Podcast appearances and mentions of john kabat zinn

Première diffusion le 7 octobre 2019J'ai l'immense plaisir de recevoir Thierry Janssen, ancien chirurgien et désormais psychothérapeute, auteur et directeur de l'Ecole de la présence thérapeutique.C'est un entretien vibrant et plein d'espoir en la vie que je vous propose aujourd'hui. Un entretien où il est question de spiritualité et d'éveil de la conscience… Un entretien avec un homme d'une grande sagesse. Tellement sage qu'il accepte justement de ne pas l'être.Vous avez choisi ici la version longue de l'entretien, et vous avez raison : vous allez pouvoir laisser toutes ces paroles inspirantes vous embarquer…Avec Thierry, nous allons parler du jour où il a quitté brutalement son poste de chirurgien, d'une brève incursion dans le monde de la mode, d'une autre mode -celle du développement personnel- et de ses excès, de sa formation auprès d'une guérisseuse américaine, de comment il est devenu presque malgré lui psy, de son expérience mystique du silence intérieur, de l'acceptation qui n'est pas la résignation, de l'Ecole de la présence thérapeutique qu'il dirige à Bruxelles et d'amour bien sûr ! Notes sur l'épisode:- Le site de l'Ecole de la Présence Thérapeutique : https://edlpj.org/- La page Facebook de Thierry : www.facebook.com/thierry.janssen.98- Le livre de Thierry dont on parle dans l'entretien : Ecouter le silence à l'intérieur – Les éditions L'Iconoclaste- Son rituel bien-être : tenir un journal dans lequel noter chaque jour ses émotions- Son conseil lecture : « Après l'extase, la lessive » de Jack Kornfield RETRANSCRIPTION DE L'EPISODE AVEC THIERRY JANSSEN Quel bonheur de revenir ici, d'être là, derrière mon micro, et de vous avoir, vous, de l'autre côté. C'est donc parti pour une deuxième saison de ce podcast.00:01:34Et pour la lancer, je vous propose une rencontre avec un invité de marque. Pas seulement parce qu'il est connu, que vous avez peut-être lu certains de ses ouvrages ou assisté à l'une de ses conférences. Thierry Janssen est un invité de marque car il nous ouvre à la spiritualité avec la sagesse de celui qui sait qu'il n'est justement pas sage. Celui qui a un jour été chirurgien renommé. Il a découvert que la guérison passe aussi par le soin des émotions et de l'âme. Il a cheminé pour apprendre à s'écouter, à prendre le temps de se connecter à lui-même, quitte à se mettre en retrait lorsque c'était nécessaire. Et puis un jour, il a vécu une expérience mystique, celle du silence intérieur, comme il la raconte dans son dernier ouvrage.00:02:20Un moment de grâce, d'une puissance indescriptible pendant lequel il a goûté à l'amour pur, à l'universalité. Bienvenue dans la saison 2 de La Petite Voix. Bienvenue dans cet épisode très inspirant, vibrant, plein d'espoir en la vie. Avec Thierry, nous allons parler d'une fulgurance de conscience qui l'a décidé à quitter son job à l'hôpital de Bruxelles en quelques minutes, d'une enfance marquée par une grande sensibilité, de sa rencontre déterminante avec une guérisseuse américaine et de l'acceptation qui rend libre et créatif. Bonjour Thierry et bienvenue dans La Petite Voix. Bonjour. Je suis vraiment enchantée de vous recevoir et ravie d'ouvrir avec vous la deuxième saison de ce podcast. Ensemble, aujourd'hui, nous allons parler de votre cheminement initiatique que vous évoquez dans vos livres et en particulier le dernier qui est un très beau livre qui s'appelle Écoutez le silence à l'intérieur.00:03:20Il est paru l'an dernier aux éditions Iconoclast. Thierry, on ne vous présente plus. Vous êtes psychothérapeute et désormais fondateur de l'école de la présence thérapeutique à Bruxelles. Vous êtes également un auteur connu et reconnu. Déjà, huit livres, je crois, à votre actif sur des sujets qui sont liés au développement personnel. Mais c'est d'ailleurs un terme et même une mode dont vous vous méfiez, et on va avoir l'occasion d'y revenir dans notre entretien. Ce que je n'ai pas encore dit, c'est que vous avez également été médecin. Vous étiez même un chirurgien renommé jusqu'au jour où je crois que vous aviez environ 35 ans. Vous avez compris que vous ne vous étiez pas très bien. Vous n'épanouissiez plus dans ce rôle aussi prestigieux était-il.00:04:02Est-ce que vous pouvez revenir sur cette journée particulière et cette fulgurance de conscience, comme vous l'appelez ? Oui, c'était le 5 janvier 1998. Et je ne dirais pas que j'ai compris quelque chose ce jour-là. J'ai juste écouté. J'ai écouté d'abord une voix, très clairement, qui a résonné en moi et un ressenti très profond qui m'a dit que je ne pouvais plus rester là. En fait, j'ai écouté une voice qui m'a dit que je ne pouvais plus rester là. Pendant des années, j'avais consacré toute mon énergie à cette carrière médicale et chirurgicale. Et sans m'en rendre compte, je m'étais enfermé dans un système de fonctionnement très contraignant, très violent, quelque part. Et je n'avais jamais fait de travail sur moi, donc je n'avais pas non plus le recul pour comprendre tout ça.00:04:48Et je travaillais dans un hôpital universitaire à Bruxelles et j'ai décidé de le quitter tout en restant au sein de la même université pour prendre des fonctions avec de plus grandes responsabilités dans l'un des autres hôpitaux de cette université. Et le 5 janvier 1998, lorsque j'ai pris mes fonctions, je promets qu'une heure avant, je ne savais pas, même cinq minutes avant, je ne savais pas que j'allais arrêter mon métier, mais j'étais dans l'ascenseur avec la dame qui devenait ma secrétaire et elle me parlait, et j'avais l'impression qu'elle parlait une langue étrangère, je ne comprenais rien. Et je suis rentré dans mon nouveau bureau et j'ai vraiment entendu cette voix qui est ma voix, c'est comme quand je m'entends vous parler maintenant, et cette voix a dit « si tu vas mourir ».00:05:39Et j'ai écrit ma lettre de démission au doyen de la faculté de médecine. Et en fait, j'ai simplement dit « je ne suis pas la personne pour occuper le poste que je vous ai demandé d'occuper, je ne peux pas tricher avec moi, je ne peux pas tricher avec vous ». Et donc, je remets ma démission. Et puis, j'ai quitté le poste. Je suis allé à l'hôpital en remettant cette lettre à un des chefs de clinique du service. Quand je suis arrivé à la maison, déjà dans la voiture, j'ai eu un contact avec la personne avec qui je vivais et je lui ai dit « mais c'est de la folie, qu'est-ce que tu es en train de faire ? ».00:06:11Je lui ai dit « je ne sais pas, mais je sais ce que je ne ferai plus ». Et j'ai le sentiment qu'aujourd'hui, c'est comme si je renaissais ou que je naissais consciemment. À la radio, il y avait une chanson qui disait « ceci est le premier jour du reste de ta vie ». Et ça a vraiment fait sens. Et ça m'a plongé dans une sorte de sentiment d'euphorie qui a perduré pendant certainement 10 jours. Et puis, j'ai commencé à avoir très peur. Les questions sont revenues en fait. Mais ce n'étaient pas des questions. C'était que tout d'un coup, je étais face à un immense vide parce que toute ma vie avait été remplie par ce projet.00:06:52C'est un projet qui était né quand j'avais l'âge de 5 ans, le jour où ma mère m'a montré le chirurgien qui l'avait opéré. Et je suis dit « Moi, je vais faire ça ». D'accord. J'étais programmée, même si j'ai eu longtemps un doute parce que j'avais une passion qui est née pratiquement au même âge, vers 5-6 ans, une passion pour la civilisation de l'Égypte ancienne. Et longtemps, j'ai hésité entre m'orienter vers l'égyptologie ou vers la chirurgie. Et à 18 ans, je suis commencé la chirurgie parce que c'est un métier qui ne paraissait plus ouvert vers les autres. Et qui servait plus, quelque part, que simplement s'intéresser aux antiquités. Mais en même temps, c'était un piège parce que je ne voulais pas être médecin, je voulais être chirurgien. Ça m'a demandé énormément d'efforts, d'investissements.00:07:40Et je n'ai jamais réfléchi à tout ça. J'ai juste agi comme ça, sans doute pour réparer plein de choses, comme nous tous, on a des raisons très névrotiques de s'investir. Rires. J'ai mis beaucoup d'énergie pour réparer des blessures du passé. Mais en même temps, ce 5 janvier 1998, je crois que j'étais vraiment arrivé à la limite de ce que je pouvais m'imposer. Parce que finalement, je m'étais imposé beaucoup de choses. Beaucoup d'efforts, beaucoup de contraintes. Et très peu de plaisir, finalement. C'est ce que vous appeliez dans votre livre, vous faites référence à cette période comme ça, en disant Thierry, ambitieux et perfectionniste, c'est ça ? Oui. Oui. Parce que j'avais développé une personnalité assez rigide, perfectionniste, et donc aussi à cheval sur beaucoup de règles.00:08:30Comme nous tous, j'ai développé cette personnalité pour essayer de m'adapter, pour essayer de survivre et d'être aimé. C'était une façon de rentrer dans les rangs, de ne pas décevoir, d'être un bon petit garçon. Parce que très jeune, j'ai senti que je n'étais pas forcément différent des autres, mais qu'en tout cas, j'avais des particularités en moi qui n'étaient pas forcément acceptées par les autres. Et en particulier, une très grande sensibilité. Et donc, cette grande sensibilité m'a permis d'être à l'écoute, de sentir les autres, les autres sentaient que je les sentais. Enfant, les amis de mes parents venaient me parler de leurs problèmes de couple. Oui, mais je crois que ça arrive souvent. Je ne sais pas si ça arrive souvent, mais en tout cas, moi, c'était mon quotidien. Mais vraiment.00:09:12Et je pense que j'avais des avis très sages. Mais ça, je crois que ça arrive très souvent. La plupart des enfants ont cette grande sagesse au fond d'eux parce qu'ils ne sont pas dans l'analyse, justement. Ils ne sont pas dans l'essai de compréhension. Ils sont dans la perception immédiate des choses sans jugement. Et ils ont un avis plein de bon sens par rapport à ces choses. Et du coup, ça fait de moi une personne à l'écoute et au service et dans l'aide. Et donc, le métier de chirurgien. Et puis après, tout ce que j'ai fait, finalement, a tourné autour de ça. Combien d'années avez-vous été médecin et chirurgien ? Presque 13 ans. Presque 13 ans. D'accord. Donc, ce qui est intéressant dans votre parcours, vous avez eu cette première vie professionnelle où, en fait, vous étiez là pour soigner, on va dire, le corps.00:10:03Et puis, vous allez nous expliquer comment, après cette première expérience, vous avez décidé de soigner plutôt l'esprit à travers la psychologie. Qu'est-ce qui s'est passé dans votre parcours ? Je n'ai rien décidé du tout. Et je sais que ça peut paraître étrange d'entendre ça, mais c'est vraiment ce qui m'est arrivé et ce qui m'arrive encore aujourd'hui. C'est-à-dire que lorsque j'ai quitté la profession de chirurgien, j'ai juste écouté cette voix, j'ai juste écouté une immense tension en moi qui s'est relâchée automatiquement, immédiatement. Et j'ai senti que c'était juste. Il ne m'a pas fallu de courage, mais j'ai eu la bonne inspiration d'écouter. Alors après, votre question, c'est comment vous en êtes arrivé à, à retourner manifestement vers le soin, l'accompagnement des autres à travers la démarche du psychothérapeute ? Oui.00:10:53À nouveau, je n'ai pas décidé. À savoir que quand j'ai quitté le métier de chirurgien, il fallait que je vive, il fallait que je mange. J'ai entendu qu'il y avait un couturier italien, il s'appelle Giorgio Armani, qui cherchait un directeur pour sa marque Emporio en France. J'ai dit moi, je vais faire ça. Mais aujourd'hui, avec le recul, je me rends compte qu'il y avait, plusieurs choses dans ce poste. C'était d'abord l'aspect prestigieux. Je rachetais quelque chose que j'avais abandonné. Et aux yeux des autres, ça me rassurait de me dire : voilà, j'aurai quand même une carrière prestigieuse dans le monde de la mode. Il y avait ça. Il y avait Paris, qui était une façon de m'extraire de mon milieu bruxellois où on me condamnait.00:11:37Mes amis, qui étaient beaucoup, pour la plupart des médecins, étaient vraiment très violents à mon égard par rapport à cela. Oui, j'allais vous demander comment votre entourage a vécu, ce virage de chirurgien à directeur chez Armani ? Une violence incroyable, des jugements. Mais je peux comprendre, ça doit faire très peur, quelqu'un qui semble perdre l'honneur. Mais moi, au fond de moi, je savais que c'était juste. Et j'ai perdu beaucoup d'amis à ce moment-là. Mais voilà. Et j'ai envoyé ma lettre de motivation au président, au directeur général de Giorgio Armani à Milan. Et j'ai dit : 'Vous allez me prendre pour un fou, je dirigeais un service hospitalier, mais je pense que je suis la bonne personne pour occuper le poste chez Emporio Armani à Paris.' Et j'ai été engagé.00:12:28On m'a envoyé à Milan. Et là, on m'a remis vendeur. Et là, je me suis vu en train de mettre des épingles pour confectionner un ourlet, un pantalon. Et en me voyant mettre ces épingles, je me suis dit, Thierry, il y a deux mois, tu pratiquais la chirurgie, tu utilisais des aiguilles pour recoudre la peau des gens. Et ici, tu utilises des aiguilles pour mettre des ourlets. Et tout de suite, il y a une voix qui m'a, ma voix bien sûr, qui m'a dit, c'est ta dignité, Thierry. Tu travailles, tu avais besoin de travailler et tu fais quelque chose qui construit ton futur. Sois fière. Oui. Et il n'y a pas. Et c'est ce jour-là que j'ai vraiment compris que ce n'est pas ce qu'on fait qui compte dans la vie, c'est qui on est quand on fait quelque chose.00:13:11Et peu importe le métier que l'on a, même s'il est contrôlé. Il n'est pas considéré par certains comme pas intéressant ou dégradant. C'est qui on est comme personne pendant qu'on fait ce métier, quand on agit dans le monde. Vous en parlez beaucoup dans votre livre, c'est très fort, de cette différence entre ce que c'est qu'être et ce que c'est faire. Oui, oui. Exister vient de extarer, se poster à l'extérieur. C'est la posture que l'on a pour vivre dans le monde, en interaction, en relation avec les autres. Mais ça nous fait porter des masques, et ça nous fait jouer des rôles, et ça nous fait adopter tout un système de défense qui construit ce qu'on appelle une personnalité. Et cette personnalité, nous y sommes totalement identifiés parce que notre mental crée cette entité qu'on appelle « moi » et « ego » en latin.00:14:04Et en fait, on est souvent totalement identifiés à cette personnalité parce qu'on n'a que comme souci d'exister. Mais il y a une dimension plus profonde dans la vie qui n'est pas d'exister à travers ce qu'on fait, ce qu'on montre, ce qu'on dit, c'est d'être, tout simplement. Et le noyau de l'être, c'est pas le mental qui pense, qui bavarde, qui raconte une histoire, un autre sujet. Être, c'est simplement laisser la conscience s'éveiller en nous, cette conscience qui est pure présence et qui est pure acceptation de ce qui est, parce que la conscience ne pense pas. C'est pas le mental. Et du coup, je reviens sur votre cours, à ce moment-là, dans cet atelier en Italie, chez Armani, vous prenez conscience de cette différence entre ce que c'est qu'être et ce que c'est faire ?00:14:58À l'époque, ce que j'ai compris, c'est que Thierry, tu n'es pas ce que tu fais, tu es Thierry qui fait ça maintenant, mais tu peux faire plein de choses dans ta vie. Et ce que tu fais maintenant, tu dois en être fier, parce que c'est ce qui te permet d'avancer et de progresser. Dans ton existence. Et alors, combien de temps a duré ce métier dans la mode et chez Armani ? Disons qu'après, j'ai pris mes fonctions à Paris et j'ai occupé cette fonction pendant presque neuf mois. Et j'ai été licencié. Et ce qui est drôle, c'est qu'à l'époque, le directeur général d'Armani m'a dit : vous n'avez pas la culture de l'entreprise. Et il avait totalement raison.00:15:41Et surtout, je ne me laissais pas faire, parce que c'est quand même un monde où il y a beaucoup d'égo, beaucoup de blessures, beaucoup de rivalités, et tout ça sur un fond de nécessité de rentabilité, de performance et d'argent. Mais j'avais juste besoin de ça pour me rassurer, pour me prouver que je pouvais faire autre chose, ne pas être identifié qu'aux chirurgiens que j'avais été. Mais après, ça m'a aussi permis de recevoir une assez importante indemnité. Et je me suis dit, Thierry, maintenant, tu n'as plus d'excuses. Tu as besoin de temps pour comprendre ce qui t'arrive. Et j'ai dit, investis sur toi, parce que tu es le seul avec qui tu resteras jusqu'au bout. C'est peut-être la chose la plus intelligente que j'ai faite dans ma vie, réellement. C'était très sage.00:16:30Et puis, pendant une année, je suis resté à Paris. Et ça a été une année d'éveil, dans le sens où tous mes sens étaient ouverts. Je sentais le parfum des roses dans les jardins des Tuileries, mais à des mètres et des mètres de distance. Je voyais des choses que je n'avais jamais remarquées auparavant. J'étais tout ouvert au monde et très joyeux, même si une partie de moi vivait des peurs ou de l'inconfort par rapport au futur. Mais tout de suite, je revenais dans ce présent. Et je disais, non, non, c'est bien, c'est juste, je me sens bien. Et j'ai commencé à écrire un roman qui, en fait, était la résurgence de toutes mes passions d'adolescent et d'enfant. Égypte ancienne, notamment. J'ai envoyé ce texte à de nombreuses maisons d'édition.00:17:14Il y en a trois qui ont répondu en disant : il faut continuer à écrire, mais il faut laisser de la place à vos personnages. Je pourrais peut-être choisir le mode de l'essai. Et effectivement, deux ans plus tard, j'écrivais mon premier essai. Comme quoi, c'était des bons éditeurs. Donc, en fait, ce qui est étonnant, on vit quand même dans un monde où on court tout le temps. Je ne sais pas après quoi, mais en tout cas, on court. Et vous, vous avez réussi. À ce moment-là, à entendre que, justement, il fallait arrêter ce rythme-là et juste prendre ce temps pour vous sans nécessairement d'objectif ou quoi, mais juste vivre ce qu'il y avait à vivre à l'instant T.00:17:52Et vous savez, je crois que le fait d'avoir lâché tout cet investissement, ce métier, ça a libéré quelque chose d'enorme et je ne pouvais pas réfléchir. Et à l'époque, ce qui était juste, c'était de prendre ce temps. En fait, j'ai l'impression, quand on prononce cette phrase, ce moment sabbatique, je ne sais pas comment le qualifier autrement, vous avez créé cet espace-là pour la conscience. Oui, je n'ai rien créé du tout. C'est, c'est l'ego. C'est encore notre mental et notre personne, notre moi qui pense que c'est lui qui crée les choses. En fait, non. C'est justement parce que mon mental s'est calmé que la conscience a pu s'éveiller en moi. C'est la conscience qui est en nous tous. Mais que nous n'écoutons pas, que nous ne laissons pas s'éveiller, parce que notre mental prend trop de place dans ses identifications à notre petite personne.00:18:43Et c'est pour ça que la méditation est si puissante. Chaque fois qu'on calme le mental, donc on calme l'ego, la conscience peut s'éveiller. On parle beaucoup dans le développement personnel, etc., de lâcher prise. Très mal compris, parce que lâcher prise, c'est encore presque un acte. Je décide qu'il faut que je lâche. Non, non, non, non, non. Lâcher prise, c'est laisser être les choses comme elles sont et ne pas les contredire et les écouter. Parlons-en, puisque vous évoquez le développement spirituel. Je voulais faire cet aparté sur cette mode et ce que vous appelez vous parfois l'ego spirituel. Oui, parce que vous avez dit développement spirituel, mais je pense que vous vouliez dire développement personnel. Oui, absolument, pardon. Pour moi, c'est vraiment très, très important.00:19:28Parce que vous voyez, depuis le XIXe siècle, en Occident, on a tout un courant qui est né, qu'on appelle le courant d'abord de la psychanalyse et de la psychologie, qui s'est intéressé à la construction de la personnalité, à la construction du moi, et qui, du coup, a pu répondre à pas mal d'interrogations. Le problème, c'est que dans une culture comme la nôtre, où l'intellect, le mental, a été tant valorisé, cette psychologie a donné lieu à ce qu'on a appelé le mouvement du développement personnel, et même récupéré par le coaching pour en faire des personnes plus efficaces, plus performantes, notamment dans le travail. Tout ça n'est pas négatif, je ne critique pas. Mais par contre, j'essaie de regarder, de monter un petit peu au sommet de la montagne ou dans l'hélicoptère pour avoir une vision plus large.00:20:18Et comprendre que le développement personnel, il y a un grand piège là-derrière, c'est que ça devient un développement de l'ego. Et du coup, on voit des gens qui font plein de stages, qui font plein de démarches de développement personnel pour mieux se connaître, mais qui deviennent terriblement intransigeantes, qui deviennent terriblement tournées vers elles-mêmes, et qui finalement oublient que cette petite personne que nous sommes, elle fait partie d'un beaucoup plus grand ensemble, et que nous devrions mettre cette personne au service de plus grand qu'elle, ce plus grand que nous, qui est en nous. C'est l'essence de l'être, c'est la vie en nous, c'est conscience. Et cet esprit, l'esprit de la vie. Et du coup, là, nous ne rentrons plus dans le développement personnel, mais dans quelque chose de spirituel.00:21:06Et je crois qu'il n'y a pas de chemin de développement personnel qui va vraiment à son accomplissement sans s'intégrer dans une démarche d'approfondissement spirituel. Et de la même manière, il n'y a pas de développement, ou plutôt d'approfondissement spirituel, sans avoir un regard du côté du développement personnel. Donc, psychologie et spiritualité vont ensemble, et se nourrissent l'une l'autre, et sont le gardien-fou de l'une et de l'autre. En fait, ce que j'entends dans la pure conscience dont vous parlez, dans la spiritualité, il y a vraiment quelque chose d'universel qui nous dépasse ? Bon, ce sont des mots incompréhensibles quand on en fait l'expérience. C'est cette expérience du silence, justement, dont nous regardons le monde sans le juger, sans le commenter, juste en l'accueillant pour ce qu'il est.00:21:58Et cet accueil dans cet espace de pure conscience n'est possible que quand le cœur est ouvert. Comme je dis, ce sont des mots, mais quand on en fait l'expérience, ça devient vraiment une évidence. Du coup, je reviens sur votre parcours pour savoir comment vous avez cheminé jusqu'à cette pure conscience. Je crois qu'à un moment donné dans ce cheminement, vous avez suivi pendant quatre ans une formation aux États-Unis auprès d'une, je ne sais pas si le terme est bon, mais une guérisseuse américaine, c'est ça ? Oui, oui, c'est plus qu'une histoire, c'est un moment important. Donc, j'avais travaillé pour Armani à Paris et puis je restais vivre une année dans une forme de retraite où j'ai écrit un roman. Puis je me laissais être au monde. J'étais dans le présent absolu, c'était incroyable.00:22:47Et dans ce présent absolu, j'ai découvert un livre qui m'a bouleversé, qui s'appelait « Le pouvoir bénéfique des mains », écrit par une Américaine qui s'appelle Barbara Paulinan. Et cette femme avait été physicienne à la NASA et la façon dont elle écrivait me parlait énormément. Pourtant le sujet qu'elle abordait était totalement en dehors des sentiers battus du monde dit rationnel, puisqu'elle parlait de champs d'énergie. Mais le livre était tellement bien structuré et ce qu'elle disait résonnait tellement avec ce que j'avais ressenti depuis l'enfance que j'ai été vraiment bouleversée. Et j'ai commencé à rencontrer des gens, et notamment une femme qui me dit « Oh, moi, en vous voyant, je me dis que vous devriez aller dans l'école où va ma mère ». J'ai dit « Votre mère va dans quelle école ?00:23:35». Elle m'a dit « Votre mère va dans une école aux États-Unis créée par une physicienne de la NASA qui s'intéresse aux champs d'énergie et au chakra. » Et je venais de lire le livre. Cette information venait à moi, j'ignorais qu'il y avait cette école, et donc finalement je me suis retrouvée dans cette école. Et je peux dire une chose par rapport à ça, c'est que j'ai trouvé un endroit confrontant, parce que d'abord, la culture était un peu « New Age ». J'imagine que pour l'ancien chirurgien que vous étiez, évidemment, on vous emmenait dans un monde beaucoup moins cartésien et scientifique, du coup. Et en même temps, il était peut-être plus cartésien et plus scientifique que beaucoup de monde scientifique parce qu'il était basé sur l'expérience.00:24:15Et c'était vraiment les expériences qui nous permettaient de nous poser des questions et d'apporter des réponses. Là, dans cette école, où on était, en formation pour devenir des guérisseurs et non pas simplement des soigneurs, ils nous étaient demandés de faire l'expérience. C'était quatre ans, à raison d'une semaine toutes les cinq semaines, et là-bas, j'ai découvert que c'était un endroit où j'allais travailler sur moi, essayer de comprendre ma personnalité, mais pas que intellectuellement, j'allais la comprendre dans mon corps, dans l'énergie, la façon dont mon corps utilisait cette énergie. Donc c'était une école où il y avait de la danse, du yoga, du Qigong, des thérapies psychocorporelles, j'ai tapé sur des coussins, j'ai hurlé, j'ai pleuré. Je suis arrivé, je regardais les autres, j'ai dit « Mon Dieu, les pauvres, ils ont l'air bien mal en point.00:25:03» Mais deux mois plus tard, j'étais avec eux en train de pleurer parce que j'avais quitté mon masque de sérénité. Si je reviens à ce qu'on disait tout à l'heure, vous aviez appris à être et pas seulement à faire dans cette école. Exactement. Et cette école était très bien construite. TIC était utilisée, était très puissante, et du coup, on ne pouvait pas échapper à vraiment se regarder. Très souvent, dans la vie, on triche. Et là, c'était très difficile de tricher. Oui. Et ce qui est intéressant, c'est toute la dimension du corps que vous évoquez. On voit bien qu'en fait, le corps, c'est vraiment l'endroit où les émotions ne trichent pas et le mental peut se raconter ce qu'il veut. Le corps, lui, il est dans une vérité.00:25:47Vous savez, le corps, pour moi, c'est quelque chose de central depuis tout petit. Quand j'étais enfant, j'avais un corps déformé. Les autres enfants s'en moquaient beaucoup. Et j'avais cette grande sensibilité. J'ai été contraint à faire de la gymnastique médicale trois heures par jour, trois jours par semaine. C'était très contraignant. Et en fait, j'ai appris à aimer dans mon corps grâce à deux choses. Tout d'abord, la danse. J'ai commencé très jeune dans ma chambre. Et la deuxième chose, c'est la sexualité. J'ai eu une sexualité très jeune. Ça m'a permis d'habiter mon corps, d'avoir envie d'y rester, de se rendre compte que ce n'était pas qu'un lieu de souffrance, mais c'était aussi un lieu de plaisir. Et vous évoquiez l'émotion tout à l'heure.00:26:34En fait, l'émotion est un phénomène corporel. C'est un signal qui nous renseigne sur la qualité de nos expériences, qui nous dit ça c'est bon, ça c'est pas bon pour nous. Et donc, effectivement, tout ce travail fait à l'école de Barbara Brennan autour du corps et de l'énergie me parlait énormément. Je me suis rendu compte que ce n'était pas par hasard que j'avais choisi le métier de chirurgien parce que c'était vraiment un moyen d'être en contact avec le tangible. Et je crois qu'il n'y a pas de chemin spirituel valable, réel, tant qu'il n'est pas profondément incarné. Et c'est peut-être un grand travers de l'Occident qui a développé une spiritualité déconnectée du corps. Et du coup, une spiritualité très mentale, mais le mental, je l'ai dit, ce n'est pas l'esprit, ce n'est pas la conscience.00:27:27Donc, c'est une spiritualité qui n'est pas profondément accomplie. Et je sais que ça va heurter d'entendre ça, ça va heurter certaines personnes, mais vraiment, je les invite à réfléchir à ça. Parce que comment peut-on dire que nous avons développé une spiritualité et ne pas ressentir dans notre corps le mal-être et la souffrance que c'est de voir les autres dans la souffrance. Tant que nous n'avons pas ressenti la souffrance dans notre corps, nous ne pouvons pas être en empathie et en compassion pour l'autre. C'est très très important qu'on revienne à une spiritualité profondément incarnée. Et Lorient nous attire de ce point de vue-là. Il a privilégié la présence à l'expérience à travers l'expérience méditative, l'immersion dans la réalité telle qu'elle est, cette expérience mystique où le mental ne vient pas analyser mais simplement laisse sa conscience percevoir.00:28:23C'est très très important qu'on revienne à une spiritualité profondément incarnée. Je reviens à votre formation que vous avez suivie aux Etats-Unis auprès de cette guérisseuse. Après cela, vous revenez en Europe, peut-être en Belgique pour être psychothérapeute ? En fait, je suis à peine revenu à Bruxelles avant même de me rendre dans cette école aux Etats-Unis. Il y a des personnes qui avaient constaté un changement chez moi et me disaient : 'Tu ne veux pas parler à mon père ou à ma sœur ou à mon frère.' Un jour, il y a une dame qui m'a demandé de voir son mari qui était mourant. Il se trouve que cet accompagnement que j'ai eu auprès de lui a été quelque chose de fort, tant pour lui que pour moi et pour sa famille.00:29:20À partir de là, il y a une sorte de bouche à oreille qui s'est installée très rapidement au point où, en deux ou trois mois de temps, j'avais un temps plein d'occupation. Je ne voyais absolument pas cela comme une profession. Pour moi, demander de l'argent était quelque chose de très compliqué. Mettre une valeur sur mon temps et sur mon éventuelle compétence était très compliqué. Donc, je n'ai pas du tout demandé d'argent pour cette activité. À l'époque, mon compagnon, qui n'appréciait pas trop que je vienne à la maison avec toutes ces personnes, m'a loué une loge de concierge dans laquelle je me suis installé et j'ai commencé à voir les gens là dans une forme de consultation ; je ne me sentais pas du tout légitime pour en faire une profession.00:30:09C'est un jour, une dame qui me a tendu un billet de 50 euros à l'époque, c'était 2 000 francs belges, parce que tout cela c'était en 1999-2000 et elle me tend un billet de 2 000 francs belges. Je dis non, non, je ne peux pas accepter cela et elle me dit si, si, si, vous devez accepter cela parce que vous m'apprenez la prospérité de mon âme mais je vais vous apprendre la prospérité de votre portefeuille. Mais du coup, cela m'a posé un problème parce que je me suis dit mais voilà, dans une profession, j'ai commencé et comme je ne me sentais pas légitime, j'ai voulu écrire mon premier ouvrage, Le travail d'une vie, dans lequel je racontais simplement comment j'aborde notre personnalité et ce qu'il y avait au-delà, c'est-à-dire le fond de l'être.00:31:00Et ce livre a été accepté chez Robert Laffont. Oui, cela a créé une forme comme cela de dynamique positive. J'étais débordé de demandes de consultation et deux ans plus tard, j'ai décidé de mettre un terme à cette consultation pour quelques semaines voire quelques mois, parce que je voulais écrire un autre livre, que j'ai intitulé Vivre en paix. C'était suite à l'effondrement des tours du World Trade Center à New York en 2001. J'avais besoin d'écrire ce livre sur la paix, la paix en soi, la paix avec les autres, la paix dans le monde. La peur qui est le contraire de l'amour, enfin toute cette thématique-là et finalement le livre a été publié et je suis très heureux parce qu'encore aujourd'hui je reçois du courrier de lecteurs qui sont accompagnés, qui sont inspirés par ce livre qui est très simple mais qui est une façon d'entrer dans cette démarche.00:31:53Ce n'est que quatre ans plus tard que j'ai senti ce besoin d'écrire un livre qui venait réconcilier en moi le médecin puis ce