COVID-19 Series: Mindfulness, Spirituality, & Self-Care During Uncertain Times

Mel Minark, PhD, MPH, FACHE and Heather Haslem, MS, will present Mindfulness, Spirituality and Self- Care for Public Health Employees in Stressful Times.

During these uncertain times amid COVID-19, many in the public health community have needed to make significant adaptations to daily life and have faced numerous challenges. How do we remain strong? How do serve in the front lines of research and practice yet prioritize self-care? Join two experts in the field of spirituality and mindfulness to learn about cutting edge techniques to care for ourselves and the communities we serve. 

Dr. Minarik has had a twenty-year career in hospital administration in California as vice president of one of the largest healthcare systems in the state. She has served as an executive leader, volunteer board member of several large nonprofits, and consultant to local businesses. In particular, she oversaw the development and implementation of one of the largest and most successful medical wellness centers on the West Coast.

Heather Haslem is the Wellness Director at the Sanford Center for Aging. Within that role, she leads the center's Community Wellness Programs. She is a qualified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher, a certified yoga instructor, and a National Board-Certified Health & Wellness Coach.

Transcript

spk_0:   0:00
Hello, everybody. Good morning. Welcome. Thank you for joining us for our public health Echo clinic for today. Lots of folks on I see over 100 and 50 people joining us, so thanks for being here. So I'll start off and introduce myself. I'm sure. Jorgensen, I'm the program manager for Project Echo, Nevada. If you're unfamiliar with Echo, it is a tele health program that originated in New Mexico, and we adopted it here at the University of Atorino School of Medicine in 2012. And what we do is we connect providers whether that be health care providers or mental health providers all across the state of Nevada. And what we do is we put together teams of subject matter experts for those providers to consult with on their challenging patient cases general questions that they have about practicing on. Then each session. We also offer a didactic presentation about a certain about a specific topic. Um, it's all free. Everything we do is completely free. And yeah, it's really just a great way of connecting a ll. The great resource is that we have across the state. So today we're gonna be hearing from Heather Muslim and Dr Mellman. Eric. Ah, and we'll turn it over to them to introduce themselves. Now, go ahead, Heather.

spk_1:   1:21
Good morning, everyone. I'm really happy to be here with you all. I am the wellness director at the San First Dinner for Aging. Um, I am a native Nevada, and so born and raised here in Nevada. And I'm home grown as faras you and Argos. I did my bachelor's and master's at you and r, and then I've also worked at UNLV, So I know where statewide today. So I love the North and the South and the happy that we're all here together. I am a yoga teacher, a mindfulness teacher as well as an integrative health coach. So really happy to be here and talk about how mindfulness can support us during this uncertain time.

spk_0:   2:00
Thanks, Heather and Dr Manera.

spk_2:   2:02
Yeah, and thank you, Heather, for joining us today. I had a chance to work with Heather is really great. And, um, barring developed a nice little relationship here, so Thanks, Heather. And for those of you out there, Yes. I'm Mehlman. Erica. I'm with the School of Community Health Sciences. That you are. I have kind of a strange background to come into this. My early part of my career, I should say, up until I was 50 I was in ah, vice president role of a very large health system. So I went from health system to teaching my PhD at you and R. I'm very, very interested Integrated health. And Justus Heather is I teach classes that you are in school, political sciences and a lot of the hell policy and leadership things. But I also teach a couple classes and integrate appellate, including spirituality and health and, um, outside of work. I am a nondenominational minister, so I do quite a bit of spiritual coaching and that kind of work as well. And I think Heather and I are just over be with you today, so thank you.

spk_0:   3:06
All right. Thanks, Dr Merrick. And then I want to introduce our other Echo's staff members for this for the day stay, huh? Excuse me. I need to D'oh. Uh,

spk_1:   3:22
I I'm sneakier Sharma on

spk_0:   3:24
the program coordinator for Project Echo, Nevada, And Dr Levy,

spk_1:   3:32
I love the medical director here about Good morning, everybody.

spk_0:   3:36
Thanks, Doc. Will be our alternate over T Heather and Dr Merrick to get us going here.

spk_1:   3:47
Great. Thank you. Um, so, as you can see, our topic for today is mindful of spirituality and self care during uncertain times Today are learning objectives. We want Thio talk about how mindfulness can be a beneficial tool during a time of crisis. Understanding the role of spirituality also in a time of crisis. And we will be practicing at least one self care technique today and really will be practicing too. So happy that you're all here we really want today. If you have questions, please feel free to put them in the chat box. And joy will help us follow those. Um, so if you have questions that come up, please do ask. And we wanted to also be experiential today. So for you to actually experience the practices. And then, um, we're here to be a resource to help talk through any questions you have. So we're gonna start today. Was a group with a mindful check in. So wherever you are seated, um, really just getting comfortable in your chair or bed or cushion or what? Whatever surface you're sitting on for this presentation today and closing your eyes or taking a downward gaze. If that's more comfortable for you, there's nothing special about closing your eyes. It's just that we take in so much through our eyes that it can be helpful for us to take a moment to pause and bring our attention inward. So as you pause and bring your attention inward, just paying attention to any sensations that you noticed in your body. In this moment, maybe it's your feet. Is there resting on the floor where your body is? It rest against the support of whatever your surface you're sitting long and moving your attention to your breath. The inhale in the exhale, paying attention to the breath flowing in and out of the body. This might be the first time you've consciously stopped today to check in. And so just checking in with what your experience is like right now. Maybe what thoughts are present, what emotions or present what sensations in your body, your present, bringing kind curiosity to the body, to the breath to our experience. In this moment, you don't need to do anything change anything. We're just simply noticing by bringing kind curiosity to the moment and as we take a moment to settle in, we're gonna do a rhythmic breathing. So sometimes it could be helpful to bring one hand on to the chest and one hand on to the belly, and I'll do well do accounting breath so will inhale for a count of four and exhale for account before. And this rhythmic breathing is stabilizing on the brain or for the brave, so we're gonna inhale. 1234 Exhale 1234 Inhale 123 We'll work. Exhale 123 or inhale 1234 Exhale 123 or continuing debris like this for a couple more breaths, focusing your attention on the counting and the breathing as a way to help stabilize the mine. An anchor your attention, letting go of the counting breath and just returning your attention back to your experience in this moment, just noticing what it's like to have paused and turned your attention inward just for a few brief moments. One. Whenever you feel ready, opening your eyes so this is just ah, mindful. Check in right, taking a moment to pause and pay attention to your experience, and we'll talk a little bit more about that as we move on.

