- 49 minutes 31 secondsEP. 394: The Chainsaw Sculptor Who Turned Her ADHD "Too Much" Into a Superpower
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Start here: Stop Trying to “Fix” Your ADHD. You’re Not Broken: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up
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Some brains cannot sit still long enough to be careful. Ella Fielding found a machine that runs on exactly that.
Ella has a BA in Fine Art Sculpture, a Masters in Fine Art, and a chainsaw operator's license, and she uses all three to turn whole trees into monumental sculpture. But she left school at 14 because it was too traumatic to stay. She was quick with her hands and slow to get anything out of her head onto paper, and for most of her life nobody named why. She was 38, running her own art business and drowning in the admin, when a work coach kept mentioning ADHD and she kept insisting she was just dyslexic. Turns out it was both.
Now she carves outside in full gear, running a machine most people won't touch and making it behave like a scalpel. Not despite the ADHD. Because of it. A chainsaw does not let you drift or second-guess or wait for the perfect plan. It demands you be right here, right now, which is the one place her brain has always worked best.
In this episode, Tracy and Ella get into the school years that nearly broke her, the "poof" moment where a thought vanishes the second she reaches for a pen, why immediate and physical beats slow and planned for a brain like hers, and how she reads her own overwhelm as a signal instead of a character flaw.
If you have ever been told you were too much, this one might reframe the whole thing.
Resources:
Website: https://ellafielding.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ella.fielding.sculptor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ellafieldingsculptor
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ella-fielding-sculptorSend a Message: Your Name | Email | Message
Explore more from me:
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.
That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits, start here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up
Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com
22 July 2026, 12:00 pm - 1 hour 32 minutesEP. 393: AuDHD, Decision Fatigue, and Rebuilding a Life That Actually Works with Dr. Shannan Palma
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Start here: Stop Trying to “Fix” Your ADHD. You’re Not Broken: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up
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She was good at the job. She just kept bombing the people.
Dr. Shannan Palma has a PhD from Emory, founded a master's program, and taught as a college professor. Then, in midlife, she found out she was autistic. ADHD turned up right behind it.
For decades she had followed the rules exactly as they were written and could not work out why that kept failing her. She was direct when directness was not wanted. She said no when everyone else said yes and did nothing. She ran full speed until she collapsed, then ramped back up and did it again. The diagnosis did not just explain the pattern. It ended it.
Today she identifies as AuDHD, co-founded the autistic-led nonprofit Independence Through Interdependence, and serves as CEO of ITI Lab, where her team built Decide, an app for decision fatigue.
In this episode, Tracy and Shannan get into why decision fatigue is not a willpower problem, what happens when the autism wants routine and the ADHD wants novelty, the assessment that went badly wrong, and what it takes to rebuild after burnout on your own terms instead of someone else's.
If your brain has ever turned a small decision into a full-body shutdown, this one will help you understand why. And more importantly, what actually helps.
Resources
Website: https://weareiti.org
Website: https://itilab.io
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shannanpalma
ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message
Explore more from me:
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.
That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits, start here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up
Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com
15 July 2026, 12:00 pm - 56 minutes 10 secondsEP. 392: When You Finally Stop Fawning with Laura Pasley
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Stop Trying to “Fix” Your ADHD. You’re Not Broken: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up
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Laura Pasley is a child and youth worker in Ontario, Canada, who has spent more than a decade in intensive mental health and dual-diagnosis treatment programs for children and adolescents. She is the person who runs toward the crisis when everyone else is running away from it.
After postpartum anxiety, postpartum OCD, complex trauma, and her sixth concussion, Laura started questioning whether ADHD had been part of her story all along. At 32, she finally received the diagnosis that helped her see herself differently. Not as someone who had fooled everyone. Not as someone who was not smart. As someone whose brain had been working hard to keep her alive.
In this episode, Tracy and Laura talk about ADHD, trauma, fawning, concussions, crisis work, motherhood, shame, and what changes when a woman finally stops explaining every struggle through what happened to her. Laura also shares why she is now returning to school, writing a memoir, and learning to embrace being a daydreamer.
If you have ever wondered whether it is ADHD, trauma, anxiety, or all of the above, this conversation offers a gentler question: what if understanding your brain is not about proving what is wrong with you, but finally seeing what has always been true?