thérapeute et j'avais besoin de faire ce pont et j'ai écrit La solution intérieure vers une nouvelle médecine du corps et de l'esprit. Est-ce qu'on peut faire une parenthèse là-dessus ? C'est très intéressant ce point-là que vous soulevez dans ce livre sur est-ce que vous, l'ancien chirurgien, vous comprenez pourquoi la médecine classique avec des guillemets a tant de difficultés à appréhender les approches plus alternatives ? Oui, parce que c'est l'intellect, le mental qui définit cette personne que nous sommes. Il est dans la peur et il a besoin de dominer, de comprendre pour dominer le monde et il est dans un paradigme finalement de combat ; toute une économie s'est mise en place là autour où finalement on a beaucoup d'intérêt à créer des moyens de réparer ou de pallier à des manques, mais où finalement on dépense très peu d'énergie à prévenir le problème.00:33:04Il y a toute une activité économique qui se développe. Les hôpitaux sont aujourd'hui gérés comme des usines, parce qu'il y a des intérêts économiques. Ce faisant, nous ne respectons pas la nature et notre propre nature. Nous sommes une émanation de la nature nous faisons partie de la nature nous sommes la nature. Chercher le bonheur en niant la nature, c'est nier nous-mêmes. Et on voit aujourd'hui le mode de vie que nous nous imposons pour avoir ce confort qui est finalement presque une anesthésie générale. C'est sûr que la vie est plus douce, mais en même temps nous sommes de plus en plus fragiles face à la difficulté et à la souffrance. Et donc, nous avons besoin de plus en plus de confort.00:33:45Pendant ce temps-là, de plus en plus, nous consommons ces moyens d'être dans le confort, mais nous n'écoutons pas qui nous sommes vraiment. Nous nous imposons des rythmes de vie au nom de ce confort qui sont absolument délirants. Quand vous voyez les gens dans le métro le matin fatigués parce qu'ils n'ont pas dormi assez. Parce qu'ils ont dû déposer les enfants à la crèche tôt le matin, et qu'ils ont encore une heure de trajet à faire avant d'arriver sur leur lieu de travail, un lieu de travail où il y aura une tension énorme et ils ne seront pas heureux. Et on s'impose ça, et on reprend le même chemin le soir, et on reprend ses enfants à la crèche, et on les laisse devant la télévision ou une tablette pendant qu'on réchauffe un plat qui est plein de pesticides et de substances dont il ne faudrait pas se couper dans leur alimentation.00:34:28Mais tout ça est délirant, et il ne faut pas s'étonner d'avoir de plus en plus de gens qui font des burn-out. Et ce burn-out est comme un appel de la vie en eux qui dit : 'Non, arrête'. Arrête de t'imposer tout ça et puis des gens qui ont des dépressions et puis malheureusement des gens qui ont des maladies physiques aussi comme le cancer, qui est clairement une conséquence de tout ce mode de vie. Et dans votre dernier livre, vous parlez beaucoup justement de cette idée d'aller peut-être finalement vers plus de dépouillement, plus de simplicité et vous posez la question : là où est le vrai progrès ? Est-ce que finalement le vrai progrès, c'est pas le silence ? Vous savez le vrai progrès, c'est l'approfondissement spirituel, c'est-à-dire le contact avec l'esprit, c'est-à-dire avec la conscience.00:35:12C'est de voir vraiment ce qui est, d'arrêter d'être aveuglé par nos croyances et que quand on a une crise en face de soi, on se pose les bonnes questions. C'est Einstein qui disait on ne peut pas résoudre un problème avec une façon de penser qui a créé le problème, et ça, c'est le vrai progrès. Mais tant que nous serons pris dans cette idée que nous sommes tout-puissants, que nous pouvons créer un monde et le façonner comme nous le voulons, et bien nous connaîtrons de plus en plus de tensions, De mal-être parce que nous serons de plus en plus déconnectés de notre propre nature et de la nature en général. Mais peut-être que c'est la nature justement qui va nous rappeler à l'ordre, c'est la nature qui va nous imposer sa loi.00:35:52Je crois que si l'espèce humaine ne le fait pas, elle disparaîtra. Mais ce ne sera pas la première espèce à disparaître de la surface de cette planète, et ce n'est pas grave en soi. Lorsque on réfléchit. Par contre, l'humanité a peut-être là une opportunité d'évolution, et cette évolution, personnellement, peut-être que certains vont trouver mon propos délirant. Mais je crois qu'elle ne peut se faire sans un approfondissement spirituel, et tous les êtres qui dans leur propre vie ont manifesté quelque chose de spectaculaire, vers plus d'apaisement, plus de simplicité effectivement, et plus de retour à l'essence et à l'essentiel. Ce sont les êtres qui ont vécu ce parcours de connexion à l'esprit en eux, c'est-à-dire la conscience, lorsque je parle de la conscience j'insiste que c'est la conscience et non ma conscience, c'est cette conscience paisible, silencieuse et qui accepte ce qui est tel que c'est.00:36:50En fait, il y a vraiment quelque chose d'universel, c'est-à-dire que à la fois ça ne nous appartient pas et en même temps ça nous appartient à tous, oui, et c'est la beauté du message de toutes les spiritualités. Je ne parle pas des religions qui sont des interprétations mentales de l'expérience spirituelle, et l'expérience spirituelle, elle naît de l'expérience mystique. L'expérience mystique, c'est un éblouissement, c'est un éveil de la conscience en nous qui voit la réalité qui l'embrasse pleinement. Cette ouverture, cette illumination se produit dans la vie de chacun, quelque part. Mais malheureusement, dans nos cultures, il n'est pas valorisé, il a même été considéré comme délirant. On a encore tendance à croire à pathologiser l'expérience mystique, alors que c'est une expérience qui est commune, naturelle pour l'être humain, et qui lui donne accès à un niveau de conscience qui est celui de la pure conscience.00:37:44Et ça, je pense que quand on a connu ça dans sa vie, ça donne non seulement une vraie lucidité sur le monde, Sur soi aussi, mais ça donne une grande paix. Est-ce que vous pouvez puisqu'on évoque les expériences mystiques ? Est-ce que vous pouvez me parler de cette expérience que vous partagez dans votre dernier livre sur le silence intérieur ? Comment, dans un contexte qui pourtant ne s'y prêtait a priori pas, vous avez rencontré ce silence intérieur ? Ah moi je croyais que j'avais déjà connu des vrais éveils de la conscience et je vous promets j'en suis le premier étonné. Et je ne l'ai pas recherché mais ça s'est produit en 2012. J'étais à mon bureau, en train de me préparer à travailler sur l'ordinateur parce qu'à l'époque j'écrivais une chronique pour Psychologie Magazine.00:38:39J'étais assis en face de l'ordinateur dans mon bureau. et tout d'un coup il y a eu un bruit de travaux dans la rue c'était notamment un marteau piqueur et tout de suite mon mental m'a dit ah mais je ne vais pas pouvoir écrire ma chronique parce que avec ce bruit là je ne vais pas pouvoir me concentrer et je me suis dit non Thierry il faut que tu calmes ce mental et le meilleur moyen que tu as pour le faire c'est de revenir à ta méditation j'étais en train d'essayer de calmer le mental par cette auto-régulation en constatant simplement les émotions, les sensations, les pensées qui surgissaient en moi et tout d'un coup, alors que j'entendais encore les bruits du marteau piqueur, j'entendais ce qu'il y avait au-delà, au-delà des bruits.00:39:24Au-delà des bruits, il n'y a que du silence. C'était énorme, parce que je l'ai vraiment entendu, mon corps l'a senti et j'ai vraiment à ce moment-là compris que le silence n'est pas l'absence de bruit, c'est l'espace dans lequel tous les bruits apparaissent et disparaissent. Que le silence ne peut pas être créé, parce que il est de toute éternité. Il était là avant que j'existe, il sera encore là après que j'ai fini d'exister. Le silence est tout simplement il est cette conscience et c'était énorme. Ça s'est répercuté dans mon corps par un sentiment d'ouverture de ma poitrine, enfin. Pas un sentiment, une sensation, une grande chaleur et une grande paix, c'est pas descriptible, parce que de toute façon ça vient d'un espace qui est au-delà des mots.00:40:08C'est vraiment la connexion avec l'énergie pure de la vie et l'énergie pure de la vie. C'est l'amour, c'est l'énergie qui fait tourner les planètes, les unes autour des autres. C'est l'énergie qui fait la cohésion de nos cellules dans notre corps. C'est l'énergie qui relie tout et ça ne m'a pas quitté, ça ne me quitte plus, même pendant ces moments difficiles où je voyais ma personnalité agitée avec ses conditionnements. Ses peurs, sa névrose, sa tendance parfois un peu dépressive, il y avait un endroit beaucoup plus profond que ça qui regardait ça. Est-ce que ça veut dire que cette expérience finalement, ce moment que vous nous décrivez avec les travaux, ce moment d'accès au silence à la pure conscience, ça dure finalement, certainement quoi, quelques secondes ?00:40:53Oui, je crois que ça a duré très très peu de secondes et en fait ça s'est achevé quand tout d'un coup, moi je vis une expérience pure, c'est trop drôle, j'en ai ri. Figurez-vous qu'il y a beaucoup de recherches scientifiques qui ont été faites sur cette expérience dite mystique. La science a bien montré qu'il y a des zones du cerveau qui sont désactivées, notamment les zones de la conscience, des limites de notre personne et de notre orientation dans l'espace et le temps. Donc, le mystique n'est pas un malade mental. Des études ont montré qu'il y a une grande partie de la population qui lui propose des mots pour décrire son expérience, qui dit mais moi j'ai fait cette expérience et je vois bien que avec le livre Écoutez le silence à l'intérieur où je parle de cela, beaucoup de gens me disent mais moi je connais ça, j'ai vécu ça, merci, ça me parle.00:41:49Je ne me sens pas seul. Je reviens justement à votre ouvrage, vous évoquez bien sûr cet amour universel dont nous avons parlé. Mais derrière cette notion, il y a aussi l'acceptation et l'observation, c'est un distinguo très clair sur le fait que accepter ce n'est pas se résigner. Et vous expliquez au contraire combien il y a une grande liberté à être dans cette conscience-là, oui, parce que effectivement beaucoup de gens se disent si j'accepte cette situation, alors je ne vais plus évoluer, je vais me résigner... mais non, pas se résigner ! La résignation est un des grands facteurs de dépression. Effectivement, il y a une grande liberté dans cette conscience de la vie, parce que on voit ce qui est, on l'accueille, on ne peut pas le nier.00:42:40Mais après, on a une responsabilité, c'est-à-dire une habilité à apporter des réponses. On peut faire quelque chose avec ce qui est et on redevient créateur dans cet espace de la conscience qui est en nous, qui est en chacun de nous. Il y a l'espace source de la création : est-ce que je continue à fonctionner comme j'ai toujours fonctionné ou est-ce que je mets quelque chose d'autre en place vu que j'ai constaté que ce que je faisais aboutissait à des impasses ou à des conséquences négatives ? Et quand on est relié à cette vie comme ça, pure en nous, il y a une émotion qui est là. Qui est la joie et cette joie n'est pas le contentement, elle ne dépend pas de quelque chose d'extérieur à nous.00:43:25Cette joie, je l'ai entendue, je l'ai sentie lorsque j'entendais le marteau piqueur et les silences qu'il y avait au-delà. Et le vrai lâcher prise, c'est juste dire : 'ok', je me laisse glisser dans ce qui est et je l'accepte pleinement, tout en sachant que je ne devrais pas me résigner. Car lorsque j'aurai accepté, quelque chose de joyeux en moi va se remettre en mouvement et je pourrai créer quelque chose à partir de ça. En fait, ce qui est formidable dans la manière dont vous présentez cette expérience là, c'est qu'on entend bien qu'il y a cet accès, cette plongée possible dans Le silence intérieur dans la pure conscience, mais ça ne vous sort pas de la réalité du quotidien. On entend qu'en fait, vous êtes aussi confronté, je ne sais pas, au stress d'un rendez-vous peut-être, de dénervement, quand c'est dans des embouteillages.00:44:23Pour autant, vous allez vous plonger, vous allez avoir accès à ce silence intérieur pour décanter. Est-ce que c'est comme ça que ça se passe ? Absolument, mais je reformulerai ça en disant que ce n'est pas que j'ai accès à ce silence, c'est que je laisse ce silence se révéler et qui est le 'je' qui laisse ce silence se révéler ? Eh bien, c'est ma petite personnalité avec ses modes de fonctionnement, ses conditionnements, ses a priori, ses discours tout fait et ses peurs. Bien sûr, d'accord donc ça, c'est chouette de vous l'entendre dire en fait. Vous n'êtes pas devenu un homme différent et complètement imperturbable aux aléas de la vie, petit ou grand. En réalité, vous les vivez de manière très humaine et je les vis non seulement de façon bien sûr humaine comme nous tous mais très intense parce que quand la conscience est là, eh bien, on peut pas tricher une émotion désagréable.00:45:23Elle est vraiment désagréable, mais elle se dissout, elle se dissout dans cet espace de conscience, dans cet espace d'accueil, mais c'est vrai. ce que vous dites parce que quelque part quand j'ai publié écouter le silence à l'intérieur où je raconte notamment un adultère que j'ai commis entre guillemets il y a des gens qui m'ont dit vous vous avec votre sagesse votre chemin vous en êtes encore là je dis mais oui surtout surtout je suis là je suis un être humain je suis vivant et je dois regarder qui je suis et essayer de faire quelque chose avec ça et essayer de faire le moins de mal possible à moi et aux autres mais en étant honnête avec moi et les autres et c'est tout un c'est00:46:03pour moi c'est la seule vraie spiritualité c'est d'être dans cette réalité là donc on voit Bien qu'on n'est pas à l'abri des aléas, vous parlez même dans votre livre de la nuit noire de l'âme que vous avez vécue, vous de manière vraiment très douloureuse, parce qu'en fait, après cette expérience extatique, en fait, vous avez appris à vos dépens que ce n'était pas un état d'éveil définitif, oui, oui, effectivement. Et ce qui s'est produit, c'est que, après la publication de Confidences d'un homme en quête de cohérence, en 2012, j'ai eu un passage à vide, mais ce livre était tellement authentique et tellement honnête que j'avais l'impression d'avoir tout dit, et ma personnalité était comme perdue, parce que comment elle Allait faire pour continuer à exister, maintenant que tout était dévoilé, déposé, et c'était comme une mort.00:46:58Pendant plusieurs semaines, j'étais vraiment pas bien. Fin d'année, tout d'un coup, il y a quelque chose qui s'est réveillé en moi, et je me suis dit : 'Mais dans le fond, Thierry, ça fait des années qu'on te demande de transmettre, et c'est peut-être temps de créer une forme d'enseignement.' Mais je savais que si je faisais ça, Ça serait une école, j'avais ce nom qui venait de l'école de la présence thérapeutique mais en attendant je ne me sentais pas très légitime pour rentrer dans un projet comme celui-là et je me suis dit peut-être que le moyen c'est de prendre une retraite et pas partir, pas aller en Égypte comme je faisais ou rester là où je vis, mais juste constater et voir si j'ai un espace intérieur suffisamment paisible et silencieux pour accueillir ce qui est.00:47:45Mais tout de suite j'ai voulu profiter de ce temps de retraite et de non activité professionnelle et en fait j'ai voulu profiter de ce temps pour écrire, pour écrire à propos de la fameuse expérience de ce silence, je n'arrivais pas à écrire je ne trouvais pas les mots en fait j'étais beaucoup plus identifié à l'auteur que je ne le croyais et le fait de ne pas pouvoir écrire c'est comme si je n'existais plus de nouveau et du coup je me suis un peu entêté et à un moment donné c'était tellement une souffrance que j'ai quand même passé plusieurs mois à aller à mon bureau je m'asseyais à la table de travail et je restais jusqu'au soir à ne rien faire et00:48:24j'avais un ami qui disait mais Thierry tu es en grande dépression et j'ai dit oui peut-être que tu me vois comme dépressif et moi je crois que la plupart des dépressions ce sont des nuits noires de l'âme et moi je vois bien mon ego ne veut pas lâcher je ne sais pas comment faire pour lâcher mais je sais que je vais lâcher à un moment donné ça a été peut-être l'expérience La plus forte qui m'a donné le plus de confiance en moi et en la vie, c'est extraordinaire. Vous étiez très observateur, vous le viviez évidemment profondément, d'ailleurs vous disiez : 'J'ai vu le diable.' Enfin, on sent quelque chose de terriblement douloureux, des vrais monstres avec des addictions, c'était vraiment douloureux.00:49:00Et du coup, il y avait quand même ce petit pas de côté qui vous sauve. La conscience était là parfois, je riais de moi. J'avais des gens bien intentionnés qui me disaient : 'Mais Thierry, pars en voyage' et en fait non, parce que je me disais : 'Si tu te distrais, tu vas partir dans autre chose.' Et il y a quelque chose à Traverser ici n'échappe pas à ça, et ça se faisait naturellement, sauf que ça a quand même duré plusieurs mois. Un matin, c'est incroyable : un matin, je me suis réveillé, j'ai dit : 'Je crois que c'est fini.' Je sentais de la joie en moi, je sentais que je retournais dans le monde. Puis, j'ai mis le site de l'école en ligne dans la semaine qui a suivi.00:49:48Donc, le projet du coup prenait forme, ah oui, il était là, en quelques heures. Alors, après, il y a eu la mise en ligne du site, et puis tous ces gens qui voulaient s'inscrire. Puis, l'école a commencé, quelques mois plus tard. Et alors, pardon, on va reparler de l'école dans quelques minutes, mais du Coup, c'est aussi à ce moment-là que vous avez écrit la version que moi j'ai sous les yeux là de ce livre. Écouter le silence à l'intérieur ça a pris encore une année mais une année où j'étais sage dans le sens où je ne suis pas obstiné à vouloir écrire, je me suis rendu compte que la première année que j'ai passé avec les élèves à l'école où je les invitais à plonger dans ce silence intérieur a été très bénéfique parce qu'elle m'a totally décomplexé elle m'a montré que c'était pas que pour moi que ça fonctionnait et ça m'a donné une forme de confiance, où j'ai arrêté de vouloir expliquer et je suis parti sur le ton du témoignage.00:50:50en tout cas je trouve que vous apportez un éclairage très intéressant sur la manière dont on peut traverser une crise de vie quelle qu'elle soit d'ailleurs mais on peut parfois avoir tendance à vouloir la fuir en partant en voyage en prenant des médicaments en se noyant dans le travail et vous ce que vous avez fait à ce moment là c'est au contraire vous y êtes allé complètement oui et c'est au contraire de ce que notre société propose on réussit à développer une économie sur la vente de moyens de ne pas se sentir avec des vagues ou avec un inconfort dans le corps du coup inévitablement on a tendance à aller vers ça c'est dommage De vouloir y échapper sans comprendre ce que ça vient nous dire, et c'est les bouddhistes qui disent ça si justement la douleur est inévitable, elle fait partie de la vie.00:51:43La douleur psychologique comme la douleur physique, mais la souffrance est évitable et elle l'est à condition qu'on ne s'identifie pas à sa douleur, mais qu'on la regarde. Et du coup on peut en sortir. Quand on embrasse la vie, quand on la prend comme elle est, après on peut faire quelque chose. On est vraiment pas dans la résignation, parce que la vie, la vie a sa logique et sa logique, c'est la vie. Oui, c'est toujours plus de vie. Donc ça veut dire qu'elle va toujours favoriser les êtres qui veulent être vivants ça va se faire à travers des rencontres des résonances avec des personnes qui vont nous reconnaître, Que nous allons reconnaître des synergies entre les énergies qui vont se réunir pour apporter plus de vie et on part dans une logique très positive.00:52:35Vous parliez de la créativité qui peut naître de la vie et du coup je voulais revenir sur sur ce que vous avez créé, vous qui êtes l'école de la présence thérapeutique. Est-ce que vous pouvez me rappeler un peu en quoi elle consiste et à qui elle s'adresse ? Alors je l'ai ouverte à Bruxelles parce que Bruxelles d'abord c'est la ville où je vis, où je n'ai plus tant voyagé et m'utiliser comme je l'avais déjà fait. Donc ça se passe à Bruxelles. Après l'idée, je vous dis : c'est pas quelque chose que j'ai réfléchi, c'est quelque chose qui a vraiment émergé en moi et en fait dans cette inspiration d'emblée. Il y avait Thierry, tu vas ouvrir une école mais elle sera d'abord adressée aux personnes qui sont dans la relation d'aide et de soins donc des médecins, des infirmières, des kinésithérapeutes, des ostéopathes.00:53:22des psychothérapeutes, des gens qui pratiquent alors des médecines beaucoup moins conventionnelles, comme par exemple le Reiki. Tous ces gens se retrouvent dans des classes de 20 à 25 personnes et ils découvrent d'abord que'ils avaient tous une intention commune, qui était d'aider. Mais leur personnalité parfois les empêche d'aller dans cette intention et qu'ils deviennent juste des prestataires de services ou de soins, et que ça finit par dénaturer l'acte même de la guérison et l'école de la présence thérapeutique. Car effectivement, elle s'adresse aux gens qui sont censés apporter un peu de guérison dans le monde. Le premier outil de la guérison, ce n'est pas le thérapeute. C'est sa présence, pas à un niveau très subtil, pas simplement à travers les mots ou à travers les gestes. C'est son champ d'énergie qui change quelque chose.00:54:10Au plus on va s'intéresser à ces sujets, là au plus on va comprendre que la nature n'est pas que dans la matière ou dans les mouvements. Elle est aussi dans la présence d'une intention qui est là, qui est palpable. Mais en attendant, l'école s'adresse essentiellement aux soignants, même si maintenant on commence à l'ouvrir à d'autres gens, parce qu'il y a tellement de gens qui veulent dans le secteur des affaires. De l'entreprise dans le secteur de l'éducation, mais moi j'ai commencé tout seul. Puis, la première année, on a eu tellement de demandes que j'ai accepté 60 personnes. 3 classes de 20, sachant qu'elles allaient rester pendant 3 ans, parce que et que chaque année j'aurais de nouvelles classes qui arriveraient, parce que d'emblée j'ai senti qu'il fallait aussi proposer quelque chose qui allait en profondeur.00:54:59C'était pas du tout une critique de ma part, mais il faut quand même se rendre compte qu'on propose aujourd'hui beaucoup de week-ends de développement personnel qui ont une fonction très bénéfique qui réveille les gens, qui ouvre des perspectives, qui met en mouvement... mais il faut aussi des lieux où on va en profondeur. Et donc d'emblée il y avait un axe dans l'école qui serait un programme de 3 ans et ça s'est imposé à moi que ça allait s'appeler l'initiation et accompagnement à la présence thérapeutique, et l'initiation, c'est important. Je sais que ce mot peut faire peur, parce qu'on dit, mais enfin c'est qu'on est dans quelle secte ? Dans toutes les cultures traditionnelles, le futur soignant il subit une initiation qui est faite de rituels...00:55:41Mais quand on regarde un petit peu comment ces rituels sont organisés d'une culture à l'autre, ils viennent tous réveiller la même chose, c'est à dire une collection avec notre nature profonde et un dépassement. De nos peurs pour aller au-delà de cette construction de l'ego et rentrer en contact avec cette Prajna, cette inspiration, cet esprit, cette conscience qui nous rend plus sages. On a des outils extraordinaires aujourd'hui, on a des gens hyper compétents. Très très bien formés, mais qu'est-ce qu'ils font-ils avec ce qu'ils ont appris ? Au service de quoi le mettent-ils donc ? L'école est bien sûr une école spirituelle. Je sais que ça peut faire bondir certaines personnes, mais en même temps je vois que ce mot est beaucoup moins gros aujourd'hui comme il l'était il y a 15-20 ans.00:56:27Alors que la spiritualité est un des fondements de notre humanité. Cette compréhension de l'esprit des êtres et des choses et nier ça c'est tellement dommage et ça revient beaucoup comme vous le dites. Il y a eu un mouvement ces dernières années très fort qui répond certainement à une forme de quête de sens. Vous savez, ça doit passer par une pédagogie. Il y a quelques années, je déjeunais avec John Kabat-Zinn, cet homme qui a fait ce travail remarquable d'introduire une manifestation sous sa forme de pleine conscience. Je lui disais : « Mais pourquoi lors d'une intervention que nous avions faite, lorsque-il avait répondu à une personne qui posait clairement une question par rapport à la spiritualité, pourquoi n'avait-il pas prononcé le mot spiritualité ?00:57:11» Il m'avait dit : « Non, mais tu sais, c'est un mot quand même un peu sulfureux et pas toujours bien compris. » Je lui disais : « Oui, mais alors c'est à nous de faire une pédagogie, expliquer ce que ça veut dire. » En fait, il m'avait dit : « Oui, mais c'est un travail pour la prochaine génération. » Il avait raison, c'est un travail pour la prochaine génération, tellement l'humain pour cette méditation de la pleine conscience. Mais je fais partie de la génération et vous le faites, c'est ça. Je ne serai pas le seul, je ne suis pas le seul, parce qu'il y aura de plus. En plus de gens qui parleront comme ça, puisque revenir à comprendre l'esprit des êtres et des choses est indispensable.00:57:47En fait, j'ai l'impression qu'on est en train de vivre un retour aux sources. D'ailleurs, vous l'évoquez quand vous parlez de la source, vous parlez des cultures ancestrales, aborigènes, etc. En fait, on revient à ce qu'eux ont pleinement vécu et vivent encore pleinement, oui, complètement, complètement. Eux ne sont pas déconnectés nous sommes singulièrement déconnectés et on nie même nos racines. On oublie nos ancêtres, on oublie d'où on vient. Et donc l'école de la présence thérapeutique elle avait cette volonté de proposer un parcours profond et à côté de ça aussi, quand même des ouvertures vers le grand public qui ne pouvait pas forcément aller tout de suite à cette profondeur à travers des ateliers d'éveil de reconnexion à la vie, des ateliers très joyeux, très festifs où on danse, on chante.00:58:38Mais on médite l'école aujourd'hui, elle accueille 75% de français qui viennent de tous les coins de France, elle accueille 15% de Belges, puis des gens qui viennent d'un peu partout. Il y en a qui viennent du Maroc, de la Réunion, enfin de pays où il y a la langue francophone et d'usage. C'est une très belle aventure et je suis très, très admiratif et touché, vraiment touché par le travail que font les élèves qui viennent dans cette école. Ils ont entre 21 ans, le plus jeune à 21 ans, c'est un étudiant messie, et des gens qui ont 70 ans et qui ont des carrières derrière eux, certains ont publié des livres, sont reconnus des psychanalystes, des psychiatres, des médecins.00:59:29Et je suis très, comme je disais, admiratif, touché de voir des êtres humains qui ont cet engagement, surtout la première année parce que la première année c'est soi avec soi, c'est redécouvrir le moi, l'ego et très souvent ils souffrent de découvrir tout ça en eux. On ne veut pas regarder tout ça et quand le cœur commence à s'ouvrir alors non seulement on peut voir chez soi, on commence à mieux voir chez l'autre. On n'est plus du tout dans le jugement et on rentre dans une démarche de vraie guérison. Et puis la deuxième année, c'est vraiment le rapport à l'autre. La troisième, c'est à ce qui est entre moi et l'autre, c'est-à-dire cet invisible qui n'est visible qu'à l'œil du cœur, disait Saint-Exupéry. Mais c'est tout ce que cette école propose donc voilà.01:00:08C'est une belle aventure, on ne sait pas où elle va mener. Aujourd'hui, je commence à être entouré ; j'essaye d'avoir un noyau autour duquel l'école peut continuer à grandir et à s'enrichir d'autres sensibilités, d'autres présences. C'est tout un travail et que je découvre moi-même dans la transmission à ces membres du noyau que j'appelle les pépins du noyau et enfin, une jolie petite équipe maintenant et puis ceux qui ne participent pas à l'école mais qui y ont passé trois ans et bien ils vont retourner dans leur vie avec quelque chose. Je dis toujours que ce n'est pas l'école qui leur a donné quelque chose, ils ont eu l'occasion de récupérer, de redécouvrir quelque chose qui était déjà au fond d'eux ; et avec cette chose-là, Très souvent, je constate qu'ils ont des projets très créatifs dans leurs univers respectifs, quel que soit le domaine du soin ou de leur intervention dans la société.01:01:02Ils créent des choses très belles. Qu'est-ce qu'on peut souhaiter pour cette école de la présence thérapeutique dans les prochaines années, Thierry ? Que moi, pour commencer, et que les personnes qui se joignent à ce projet ne soient pas un obstacle à son épanouissement. Le grand danger dans ce genre d'entreprise, c'est que le fondateur et les gens qui finissent par s'y raccrocher à ce projet utilisent le projet pour leurs ambitions personnelles, et que du coup, il l'empêche parfois de se développer. Ce travail de conscience se fait au quotidien, parce que sans ça, ce genre d'entreprise est voué à l'échec. Je ne dis pas que ça réussira, mais c'est ce que je souhaite pour cette école. Et pour vous, Thierry, qu'est-ce qu'on peut vous souhaiter pour les années à venir ?01:01:54Alors, je pourrais faire une sortie très dans la lignée de ce que je viens de dire d'être la bonne personne, mais c'est quelque chose de beaucoup plus personnel que on peut me souhaiter. C'est ce que j'ai vraiment besoin pour continuer à porter ce projet ou accompagner ce projet. C'est une oasis, c'est un endroit où je suis en totale confiance avec une personne et d'être nourri de ce partage, de ce sentiment de communiquer et d'être regardé avec bienveillance par l'autre. Donc voilà, il faut me souhaiter une vie personnelle, privée épanouie et pleine d'amour. Et bien je vous le souhaite. Je termine par quelques petites questions actuelles à notre entretien, puisque le podcast s'appelle La Petite Voix. Je suis obligée de vous poser la question : est-ce que vous êtes souvent connecté à votre propre petite voix ?01:02:46Oui, cette petite voix, je l'entends. Je suis souvent connecté à elle, mais je ne l'écoute pas toujours et alors je suis parfois encore très, très fort dans les argumentations pour ne pas l'écouter et je peux me raconter des histoires. Et je crois que on se raconte beaucoup d'histoires pour ne pas écouter la petite voix sage au fond de nous, de temps en temps. Quand je constate ça, j'essaye de calmer ce mental et alors s'installe un immense doute. La petite voix parfois se fait absente et c'est bon de rester dans ce doute parce que souvent alors ce que la petite voix voulait nous dire apparaît d'une autre manière. Mon autre question, je voulais savoir quel livre éclairait particulièrement votre chemin de vie, s'il y en a un ?01:03:40Contrairement à ce que beaucoup de gens pensent, je n'ai pas beaucoup lu. C'est suite à un rêve que j'ai fait je sais pas si je l'ai raconté dans notre long entretien. J'ai fait un rêve quand j'avais 17 ans. Parce que enfant, j'ai énormément lu. J'ai beaucoup lu de livres sur l'Antiquité, l'Égypte et tout ça aussi. Et puis je me suis intéressé au bouddhisme. Et surtout après la mort de mon cousin qui était aussi très, très proche et qui s'est tué dans un accident de moto à 8 ans. J'en avais 17, et après sa mort, j'ai commencé non seulement à lire encore davantage et beaucoup plus de philosophie de métaphysique, De spiritualité, ça a duré 2 ans. Puis un jour, j'ai fait un rêve. Dans le rêve, je marchais dans l'allée centrale d'une cathédrale