spk_2:   10:04
Okay. Thank you for that. Head of That was lovely. Lovely thing to do. Especially if that's not something you do on a regular basis. I'm certainly something that you need to pay attention to. Um, I found this graphic on Facebook this last week, and I love to give credit where credit is due, but I did not create it, but I think I

spk_1:   10:24
tell you who created it as one of my pictures. Her name? Christiaan Wolf. He's an MD who's an NBS our teacher with inside l. A.

spk_2:   10:36
Fantastic. Okay, so good. We're giving her credit because I thought this was very realistic for what we're all dealing with. Recovered 19. And here's there's, like, three levels here, right? There's the Fear zone, the Learning zone and the world Stone. So, you know, the thing is, we're going back and forth between those all the time during the day. During the last few weeks, it's been hard because sometimes were in fear. You know, you start seeing businesses close, you see people with money, people that can't get health care, and then we kind of go to learning zone, and it's like, Okay, so, um, I'm gonna identify my emotions with that. So am I feeling guilty that maybe I have options and other people don't, Um I evaluate the information before I spread things you know, actually have to kind of find some of my friends on Facebook about that. That's kind of that learning thing. What we're learning about ourselves and then the growth part of who we are as a human is this part where we'd love to be able to be all the time. You know, I'm empathetic with myself. I'm empathetic with others and I'm appreciating things. And I'm looking to be adaptable on all of those kind of higher level, you know, people spiritually kind of making sense of it all, but then were thrown back into the fears. Only you're the numbers and we hear people dying. And then we're kind of okay, you know, that's not me. That's, you know, some of these people I care about the health care workers, the people on the front lines and things like that. So, you know, the question is, can you move more toward the growth so more often than being the fear zone in the kind of thing that Heather just did for us right now, probably put us closer to the learning zone and closer to the world. So and that's really what you want to see for our bodies. Because physiologically our bodies are coming in touch with the emotions that were feeling is the fear is that, you know, paying attention that present moment and be curious about her body of what we're feeling. And our body is also responding to things like, Wow, I think I want a volunteer. I think I want to help. So the body's responding to all of those thoughts and what we ideally like to do again. It's kind of move ourselves closer to that growth stone for personal development, spiritually development, but also for our communities. But I recognize that studies. So let's go on to the next slide here.

spk_1:   13:04
Yeah, and I can I just jump. Hopeless, prickly. I love this idea of thinking about the zones on a continuum and how we we, you know, depending on the day and what we're taking in at the time. Um, where we go, right? I've noticed for me when I go into social media. I find myself, you know, diving into the fear zone. Um, where is when I come back to the body and the breath, You know, I move along this continuum, so I love about it is a continuum.

spk_2:   13:35
And I guess that the key is Heather. You know, part of what we talked about this is this is a choice. It's a choice about where your thoughts are gonna go, because if I am on social media and I'm seeing numbers and I'm seeing lots of, you know, tragic things the line I can also go to a Facebook page where people are doing wonderful things for each other. They're helping each other, boarding each other. So so again is a choice about how we're spending our time and how where we're putting our thoughts. And, you know, it would be great if we were in meditation the whole day and doing mindfulness the whole day. But probably realistically, that's not gonna happen. But we can make a choice about where we put our thoughts. So that kind of leads into the next slide, which is a great, um, resource for me, It has always been very inspirational. The the textbook that I used is by Karen Happen Smith and Jenkins for spirituality and health. And I love their definition of spiritual health. So this is kind of my check at the beginning of the day and my check that began the day for myself. Here are the three factors of how I know I'm spiritually so first of all, there's a sense of meaning or purpose to my life. You know, I get up in the morning and I say, I get to go to work. I have an amazing job, amazing colleagues, amazing, important and meaningful things that I do with my time. That's the first step. The second step is really understanding that how I am makes a difference in the world. My energy spreads, it's contagious. And, um, and if I'm in that good place of high energy and loving energy and things like that, that that spreads because I make a difference to the other people that I hang out with makes a difference to my dogs, makes a difference to my partner, makes a difference to my students. Um, being on, you know, Disney Disney always talks about this with people that work at distant. You know, when you're above the ground at Disneyland or Disney World, you're on stage. And so because of contagion, because emotions air so contagious. We have to remember that that when we are in a great space, um, I'm gonna be responsible for being a great space because that will help others. But when I'm in a band space, when I'm kind of in that beer spot that also is contagious again making a choice to be connected versus disconnected, and the last piece of this, I think is one of the hardest ones and I have to do a check in with myself on this all the time, I have to always know that, um, I always have choices, always have choices. Okay, even though I want to be a victim, even though I want to blame someone, even though I may not like what I'm feeling, I have a choice to feel something else. I have a choice to put my thoughts some other place so that I can be centered in who I am and not be getting hold away from my values, away from the things that I truly believe in. That's probably the hardest of the three. But you know, when I do those things really well, my body responds to it, and I am healthier. And that's where the context comes in in terms of house. So it's not just being spiritually, but it's also knowing that that spirituality of these three areas gives us a greater control of our life. And as a result, our bodies respond to that in a positive way. So these air these air my guidelines. Now, um, do I have meaning or purpose right now? Yes. Do I know that I'm connected to all of you in this echoed thing right now? Absolutely. And do I know that I have, Ah, choice about how I feel right now? Absolutely. And that's really important in terms of my line set.

