even delighting in play --the things that they did early on in the way to get to where they are.

Let me play this clip here from the show Seinfeld that I think describes this problem.

George Costanza, this character pretends to work by being annoyed. He scrunches his face, he grunts even though he has nothing about which to complain. Meanwhile, others think he's working hard and leaving him alone.

His workers look at him in awe of his work ethic and he does nothing of use, and it's funny, but there's always that grain of truth within the joke.

His work is disconnected from that playful sense of self, having spent it in creating a mask to hide himself. He shows the world what he thinks it wants to see in exchange for money and maybe a few empty looks of admiration from his peers.

The cost is major. He lives in this hollow state. He puts on a mask, which functions like any wall. He's trapped within it, unengaged in developing something that feels meaningful.

Now for a wandering mind, again, there can be that overabundance of that creative spirit, and consequently, there's a struggle to guide it certainly. And we still need to do the things that are meaningful to us and don't spark that play in the moment, clearly.

But for today's topic, at least, I wanna stay with this argument that I think we lose something when we paint work to be something in opposition to that playful self, rather than finding the strength in their union.

You know, what if we looked at it that way? That success instead is a continuously shifting flow where that nameless, wordless spirit of question and movement, discovery and curiosity offers something to the world, which then that world in turn supports us in our paths of maturing that spirit.

I like that definition of work.

Masters of a field regularly will take time and attention in some path of practice, study creation, organizing. Whenever we see that master at their craft, that quiet smile that shows up in the middle of otherwise massive feats shows a clear beauty of that playful spirit flowing through the work. If there's a commonality to those who achieve productivity, mastery, development in their life and work, this ability has to be in there somewhere.

The Individual Spirit: Organizing Without Stifling Creativity

Now, there's something crucial to that play that I haven't said here, and namely that it's profoundly unique to the individual. Concepts of work and organizing are often filled with the sense that they would stifle play rather than enhance it.

And many look at habit and routine and careful arrangements of the environment organizing by this, that, or the other, and they worry that these things, these ways that other people work on their paths could destroy that sense within themselves.

And they believe it's not gonna work for them. And I think they're right.

Organizing, developing, processing, practicing, movement, all of these need to take the individual spirit into account-- that unique relationship between self and world.

That's not to say that we don't study, we don't learn, but we take and we adapt to that central spirit that we have within ourselves, that nameless, wordless place, and that's the work of guiding play into mastery and meaningful work.

So next time you're engaged in that place of flow, exploring self and world, realize consciously how you're organizing to have it directly work with you.

Whether you're trying to make things easier to get to, trying to get things out of your way, it means you don't need to use somebody else's color coordination scheme or alphabetizing methods or whatever.

You can study it, you can look at it, but somewhere you need to make it your own. It has to connect and support you with where you are.

Personally, I have a way of creating music that's probably quite unique to me, organized over time and decades at this point, how I record and do things. For today's piece of music, I'll probably never play it again. Many of the pieces I write exist only briefly. It's part of the process that I play them for a few turns, learn 'em, build on them, and then let 'em drift away.

They kind of become fertilizer for another piece somewhere down the line that might eventually have greater staying power, maybe not. This is called "Sun Sets On Snow". "Sun" and "Sets" are two separate words. Sun Sets On Snow seems to be one of these pieces that are rather ephemeral, but I enjoy it for the moments that it's here.

Mentioned in this episode:

Waves of Focus YouTube Series

Look out for new episodes of the new Waves of Focus YouTube series here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJpQS5q6yvRw

In this episode, we explore the concept of a 'Wandering Mind' as an alternative to the medicalized term ADHD, delving into its multifaceted nature encompassing both challenges and beauties. Through personal anecdotes and professional insights, the speaker discusses how societal perceptions often simplify complex symptoms, and advocates for recognizing the meaningful aspects of neurodivergent experiences. The episode promises a journey into understanding how a wandering mind can navigate life, find focus through passion and mastery, and culminates with a musical piece titled 'Belly' that illustrates this path.

1. Considering the Wandering Mind

The episode introduces the concept of the "Wandering Mind" as a compassionate, non-pathologizing view of mind. This term emphasizes the universality of mind-wandering and its potential for creativity and connection, rather than framing it as a medicalized problem, while acknowledging thresholds beyond which can be debilitating.

2. Rhythms of Focus and Meaningful Engagement

Focus is presented not as a binary state but as a rhythm that can be orchestrated throughout the day. By balancing engagement and rest, and seeking meaningful connections, individuals can create paths that feel alive and true to their inner selves.

3. Mastery Through Guided Play

The episode highlights the importance of guided play in developing mastery and meaningful work. By connecting with passions and engaging in small, manageable steps, listeners are encouraged to transform frustration into growth and creativity.

00:00 The Power of Words and Identity

02:35 Embracing the Wandering Mind

04:35 The Beauty in Wandering, Nature and Neurodivergence

06:04 Orchestrating Our Days

07:16 The Path of Mastery and Passion

08:23 Music as a Personal Journey & and Invite to Reflect

ADHD is a powerful term. It has its strengths, but the word also has its share of troubles. I like the phrase "Wandering Mind" because it helps distance us from that medicalized view. Certainly it's poetic, but it still carries that sense of trouble that we have, but it also opens us up to the beauties of this way of being.

 ADHD is a powerful term. All words are powerful, but this one in particular has caught my eye. We can hold on to these ideas, these words as a part of our identity. It can be a shorthand for this mixed set of symptoms, behaviors, and the like.

We can joke with it, we can cry with it, we can yell at others, don't understand us, and point to various people in lab coats and say, "Hey, look. It's a real thing." We can use it as a shield, even use it against ourselves. We could also use it to support ourselves, have conversations with it, connect, understand things we didn't understand before.