In today's episode, we delve into the "Mindful Leadership in Modern Times," exploring how mindfulness intersects with leadership to help you navigate complex challenges with calm and clarity. Join your host, Shikha Pandey, as we uncover practical and inspiring techniques for mindful leadership. In our fast-paced world, leaders face immense pressure to perform, make swift decisions, and manage diverse teams. Discover how becoming a mindful leader can transform your leadership style, reduce stress, and enhance team collaboration. Drawing inspiration from John Kabat-Zinn's wisdom, "You cannot stop the waves, but you can learn to surf," we highlight actionable techniques like mindful breathing, active listening, and cultivating gratitude. Learn from real-world examples of mindful leaders such as Satya Nadella and Arianna Huffington, who have successfully integrated mindfulness into their leadership approach, fostering innovative and collaborative cultures. Implement mindfulness breaks, lead by example, and create a mindful culture within your team. Mindful leadership isn't just a buzzword; it's a transformative approach that enhances leadership and work environments. Embrace mindfulness, lead with purpose, and witness your team thrive. Subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with aspiring leaders. Stay tuned for more insights and techniques to help you become the mindful leader you aspire to be. To know more about my coaching programs, email me info@shikhapandey.in Find me on instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shikhapandey.coach/ Find me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shikhapandey/

In this new episode, Jayne Warrilow joins us to talk about the essential role of trust in humane marketing and business. We explore why self-trust is the foundation of all other forms of trust, especially for entrepreneurs navigating challenging times. Jayne shares insights on how trust shapes a business's reputation and client relationships, offering practical steps to enhance trustworthiness. We also discuss the journey of becoming a trusted authority in your field, and how confidence and courage play crucial roles in this transformation. Join us to discover how making trust your competitive advantage can elevate your business in the world of compassionate entrepreneurship. In this conversation they talked about: What trust has to do with Humane Marketing and Humane Business Why self-trust is the foundation of all other forms of trust in business and how entrepreneurs can build and maintain self-trust, especially in challenging times How trust influences a business's reputation and client relationships, and what measures businesses can take to ensure they are seen as trustworthy How entrepreneurs can discover and embrace their calling to become a trusted authority in their field How confidence and courage influence the perception of authority and trustworthiness, and what strategies entrepreneurs can use to build confidence in their industry A sneak peek of what Jayne will cover in our Collab workshop on July 3rd --- Sarah: [00:00:00] Hi Jane, it's wonderful to be with you again today. Jayne: Oh, Sarah. It's such an honor to be with you. I'm really looking forward to our conversation today. Sarah: Yeah, me too, because trust. Oh my God, we could talk about this for like hours and hours, right? So such an important topic. And I think specifically for you and I, I've known each other for a long time. And we're very much value aligned and wanting to create businesses for the long term and helping our clients create their life's work and businesses for the long term. So yeah, trust just seems this kind of, I have to admit for me, it was kind of just this like given it's like, yeah, obviously that's part of the thing, but people do wonder. You know, how do you create trust and so that's why you and I talked and I'm like, yeah, it'd be great if you could come in and talk to us about that, because you have spent [00:01:00] a lot of time thinking about that deeply and came up with frameworks and and you'll share some of that with us. And I'm super excited. But let's start with kind of the foundational question. Like, why do we need to trust when we want to create a business and also maybe what does that have to do with creating a sacred business like you call it or a humane business like I call it? Yeah. Jayne: It's a really interesting question because just like you said at the beginning, Sarah, I think so many of us Take trust as a given, you know, if we're a good human in the world, you know, we're taught from a very young age to be kind and, you know, be kind to our neighbors and, you know, treat other people as we'd like to be treated ourselves. And most of us go out into the world with that kind of energy. And that I've used that word energy very specifically here, because in a way, trust is invisible. It's not something that's [00:02:00] tangible that you can see that you can, you know, Have on your business dashboard and measure necessarily how you're doing. There's data that points to it for us, but really it's such a, there's layers to trust, you know, and and what it really means for us. For me, what I've learned over the many years that I've been working with business and leaders is it's actually the foundation of everything. And it's not just the foundation of business because more and more as I get older, Like life and business are integrating together in a way. And it's so interesting, you know, like there's many of us that will have been to business school and we've learned leadership theories. We've learned business theories. We've learned what it takes to be successful in business today. But one of the things that I noticed in my reflections is I look back at like my time in business school. Nobody ever taught me to be kind. Or compassionate or the things that actually [00:03:00] come about building trust in the world. And at the end of the day, I think somewhere along the way, we've, we've somehow forgotten the fact that business is deeply relational it's about. Humans. Yes. It's also about technology today. So when I talk about relationships, it's not just about relationships between people, which of course you need, you need really good, solid, foundational relationships to make, you know, to be successful as both a leader and in, in your business. But also it's about kind of the relationship with technology. Okay. Your relationship with your business, your relationship with yourself, trust comes across all these different layers, which is what we're going to be diving into. Because once we start to pull it apart and, you know, I have a number of frameworks I've developed, it. It kind of, you look at the frameworks and you go, Oh yeah, that makes perfect sense. But somehow along the way, we forgotten [00:04:00] to really look at what it takes to actually create trust. And I think that's probably why we're all now doing business and leadership in a context where trust is at the lowest level it's ever been because we've neglected it. Sarah: Yeah. So good. Yeah. And it feels like we can immediately finger point at people or businesses where we don't feel that there's trust, right? But it's much harder to figure out, well, what are the things that create trust? Because like you said, it's kind of the invisible and it's just kind of like this energy that you either feel or you don't feel. And when you don't feel it, you're like, yep. It's because they're doing that. And in the humane marketing kind of realm, it would be the marketing that creates distrust, right? But, but there's so many other things besides marketing. And you mentioned this relationship to self [00:05:00] but also to your business and technology. Yeah. So let's maybe start with the self because that feels like a good starting point, because. Yeah, I feel like as business owners, that's where, you know, if you don't have trust in yourself, it's very hard to, to kind of give that to others. So, right. That's really Jayne: true. And, and I think, you know working in organizational life for many years, you know, seeing leaders talking about business as though it's out here. So when we think about trust, you know, very often in a business context, we think about, okay, how can we build trust, like from the business to our audience, for example, but in a lot of businesses that my audience, and I think probably yours as well, need to think about is, you know, how do we show up in, in our life? Right. And our business, because I think it was John Kabat Zinn that says, wherever you go, there you are. So you're not going [00:06:00] to be completely different in business than what you are in life. And, and really this, this external view of, you know, I can make my business success by doing things out here. It's kind of becoming an outdated notion today because the marketplace is demanding so much more of us. And the first thing that I want to speak to is this idea of trusted authority, which to me, I think you can't be successful in business today, unless you can build both trust and authority and authority doesn't come until you have trust in the first instance. So it begins. It's like, you know, just very simple questions. Like, do you trust yourself? And when I ask that of say clients or people that I meet, they'll, they'll stop and they'll think, and they'll, they'll, they'll come back with, well, there's some areas where I do, and then potentially there's some areas where. And maybe not so much. And so it's then that inner work of [00:07:00] really understanding yourself at a deeper level and understanding things, just very simple things. You know, this isn't new. It's like, what do you need? In any situation, for example, to feel confident in a situation, what do you need? And also, what do you want? How do you want to show up to your life, to your business, to your relationships? Who do you want to be and who do you want to become? Because what I'm really speaking to here is something I call your personal energetics or your personal resonance. Now. What do I mean by the word resonance? I just mean the relationship, the quality of connection that you form with yourself in this, in this inner space. Like, what is that quality of connection? Do you know yourself? Do you trust yourself? And in what situations do you trust yourself? And in what situations don't you? Now it's really interesting because what the research is showing [00:08:00] that Other people, other people know when you show up and you don't trust yourself because we all read energy. I mean, we don't talk about this all the time, but before anybody opens their mouth, right? We have a sense of who they're being and how they're feeling. Particularly as females, women particularly read emotional energy. And so really understanding that at a different level, you know, can really kind of accelerate the, what it is that you want out of any relationship. Whilst also enabling the other person to get that. So we're not just talking about you coming in here with a me, me, me energy. It's actually the beginning of the win win the me to we journey of how do I be in relationship with others? Well, I've got to learn how to trust myself and be in relationship with myself first so that I can inspire trust from others because if I don't trust me, nobody else is going to trust me [00:09:00] either. Sarah: Yeah, we're always so aligned in our thinking, right? The way I think about this recently, I, I started to think, well, we're talking about company cultures, right? This idea of cultures. And I'm like, well, as entrepreneurs, we need to start thinking about that. Think of it as, as personal cultures, what's the culture, you know, your personal culture within your one person business. And that's exactly what you were talking about is this resonance. How do you feel Because, yeah, that reflects on other people then, and then that's where this resonance comes in, right? And people seeing how you feel. And I love how you made that transitional. So from the me to the we so yeah, clearly it's like, it's not just you and your business, it's you in relationship with. You know, clients, [00:10:00] other people one point you also made was this idea of the authority. And so that I feel like a lot of people are kind of scared already of that word. It's, you know, it feels kind of maybe a bit heavy, maybe even a bit. Kind of like past paradigm, you know, so tell us more about this this idea of authority for me. Also, what comes up what I like more is the word courage because you and I both work with change makers. And so I feel like having this. Working on themselves, this inner work, this self confidence it leads to more courage and that's really what you need to kind of show up as, you know, more of an authority, but I'm curious to, to hear from you what you think about authority and courage and all of these things. Jayne: Yeah. And I love the word courage because of course it comes from the [00:11:00] French, you know, that the courage of it's the heart opening at the end of the day. Interestingly, as you were speaking there, I was thinking, I don't actually use the word authority without the word trust. And why? Right. Because I think you're right. I think authority in a way is the old paradigm because it's got a very masculine energy with it. It does, doesn't it? No, it's kind of got a bit of a push energy and a bit of a, let me blow out my chest and show how good I am. Right. Right. And so this masculine energy comes forward with the word authority, but if you put the word power, Trust with it. Trust is a very feminine kind of feeling kind of energy. And one of the things I learned over, you know, over the years, working with so many different coaches and consultants and also leaders and global leaders and C level leaders is this, this idea that a lot of my work with these individuals, particularly in coaching, has really been around. And if I say these two words, people will get it straight away. Owning. Owning it, [00:12:00] whatever the it is for you. It's not just learning that you have a message, but that you are a message. Right. And so when I look at the word trust and authority together, it's the integration for me of the masculine and the feminine, because. It's like, if you only, if you only operate through a feminine energy in today's market, you're not going to get enough done. There's not going to be enough structures in place to actually attract the people. Life's going to be hard because yeah, you're going to be working as an individual. Maybe you're a solopreneur, but you'll still be trading time for money because you won't have learned how to build the, the structures in the business that can start to take the pressure off your back. Right. And so it's this combination of. Trust, or like you said, courage, courage for me is one of the things that I talk about in different levels of consciousness. I'm kind of going off piece a little bit, but different levels of consciousness is the energy of the heart. [00:13:00] So for your audience, if you know, you're listening and you're not familiar with my work, right? So if you just think about the chakra system, The lower levels of energy are connected to the higher levels of energy through the hearts, right? Through courage. And so authority is really built off of trust, which is the foundation of it. But the old style authority. Didn't really have trust in there. It was just like, let me just shout as loud as I can to everybody who'll listen about how amazing I am. And maybe some of it will stick, but in today's market, it's much quieter than that. And the reason it's built on trust is because you're not the one giving. Being your self authority, like in the old days, it's other people that will then say, you know, I trust you and I trust your authority in this space. And for you to be that person, you need to have done your own [00:14:00] inner work. Now, what does that mean? When I look out into the world, and this is quite a triggering statement for some people, I feel that we have a lot of issues in our leadership. And one of those issues is there's many, many leaders that are leading from what I would. Term as unhealed stories. So they've had trauma, maybe in their childhood, maybe in their adult life. You know, we've all had trauma, but they've not done the inner work. They've not done their own work to actually kind of heal that. So they go into work and life and business. And what they're doing is they're projecting these. This trauma, these unhealed stories onto other people in not, they're not aware of it at all, but it also causes more aggression, lack of care, lack of compassion in the workplace because somebody's unaware. They're not. Conscious really of what they're doing and their impact on [00:15:00] others. And so really this is where trust all begins is, are you prepared to do the work to earn trust? Because we all know trust isn't, and we all know from our own experiences, trust can be lost very quickly. And then it's harder, you know, you really do have to do some work to bring it back. So really understanding. Not only the foundations of trust, but the different elements that build trust generically, because it's been a lot of research done in this space. Once you understand that, it's easier to be aware if you're ever breaking trust inadvertently with somebody else, you can do things that actually bring it back before it kind of falls down the abyss. But also you can trust yourself and show up as a trustworthy individual. And that's a very attractive energy in this marketplace today, just in life. Because we don't meet that many people who've done their own inner work, who trust themselves and then show up [00:16:00] with trust because they own their message. They don't just have a message. You know, they own the message. They know their life. Is making a difference, not just their business. Sarah: And I Jayne: think embodying what matters most in today's marketplace is probably the most important advice I could give anyone. Sarah: Yeah, so much good stuff in there. I always want to like take notes for yeah, where, where can I. I don't want to add anything. It was just perfect. So, so let me just go in another direction because I, I think in one of the frameworks, I saw that you also talk about collaboration and maybe you hinted at it a little bit just prior how, oh, yeah, you mentioned it because you're saying, well, trust needs to be earned. And the old paradigm was kind of like, well, I just show up as an authority where actually you know, the other [00:17:00] people make you an authority. You don't even call yourself an authority. Right. And so how does this all have to do with collaboration? Because it's not just me trusting myself. Yes, we saw that was a big deal and that's where it all starts. But then how do we. not use, but collaborate with other people to increase maybe that trust and maybe also the authority what have you seen in your work? Jayne: Well, you see, as soon as you mentioned that I went straight into power dynamics in my head, because. You know, we've lived for so many years with positional leadership in organizational life. And even in small businesses, you know, there's the founder, the CEO, and, you know, maybe an admin assistant underneath. So what it, what happens when you do your own inner work is you start to realize and kind of have compassion for other people. And I don't know, this is [00:18:00] certainly true for me. The more I learn about what's on the inside here, the more I realize there's a bit of a crowd, but also. That I'm no better, really, or worse than anybody else. So it's almost like a humility comes into the way I feel. And I also realize that everybody that I meet has something that they can teach me. What do I mean about the power dynamics and trust? Well, What it does for me is it shifts my belief system about who I think I am and who I think I'm being, which then in a relationship with somebody else, or if I'm collaborating with, what I'm doing is I'm really partnering. I'm having the energy of not power over or power under, I'm in the power with. space. So when I'm in that space now, it's shared power, right? So it is collaborative because I'm listening as much to the person that I'm in relationship [00:19:00] with as much as I'm like speaking from my own perspective, but we're in true dialogue now. Every, whenever I say dialogue to people, everybody thinks that this is something we do every day, all the time, but it's not. I'll just say to anybody who's listening, just go out into life, sit in Starbucks and listen to the people behind you on a table. I can guarantee they won't be in true dialogue. Why? Because it's almost like we've forgotten this power with, we've forgotten how to be with each other in some ways. And if you listen, I can more or less guarantee what you're going to hear is what I would call two parallel conversations, whereas somebody is just waiting for the other person to finish so they can say the next thing they want to say, and the other person's waiting so they can say it. Speak and say what they want to say, but there's no real collaboration, even in a communication that's happening. [00:20:00] And again, this is why we've lost trust. You see, so this is also, there's so many different layers to trust from power, how we're showing up to the belief space to have we, do we trust ourselves? We've got our own, like. Have we healed our own stories so that we can actually be in the world in conscious and intentional ways? Because that's the beginning of humane marketing, because if we're not being human and we're acting like machines, then, well, we're pushing because we feel less than on the inside. So we feel we've got to get our stuff out because people need to hear what we've got to say. That's a very different energy then. Hey, yeah, I'm here and I'm ready to help, right? I'm ready to help you. And one of my mentors used to say to me, you know, like we talk a lot, don't we? In marketing about let's get a funnel. Let's get a lead magnet. Let's do this. Let's get it all in place. Right. Content marketing. And what one of my mentors, [00:21:00] one of my early mentors here in the States said to me, Jane, at the beginning of a relationship with anybody, Just help them, just help them, right? Don't keep proving that you can help them. Don't keep telling them you can help them, just help them. And when I think about trust, right, if I think about it from my own perspective, one of the first things when I'm in a new relationship, whether it's a business, professional relationship, or whether it's just a personal one is this idea of don't let me down. This is what research shows. The first thing that comes into our head is, are you someone I can trust? Don't let me down here. Whatever it is, don't let me down. So that's the first thing you, you need to prove is that you're someone who cares and that you're not going to let them down. You've got their back, right? It's simple. Sarah: It, it, it, I love this word, humility that you used and what comes up right now for me also when you said, don't let me down [00:22:00] is the word integrity. So kind of like walk your talk, follow through, do what you say, you're, you know, do what Said you were going to do all of these things. Like that's, it's these small little things that people notice. Kind of like the credit system from Stephen Covey, where he's like, well, you know, you, people, Don't pay attention, but they actually accumulate credits like if you do good things the other person will kind of have a credit count and every time they, you know, you do something that is like, not in integrity or not trustworthy. Well, you lose credits, right? And you it's very, very hard to then regain these credits once you are like, under zero. So. So yeah, just kind of like paying attention to, to the unspoken, to the invisible, like you mentioned, it's so, [00:23:00] so key in, in trust and authority building. And I feel like what you mentioned also about collaboration and partnership. It's, it's really this new paradigm, right? It's not about you building your own authority, but partnering with others on the same level that creates authority for both partners. I feel like that's the way we both, we all rise together. Right. It's not like I rise by abusing the people under me. It's like we all rise. And I just, I just love that way of thinking about business and marketing and building trust. So, yeah. Jayne: Yeah, it's so important. And you used a word there, Sarah, which is so important in business for me, which is the word integration, because even though I've talked about, you know, do you trust yourself? So this idea of personal trust and personal [00:24:00] resonance, then moving that out into like what I would call then social resonance or relationship. Like that inspires when you trust yourself, it's then how do you show up in the world that enables others to trust you? But this space of integration for me, like the crucible of that is in your business, Sarah: because Jayne: that's the space of being and doing, because we want you to embody the message that you have. We want you to lead from this integrated space. And we want you to bake this in to your business so that, for example, all of your team, like if you have assistants or whatever, anybody who's representing your business understands how they're going to go about building trust, because actually we can build trust through technology too today, but we can't do that if the, we can't do it in human ways. Unless those first [00:25:00] two, the personal and the social are in place. And if you think about this from, you know, like the, the, the work that leaders have been through, like there's emotional intelligence, which you could argue is a good piece of self trust. Then the social intelligence, which you can argue is a good piece of the relationship trust. And these two things are so important in business today. Why? Because the market's changing and we're going beyond the transactions in business now. So it's not just, will you do what you say you will do when you say you will do it? That's kind of the baseline now, but now people are looking for. Purpose. They're looking for meaning. They're looking for you. Are you a force for good in the world as one individual human living in the world? Are you a force for good in the way you're living your life? Or are you part of the problem? Right. And then that of course, ripples out into your relationships, ripples out into your business. [00:26:00] So, you know, one thing that I always say is a business that doesn't resonate. Can never be successful, just like a person that doesn't resonate can never be successful. And you can't resonate unless you can build trust. Sarah: Yeah. You can't build trust unless you do the inner work and the workshop with Jane. To tell us a bit more about the workshop that you're gonna yeah, Jayne: share with us. Yeah, well, I'm really excited cause I have a number of frameworks. And one of the things that I love is, is putting the, I'm very visual. So putting things into a visual framework really helps me to kind of understand. And there's a lot underneath these frameworks and I've got, I think, three or four that I'm going to be sharing. And, and the first one is looking in a way, looking at the context. It's looking at how is the market changing in terms of trust and what [00:27:00] are, and what are our customers like asking for? What are, what's the invitation that they're giving us right now in terms of the way that we show up to do business. Right. So that's kind of the first one. And then we're going to see. So we're going to start looking at this integration of the self and the relationships and the business. And what does it mean to truly integrate the being and doing in business? And we're also going to look at the five key elements of trust, of building trust in depth so that we can understand what they are, because of course, they work in the individual space, they work in the relationship space, and they also work in the business space. Because the ideal here is. It's not just you as a human being very trustworthy as an individual, and then building relationships that are trustworthy. That's a key part, but also building the trust into your business, baking it in into all of your kind of. Processes, your structures, your systems, even if they're run through [00:28:00] technology, that they still got your voice, they've still got your energy baked in at the very core. So we're going to be looking at what these things mean and how to actually practically implement this in your business, because trust can feel like something that's floating around up here. But we actually want to bring that energy down so that, you know, it makes a difference in your daily reality. So that's, I love Sarah: that so much and I love that you making it practical, right? It's like, while I love big concepts and you and I could talk about these things, hours and hours, but at the end of the day, what the entrepreneurs want is like, okay, I get that, but how do I bring that down into my business, into my systems? And I love that you talk about technology as well, because there is kind of this. You know, resistance to. Maybe using technology or seeing it as like this bad thing from the [00:29:00] past paradigm, but I'm very much about saying, no, no, no, we use the technology, but we just need to infuse it with the new paradigm. Recipe, you know, it's like, yeah, we, we can use both. And it seems like that's exactly what you're going to be sharing with us. So not wait, it's going to be amazing. So please people, if you listen to this and you want more of Jane and building trust and courage and all of that good stuff have a look at humane. marketing forward slash. workshop and join us on July 3rd because it's going to be amazing. And you, I think. It could, it could feel like this is just a nice to have for business, but don't get that wrong. It is a must have for the new business paradigm. We are going to be inundated with anything AI, right? And I just talked about the [00:30:00] positive things of AI, which I do a hundred percent believe in. But the other side, the dark side of AI is all the. You know, the generic stuff that we're going to be inundated with, and so that's why we need to work on the foundation and the trust building and all of that so that even in the technology, people can tell this is trustworthy and this is not, you know, so yeah, I can't wait. Jane, anything you want to add about the, the workshop or anything else? Jayne: I just want to say, I completely agree with what you're talking about with AI because at the moment, I mean, I can't necessarily talk about the future so much in the long term, but at the moment right now, this is a distinct advantage because you're absolutely right, Sarah. AI is. Causing us to reflect back on ourself to what does it mean to be human and be human as a leader and human in business. So that, this is why your brand and humane [00:31:00] marketing, I know the work that you do is so very important because if we can't claim and there's right now, there's no shared definition of what it means to be human. So if we can't claim. Ourselves and our energy and what it means to be human. How on earth are we going to keep up with AI coming in? So the, this sounds, you know, like it sounds fundamental in many ways because it is, but it's also right now, what I want you to know is, My clients that are doing this in the marketplace right now, this is a competitive advantage because it's what the market is asking for and the market is in some ways slower to move with the large corporations than we are when we're entrepreneurial and we can pivot on a dime. So it's a real competitive advantage right now. And people are yearning for the humanity back in business. So let's just give it to them. Sarah: Yes. Let's [00:32:00] do it. Can't wait, Jane. Really. I very much look forward to this and thanks so much for being on the podcast and let's just say to be continued. Yeah. Jayne: I love it. Sarah: Thank you, Sarah.  

In the whirlwind of life, ever long for a pause button? Enter John Kabat-Zinn, taught me the 54321 grounding exercise - a simple yet profound tool to melt away anxiety and bring us back to ourselves. It's about finding calm in the chaos, peace in the present. So, take a breath, and let's journey inward together. Your sanctuary of peace awaits. #MindfulMoments #JohnKabatZinnWisdom #FindYourCalm #InnerPeaceJourney #AnxietyRelief

The conversation touches on themes such as believers, friends, goals, and transformations, with Dr. Gina sharing her personal experience of achieving her lifelong goal of obtaining a PhD. They discuss the uncertainty that often follows reaching goals and the need for individuals to experience various aspects of life fully.Mindfulness and transformational vocabulary are explored in depth, with references to the works of John Kabat Zinn and Jean-Paul Sartre. The discussion also delves into the concept of wearing masks, both literal and metaphorical, and the importance of recognizing different roles and identities people adopt.The podcast further explores spiritual growth, self-awareness, and the role of self-judgment in faith and personal life. The Imam shares his personal experiences and beliefs, emphasizing the importance of confronting and healing from childhood traumas.Other topics include the manipulation of religious texts, self-perception, body appreciation, and self-care practices. The Imam leads exercises focusing on body parts like toes and knees and emphasizes the connection between mind and body in self-care practices like mindfulness and meditation.

Janet swoons over Sam Harris again. Meditation apps. Meditation misconceptions. Being present. The ten breath challenge. Dropping back into yourself. ADHD background whizzing. Simple, but difficult. Mind control. Neurological spasms. Changing the channel. Living in the now. Not in my life, not in my mind. Meditation in the schools. Meditation while driving. Bicep crunches. Bedtime party time. Sauna pukes. The ego. Our peaceful corner. Reaching enlightenment. Silent retreats. People hating on the good. Stoned meditation. Collective consciousness as one big glob. We're all you. Book recommendations: Ten Percent Happier by Dan Harris. Anything written by John Kabat-Zinn or Rupert Spira. (Recorded on January 1, 2024)

As we cruise through the second quarter of our Feelings Fitness journey, we've shifted gears to prioritize health, zooming in on the mind for the month of April. The open road of our minds can be cluttered with the traffic of stress, but what if there was a way to navigate through it with ease? That's exactly what we set out to discover in this week's episode, where we delve into the transformative practice of mindfulness. We trace its origins from ancient Buddhist and Hindu teachings to its impactful integration into Western culture by John Kabat-Zinn. Imagine a tool so powerful that it not only alleviates stress but also dismantles those pesky habits that hold you back. By the end of our talk, the promise of a calmer, more collected mental state beckons, as we explore the application of mindfulness in everyday activities to preempt stress-induced physical symptoms.This episode is a treasure trove of insights, starting with a case study from psychology that illustrates how mindfulness can help us break free from the cycle of reward-driven behaviors. We share stories and practical tips on how to introduce mindfulness into daily life, whether it's through a mindful eating exercise with children or simply being present during a conversation. The wisdom of Gretchen Rubin is our guiding star, reminding us that "keeping up is easier than catching up." So, I challenge you to embrace each moment of the upcoming week with open-hearted awareness. By the time we sign off, you might just find yourself equipped with a set of mindfulness tools ready to smooth out life's bumps. Let's embark on this road to mental wellness together, shall we?