spk_1:   17:30
Great. Thank you. Um, so just are, uh, going into what is mindfulness? Mindfulness is a buzz word. Um, and so I'm sure you've heard the term mindfulness. And so what is the definition? And one of the most widely accepted definitions is written by John Cabot Zinn, um, who developed the program mindfulness based stress reduction of the University of Massachusetts and his definition is paying attention in a particular way on purpose in the present moment and non judgmental e, which sounds very simple. And it is simple yet it is really challenging. It can be really challenging. And you may have noticed that are beginning when we did the mindful check in. So we paid attention in a particular way. We paid attention to the body, We paid attention to the breath and we were paying attention in the present moment, right? Our bodies and our breath can only be in the present moment. Um, and non judgmental e. This is the part that can be the most challenging. Sometimes we have, um you know, certain things that were feeling about our experience. I don't know if you can hear the banging going on in the other room, but my husband's playing with this softball, uh, begging and right. So that's that's what's happening right now and in the middle of ah, presentation. I'm wishing it were different. Um, and so that's the non judgmental part. It's noticing the experience, recognizing our emotions and our thoughts and then coming back to the present moment. So we're gonna have to show you this brief video that doesn't really great job of, um, telling us how mindfulness impacts the brain. Here we go.

spk_0:   19:46
The human brain is a profoundly complex organ. 90% of its activity occurs beneath conscious awareness, which means that even though we assume that we have some control of how we think, feel and behave, modern science suggests it's not so simple. The concept of neuro plasticity is a new and exciting area of science. It highlights that their brain is constantly being reshaped throughout our lives by both our experiences and our thoughts. We now know that it is the focus of our awareness that determines which brain networks a strengthened and which awakened or lost. That means that when we get caught up in cycles of worry or irritability, these air the networks within the brain that becomes stronger. So the more we worry, the better we become at worrying. However, on the other side of these, if we practice being calm, clear and focused, we can strengthen these networks too. As humans, our brain differs from other animals. This is mostly due to the front areas of the brain called the frontal lobes, often called the new brain as it was the last to develop in our evolution when well developed. This part of our brain helps us to manage our strong emotions and respond with flexibility even when we feel overwhelmed. It also helps us to tune into the feelings of others with empathy and inside when we feel worried, distracted or stuck on achieving goals. How brain function is more strongly dominated by our old brain, which has a part called the amygdala. The MC Guillemette is the powerful fight and flight response which switches on when we feel stressed or anxious and releases hormones and chemicals such as cortisol and adrenaline. That is why stress has such a big impact on us. Mindfulness is a technique that can help us to manage this process more effectively by building our skills of attention, concentration and a capacity to direct our awareness in a certain way, this all means that we're less likely to be swept up by a strong emotion and the power off the amygdala. It also means we can bring choice, 12 motions and our thoughts. In doing so, we're playing an active role in changing the way the structure of the brain develops in much the same way we can change the shape of their body by doing certain exercises at the gym. When we practiced meditation regularly, we built a capacity to become aware of thinking and emotion. As their mind becomes more settled, our nervous system is able to take in more accurate information, and we can access capacities for creativity, flexibility and lateral thinking, which enable us to manage challenging situations more skillfully. When we build skills of mindfulness, we still experience negative feelings like frustration, disappointment, fear or irritability. But the race it shows that we recover much more quickly. We now know, from researching to brain development that regular meditation and mindfulness practice reduces the size of the amygdala, reduces levels of stress hormones and strengthens connections to the frontal lobes. The sole means that we're more likely to live with less stress and more happiness.

spk_1:   23:14
So I hope you found that

spk_0:   23:16
Sorry. We did have a question that, uh, that I'd like to address. So I've been struggling with the balance between choosing more positive emotions and honoring my negative emotions as they show up. Can you talk more about how to negotiate this balance without dismissing negative emotions as they show up, not sinking into those too deeply. Sorry. How did you hear that?

spk_1:   23:40
Yeah, I did. That's a great question. Uh, thank you, Nikki, for bringing that up. Um, yes, absolutely. So it's critical that we honor negative emotions. Jill Bolte Taylor, who's a neuroscientist. She actually did research to look at how long an emotion lasts. And on average, an emotion such as anger lasts approximately 90 seconds. So if we can pause and pay attention to, um, the wave of emotion and feel it so bringing the attention to the body and where do you feel it in the body? We acknowledge it. Um, it actually and we just feel the emotion we ride that wave, it actually helps us to come back to the present moment. And we don't get stuck in the storyline of the emotion. So that's when we get stuck in the storyline and we replay that story line over and over and over again. Is when we're actually stuck in the emotion. Does that does that help Nikki?