Resources
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/arttaropy
Threads: https://www.threads.com/@arttaropySend a Message: Your Name | Email | Message
Explore more from me:
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.
That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits, start here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up
Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com
8 July 2026, 12:00 pm - 9 minutes 35 secondsCollect the Evidence
Stuck in an ADHD pattern that keeps repeating? SHIFT is a collection of 120 guided audio experiences designed to help you see yourself and your ADHD brain differently. Explore SHIFT here: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
_
How many times have you told yourself, “I’ll do it when I feel more confident”?
When I feel ready, I’ll apply for that job. When I feel more confident, I’ll start the business. When I believe in myself more, I’ll have that hard conversation.
We spend so much of our lives waiting to feel ready. More confident. More certain. More qualified.
But what if we have had it backwards all along?
I want to talk about why confidence does not actually come first. It does not magically appear before we take the risk, try the thing, or do something that scares us.
Confidence comes after.
If you have been waiting to feel ready before taking the next step, this episode will help you stop waiting for confidence and start building it.
ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.
That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start seeing yourself differently, explore SHIFT here: https://tracyotsuka.com/shiftSend a Message: Your Name | Email | Message
Explore more from me:
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.
That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits, start here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up
Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com
6 July 2026, 11:00 pm - 1 hour 13 minutesEpisode 391: What Happens When a School Is Built for ADHD Brains
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Stop Trying to “Fix” Your ADHD. You’re Not Broken: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up
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Your kid got labeled the “problem.” The defiant one, the behavior kid, the one who couldn't sit still or keep up. What if the room was the thing that didn't fit?
Beven Byrnes is a neurodivergent educator, nonprofit leader, and a mom of four. She's the Executive Director of Bridges Middle School in Portland, the only middle school in Oregon built specifically for students with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and anxiety.
Beven spent 25 years and raised over $15 million building environments where kids actually fit. But she didn't have her own ADHD diagnosis until this past year, at 50. Cancer treatment forced her into menopause at 45, her estrogen dropped, and the masking she'd done her whole life without knowing it stopped working. The square-peg feeling she'd carried since childhood finally made sense. Now she runs a school on one idea: behavior is communication, and the job isn't to fix the kid, it's to fix the environment around them.
In this episode, Tracy and Beven get into why behavior is almost always communication, what happens to a child's confidence after years of being misread, and what it looks like to build a school around how kids actually learn instead of forcing them to fit.
If your child, or you, ever got treated like the problem to be solved, this one will show you what was actually broken. And it was never the brain.
Resources:
Website: https://www.bridgesms.org/staff-spotlight-beven-byrnes-executive-director
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mrs_byrnes
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beven-byrnesSend a Message: Your Name | Email | Message
Explore more from me:
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.
That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits, start here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up
Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com
1 July 2026, 12:00 pm - 10 minutes 57 secondsGet Into Your Body
Stuck in an ADHD pattern that keeps repeating? SHIFT is a collection of 120 guided audio experiences designed to help you see yourself and your ADHD brain differently. Explore SHIFT here: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
_Have you ever noticed that the harder you try to think your way out of feeling overwhelmed, the more overwhelmed you become?
You replay conversations. You worry about the future. You analyze every possible outcome. You keep thinking that if you can just solve the problem, you will finally feel better.
But what if thinking is not the answer?
For a long time, I thought the only way to feel better was to think differently. If I could just figure it out, solve the problem, or make sense of what I was feeling, then I would finally feel better.
But sometimes the fastest way to calm your brain is not to think harder. It is to start with your body.
When I get into my body, my attention has somewhere else to go. Instead of replaying my thoughts, I start paying attention to what I am doing, what I see, what I hear, what I smell, and what I feel.
If you have ever tried to think your way out of overwhelm and only made yourself feel worse, this episode will help you stop asking your brain to do all the work and let your body lead for a few minutes.
Resources:
SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.
That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start seeing yourself differently, explore SHIFT here: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
Listen to ADHD for Smart Ass Women:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adhd-for-smart-ass-women-with-tracy-otsuka/id1443678424
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7bG9rgwPgi8zRkQxV6ykk0
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tracyotsuka4796Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message
Explore more from me:
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.