Joining me on my Run Your Life podcast this week is George Mumford. He is arguably one of the greatest sports psychologists in the world based on the results he has achieved with his work. He has taught mindfulness and meditation to everyone from prison inmates to corporate executives to some of the most extraordinary athletes on the planet such as Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O Neal. He was also 11-time NBA championship head coach Phil Jackson's right hand man during a run of 8 NBA championships with the Chicago Bulls and the LA Lakers. George Mumford was referred to as Phil Jackson's secret weapon and helped the Bulls and the Lakers reach a legacy defining run of championships over those years. In Phil Jackson's own words, he has said, that "Time after time and team after team, I've seen athletes transformed and seen championships saved by players who believed in Mumford's one mind, one breath efforts." A true testament to the impact of George Mumford's work. However, success did not come easy for George. During his career in high school and university, he was wracked with one debilitating injury after another which resulted in him developing an addiction to opioids which then led to a full on heroin and alcohol addiction that he grappled with for years. After hitting rock bottom, George devoted himself to recovery by focusing on his healing from the inside out. It was during this time, he found the power of meditation and mindfulness, working alongside some of the most brilliant minds in the world in this field of study including renowned experts John Kabat-Zinn, Jack Kornfield and Sharon Salzberg. George has now been clean for 39 years and has made it his life mission to teach and work with others  helping them to find true fulfillment, meaning and purpose in their lives.It's no surprise he has impacted so many humans through his work including Michael Jordan who credits George with transforming his on court leadership with the Chicago BullsKobe Bryant has also emphasized the impact of George's work in many interviews and in his book ‘The Mamba Mentality'. He acknowledges George as a key figure in his mental training and personal development, often saying that his teachings and mindfulness techniques had a significant impact on his own ability to stay focused, maintain composure under pressure and perform at a high level. George continues to share his work for free on his YouTube channel At Home with George and every few days he posts a video sharing deep insight into how meditation and mindfulness can be applied in anybody's life regardless of what it is they are going through or pursuing in their life. You can find this series below. In our conversation today, George and I unpack some of the key ideas embedded within his latest book including the power of mindfulness and ways to navigate through tough times in our life in a way that often leads to our greatest breakthroughs. Connect With George: WebsiteTwitterLinkedInInstagramFacebookLink TreeFind George's books by clicking the links below: The Mindful AthletePlease be sure to subscribe to my Run Your Life podcast, much appreciated.

In today's episode, Gina discusses the spectrum of thoughts from anxious negative thinking, to positive thinking. Between negative and positive thinking lies neutral, mindful thinking. The importance of neutral and positive thinking are discussed as are strategies for encouraging this more benevolent areas of the spectrum of thoughts. Listen in and begin to steer your thoughts towards neutral for more peace and wellness! Please visit our Sponsor Page to find all the links and codes for our awesome sponsors! https://www.theanxietycoachespodcast.com/sponsors/ Thank you for supporting The Anxiety Coaches Podcast. Find even more peace and calm with our Supercast premium access membership! https://anxietycoaches.supercast.com/ Here's what's included for $5/month: ❤ New Ad-Free episodes every Sunday and Wednesday ❤ Access to the entire Ad-free back-catalog with over 600 episodes ❤ Premium meditations recorded with you in mind ❤ And more fun surprises along the way! All this in your favorite podcast app! To learn more go to: https://www.theanxietycoachespodcast.com Join our Group Coaching Full or Mini Membership Program  Learn more about our One-on-One Coaching What is anxiety? Quote: Chapters 0:00:24 Exploring the Spectrum of Thoughts 0:02:07 Escaping the Wormhole of Negative Thinking 0:04:54 Finding Balance in Neutral Mindfulness 0:09:36 Moving from Negative to Neutral and Positive States 0:11:05 The Power of Acceptance and Neutral Thinking 0:13:07 Embracing a Sunny Disposition and Positive Outlook Summary In this episode of the Anxiety Coaches Podcast, we explore the spectrum of thoughts. On one end, there is anxious, negative thinking. In the middle, there is mindful, neutral thinking. And on the other end, there is positive thinking. While mindfulness and positive thinking are different, the goal is to land in the middle with neutral thoughts. Anxious, negative thinking leads to negative beliefs and a hot brain filled with rumination and worry. It also leads to negative behaviors and self-medication for anxiety relief. On the other hand, neutral thinking brings us into a state of balance and calmness. We observe the facts and collect the data, leading to more realistic and neutral-positive feelings. Neutral thinking is confirmed with positive outcomes and allows us to see the beauty and color in our lives. In this part of the podcast, I talk about the importance of spending more time in neutral and positive states. I explain that while we can't avoid negative states completely, we can make an effort to shift our mindset towards the positive. I give examples of how our thoughts and interpretations can impact our emotions, behaviors, and overall outcomes. I emphasize the benefits of staying centered, open, and receptive to the world around us. I discuss the different brain states of resistance, acceptance, and hope, and how they affect our experiences. I encourage listeners to strive for realistic acceptance as their default state, while also allowing for days of positivity and hope. I share my own experience of transitioning from an anxious and negative mindset to one of neutrality and mindfulness. I caution against dwelling in negativity and urge listeners to stay mindful and steer themselves towards a more positive outlook. I offer the reminder to keep listening to the podcast for more strategies and inspiration. The episode ends with a quote from John Kabat-Zinn about letting things be instead of trying to forcefully let go. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On this episode of StreetSmart Wisdom Podcast, host Steve Stein welcomes guests Sherry Turkle and Jon Kabat-Zinn to discuss a variety of thought-provoking topics. The episode begins with an emphasis on the importance of taking action for future generations and the planet. Mindfulness meditation is highlighted as a beneficial practice for individuals and society, while the concept of self-governance and minimizing harm is explored. The guests delve into their personal experiences, with Steve sharing how his son's decision to observe Shabbat positively impacted their family dynamic. The idea of taking breaks from digital devices is discussed, with the concept of a "digital Sabbath" being mentioned. The episode also touches on the potential impact of AI and the need for regulation, as well as the value of listening to different opinions and staying calm in a democratic society. The conversation expands to critique the industry that keeps people glued to screens and highlights the need for human compassion over machine empathy. The importance of necessary conversations, embracing solitude, and developing an inner life is emphasized. The guests also touch on topics such as the role of awareness in meditation, the impact of technology on schools, and the value of human connection over technological solutions for loneliness. Throughout the episode, the complex relationship between the digital world and what truly matters is explored, offering deep insights and thought-provoking perspectives. Timestamp [00:02:23] Steve Stein interviews Sherry Turkle and John Kabat-Zinn about digital and analog technology. [00:07:13] Terrifying potential of AI, analog world's importance. [00:12:11] Necessity to care for future generations, mindfulness vital. [00:15:54] "Human compassion triumphs over machine empathy." [00:22:15] Meditation helps access your innate awareness. [00:24:53] The importance of welcoming babies with love [00:29:54] Family finds healing through embracing tradition. [00:35:50] Echo chamber: Dangerous for democracy, need diverse opinions. [00:37:16] Summarize: Necessary conversations about our existential moment. [00:42:34] Join WisdomFeed+ for curated wisdom, wellbeing, and community..   Connect with us: Facebook: https://bit.ly/FBpageWF Instagram: https://bit.ly/RealWisdomFeed WisdomFeed Website: https://bit.ly/WisdomFeedHome BetterListen Website: https://bit.ly/BetterListenWebsite Free Resources: https://bit.ly/FreeResourcesFromWisdomFeed 

When you are stressed, your brain's functioning will suffer & your decision making will defer to what is habitual vs. growth orientated; keeping you stuck. Tune in to today's episode to learn three simple ways you can manage your stress, regulate your nervous system, and train your brain to make great decisions.  ----------  Free Resources:   Book Your Consult Here: www.chatwithjess.com Book: Wherever You Go, There You Are by: John Kabat-Zinn 7 Stress-Relief Breathing Exercises for Calming Your Mind (positivepsychology.com) ----------  Stay Connected  Instagram: @jess_demarchis_coaching Website: www.jessicademarchis.com  

Dr. Carter Lebares, MD is a Gastrointestinal Surgeon at the University of California San Francisco and the Director of the UCSF Center for Mindfulness in Surgery.  In addition to being a thoughtful and skilled surgeon, she ran two randomized trials incorporating mindfulness based practices into surgery.   She developed ESRT or Enhanced Stress Resilience Training from principles of John Kabat-Zinn's Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) to specifically apply to surgeons and surgical training.  With focused lessons and practical exposure Dr. Lebares has shown objectively that improvements in attentional focus, emotional recognition, and cognitive reappraisal learned through mindfulness translate into better surgical performance and training in and out of the operating room.  She tells us her story, how mindfulness impacted her career and continues to impact her development as a surgeon and human.  Dr. Lebares is one of my inspirations as we try to spread the benefits of a mindful approach to surgery and I enjoy every moment I get to speak with her.  I hope you enjoy as well!! UCSF Center for Mindfulness in Surgery: https://mindfulsurgeon.ucsf.edu/Randomized Trial in JAMA Network Open: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2734060

Love my podcast? You can sponsor an episode monthly here: https://anchor.fm/markinmanilacamblyesl/support or by buying me a coffee & help me continue making FREE content for you: https://buy.stripe.com/dR67vtcTvbubefmcN2 Connect with John: https://www.noomii.com/users/john-guanci Connect with me: http://www.eslbusinessenglishexperts.com & http://www.initial-impact.com Ask Me:https://t.me/eslbusinessenglishexperts Join my online Telegram Channel: https://t.me/wealthattractioncoaching FAIR-USE COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER * Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, commenting, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use. 1) This audio has no negative impact on the original works 2) This audio is also for teaching purposes. 3) It is transformative in nature. This material in this podcast is kindly shared by Noomii.com & the featured speaker and re-published here under the Fair Use Act for Educational Purposes. Sign-up to my FREE English Tips and Success Newsletter: https://coachmarkinmanilanlpcoaching.company.site/Coach-Mark-In-Manila-Wealth-Health-ESL-English-&-Career-Success-Creation-Newsletter-PLUS-FREE-Instant-Money-Creation-Links-p495003506 Access Hundreds IELTS Online Courses. Take Mock Tests From Home - Get Your Dream IELTS Score Use My 10% Off Link: https://i.preptical.com/login?ref=17760&apply-promo=initial-impact Have your IELTS Written Tasks or OET Writing Checked, Corrected and Graded: https://coachmarkinmanilanlpcoaching.company.site/x-10-Tasks-IELTS-OET-Writing-Correction-And-Feedback-Service-p504806078 Have your IELTS or OET Speaking Checked, Corrected and Graded: https://coachmarkinmanilanlpcoaching.company.site/x-10-Speaking-Recordings-IELTS-PART-2-OET-Recorded-Speaking-Correction-And-Feedback-Service-p504782211 https://bookshop.org/lists/coach-mark-in-manila-nail-your-ielts-essential-reads Expert in Coaching French, German, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Russian, Spanish and Brazilian ESL speakers and business professionals from UAE - Dubai, Abu Dhabi - Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Iraq, Tokyo, Moscow, Seoul, Bejing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Madrid, Germany. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/markinmanilacamblyesl/message

Trauma can keep us from living mindfully. This episode—part 3 in a mini-series on mindful living—has two parts: we start with an exploration of what trauma is and how it gets stored in our bodies. Then we turn to practices, including meditation and others practices that involve our bodies, with the goal of developing fully embodied lives that are resilient in the face of trauma and pain. The ultimate invitation is to befriend our bodies, so that we can vessels of hope, healing, and compassion in the world.

Neda Gould, PhD is a clinical psychologist in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Johns Hopkins.  She is also the Director of the Mindfulness Program at Johns Hopkins for faculty and staff.  In this episode, we talk through the scientific foundations of meditation practice and how to incorporate them, practically, into your life as a busy surgeon or physician.  We talk through our own meditation practices and hope you feel more grounded and empowered to start your own practice after this episode.  Resources: Books: Mindfulness for Beginners by John Kabat-Zinn; Altered Traits by Daniel Goleman and Richard J. Davidson.Podcast: How to Train Your Mind by Chris Bailey, available on audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/How-to-Train-Your-Mind-Audiobook/B08N5C3QLB

Vorbim despre ce este Mindfulness: cum se practică, la ce e bun. Dar și despre retreat-urile de Vipassana (cea tradițională), despre MBST (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) si MBCT (Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy), despre John Kabat-Zinn, despre ce poate aduce mindfulness în viața fiecăruia și cum numai 5 minute de practică pe zi pot să determine o diferență.

Conversația cu Simona este o conversație despre cum putem naviga acest timp de incertitudine cu o minte mai limpede, mai clară. Despre cum putem fi mai productivi într-o lume care ne trage într-o mie de direcții. Simona este psiholog și trainer în Mindfulness. A studiat la Universitatea din Massachusetts, la Center for Mindfluness, centru creat de John Kabat-Zinn, medicul care a introdus în lumea occidentală metoda de reducere a stresului bazată pe Mindfulness și a integrat știința și meditația. Simona este, de asemenea, certificată de Oxford Mindfulness Center, la Universitatea Oxford din Marea Britanie. Este unul dintre puținii oameni din România antrenați în Mindfulness la instituții care integrează practici meditative și știință. Am vorbit cu Simona despre ce este și cum putem folosi practica meditației pentru viața de zi cu zi. Despre mituri precum ”trebuie să îmi golesc mintea”. Și cum putem deveni mai atenți, mai focusați și construi relații mult mai bune și mai satisfăcătoare. Despre cum ne putem îmbunătăți memoria și deciziile și cum face Simona față realității din jur, știind ceea ce știe.    Sper că, după ce veți asculta discuția noastră, veți decide să investiți câteva minute în fiecare zi pentru voi. Pentru început, atât e nevoie. Și știu ce beneficii aduce pentru mine. **** Acest podcast este susținut de Dedeman, o companie antreprenorială 100% românească ce crede în puterea de a schimba lumea prin ambiție, perseverență și implicare. Dedeman susține ideile noi, inovația, educația și spiritul antreprenorial și este partener strategic al The Vast&The Curious. Împreună, creăm oportunități pentru conversații cu sens și întrebări care ne fac mai buni, ca oameni și ca organizații.  **** Acest podcast este de asemenea prezentat de eMAG, o companie care crede în educație și în puterea oamenilor de a folosi tehnologia pentru a crea un viitor mai bun. **** Note, un sumar al conversației, precum și cărțile și oamenii la care facem referire în podcast se găsesc pe andreearosca.ro Pentru a primi noi episoade, vă puteți abona la newsletter pe andreearosca.ro. Dacă ascultați acest podcast, vă rog lăsați un review în Apple Podcasts. Durează câteva secunde și ne ajută să îmbunătățim temele și calitatea și să intervievăm noi oameni interesanți. 

For episode 179 of the Metta Hour Sharon speaks with Certified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) Teacher, Margaret Cullen.Margaret Cullen is a licensed psychotherapist and was one of the first to become a Certified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction teacher. For over 25 years, she has pioneered secular contemplative programs for various populations, developing and teaching contemplative interventions for research studies at Stanford, UCSF, Portland State, Penn State, University of Michigan, and the University of Miami. Margaret has contributed to the development of the Compassion Cultivation Training at Standford and become Founding Faculty for the Compassion Institute.Today's podcast is brought to you by BetterHelp. Click to receive 10% off your first month with your own licensed professional therapist: betterhelp.com/mettaThe conversation begins with Margaret sharing more of her history and how she came to meditation practice in her late 20s. They discuss how mindfulness is defined in different traditions and the implicit quality of compassion that exists in it, and how Margaret's mentor, John Kabat Zinn, folded compassion into the teaching of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. They discuss “emotional balance” in Margaret's early work doing research at UCSF. Margaret shares her definition of compassion and the ways her definition has evolved over her time. She also shares some of the common misconceptions about compassion that she had encountered in her work. They also discuss Margaret's views on compassion fatigue and collapse and the relationship between self-compassion and compassion for others. The conversation closes with Margaret leading a guided Compassionate Image Practice.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode, I discuss what cognitive reframing means and how it can be applied in our own lives. As well, I share several other strategies and resources to help support and strengthen mental health and well-being. I take a deep dive into Dr. Martin Seligman's work related to positive psychology, Dr. Jim Loehr's research into the power of story-telling and personal narrative, Brene Brown's work related to vulnerability and connection, and finally the powerful role that physical activity can have in our lives. Hope you find some valuable takeaway from my solo podcast today and share with anyone who you feel would benefit from listening. Thanks! Resources mentioned in this episode:Dr. Jim Loehr's work: Latest book: Leading with CharacterJim's website: https://www.jim-loehr.com/Brene Brown's work: Brene's website: https://brenebrown.com/Brene's podcast: https://brenebrown.com/podcast-show/unlocking-us/John Kabat-Zinn's work:Website: https://www.mindfulnesscds.com/Dr. Martin Seligman's work: Website: https://ppc.sas.upenn.edu/people/martin-ep-seligmanLatest Book: https://www.amazon.ca/Flourish-Visionary-Understanding-Happiness-Well-being/dp/1439190763

•    Aujourd'hui, avec Exploration du Monde, Philippe va nous parler d'un écrivain voyageur, Frédéric Lenoir ... Actuellement en tournée avec Exploration du Monde, le film « Les Chemins du Sacré » est une véritable exploration du sacré à travers le monde. Frédéric Lenoir a co-réalisé ce film tiré d'une série co-produite par ARTE, mais il en a surtout tiré toute une série d'expériences et de rencontres personnelles sur les 5 continents ... Frédéric Lenoir c'est un philosophe et un sociologue français maintenant très connu, car il est c'est l'auteur de tous ces livres consacrés à Spinoza, Youg ... mais aussi à l'exploration intérieure de l'Homme. À l'occasion du tournage des Chemins du Sacré qui l'ont amené sur les 5 continents, il a réuni ses rencontres dans un livre abondamment illustré, aux Éditions de l'Observatoire, titré aussi Les Chemins du Sacré.  •    C'est le film en livre ... en fait c'est quoi pour lui la définition du sacré ? Quand  le vol suspendu d'une pensée laisse nos yeux se promener un instant sur la cime d'une montagne, dans la courbure d'une vague ou dans l'éclat d'un rire authentique, on peut percevoir la présence du sacré.  •    Ca c'est de la poésie de la vie ... Pour Frédéric Lenoir, le sacré, c'est ce que nous mettons à part, au-dessus de tout : les valeurs sacrées de nos démocraties modernes, par exemple, sont la liberté de conscience et d'expression. « J'ai toutefois préféré utiliser dans cet ouvrage, dit-il, une définition plus anthropologique: le sacré, c'est ce sentiment de crainte et d'émerveillement que ressent l'être humain devant la beauté de la nature et le mystère de la vie.  •    Et que trouve-t-on dans ce livre ? ? À travers les voyages et les rencontres sur les cinq continents pour les Chemins du Sacré que l'on peut voir avec Exploration du Monde, Frédéric Lenoir en a profité pour écrire un récit de voyage ... photographier des paysages sublimes et des personnes magnifiques ... au Japon, en Australie, au Pérou, en France, au Canada, en Inde, en Éthiopie. Il a décliné le sacré à travers 5 grands thèmes : la nature (comme les peuples animistes), la marche (comme les pèlerins de Compostelle), la sagesse (comme les moines zen), la solitude (comme les ermites) ou la beauté (comme les artistes). •    Des moments forts que l'on retrouve aussi dans le film ? Alors qu'il filmait quatre femmes mayas devant un volcan, le cratère s'est mis à cracher ... le volcan entrait en éruption pendant la cérémonie ! Il a aussi profité de ces voyages pour rencontrer des personnalités qu'il affectionne énormément, dont certains sont des amis et aussi de grands témoins du sacré : Hubert Reeves, Matthieu Ricard dans son monastère au Népal, John Kabat-Zinn (le fondateur de la pleine conscience) à New York... •    Tous les renseignements pratiques de la tournée du film sont sur explorationdumonde.be Courez voir ce film ! C'est Frédéric Lenoir lui-même qui le raconte ! Vous en sortirez émerveillés ... mais attention, pensez à réserver, car la jauge public est de 200 places maximum par salle ! C'est parti pour un tour l'émission francophone sur SiS Radio qui vous parle de plus beaux voyages. En partenariat avec Exploration du monde L'émission de notre explorateur vedette Philippe Soreil est aussi disponible en podcast sur les apps gratuites : Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/show/4LwbgZ2cup5VApfkLLZePl?si=12360fbdc42d44f3 Deezer : https://deezer.page.link/Z5UMxXcL9XG6ymMVA iTunes :  https://podcasts.apple.com/be/podcast/cest-parti-pour-un-tour/id1555437980?l=fr Application S.I.S Radio : Google Play : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.icreo.sisradio App Store : https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sisradio/id1547453358 Rejoins-nous sur nos réseaux sociaux : Facebook : @sisradio.officiel Instagram : @sisradio.officiel YouTube : @SISRadioofficiel

Ich freue mich sehr, dass heutige Interview mit Dir zu teilen! Zu Gast habe ich Dr. Bernd Langohr und Bernd hat sich dafür entschlossen, nach seiner Approbation und Promotion nicht in die Klinik zu gehen und sich stattdessen rund um das Thema ‚Achtsamkeit' selbstständig zu machen. Du erfährst in unserem Gespräch

SUPPORT Vasilisa Lukyanenka arrived to Emotional Intelligence coaching through Zen Buddhism, and the teachings of Eckhart Tolle and John Kabat-Zinn. She is currently exploring Alfred Adler's Individual Psychology and existential psychology, specifically logotherapy, which was created by Viktor Frankl. She believes at the core of most people's problems is the lack of meaning in their life and that each person is 100% in charge of their well-being and happiness. SHOW NOTES 18:10 to 19:40 Negative inner voice 23:10 to 23:50 Re-parenting inner child 28:00 to 28:50 Anxiety, safety, communicating with subconscious 30:30 to Highly sensitive people, 33:48 to 34:40 Emotional work 37:30 to 38:45 Growth, change, Inner Child 52:15 to 52:58 Defining Emotional Intelligence 53:35 to 54:18 Masculine and Feminine and emotions 55:00 to 56:05 De-gendering language 57:20 to 59:05 The nuance of gender roles 100:40 to 101:30 Trust 101:40 to 104:00 Love, poetry 115:25 to 118:25 Not taking things personally 119:40 to 121:40 Emotions, anger, recognizing 122:15 to 1:24:30 Dealing with anger, getting out of your head when in conflict CONTACT VASILISA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vasilisa_coaching/ Website: https://www.vasilisacoaching.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=vasilisa%20emotional%20intelligence%20%26%20self-leadership%20coach CONTACT RON CECIL Website: https://www.roncecil.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rcecil/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ron.cecil CONTACT DANIEL PENNER CLINE Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dpennercline/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1498866808 --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/cutting-for-sign/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/cutting-for-sign/support

Gáspár György este expert național și formator de opinie în sănătate relațională. Dar este și psiholog clinician și psihoterapeut relațional acreditat de Colegiul Psihologilor din România. Este și autor al cărților - Copilul invizibil – prima carte de parenting altfel publicată în România, - Revoluția iubirii- o altfel de poveste despre atașament și relații, - Mindfulness Urban – Exerciții de curaj, compasiune și conectare, #LoveIsFun – iubirea și sexul în același pat și Suflete de sticlă – Traumele celor rătăciți în trecut. A scris prefața la ediția în limba română pentru: Mindfulness pentru părinți, de Myla și John Kabat-Zinn; Curajul de a fi vulnerabil, de Brené Brown. Și nu a ratat sa fie și realizator emisiuni Radio Europa FM, Psihologia relațiilor și Edițiile Speciale Clubul de Weekend cu Toader Păun.

John Kabat-Zinn describe the seven pillars of mindfulness: Acceptance, Trust, Patience, Letting go, Beginner's mind, Non-Judging and Non-Striving. Here's a little something about Acceptance: Seeing things as they actually are in the present. If you have a headache, accept that you have a headache. In the course of our daily lives, we often waste a lot of energy denying and resisting what is already fact. When we do that, we are basically trying to force situations to be the way we would like them to be, which only makes for more tension, which actually prevents positive change from occurring. Acceptance sets the stage for acting appropriately in your life, no matter what is happening

