130. Mindfulness in Middle Age

Feeling scattered, overstimulated, and stuck in a cycle of information overload?
 You’re not alone—and there’s a powerful antidote hiding in plain sight: mindfulness. In this episode, I’m joined by the incredible Tara Segree, a longtime educator, meditation coach, and author of Bringing Mindfulness Into the Classroom. Tara has a deeply calming presence and a practical approach to mindfulness that helps you take your power back—even if you’ve been deep in the scroll hole.

We talk about how constant digital stimulation affects our energy, why mindfulness isn’t just “nice to have” but essential for mental clarity, and simple ways to begin a practice, even if you only have five minutes a day.

If you’ve ever said “I don’t have time to meditate” or felt like mindfulness was just another thing on your to-do list, this conversation will change the way you think about it.

Tara Segree is the author of Bringing Mindfulness Into The Classroom, a speaker, education consultant, and meditation coach with over 20 years of teaching experience. She was awarded the Educational Innovation Award from The Human Flourishing Program at Harvard's Flourishing Network in 2021 and is a collaborator for the Common Sense Media award winning podcast, Mini Meditation for Kids. Her free meditations are on Insight Timer and YouTube. Tara works with schools to bring wellness into classrooms through mindfulness, as well as with universities and non-profit groups. Tara runs parent workshops and professional developments for corporations, teachers and non profit groups, to ensure that leaders and mentors take care of themselves before doing the heavy work of helping others dealing with massive challenges.

In this episode:

• Why information overload is draining your energy—and what to do about it
• How to start a mindfulness practice with just 10 minutes a day
• The hidden power of breathing and gratitude (and how to feel it, not just list it)
• How mindfulness helps you make clearer, more grounded decisions
• The role of mindfulness in parenting and how kids learn by watching us
• Easy ways to bring mindfulness into everyday moments—like walking into the grocery store
• Why taking your power back starts with stillness and listening to your own heart

Resources Mentioned:

• Tara’s meditations on Insight Timer: Insight Timer Profile
• FREE meditation video on YouTube: Watch Here
• Tara’s book: Bringing Mindfulness Into The Classroom

Connect with Tara Segree:

• Instagram: @tara_segree
• Substack: When Life Gives You Life, Just Breathe
• LinkedIn: Tara Segree

Connect with me, Dr. Sara Poldmae:

Website: https://risingwomanproject.com

Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/drsarapoldmae

Transcript

Sara Poldmae: 0:01

Sarah, welcome to menopause. Rise and thrive. I am Dr Sarah pulled May, and this podcast is your go to guide for navigating perimenopause and menopause. If you are feeling a little overwhelmed, trust me, you are in great company each week, I'll bring you expert advice, raw, honest conversations and simple tips to help you stay grounded and maybe even find some humor in the process. Let's rise, thrive and tackle this wild ride together. Hi everybody. I am super excited to bring Tara sagri onto the show. I have known Tara for about a decade, and she is just an amazing soul, beautiful woman, and I'm so excited to have her share her wisdom with us today. Tara is the author of a book bringing mindfulness into the classroom. She's a speaker and education consultant and meditation coach with over 20 years of teaching experience, Tara is going to talk with us about information overload. I think we're all feeling it Welcome. Welcome.

Tara Segree: 1:09

Thank you, Sarah, thanks so much for having me on this is such a great podcast and talk about information overload. This is not information overload. What you talk about here is so important for everybody, for their mental, physical and spiritual health. So I appreciate you. Well, thank

Sara Poldmae: 1:30

you. That's very kind of you. I hope not. I hope that I cut through some of the noise absolutely out there, right between Facebook and all the social media platforms and just always having a like, I think you said before we hopped on and we have a computer in the palm of our hands. It's a lot. It's overwhelming.