spk_2:   24:44
Yeah, And let let me add one of the other things I do with our graduate students. I do Emotional intelligence, coaching and emotional intelligence is like really getting and getting in touch and having emotional literacy. Emotions are important. Their information. They tell you something right? So we don't want to deny them. Like Heather said. It's like, great, let's pay attention to them because of its anger, spirits, presentment. And frankly, there are a whole host of emotions that live within those words that are really good to get in touch with, because anger could be a lot of things. Frustration of you, a lot of things. But when we get in touch with it, it gives us of information about what's going on in our minds, right and what's perhaps going out in our past and our perception of what's going out of the present. So it's really important that we pay attention to that and on the other hand, don't ruminate, right? I mean, that's what Heather was talking about. Let's not, you know, ride it out for you know, the rest of our life because your book, you know, I'll speak to myself because my brother got more for my parents than I did right. That's not healthy, but we know that people have a difficult time, but in Goa of those things, because their righteous and they're feeling like they were wronged. But the problem with that is that that keeps us from moving forward. And that's another whole topic, which we're really not gonna have time for today. But but paying attention to what? Those emotions are really, really important. And probably a lot of you know, that they're doing a lot of the social emotional. I'm burning now and with great schools in the pre schools, you know, trying to help kids today understand and verbalize what it is that they're feeling. We never have that education. We never had that chance toe, that kind of thing because we know that it's a healthy thing. I know what you're feeling is totally right. And the good news is you can turn it off, you know, so that you don't have to have it destroying your day or destroying a moment or messing up, you know, a relationship that you have. So that's the good news.

spk_1:   26:51
Yeah. Thank you. Um, I'm doing distance learning with my six year old right now, and so we get the social emotional learning prompts and it's been great because we have had some really awesome discussions. The one of the problems this week was What do you find most challenging? And, um, my son shared that. He finds that most challenging When, um, can I do a lot of mindfulness exercises with him already? But he shared, um hey, get He feels lonely when my husband and I are both working and he's on his own. So we were able to it. He was able to identify the emotion. We were able to talk through it and then come up with some strategies. And one of the strategies was like, How can you be, you know, company to yourself as well? Because there are the logistics. Like we we can't entertain him all day. We are in meetings and, um, doing things, even though we're home. And so even just being ableto have that dialogue with such a gift. Um, so some of those techniques I'm finding a really powerful also right, So

spk_2:   27:59
So I think that video was really helpful to show a lot of what goes on inside my brain, and I'm gonna show on this next slide and emphasize a few things a little bit more. So I love that you brought Jill Bolte Taylor because she was a green. Oh, I guess about 10 years ago and were now brought her here. She is just a hoot as a speaker. And it was one of the most impactful talks I've ever heard. And she talked about this idea of, you know, really getting down and dirty with this idea of the fact that we have a reptilian brain, right, that dinosaur that we theoretically have evolved from gave us that a big deal of that, that a middle of that is an Olympic system that wants to protect us from attack. You know, in the image that she gave us was so cool because she said, You know, it's like we've got this of nickel in her brain. And what happens is this, like a sonar system and it's constantly looking around. Am I safe? Am I safe? Um, I say and is interpreting the data from the environment toe. Let the body No. If it should be ready for attack, right? So unfamiliar circumstances or reliving old kinds of things were it was bothersome for you. Like I could immediately go back to when I was in eighth grade and somebody made fun of because I was reading in front of the class and I, you know, messed up a couple of words. I could bring that feeling back instantly. And then someone I get up to read when I got to say something like that Maya Biggles. Oh, they're gonna make fun of you, you know, it's it's possible attack from, you know, something that's out there and so that a megillah works overtime when we continue to have attacks from her day. Right? So the attack, my nephew visible attack like we're may not sitting here being afraid of falling off a chair in our offices. But on the other hand, there's lots of mental attacks, was called mental or emotional attacks. And those are just things that happened in daily living los information overload. Lose somebody. You're disappointed. You're confused. You're disoriented. Your online When brother b. You know someplace else with people who love you can't have used for Sunday the way you used to have Easter Sunday. So all of these things you make a list like going Hey, hey, a pay attention. This is scary, you know? So as Heather said, the good news is that we can reduce that response from you, Bigelow, by doing a number of things of meditation. And mindfulness is one of those things that you could do that will really help. Calm down, you megillah. You know, I kind of pictured as a dog. I don't walk with a leash where you've been, you know, actually block down the street and not have your dog attacking everybody. You know where your dog seeks the other person or sees another dog or see something else and and just walk on by it. And not that you don't have a reaction, because we do. We're humans. And again, you may feel a sense of that emotion. But you can justice quickly, get to the present moment and say, I'm all right right now, and they're no whatever that is from the past that's bothering me. It's not realist on. I am all right, right now. So that image of the dinosaur and the Chilean brain and that of Nikola as the sonar has been very, very hope, you know, over the course of time.

spk_1:   31:22
Yeah, there's a neuroscientist that I follow from Brown University, Dr Duck Jetson Brewer, and he talks about how fear plus in certainty equals anxiety on DSO. We're essentially living in a recipe for anxiety right now, Um, and so panic makes the thinking part of our brain go off line. And it's contagious, just as we were hearing from Dr Mel. So it's critical to keep our thinking brains online, and we do that through practicing good mental hygiene so you can think of mindfulness and coming back to the present moment. Justus, like doing a repetition to help build a muscle. We're building that muscle in our brain by practicing coming back to the moment, and it brings our prefrontal cortex on back online. Just slowly, bite, stopping like we did in the beginning to take a conscious deep breath.

