Master Your ADHD Mind:How to Calm Down with Sarah Platt-Finger

Sarah Platt-Finger  00:00
For me, the practice of yoga is a way of coming home to my body. You know, it's just coming home to a safe space inside myself and taking that knowledge base of how to sit with something that might be uncomfortable or might feel unusual. Take that into my everyday situation so that I have a framework to work within. Like, I know what it feels like to be in a space of a little bit of fear. But I can hold that in my body. I don't have to run from it.

Brooke Schnittman  00:36
Welcome to successful with ADHD. I'm Brooke Shipman. Let's get started. Hi, everyone. Welcome back to successful with ADHD. Today, we have Sarah Platt finger, who is the director of showpo Global, and the co founder of Isha Yoga. Thank you. On top of that, she has a newly released book called Living in the light, which has been co authored by Dr. Deepak Chopra, and is currently one of the top 10 best sellers on Amazon. For the yoga books. That's what an amazing accomplishment. Thank you. Yes, yes. And I know that you have helped develop one of the most renowned yoga teacher training programs in New York City, where I used to live and expanded internationally, worldwide to different countries. And you believe that practice of yoga on the mat is a reflection of the reality we create off the mat. And the deeper awareness of our physical, mental and emotional patterns can bring us closer to the essence of our being. So welcome. Welcome, welcome.

Sarah Platt-Finger  01:48
Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. It's really a pleasure to be with you.

Brooke Schnittman  01:52
It's a pleasure to have you. I know that we have been planning this for a while. So it's always so nice to finally meet. Those of you who are listening right now you're probably thinking okay, yeah, I've heard about this yoga thing, this meditation thing. And how does this relate to ADHD? So if it's okay with you, if we could kind of start there and then go into your book and talk about the principles and how that relates to our mindsets as well.

Sarah Platt-Finger  02:20
Absolutely, yeah, let's dive right in.

Brooke Schnittman  02:24
Okay, so I know that Dr. Halliwell talks about the benefits of yoga meditation for ADHD, the balance, focus breathing, what have you seen in your practice, as far as people who think differently using yoga and meditation?

Sarah Platt-Finger  02:44
Yeah, well, I mean, it's definitely we know that what we do with our bodies or how we're organizing our body is directly related to our minds. And when we think about being mindful in our actions, and mindful in our movements, and mindful in the way that we're sitting. That's really what Asana yoga asana is, it's it's being mindful in the way that you're holding yourself up and applying your mind right through your body. And because most of us throughout the day, myself included, we're not always conscious of the way we're sitting or conscious of the way that we're making a movement, right, these can feel involuntary. But because yoga is about conscious based movements and practices, we can really start to harness the ability of our minds to be able to oversee our actions and the certain functions of our body. It's really something that ancient Yogi's, were able to manage and operate our body temperature, a heart rate, how we breathe, these are all seemingly involuntary functions, that through the practice of yoga, we could start to make a little bit more voluntary or can or manageable.

Brooke Schnittman  04:09
Yeah. Yeah, I know Dr. Halliwell talked about a study that he did with 4910 year olds, and there was a group that did yoga and a group that did not and it was yoga twice a week. And the ones who did yoga twice a week. They, I think it was after eight weeks, they were able to control the default mode network in their brain. Yeah, which is very glitchy for ADHD years and has those negative messages. So

Sarah Platt-Finger  04:43
a lot of it you know, it's about like managing your prefrontal cortex and the way that you are, you know, developing those skills of communication and reflection. You know, we talk about it in yoga in the terms of the child chakra system, which is a subtle energetic system that really relates to the different glands in our body and the different functions in our body. And they're based on the elements. And, you know, we talk about in yoga, the third eye point, which is the point that relates to the hypothalamus in the brain, it's kind of like the overseer, right? It's, it's the eye that can oversee all of the functions of our body, but also can kind of visualize and perceive things in a new way and ideate about things, but in a way that helps us to create new paradigm paradigm shifts. Yeah, so it's a very powerful function, that's essentially, you know, what these different functions in our brain are doing. And so when we're able to use this quality of focus and concentration, to oversee, right, it's, it's about overseeing, just like a, you know, an executive and a Board oversees the functioning of the organization, that part of our brain is overseeing the functions in our body and making sure that everything's cohesive and flowing as it's meant to. But we also then have an ability to oversee the way that we respond to situations the way that we're participating in a process, right, or following through on something. So it's very, very powerful, to kind of be the overseer of your thoughts and your actions, and essentially, your life