That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits, start here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up
Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com
29 June 2026, 12:00 pm - 1 hour 17 minutesEP. 390: Can Cooking Be Therapy with Charlotte Hastings
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Stop Trying to “Fix” Your ADHD. You’re Not Broken: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up
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You have heard of art therapy and talk therapy. Charlotte Hastings does therapy in the kitchen, and it opens people up in a way the usual chair never quite does.
Charlotte Hastings is a psychodynamic therapist, founder of Kitchen Therapy, and author of Kitchen Therapy: How to Become a Conscious Cook. Trained first as an anthropologist, she taught drama to neurodivergent teenagers before building an entire therapeutic approach around the kitchen.
Charlotte recognized her own ADHD in her forties, after years of self-medicating and a chaotic childhood with an undiagnosed, alcoholic father. School had convinced her she was not smart. Anthropology, Jung, and eventually a wooden spoon proved otherwise. Now she uses cooking the way other therapists use art or drama: a side-by-side, low-pressure space where the real stuff surfaces.
In this episode, Tracy and Charlotte talk about why cooking can work like art or drama therapy, why food and love are so entwined, how recipes can both support and shut down ADHD brains, and why the way you hold a wooden spoon might reveal the way you hold life. If cooking has ever felt loaded, boring, chaotic, or impossible, this conversation offers a gentler reframe: the meal is not just the result. The journey is the meal.
Resources- Website: https://therapykitchen.co.uk
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therapy.kitchen
Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message
Explore more from me:
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.
That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits, start here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up
Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com
24 June 2026, 12:00 pm - 11 minutes 51 secondsSuccess Creates Confidence
Stuck in an ADHD pattern that keeps repeating? SHIFT is a collection of 120 guided audio experiences designed to help you see yourself and your ADHD brain differently. Explore SHIFT here: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
_Have you ever had a really productive day and still felt like you didn’t do enough?
You answered the emails. You made the calls. You went to the meeting. You finished the project. Maybe you even did the thing you had been putting off for weeks. And still, by the end of the day, your brain was already moving on to everything you missed, forgot, or still needed to do.
Today, I want to talk about why success does not always feel like success for ADHD women.
Our brains are often scanning for what is unfinished, unresolved, or potentially threatening. So even when we complete ten things, we can still end the day focused on the one thing we did not get done.
But today, I want you to practice noticing what is going right. Noticing your progress. Noticing the effort it took. Noticing the evidence that you are capable, that you do follow through, and that you can do difficult things.
Because success does not create confidence when we ignore it. Success creates confidence when we notice it.
If you have ever struggled to feel proud of yourself, even after doing so much, this episode will help you pause long enough to collect the evidence your brain keeps overlooking.
Timestamps:
[00:00 – 03:58] Why Success Does Not Always Feel Like Success
[03:58 – 06:22] How Negativity Bias Keeps Us Focused on What Is Unfinished
[06:22 – 07:15] Breathwork Practice
[07:15 – 08:28] Gratitude Check-In and Noticing What You Have Done
[08:28 – 10:10] Reassessing Your SUD Score and Collecting the Evidence
[10:10 – 11:00] Closing Reflection and SHIFT InvitationADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.
That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start seeing yourself differently, explore SHIFT here: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
Explore more from me:
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/Listen to ADHD for Smart Ass Women:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adhd-for-smart-ass-women-with-tracy-otsuka/id1443678424
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7bG9rgwPgi8zRkQxV6ykk0
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tracyotsuka4796Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/#ADHD #ADHDWomen #ADHDforSmartAssWomen #AdultADHD #WomenWithADHD #LateDiagnosis #ADHDBurnout #ADHDSelfTrust #ADHDConfidence #adhdsupport
Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message
Explore more from me:
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.
That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits, start here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up
Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com
22 June 2026, 12:00 pm - 34 minutes 38 secondsEP. 389: Planning Isn't About Productivity (And That's Why Most Planners Fail)
Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Stop Trying to “Fix” Your ADHD. You’re Not Broken: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up
_____
You bought the planner. You loved the planner. You were absolutely, positively sure this planner was going to change your life.
And then, by March, you forgot it existed.
When we moved out of our family home of 25 years, I found boxes. Boxes and boxes of barely used planners I'd been saving for who knows why. For a long time I thought that meant something about me. That I wasn't disciplined enough. That everyone else got some secret instruction manual for adulthood that I'd missed.