spk_2:   32:21
Thank you. There's a question here from Christie. I think that's an interesting one. And she said, When you find yourself ruminating on bad experience, how you suggested breaking the cycle is distraction, the wrong approach? Well, you know, part of what I know about Rumination is it's really kind of an addiction, you know, like I I want to keep, um, feeling sorry for myself because my like I said, my brother got more stuff with my parents. I'm making this up. My brother got more stuff. My parents and I get right, and so it's so distracting. It is part of the issue because certainly if you're in the middle of taking a past, our middle of an important encounter with a patient or colleague, you don't want to be going back to that structure or back to that bad experience. You want to be president. So distracting yourself is certainly one way of dealing with it, but also becoming friends with that thought so that it doesn't come up and negatively impact. Whatever you're doing is really a piece of that. You all know that if you've got some kind of addiction to coffee, you're two chocolate or sugar or any other kind of substance. Part of what you have to do is kind of change what you're doing, and this is what we're suggesting in terms of changing your thought patterns and putting it back on some other thoughts. Now I'll finish the Webinar today with another on experiential thing that that kind of helps you do that, Assad that includes Mindful list. But distracting is great, but I figured out what the source of that ISS man. That's like freedom.

spk_1:   33:52
Mmm, yeah, so it's really it's taking that moment to pause and bring the attention inward. Right? What is this unmet need that I have right now? Could be a really powerful question to ask yourself and to sit with the sensations in the body just as a way to help anchor the attention and not get lost in the story.

spk_2:   34:13
And there's another question there, I think for you, Heather, that would be great about the daughter of my daughter's 10 and still has a hard time explaining what are emotions are, but I can tell she has something going on. Any suggestions on how to go about been pointing that or any other suggestions?

spk_1:   34:27
I have some mindful parenting resource is really through books. I The way that I've been able to, um, essentially be most effective with my air figured out like the most effective way to have a common conversation with my son is through books, so there's a lot of great you just search mindful kids books on Amazon. There's tons of great books on Amazon. And so by reading a book together and then talking through it, um, it's given us a language, and I have a list of those books that I can send Detroit and he consent out after the webinar today. Or you're welcome to private message me, your email. And I contend you resource is a swell. I can't think of any of the books off the top of my head, though, Of course. So here, um, we look at what is happening in the body when we're living on automatic pilot s o coping with change, right? We're all coping with change right now. And so if we're living in reaction where they're in an automatic reaction, which we see an increase in the sympathetic nervous system, which is our fight or flight response, you can see the different impact that has on the hypothalamus, the pituitary, the adrenals. Essentially, we see an increase in cortisol levels, which then has an increase in blood pressure and heart rate. Um, and if we live in this automatic reaction, essentially what we're doing is we're living in a honest, chronic stress cycle which ultimately leads to chronic disease. If we don't have tools in our toolbox to be able to pause and be aware and bring ourselves back to that home. Yo, Stasis like Dr Mel was talking about at the beginning. Um, but just by practicing some of these tools, it has a profound impact on her health and well being right. And so this this, um, chart really is here to demonstrate that if we have a mindful response and we're aware that our heart rate is going up Oh, I'm feeling agitated. I have stress in my neck and shoulders on. We pause to take stock and to relax or parasympathetic nervous system. We can do that through that counting breath that we did at the beginning, the rhythmic counting. There's a lot of tools that we can talk about there, but how can we bring our body back to some sort of home? Yo, Stasis on. And we do that through paying attention. Um, and really, this help sets to change. I believe that mindfulness is the key to behavior change, because without attention and awareness, we can't make different choices. We continue to fall into those old habit patterns on, and then we you know, Maybe it's we're eating a bunch of sweets or were drinking alcohol to help deal with the stressors. By paying attention to those old habits, we can start to create new habits by interrupting that pattern. So

spk_2:   37:45
there you go ahead. You know that there was to say there was a question on the board. Maybe you could respond. Heather, can you give some ideas on how to figure out once unmet me? That could be classing the stress.

spk_1:   37:57
Yeah. So there is a great mindfulness practice. It's called rain. Um, and I will put a link to some great rain practices. Rain starts for recognized, um, acknowledge, investigate and nurture. So it is a mindfulness tool to be able to recognize what are emotions are, um what what are the chant? What is it? So we essentially pause, We bring our attention to a difficult experience, and we're replaying that in our mind. We acknowledged that the experience happened. We can't change that. It happened. And in the investigation part, that's where we can really just take a moment to bring our attention inward and, um, take time to reflect on what was that unmet need and then the end is described as nurture. So how can we bring some kindness to our experience? Um, and so it's It is a whole practice, and it's complicated. Ah, so for lack of time today can't get too much into it. But I'll post in the chat box some links for that. Uh, so there's two different types of practice for mindfulness. There's a formal practice of sitting down and actually practicing meditation, where we're paying attention to an anchor of attention for a period of time. And then there's informal practice so we can bring our attention to all aspects of life. Right? Are eating, driving, washing the dishes, taking a shower. Um, walking is a great way, especially as you're at home. We can be every time you go from one room to the next, bringing your attention to your feet as they're placed onto the floor. That is an anchor of attention back to the present moment. Um, eating is a mindful Eating is a really great experience. So many of us are, you know, maybe on our devices, whatever that devices while we're eating. I'm really guilty of it while doing lunch. Um, especially when I'm back in the office and so just taking time to pause and bring your attention to the meal, the senses, right, the the sound of eating the textures, the smells that taste, et cetera, et cetera. And

spk_2:   40:28
I think the key thing about mindfulness on if you want to go back to that last flight, Heather, is that when you're thinking of those things, only when you're only thinking about folding laundry, you're only thinking about I joke about this all the time. I loved in Matewan. When I'm on Lee thinking about mowing the lawn, that's what I'm not thinking about. I'm not thinking about the past. I'm not thinking about the future. I'm like they're in the moment again. Wow is my long look great after I know it. And so it gets you away from that worry something about thinking about, you know, the awful thing that happened last week when you were a kid or last week of school or last week's work. And it also keeps you from worrying about what's in the future, because all you're doing right then is washing the dishes or eating or blowing the long period, and it doesn't let you go out of that?