Perspectives Podcast Lisa Forrest - Your Show Notes[00:00:00] Hey everyone. Welcome to this epiSo,de of perspectives. I am going to be your host today. I am Sharon Remy PearSo,n and today we're going to be chatting with ex former Olympian, Lisa Forrest. Who's written a wonderful book called Glide I hope you've had a chance to read it. So, you may remember the Moscow Olympics in 1980 were ground to a hold or had So, much controversy, , because it was the Olympics that the politicians wanted to boycott.And Lisa swam at the Moscow Olympics and subsequent to that in the Commonwealth games here in Brisbane in Australia, she became a household name because of that shoe in not, she was 14 years old when she did her first Commonwealth games, what a remarkable human being. She was captain of the Moscow Olympic team, a small band ofathletes that went in the face of death threats, controversy, news [00:01:00] headlines going either way, slamming them or supporting and celebrating them. Her family was receiving death threats during this time. And after that, as I mentioned in, I think it was 1982, she swam and won gold two gold medals in the Brisbane Commonwealth games with the home crowd, just going crazy for her after her retirement, from swimming at the ripe old age of, I think, 19, she went on and had an amazing career as a journalist.She was on the midday show. I think it was with Ray Martin set afternoon football. She had her own shows. She went on to a show called everybody on the ABC TV and So,me other shows as well. She alSo, trained as an actor in New York, but all the way through this, there was another narrative going on. So, the external looks amazing and shiny and filled with success and applause and gold medals.And under the water, there was So, much more going on. I mean that metaphorically within Lisa and So, in Lisa's book glide she talks about the challenges she was facing [00:02:00] going on within her, within facing her emotions. , What it meant to be mentally tough as a 14 or a 16 year old, not wanting to feel that tough.She talks in glide about how to be mindful and filled with compassion. When it seems everything around you, all the stimuli coming your way is telling you to be any other way. And now she works as a mindfulness coach and a mindfulness trainer teaching the principles of compassion and mindfulness. As she describes, it's two wings of this beautiful bird and how to navigate life in a way other than being a perfectionist, other than being tough, other than never facing her vulnerability.And seeing as weakness, she paints a very different landscape about how we can be and how we can navigate the beauty and the joy of life. And her message is very inspiring. I must say reading the book, there were times I was thinking when, when this hero being Lisa find within her, that it was always within her and I won't give you the [00:03:00] punchline, but the epiSo,des worth hearing about how she transformed her internal dialogue, her internal narrative, So, that she felt as beautiful on the inside as her life looked on the outside.And here she is Lisa forest. So, where are you? Are you in Sydney? Yes, I'm in Sydney. Yeah. And we live in the inner city and Redfin. So,. We've been here for oh, more than 20 years. So, you could buy a place under half a million in Redfern. We did back then notI grew up in the Northern beaches in Sydney, but my mom grew up in the inner city. So, my Nana was living here all her life. So, we were, we went between the two all the time. Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic, great stories from Sydney. I felt, I don't know Sydney really, except as a tourist. So, you introduced Sydney and there was a lot of, a lot more heart to it.The way you wrote about it than I've imagined it to be, which was beautiful. I really enjoyed that. Thank you. You mean in terms of the eDee Whyladies growing up [00:04:00] by the beach? Yeah, I was very lucky. I mean, it is a charmed, you know, way to grow up and I was just lucky, like dad was the Bondai lifesaver. And then, then at a certain point he decided that he'd rather rather board ride, , or ride a board.And So,, yeah, he, they had a place at Newport. , before, long before I was born and back then there was no sewage or anything. It was just a holiday place. So, mumand dad would drive the caravan up there for this block of land. And then once I decided to get married and have kids, they moved So,rt of back towards  where there was a school and a bus route and, you know, all that So,rt of stuff feel.In So,me ways you, you, your parents were sung heroes in your book, but I think even more So, they were an unsung hero. A theme in the book was their heroism in how they were just So,, self-sacrificing and placing you center in your dream center to their world. So, I thought that was. Beautiful the way they've done that.And my hat goes off to them. That kind of parenting. It's [00:05:00] interesting, isn't it? Because we talk about helicopter parenting now, and yet they were, you know, when you use the word self-sacrificing they just cause certainly for dad. , I think we were his world. Like my, my dad was a shy kind of, you know, he was really happy in his own world.He's a surfer, he was a swimmer. He didn't really need a lot and loved where I grew up and obviously loved mom. And then we came along and he was, he worked on building sites and we just were, you know, we were his world and we still aren't really like, you know, he will say if I go to visit him and be like, you know, see you next week and he'll say, can't come So,on, enough love at the same time, they weren't helicopter parents.And it's just more, if I was interested in swimming, which, you know, I showed an interest from that first day down at the DUI ladies, then, you know, he'd helped me do it. And likewise. , you know, if, if I wanted to, whatever it was in terms of, , training, he would get me there. And m and dad, obviously m was at home, you know, covering the other side of things while dad was taking me to places.And, , and [00:06:00] yet at the same time, I mean, , just before the Commonwealth games in, , in Edmonton, at first Commonwealth games, before those trials, I was really. Like exhausted this one particular night, we were training very hard. We, we trained back then in the way that no athlete would train now. But, , but I said to him, I got out of the pool and I was in tears.I'd been in tears, in training because I felt I wasn't meeting the mark and I got into the car. I said, I'm retired. It's not worth it. This, this is no fun. And he dropped me off at home. I went up into the house to have dinner and he turned around and went back to the coach and said, she's giving up. There was no trying to talk me into it.It was just okay. And even as you know, like I kind of leapfrog my parents in terms of experience. Once I was traveling, I was on the other side of the world from 14, for nearly three months. And they were back here all the time. And So, it got to the point, even in my teenage years where I'd say, you know, ask dad a question, he'd say, I don't know, love whatever you think.You know, he wasn't, he just was, he was like, I don't know. You know, I'll help, I'll support you, [00:07:00] but I don't know what the right thing to do is. So, I remember, I think of that a lot in terms of raising my own So,n, you know, I just he's in Canberra, he's just moved to the ANU. And, , I certainly miss my parents a lot.So, I said to him, we'll come down. As often as you need us, there'll be a point where you don't need us. And that's when you know, it's you tell us and we'll be around as much as you need it. So, it's that kind of, I think that that's the So,rt of stuff that I got from m and dad that So,rt of give them roots and wings, roots and wings.That's what we've got to give to them. So,me wings. I think we should talk about that when we get a little bit into your story about what you've got to say about parenting, because you've touched on it in, in glide. And I really enjoyed that. There was a little pieces of narrative. I thought you want to go further there.That's the next book? Well, it's funny. Cause I've told a lot. I mean, now I'm the, I'm a parent of an adult, right. Is 18. He's in Canberra and I've often is So,mething that's always fascinated me. I I've watched people in my time. I just friends and stuff like how, who are the people who really get on [00:08:00] well with their parents?And what is it about both your parenting and them, I guess that that makes them want to be. Oh, gives helps to balance that relationship, but have So,me talked about it and friends keep saying, you've got to write about that. You've heard about events because everybody is having that challenge. Oh yes. I've heard So,me stories.So, Lisa let's do the formal part. You're extraordinary. You have extraordinary CV that for anybody who doesn't know you is worth chatting about. So, congratulations on your successes. And I hope I trust. I'm sure you look back with a feeling of. Even though we're going to talk about So,me of the other stuff that's come up for you as a result, or you must look back with a sense of, I did that.I did that at 14. That was me. I'm remembering me at 14 to you. It's one of those things that it hits you at different times. You know? , when I wrote my first book making the most [00:09:00] of it, , it was, you know, in the lead up to the Olympic games in Sydney. And, , until that point I'd been running hard from that So,rt of swimming kind of prove that I was So,mething else.And So, suddenly in this lead up to Sydney, I had a whole lot of friends. I lived in the inner city, nothing to do with my sport life at all abruptly. So,, you know, I'd done that. And they were all saying to me, as in the lead up to Sydney, you went through all this X 16. And at that point I was like, yeah, I did.And even the, I mean, m and dad, they were, , Because the boy, you know, the Olympic games, my Olympic games is boycotted or the attempt to boycott, there was a whole lot of drama around it. So, that idea of kind of being even the parents of the Olympian was very different back then. So, m and dad stayed in a hotel for four days.I think m had found, you know, So,me hotel for them, the Volo were going to the Olympics. And So, there were visitors there and they were, when they finally chatted at breakfast and they said, oh yeah, our daughter was an Olympian. Your daughter's an Olympian. So, even they got to feel this So,rt of pride of that.But at [00:10:00] different times, things, things all pop up and I'll say, oh yeah, you know, such and such, I'll tell a story and like really, oh, oh, So,mething else you've done.So, let's start back. You, you became a champion swimmer at the age of 14. I'm trying to remember me at 14. And what I thought was a big deal. And can you paint a picture if you can recall. What was in you to be that disciplined? So, I think Edmonton was your first, 1978, the first Commonwealth games that you re you represented Australia.Congratulations. And you had a silver medal in the, in backstroke. That was, I think, tended to be your specialty 200. Can you introduce us to how you could be? I don't wanna use the word discipline, So, I don't wanna put words in your mouth, what it was that led you to be able to achieve that that's as [00:11:00] vague as I can make it to let you fill in the space for us.Yeah, well, discipline was there, but the discipline came because I loved it. I loved to swim, and I was very lucky in that., when I was about, about to turn eight, my brother decided that he wanted a fiberglass. So,, Ford, my dad had been an old Bondi lifesaver. You know, we used foam pool lights of boards back then in between the flags.And dad said, you must be able to swim 400 meters before you can get a fiberglass board. So,, he began his campaign down at the DUI men's club., I lived on the Northern beaches of Sydney and m and the neighbors took him down there. They were members. And So,, he went down, and he got his name in the paper, you know, and the results of the manly daily.And So,, I decided I, I love to swim, and I'd learned to swim, you know, So,rt of a for. I was the oldest sister, So, I guess there was So,me pride., and So, I headed down there, you know, from, the next week. , but true to form, I was a bit of a crier. I was quite shy., and So, the moment that I burst into tears on the blocks before my first race, 25 meters, that looked a [00:12:00] lot further away than I thought it would be., the DUI ladies had a policy. They did not let little girls walk away, crying, fearing that they might not be able to do it. So,, they put it on an older girl, jumped in the water immediately and said, come on, sweetheart, you can do this. And So,, she walked, you know, the gun went off. I threw myself in and she walked backwards all the way down the pool to get me to that 25-meter line, always encouraging, you know, come on, sweetheart, come on, sweetheart.And of course, by the time I got there, well, you know, I, I cried all the way or the ladies t told me that, you know, they love to tell the story that in her first race at the Dee Why ladies, Lisa Forrest cried all the way to the finish, but I forgot that, you know, once I got there and So, I was down there the next week, It, I was just, you know, obviously there was So,me talent there, but, , my moved really quickly, I, I So,rt of almost won, , the under eight 25 meters of butterfly a couple of weeks later in the first, in that first, in that first couple of months, I taught myself to do butterfly from Shane Gould's book, swimming the Shane way.I broke a state record at 10. I won state championships at that [00:13:00] age. So,, I was at my first nationals at 10. I went to get So,me experience, So, I just loved it. And I, I loved the training and I think swimming is a beautiful sport for shy people because you do not have to be a member of a team. You know, you can So,rt of talk to people in your own time.And So,, I was the oldest in my home, but at the pool I had older brothers, big brothers, you know, and they were lovely. And I just, I loved it. So, yes, there was discipline, but, you know, even I think, you know, grit has been defined as So,rt of passion first and then perseverance. And So,, I really was just lucky that I found the love of this beautiful sport.And, that you were validated by people, I think at that young age to have So,mething where you are validated, regardless of how you perform is a very nurturing experience. I think we do not all have. Totally like you cannot separate the two, that first race. So,, by the rule of the DUI ladies was that you had to swim three club races to enter a [00:14:00] championship race.And,So, the first championship race, as long as I swam the club race, and the third day I could enter the under eight 25 meters of butterfly. And, and the, and So, I nearly, I nearly won it. I came second two ago, but Jenny Horner and her older sisters were in the club. The m was a secretary. They were Dee Why lady style.I came from nowhere. And So,, this was a big deal, I guess. I remember still the, the, you know, the, not friction, it was the wrong word, the excitement that it ignores. And therefore, who was the president? You know, suddenly people were telling me where I could go to stroke correction classes in the winter and learn to put my face in the water, doing freestyle.Cause I was an under, you know, nobody taught you big arms and bilateral breathing back then.and So, suddenly I had done So,mething that was. Impressive, and So, yes, that comes with it. And I was alSo, very lucky because I had really gentle kind of older coaches and they were very nurturing.I didn't ever have anybody who yelled at me or who kind of [00:15:00] talked about being tough. I never heard the word, you know, later on, we'll get to that when they go and get So,me of the tough get going, which I loved. But back then, it was just, I think I trained hard, and I liked it. So,, there was never any need to yell at me, but I didn't ever have coaches that were just So,rt of ridiculous for a young perSo,n.You know what I would call ridiculous. So,, I had nurturing, you have a gentle spirit. And So, that was nurtured when you were younger. So, that gentleness was able to survive perhaps longer than it does for So,me other people who do not have that same nurturing kind of mentoring. Yeah. Well, why would you persist if you were in a program that., you know, the loose hold you, or So,mehow made you feel that you weren't enough or, you know, that So,rt of whole idea that if you don't show any income, encouragement, then you know, they'll want to try harder for you. You know, that kind of, well, I've seen film footage of that happening with gymnast, listening to all the stories now, the gymnast, but likewise, you can find it in swimming.You can find it in all So,rts of places. You [00:16:00] did find it at Edmonds. Well, even then, you know, I mean, I think that,  I swam for Australia at a time. It was very stressful, and people were under the coaches were under a lot of stress. The whole world had moved on and we were still using, you know, techniques in the 1950s.Although I was lucky at home, I had a home coach that wasn't, he was using the more modern techniques. And So,, it was Tracey Wickham. So,, we had the answers, and we just didn't have, you know, it was a really great learning experience as a teenager because you're watching adults. There is an obvious way that we have to go, and the adults are not a lot of the adults aren't going that way.So,, what makes you an adult that doesn't want to change? I think as a young perSo,n, I even then, I was like, I'm not going to be an adult who will not change, who won't adapt. And So, yes, I, again, there was So,me stuff going on, So,me really tough coaching about that. So,, people who don't want the story. So,, you went and you're on the team.You're 14 years old. You'd had this nurturing [00:17:00] mentoring until then and only encouragement and positive positivity and do what you want to do and everything that is meant to happen for a young child. And then you had to go away for months training. I'm Australian captain Honolulu. Yeah. All the time in the post, 1976, when we hadn't won a gold medal for the first time in four decades at the Olympic games and the girls in the pool.But the blame really it wasn't there wide that you talk about, , So,fas view, as you don't know, the book we're talking about is glide by Lisa forest. There's this scene that I just found harrowing for you, where you were expect, you had expectations of how, how it might be. You'd never done it before the accommodation was lousy.You were treated literally like you weren't first class or worth. Championing and bringing out your best. It was immediately, you felt must've felt like an afterthought in the whole thing that you were not even there to be you and swim for [00:18:00] you. You were there to reclaim and redeem them. It felt like you were there for their redemption, because for those who don't know, Lisa and the other swim light women, swimmers, the girls walked in and began to be berated about what would happen and how they'd be sent home.And what was the list of possible transactions? Same time. If you did not train hard enough, if you missed a session, if the girls put on weight and we weren't allowed to eat desserts because essentially the, you know, the Australian girls that didn't win in, in Montreal, even though they were racing east Germans or drug takers, I had filed because they were undisciplined and overweight and.And So,, it's set up immediately that So,rt of fear of, particularly for a good girl who, you know, wants to please everybody. that kind of fear of, oh my God, what might happen? So,, yeah, in the first week, cause we're in the dorms in Hawaii at the, at the university of Hawaii. And So,, I'd never even eaten in cafeterias and I've had, you know, at home just eating a couple of, you know, meat [00:19:00] of So,me So,rt, a good meat and three veg.And I went into a cafeteria where. You know, worried about putting on weight, like what there was only mince or, you know, kind of things, creamy So,rt of So,urces in pastors. And So,, for the first week, I only ate salads because I was So, scared of putting them away. And at the same time I was joking. Now, Mr.King, you know, is passed away, but it's not to say that he wasn't gentle. He wasn't nurturing because he was lovely. And he did really like me. I felt like, but he was old school. So,, we got there on the Monday. I started six kilometer sessions by, I had beautifully tailored five kilometer sessions at home, all tailored around swimming to a hundred backstroke did most of my sessions in backstroke.By the end of that first week, we were swimming eight and nine. Kilometers per session twice a day, I was eating salads. So, suddenly then we're like, oh, we need to look up to her. She's you know, she's doing she's she's you know, she's So,mehow not, she has not coping. So,, but in that way, it was more kind of eating.I did not dare tell him. [00:20:00] Yeah, I was 14, but there was 15 year olds. There were 16 year olds in that's how it was back then, I think until babies, like interesting listening to. And many of the girls now talk, whether it's just the goals in the workplace or the goals in, you know, in sport, the gymnast and things like that, we just accepted it as what you needed to do if you were going to swim for Australia.Yeah. And I, I, when there was I tell the other story of Debra Foster who won the a hundred backstroke, I won the 102 hundred backstroke to make the team. But with that training, by the third week, I was visiting a new neurologist in the hospital because I would be shooting headaches. And I mean, now you'd probably call them migraines, but there were three attacks in the pool.I had no idea what was happening to me. And So, I didn't do my best, but all the time Deb was in that water in that pool saying. Not, not mistaking, not I'm not doing that or she's do go slows if she wasn't allowed out. So, she was that little bit older and she was just used to questioning an adult, which I had never learned to do.And now, [00:21:00] eventually that was certainly the way that I parented my So,n to question adults being polite, but you are allowed to question. So, that was So,mething I had to learn to do. And she won that one hundred backstroke. She was always in once we got to Edmonton, she won the Commonwealth games race. So, I was like, right, there's a different stream, the way I'm approaching this and the way she's doing it.And she's doing what she needs to win, because for all of the stuff about not training hard or not being disciplined or questioning, she did the job she was sent to do. And I was like, I need to be like her. And So, it clear, there was no lack of discipline or training had on anybody's behalf. Everyone was So, desperate to.Make Australia proud, make their families better. You bring So, much to it. You're there to do your best. You're not there to goof off. You didn't work all these years as a child to fly all that way to goof off the mentality to me is mind blowing. Yeah. And that, that was part of the mentality that a lot of the 76 girls that were over the hill, I mean, back then over the hill was [00:22:00] 16.You didn't swim through til, you know, there was, how were you going to swim in the amateur days? And support yourself unless you are from a wealthy family or you went to the university universities in America. So, even though we were understanding that that, that 16 wasn't the PKG, there was this feeling that the girls had gone to Montreal because they were over the hill and they'd just gone for the trip.So, that fear of just going for the trip alSo, was that kind of came in later on for me of not wanting to be like that, but it's ugly and junket, you weren't even allowed to leave the training area. I know. I know. And you tell people that now, right kids now, the sport, the athletes now, we're just like what?I mean, I think I talk with schools once my first book came out. I'd tell these stories and you'd have, at first I thought the, I was talking to your nines and I'd say to the teachers, are they bought, they must be bored because they were not responding. They're not bored.Bribing Dickensian times is you're back in the [00:23:00] dark. And these were the amateur days. Yeah. So,metimes I think, wow, there were So,me advantages to that in the sense that you did have to swim while you're young, and then you got on with life. There wasn't this. Oh, how long can my career, you know, keep going for?, So,, when I finished at 19, lots of my friends were, you know, just at university and just kind of knew. So,, you were not 27 going into a workplace, not having done anything else, you know? So,, there was So,me advantages to it. And I think So,metimes alSo, just the advantage that you start from love. I started from love.There was nothing in it for me, all for m and dad. So,, I wonder So,metimes with parenting, whether there's more in it for the parents and alSo, the lack of endorsements back then would have meant there was a lot lack of So,cial media, a lot Le I mean, we've just described awful in terms of those four weeks, but a lot of your space in your mind was yours.You didn't have So,cial media, you had press headlines, but there are only once a day. So,cial media is this relentless mill of [00:24:00] 24 hours a day. Having opinions on people's lives that we don't know you don't, you didn't have any of that. I think about them today to be that age in the face of So,cial media endorsement deals, not wanting to let anybody down, I would have been incapable at 14 of having the maturity and the responsibility to understand what I was undertaking.I, So,cial media would have defeated me. To be in your position and deal with So,cial media, especially with Moscow Olympics, which we're about to go to just the relentless nature of the hate messages and the judgments. It's just excruciating for a child. Yeah. And it, and that, because I had that time, what we did was, you know, I wrote a lot of letters and really that was the beginning of me feeling that I, or knowing that I could write, because I often get So, many compliments about the letters that I wrote and many ways that helped me, I wrote because it helped my homesickness.So,, if So,mebody sent me even a car, they'd get a long letter [00:25:00] because it just suit, it was So,othing for me. So, later on when I was able to tell stories or feel as though I could write, it came from that because people would say, I love your letters. You know, you talk, you write like you talk or tell a great story.So, that alSo, came out of it. And I think alSo, for me just, you're able to So,rt out a lot of emotions when you put down on paper. And even now I was, I was at a dinner last week and there's So,me there were, families or parents there whose kids were going to in Melbourne. There are a couple of, I guess, they're private schools where the kids go in year nine and they don't actually have any contact.They have to write letters and stuff. They take all the phones and everything away. And I think it's a really wise thing. You know, I, I don't know how they manage So,cial media these days. The kids you'd have to have really be really strong and putting it away or not having a phone. Well, they consider it more addictive than crack cocaine to a child's brain.That's how does any child have the conscious [00:26:00] living ability? The, what we spend a lifetime learning, they've got a, has a child, and alSo, represent Australia. I just, whose who signs up for that? Now you then went to Moscow. Congratulations. I had, I was around then and I remember it. I remember So,me of the headlines.I can't even imagine what it was like for you. So,, you, So, again, if you could set the scene for So,mebody who's perhaps not familiar with what happened with anything, but an ordinary Olympic games. Yeah, sure. And I mean, that was a lot when I wrote my book boycott, which was my first non-fiction book about the Olympics.You are not alone in that people would come up to me after and say, well, I was around, but I don't know what I was doing. I just don't remember it being like that.  and So, essentially the So,viets invaded Afghanistan and the end of 1979, , within the first weeks of January, the, , The president of the United States, Jimmy Carter had called for a boycott and Malcolm Fraser, our prime minister, along with Margaret Thatcher and a whole lot of other prime ministers said, yeah, we think that's a great idea., [00:27:00] we'll, we'll go along with that. However, Malcolm Fraser, wasn't willing to make that decision himself. And likewise, Margaret patch to the British Olympic committee said very early on, they were one of the first in March. We're going, you know, Mrs. Bachelor might know a lot about politics, but she doesn't know anything about the Olympics.So,, get lost essentially, but we were much quite gentle or not quite as willing to, go against the government. Our Olympic Federation took quite a while. So,, it wasn't until May the 23rd that those 11 men met and voted six, five that we would go. and during that whole period. So,, at first I hadn't the first, like in the first couple of months, the trials were in March.So,, it was just. No point worrying about So,mething until you actually make the team. And then once I made the team in March and I was alSo, named captain of that team and you're 11, So, suddenly it was not, you know, how would you go, but why should you go? So, you're talking to the media here. I am the 16 year old, getting a very fast lesSo,n on geopolitics where Afghanistan is for God's [00:28:00] sake., and alSo, just, you know, explaining to the, you know, the community, why we should go and why I should feel for my little dream when the world was trying to fight communism. , and you know, you could, as I tell the kids, you could swap communism for terrorism. The communists were coming to take away our way of life.And, , and that, you know, that's how we prepared really. And So,, it was a matter of just. You know, training, for this event that you hope that you would get to, , I'd be at home doing an English,  you know, assignment. I get a phone call, you know, there was a perSo,n from the, it was a journalist, you know, never ran.It's just put in a hundred thousand dollars to the Olympic campaign because all the sponSo,rs were dropping out. So,. Wow. And how do you feel? So,, I'd give my feeling of that. So,mebody who was supporting us. Great. Yay. Go back to my English assignment, but alSo, within the. That So,rt of first week really, I've been made captain.We then started getting death threats. So,, we had a whistle by the telephone. That's what the police, recommended that we do. So, at least we could blow the whistle [00:29:00] really loud. Want one of these cold. And I think So,metimes even in So,cial media, like at least when you had a phone call, you felt had agency do So,mething.Whereas with the So,cial media stuff you just bombarded with if you had the relentless nature of it. Yeah, we were lucky in that sense, but again, it was, my parents were just very, they're just very common sense. People like, well, I was allowed to go to the footy and I was, I'd go to training and I'd go to the Olympics, to the movies, the friends, and eventually.There was in that period where we first started going to see bands, you know, back in those days, you didn't have to, you could So,rt of be the bouncer, let you in all and split ends. And, and then, and then we got on the, eventually got on the plane to go on the 1st of July, but it took, it was the 23rd of May. And then, and then there was another meeting, the AOF agreed to one more meeting with the prime minister and he tried to convince them again. And then they voted again.I think the vote was even less. It was more like [00:30:00] seven, seven, three. So,. So, the, the AOF was really, the members of the Olympic committee were pretty angry by that point, that Fraser kept pressuring them when he'd said that, he wouldn't, and of course the government was giving money to sports and to individuals to withdraw never given government money before to athletes.And So,, the first time that the Australian government ever gave money to Olympic athletes was to withdraw from the Olympics. So, it was crazy. It was a crazy time. It made sense at the time, I don't, I wasn't, I was your age exactly your age. And I never questioned the media. Lisa, I just read the headlines and read the articles and believed it all.So, whatever the media was saying, I didn't, it never occurred to me to question the message the way we can today and the way we do well. I think that was it. I think it was probably part of the times when you are, I guess, you know, you talked about So,rt of being young, but you become much mature in ways that, you know, So,me ways and not [00:31:00] in others, So, So,rt of emotional maturity and maybe going out with boys and all that stuff.I wasn't. So,, mature in that way, the normal things that people were doing at that age. But then in other ways you were, So, you were part of a history of athletes. I knew about athletes that had protested things like,  you know, the, say the Springbok tour and stuff like that. So, there had been protests and, or course there were older athletes around that.I was following that. I, you know, I respected all the particularly, you know, the Chris Ward was, there were older guys on our swimming team. They were very active, Martinelli was very active. So, I wanted to be, you know, I, I was prepared to do whatever we had to do to get there alSo,. I mean, I came from a labor voting family, So, that was much easier.It was pretty much split down liberal labor lines. You didn't have a lot of independence back in those days. So,. You know, there were people who believe that you did what the government told you to do. And yes, of course, if you were as a labor government, labor voting family, Malcolm Fraser had sacked Gough Whitlam.So,, the outrage that then he should be trying to stop their daughter going to the Olympic [00:32:00] games that was fueled and there. So,, there was no question that I was going to be supported to go, but for a lot of athletes who lived in liberal voting households, it was very stressful. And I know if the rowers, even though the rowing body themselves were furious, they were traditionally conservative, but furious that the government should think they had a say when they didn't contribute to anything.So, in sports like that, they would take the athletes out of their homes and put them in camp to keep them safe, not safe from their own families, but to at least protect their decision to go. Right. Wow. That's a lot to put on kids. That is interesting. I don't know how you had the ability. Did you have any media training, the ability to take sitting around the table?What do you think? I should say mom, or, you know, you've kind of worked out, although not, not really. Like I was, I didn't think that I sit a whole lot. I don't think I was all that,  bolshy.  I just, I like, I look at the goals today. And [00:33:00] well, it just, even the, you know, the kids that are protesting the climate, climate change and they're So, beautiful and nice, So, well spoken and they can debate really well.I don't think I was that sort of kid. I was, we didn't have that Sort of training. It was like that. Well, I think we should go because, you know, it's not really fair. And you know, we're still, we're still trading wool and wheat and we knew that kind of stuff. So, we were still trading with these people. So, why shouldn't the athletes go?And, you know, the sport is about bridging gaps. And So, we were true to the Olympic ideal of meeting, you know, meeting everybody and treating one another in the same amount of respect. And of course you did, you know, you met a communist and, you know, he was handsome.We were out in the world in a different way to others. So, that's amazing story. What an experience for you. Do you look back on that time and how do you reflect on that time today? Oh, just lucky. You know, I think particularly when I was writing boycott, I thought. How incredible [00:34:00] to be able to go through that experience and then be able to write about it., I mean, I felt that there was quite a lot of responsibility to tell the stories that nobody, a lot of people had not heard, you know, the women's hockey team that were there was the first time hockey was going to be, and women's at the Olympic games and they'd been promised by their association that if the AOS voted for them to go, then they would go and the AOF voted on Friday.That we'd go. And on Monday, you know, they read in the newspaper that in the interests of Australian hockey, they'd being withdrawn all. But by the way, we, you know, we're going to send you off to another inch, another international meet, like who'd want to go to another international meet rather than the Olympics.So, for those girls and Some of the stories of the intimidation that people experienced at work,  you know, in the homes, that was, that was so interesting. So, I felt, , very you're lucky. And of course, like back then, I can still. Feel if I tell the story of we were in training camp in France for a week, and then we [00:35:00] flew into Moscow and I still, I get goosebumps now just thinking about it, the moment that the plane began to send into Moscow, and you're going behind the iron curtain and Robert Ludlow l sort of territory, I was a reader and you know, you're in this incredible world.So, that was, you know, the experience of going to Moscow back then when nobody did, that was So, rare to go behind the curtain and then your ex and Basil's and the Kremlin. And it was, it was extraordinary. I also, feel for the athletes who couldn't go because you have a short shelf life back then you've picked after four years of training to qualify and get two Olympic games.You maybe don't have another game in you all your life for these kids. Some of them has been spent building up to that year as 1980. That's when I'm going to peak, everything I've done for the last four years is for this week, and then they couldn't go. Yeah. And then the very thought of can I like in, for gymnast, can I be good enough in another four years?[00:36:00] That's questionable. Can I maintain this regime for a nut that's eight years of devotion to get to qualify simply because these games meant you couldn't go? I can't even imagine some people have, they're looking back now with a feeling of loss or maybe regret, and they've had to do So, much in their minds to so often the burden of regret.That must be in them. Yeah. Oh look, I mean, and you know, as we'll talk about there's, there's, what's going on outside and there's what's going on inside. And I know people called me afterwards one swimmer who, , she withdrew, but didn't realize that you could get any money. So, it wasn't as though she was just felt as though she couldn't do it.And she, she chatted to me for the book. And then she called me when the book came Lisa, I thought it'd be okay. And she said, I picked it up. I went, I bought it in the bookshop. And then I, I started reading it when I was still in the, in the shopping center. And she said, I just had to stop and sit down and just cry.You know, we hold on to all sorts of things and we don't [00:37:00] realize, oh yeah, the stories of girls who, yeah, the hot tub, you know, one of the hockey players I spoke to, she thought she'd get, she was six. She wasn't much older than me thought she'd get to the next games. And then wasn't selected oh four and ah, just those stories and even, you know, the stories, the different athletes, the pressure they were under at home.And of course, there was no sports psychology then. So, it was this thing that people went through and you didn't talk about it? No, because. the sports bodies, certainly didn't want to think about it. Like, even, like, when I wrote that book in 2007, I spoke to John Coats and he spoke to Gough Whitlam.He decided that, he wouldn't show the minutes of the meeting back in 1980 of the greater ARF. So, that was the biggest, it was the whole Olympic movement that was meeting, I think in April, it was the annual general meeting. That's right. And they were going to vote then, and they didn't. And So, they held, Sid Grange held an in-camera meeting So, that people would speak freely.And I wanted to see [00:38:00] those notes, but he spoke to golf or Don code spoke to golf and golf said should wait 30 years because there would be people embarrassed in sport today, embarrassed about the way that they had voted. you would have been able to buy them. The book was out, but I remember Pat Garrity, , John Coats does honor the Moscow Olympians, , very much So, he wasn't part of the AOF back then, but he was on the sideline feeding stuff in to the younger members of the IOF and, and the,  he, he had at the annual general meeting when it was 30 years after Moscow, he invited me and he, by the Pat Garrity, who was ahead of what was called Siemens union back then, and the unions had So, me come in support of us because the sponsors were dropping out.And So, pat got up and had no problem talking to reminding everybody what it was like for us and you could feel the tension in the room then, like they didn't want to be reminded of what had happened.  [00:39:00] and look, that's, that's everywhere. Isn't it? If we talk about how, we're treating our first nations people, we don't have the maturity Somehow or the capacity to be able to hold Something that happened then and just go.Yeah, I've changed my mind and I; I wish that I hadn't been, I wish I'd known more. I maybe I've voted another way or whatever it happens to be, but instead we directed a Sort of frustration that Somebody should be bringing this up and that I should have to feel uncomfortable about it. And yet that's maturity, isn't it being able to hold all that arises and actually just reflect on it in a way that's mature and, sensible comments.Yes. And we only do that at the rate that we're prepared to do that we can't. Hasten maturity. We can't hasten adult hood, no matter what the number it is, how old we are. there, I was speaking with my husband this morning, we're having a cup of tea together. , and we're just sharing the things that we think is so common sense today.[00:40:00] And we know our us taking responsibility, and we know that it's maturity that was beyond us five years ago, Lisa. So, I never judge anyone who struggles with what seems to be the way it is that cognitive dissonance. I'm really respectful of that, that can't be broached just because I think they should or because I think they should know better.No, and that's right. I agree with you. Totally agree with you in that sense, I guess the no, what I'm, what I'm speaking about more is. Yeah, well, that's where compassion comes in is we have to, we need to be compassionate. Everybody has come from a different place. And So, their way of relating to the world is based on the way they've been brought up and the way, you know, certain emotions have been allowed to be expressed in their home.And so forcing it on somebody else you're right. Is and it's counterintuitive because people shut down even more. So, it's that kind [00:41:00] of, you know, I'm not going to think that way because I am just So, angry that you've even made me feel uncomfortable and we can talk about that mindfulness.And at the same time, you're right. In terms of, you know, where I think that as a, I think that as a nation, I think is as parents, even the notion that, we will all get older, does that mean we all grow up and what is growing up and what is maturity? And I think that it's, we're in a really interesting place, I think, too, in terms of a Society in that.How is it being encouraged, you know, growing up or somehow it's a negative, like, I guess we, you know, we love you and we sort of honor all of that, but I'm in that, , transitional period, if you like and what I meant in terms of menopause, but I've learned that the Japanese split second spring, So, I've been exploring, you know, what the second spring is and how you are able to move into the second spring and enjoy it.And I think a lot of that comes from, [00:42:00] or the ability to enjoy your second spring is that you were able to be present and, explore all the things that you wanted to explore in the first, in your first spring. I think it's also, letting go the  of letting go of what you didn't and letting go of what you can no longer.Yeah, absolutely. That's right. And that's a real skill. It is. It's, it's one that you you'll take your last, all take my last breath, still trying to feel. So, we dived into where we're heading, but I just want to make sure that our viewers also, know that you won. I think it was two gold medals at the Brisbane Commonwealth games.Congratulations. Thank you. Was the training there? A Software experience? I can't quite remember what you said about that. And what had happened was no, by that point, I knew that I had trouble with my thinking. , and So, I was but nobody talked about anxiety or anything like that. , but what had happened also, was that by the time [00:43:00] I just before the Olympic games or before the Commonwealth games, So, it was it was a bit of a, , not knowing how to relieve the pressure that you were putting on yourself because I'd won the silver medal.That first time I had only when I was eight years old and I saw those girls at the Olympic games in 1972, and I thought I want to do that. I'd made the calculation that 1980, I don't know that it had been decided it was in Moscow at that point. But 1980, I would be 16. I'd be in year 11. That was the games I could go to and get on with the rest of my life.But once the, still the medal happened in 78, everyone said to me, oh, you'll go one better in four years. So, suddenly that is extended. Oh yeah. I'll go before your time. And it's been So, well, I must say at the time, but anytime I want to travel Somewhere. Yeah. Comprehension of the magnificence of  a home.Yes. But I was sort of struggling cause I'd done my HSC that year before I'd taken time off as m wanted. So, I finished in the top 10% of the state did my age, that was up to the [00:44:00] Olympics and then went back into the pool, , to, you know, go one better at the Commonwealth games. , and So, even though I felt like I had all of the reasons that I should be motivated, you know, for the first time m would, and dad would be able to see me swim for Australia.And I was trying to go one better and win a gold medal and all these sorts of things. I just had this heavy weight on my shoulder, and I did not know how to relieve it. And then, Rocky. Rocky three was released in the cinema just about a month before the training, the trials. Now I've been something like the dog.I was really struggling, and I was like, watch the pool. That's what, I couldn't understand. Like once I was in the water, I was fine, but it was in between those sessions. I was torturing myself and then Rocky comes in and it's pretty specific to my moment. He used to team traveling and he'd he'd beaten Rocky. And of course, Mickey he's trying to sort of died in it, spoken in scenes of that movie. And Apollo creed [00:45:00] comes back and he's training Rocky. Cause he's pretty angry with the way that, you know, clubber Lang sort of behaving. But Rocky is just not there.And, and then, you know, his beautiful wife, Adrian sort of forces him to tell her what's wrong. And he says, I'm scared. You know, I, I I'm, I'm scared. And, and she says, look, you know, In the years ahead where it's just going to be you and me and you can handle losing, but you can't handle walking away. So, I'm in the cinema.I thought I would just be going into enjoy Rocky. And So, it tells the story of the champ coming back. And I think, you know, I was able to process things. I didn't even know how to say and I walked out of that cinema. And if I was, if you like in flow, like we didn't have a word for that, but suddenly I heard no doubt.Rocky had reminded, you know, my body and my mind that I knew how to win. And So, I was just on a roll from that moment. Everything became easier. My just my energy was back. And I came second at the trials in both 102 hundred. And it was, you know, it was kind of interpreted as like, oh [00:46:00] yes. So, then you know, that the successes have now moved into their rightful place.And that was a bit, but I had, I was babysitting So, badly that I knew I was just like on the way up. So,  it was really interesting. And So, you know, it all went So, beautifully. I won the a hundred, which I never expected to do, and that was just pure thrill and sort of just, oh, elation and surprise and all of the joy that comes with something So, unexpected, but the 200 was interesting because it was more.No, it was the rice that I was expected to win. So, on the other side of that, or once I'd won, I didn't have that same elation. It was always interested me. I seem to just be So, kind of like I'd done it. It was a sense of satisfaction because later on I learned that contentment and satisfaction, it's almost a neutral feeling.It's not something that we try to strive for in many ways. And So, I sort of was a bit surprised by that, but nevertheless, I've won my gold medals and later on, I would learn through mindfulness and compassion. Oh, right. That's contentment. And it's okay to just be in that [00:47:00] place. It just means the job well done.So, did you question yourself, not feeling more excited at winning? Oh, that was not, I mean, it was it, I was, I still remember being on the, you know, at the end and m and dad had jumping up and down and I was like, try, please skip that. I was like, nah, it's nothing there. It's more just, yeah. I did it. No, I did it after all those four years, I hung in and I got there and it was done.It was, it was still, I would say happy. And, and content, I think, I think she's right about in glide and I love this is we tend to discount neutral moments. We discount the neutral emotions and I often have people a lot Saturday. So, you excited. Cause there's lots of good things that you cited. I don't want to disappoint you, but that's not the word.It feels we're heading there, and it'll be what it'll be. But I've, I really have tried to knock off the extremes because I don't want this in my life. I want more this, about the externals. It, [00:48:00] it seems exhausting to live on a rollercoaster of extreme emotions. So, I do get what you're saying. I'm just surprised you had it So, young, a feeling of.Yes. Oh, I think, well, I was scared of it because it doesn't feel right. Does it? It should be. I should have been like, I wasn't a hundred, there was that. And yet it wasn't. So, he just was like, no, that's not there. So, just did and what it is. And then I felt the same way. I remember again, when I was pregnant with my Son.I felt like it was because I was 38. It had happened in the first month. My best friend had been given no time to live. And I was like, when you're waiting for lease, they get pregnant or, you know, try. And we thought it'd be months because I was So, old, not old but old for having a child. And and yeah, that feeling of, , when it actually happened.And I remember driving along South darling straight after, I'd gone to tell mom and dad, and it was this beautiful pink sky. It was sort of June. and it was Twilight. And I remember thinking, wow, how have I managed this? Like, I, I want to go to the Olympics. I got there. I wanted to write a book. I got there.I [00:49:00] wanted to be a sports reporter. I did that. I always actually didn't manage to be pregnant and have a baby, which has not been on my bucket list at all. You know? And, and there was that feeling again. And I mean, I must say I was a bit scared. Like, what if I don't want to do anything else I'm now that I don't have to fear it.And I had a similar feeling just Mother's Day, you know, just gone past. I was actually by myself. My son was in Canberra. He's studying down there. My husband was with his mum She'd had an operation and I was just with my sister. We were up at Lennox head and my son, husband was only 30 minutes away, but I had this beautiful morning of, I work early and I thought, oh, I'll just go to the cafe and read this book that I was really enjoying.And I was sitting there in, you know, in the cafe. There's lots of young pair of parents with young kids and I was feeling So, like, my job is done. I've raised a beautiful boy. Yeah. Nope. Everyone keeps telling me, you know, how terrific he is. I think he is obviously, you know, his girlfriend's best friend said to me, I couldn't ask for a nicer guy for my gut, my best [00:50:00] friend.So, you know, you've done the right thing by the girls, which is really important, I think when you're raising boys. , and it was that feeling of, yeah, you can, I was not scared of it at all. It was just that really still feeling of job. Well done. You guys good on you? Yeah. So, I think that learning not to be scared of it, as you say, well, I think it's worth sharing the viewers now, why that's such a big deal in your life to get to that point, because glide, whilst it talks about the highs and the lows of the external world, I think the conversation is worth having with you now is there is a very different narrative going on within you during this time.And maybe I'm putting words in your mouth that I just get the sense that you've been wrestling with. You. All through that journey. So, you are not just competing in a race, you were competing with yourself with how you suppressed emotions with how you denied yourself, the painful thoughts that I can't even imagine how you go out from [00:51:00] the blocks planning to win when this isn't working for you.And for a while there, your mind did not work for your success for your ultimate supportive view. No, no. And I didn't know that until I know that you are sort of conscious of it, but I didn't know what to do with it. I knew once Rocky had changed my thinking, like I told journalists after I won the, those gold medals that., but I had trouble with my thinking and Rocky changed it. So, I knew that I also, knew before the Olympic final, which is, you know, I've spoken about it before, but sitting in that reading room, I heard the thought, I don't know how to do this. And I was, So, I was like, of course you do. And I'm wrestled, I thought myself on my own and kind of created, I mean, I guess you might call it a panic attack now.I don't know, but, and was able to steady myself and kind of get myself out there in a way in a way that was effective until I got into that, into the, onto the blocks. But yeah, So, I had this one, I called trouble with my thinking. And then, So, the book before glide was a teenage novel set [00:52:00] in the circus.I'd never written fantasy before, but I thought I'd have a go. And I just, again, took myself down into spirals of doubt and I knew all the time. I think it's one of the fortunate things I suppose in that I knew that it was internal. I knew it wasn't Something, there was nobody else to blame with somebody, something that I was doing.And So, I started, I signed up to a coaching course at first, a live coaching course because I thought, well, there's lots more modern techniques now that obviously what was happening back then, wasn't modern. And  that was great, except that it was another goal setting force. And I didn't need to set another goal.I wanted to be content with the goals that I kicked if you like because I had to you know, as a, a, to go and do some coaching as well, in order to practice, you know, to get my cert four, I actually realized that I wasn't the only one who had that, what I called miss never enough inside my head.So, I had these two competing voices. If you like, I have this Smiths or I'll have a go at that. You know, like that seems interesting. I'd like to write a book or I'd like to be an interviewer. [00:53:00] And So, I've got her, she's always there. And then I had this miss never enough. And. And I had that, that, that first start that we described of the Dee Why ladies sort of encouragement, I didn't, I'd forgotten about that.Yeah. What I, what I, I thought that all my success had been a result of that. My coach sports psychology back then was. Mottos across the top of the Blackboard. And my favorite motto was when the going gets tough, the tough get going. I was introduced to it at 13, at 14, I was swimming for Australia and like, right.That's it, that's it. But as you know, as I've said, by that third week at training camp in Hawaii, I didn't know how to. Where's the motto that said I've been tough enough. And So, more often than not, I was driving myself into the pool into sort of exhaustion and getting sick. , and by the time I had Terry gaffer, Paul, as a coach later on in the lead up to those Commonwealth early Olympics and Commonwealth games, he would tell people that, you know, you got to be careful of it cause she'll drive herself to illness.And now we know that that never enough story. It's just called the language of scarcity. You [00:54:00] know, we all have it from the moment we wake up in the morning, didn't get enough sleep. Don't have enough time. Don't have enough money, don't have enough respect, don't have enough willpower, don't have enough, nobody, you know, fill in the blanks., and So, that's the language of scarcity and why we're doing that. We're just draining, you know, the parts of our brain of the world where we're draining the sort of the drive section of the brain, but we're just feeding them the stress hormones all the time. Cause. You know, your, your, your podcast is called perspective.Like the capacity to stand back and say, hold on a minute. There's another way of looking at it. This is a really a powerful skill. So, I did the course. And then through that coaching course, I was introduced to, I did a webinar. It was non-compulsory on something called mindfulness based stress reduction.Yeah and I still didn't get it at the end of the class. I was like, I didn't see why I have to sit still. I have to sit down and meditate. I don't get it. So, I suppose it's worth mentioning here. Up until then you had replaced X. You used exercise as a way not to be with [00:55:00] yourself. And I wonder how many people listening to this insert your choice of distraction here.So, you don't have to be yourself. And you also, mentioned in glide the study where, how long can a participant sit in a room alone? And they're told there's a buzzer there. They can press that will give themselves an electric shock. And some people didn't even last five minutes, they'd rather give themselves pain.Then sit quietly with their thoughts. Sorry. An incredible university of Virginia. I think it was always blows me away. And the people, most people was, majority of people would rather. Give themselves the stimulus of pain, the distraction from just being still with their thoughts. And there's the other one too.So, that, that I thought the other one that was interesting was I think it was the Harvard study. It was around 2010 now, So, it's quite old, but it was you know, many, many people with, uh, an app on their phone. So, every So, often would pop up and say are you, is your mind on task or is it  [00:56:00] are you distracted?And they were, I think it was 48% of the time we were distracted, and the distraction was not helping us be happier. Because, yes, you might be thinking about that next holiday Inn. I don't know, Somewhere beyond our shores one, you know, in one day. , but then there may be all, well, it's not fair. Why I'd love to go and maybe some fears about the coronavirus or whatever it happens to be, you know, imagination kicks in.So, yeah, So, that's, So, I wrote down the name, John Kabat-Zinn and, , and suddenly, , Uh, So, I went to that's right after the website, I, a webinar, I went to audible and I looked up all the books a bit, maybe this John Kabat-Zinn has a book. And of course, he was the grandfather of mindfulness. So, he had millions of books that lots of them were, were abridged.So, I chose the only unabridged book and started listening to it. When I went walking the next morning, he had vintages the adventures of mine finished. It's no longer available on audible by the way. Cause I wanted to read it on audible before [00:57:00] our chat. Okay. I think, yeah, I think it's on sounds true now.Cause then I went to find him. Yeah. Now you tell me, well, it was interesting cause I went looking for it. Eventually. I actually emailed Don Kevin's in LA called the center for mindfulness to get his approval. So, it was tricky to find and, they were surprised actually. I think that it was on audible at the time.Anyway, the story was that. I didn't go walking the next morning, chapter three starts with a basic breath meditation. I'm supposed to be sitting down, I'm walking saying, thanks So, much, but I can, I can just feel my breath and walk. And, and he says, okay, So, we're going to feel the breath. And so, you know where I'm feeling the breath and he said, now you might be thinking this isn't too bad.You know, I'm, I'm, I'm feeling my breath. And I was like, yeah, that's, that's what I'm thinking. And he said, well, that's great, except that's a thought, and we're not trying to think. We're just trying to feel the breath. So, let's just let go of the thought and come back to the simple feeling of the breath.And I was like, what did he say? I can [00:58:00] let go of the thought by coming back to the breath. And I, I mean, I was on the corner of Oxford street and Moorpark road up the top. I almost did circles. Like, why didn't Somebody tell you this? 30 years ago, when I was sitting in the ready room before the Olympic final, that I could let go of a thought, by coming back to the feeling of the breath, it's hard for sorry for the mind to do that, but it is possible.It is tough to do, but it's hard. It would have been hard for you in that you trained yourself to disconnect from your body. Your body was just a weapon or a tool to get you down the pool. I didn't read up. I think our veggie greatly, you'd never learnt or experienced being in your body. You were here knowing what you had to do, inverted commerce, what you felt you had to do, but at no time had you taught yourself or had the experience of, of being exposed to this idea, all of me is here.Not just the bit. That's got to think my way through this panic. And I bet I hope I don't [00:59:00] let it. That is an all of you. This just became a tool. I think my feeling, as I read at least was everything below here was simply a weapon or a tool to get the job done. The next job, the next job, the next job, even exercise was treated that way.And So, to just have that ability, did you do it successfully in that first time? I can't imagine you did that. You actually sat and felt your body. It would have been an alien surreal experience to even know that was a, that was a conversation you could have with yourself. , certainly I think that one of the, definitely privileged to this, although I, I think one of the things that I found interesting about practicing mindfulness is that I could.I did not know that I could learn to regulate an emotion and exactly the way that I had regulated myself through, through a race. So, I trained my body to remain a quant is or to maintain equanimity. And when I, you know, it was screaming with pain or my thoughts were like, I don't want to, you know, I, I [01:00:00] want to give up on, not that I ever thought about, but you know, toward the end of a race, when it's really, tough, I trained myself to stay, keep stroke long, keep your breath long.You know, you're checking, checking, checking, checking time. And I didn't know that I could do that with an emotion. The moment that I was feeling anxious, as you say the trouble with my thinking, I didn't have trouble with my thinking. What I have is what we all have is a habitual way of thinking that gets us.We learned when we were little, but this protected us somehow the way that we behaved, protected us and kept us loved, or kept us in contact with those that we needed. And what I didn't realize was that. It was just a habit to actually stop myself from feeling as you say, but if we can drop into the body, when the going gets tough, the tough get going, I've now reframed, you know, in terms of when the going gets tough, the tough drop into the body and feel what they're feeling, you know, and it comes to an emotion, right?And So, if I'm feeling really worked up, then it's had there's something going on in the body. So, can I drop into the body and just feel what's going on? So, [01:01:00] you're absolutely right. I had no connection. It wasn't the breath meditation that I had such trouble with. But when the body scan, he had a, he had