Tara Segree: 1:50

Yeah, it is. It is. And you know, I am seeing more adults in my community and in our world, who are really scatterbrained and are feeling frustrated and frenzied and hurried, but at the same time, like every time they have a brief moment, they're looking down at their phone and absolutely how great it is to have this computer in the palm of our hands, where we can answer emails, where we can keep in touch with friends and families, where we can send a quick text, where I can have my groceries delivered, as well as anything else I want delivered. It's a great world that we live in, but with artificial intelligence just gaining more and more power over our algorithms. We really need to protect our energy. We are only able to place our energy where it is that we're being told or where it is that we want to place our energy, and so taking your power back through mindfulness allows you to cut out all the noise and decide what is right for you and where you should be placing your energy. I love that. Thank you. And I mean, it's it's something that's so innate and common sense, but all of us live on this hamster wheel of what society tells us, what it is we're supposed to be doing, what it is we're supposed to be watching, what it is we're supposed to be thinking and granted, it is very important to know what is happening in our country, to know what is happening in our world, on our Planet, it's very important, and all of us have a special role that we play in advocacy for things that are important to us, but to constantly be inundated with the same news stories hour after hour, that is not good for our mental health, and then you're filling yourself with all This information, and you're not leaving any room for what is right for you and for your family. So by taking time to establish a mindfulness routine where maybe 10 minutes a day you're meditating or out in your garden weeding or taking a walk or preparing a meal or painting, whatever it is that is mindful for you, by doing that, you're clearing your brain. You're becoming present and conscious just in that moment. And when you do that, you're clearing space, you're saving space, and you're holding space for what is meant for you, and allows you to then decipher where it is you should be placing your energy, for you to do better work here on this earth, for you to be a peacemaker, for you to advocate for. What is important to you, but with all the information that we're kind of constantly seeing and not just news, I mean, come on, let's face it, people tick tock. How many hours a day just swiping and seeing things that really is that really that important? So instead of swiping, looking at our social media, looking at everybody's highlights, looking at, you know, the Doom scrolling that we have gotten so used to witnessing, we need to take our power back and take time for ourself and live life instead of watching Life on Tiktok.

Sara Poldmae: 5:47

Yeah? No, I agree. And you know, the the issue with that is it's addictive, so it's lighting up areas of our brain that we may not have very much control over. If we choose to step into that vortex, it's hard to step out of it. Yes, and not only that, like a lot of our loved ones are sending us stuff. So it's like, do you just not look at what they've sent you? Because then that feels a little rude, right? Yeah, I often to like, love, love, love, Funny Animal Videos

Tara Segree: 6:25

that makes sense that you would, yeah,

Sara Poldmae: 6:28

you're recording with my little well, I didn't have a choice. I had to bring my dog to work today. I would have liked to have Fletcher home. That was not an option today, but, you know, you and so there's, there's a lot of it. Like you said, it's great to have this technology, but there is a downside to it, and we can take our power back. So how do we how do we do that, right? Because, you know, it's always there, and we have people expecting answers and stuff like that. So mindfulness is a great concept, and I certainly try and practice it. But what are some beginner steps for someone that's like, okay, clearly, I have spent three hours today on either Tiktok or Facebook or whatever platform is their their you know thing, what is one of the first steps that people can take that's accessible to bringing on a mindfulness practice?