spk_1:   41:21
Yeah, absolutely. A really powerful tool to come back to the present moment throughout our day. So if you don't have the mindfulness practice and you're interested in starting one here, the foundation's number one is we do have to practice. Um, it isn't. This is not the normal way that our brains work. And so it does take training just like we're building a muscle. We are setting a new mental habit, and that does take time. Um, the research shows there's a There's a dozing effect to really change those neural pathways, and it's ideal toe have 20 minutes of practice. That's where we can actually see the most benefit and changing neural pathways. But any amount of time that you shouldn't cause and come back to the present moment, even if its you know, a a breath, a deep breath, a conscious deep breath will have an impact on the body. There is no special way. There's no special posture that you need to choose. You can be standing. You could be sitting. You could be lying down. Some people find the astronaut position, which is when you're laying down on the floor with your legs up on a chair to be a really supportive tractor are really supportive posture for your body. So find a posture or that you can sit with some sort of ease. I had someone recently who thought that in their mind they had to sit on the floor and it was really uncomfortable for her hips. So she couldn't even relax into practice just because her body was so uncomfortable. So find a posture that supports him comfort in the body and then just setting a schedule that works for you. The right time of day is the time of day that you will practice. So whether that be, you have some space in the morning before. If you have people in your house that get up or it's, you know, you want to take a pause mid day or you wanna unlined at the end of the day. Um and maybe right now I'm finding that I need to set aside time to practise kind of a a few times a day to comeback Thio really supporting my body during the stressful time, Um, so just setting a schedule that works for you and playing with it, right, bringing that same investigative, curious attitude to developing your own practice. It does take time. There are tons of great APS out there. There's so much free content out there. A CZ faras meditation goes. So finding a teacher that speaks to you.

spk_2:   44:06
Okay, so you know, we're we're from the Western culture for the most part civilization. And you know, when you talk about meditation, oftentimes it's from an Eastern perspective and there, and you know, in general, the Eastern culture is a little bit more disciplined than we are. And so 20 minutes a day, twice a day or three times a day, maybe really great for some people. But there's other kinds of practices that would be very beneficial to you that is been shown through research that would be also helpful in terms of being more mindful. Right now, these are different kinds of activities, and the reason that they're effective before I go into all of them is that there seems to be a lot of evidence that repetitive rhythmic activity. And I'll say that again. This is Dr Her Benson from Harvard. Repetitive rhythmic activity seems to be the key. It unlocks some really happy chemicals to come in or by Oh, hold on. Well, I'm sorry about that. And that repetitive with negativity is that this part of the thing that helps calm us down. So some other practices that involves some of these kinds of things are, um certainly any kind of breath work. Obviously, when we're doing mindfulness and we're doing meditation, we're also doing some breath work. Now, some of you may be doing that when you do yoga. Some of you may be doing that with your bodies or any other kind of mindful activity. But Doctor Doctor Andrew Weil, who's that? Uh, Arizona Medical School for Integrative Health really has a lot of resource, is of different types of breath work that can really help you. Getting that Brent into the body and calming down the the nervous system is really what we're trying to accomplish. So there's a lot of different forms of breath work. So the next one is contemplated meditation, which is kind of what happens. Talking about John Cabot Zone is that harbored? Um, a ton of MPs are horses and different times of things like Heather has done to become a trainer to be a teacher. Really, really important. Contemplated meditation where just contemplates. Right and again You're very mindful. Ah, a lot of research again. How that changes. Complain how that changes. You picked a lot how that changes our health, our ability to, um, reduce the pain sensation of We've got some chronic issues. Very, very important. The next one is drumming. Now, this is kind of interesting. Again, Herbert Benson from Herbert has shown this idea of running and that could literally be drumming with a drum or could be tapping your finger on the just, um, camping your toll on the floor. It could be, you know, any kind of something that you would be considered from it. Um, because it appears that again, that right repetitive rhythmic activity does something to our body to get us Calm down. Now, some of you will probably noticed this with your kids, right? And it looks like your kids air hyperactive. Well, maybe they're not hyperactive. Maybe they just learn that a certain type of repetitive rhythmic activity really works for that. So rather than criticize them, I'd say encourage them, You know, that's right there figuring out how to relieve their anxiety in a natural way without drugs. So drumming is an interesting one, the next one just to mention guided imagery. Um, I'm a big fan of Bell over Napper Stack, Um, and she has done a lot of work. And so has Dr Rossman in 2007 around this idea of guided imagery and taking your answer kind of a guided meditation, but with images that talk about how your body should even saving inside of your body, for instance, she's got an amazing one on chronic pain. She's not amazing ones on human with anxiety, and it's basically kind of, ah, you know, 10 minutes kind of a thing where she kind of walks you through how your body is dealing with that particular issue. There was a lot of work being done back in the 19 eighties with AIDS patients a lot of work being done with this, what cancer patients were. Cancer patients are asked to visualize a Pac man chewing up all the bad camps cancer cells in the body, so guided imagery is a very good publicly idea and a fact some of the insurance companies will actually pay for you to test on these guided imagery is like pre and post surgery, as they've been able to determine. People have better outcomes when they have. Some of those guided imagery weren't after surgery, so that's a really good one to investigate. Another one is chanting and uh and this is gonna feel funny to you. You've never chanted before. Chancing and singing also repetitive rhythmic activity. New Burwell been in their book How God Changes Your Brain, which is one of the techs. Post spirituality. Help talk about different kinds of chanting exercises that you may not come from our culture. Or maybe it's a Native American culture. Or maybe it's a you know, I'm checks. So maybe there's some, you know, both songs that are more like kind of chanting. Or it may be kind of literally some bogus chance with that idea of that repetitive movements activity using your voice. And perhaps you've been using some of your other body, you know, your hands and things like that seems to have created some really good outhouse. Um, and the last one is is one of those. It's called the Curtain Korea Madre meditation and again, this has been This is being used by the, um Alzheimer's foundation's help reduce the amount of dementia that patients are experiencing because it appears that doing this particular meditations well, events today appears to be restoring some of the brain cells in people's brains from during this particular medication. Now, this one is also gonna seem very strange to us because it is not our a typical Caucasian culture kind of a thing. But it is used in many Buddhist and, um, other kinds of Eastern, um, loose systems and traditions. So those are some other practices that really use that idea of mindfulness and a different kind of way in a more active kind of way that maybe is a little bit easier for people than just sitting. So those are a few that I want to give you. And then I want to kind of finish with my part of the presentation, please. Here, talking about something from heart math, art man's dog problem. Heart math is a company based systemic, and they are primarily doing research around stress in the workplace, and I I'm a big fan of their there, got some acts that are free. They got a lot of practice. Is there free? And this is the one that my students over the course of time have re vote. So I want to share. It wouldn't be here today because it it doesn't ball a little bit more action on your part in terms of, you know, getting clear. But it's a great distracter. Somebody was asking earlier about again, that kind of the distracter kinds of things. And let me kind of take you through this. So get comfortable in your chair again right now and close your eyes and you choose. And I want you to get really clear in your mind. Um, an event. An experience of a picture of something that makes you feel happy and harmonious. Just one image. So it could be being up in Tahoe. What could be being with your grandkids privy? Being with your dog, get one image in your mind that makes you feel good. I'll give you a second toe. Focus on that. I want you to really focus on that and the emotion that you'll when you focus on that. So without emotion that you're feeling focusing on that image, I want you also to image that emotion from that, um, idea of happy, peaceful, loving, kind of image that you have. I want you to image that coming down from your head through your face, through your neck down into your chest and settling into your heart. And if you choose to now put your