Brooke Schnittman  06:42
being in control of all of that. Yeah,

Sarah Platt-Finger  06:45
yeah. And even if it's like, you know, maybe you can't control the first thought that it comes up, but then you have this ability to be to oversee the next one that arises, right. So it's just strengthening that muscle, less of reactivity, right, which I think relates to the default network systems of like, just, you know, you're defaulting back to a pattern or a way of being but like shifting the way the neural functioning is firing in your brain. And part of sometimes that's just about putting your body in a new position. Right, right. It's about standing differently, you stand differently, and the neurons fire in a different way in your brain. It doesn't even necessarily mean having to, you know, change all of these patterns all at once. But it's about being open to it, you know,

Brooke Schnittman  07:38
totally. I remember one of my friends who is a yoga instructor, she used to pressure me, she's like, I gotta do yoga, said, Hey, I want to do yoga. I like hard workouts, and that, you know, what's yoga gonna do? For me? It's not burning the same type of calories, and it's not strengthening. And why was

Sarah Platt-Finger  08:01
it Yeah, because you know, you're you're using if hopefully, if you're, if you're really kind of approaching the practice in a holistic way, it's like, you're accessing muscles that maybe you're not used to using, or it's, it's to me, the power of yoga is all about exploring the territory, that unexplored territory, in your mind, in your consciousness, that has sort of been in the darkness, whether that's through a yoga pose, or a meditation, or a breath technique, or a mudra hand gesture. All of this is ways for us to light up new neural pathways in our brain. So we experience ourselves in the world in a new way.

Brooke Schnittman  08:51
Absolutely. And neuro pathways are very often blocked for individuals with ADHD, the synapses in our brain are not connecting, like neurotypicals. And having that balance, movement, the coordination, the focus, breathing, the deep belly, breaths, all of those movements and breathing. They're all impacting our ability to focus and think differently, and be able to emotionally regulate in a different way than we do typically. And so often, when people come to coaching, they're like, I want the tools to help me be productive, organize, where are the worksheets? Bring it on, bring it on, bring it on. Yup. Exactly. And if they don't have a calm nervous system, then I don't care what type of tools I gave you, then nothing's going to work.

Sarah Platt-Finger  09:52
Yeah, it's so interesting, because you know, we think that we often have this idea of focus and concentration as being something that we have to effort through, like it involves effort to focus and concentrate. But actually, if you look back at the teachings of yoga, one of the limbs of yoga of concentration is called dharana. And it's a relaxed focus, right? It means like, you have to calm your nervous system and relax in order to be able to focus and concentrate. And so it's a little bit of a misunderstanding of what it means to relax, it doesn't mean to necessarily check out right, it means that we can fully absorb our senses into this experience that we're having. Yeah, absolutely. Because

Brooke Schnittman  10:49
we are, yeah, we get sent messages all of the time, right. And usually, they're negative messages. And then, with ADHD, we have even more of a negative sensitivity bias. And we have to live with it. It's not getting rid of all of those negative messages. It's working with those and creating new messages as well. For sure, right,

Sarah Platt-Finger  11:12
exactly.