Tara Segree: 7:31

You need to start with yourself, and we need to fill our own cup before we can help others. We cannot pour from an empty cup. So give yourself 10 minutes. And for some people, that might mean setting their alarm 10 minutes early and waking up before the rest of the house. That's what works for me. For some people, it's at the end of the day, after work, before work. But if you can give yourself 10 minutes a day to journal or just sit with your cup of coffee or a cup of tea and be like so grateful for the hands that produce those beans that grew, those beans that ground, those beans that ship those beans. And really having gratitude, gratitude is a great place to start, even just writing down a list of what it is that you're grateful for, and it can be the small things and big things in life. And by finding gratitude within your heart, your world starts to change, because then you are like, oh, you know what that's I am so grateful. And even though I have piles of laundry I need to put away, I am so grateful that my children have clothes on their back and that they have so many clothes that their room is a disaster, you know, whatever. But I would say with gratitude. Gratitude is a wonderful place to start with mindfulness also is just breathing. Breathing is the essence of life when you are feeling your body breathe, noticeably being consciously aware of taking a deep breath in through your nose and letting that breath go out of your mouth, you are beginning the meditative process just by witnessing your breath, just by feeling your breath, you send, you know, all of this calmness throughout Your body, throughout your cells and your blood pressure begins to come down. You're calmer, you're more peaceful. And just by witnessing your breath right there, that is a great way to be mindful. Feel your body breathe for you, and then as thoughts come in, you let them pass by. Eyes of their clouds, and you bring your awareness back to your breath. And just by doing that, you're being mindful, and you're doing a meditative, meditative process right there. And when we do that, the more that we're able to meditate, the more our body is able to focus and to be more attentive to whatever task is at hand. So I would stay, say, to start taking your power back the process to do that is to be grateful and just to become aware of your breathing, start breathing and then add in a positive affirmation. What is it that you need for today? I am confident, I am strong, I am resilient, whatever it might be, but saying positive affirmations and feeling your breath or noticing the sky and the clouds at the same time is such a wonderful form of meditation and a wonderful form of mindfulness, where you're allowing your body to calm, you're clearing that space, holding that space, and then saving that space for whatever sort of insight that you might get. Because we're going to have thoughts while we meditate, we're going to have thoughts. There's only three things that can happen. You can fall asleep have thoughts, or sit and feel your breath or say your positive affirmation. So as we start to have those thoughts, you might be surprised that it's like, oh yeah, I have to call my mother. I need to do this or that, and that's okay. You don't need to stop right there and write a to do list, but you're like, oh, that's important. That's where I need to place my energy right now.

Sara Poldmae: 11:50

Yeah, I think people think of meditation as difficult because they think that if they're thinking they're they're failing at meditation. And the thing is, I think there's so many misperceptions about meditation, mindfulness, etc, because it sounds soft or weak, but the way that you're saying, take your power back. There is a strength in being able to quiet your mind. There absolutely beautiful, beautiful strength to that. Because you know, when your mind is busy and hurried and rushed, it's hard to make really grounded, mindful, intentional decisions. So the more we can bring it back to our breath and bring it back to more mindfulness and gratitude. One thing that I have issue with with gratitude, I don't have issue with gratitude itself, but the concept of gratitude is that sometimes when you're practicing gratitude, you're just listing out the stuff you're grateful for, but you're not actually like feeling it. You're I'm grateful for my kids. I'm grateful for this coffee. I'm grateful really tuning into like, why are you grateful? I'm delving deeper into it rather than making a list, has been super helpful for me, because at starting gratitude practices, I think they always felt a little like they fell short for me because I wasn't tuning into the actual gratefulness I was or the feeling. You said that the feeling and the feeling is what we need exactly, because it's like a mind body thing. And if you're just listing everything out, just making a list of things you're grateful for, there's just a disconnect there. Versus if you say, Why am I grateful for my daughter? And then think of all the things that you love about your child, or, like, why are you grateful for the coffee? I love that you mentioned the hands that picked the coffee. And, you know, there's just so many things that had to happen in order for that coffee to become, you know, to come in front of you, right? It was the hands that picked the coffee. It was the cycles of nature that needed to happen in order for the coffee to even grow. There was yes, smell, and then, you know, gosh, the resources that went into the job that provided me the ability to buy the coffee maker that I use, you know, scientists that are working on keeping our water safe to make the coffee with. I mean, so I think sometimes with gratitude, it's, it's less about just listing things out, but really maybe about picking just a few things and then diving deeper into why you're grateful about that. Yes, at least

Tara Segree: 14:30

that's, I love that, and I'm glad that you brought up the feeling, because mindfulness is all about that feeling. What is bringing you joy? What is it that brings a smile to your face? And so while we're being mindful and we're conscious and we're present in that moment, noticing that feeling in your heart, because that's where our emotions live. You know, is in our heart, and then, like our sacral energy center as well, but that whole head heart coherence is something that's real, and that's a podcast for another time. But when we can have those feelings in our heart and feel peace and feel joy, our head is then clear and we are able to make better decisions, problem solve, figure out what is right for us and our family. So taking your power back through mindfulness is giving yourself the greatest power that you have to live life according to what is important to you. When we instead of doom scrolling, or instead of, like, watching tiktoks, and I love that, you love your animal videos, and there's a time and a place for that, you know, you're like, I'm gonna watch animal videos for 10 minutes and then whatever it is you're doing, but when we decide to turn off the news, to turn off our social media, and we come back to ourself, there is such power in that, because you're allowing yourself to live the best Life that there is for you by giving yourself that honor, honoring yourself through spending time in mindfulness, so that then you then know the next actions that are best