spk_1:   52:45
hand on

spk_2:   52:46
your heart and picture your heart. This amazing vehicle that we have it is so full of motion, and now it is filled with that peaceful, loving, joyful emotion of that image hearts. Just pull that and just now, image how your heart is. Now. Distributing that emotion into your belly is your back. You're our and your hips into your legs all the way down to your feet, down, out to your fingers, through your arms that that imaging that emotion, that wonderful motion is now being distributed by your heart to the rest of the body and be with that feeling. Some of you might feel a tingling in two places of your body, and that's good. Just know that amazing, emotion loving rifle peaceful is now through the power of your line has on through your entire body and his absolutely being distributed to all the different parts. Invest if using. Okay, everybody, come on back. Hopefully that's something that works for you. It's not necessarily quick, but again, as Heather talked about these air practices that if you do on a regular basis, you might be able to do it quicker and get a quicker results. Um, when I need you because you don't always have time for 20 minutes, just sit down and meditate. But you may have time to do that. You know, if you take a minute or a minute or two before you do some important conversation before you have a family experience, it gets you present and gets you in touch with that amazing image. And if this practice works for you, especially for work for you today, I would recall that image often to yourself. Because once you get that image in your mind, yeah, it would be great to be a bit like time right now will be at Red Rock Canyon in Las Vegas. But if you can't be there, at least get it into your mind and you'll what that image is doing for your body. Okay, um, Heather, you want to finish up?

spk_1:   55:45
Yep. Thank you. That was a beautiful practice. And hurt math has several free guided resource is, um there's some really great just breathing ones as well, just breathing through the part that could be really powerful, too. So definitely check out on their practices. So we just wanted to encourage you all to pay attention. So paying attention to your thoughts, your body, your breath, your emotions, your heart, your words, your intentions. And, uh, we thank you for your time today. Um, and we just hope that you are all well and that you, really we all need to be taking care of ourselves at this time. It's critical that we put on our own oxygen mask so that we can care for ourselves as well as all of the ones that we love. So I'm gonna stop sharing my screen, and we'll come back here

spk_2:   56:55
and let's just let's just see if there's other questions or comments. Thank you, Albert, for doing those process those practices with us. You know, Heather and I do these things alone sometimes. And you know, it's way more fun than with people.

spk_1:   57:08
Yeah, and I do a daily guided meditation at 8 a.m. That's free on Zoom. So I'll also post that in the chat box and anyone's welcome to join. We're just doing it to try toe support each other in community at this time, so I'll pose that in the chat box, too.

spk_0:   57:28
Great. Thank you so much. Heather and Dr Manette. Eric. So, yeah, we'll open it up right now to see if anybody has questions. We've got a few minutes left here, so feel free to on mute yourselves with the little microphone icon in the lower left corner of the zoom window. Or you can write into the chat box, and I've been shared some information through the chat box about our video recordings page, where this session will be posted when we're able to get it posted. We have to add closed captions to anything before before we can post it to the website, but you'll find it there when it's ready on. Then I also shared on let me find it, so I could sure again, a link for our eco list served to sign up. If you're a provider and you want to participate in more of our eco clinics, we'd be happy to have you. So I will find that link here in a second and send it back through the chat. Um, do you have some resources for pure support workers?