We're continuing our discussion on mindfulness with Taucha Post. In our last episode, we discussed how mindfulness improves our ADHD symptoms, how mindfulness and ADHD are connected in the brain, along with shame, perfectionism, and setting ourselves up for success instead of letting the failure mindset take over.   What is mindfulness and how do we get started practicing mindfulness?   Learning a few basic mindfulness techniques will give you a free ADHD treatment that you can practice throughout your day and with your children.  It's easy to get started with mindfulness for ADHD with the mindfulness exercises Taucha shares.   Let's discuss what mindfulness is and what it isn't, bust through common myths about mindfulness, and then Taucha will walk us through a short and peaceful mindfulness exercise you can do at home with me.  So grab a tasty beverage, and settle in for a warm hug of a chat with Taucha.   Taking care of yourself is a basic requirement of living - like food and water - not a luxury item. Self-care can and must be done in every stage of motherhood. Get ready - let's figure out what self-care truly fits you. You are worthy. You are valuable. You are not alone.   Did you listen last time when Taucha shared her Adult ADHD journey and shared how mindfulness helps ADHD symptoms? Be sure to listen to part 1 and 2 in Episodes 92 and 93 to hear her late diagnosis story and how mindfulness affects our brains.   Come'on. Meet your fellow (future) Successful ADHD Mama.   Click here for the Show notes and transcription.    Taucha mentions John Kabat-Zinn   Follow Taucha on instagram @adhd.yoga for her free mindfulness practices on Mondays at noon Eastern Join a free class on her website www.adhdyoga.com

Learn how to be mindful with author Aimee Morgan, "The Chaos Antidote; a fable about mindfulness"Episode S2E9: Show Notes. Do you find yourself checking on your phone every few minutes? Do you struggle to be present? Are you often preoccupied with worries about the future and past decisions? If so, mindfulness might be a welcome antidote to the chaos of your modern lifestyle. In today's episode, we get together with Aimee Morgan to talk about her new book The Chaos Antidote: A Fable About Mindfulness along with its accompanying workbook The Chaos Antidote: Six Week Mindfulness Workbook. In our discussion, Aimee shares her journey to mindfulness after a life-threatening miscarriage prompted her to reexamine her life. After participating in the comprehensive Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course by John Kabat-Zinn, she felt compelled to distill those ideas and rework them for her two new books. Aimee reflects on why she chose to disseminate these approaches to mindfulness through fables to make them accessible and ensure a broader impact. Listeners will hear how mindfulness techniques have helped Aimee in her life, what her daily practice looks like these days, and how to start your daily practice. Aimee breaks down her original daily reflection practice GLOWY, as outlined in her workbook, and gives some useful tips for overcoming one's fear of difficult emotions during meditation. We loved having Aimee on the show and had a fantastic conversation full of insightful wisdom, kindness, and hope, you won't want to miss this!Key Points From This Episode:●      Aimee defines what mindfulness means for her.●      Aimee describes her book The Chaos Antidote: A Fable About Mindfulness and why she chose to share her ideas on mindfulness through accessible stories rather than a traditional self-help format.●      Why the characters in Aimee's book are relatable, everyday people.●      How Aimee's book is an accessible way into mindfulness.●      Aimee shares her journey with mindfulness.●      How Aimee took the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction course by John Kabat-Zinn and distilled what she learned from it to form part of her book.●      The challenges that mindfulness has helped Aimee overcome.●      The benefit of identifying anxious thoughts.●      How Aimee has learned to self-regulate through mindfulness.●      A description of the workbook that accompanies The Chaos Antidote: A Fable About Mindfulness.●      Aimee shares her daily practice.●      Hear Aimee's advice for creating a daily mindfulness practice.●      A look out for Aimee's Mindfulness Academy, coming soon!Links Mentioned in Today's Episode:Aimee MorganAimee Morgan on FacebookAimee Morgan on InstagramAimee Morgan on GoodreadsMindfulness AcademyThe Chaos Antidote: A Fable about MindfulnessMom, Slow Down!Jessica Nicole on InstagramTMAC Fitness. 20 Minute Home Workouts Beginner and Advanced Workouts. No equipment. Each Workout Ends with a Meditation. BrandSupport the show