Most any diagnosis, particularly in the mental health field, can have these characteristics. But what is it?

While I do diagnose ADHD, I treat and prescribe around it. I've also grown to use the words "Wandering Mind." Now, why would I go and do that?

Well, first of all, it's not medical. There's nothing good or bad about it. Second, everyone's mind wanders, some certainly more than others, some at different times of life, some at different times of day, sometimes particularly after a stressful event.

You see, there are many ways to arrive at a wandering mind.

I remember one of my first days as a doctor, this young intern, a nurse, had approached me to tell me that a patient that was now in my care had a fever of 101. Could I give them this order to prescribe something to break the fever?

There were two problems with this. One it wouldn't tell me where the fever was coming from. There are many ways that a fever can show up and to simply hide the symptom might, might even make it harder to figure out what's going on.

Secondly, fevers can be very beneficial. Within a certain range, they help the body mount a better immune response.

Simply looking at the numbers, the symptoms, and saying, "Hey, go away," is the same as shooting the messenger, even when the messenger's news was good. I think too often we look at our symptoms and say, alright, these troubles that we have, the mind is going faster than we can keep up with. And "hey, this is bad. Let's get rid of it."

As a society, we fall into these sorts of ruts. We decide on a thing as being good or bad, and then cast our pronouncements on them and yell at them forever.

That phrase, "Wandering Mind" again carries trouble, but also beauty.

We engage, we disengage. We don't just follow whim. We follow what feels true, true to the moment and true to ourselves. Why pursue something that feels dry dying when there's something else that sparks us to life?

In fact, one of the things that I've noticed about wandering minds is not only the want, but perhaps even a need. To hold on to the things that feel real, things that connect with us, things that have meaning.

This is why I think that many with ADHD, autism, or neurodivergent, or the like, feel more at ease when in nature. There's something about it that connects to us. Something feels real.

And this is why I think many also get called oppositional in school. It's not that they're oppositional for the sake of it, it's that they recognize something doesn't feel real. They ask,

That question can become this genuine attempt to connect with something within.

Unfortunately we do also need to do the things that don't connect with us in that way, in that moment. We might look at a thing and say, oh, that's important to do, or else something bad will happen. Or maybe that's important because something good will happen, but it's not revving our engines in the moment.

And there are many of these sorts of things to do.

So over the course of this podcast, I'll be visiting, revisiting, investigating, looking at the world through the eyes of the Wandering Mind.

I've titled this Rhythms of Focus because I don't think our focus is a thing that we turn on or off. We have those times where we get into something, dive in, dive deep, and we have those times where it's a struggle to make anything happen.

But I think there are ways that we can orchestrate our days, create these rhythms between what works. We can bounce between this and that, engaging here and there, in ways that help us move forward such that they feel meaningful to us.

We can think about resting, for example. But what is resting? It's not just lying down and closing our eyes, though sometimes it is that. But it's often about doing something else.

So if we can figure out the ways these things can compliment each other, we can create paths that work for us. We can engage the rhythms of our days, shape them as we'd like so that they can work in our favor.

Now, one thing in particular that seems to help a Wandering Mind is a path of mastery or perhaps passion. And what do I mean by that?

I use these terms to mean something that we connect with viscerally, that nonverbal space somewhere that we understand something.

While we certainly can study and maybe get into things that others say, it's still about having this way of measuring it internally in that primal world . It's where we can play and care about those experiential atoms of the universe.

A mantra I often use and return to is:

I will say that again. Mastery and meaningful work develop from guided play and care. These emotions of play and care exist as their own spirits, their own flow. Guiding them over time is the work of practice.

For some, this is found in their work. For others in relationships, others in painting or gardening, or playing games among many other possibilities.

For me, it's been about music. I like to think that music's a big deal for humanity in general, but , I'm biased. All this is to say that I plan on ending these episodes with some piece of music that I've played, something I've learned or created.

I like to share, maybe even show off a little, but you'll also notice that there are some mistakes here and there and things that I'm improving.

I even plan to share some thoughts and ideas about how I'm developing things over time. You see, I'm trying to present a path of mastery and passion so you can hear it, because that's what it is. Mastery is more a path than it is some line crossed.

Before I present the piece today, I'd like you to maybe consider for a moment, is there somewhere in your life that you feel you connect with in that primal, playful place where there aren't even words for it, where you can measure it against that sense within yourself.

That feeling of intuition that you might wanna develop over time. It can be a powerful organizing force in your life.

So this piece that I'll be playing for you here is called Belly. It's a simple piece, and I do hope you enjoy it.

Mentioned in this episode:

Waves of Focus YouTube Series

Look out for new episodes of the new Waves of Focus YouTube series here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJpQS5q6yvRw

Rhythms of Focus is a mindfulness-based productivity podcast for adults with wandering minds, ADHD, and beyond who seek a gentler approach to mastery and meaningful work. Host Dr. Kourosh Dini, psychiatrist and pianist, explores how to engage a wandering mind as a creative asset through the spirit of play.

Unlike conventional productivity advice, each 15-minute episode provides practical strategies that enhance rather than diminish your sense of agency.

Each episode concludes with a related piano composition to inspire deeper connection.

Whether you deal with ADHD, anxiety, neurodivergence, or a simply a bold creative spirit, consider a more authentic approach to engaging the world, a more meaningful productivity that can grow through rhythm and not force.

New episodes released every Thursday.

Mentioned in this episode:

Waves of Focus YouTube Series

Look out for new episodes of the new Waves of Focus YouTube series here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJpQS5q6yvRw