Brooke Schnittman  11:13
So tell me, you co authored living in the light with Dr. Deepak Chopra. Tell me about that, because I was going through the principles, and they were so like, they hit the nail on the head for all people, but especially for individuals with ADHD, what was the inspiration for it? First

Sarah Platt-Finger  11:30
of all, I'm so happy that you had that experience, and that you felt that it was so applicable, because that's really these Wisdom Teachings from Patanjali. But 2500 years ago, or so, that have been kind of passed down, are meant to be very universal. It's not meant for a certain population, or a certain body type or a certain background. It's, it's like if you have a human nervous system, this applies to you. Right? Like, it's, it's that relevant. You know, the book came about I worked with Deepak for many, many years, shared the practice of yoga with him, he moved a few doors down from the yoga studio that I had at the time in downtown New York City. So we worked very closely together on harnessing and fine tuning his practice is often a practice, that's really what I worked closely with him is on the yoga poses, but not about the mastery of them, but in a way that was very integrated, that brought in this quality of the mind and breathing and visualization techniques. And I think over the course of several years that it really transformed his body and I think revitalized his relationship to the practice both the physical and the subtle body practice. And I think it kind of inspired this desire for him to write this book. And he invited me to be a part of it, which of course, was

Brooke Schnittman  13:05
sorry, twist my arm.

Sarah Platt-Finger  13:08
Right, like, really, about this is my first book, right? And it's his, like, 91st book. So it's a very, you know, place that we're coming from in this collaboration. But we really wanted to share yoga as a full spectrum. You know, I often use the analogy of yoga is like this a rainbow, right, a spectrum of color. And each one of those colors is like the, the limb that we talk about the limbs of yoga, and there's eight of them. But we often when we hear about yoga, really just thinking about the one limb of the yoga poses the asana, and it's really just like one color of the rainbow, right? We just focus on green, like we're not getting all of the whole other spectrum of it in. And that's really what the practice of yoga is. It's a whole experience, mind, body, soul essence, that we culminate together, and we tap into and we touch on a daily basis, so that we can bring that light, right, the light of our essence of our awareness of our truth, bring that into every aspect of our living. And hopefully, that's how we we bring this knowledge and wisdom into our relationships and into our life and into our careers and everything else that yeah, that's sort of the basis of it.

Brooke Schnittman  14:38
Well, it's interesting because nothing is black and white, right? And everything is a spectrum. Someone with ADHD, what is an ADHD or look like? No, they're not always hyperactive. Yoga is not just doing like Downward Dog. There's so much more to everything. And once you can see a little bit clearer and Use the principles that are in your book and you're able to take in a lot more and and really feel it using all of your senses, like you mentioned.

Sarah Platt-Finger  15:10
Yeah, and I really hope so I hope that anybody who reads the book is able to digest it and make it accessible to themselves in wherever they are in their process, even if they've never experienced yoga or class before if it's brand new to them. But this is how universal it is, I think the practice of yoga wasn't meant to be as kind of secular as it has become, you know, in modern days, it's just the way that the conditioned mind works. You know, we have a label, we have a class and sort of everything has to fit within a certain meat box or category. But to your point, for me, the practice of yoga is a way of coming home to my body, you know, it's just coming home to a safe space inside myself. And welcoming the whole range of feelings that come with experiencing a yoga posture and taking that knowledge base of how to sit with something that might be uncomfortable, or might feel unusual. Take that into my everyday situation, so that I have a framework to work within, like, I know what it feels like to be in a space have a little bit of fear, but I can hold that in my body. I don't have to run from it.

Brooke Schnittman  16:36
Yeah, so Well, if someone's starting off, and they haven't done yoga consistently or persistently in the past, how long does it take to reap the benefits?

Sarah Platt-Finger  16:52
I honestly, Brooke, I feel like it's instantaneous, you know, if you can just like, stand differently, you know, if I were to say like, if you're sitting if you just like put your feet down on the floor and adjust your seat a little bit, so you feel like you're sitting on your sitting bones and not slouching back into your tailbone. And you start to use your abdominal muscles to hold up your spine, and you relax your shoulders, you just relax your jaw, and you feel your head and your neck is full here, like automatically right?

Brooke Schnittman  17:29
about something. Right, we forget to breathe.