Sara Poldmae: 16:31

for you, right? I know it's hard to live. You know our days can really carry us away with mindlessly, right? Like we can just be so busy in the minutia of filling all the roles that we're expected to play that it's easy to forget that we can actually live intentionally and we don't slow down enough to listen to the messages. I think that's where it can get lost in translation. Yeah, I love that. And I think people think that meditation and mindfulness take a ton of time, and you mentioned 10 minutes a couple of times. It can be divided up. It can be five minutes in the morning and five minutes at night. It doesn't take that long to create a sense of the relaxation response, you know, and that connection between brain and body. And I love that you're on Insight Timer. I didn't know that I'll have to look for your meditations, but I recommend Insight Timer to all my patients. Oh, I love that, yeah, because you can choose, like, the length of time that you meditate. I love that timer aspect, yes, is, you know, it's empowering to know that you can choose a meditation that's less than six minutes. You know, I like to hold my patients accountable, because it's it's hard to believe that you don't have six minutes that you can't find minutes in your day, and you can do that six minutes while you're, you know, riding on the train. You probably shouldn't do it while you're driving, but, you know, riding on the train or or in the shower, I mean, there's a lot of opportunities to sneak with even if you're multitasking. I mean, you want to, you want your mind to be clear, but you can make washing your hair into a mindful meditation, absolutely shaving your legs into a mindful meditation,

Tara Segree: 18:30

or even before you're walking into the grocery store having to run errands, how many people like pull into the parking lot and immediately look at their phone for something? No, instead of doing that. Just feel your body breathing. You know, feel what that feels like. And when you have thoughts, you know, we have an average of 70,000 thoughts a day. Crazy. Thinking is part of the process. Thinking is part of the process. And when you have thoughts, great, but then come back to your breath. So yes, there is definitely time that we can all find to honor ourselves. This is giving yourself the opportunity to create the best life that you can possibly have, and the only way we can do that is by being still and listening to our hearts to know what is right for us.

Sara Poldmae: 19:19

I love that. I love that. Well, thank you so much for being on the show. I feel like this is such a nice I've done three podcasts today, and this is a nice way to finish my last podcast recording, because I feel like, you know, anytime I talk about mindfulness and meditation, it always puts me in a very mindful mood, you know, just kind of thinking about it. And, you know, ways that I can kind of tweak my mindfulness routine going through having the fire in my clinic I was noticing the first week, I thought that I was very calm about it, and what I really was just. In shutdown mode. Yeah, I was leaning very heavily into Tiktok

Tara Segree: 20:05

videos of cute animals. The nice thing about Tiktok is it does change your algorithm. So that's all you'll see on my Tiktok.

Sara Poldmae: 20:14

That's good, but it was a way for me to tune out that didn't require much effort. And then I saw I kind of looking back on the second week of the fire. I started to really lean into my mindfulness practices and get my self back to an area or a way of being that felt like my inner strength was back. You know, I think the first week was just, you know, it was too much, and I gave myself permission to not draw on my practices. So we also have to give ourselves grace that some leaf will be more mindful than others, and that things kind of come at us, and we just do the best that we can in any moment. So Tara, I love the work that you're doing. I love that you bring mindfulness to kids. And I think that the more mindful we become the more that the little ones that are around us, you know, observe mindfulness. So that's a

Tara Segree: 21:06

great way to Yes, absolutely. And that's what is in my book too. Is about parents making sure that they're mindful that so that they can then teach their children how to do that.

Sara Poldmae: 21:19

Yes, I love that. Well, we'll make sure to share all the links that you have to have audience members get in touch with you, find your book, all of that in the show notes. And I do hope people reach out to you, because you're such a wonderful resource in the community.

Tara Segree: 21:36

Well, thank you, Sarah, you too, and I look forward to your new offices, or your older new office opening Again, so

Sara Poldmae: 21:44

leaving a little new life into it you