After eight years the podcast has changed names! Pressing Pause has become the Quiet ADHD Podcast.

The thing with discovering you have ADHD – an explanation for how you feel, think, act and react – is that it changes how you treat yourself when you feel, think, act and react the way you do.

Without this understanding I went through the first almost five decades of my life verbally berating myself. Criticising and shaming myself. Telling myself over and over that I was lacking, I was failing, I was too sensitive, I wasn’t strong enough… With this understanding I have drastically changed how I speak to and treat myself.

I’ve been thinking about scenarios in everyday life and how different my response and treatment of myself has become in recent years compared to how it was before I discovered my ADHD. I thought I’d share three of them with you in this episode, perhaps they’ll sound familiar.

If what I share in this podcast resonates with you and you’re looking for support go to gabrielletreanor.com. And if you’d like to share this or any of my podcast episodes on social media or with your friends or family that would help more quiet ADHDers to know they’re not alone too.

Resources:

* Find out more about the Quiet ADHD Club and join here.

* Get your Better Read Book Fest ticket here. Follow Better Read Book Fest on Instagram here.

* If what I’m sharing resonates with you I’d love to hear from you, email me [email protected].

* Read my posts about the experience of a midlife, late-discovered ADHD woman here.

* You can find more info including my coaching services on my website here.

Last month saw the 15th anniversary of my stepping away from paid employment as the deputy editor of a children’s newspaper to work full-time for myself. A lot has happened in those 15 years and I thought I’d share 15 lessons and observations I’ve taken from these years working for myself that apply just as much to life as they do to business.

If what I share in this podcast resonates with you and you’re looking for support go to gabrielletreanor.com. And if you’d like to share this or any of my podcast episodes on social media or with your friends or family that would help more quiet ADHDers to know they’re not alone too.

Resources:

* Find out more about the Quiet ADHD Club and join here.

* Get your Better Read Book Fest Early Bird ticket with Festival Gift Bag here. Follow Better Read Book Fest on Instagram here.

* If what I’m sharing resonates with you I’d love to hear from you, email me [email protected].

* Read my posts about the experience of a midlife, late-discovered ADHD woman here.

* You can find more info including my coaching services on my website here.

Accountability is something that comes up a lot in conversations with my coaching clients and in my Quiet ADHD Club membership. It’s a funny thing because it can be helpful, it can feel like nagging, and it can invoke the rebel within us.

In this episode I’m sharing the different ways we can relate to inner and outer expectations along with three key tools I use when I struggle to get stuff done..

If what I share in this podcast resonates with you and you’re looking for support go to gabrielletreanor.com. And if you’d like to share this or any of my podcast episodes on social media or with your friends or family that would help more quiet ADHDers to know they’re not alone too.

Resources:

* Get your Better Read Book Fest Early Bird ticket with Festival Gift Bag here. Follow Better Read Book Fest on Instagram here.

* If what I’m sharing resonates with you I’d love to hear from you, email me [email protected].

* Read my posts about the experience of a midlife, late-discovered ADHD woman here.

* Find out more about the Quiet ADHD Club and join here.

* You can find more info including my coaching services on my website here.

Toni Jones and I talked about everything involved in the UK’s first literary festival dedicated to wellbeing books – Better Read Book Fest – taking place in Abergavenny, south Wales, on Saturday 3 October (early bird ticket offer ends Wednesday 17 June):

* Why create this festival

* Who the speaking authors are and their books

* What will happen on the day including Toni’s involvement

* Who the festival is for and how lots of people are coming on their own

* What the process of creating the Festival has been like so far

* What you get in the Early Bird ticket offer

* Why the day itself is going to be special

We packed it all into 22 minutes!

You can find all the info including the authors, the schedule for the day, how to get there and get your tickets at betterreadbookfest.com.

Sometimes following your ADHD curiosity and creativity leads you down quite unexpected paths – like creating the UK's first literary festival dedicated entirely to wellbeing books!

In this episode I'm sharing the next instalment of my Festival Diaries including the amazing authors who will be speaking at Better Read Book Fest and which of my ADHD buttons it's pressing.

Early Bird tickets are available now until Wednesday 17 June – you can save money AND get a Festival Gift Bag packed with goodies!

If what I share in this podcast resonates with you and you’re looking for support go to gabrielletreanor.com. And if you’d like to share this or any of my podcast episodes on social media or with your friends or family that would help more quiet ADHDers to know they’re not alone too.

Resources:

* Get your Better Read Book Fest Early Bird ticket with Festival Gift Bag here. Follow Better Read Book Fest on Instagram here.

* If what I’m sharing resonates with you I’d love to hear from you, email me [email protected].

* Read my posts about the experience of a midlife, late-discovered ADHD woman here.

* Find out more about the Quiet ADHD Club and join here.

* You can find more info including my coaching services on my website here.

Procrastination and motivation can be a real struggle for ADHDers so I thought we’d get practical in this episode and I’d share what helps me do things that I’m finding hard to get on and do.

