Mitigating Symptoms of ADHD
By Creative Lives Director Maureen Burford
”The capacity for focus can be strengthened over time — when it is properly understood and intentionally exercised.”
At Creative Lives, we have witnessed meaningful shifts in children and teens who struggle with focus and attention, including many with ADHD diagnoses. These shifts come from helping young people strengthen their capacity for sustained focus from the inside out.
Our work points to an often-overlooked dimension of human development: the functional role of the human energy system, often called the chakra system, in attention, regulation, and learning.
For many educators and parents, this perspective is unfamiliar. Yet in our experience, the chakra system is not a trend or a belief system. It describes a functional aspect of human development — an internal mechanism through which essential capacities such as focus, emotional balance, discernment, and discipline are expressed.
New Discoveries About Human Development
In my teaching career, I have supported thousands of children and adults who struggle with focus — in classrooms, homes, and training settings. And I’ve seen focus improve in lasting ways, both in my own work and in the work of educators we train at Creative Lives.
To understand our outcomes, you need to discover more about a developmental mechanism we all possess but are rarely taught to recognize or work with intentionally. This mechanism is our chakra system.
Our approach is grounded in the pioneering discoveries of educator and author Ellen Tadd, who devoted decades to investigating the fundamental role of the chakra system in human development. The seven primary chakra centers are part of the human energy field and correspond to specific locations in the physical body, ranging from the top of the head to the base of the spine.
Tadd discovered that each of these centers governs distinct aspects of our essential nature, including innate capacities such as focus, concentration, discernment, emotional regulation, and discipline.
When our chakras function well, we actualize our best.
Conversely, poor function in specific chakras is directly linked to challenges.
Tadd translated her practical discoveries into A Framework for Wise Education, a developmental approach that offers profound insight into how every child can cultivate clarity, resilience, contribution, and fulfillment. Central to this Framework is a precise understanding of the mechanics of focus and attention — including for individuals who exhibit symptoms commonly associated with ADHD.
Understanding Focus Through a New Lens
One of Ellen Tadd’s central discoveries is that sustained focus is linked to the function of two specific energy centers:
The third eye chakra, located at the center of the forehead, which deals with focus and concentration. This center acts as a lens of perception, allowing individuals to appreciate context, gain insight, and make wise decisions.
The base chakra, located at the base of the spine, which deals with skill building and good habits. This center governs discipline, including the sustained effort and follow-through required to build focus across settings and over time.
When these centers are working well-together, both children and adults cultivate sustained focus, wise decision-making, and follow-through. Focus, in this sense, is not forced; it is accessed and honed.
In children with ADHD, the third eye center functions in an inconsistent or diminished way, and the base chakra is also diminished, in terms of developing and sustaining focus over time.
The encouraging news is that, like a muscle, the capacities for focus and follow-through can be strengthened over time.
Understanding the functional partnership between the third eye and the base center represents a missing piece in how we understand and support every child’s potential and help individuals mitigate symptoms of ADHD.
Seeing is Believing
Some years ago, I worked with a first grader — let’s call him Justin — who had been diagnosed with ADHD. He possessed many natural aptitudes: he was athletic, bright, sensitive, and deeply kind. Yet his behavior was erratic, his attention scattered, and his abilities were often obscured by his difficulty sustaining focus.
For months, I tried a wide range of strategies to help Justin access what we call the Wise View — a state of focused perception and present awareness. Nothing held.
Then I took a different approach. I invited Justin into a private piano lesson.
The moment Justin sat at the piano, he transformed. For the first time, I observed his third eye focus engage deeply and consistently.
When this center engages, cognitive capacity follows. Memory becomes accessible. Analysis and insight work together. Emotional clarity emerges. During that thirty-minute lesson, Justin mirrored hand movements, translated melody to keyboard, repeated sung phrases, improvised duets, and demonstrated sensitivity and discernment well beyond what his classroom behavior had suggested.
Two days later, he remembered everything he had learned.
It was as though a locked door had opened — and the piano was the key. Why? Because this instrument was so compelling to him, he pulled himself into a state of focus.
At that time, Justin was not yet taking medication, though it had been under consideration. Following this experience, his mother found him a piano teacher, and our team began supporting Justin in carrying his experience of focused awareness into other parts of his day. Piano became his access point — a reliable way to strengthen both focus and discipline.
We did not need to share chakra language with Justin. Instead, we helped him recognize and return to his Wise View — a state he learned to identify and rely on.
There is another essential dimension here: when focus is present, fear diminishes. For children like Jason, whose ADHD symptoms are compounded by trauma, strengthening the function of the third eye also establish conditions for healing. As focus becomes more consistent, insight and emotional relief follow — in remarkable ways.
Holistic ADHD Strategies: What You Can Observe Right Now
Whether you are a parent, teacher, or counselor, meaningful insight often begins with careful observation:
When does this child naturally sustain focus for more than ten minutes?
(If you do not know, please find out. As with Jason, this may take some time.)What circumstances, habits, or attitudes most reliably disrupt their focus?
How does this child think, feel, and communicate when they are keenly focused — compared to when they are not?
These are the same foundational observations we teach in our trainings, and they are often the doorway to lasting change. Focus habits vary widely from child to child, and they are not fixed. Many children — and adults — can shift from scattered attention to deep concentration when the right conditions are present.
When these patterns are clearly understood, it becomes far easier to apply the tools and strategies we teach at Creative Lives. The goal is not simply improved behavior, but increased agency: helping young people recognize, access, and sustain their own capacity for focus.
Why This Matters: Focus Builds Confidence and Capacity
Children with ADHD frequently experience frustration, discouragement, and misunderstanding. When they learn — even gradually — to access focus intentionally, their confidence grows. They begin to feel capable, empowered, and ready to learn.
Focus supports a child’s ability to:
retain knowledge
perceive context
make wise choices
regulate emotional overwhelm
feel connected in relationships
Don’t Overlook the Physical Dimension
We also encourage families and support teams to attend to physical factors that can intensify ADHD symptoms, including:
sleep quality
overstimulation from screens
sensitivity to lighting or sound
environmental toxins
nutritional imbalances
chronic tension or spinal misalignment
These factors matter. When they are addressed alongside an understanding of the human energy system’s role in development, the results can be substantial.
Curious to Learn More?
For those seeking the most comprehensive and lasting outcomes for children, we recommend engaging in our certification training program — either individually or as a team — beginning with Foundations 1.
A Framework for Wise Education® is holistic in the truest sense: capacities such as focus and discipline develop in relationship with other essential aspects of human potential, including curiosity, empathy, creativity, caring, and inspiration. Through this integrated approach, educators and caregivers build greater agency in their own learning and are better equipped to support children in cultivating focus, resilience, and well-being.