Speaker 1: You have to know where you are before you can determine where you are going,  Speaker 2: Raising the water level of leadership in the Tri-Cities of Eastern Washington it's Tri-Cities influencer podcast. Welcome to the TCI podcast. We're local leadership and self-leadership expert. Paul Casey interviews, local CEOs, entrepreneurs, and non-profit executives to hear how they lead themselves and their teams. So we can all benefit from their wisdom and experience. Here's your host, Paul Casey of Growing Forward Services coaching, and it could be individuals and teams or breakthrough success.  Speaker 1: It's a great day to grow forward. Thanks for joining me for today's episode with Brad Sapp and feel, and Nate Robertson from Spotted Fox Digital, and they have some fun facts. And for the first time I think they might do one on each other. So who wants to go first?  Speaker 3: All right. So, I mean, Brad's got, Brad's got some good ones, but I'll go with an easy one. I would definitely say, you know, some of the funny things that Brad does in the office is he's from Alabama. And so when he says certain words, you know, you could think he's a Tri-Cities boy until, you know, he starts saying compass like a compass and you know, I'm like, is that what did you say? He's like I say, compass and I was like, you mean compass? It's like, yeah. Compass. So definitely some of the language from being from Alabama, are you from Alabama where you're from Alabama roll tide. So that's what we hear a lot in our office. We got a new whiteboard, just a little side note in there. The first thing that was on it was a huge red roll tide. So  Speaker 1: Nice, nice. And Brian, what about Nate?  Speaker 3: Right. So there's a lot of quirks about Nathan usually has to do with squirrels, but no, it's really, honestly, one of the funniest things, I think Nathan tends to call it like a remote for the TV. He calls it a channel changer. And I just think that's an old term. Like it should be me calling that not you. I feel like it's a channel. It does promote longer though.  Speaker 1: Oh, that's hilarious. And Brad said that his wife was starting to come up with a whole list for him. And he said, Oh, thanks, honey. That was enough. Well, we will dive in after checking in with our Tri-City influencer sponsor, it's easy to delay answering uncomfortable questions. Like what happens to my assets and my loved ones when I die. So it's no surprise that nearly 50% of Americans don't have a will and even fewer have an estate plan, many disabled clients worry that they don't have enough assets to set up an estate plan, but there are important options available to ensure that you have a voice in your medical and financial decision-making. Even if your health takes a turn for the worst estate planning gives you a voice when your health deteriorates or after you're gone. Marin Miller bam attorney at law is currently providing free consultations to find out more about estate planning or to book an appointment.  Speaker 1: Call Maren at (206) 485-4066 or visit Salus that's S A L U S-law.com today. Thank you for your support of leadership development in the Tri-Cities. Well welcome Brad and Nate. Brad, first time we met was through BNI here in the Tri-Cities and I heard you were the guy for website and all that other stuff. This was your another Brad idea company then, and we've developed a friendship along the way you've done. You've been helping me with my website for years and years. And then Nate got to meet you along the ways you guys merged into a Spotted Fox digital. And you've done a lot of video for me and both testimonial videos and my not my speaker demo reel videos. So it's been a great compliment for our two businesses. So glad you're a part of this today. So let's dive in so that our Tri-City influencers can get to know you take us through a couple of your career highlights that led you to this current company and tell us why you love what you do  Speaker 4: Well. So I actually started my career in Alabama. I was working for a software as a service company. We were working with hospitals and that's actually how I ended up in the Tri-Cities working with Kennewick general and Kadlec can went general, obviously is not Rios. They've gone through rebranding, but that's how I ended up here in the Tri-Cities. And that's how I started. That's how I actually built my relationships in marketing here locally started doing a web design for a local marketing agency. And I did some with regional agencies here and that's kind of how I ended up starting my business. So that was probably one of the biggest moves that actually come into the Tri-Cities and then joining BNI, you know, joining BNI has led to a lot of connections that led me to you all and led me to partnering with Nathan. And if it worked for that, you know, group of, or that organization and the people that I met through that I wouldn't be sitting here today.  Speaker 1: Wow. Very cool story. Nathan, how about you?  Speaker 4: Yeah, so I mean, I started, you know, Tri-Cities local, small town, you know, loved the idea of advertising from, you know, when I was little. And so when I was going to school, I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I knew it was something to do in advertising. And so I did some odds and end jobs and eventually landed my first job, which wasn't easy in a radio station here in the tri cities, which was used to be called NNB radio. So this is going to date me a little bit, which is crazy. Cause you know, I always think I'm young, but you know, let's be honest. So I got gray hair, I'm the silver Fox now. So, you know, but was able to land my first  Speaker 3: Job in radio. And I enjoyed coming up with the ideas for clients and, you know, just found out that I have this unique niche to being able to, to come with a unique idea and not just a cookie cutter idea. And I did that for a while. And then I actually ended up working for a spotted Fox, which was a deal company. And when I was working there, I was doing mainly sales. I grew the Tri-Cities from zero and was able to build this up and then eventually ended up purchasing the company. And at that time it wasn't my dream. And I really liked the advertising aspect of it, but you know, ended up falling into the video side and on the side because I was able to build a team on the deal side. So I started doing some video production on the side and you know, that took off.  Speaker 3: And then that's when I met Brad because Brad, we, we ended up working in connect workplace where Brad was and I met Brad there and I was like, hey man, you know, could you give me a quote on a website? And so we said, I was looking for videographers. Yeah. So, so long story short, we started working together and eventually quote unquote, we started living together, right? So we're in the same. I like convinced them to get an office space with me at a connect workplace. And he moved in and then from there we just started working together and everything was flowing so well that we said, you know what? We just need to partner. And then that's when Spotted Fox digital became right and and use our two strengths. And now we do social media management. We do paid ads online, paid ads, SEO, you know, kind of a one-stop shop for your marketing needs.  Speaker 1: How many staff do you have now?  Speaker 4: We have a total of 11,  Speaker 1: 11 staff. Yep. And over there connect workplace behind, behind Costco back in their great office space area. And so why do you both love what you do? I mean, Nathan, I'm sort of hearing that the creativity is a big deal for you.  Speaker 3: No, I would say, you know, one of the biggest things is, is delivering and, and coming up with a concept and an idea for a client and then, you know, the most nerve-wracking part is you come up with this idea, you're sitting at a meeting and you're like so excited, you know, and then you leave that meeting and you're like, Oh my gosh. Now I have to make this become a real thing. Right. And so the cool thing is, is, is actually being able to see that from an idea into fruition of like, wow, this actually happened and the client's happy and what we delivered to them. And so that's where I get my, you know, enthusiasm, enthusiasm and excitement for what we do.  Speaker 1: How about you, Brad?  Speaker 4: I would agree. I, my, my favorite part is really just, you know, helping businesses grow and it, you know, being able to form a team and have a team of people where it's not just me with the idea and then going to execute it, you know, having a team of people that can rely on and have their focus and their strengths so that we can deliver the best product possible.  Speaker 1: Yeah. Very cool. And so staying in your strengths, multiplies, your influence, you both have strengths. How do you add the most value to this partnership now that you have 11 people on the, what would you say? Like your sweet spot is  Speaker 4: Personally? You know, I think for me, it's, it's really making sure that we're like, day-to-day that we're doing the things that we need to be doing to get to where we want to be. Like, you know, not just, not just making sure that we're checking things off our list, but we're actually thinking long term of like, what are the things that we're doing today? They're going to get us to where we want to be tomorrow. Definitely. I don't think that's the biggest value that I bring to the team.  Speaker 3: Yeah. I would say, you know, the visionary portion of myself is always thinking big, big dreams. Like we're going here, you know, one day we're going to be bigger than Apple. I dunno. I mean, that's what gets  Speaker 4: Me out of bed in the morning is,  Speaker 3: Is, is thinking big. And sometimes that can be really scary. And you have days where you, you know, as the visionary where it's really scary and you don't know about those dreams but being around a group of people like the team that we have, it's always like an injection of being like, yes, you know, we can, we can do it. And you know, honestly, I learned from a young age, like anything you set your mind to, like you can do. And so that's been a huge strength of mine is  Speaker 1: Yes. So on the flip side, then you have to be self-aware of your weaknesses, right? So what's your favorite way to sabotage yourself?  Speaker 3: I'll be honest. So Brad points at me,  Speaker 4: This is an easy one. This is an easy one  Speaker 3: All day. And I admit to it honestly, it's spelling and grammar. I'll be completely honest. That is my biggest weakness is I call myself a creative speller. So I'm able to spell a word, how many different ways Brad, I don't know, a hundred. So, you know, that's my weakness, but I also let people know that, you know, and I own it and that's, and I try to get better at it. And you know, I got Grammarly, I got all this stuff, but at the end of the day, I accept it as like, this is something I struggle with. And I have my team help me, you know, Hey, I'm gonna send this email out, this important email. I have them check it out. Like, it's definitely not something I hide. I let people know, I'm a bad speller, but I have a lot of other, you know, strengths to overcome.  Speaker 1: Yeah. Like I said to you, you're aware of it and you make that known so you don't try to cover it up, which would just make everyone talk about you behind your back. And you also use tools like Grammarly, which is that's a good plug for that program and using your team to, because there's probably a few of them that are very strong on editing and proofreading and things like that. How about you, Brad?  Speaker 4: Okay. So I've been thinking about this a lot and you know, I'm not, not trying to call him Nathan out here, but I think he's kinda my favorite sabotage on the same exact thing, because you know, it be like, Hey Brad, can you review this? And so it's really kind of controlling that in, in, in it's more of processes. It's making sure that we're following the process because it's easy with this guy. He has so many ideas all day long that, you know, and it's fun to collaborate. I love that part of it. I love like the creativity, but we kind of have a system in place now to where we try to parking lot his ideas and we discuss them on a certain time instead of like coming up or like talking about them every time they come up. Cause I thought, I thought I had good ideas before I met this guy and I, he still has good ideas and he just has a lot more of that.  Speaker 3: But Brad used to be nice enough where you'd actually listen and be like, okay, what do you want to do? And now he's like, you know, Nathan "parking lot it" that's our new term  Speaker 1: Verb.  Speaker 3: And then I'm like, okay, I'm going to wait until next Tuesday.  Speaker 1: Yes. Land the plane, land the plane. So I'm going to say, see you next Tuesday. Cut that out. So yeah. What are your meetings look like then? Because it sounds like it's a lot of fun. You know, you've got lots of ideas to play with, but what's your meeting rhythm,  Speaker 4: You know, it's very structured. We have, we have a, we have a, an agenda for each of our meetings and it's set up, you know, it's a, it's very systemized where we have an ice breaker and we talk about like our best, our best personal thing. That's happened to us during the week and our best business event. And we kind of go through that as a team and then we, what else is on the agenda? So  Speaker 3: Then we go through, I think, highlights of like what's happening,  Speaker 4: Customer, employee highlights. What's good. Are there any issues we need to address? And then we have our parking lot  Speaker 3: And well rocks first. So rock reviews. So our rock reviews are basically what we come up with as a an individual. And so our company rocks, so we offer a program EOS, which is its traction, the book traction, what is it? Them  Speaker 1: Entrepreneurial operating system.  Speaker 3: So we go EOS and that's the program that we've taken for our business. That's done pretty well. But do we want to cut that out? No, that's cool. Okay, cool.  Speaker 4: Okay. So then after the rocks we have, it's called, I think it's called IDs. I'm not sure of the terminology, but then we identify, we identify, discuss and solve all our issues. So any of the issues that have been parking lauded for that week, we go through, we identify the top ones, and we start going through and solving them. And some weeks we get through one or two other weeks, we knock everything off the list. You know, it all depends on how complex it is, but we try to knock through those things and we just identify the most important ones and get through them. And it's, it really helps us as an organization to focus on the most important things and do it a specific time and not be worried about it every time something comes up and it just makes us a lot more efficient.  Speaker 3: Yeah. Having the meetings actually structured is, is really good. And honestly has made a huge difference because a lot of times Brandon are so busy and not having that structure. There causes a little bit of chaos and nobody walks away from the meeting with a lot of value. And, and now I, I definitely feel like Armenians have gotten a lot stronger.  Speaker 1: Yeah. Traction definitely recommends Gino. Wickman is the author. Want to give him lots of credit for that? And big rocks are your priorities, your top priorities for the quarter. Right. You set them for the quarter and then yeah, you have your a, was it level 10 meetings I think is your, is your weekly. And then the IDs and it's, I think what's cool is that the issues get solved at a certain time and they don't, they don't consume the other meetings, but it's like, alright, this is our time to bang these out that stuff. Well, rarely do we achieve our highest potential by ourselves. So who keeps you accountable and energized to getting your own professional and personal goals accomplished?  Speaker 4: Man? I would say what keeps me personally energized is, is the people that we work with. I think that, you know, and the, in our clients, you know, and looking at what they want and growing people, not, not the dollar, you know, I think a lot of people get held up on, on a dollar and making, you know, making a living instead of actually making an impact on someone's life. So that's definitely something that keeps me motivated is it's not just about going to work and, you know, just making money. It's about when, you know, I leave this place one day. I want people to say, Nate was a great guy. I worked for him and he taught me this. And that's why I am where I am today. So  Speaker 1: Making a living, making an impact, not making a living love that. That's that's good stuff.  Speaker 4: *inaudible* Speaker 1: How about you, bro? It keeps you accountable and inspired, energized.  Speaker 4: So yeah, so I would say, I, I thought about this. I think there's like three things that keep me personally and professionally accountable each week. And we've mentioned a couple of them. One of those is, is on, on a professional level. There's two things. There's the level 10 meeting that we have each week, because that really helps us keep a pulse on what's going on, but it also holds us accountable for the rocks, all the to-dos and making sure that we're staying on task. But you know, I, I'm very much a, you know, professional accountability system each week, you know, holding, held accountable for making sure that we're bringing business to our networking team and that we're getting that back. And then personally, and even professionally you Paul, you're your business case plug there? I noticed, I noticed a big difference when, when I didn't have that, you know, I was, I did other things like mastermind and things like that, but that it was from a different perspective. I noticed a huge difference when I came to you, Paul, and you were helping me because it, it really put in my mind the things that were easy to forget about, you always reminded me of, Oh, you need to be working on this and this and this. And if it weren't for you holding me accountable each month, I would never look at those things. And it's all legislative. It looks like that. And it's made, it's made a big difference,  Speaker 1: Right? Yeah. Without accountability things fall off the radar, don't they? And so even your park, the parking lot concept keeps things back on the radar, so you see, can bring them up. So yeah, coaches, BNI group, so many good ways to surround yourself because as an entrepreneur you could get, and especially in COVID, it's like double isolation. So it is great to surround yourself with people that keep you pumped up and accountable, then there's replenishing your energy. I was just reading in a book before coming over here today that, you know, time is a finite thing, but energy you can actually replenish. So that keeps you at the top of your game. What do you do to manage stress,  Speaker 3: Manage stress, man, I know what Brad does, Brad meditates. And this is something that I wish I could get better at because I've done it a few times and it's been, it's been really good, but yeah,  Speaker 4: It's consistency. It's the consistency. Yeah.  Speaker 3: I would say just getting outside, like, and getting, putting myself in, like when I'm at work, I can get re-energized just by going on to you, maybe, maybe a social media shoot with some of our social media team. Right. And I'm going through and I'm like, thinking, oh man, we're doing this. This is great. You know? Or like, I love the video shoots. Right? Like a lot of times I get varied and just the day-to-day of being a CEO hopper and doing that side of things, but it's nice to actually go and actually be a part of like what you're creating. And so that's really actually energizing to me instead of doing the day-to-day it's, it's switching things up, I guess, at the end of the day. Yeah.  Speaker 1: Switching things up. Yeah. Changing the state. I think Tony Robins says and reconnecting to what you do best. Sounds like also pumps you up. So breath meditation, anything else? Yeah.  Speaker 4: So meditation is definitely a key for me. It really kind of helps it's it's really kind of, I don't want to say mind control, but that really is kind of what it is. It helps you kind of control that monkey brain, you know, cause it's easy to really get stuck in your head and you know, whether, whether negative thoughts or positive thoughts or whatever, it just helps you kind of control that and helps you. Like it just helps you think about things without reacting first. And I've noticed a huge difference since, since meditating. But the other thing that I do is a walk and I'll either listen to music or listen to podcast book. That's always helpful, but music has a huge stress relief for me.  Speaker 3: That raises one for me, like fitness working out. Because a lot of times when I'm in that slump and I've been working really hard and maybe I through working out, out the window for a little bit, then you started really hitting ceilings. And I feel like once you start working out and you know, I am Peloton this year, cause I've never done, you know, spin or anything like that. But my brother-in-law has been doing it for like a year. And I was like, okay. I was like, I'm going to buy one of these sayings. COVID the gym's closed. And I need someone to push me. And so it's been awesome. I mean, when I get off of it, my brain feels rejuvenated. Like I feel more confident. I think that's the biggest thing for me in fitness is like, when I got done working out, I'm like I lifted these weights. I was on the Peloton. I'm freaking confident and I go to work, and I'm guaranteed. People could tell like, wow, now you got a good workout. So he's on my butt. You worked out today. You didn't work out yesterday. Exactly. I showed up yesterday. It was a long day  Speaker 1: Exercise. The best depression Buster there is. Well, before we head into our next question on a hiring and people development, a shout out to our sponsor located in the Parkway, you'll find motivation, new friends and your new coworking space at fuse. Whether you're a student just starting out or a seasoned professional, come discover all the reasons to love co-working at fuse come co-work at fuse for free on Fridays in February, enjoy free coffee or tea, Wi-Fi printing conference rooms, and more, and bring a friend. If you use this, where individuals and small teams come together in a thoughtfully designed resource, rich environment to get work done and grow their ideas. Comprised of professionals from varying disciplines and backgrounds. Fuse is built for hardworking, fun, loving humans. Learn more about us at fusespc.com or stop by seven to three, the Parkway in Richland, Washington. So gentlemen hiring and people development crucial for leadership. If you could clone the ideal spotted Fox digital employee for your organization, what traits are you looking for when you go into interviews?  Speaker 3: Oh, that's a great question, Paul, you know, people are heated, any good organization. We, we value our culture. We have set core values that we really follow. So they really have to align up with that first and foremost. But as far as key traits go, I think, you know, knowing somebody that has really good interpersonal relations, that's super important. Whether it's internal with our team outpacing for clients, having a strong relationship with people is super important. And then, you know, having good organization and really like leadership, being able to run a team of people. Those are really key traits that I always look for. If we're looking for somebody for our leadership team.  Speaker 1: Yeah. What's interesting about that is you didn't say anything about social media skills or web code. I mean, you started with values in her personal and organizational leadership skills.  Speaker 3: Yeah. Hiring people for me is always a really exciting task, but sometimes I'm not the best person to make the final decision. I'll be honest. And that's because I, I I've done some like leadership and kind of personality traits and I'm the kind of person that I see. Like everybody has potential, you know, I'm like I send to me and I, it could be any, Oh man, that guy would hire him. And after he had done, I'm like, I feel like we should just hire them. All right. So it's good to have Brad to like really focus me and, and you know, our team because we actually have our team that helps us hire, like, it's a big thing because instead of Brad and I just making that decision, we have key members on our team that it's like, Hey, you're going to be working with this person. And so making sure that they can work well together. And so I think that that's definitely a, you know, when it comes to hiring, it's not always for me an easy decision, but with the help from my team, it definitely gets it.  Speaker 1: That's why it's nice to have a hiring team or hiring panel with multiple personalities on the team. You can.  Speaker 3: Yeah. And we deal with so many different personalities between, you know, just our clients and even staff, you know? So you have to be able to work with, that's all we've been really blessed. We have, yeah, we have, we have an awesome team.  Speaker 1: So when have you taken some lumps in hiring? Like what, you know, I've been walking along the journey with you bred for a while, so there's been successes and you know, some that didn't work out where have you seen like maybe like, Oh, we sh we should have seen that. Or they didn't have that trader that value.  Speaker 3: Oh man. That's hitting close to home. No. Yeah. You want to take that? Yeah. Yes. Can you repeat the question? So honestly, a lot of times when you're hiring in, and you're not thinking of the actual fulfillment of the position, because you have to be thinking of all, you know, we were low, you know, I'll give you a sense. We were looking for a certain person to fill a certain void. Right. And the main thing on that void was the personality and the skills of communicating with our clients and those things. Right. But we didn't really pay attention to the actual like functionalities and what that person can do. And so when we brought them on our team, it was, it was a lot more training to the other sides of that part of the business that we were thinking they already may have had, but we were more focused on tunnel vision and they are that perfect person for that. But we weren't really thinking of the other side of fulfillment. And so I think that definitely realizing that they, and they have to be well-rounded and not just think, well, this is going to solve all our problems because the last person we had was good at this, but really what we need is this right? So it's a kind of mix in between.  Speaker 1: Yes. And you do learn from what didn't work.  Speaker 3: Yeah. The important thing is like, you're always going to have, they're always going to be things that don't work out. You know, you're going to have quote unquote failures, but as long as you take something away from that and you learn and you better, that it's all part of that it's yeah.  Speaker 1: Yes. So I've had emerging leaders tell me they want to grow thinking strategically. So you both said that it's sort of your strength spot to look at the big picture. You both described yourself as visionary working on the business. How would you say an emerging leader can look at the big picture and what does that look like for greater long-term impact?  Speaker 3: Well, for me, its really time blocking, you know, walking out the time to do it with our level 10 meetings, but also like personally, like blocking out specific times of the day that I'm supposed to be doing specific activity. And as long as I have those, or as long as I get those done, I feel like that's a successful day. The other part of that would be our, our long-term planning that we do. We, we blocked out like three to four days a year where the entire day is focused on that alone and we've walked everything out and that's all we talk about. And so I think again, just blocking that time out is a huge, huge deal. No, and I totally agree with Brad. And I think one of the biggest things is that you're not just time-blocking for yourself, but we actually tie block with our team to complete our vision. So that way, you know, you're able to, to all be on the same track without there being confusion of where are we going? And maybe Brad has certain goals in his mind that he's not sharing with me. And so when we do it as a team and we time block, it really has a huge impact. And I do definitely think that you should do personal time as well, but when it comes to goals of the business, definitely, you know, the team is definitely key.  Speaker 1: Yeah. And our teams are waiting for us as leaders to cast that vision. I think it gets them excited when they know where the owners are going, where the leaders are going, and they get confused when they don't know where they're going. Or like you said, your goals are in your head, but I can't read your mind. So, and then Brett, you know, I love time-blocking, that's like huge. So, so if you're trying to find time for things, that's going to fall off the radar, but if you literally calendar that appointment with yourself, that's going to happen. I also, like I added about the retreat. I think every team should do these chunks of time where you just look out a little bit further and you can gain a lot of ground by doing that. So that's the macro level now to the micro level, what small acts of leadership do you try to both do daily as much as possible to make a positive difference in your team?  Speaker 3: I'll definitely say leading by example, and you know, that's not always an easy thing to do as an owner. You know, sometimes you just want to roll in at 11 o'clock and, you know, Hey, I own the business. Right. But I think sometimes, you know, being the first one at the office and the employees seeing that I think that's been a huge impact and just kind of letting people know like, Hey, I'm in this to like, you know, yes you do. You know, you work for me, but I work with you. So yeah, I would agree with that. And I think the other thing that we do as a, as a leadership team, or as a company is really like showing our appreciation, not just for, not just for our clients, but for our, our employees, like showing them recognition of the things that they do well and and rewarding them when a client compliments what they do.  Speaker 3: Oh yeah. We have a breadboard. Yeah. We have a brag board and, and we have goals for each department on certain amount of kudos or things that they're supposed to get each, each quarter. And we look at that all the time and I've noticed a huge difference in our team. They're, they're just so much more excited on a daily basis of like, even when they get a compliment, it's, there's just so much more excitement among the team together. I also like to add onto that brag board thing. I think it's such a cool, like a lot of people don't want to brag. I'm not going to probably like, I don't mind being like, look, you don't look at this, you know, two people I know, and I'm are close to. I like to and think a lot of people like hold those things inside. And I think it's important to show them and have a place where they can go, Hey, look, this happened to me. And its a, it's a great place to put it. And it's a place where we can see like, Hey, they're doing a great job because some of the times we see these employees are doing great things, but we just never hear about it. And so we put a place where they can actually show us or tell us where it's a safe place to do it. So yeah, that's been super helpful.  Speaker 1: Brag board. Love it, love it. So if one of our TCI listeners asked you, like what, what two to three books must they read to grow their leadership or their entrepreneurial skills? Or maybe it's a resource like a website or, you know, just a place that you go to grow. Where would you point them? Paul Casey, another $5. [inaudible]  Speaker 3: I would definitely, I mean, I'll be honest. I'm not a huge book reader. I like audio books, but I would, for one of them, I'd say traction and let me be completely honest. Have I finished reaction completely, almost I'm on the last final, like 20 minutes, I think? But the biggest thing I would say is, is, you know, finding your niche. So mine is YouTube. Like we learned a lot of stuff like video production wise on YouTube and, and we were able to emblem emulate what we liked and, and to, you know, a process or product. So for me, you know,  Speaker 4: Years ago it was not much of a book reader, but in the last like several years, I've definitely become more avid reader. But I also do listen to audio books. I have a few favorites, but I would say, what are the most impactful books that I've ever read from a leadership standpoint is relentless by Tim Grover. I think that's an amazing book. It doesn't necessarily talk about like leadership from a business standpoint, but it talks about leadership from kind of a team standpoint. And I think that, that, and it, it talks a lot about basketball and, you know, your major superstars who went through this crazy coaching, but it talks about what they had to do to become that super Rockstar. And so I think that's a good foundation. And for me, it's a very inspiring book. So I always, always liked to pick that up. I love listened to it several times and then the other there's two other books, traction, I would agree. And then what's the Stephen Covey book, cost  Speaker 1: Seven habits of highly effective people.  Speaker 4: And that one's a really good foundational book,  Speaker 3: Paradigm shift and podcasts. I mean, I had been listening to John Maxwell. That's been a huge, a huge, I would say, a source of leadership information and, you know, he has a really good way of putting it across. So that's been cool.  Speaker 1: So finally, what advice would you give to new leaders, new entrepreneurs or anyone who wants to keep growing and gaining more influence?  Speaker 4: I would say really just always trying to improve yourself, always try to constantly refine you're never going to,  Speaker 3: There's never a, there's never an informant, you know, you're always like, I think when you're, when you're young, you kind of think, Oh, well, I'm going to, I'm going to get to this point and everything's just gonna be great. It's, it's just, it's not like that. It's, there's always things to improve on. There's always just skills that you can continue to refine. And let's say just always be working on that. Okay. Yeah. And on the leadership side, a lot, a lot of people will put in, you know, as a boss quote, right? Like, and, and don't be a boss, be a leader and don't just tell people to do things, lead them to do that. So I think that that's where a lot of people, when they step into a leadership role is, they feel like, Oh, well, I just need to tell people what to do and do this and do that. And that's the wrong way of leadership. I think it’s; it's being on the, in those trenches with that employee and, and helping them get to where they want to go. And that's a leader, you know,  Speaker 1: You're here. Well, how can our listeners best connect with you too?  Speaker 3: I would say, you know, they can always check out our website, Spotify, digital.com or connect with us on Facebook and Instagram. We're always there. We're here for you guys.  Speaker 1: Well, thanks again for all you do to make the Tri-Cities a great place and keep leading. Well, Rob,  Speaker 3: Thanks, Paul.  Speaker 1: Let me wrap up our podcast today with a leadership resource to recommend it is the book managing transitions by William Bridges. So change is really hard for most people and maybe the structure of change is the easy part as a leader, but we forget sometimes that change has an emotional impact on people. And if you don't have a strategy, you don't have someone on it. Then oftentimes people will resist that change to the bitter end. So he breaks into three groups talking about the letting go part, the neutral zone and the new beginning. And if you don't have a strategy for all three change is going to be a lot harder. So managing transitions by William Bridges. Again, this is Paul Casey. I want to thank my guests, Brad Sapp, and field, and Nathan Robertson from Spotted, Fox digital for being here today on the Tri-City influencer podcast. And we want to thank our TCI sponsor and invite you to support them. We appreciate you making this possible so we can collaborate to inspire leaders in our community. Finally, one more leadership tidbit for the road to help you make a difference in your circle of influence and the spirit of Brad's meditation here at John Kabat-Zinn says mindfulness is about love and loving life. When you cultivate this love, it gives you clarity and compassion for life and your actions happened in accordance with that until next time, KGF keep growing forward.  Speaker 2: Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to today's show. Paul Casey is on a mission to add value to leaders by providing practical tools and strategies that reduce stress in their lives and on their teams so that they can enjoy life and leadership and experience their key desired results. If you'd like more help from Paul in your leadership development, connect with him at growingforwardatpaulcasey.org for a consultation that can help you move past your current challenges and create a strategy for growing your life or your team forward. Paul would also like to help you restore your sanity to your crazy schedule and getting your priorities done every day by offering you his free control My calendar checklist, go to www.take back my calendar.com for that productivity tool or open a text message two seven two zero zero zero, and type the word grown  Speaker 1: Tri-Cities influencer podcast was recorded at fuse SPC by Bill Wagner of Safe Strategies.