But the women I work with aren't lazy or unfocused. They're brilliant, driven, running companies and raising families. And they can't stick with a planner either. That's when it clicked. This was never a planning problem. It's a time problem, a decision problem, and an emotional regulation problem. Planning is just where those show up.
In this episode I talk about why ADHD brains experience time differently, why importance alone won't get you started, why most planners quietly set you up for an impossible day, and why one meaningful goal beats ten random ones.
If you've got a planner graveyard sitting in a drawer somewhere, this one is for you. The question was never what's wrong with you. The question is what kind of system actually works for your brain.
Resources:- Get the planner: https://tracyotsuka.com/planner
Use code PODCASTPLANNER for $10 off - Website: tracyotsuka.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/tracyotsuka
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tracyotsuka4796
- FREE 3-days to Fall in Love With Your ADHD Brain training on Jan 6th: https://tracyotsuka.com/ilovemybrain
- Tired of ADHD strategies that don’t work? Here’s what actually does. FREE training here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com
Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message
Explore more from me:
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.
That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits, start here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up
Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
Visit our website: https://tracyotsuka.com
17 June 2026, 12:00 pm - Get the planner: https://tracyotsuka.com/planner
- 11 minutes 53 secondsBreak the Spell
Stuck in an ADHD pattern that keeps repeating? SHIFT is a collection of 120 guided audio experiences designed to help you see yourself and your ADHD brain differently. Explore SHIFT here: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
_Have you ever noticed that some tasks feel impossible to start, even when they are not actually difficult?
Maybe it is an email, a budget, a project, a decision, or one small thing you keep avoiding. From the outside, it looks like procrastination. But what if the task is not the real problem?
In this first Monday Shift episode, I want to introduce you to a new way of looking at avoidance. Instead of asking, “What’s wrong with me?” I want you to ask a better question: “What does my brain think this means?”
Because sometimes your ADHD brain is not resisting the task itself. It is reacting to the meaning attached to it.
If you have ever felt stuck, overwhelmed, or unable to begin something that should be simple, this episode will help you look underneath the avoidance with curiosity instead of judgment.
Resources:
SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/Explore more from me:
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/Listen to ADHD for Smart Ass Women:
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/adhd-for-smart-ass-women-with-tracy-otsuka/id1443678424
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7bG9rgwPgi8zRkQxV6ykk0
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tracyotsuka4796Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/Send a Message: Your Name | Email | Message
Explore more from me:
🧘 SHIFT: https://tracyotsuka.com/shift
📚 Free resources: https://tracyotsuka.com/learn
📖 Get the book, ADHD for Smart Ass Women: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
🧠 Join Your ADHD Brain is A-OK Academy: https://tracyotsuka.com/aok
🌐 Visit my website: https://tracyotsuka.com/ADHD isn’t a productivity problem. It’s an identity problem.
That’s why most strategies don’t stick. They were not designed for how your brain actually works. If you’re ready to stop fighting your brain and start building a life that fits, start here: https://programs.tracyotsuka.com/sign-up
Connect with me:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tracyotsuka
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heytracyotsuka
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tracyotsuka/Are You Ready to Discover Your Brilliance? Order Now: https://tracyotsuka.com/adhd-book
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15 June 2026, 12:00 pm - 31 minutesEP. 388: How to Get Your Brain Online
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You know what to do. So why can't you make yourself do it? If you have ever stared at one small task and quietly wondered what is wrong with you, I want to offer a different possibility.
Nothing is wrong with you. Your brain already made a prediction about how that task was going to feel before you ever started, and a lot of the time you are not avoiding the task at all. You are avoiding that prediction.
The email isn't an email anymore. It's criticism.
The budget isn't a budget. It's shame.
Once the task stops being the task, no amount of yelling at yourself is going to move you.
In this episode I talk about why the same woman who can't answer an email can build a company, why your brain reaches for Instagram over the thing that actually matters, and the practical ways to break the spell: changing your visual field, moving your body, getting curious, and becoming a detective about what your brain thinks the task really means.
If you have ever called yourself lazy for avoiding something you genuinely wanted to do, this one is for you. The problem was never willpower. It was the prediction.
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