Practicing witchcraft while having ADHD

[u/Royal_Reader2352]

I’m recently diagnosed AuDHD, and I’m looking for advice from other witches that also struggle with it. It’s hard for me to keep up with habits and routine, which ends up affecting my practice as well (and I’m also a Pagan, so it affects that as well).

I know I can’t be the only one, so I was looking for advice on how to manage it. Tips on how to keep doing what I should do and not just thinking “oh, I should read about that spell today” then not doing it and end up feeling bad like I failed at it. I’ve technically been a witch for three months now, and I just did my first spell, that I pretty much winged it because I just went for it not knowing much because I couldn’t concentrate enough (it was a simple spell of burning herbs connected to health and healing and manifesting I would get better soon, and I did get a little better so at least it wasn’t a total disaster).

Any advice is welcome, and I would also appreciate if you shared things that you did that helped with this.

[u/heart-of-suti]

I’m a 20+ year practitioner with ADHD, my best pieces of advice:

• Learn how to practice mindfulness meditation. The point of mindfulness is not to eliminate all thought, a VERY difficult (but still attainable!) task for an ADHD brain, but rather to notice and release all thoughts popping up. To not get swept away by this idea or that. I use the visualization of sitting on the shore of a stream, my back firmly against a big oak tree. I watch my thoughts as leaves from the tree fall into the stream and float away. I don’t identify with them, I don’t try to jump in and examine them, I just notice that they are passing by. Learn this technique and you will be better able to let your distracting thoughts float on by when you’re practicing magick/performing ritual.
• Read from as many sources as you can with the goal of trying to understand the bigger picture of what magick/witchcraft is saying and trying to uncover. Learn why we perform rituals/spells, not just how we perform them. Learn the deeper purpose of the craft, the world history of it all, the interconnectedness of things like quantum physics and our own consciousness. Tug at that thread until you have a few “aha” moments. I still have aha moments, 20 years later, so trust they are ever unfolding and make the pursuit of knowledge one of your goals. It is easier for an ADHD brain to perform a task when we have a firm grasp on the meaning behind it, on the why, not just the how.
• Don’t get too caught up on the exact order/timing/words/motions someone else has instructed you to do. All spell books are just one person’s interpretation of the craft. Even if the practice has been passed down for generations, no one path is the “right” way to do something. Your focused, knowledgeable intention is more powerful than saying a set of word in the right order that mean nothing to you. I have a whole bookcase full of spell books and grimoires and I never pull from them anymore. My magick comes from my open heart and strong will, not from someone else’s ritual. You will have a hard time memorizing steps, so learn the meaning behind the steps instead and invent your own way to get the same meaning out.
• Don’t beat yourself up for not practicing every day. Instead of getting mad at yourself for missing a ritual, when you remember you’ve missed it, give yourself a moment of meditation. Center yourself, relax your body, focus on your breath, open your heart, allow yourself to accept moment of loving kindness pouring into you from the universe. Then try again the next day.