Neuroscience explains so much about our ADHD brain and the many traits, tendencies, and behaviours that come along for the ride. The more we understand our beautiful yet complex neurobiology, the more empowered we are to make sustainable and manageable changes to better enhance our lives.

So, I'm delighted to welcome this week's guest, Nicole Vignola, a neuroscientist, author, consultant, and brain performance coach, to the podcast.

Nicole's first book, Rewire: Your Neurotoolkit for Everyday Life is available now.

On today's episode of The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Podcast, Kate and Nicola speak about:

• The science behind meditation
• The brain's negativity bias
• The function of the brain's 'DMN' AND 'TPN'
• How self-interruptions affect our daily life
• The power of meditation for emotional regulation
• Nicole's tips for feeling more calm and positive
• Feeling more self-aligned
• The damaging effects of your phone and social media
• Ways to be more mindful of your phone usage
• Understanding dopamine better
• The life-changing benefits of a healthier sleep routine
• How hydrating first thing can be essential for the ADHD brain
• How visualising works in the brain and how it can improve our habits
• Aphantasia and learning how to visualise

You can find out more about Nicole via her website, www.nicolesneuroscience.com.

My other guest on today's ADHD Women's Wellbeing episode is Dr Lotta Borg Skoglund. We are at the cusp of new understandings about combining medical disciplines so we can understand ADHD in girls and women better through the lens of both menstrual cycles, hormones and psychiatry. This is for the lost generation of women who never got answers and for the future generations of girls who deserve better medical knowledge and research.

Lotta is an associate professor in psychiatry at the Department of Women and Children's Health at Uppsala University and an affiliated researcher at the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at Karolinska Institutet. She is the author of six popular science books on ADHD and addiction, and her book ADHD Girls to Women - Getting on the Radar has been translated into several European languages, English and Korean.

On this episode of the ADHD Women's Wellbeing Podcast, Dr Lotta Skoglund and Kate spoke about:

• Feeling abandoned by healthcare professionals after an ADHD diagnosis
• Why healthcare professionals should be working together to help patients
• How an understanding of ADHD can change your health outcomes
• Building autonomy to feel more empowered with our ADHD
• Improving female-based medical research and ADHD
• The importance of talking about your experiences with hormones to help others
• Precision and patient-led medicine
• Connecting Hormones and Psychiatry to help more ADHD women
• Why fluctuating hormones and cycles need to be part of the bigger health picture
• Getting to know your unique hormone cycle traits
• How you can create a personalised health journal

You can learn more about Lotta's work via her website, www.borgskoglund.com and Letterlife.