Sarah Platt-Finger  17:39
Like, out of full breath into that. It's like, you've recalibrated, you've reset, and you enter into a new space, you're now in a new moment, right? Where you can experience yourself and the world in a little bit of a different way. That doesn't take much, right. It's just with this change the way we were sitting and experiencing our bodies. And that's really profound. You know, to me, I think we sometimes set the bar really high with whether it's our yoga practice or any other kind of modality, we're starting, like, Okay, we got to do it every day, an hour a day. And for me, it's like after, you know, a couple decades of teaching this practice, it's, it can be so subtle, and it can be so simple. It's really about coming back to it on the daily, you know, like daily, having this relationship with your body and hopefully your breath, which brings us into a relationship to something more subtle, you know, and having

Brooke Schnittman  18:45
a relationship with that is so much more helpful than saying, Yeah, I have to do it this way. Because, yeah, with ADHD, we have all or nothing mindsets very often. And a lot of us binge eat, and we have restrictions and you know what we should be eating what we shouldn't be eating should and we should ourselves way too much. Yeah. And I love how you just say you know it, there's no amount of time you reap the benefits right away. And it's just noticing throughout the day, and it could be proactive, it could be reactive, right?

Sarah Platt-Finger  19:22
Exactly. And I think anyone who's gone through any kind of mental disability or mental health issue, and it's like, you know, on a path of finding reclaiming peace Yeah, outside of themselves, like I know, in my own struggles, like it really just comes from that space of like, just radical self compassion, and instilling that from Lady Gaga by the way, I think that was her thing she like her radical self compassion. It's like we put so much expectation on ourselves and as a result on each other for where we think we need to be, and if we can just like soften a little bit, and and really feel that softening in the yoga right in our bodies, it's like, soften your shoulders, soften your jaw, even relaxing your joints, like your fingers and your elbows like there are certain things that when you soften in your joints, it actually simulates being back in the womb, right? It simulates this feeling of being in water, and it relaxes us. So, you know, just kind of coming back to I do this for myself every day, because I need that reminder every day, you know, it's not that you just do it once. And you're like, I'm good,

Brooke Schnittman  20:46
I guess.

Sarah Platt-Finger  20:48
Yeah, like anything, we just, we just practice it every day and give ourselves like, the grace to be like, this isn't about getting anywhere. This is actually about returning back. You know, it's returning back to that home inside of ourselves that like, we all can feel a strain from.

Brooke Schnittman  21:13
Yeah, and you mentioned the womb and getting back to our home. You know, Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Right? Like, treat yourself like a baby, we I have a 15 month old, you know, she naps, she eats well, she sleeps well. She feels love, she feels safety and security, I hope, I think, why don't we treat ourselves that way. We forget all of that when we become adults.

Sarah Platt-Finger  21:41
Right? We forget. And it's that's why having a child a baby, whether it's you know, your own or a loved ones that just kind of having that or even a pet, you know, like having that reminder of tenderness. Like what does it mean to be tender, we can do that we I think we can extend that to our, our children or our loved ones or our pets, but it's really hard for us to do that for ourselves. And, and even the practice of yoga has become more of that kind of forceful thing. And look, I'm, I'm again about the spectrum of it. Sometimes I feel I need to, like Hold the pose for a really long time. And like feel that heat come up. And the strength that that cultivates and the the, you know, like that fierceness of like, I can get through this, like I am strong and capable. And I have resilience, right? So we need to kind of recruit that every once in a while in the practice. So it's not always about just kind of laying down. But sometimes we need to give that to ourselves as well. You know what I mean? And so it's a very inclusive way of experiencing the practice. And that's how it has adapted over time for me, and how I feel called to share it with others.

Brooke Schnittman  23:15
I love that too. Because, of course, I gotta bring it back to ADHD hear we have such a hard time just being and right initiating. And meditation is really hard for a lot of individuals with ADHD. But you're getting that in a guided yoga practice, right?

Sarah Platt-Finger  23:36
That's right. It's a moving meditation. It's a first it's a form of meditation, you're just starting to bring your mind to different parts of the body, even if you were to like stand and I would just say okay, now bring your mind to the sensations you feel in your legs. That is a form of meditation. Because you're directing your mind to one thing, right or using your gaze, your drishti as we call it, your direction to focus on, you know, a part of the body rests your awareness over the right middle finger, if you were to bring your arms wide and extend them out and like pause and reflect over the the fingertips. That's a form of meditation, you know, notice your breath, the qualities of your breath. So these are all really great cues for ADT people with ADHD but everybody can use those helps. You know right now we are all so distracted.