If what I share in this podcast resonates with you and you’re looking for support go to gabrielletreanor.com. And if you’d like to share this or any of my podcast episodes on social media or with your friends or family that would help more quiet ADHDers to know they’re not alone too.

Resources:

* Get your Better Read Book Fest Early Bird ticket with Festival Gift Bag here. Follow Better Read Book Fest on Instagram here.

* If what I’m sharing resonates with you I’d love to hear from you, email me [email protected].

* Read my posts about the experience of a midlife, late-discovered ADHD woman here.

* Find out more about the Quiet ADHD Club and join here.

* You can find more info including my coaching services on my website here.

Toni Jones and I had a great conversation about writing, reading 1000+ books including a particularly famous self-help book that we both struggle with, recommendations for your TBR pile, and lots more (just ignore the first minute or so of me having tech woes).

There is a brief window to order Toni’s book – YOU (The Beginner’s Guide) – so don’t delay! Hope on over to The Pound Project’s site here and order it now.

Thank you Claire Venus ✨, Margaret Williams, MS, ACC, Angela Limb, Emmett Tatter, and many others for joining us.

Because we’ve been taught that we need to pick a thing and stick to it, that consistency is next to goodliness, we've taken on the message that to get bored of an interest or hobby and drop it shows we’re flaky, faddish, and can’t commit.

Which means we feel shame for the stash of supplies gathering dust, we’re embarrassed about our excitement over a new interest that turned to boredom and we stop ourselves from trying new things, from following our curiosity in case it becomes yet more proof that we’re incapable of consistency.

In this episode I share my own shame struggles and argue the value of allowing ourselves to explore our curiosity and play, what there is to be gained and where it could lead.

If what I share in this podcast resonates with you and you’re looking for support go to gabrielletreanor.com. And if you’d like to share this or any of my podcast episodes on social media or with your friends or family that would help more quiet ADHDers to know they’re not alone too.

Resources:

* Get your ticket to Better Read Book Fest when the first Early Bird special offer tickets go on sale Saturday 9 May or get access a day earlier by signing up here. Follow Better Read Book Fest on Instagram here.

* If what I’m sharing resonates with you I’d love to hear from you, email me [email protected].

* Read my posts about the experience of a midlife, late-discovered ADHD woman here.

* Find out more about the Quiet ADHD Club and join here.

* You can find more info including my coaching services on my website here.

As introverted, sensitive women who spent most of our lives oblivious to our neurodivergence, as did everyone around us, we find it SO hard to believe or feel that we have permission, that it’s okay, that we’re allowed to do, say, be, ask for, or take what we want or need.

After decades of taking on board the message that we need to live by others’ rules and expectations, that someone ‘better’ than us needs to signal their approval, we find it incredibly difficult to give ourselves permission.

To allow ourselves to state what we need or want, what we like or don’t like.

To show our enthusiasm and excitement.

To take time for solitude and rest.

To permit ourselves to move on from what no longer interests us.

To say no when we want or need.

To be ourselves.

The result of defaulting to others for approval and permission means a lack of trust in ourselves as well as a cocktail of exhaustion, resentment and overwhelm.

Learning that you can give yourself permission, that your own approval is the most important of all, is a tricky process but incredibly worthwhile. Because without it how can we hope to find the peace, ease and joy in our daily lives that we crave?

In this episode I share five ways I give myself permission to do things in ways that work for me, even if it means not following society’s rules…

If what I share in this podcast resonates with you and you’re looking for support go to gabrielletreanor.com. And if you’d like to share this or any of my podcast episodes on social media or with your friends or family that would help more quiet ADHDers to know they’re not alone too.

Resources:

* If what I’m sharing resonates with you I’d love to hear from you, email me [email protected].

* Read my posts about the experience of a midlife, late-discovered ADHD woman here.

* Find out more about the Quiet ADHD Club and join here.

* You can find more info including my coaching services on my website here.

Back when I was considering that perhaps ADHD could explain – well, me – I started a document called ‘Reverse engineering my life’ where I wrote all the different ways I did not display obvious ADHD traits.

With this list I was trying to prove to myself that ADHD couldn’t be the explanation for what I found difficult, for what I had been criticised for or made to feel was disappointing about myself, because the real explanation was that it was a failing on my part, I was just a bit crap.

Instead the document revealed the many, many coping mechanisms I had been using for decades which took vast amounts of energy and left me regularly exhausted and overwhelmed.

In this episode I’m sharing some of the ways that women, often sensitive, introverted, perfectionist people-pleasers, try to manage or hide their ADHD features for decades before realising their neurodivergence.

If what I share in this podcast resonates with you and you’re looking for support go to gabrielletreanor.com. And if you’d like to share this or any of my podcast episodes on social media or with your friends or family that would help more quiet ADHDers to know they’re not alone too.

Resources:

* Follow Better Read Book Fest on Instagram here and be the first to know when authors are announced and tickets go on sale by signing up here.

* If what I’m sharing resonates with you I’d love to hear from you, email me [email protected].

* Read my posts about the experience of a midlife, late-discovered ADHD woman here.

* Find out more about the Quiet ADHD Club and join here.

* You can find more info including my coaching services on my website here.