Can I Pray with ADHD?

Answer

Your struggle is everyone's struggle. We all battle to focus, especially when it comes to prayer. You just have a more acute case than most. But maybe that makes your prayers even more powerful.

Here is some advice from the great mystic and soul master, Rabbi Yisrael Baal Shem Tov. He reminds us that prayer is more than just asking for our needs. It’s about connecting to G-d.

G-d is the source of everything, and G-d is one. This means that every experience comes from the one source. Our joys and celebrations, our challenges and struggles, are all from the Oneness. Our friends and supporters, as well as our enemies and obstacles, are all from the Oneness. This is our life, the life that G-d designed for us. Some things are there to help us in

an obvious way, others in a less obvious way. But it’s all one.

As you pray, you are trying to connect to G-d, but disturbing noises all around you get in the way of your devotion. But hang on. If it’s G-d you want to connect with, isn’t G-d the one source of all? So those noises are not disturbances. They are G-d too. The child running across the room, the car honking outside, the wind blowing and the people chattering are all voices

of G-d. They are not interrupting your prayer. They are adding to it. Don’t fight them. Invite them in. Let them flow and meld into the oneness of your prayer. They are your choir, not talking over you, but singing with you. So sing with them.

You can apply this to every area of your life. Whatever comes your way is a divine gift - sometimes obviously so, sometimes not. Don’t fight it, flow with it.

Perhaps you can connect to G-d better than most. Your hyper-attentiveness is a reflection of G-d’s attention to each one of us. He hears us all, big and small. No one is in the background. You are centre-stage.