spk_2:   58:31
I know, but maybe Heather,

spk_1:   58:33
I don't know of anything specific. I think the more that we can integrate these practices even into the workplace, even if that's virtually right now, um, I know that I have worked with multiple groups where we start, Um, our meetings with a practice so that we're integrating these things more into the work place is really has been powerful and is a great way to get people all arrived in the room checking in with themselves and connecting with each other. Melody. Anything else, Dad?

spk_2:   59:11
No, nothing, Nothing on that. But I think that, you know, to the extent that you can, um, if you can do some of these things with other people, it's kind of like that contagion thing again. You know, you're free to do it because whether it's Heather, zoom remotely or whether you could do this with your family and your kids, um, or adjusted you a whopping meditation, which I often do. Joe, I often me. Um that's also another way to practice this, but that whole idea of not not letting what's going on today put you into fear. And yet you go back to that graphic over here on PowerPoint slides issue back over the place of personal spiritual development, where you want to help people get into compassion, compassionate fear. I think they're really opposite sides of one thing and certainly compassion and empathy. Um, for those, I guess, the other resource, I would mention that I just I just adorned Dr Renee Brown and those of you that are familiar with her. She's got some break 10 talks and wonderful books, and she now has cast a swell. And I am just a huge and oppose and turns are doing with a stories that we tell ourselves, you know? And I think that, you know, she's a great resource outbreak website.

spk_1:   1:0:32
Yeah, and I think the more that we can embody these practices ourselves, the more contagious it is. So again, just going back to us practicing first, and then we can share it with other people. But that I find to be really critical to

spk_0:   1:0:49
question here. Have you ever done any art? Mindfulness?

spk_1:   1:0:54
Oh, I have not. But there's there's a someone in in Reno who does a mindful art, and I know that there's more and more Resource is out there. But I have not personally, Dr Mel, have you?

spk_2:   1:1:09
Well, I was putting down coloring books. His art mindfulness, right? You know, when you start sketching or drawing or doing coloring books, Um I mean, we all laugh about it, but it's true. It's like you get very present because now you're all you're thinking about is what color know what color am I gonna make this thing? And and, um and actually I have done like a bunch ones where we all just Santon's in coloring books. No. Hey, whatever works for you because, you know, this is the thing about practice. It has to be something that makes sense to you. And it's something that feel good about Not something that I have to do is like I get to do this kind of thing like I get to take my dogs out and what them, right, So you know, it's it's a personal thing, and it's all based on our own history. For some people use it. Um, you know, listening to other, maybe strumming on a guitar or playing a violin. Hey, no. Whatever trips your trigger. Go for it.

spk_0:   1:2:12
Heather. I saw you responded to Tunisia's question. Do you have any suggestions on how to implement these types of practices for individuals That may not be familiar and may think that these practices are embarrassing. You talk about that?

spk_1:   1:2:24
Yeah. So, um, this is I have quite a bit of experience. I, um, introduced mindfulness practice is to, um, professional baseball players, and, uh, these were 18 19 year old men. Um, and so sitting around meditating felt very silly for them. But through the combination of some education specifically around some of the science behind mindfulness people, it's been people are a little more open to Oh, this isn't some Lulu thing. Um, there's actually some science behind it. I find that that is a really help. Well, way to get people to just try it, and then to have people experience it and then be able to talk about it and apply that experience is in, um, my experience the best way. And then just by talking about it and introducing people to it also helps to normalize it of it.

spk_2:   1:3:24
Yeah, I think of people you know, especially under both sites. They see athletes now, you know, a lot of this stuff that Hunter's doing right now we talk about is all being done is part of sports psychology, right? So whether you're a golfer or a basketball player, I mean, the Chicago Bulls was doing this back in the 19 eighties. You know, Phil Jackson. It was a Buddhist son master, and he would have, um, Michael Jordan and Pippen and all those guys you know, doing meditation or there before their game. So, you know, I think, you know, depending on the fuel, you know, whether it's artists or musicians or teachers or athletes or celebrities, whatever kind of interest somebody has. Probably by somebody that's practicing Michaelis, um, trying to think with the guy Dan Dan Abrams on Good Morning America. Is it Danny

spk_1:   1:4:16
Danny Areas that interest 10% happier.

spk_2:   1:4:19
Yeah, he's got a podcast called 10% Happier, and Dan Harris talks about it all the time on Good Morning America about how important it is for him. So, you know, there's a lot more. Like I said, if you go to his tether said go in the apse, you will see so many APS out there now, as it is, is really so much minds, you know, mainstream and science based. No, this isn't This is not move stop anymore.

spk_1:   1:4:45
And I'm looking for the mindful. Our provider. Um, I know, I've heard about them. I'm gonna put one in the chat, and I think this might be them that I'm not 100% sure. So

spk_0:   1:5:02
All right. I haven't seen any other questions come in. So I think we'll wrap up for the day. Thank you so much. Heather and Dr Man. Eric, this was a great session day. Lots of great feedback that came into the chat box. I think this is greatly appreciated by everybody. So thank you so much, everybody for being here, I check out everything else that we don't offer that we offer through Project Echo, Nevada aunt. Have a great yesterday and a good weekend. Take care. You are

spk_1:   1:5:26
on by