Brooke Schnittman  24:35
Oh my gosh.

Sarah Platt-Finger  24:37
It's really hard for I think a lot of the population and most certainly people with ADHD, but to do one thing at one time, you know, it

Brooke Schnittman  24:47
is so hard it's that's when the dmn starts getting glitchy and it takes away from our focus. So if yoga meditation can comment and help you stay focused, then that variable attention that we all have with, you know, we all at this point have some sort of short or attention span because of social media TV, everything is so much more fast paced when I was watching with my husband and my two step sons, family matters the other day, okay, that was one of our favorite shows, they're like this, and even when I was watching it, I was like, this is funny, but it's not like Massena. Um, so you'd be live in such a fast paced world with 1000s of notifications a day, like, it's okay to have health and wellness. And I love how it's implemented more and more in schools and in professional settings as

Sarah Platt-Finger  25:44
well. Absolutely. It's, I mean, this is something that I the landscape has changed so much since I did my training 20 years ago, you know, it's now in schools, in community centers, in corporate environments, in churches, and just like religious places where people come together, it's really something that has become a universal way for us all to kind of, again, like, get into our bodies and down, regulate the nervous system a little bit, and just regulate some of these everyday stressors that we are all experiencing. I think it's very uncommon for anybody in this day and age to not have a stressor that they're working.

Brooke Schnittman  26:33
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Yep. And when you were saying, relax your jaw, the last few days, my, my jaw has been so tight. And I was thinking, do I need to get a new mouth guard? Like, what is happening here?

Sarah Platt-Finger  26:47
It's funny the way why I say that is because I need that reminder. You know, like, first, we teach what we need to hear. Yes. So

Brooke Schnittman  26:58
yes, yeah, that's 100%, true, or 100%. So I want to just highlight some of the principles that you mentioned in your book. So you talk about joy and becoming the only measure of success and well being. So with those principles, like, how do people get there,

Sarah Platt-Finger  27:16
one of my friends and colleagues, she said, the path to joy is joy, you know, it's like, we can look to find joy somewhere else outside of us. It's something we just cultivate in this moment, in what we're doing. It's something that we opt into, you know, you you opt into the experience of joy, because it's there, because it's our nature and who we are. And it's choosing the things that feel good over the things that feel constraining, you know, and that's not to say that we don't effort through our days, you know, we have our responsibilities and our obligations, and we have to pay our bills and take care of me not to do taxes. That's the, that's the one. And I don't know, that if we can feel joy, doing our taxes, we got to work on

Brooke Schnittman  28:17
and luxury.

Sarah Platt-Finger  28:21
You know, like taking a joyful approach in the actions, right, as we go through it, you know, sometimes it means like, Okay, I'm going to put that, to me is self care, by the way, it's like, it's like taking maybe the 10 minutes that you need before responding to emails, or like that walk outside for 10 or 15 minutes before sitting down and getting to the task at hand. And certainly, for someone with ADHD to like, you know, work through some of that stuff that you need to, if that's what helps you to sit and be still for an extended period of time. Yes. And really, it's about individuating to, you know, like, we all have our own process. And, you know, we have this sort of operational idea about how we have to get through the day and what the workday has to look like and what the weekend is supposed to look like. And it's really about finding your cadence and your rhythm, and, and owning that and feeling entitled to that, that it's like, this is the way I do it. This is the way it works for me. And this is where Deepak work really comes in around your dharma, you know, your life's purpose, which is a big part of what he teaches, but it's also you know, if we look through these principles in living in the light, you know, a lot of it is about being in your truth. It's about having your clear boundaries. It's about not over. Committed indulging. Yeah, not over committing, but also not over indulging in thoughts, emotions, conversations, relationships that are toxic, you know? And sometimes that means just like staying in your own lane.

