Reddit reviews Hardwiring Happiness: The New Brain Science of Contentment, Calm, and Confidence

/u/eirelav09 /u/brigadierNasty

I struggle with this too. Most of us here have been diagnosed with ADHD and attention disorders, including myself. Finding the ability to focus often involves a lot of self discipline. I personally believe that our phones and shit contribute to our weak attention spans. Just do like 10 pages today, 11 tomorrow, 12 the next day, etc.

Do it for yourself. Your future self will be grateful. Here are some good books to help you on your journey to better health:

https://www.amazon.com/Hardwiring-Happiness-Science-Contentment-Confidence/dp/0385347332/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1538822946&sr=8-1&keywords=hardwiring+happiness%2C+rick+hanson

https://www.amazon.com/Mindfulness-Eight-Week-Finding-Peace-Frantic/dp/1609618955/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1538822965&sr=8-3&keywords=mindfulness

https://www.amazon.com/Introducing-Mindfulness-Practical-Tessa-Watt/dp/1848312555/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1538823015&sr=8-1&keywords=mindfulness+a+practical+guide+tessa+watt

think positive.

I've been meditating on and off for the past 6 years, some tips that helped me:

1. Reading / learning as much as I can about it. I am a psychology nerd so I first got into meditation when I started reading books like Buddha's Brain and Hardwiring Happiness.
   
2. Following on this, audiobooks and guided meditations are great. There are a LOT of really cool apps out there. I am partial to Headspace and The Mindfulness App. The later has full audiobooks as well as guided practices. I have also heard good things about 10% Happier and Waking Up (Sam Harris' mindfulness app).
   
3. I enjoyed my practice about 10x more once I stopped worrying about the "right" way to do meditation. Meditation gives you a variety of very useful cognitive tools, and it's up to you to decide how best to integrate them into your life.
   
   For example, I really have a hard time with sitting meditation. My legs cramp up like no other and it drives me nuts. But I love integrating mindfulness randomly throughout my day: A quick breathing exercise when I'm driving to work, a small eating meditation when I have dinner so I appreciate my meal more, a small gratitude reflection before I go to bed, etc. I found those tiny 30 second meditations throughout the day had a much more profound effect on my life than sitting in a quiet room for 30 minutes.
   
   To me, sitting meditation is just the practice room so you can get some training before you start finding more and more little ways to apply it in your daily life.

It doesn't really matter what you officially call it. The labels are there so people have something to refer to it in discussion, but honestly every anxiety disorder is kind of on a spectrum. There's no real clear cut diagnosis for anyone. If you're suffering, you're suffering. That psych you saw that dismissed your concerns sounds not very helpful.

It's good that you're actively seeking someone to help you though. While you're waiting to get in to see someone, I'd suggest getting a few books to educate yourself about anxiety disorders in general as well as OCD. Some of my favorites are:

• The Mindfulness Workbook for OCD
  
• Hardwiring Happiness
  
  Also check out Mark Freeman's videos, he posts in this forum sometimes. His videos have been extremely helpful for me.
  
  Good luck!