S3, Episode 18: " Mindfulness Rule breaking ….’ By Natasha Hickling, and Holly Martinson

Dear Diary,

Welcome to "The Indigo Diaries." Join host Natasha Hickling in the third and long-lasting series: "The World Through an Our Eyes.."

This week Natasha is back with a ‘Open Mind Session’ where she will be joined by Executive Function coach and new acquaintance Holly Martinson.

Holly Martinson is a former public and private school teacher and has 20+ years of experience in the field of Coaching and Special Education. Currently, she is an Integrative Executive Function Coach with Patient Minds, of which she is the owner and founder. Holly uses multiple modalities when working with her clients, knowing individuals are most successful when provided with alternative ways of approaching a situation or task. She takes a holistic view with her coaching, knowing that all areas of life are connected to create wellbeing.

Holly possesses several hours of mindfulness training, to include specific training to support those who are neurodiverse. She believes each individual has a unique learning style, and invests in building strengths focused relationships with her clients to create a safe environment. In addition to her role coaching, Holly is a Trauma-Informed Yoga Instructor. She presents and teaches on topics related to Coaching, Neurodiveristy, Stress Management, Mindfulness and Wellbeing. Holly has her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and an M.Ed. in Curriculum and Instruction.

When Holly isn’t working, she enjoys being outdoors, hiking, kayaking, spending time with her husband and rescue dog or reading a good book under a tree. While reflecting on coaching sessions with her clients, Holly began to notice the challenge of discomfort presenting a barrier. She realised in both herself and her clients the discomfort was leading them to feel like they were doing something wrong, or the change they were trying to make was labelled as “bad” because it caused an uncomfortable reaction.

Through her training in yoga and mindfulness, she was able to reflect on this and pull in tools for identifying the discomfort as a physical experience and a trail marker for addressing and moving those barriers first, before change could be made. She also considers herself to be a “rule-breaking” mindfulness practitioner, as she teaches in ways that are more concrete and accessible than mindfulness is often taught. She believes using mindfulness as a way to create better awareness can be a powerful tool to help with attention, focus, uncomfortable situations, shame, and much more. She believes we each have strengths and can utilise those strengths to support Executive Functions and attention, rather than the “deficit” model of focusing on “fixing” what is wrong.

In this episode, we will discuss what mindfulness is, the benefits it can bring to the ADHD mind, and how we can rule break so we can make it work for us!

Come, Learn, listen, and experience the world through not her eyes, our eyes!

The Indigo Diaries

Ps- If you would like any additional information regarding our support group, coaching or are interested in the world hearing your story in series 1, please see the links below:

Email: natasha@indigo-hub.com

Website: www.indigo-hub.com

FB Page: Indigo Hub (https://www.facebook.com/indigohubadhd/)

Instagram: @indigohubadhd (https://www.instagram.com/indigohubadhd/)

Holly’s Details:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hollymartinson/

Email: patientmindsllc@gmail.com

Website: https://www.patient-minds.com/