Brooke Schnittman  30:19
Yes. And I think it's so hard for us because we are people pleasers to the core. And we want to feel like everyone likes us. It's interesting. You say this, because I had someone reached out to me, who I haven't spoken to in five years. And she was from my past. And it was like, a dark time in my past. And now she has a child, I have a child. Oh, we should get together? Nope. Right setting that boundary that I don't think I could have done five years ago, not going through self development and understanding my life purpose and having that calmer nervous system. So do you think that with age, it gets easier to because telling I had just had a discovery call yesterday with a 20 year old and the number one and she reminded me of myself when I was 20. Like the number one thing we have is FOMO, with social media, with everything like she does not have Jomo the joy of missing out. So yes, it's a power. Yeah. But I almost feel like the older you get. I know it's you can still challenge yourself with those negative thoughts. But I feel like it's easier. Because you've experienced so much 100%

Sarah Platt-Finger  31:40
agree, you know, it's life, you can't put a value on life experience. But I also want to say like, that's why having humility is so important. And like the openness to learn, to choose to see what are the lessons and blessings in every challenging situation, that's a choice that not every human being wants to take career, some human beings want to be in a victim mentality, just use a mentality. But for those of you and I'm sure so many of your listeners because they follow your work, they want to grow and to learn and to evolve. And, you know, just like a big celebration for those people that are choosing that, that are choosing the work that are choosing the growth right over the blame of other people. Even if we're talking about the blame, we're doing it in a constructive environment where somebody is able to mirror and reflect back to you. This is another way of being, you know, and so for the younger people to be able to have mentors and coaches and guides who can reflect back to them. Their,

Brooke Schnittman  33:02
their, their own saying to like, yeah, so you're saying yes, do you believe that this is true? Does this hold up in the court of law? This is what you're saying?

Sarah Platt-Finger  33:15
Yeah, I wish I had that as a person and adults. I didn't, you know, so like, bravo to you for doing the work that you're doing an old Thank you people. Yeah, like showing up Same to you. Thank you. Yeah, no, I feel like we really have to celebrate each other. And like the work that, yes, we are doing and Lightworkers are doing to really help younger generations, or anybody who's in that space of suffering to kind of see a new way.

Brooke Schnittman  33:48
Ya know, it's that growth mindset, instead of the fixed mindset, learning about the lessons learned, and celebrating other people's wins. Even if it doesn't directly relate to you. There's so much power in celebrating other people. Hmm,

Sarah Platt-Finger  34:05
100% Yeah, it's a form of receiving.

Brooke Schnittman  34:09
Yes, yes. 100%. So, Sarah, this was lovely. If anyone would like to read your book. Maybe I don't even know do you do one on one yoga lessons at this point?

Sarah Platt-Finger  34:23
I do. Oh, yeah. I do a few privates with people from like, all over kind of the world right now. But yeah, I'm doing that. I'm also in the process of building a yoga teacher training. With Deepak. Yeah, all of this is really exciting. And I feel very privileged to share about

Brooke Schnittman  34:41
Yeah, so we're gonna put in the show notes. But can you share with the listeners where they can find you and get more information if they're interested in learning about your book, learning about your practice, learning how to teach from your practice and defox practice?

Sarah Platt-Finger  34:56
Yeah, so my website is Sarah Platt finger dot com and then that pretty much has all of my kind of workshops, trainings coming up etc. And then mostly on Instagram at s Platt finger splat finger. Same with Twitter's one finger and on Facebook Sarah Platt finger,

Brooke Schnittman  35:17
and that's with two T's. For all of you. It's been a pleasure Sara and I really I can just feel the calmness in our conversation. And I know that doesn't happen overnight, a crew it was a lot of work, I'm sure to get to where you are right now and to share your knowledge and energy with other people. So I appreciate you carving out that time and indulging in this podcast

Sarah Platt-Finger  35:47
was such a delight and such a pleasure to indulge in it truly, I think you and your kindness and your generosity as well.