What can we learn from the brain about learning itself? Based on the latest findings of neuroscience about how the brain learns best, Noel Foy offers training to teachers, parents, students, athletes, and coaches. For instance, improving executive function helps master impulsive behavior and reduce anxiety, both valuable traits for students and athletes. Noel also talks about how her son’s experience with concussions influenced her journey from school teacher to “neuro-educator.” *This episode was originally released on May 20, 2020.* TRANSCRIPT: Intro: 0:01Inventors and their inventions. Welcome to Radio Cade, a podcast from the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention in Gainesville, Florida. The museum is named after James Robert Cade who invented Gatorade in 1965. My name is Richard Miles. We’ll introduce you to inventors and the things that motivate them. We’ll learn about their personal stories, how their inventions work, and how their ideas get from the laboratory to the marketplace. Richard Miles: 0:39What can we learn from the brain about learning itself? I’m your host, Richard Miles. Today my guest Noel Foy, founder of a company called Ammpe – A M M P E, which offers training to teachers, parents, students, athletes, and coaches based on neuroscience findings about how the brain learns best. She’s also the author of a children’s book called “ABC Worry Free”. Welcome to Radio Cade, Noel. Noel Foy: 1:03Thank you Richard , for having me. Richard Miles: 1:04Noel, one of the reasons you wrote your book “ABC Free” was to help students, teachers, and parents manage anxiety. So this has gotta be a golden moment for you, right? I mean, now we have an entire country of anxious households, and so I’m guessing for you, an opportunity. Noel Foy: 1:18Well, I am not responsible for the pandemic. Let me just put that out there, I certainly am seeing an increase in anxiety. I’m hearing from more students and parents about a little uptick. Certainly something like this would trigger more anxiety and I’m working with more teachers remotely doing some lessons in their classrooms to help their students manage their anxiety. So, I think it’s a timely experience for folks to take a closer look at what kind of coping skills they have in their pocket. And if they don’t, this is a great opportunity to develop some coping skills, not just for a pandemic, but for just how to manage anxiety-provoking moments in our lives. Anxiety pops up all the time. Something that is to be expected, it’s normal from time to time. When we’re worrying too much, then it’s something that we want to really have some strategies for. So I think really helping kids develop into adults have some strategies that they can rely on in these times is really important. Richard Miles: 2:20Right. So were chatting before the show, you’re from Boston but you’re actually in Martha’s vineyard right now. So I assume that meant nothing but Netflix and Chardonnay. Noel Foy: 2:27Believe it or not, it’s been a great opportunity for me to get some things done that I haven’t had much time to do. So, for example, I made some videos, I figured if ever a time to help parents and teachers and coaches and students with anxiety and coping skills, It’s now. So I have been working on some videos I put up on YouTube and writing a lot of articles on how to cope in parenting. What are some things we can do in our parenting that can help bring the anxiety down, can we do in our parenting language in our modeling that can help these stressful times go a little bit better. Richard Miles: 3:04So as I mentioned, the top of the show, your model is based on findings of neuroscience and that’s been a field in which there has been tremendous growth and research in the last 10 to 20 years. We know things now that we had really no clue at the turn of the new century. So, why don’t we start there, what are some of the key findings of neuroscience that have informed your work and inform your teaching and your coaching model? Noel Foy: 3:27So as you said, there’s a lot of exciting findings in the last 10 to 20 years. We’re learning so much about the brain. Uh , some of the things are these neuro myths that we used to believe to be true, such as that we only use 10% of the brain or that the brain is set at childhood. So now knowing about neuroplasticity and this process of our brain being malleable and that it continues to grow and change throughout our lives based on how we use it is really exciting information and learning a lot about emotion and the connection of emotion to learning has been really, really powerful. So as a neuro educator, I’m bringing in findings from neuroscience, cognitive science, psychology and education, and taking those findings and turning them into practical applications for teachers, coaches, parents and students. And that piece about the emotions has been really, really powerful. Judy Willis’s work out at the University of Santa Barbara has been really instrumental in helping us learn about what happens when we’re in states of fear, frustration, anger, boredom, or lack of relevance to what we’re learning and how that can kind of create this virtual stop sign in our brain and block learning from happening. We’re not receptive to learning in those states. So I’ve spent a lot of time in that space helping teachers and students and coaches and athletes decrease the stress. Since we know that this emotional piece is connected to learning, whether you’re learning how to do a math problem or how to write a paper or how to make a speech or how to execute a play, we’re learning. We’re learning in our jobs every day and stresses and anxiety can get in the way. And the emotional piece with Daniel Goldman’s work with social and emotional learning has been really powerful. He has found that EQ so that emotional quotient is twice as important than IQ and technical ability and driving performance. And we’re seeing now in schools that they’re paying a lot more attention to social and emotional learning and developing competencies and standards in those areas. And then the research in cognitive science has been really exciting about how we learn how we process and apply and remember information and Russell Barkley’s work on executive function. Executive function, emotional social skills are on every list of employers skills they’re seeking in their candidates. Yet we don’t typically, explicitly teach these in school. So I’m really excited to see that we’re seeing more attention given to these, seeing that they’re are so important to success in school relationships, sports, jobs and life. Carol Dweck’s work on mindset is really exciting. Fixed and growth mindset are two terms that she coined about really exploring our attitudes about intelligence and ability and how we praise our students, how we praise our kids, what feedback we get and our thoughts about effort and motivation and how that connects to achievement and how it connects to how we face challenges or do not face them. That work has been really powerful for me, as has been John Kabat-Zinn’s work on mindfulness and research on cognitive behavioral therapy. Cognitive behavioral therapy and mindfulness are two of the most effective treatments for anxiety. So I’ve incorporated those into the ABC strategy from the book “ABC Worry Free”. So I’ve come up with a strategy to help people decrease that stress so that they can be in that sweet spot. We need a little bit of stress, right? To get up every day and to compete. But when we have too much stress, we’re not receptive to learning and we’re not going to remember what we learned and we’re not going to be able to execute. So helping folks have that strategy has been one thing that I’ve developed from a lot of that research. Richard Miles: 7:25So Noel, “ABC Worry Free” it’s targeted for a younger child. What is the general age range for that book? Noel Foy: 7:31Well, that’s interesting. It is targeted, it’s geared towards kids. So I have used that book as young as preschool through adulthood. Although it’s written as a children’s book, I find it just an approachable way to tackle a topic that some people feel embarrassed about or insecure about. And through the character we can learn about the patterns of anxiety. We can learn what happens in our mind, in our bodies when we get anxious and we can start to see how we avoid things when we’re anxious or we step away from challenges. So everybody has a bee’s nest in the book. The character Max is afraid of bees and then decides he’s never going to go outside and play again. And he’s excessively worrying that every time he’s going to go outside he’s going to get stung . So when I’m working with older kids and with adults, we talk about, well, what’s your bees nest ? What’s your trigger? And we can learn from the character about the patterns and then we can learn the ABC strategy, relative to that person’s trigger. So I have used it with all ages and the first time I used it with high school aged students, I thought I was going to be booed off the stage. And I was probably halfway through the reading and one student just yelled out randomly “relatable!” So, the stress response works the same for kids and adults. So I feel it’s for anybody. Richard Miles: 8:55So Noel, now tell me a little bit about how the methodology, how it works when a student or a parent comes to you and says, “Hey, my child is anxious and learning this particular subject” or a teacher comes and says, “my students are anxious.” Do you walk them through a series of practical oral exercises or written exercises or what is it that they do to overcome or work through that anxiety in that particular subject? Noel Foy: 9:15Usually one of the first places I start is with teaching kids about their brain or teaching teachers and coaches about the brain. We are required to learn every muscle and bone in our body as kids, but we don’t really learn about the brain in practical ways that we can understand it in real time. So if my thoughts are getting into a worried place, I have to start to pay attention to that. And I was never taught about that as a kid. And to this day, most teachers are not trained in how to help kids with anxiety or are teaching them about the stress response and what you can do in real time when you notice worry thoughts and when you notice those physiological changes in your body. So I start there usually, is start to teach them about their brain and I teach them about neuroplasticity because for some kids they really love that it’s based on science, but for others they just need that sense of hope that you can change. And a lot of folks have a mindset that they don’t think they can change, that this is something that they might be stuck with for the rest of their lives. They have this sense of permanence. Richard Miles: 10:23If I could interrupt, neuroplasticity is this idea or this finding that we know is true, that the brain is such, it can be rewired. And I think one of the best examples that I’ve heard is, for instance, people who lose a limb that let’s say they lose their left arm in an accident, the brain can actually train itself to use rewire said now that the right arm for instance, is much more effective. Is that what we’re talking about with neuroplasticity? Noel Foy: 10:46 That’s an example. So when you start doing something new, whether it’s just thinking in a new way or feeling in a new way or doing something in a new way, that’s basically neuroplasticity in action. So the neurons start talking to each other and you might be starting to carve new roads and new pathways in the brain because you’re doing things in a different way. And at first it’s hard because you’re teaching the brain something new and you may be thinking in a way that’s different. Well , let’s say I was an anxious kid and I might be thinking that I can’t do science, right? And I might have certain behaviors and certain thoughts that are kind of bundled together when I go into that science class. And if that happens habitually over a year or more, maybe several years, that becomes my default. My brain is thinking, Oh , that’s how you roll, when you go into science class. But when I start to teach it new ways of thinking, so mindsets would be one thing I’d be working on. Back to your earlier question, I’d be teaching them about their brain, about neuroplasticity, about the stress response. They need to pay attention to their worried thoughts and the physiological changes in their body. And then I teach them the strategy. ABC strategy is one strategy I would teach them. I basically incorporated research about mindfulness and cognitive behavioral therapy as well as some executive function and mindset shift in that strategy. So that A is about accept how you feel. So that’s about mindfulness, accepting how you feel and in moments of stress instead of denying it or dismissing it or let’s say judging yourself, just accepting that. And that can bring down the anxiety and notch right there. And the B is about breathe slow and deep. And we know that slow, deep breaths , send a message to the nervous system to slow the game down so you can get your legs back under you and reset. So you can think clearly again. And then the C step is change your thinking. And that’s about making that cognitive shift in your thought process and your perspective and think in a new way so that you can step into problem solving mode and move forward. So those three steps come together as a result of my research on mindfulness, cognitive behavioral therapy and Carol Dweck’s work on mindset. So those are some of the things I do and then I also spend a lot of time helping kids build their executive function skills and their social and emotional skills. Richard Miles: 13:18And by executive function, Noel , it’s basically the ability to step outside yourself and judge your own actions. Like, that’s a good idea or not a good idea. Noel Foy: 13:26So that what you’re describing there is really metacognitive thinking, where you have that ability to kind of step back and say, okay, is this a good approach? What would be the best approach to use in this moment? Or for this task. Richard Miles: 13:38Young kids are not famous for executive function. Correct? Noel Foy: 13:41Right. So executive function is something that develops over time. Our executive functions reside in our prefrontal cortex and it’s the last part of our brain to develop. They can be built and taught, but it’s something that through a lot of practice and training we become better at executive function, or those who don’t get a lot of practice and training or good quality instruction, they may not develop the executive function skills as well as we’d like them to be successful in school or in their jobs. So your executive functions are basically like the CEO of your brain and there are a set of skills that include attention, memory, planning and organizing, self regulating your emotions, having that ability to make a cognitive shift in your mind and having cognitive flexibility and self monitoring, being able to see how I’m doing, make some adjustments if necessary. These are a set of skills that we need to produce. Task initiation is another big one. So if I’m having trouble getting started on a task, that’s an underdeveloped skill that I would need to work on. So, I spend a lot of time in that place with students because these are underdeveloped skills for a lot of kids and they can be built and taught. We do a lot of activities to help them develop those skills. Kids who have weak executive function are usually missing like a mental schema in their mind of what it looks like, like what the finished product looks like or what the set of steps look like of how I would approach this task and so they need some practice with activities that would help them build those skills. Richard Miles: 15:19Just as a comment, at The Cade Museum, we also have as we design exhibits and the programs, try to incorporate a lot of neuroscience findings in there as shorthand called it the head, heart and hands. Now idea behind is that it’s much easier to remember a fact, let’s say a scientific fact or something in chemistry, if at the same time you’re learning about it, you’re actually doing it. A Hands-on experiment or somebody’s telling you about it in an interesting way is much more effective long term or even short term, as opposed to simply reading it in a book or in a fact sheet or whatever. And there seems to have been a lot of studies that validate that, that you’re much more likely to remember something if you can associate it with another experience, particularly if it’s engaged as one of your other senses, much more likely to retain it. Noel Foy: 16:00Yeah. I love one of The Cade Museum’s missions about teaching and inspiring and not through just one discipline, but connecting it to daily life and making it relevant. When I mentioned Judy Willis’s work earlier, when you’re doing something that’s not relevant, that can be stressful, right? So you have a lot of kids that are in school saying, why do we have to do this? I’m never going to use this, and helping them find ways to make it meaningful and see the relevance of this can definitely boost the motivation. Richard Miles: 16:31That comment that you made earlier was what triggered me because one of the things that we decided from the beginning was we thought if we teach science to inventions, right? You’re basically telling them the answer. At the beginning you’re saying this is what this technology can produce, this thing that you have in your hand, whether it’s an iPhone or it’s anything really, you’re telling them the relevance upfront of why the chemistry and the biology and the physics that went into developing that particular technology are important because it produces this whatever this is, and we seem to have found that for kids in particular who don’t think that they’re really interested in those subjects, they become interested if they understand the connection, as you said, the relevance to technologies that they use or experience or are affected by every day. Noel Foy: 17:12If there’s that little hook, then that usually will boost their motivation and then that will usually increase, let’s say more positive emotions associated with this. Then you have more dopamine going in the learning process, which makes for happier moods. You start to associate that whole experience in a more positive way. So that whole piece about emotions and learning being linked I think starts to come to play through just that one example. Richard Miles: 17:38Noel, some of your work is with athletes and coaches, which I think is fascinating to a lot of people because in sports mental engagement is key, right, to success, particularly at a certain level it’s already given that whether it’s a young kid or professional athlete that physically they’ve got what it takes to be participate in that level. But a lot of it comes down to the mental executive function, discipline and so on. Give me an example, for instance of your clients and without naming any names, but when they come to you, let’s say a coach or an athlete, what is a typical problem that they’re dealing with and how do you help them? Noel Foy: 18:10Sure. So most of my work with athletes has been at the high school level and what coaches are noticing is that their athletes are having harder time paying attention. So attention is something that’s coming up a lot. Lacking self-direction and self-awareness is coming up a lot and self-regulation issues is coming up as well. The coaches are feeling like they’ve taught the plays, but they’re feeling frustrated that the students aren’t executing them, so they’re trying to figure out ‘what am I doing wrong?’. We go through a lot of the things we’ve chatted about so far, but one of the things I try to teach them about is the brain. Again, how we can build these executive function skills cause a lot of those challenges that they’re dealing with are related to executive function. When, let’s say you’re feeling very stressed, your executive function skills can be blocked, so it’s like a virtual stop sign could be going up in the brain. Now is that coming from a place of fear? Is it coming from a place of anger? So if you have some athletes that are, let’s say, not self-regulating, their executive functions could go offline, but we need those to be in place for them to execute the play because they’re not going to really remember it. If those executive functions aren’t online, they won’t be able to execute. We do a lot of activities with self-regulation, self-awareness, teamwork, collaboration, all those things will be enhanced when kids executive function skills are online. But when the stress response is activated, those executive function skills will go offline, helping them understand what’s happening there, and then they can hopefully interrupt their stress response. For example, we’re seeing a lot of kids in chronic stress these days and the brain does not discern the difference between, let’s say, a real or a perceived threat. So let’s just say for an athlete, the perceived threat might be, I’m going to get yelled at by the coach, or I’m going to be taken out of the game if I make a mistake, right? So if that’s the perceived threat, it could be enough to trigger that athlete’s stress response to activate. So if that’s happening, their body’s feeling all sorts of physiological changes, which is going to get in their way, and then they’re going to go to fight, flight, or freeze, then they’re basically not going to be effective to execute the play. So I try to help them discern and really pay attention to your thought process. And you can interrupt that stress response cycle. If you start to notice those worried thoughts and you start to notice that your body starting to feel different. Those are two great warning signs for you to pay attention to. And then let’s now implement one of the strategies, that we’ve been practicing to help you reset and get yourself back into a receptive state so you can execute the play. Richard Miles: 20:50Is there a particular sport that those athletes or coaches come to you and if so, even a particular position or do you see all sorts of different sports and all sorts of different positions? Noel Foy: 20:59The coaches that have approached me most have been basketball coaches. I have worked with AD’s though, I’ve done presentations for all of their captains and then train the captains and then the captains go back and train their student athlete peers. And then those coaches are relying a lot on those captains to train the kids. So I’ve worked with whole teams, I’ve worked with just captains. I work with the coaches of course too , cause it really needs to start from the top down. You need to really model it and live it. If a coach, say for example is let’s say going after a ref for a bad call and not self-regulating, of course there’s going to be stress and of course they’re going to be upset, but if it’s done in a way that that coach gets kicked out of the game or has gone into that out of the sweet spot stress zone, then that’s not going to be a great model for those athletes. So I really believe that the coaches have to be trained and then the athletes, you kind of have to live it and model it in practice. And a lot of the athletes are feeling afraid to make mistakes. A lot of the athletes are having trouble rebounding, no pun intended there with the basketball, but rebounding from mistakes and showing resiliency, they’re getting stuck in that negative place that they made a mistake and then they’re having a hard time moving on. So we do a lot of practice with how to build resilience and how to come back from a mistake and how to face the next challenge, embrace it instead of fearing it and how to keep your mind and your body in that sweet spot. So a lot of the strategies I’m doing, whether I’m working with athletes or teachers or parents, is I am giving them key information and proven strategies that appeal to how the brain learns best. You can think of them as if they’re mental Gatorade for the brain and they’re helping decrease stress and sync the social, emotional, and cognitive parts of the brain so that you can boost your learning, boost your metacognition, boost your executive function, boost your execution and your performance. Richard Miles: 23:00Noel, how do you validate your results? Do you do surveys afterwards of the teams, for instance, the classrooms that you work with or do you look at their test scores or even in the case of an athletic team, how are they doing it and season and so on? How do you hold yourself accountable to make sure that your methods are on the right track? Noel Foy: 23:17So with teachers, I will have them answer some evaluations. And there’s one school that I was working specifically with two teachers for about a two month period, and I was in there just about every day. So first before I started, we had all the information about how often kids were participating in class, how often were they having behavior issues in class, I had all their grades. So we started to track after they were trained, were the kids participating? So that was very measurable. Typically, we’re seeing in most classrooms about the same four to five kids. Let’s say you have a class of 20 to 25 kids, you’re seeing about the same four kids raising their hands on a regular basis. So what about the other 20 kids? We don’t know what they’re thinking and those four kids are getting continual practice, but the others, we don’t really know what they’re thinking. So we saw an increase in participation that was very measurable. You could now see 15 hands going up at the same time in the classroom. We could certainly see a decrease in behavior issues, less times going to the principal’s office or less times having to leave the class. We are seeing an increase in anxiety over about the past decade, about 17% increase in anxiety in kids, which is going to make it harder for teachers and for coaches. Right? And if they’re not trained and have some knowledge about the brain and some strategies and the stress response, I think it’s going to make their jobs really more challenging than they need to be. So we’re seeing more kids putting their head down on the desk, spacing out, acting out, freaking out, wanting to go to the nurse, going to the bathroom multiple times in a class. So we saw those numbers go down, way down. We saw the performance go up. So teachers would say that they were able to cover more content, that they could go deeper with the learning, get into critical thinking more. Kids were cooperating with each other more. They were taking more academic risks, they were feeling more comfortable. That’s something I should mention, psychological safety is absolutely critical. It’s connecting back to that emotions. And cognition being interwoven. A lot of kids aren’t feeling safe. Not that the teacher’s going to hurt them of course, but just emotionally, not feeling safe, afraid they’re going to be made fun of if they make a mistake or afraid to put themselves out there. Now you have other kids coming in with all sorts of other issues too. Could be trauma, or situations going on at home, but when they’re in the classroom, there could be things that we could cultivate to make the kids feel safer and the same on a team. The kids aren’t feeling like this doesn’t mean that we can’t be rigorous and can’t be demanding of course, but they need to feel that they can make a mistake, own it, learn from it, and not be, let’s say judged for it. So we saw kids definitely self-regulating better. What was really fun to watch when they were in games that were really close when the stakes got higher and the stress got higher, they were able to self regulate and when let’s say a ref made a call they didn’t like, they were able to process it, accept it and move forward. And same thing if they made a mistake, they made some kind of execution error with the play. They were able to come back and just put in more effort on that next play, either rebounding more or trying to make a great block or just be there for their teammates emotionally, physically in ways that they were kind of checking out before they were getting more wins. So that’s very measurable. They were winning more and less, let’s say, tension on the team, a lot more collaboration, greater teamwork, and teachers basically said a lot of the same things. Richard Miles: 26:56That’s fascinating. So you started out as a teacher and then you got interested in neuroscience and then from there you developed this role as an educator dealing with the neuroscience concept . Tell us a little bit about that, your career path. What did you start out teaching in what level, what grade, and then how did you first hear or get interested in neuroscience? Noel Foy: 27:14So I have been teaching on my gosh, close to 40 years as an educator now. I started out teaching dyslexic students, at a school called Landmark School and then I was a learning specialist at the Roxbury Latin school for about 25 years and then at the same time I was also a teacher trainer, worked for a company called Keys to Literacy, doing teacher trainings. I slowly evolved into being a consultant and a neuro-educator from an unfortunate situation with one of my sons, so one of our boys had multiple concussions that got me to neuroscience conferences because I wanted to learn more about the brain and how this was going to impact his life, how it was going to impact school and his ability to concentrate, pay attention. Going to those neuroscience conferences were just like eyeopening . And then that got me to conferences called learning and the brain conferences. That was my first encounter with Judy Willis. Where started to just have like one aha moment after another. It really started with learning about the impact of stress on learning, and I started to have these aha moments that, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s why I had such a hard time in science’, or ‘Oh, this helps explain why my kids love learning, but they hate school’. They were, and I was in those states of stress, the fear, the anxiety, the lack of relevance, sometimes anger and the frustration, those stressful moments were getting in the way of learning. So that just really inspired me to do something about this lack of information that most teachers weren’t getting trained in. That was not part of my teacher preparation and to this day, it’s something that still is in need of a lot of work. Thankfully there’s an organization called Deans for Impact, that is working on trying to change this. But right now I’d say the majority of teacher preparation programs might have a class or two on some kind of educational psychology. But teachers are not being trained in how to prepare adequately for the real time kinds of problems that we’re experiencing in the classroom and setting them up for, I think the best success we could about the knowledge that we have related to emotions and learning and how they’re interwoven and how to deal with the 17% increase in anxiety and the increase in depression and how are we going to manage all of this in the classroom. So I decided I needed to come up with trainings that would help empower teachers to build these skills kids and to build these skills in the teachers themselves. So if we think about teacher prep programs, the professors themselves would need to learn this new information in order to train the teachers. So that’s something that’s ongoing, but still a long way to go. Richard Miles: 29:57So I imagine as you talk to teachers, you probably have a fair degree of credibility having been one yourself. Right? So you’re not just some consultant parachuting in telling them, well here’s what science says. The fact that you have been in their shoes, helps you understand what they’re looking for and what they’re going through. Noel Foy: 30:13It absolutely does. Being a classroom teacher, a former classroom teacher, does give me some street cred and I still try to keep myself real by working with students to this day. So even though I’m a consultant, I still have my own students. I use all of the strategies on my students as well to make sure that I can be able to say, here’s how the student responded. Here are the results, here’s about how long it might take for you to start to see results. Here’s typical feedback I might get from students about this strategy. So yes, it definitely helps. Richard Miles: 30:48So obviously in addition to being a teacher, you’ve also been a student. Tell us about you growing up. What were you like as a student? Were you a good one, a bad one where you’re curious, not so curious? And then any indicators that you can remember as a young child being interested in the brain. Noel Foy: 31:03So I was a good student. I loved school. I will say that the healthy understanding of failure and I would put myself in situations that I knew I’d succeed in. So I wish I had a little bit more of understanding about mindset. I didn’t have any strategies so, I was that kid that got anxious in science class. I was that child that just walking to science class activated my stress response. So I went in on high alert and instead of listening to the teacher and taking in the science, I was just thinking, ‘Please don’t call on me. I have no idea what you’re talking about’. So that’s what I remember about that class instead of the science. That class, I can say I lived that experience about the connection of emotion to learning. I was in a state of fear and it blocked my ability to learn in that class and the way it was taught at that time period. It was not relevant to me at all. I had no idea that I would ever use science. So, I am very grateful that a point came in my life, unfortunately through my son’s concussion, I started to see the relevance of science and the applications just seem limitless for the classroom, for sports, for relationships, for the corporate world. There’s just so many applications. Richard Miles: 32:17So the other fascinating part of your story, one that we’d like to talk about at The Cade museum, it’s an entrepreneurial aspect. When you went from being a teacher, I assume in a public school or even a private institution, but essentially then became an entrepreneur running your own business, what sort of advice would you give? Because it’s something that a lot of people dream of, right? They think, well, I’m going to leave my first job and I’m gonna start a second career in own business. And that generally is a little bit harder than it sounds. Tell us about that experience of becoming your own boss and running your own organization. Noel Foy: 32:48Well, it’s really fun. It’s really challenging and it’s about something I really care about. I’m obviously passionate about it. It’s certainly something that requires a lot of persistence and resilience. There’s definitely times where I’m thinking, wow, I’ve worked really hard on this, am I making the progress that I feel I should be making or you certainly make a lot of mistakes and certainly have a lot of failures. For example, the book ‘ABC, Worry Free’, I had written a children’s book when my first of four sons was born years ago. I think I just thought I was going to put it out there and bang, somebody was just going to pick it up. Well that didn’t happen, but at that time period of my life I didn’t really have a growth mindset and understand the power of failure and that, okay, maybe take a look at your approach. There’s something to be learned here, so that ability to shift my mindset and really look at failure in a new way and have a healthy understanding of it, has really helped my work a lot to put myself out there and teachers and coaches have been very receptive. I’d say one of the biggest hurdles is time. Many teachers are feeling that, Oh man, I have a lot on my plate already, now I have this one more thing. That’s how they’re thinking about it is how am I going to add these strategies when I’m already feeling I don’t have enough time to cover my content. So you run into challenges throughout this process, but it’s so worth it and so fulfilling, especially when you start to see results. Richard Miles: 34:14I love that phrase and well, a healthy understanding of failure. I think a lot of entrepreneurs and inventors that we talked to describe something very similar. It’s not if you fail, it’s when you fail because you will have failures along the path and obviously even for athletes and so on, it’s how do you use those failures, learn from them, and then leverage them into your next achievement. But not to be surprised when they happen. Noel, this has been great conversation and at this moment you don’t look like you’re failing to me, so keep it up . Of course in the Epic we’re in now, maybe we’ll all just sit around, like I said, Netflix and Chardonnay, and that’s what the next three years are gonna look like. But hopefully not. Noel Foy: 34:50You’re probably going to learn something new, so you’re keeping that neuroplasticity going through this period. Richard Miles: 34:56Thanks very much for joining me on Radio Cade today and wish you the best. Noel Foy: 34:59So thank you so much for having me. It was great. Outro: 35:02Radio Cade is produced by The Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention located in Gainesville, Florida . Richard Miles is the podcast host and Ellie Thom coordinates, inventor interviews. Podcasts are recorded at Heartwood Soundstage and edited and mixed by Bob McPeak . The Radio Cade theme song is produced and performed by Tracy Collins and features violinist, Jacob Lawson.

This week, Desiree + Miya check in with each other. They discuss how they've been feeling, life updates, current reads, and favorite shows.  Books mentioned: Wherever You Go, There You Are by John Kabat-Zinn; More Myself by Alicia Keys; An American Marriage by Tayari Jones Thanks for listening to the Water + Wine podcast! You can continue to support us by: subscribing + leaving a review. Catch up with us on IG @waterandwinepodcast.

``My goal in working with any of my clients or patients is to support them with what I call a healing dialogue with their body to increase awareness of their breath and some habits that may have posturally and educate them in the core musculoskeletal so they kind of understand why it's not just about pelvic floor ``. – Lynne Odom Our guest is Karen Lynne Odom, PT, MOMT. Lynne has been practicing Physical Therapy since 1993 (UT-Memphis) and completed her Masters of Orthopedic Manual Therapy (MOMT) through the Ola Grimsby Institute in 1997. Following advanced training in Pelvic Health in 1998, she introduced Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy to the Nashville area. After working in corporate environments, she opened her private practice, Core Solutions Physical Therapy, LLC, in 2006, to devote more time to individuals who have Pelvic Health issues ranging from Incontinence, Organ Prolapse, Dyspareunia, Pelvic Floor Dysfunction, Vulvodynia, Vestibulitis, Vaginismus, Proctalgia, Pre-and Postpartum pain, Genital Pain, Constipation, Pelvic/Abdominal/Tailbone Pain in addition to other Orthopedic issues. What will you learn: • Lynne's story and career • Making pelvic health known to the public and doctors • Types of conditions treated by a Pelvic Health specialist • How to approach and treat patients with pelvic floor dysfunction • Relationship between pelvic floor, breathing, and other musculoskeletal dysfunctions • Experience as a founding member of the Nashville Alliance for Sexual Health • Advice to clinicians that are starting their careers • How to become successful in Physical Therapy Lynne's favorite resource of information: Books: 1. Pathology Implications for the Physical Therapist. Fuller & Boissonnault 2. Women's Health Textbook for Physiotherapists by Sapsford, Bullock-Saxton, Markwell 3. Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg, PhD 4. Any MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) books by John Kabat-Zinn, PhD 5. Herman & Wallace courses 6. APTA Pelvic Health Courses Scientific articles: - Smith, M. Coppieters, W. Hodges, P (2006) Postural Activity of the Pelvic Floor Muscles is Delayed During Rapid Arm Movements in Women with Stress Urinary Incontinence. In. Urologynecol.J Pelvic Floor Dysfunction. 2007 Aug 18(8):90-11 - Smith, M. Coppieters, W. Hopdges, P (2006) Disorders of Breathing and Continence Have a Stronger Association with Back Pain than Obesity and Physical Activity. Aust J Physiothera. 200652(1): 11-6 Lynne`s contact information: Email: lynneodompt@coresolutionsphysicaltherapy.net Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/coresolutionsphysicaltherapy Office number: 615-292-0199 TN Alliance for Sexual Health: https://www.tnash.org/ Link to interview on Youtube: https://youtu.be/GEdG0J7asKQ Join our email list to receive podcast updates: https://www.ptprotalk.com/ Email: mariana@ptprotalk.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ptprotalk/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ptprotalk/

``My goal in working with any of my clients or patients is to support them with what I call a healing dialogue with their body to increase awareness of their breath and some habits that may have posturally and educate them in the core musculoskeletal so they kind of understand why it's not just about pelvic floor ``. – Lynne Odom Our guest is Karen Lynne Odom, PT, MOMT. Lynne has been practicing Physical Therapy since 1993 (UT-Memphis) and completed her Masters of Orthopedic Manual Therapy (MOMT) through the Ola Grimsby Institute in 1997. Following advanced training in Pelvic Health in 1998, she introduced Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy to the Nashville area. After working in corporate environments, she opened her private practice, Core Solutions Physical Therapy, LLC, in 2006, to devote more time to individuals who have Pelvic Health issues ranging from Incontinence, Organ Prolapse, Dyspareunia, Pelvic Floor Dysfunction, Vulvodynia, Vestibulitis, Vaginismus, Proctalgia, Pre-and Postpartum pain, Genital Pain, Constipation, Pelvic/Abdominal/Tailbone Pain in addition to other Orthopedic issues. What will you learn: • Lynne's story and career • Making pelvic health known to the public and doctors • Types of conditions treated by a Pelvic Health specialist • How to approach and treat patients with pelvic floor dysfunction • Relationship between pelvic floor, breathing, and other musculoskeletal dysfunctions • Experience as a founding member of the Nashville Alliance for Sexual Health • Advice to clinicians that are starting their careers • How to become successful in Physical Therapy Lynne's favorite resource of information: Books: 1. Pathology Implications for the Physical Therapist. Fuller & Boissonnault 2. Women's Health Textbook for Physiotherapists by Sapsford, Bullock-Saxton, Markwell 3. Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenberg, PhD 4. Any MBSR (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction) books by John Kabat-Zinn, PhD 5. Herman & Wallace courses 6. APTA Pelvic Health Courses Scientific articles: - Smith, M. Coppieters, W. Hodges, P (2006) Postural Activity of the Pelvic Floor Muscles is Delayed During Rapid Arm Movements in Women with Stress Urinary Incontinence. In. Urologynecol.J Pelvic Floor Dysfunction. 2007 Aug 18(8):90-11 - Smith, M. Coppieters, W. Hopdges, P (2006) Disorders of Breathing and Continence Have a Stronger Association with Back Pain than Obesity and Physical Activity. Aust J Physiothera. 200652(1): 11-6 Lynne`s contact information: Email: lynneodompt@coresolutionsphysicaltherapy.net Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/coresolutionsphysicaltherapy Office number: 615-292-0199 TN Alliance for Sexual Health: https://www.tnash.org/ Link to interview on Youtube: https://youtu.be/GEdG0J7asKQ Join our email list to receive podcast updates: https://www.ptprotalk.com/ Email: mariana@ptprotalk.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ptprotalk/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ptprotalk/

Caroline sits down with Annie Skillings, who practices Mindful EAL (equine assisted learning). Annie talks about the blending of her two passions mindfulness and horses! We discuss everything from her early research with John Kabat-Zinn, horses as sentient beings, and how being nurtured by the energy of horses can be deeply healing for trauma. Tune in for a great show!

Da der Begriff der Achtsamkeit in den bisherigen Folgen schon beinahe als eine Grundvoraussetzung gesehen wurde, holt Philipp in dieser Folge eine kleine Definition nach und macht sein Verständnis von Achtsamkeit deutlich. Dabei ist es ihm wichtig, einige Vorurteile zum Begriff aufzulösen und lädt dazu ein, sich mit einer veränderten Sichtweise, (erneut) auf die Achtsamkeit einzulassen; denn sie kann besonders in stressigen Zeiten ein Hauptgewinn sein. Leseempfehlungen: Achtsamkeit für Anfänger – John Kabat-Zinn: https://amzn.to/2WX4ufQ ACHTSAMKEIT - Bewusster leben: Wie Sie mit Hilfe von Achtsamkeitstraining & Meditation Stress bewältigen, Gelassenheit lernen und Ihre Resilienz trainieren – Für mehr Glück & Lebensfreude – Victoria Lakefield: https://amzn.to/2yqk5KP Jetzt den Podcast abonnieren und bewerten bei: iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/management-meets-mindfulness-wertvolles-management/id1446213319 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3oX7hRtrVoIUzpG7jWH8eH Deezer: https://www.deezer.com/de/show/743452 Für Kooperationsanfragen und Informationen rund um den Podcast schreib einfach eine Mail direkt an info@m-x-m.net Hier findest Du uns in den sozialen Netzwerken: https://www.instagram.com/mxmpodcast/ https://www.facebook.com/mxmpodcast/

Dneska si budeme povídat na téma jógy a mindfulness s Terezou Hausmanovou, která se mindfulness začala věnovat při studiích v Británii,. Účastnila se konferencí mindfulness a jógy (v Budapešti a v Barceloně), pobývala v ašrámu jógy sivananda, žila jsem 2 měsíce ve spirituální komunitě Inanitah v Nikaragui, kde jsem přišla do kontaktu s různými druhy meditací a všímavého pohybu (Oshovy dynamické meditace, breathwork, tanec 5 Rytmů, kakaové ceremonie). Tereza nám osvětlí, co tento termín znamená, budeme si povídat o tom, jaké benefity nám může přinést a proč se tomu začala Terka věnovat tak na plno. Vyzkoušíte si také základní mindfulness techniku a doporučíme dobré zdroje, pokud vás toto téma zaujme. A my věříme, že ano, obzvláště v současné komplikované a hektické době. P.S. díl jsme natáčeli ještě před vypuknutím Korona viru a následné karantény, takže workshopy, které v podcastu zmiňujeme nejsou v současné chvíli aktuální. Knihy, které Terka doporučuje a zmiňovali jsme v podcastu: John Kabat Zinn - Život samá pohroma, Uvědomujte si přítomnost Tara Brach - Radikální přijetí, (také podcast od ní v AJ je super) Thich Nhat Hanh - Štěstí, Bez bahna lotos nevykvete, Ticho Linda Lerhauptová - MBSR, Zbavte se stresu pomocí všímavosti Eckhart Tolle - Moc přítomného okamžiku Sharon Salzberg - Laskavost, Cesta ke štěstí Odkaz na vedenou meditaci můžete najít na Terky webu: https://www.terezahausmanova.com/blog/vedene-meditace

Mindfulness has become common in pop culture. Luckily, that's for a good reason. While research continues, study after study has shown positive effects of Mindfulness and Mindful Parenting. So what does it mean to be a Mindful Parent? Links from this episode: The Gottman Institute: https://www.gottman.com/blog/mindful-parenting-how-to-respond-instead-of-react/ Dr. John Kabat-Zinn: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/what-is-mindful-parenting_b_5945356 Headspace: https://www.headspace.com/mindfulness/mindful-parenting Clinical Child and Family Psychology Review article: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10567-009-0046-3 Visit MyMindfulMat.com for more mindfulness resources and activities, and Coriaria.com for more resources to strengthen your family and relationships. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/my-mindful-mat-moment/message

En el programa de hoy, os vamos a presentar a Alba Valle, experta en Mindfulness.Alba es psicóloga clínica, experta en Mindfulness, se formó con John-Kabat Zinn entre otros, Alba es budista y está super formada, habrá hecho más de 25 cursos de meditación por un montón de países con diferentes maestros, grandes maestros, luego todo esto lo aplica en sus sesiones ayudando a sus alumnos tanto en su gabinete de psicología y también en las formaciones que ofrece vía online.¿CUÁL ES SU OBJETIVO?Ayudar al mayor número de personas para que tengan bienestar mental y emocional. Recuerda que puedes descargar mis recursos gratuitos desde la página: https://viviendomontessori.com/gratisA lo largo de este programa hablaremos sobre:•Qué es el Mindfulness•Ir a diario en piloto automático, importancia de apagarlo.•Gestionar la falta de tiempo que sentimos las madres.•Se puede meditar haciendo otra tarea.•Cómo puede el mindfulness ayudar a nuestros hijos o a nuestros seres queridos.•Consejo para organizar el día a día.Os recuerdo cómo podéis encontrar a Alba Valle y os animo a descargar su Caja-Mindfull:https://hotm.art/cVFwc8WInstagram: @albavalle_mindEspero que os haya gustado, muchísimas gracias por todo, por vuestras valoraciones de 5 - estrellas en iTunes y vuestros comentarios en Ivoox, y en general porque agradezco que estéis ahí y que compartáis todo esto, ya que gracias a vosotros cada día somos más. Podéis escribirme o hacer cualquier sugerencia en la página viviendomontessori.com/contacto También os invito a que entréis en el grupo privado de Facebook “Crianza Positiva Tribu Viviendo Montessori”. ¡¡Recordad que los niños solo son niños una vez!!Volvemos el próximo lunes a las 6:06, que paséis muy buena semana.

En el programa de hoy, os vamos a presentar a Alba Valle, experta en Mindfulness.Alba es psicóloga clínica, experta en Mindfulness, se formó con John-Kabat Zinn entre otros, Alba es budista y está super formada, habrá hecho más de 25 cursos de meditación por un montón de países con diferentes maestros, grandes maestros, luego todo esto lo aplica en sus sesiones ayudando a sus alumnos tanto en su gabinete de psicología y también en las formaciones que ofrece vía online.¿CUÁL ES SU OBJETIVO?Ayudar al mayor número de personas para que tengan bienestar mental y emocional. Recuerda que puedes descargar mis recursos gratuitos desde la página: https://viviendomontessori.com/gratisA lo largo de este programa hablaremos sobre:•Qué es el Mindfulness•Ir a diario en piloto automático, importancia de apagarlo.•Gestionar la falta de tiempo que sentimos las madres.•Se puede meditar haciendo otra tarea.•Cómo puede el mindfulness ayudar a nuestros hijos o a nuestros seres queridos.•Consejo para organizar el día a día.Os recuerdo cómo podéis encontrar a Alba Valle y os animo a descargar su Caja-Mindfull:https://hotm.art/cVFwc8WInstagram: @albavalle_mindEspero que os haya gustado, muchísimas gracias por todo, por vuestras valoraciones de 5 - estrellas en iTunes y vuestros comentarios en Ivoox, y en general porque agradezco que estéis ahí y que compartáis todo esto, ya que gracias a vosotros cada día somos más. Podéis escribirme o hacer cualquier sugerencia en la página viviendomontessori.com/contacto También os invito a que entréis en el grupo privado de Facebook “Crianza Positiva Tribu Viviendo Montessori”. ¡¡Recordad que los niños solo son niños una vez!!Volvemos el próximo lunes a las 6:06, que paséis muy buena semana.

Today it feels that stress, anxiety and depression are reaching epidemic levels, and for many people who slip into that black hole, it can take years to scramble out and get life back on track...if they manage it at all. For public speakers there are many potential triggers for stress and anxiety… the actual act of speaking can be terrifying for some, then there's the rejection to deal with, and perhaps one of the biggest ones we face…the old imposter syndrome. That's why I decided to invite Linda Clarke on the show. I have been working with Linda to develop her new workshop and I've been so impressed by her story, her knowledge and experience and the results she gets people. So, for me it was a no brainer to ask if she would come onto The Speaking Club to share her wisdom with you. A Master Hypnotherapist, with many other qualifications to her name, Linda has been in practice since 2006. She was based in South Africa for most of that time, with a thriving business, even treating Nelson Mandela's Granddaughter as part of a documentary at one point. But her life changed dramatically in 2017 and what would have sent most people over the edge, gave Linda the perfect opportunity to take her own medicine. I am sure you will enjoy this show! What we talk about: What Hypnotherapy is and how it works. How your thoughts can help or hinder your situation when you're going through a difficult time/transition. The top 3 things you can do to cope in a high-stress situation. The two different ways of being mindful and how they can help you perform better. Specific tips for managing anxiety and stress around public speaking. The importance of building the right neural pathways. Primal needs – what they are and why they matter. Why your talk doesn't need to be perfect to be effective. Why you should speak to the audience you've got not the one you want. The importance of trusting your instincts in business. Resources* All things Linda: https://www.lindaclarke.co.uk email:linda@lindaclarke.co.uk Other Resources: The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton The Molecules of Emotion by Candice Pert Full Catastrophe Living by John Kabat-Zinn https://www.storyledspeaking.com https://www.standoutpitch.com https://www.saraharcher.co.uk https://www.thespeakingclub.com/speakingcourse  Thanks for listening! To share your thoughts:                                                  leave a comment below. Share this show on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn. To help the show out: Leave an honest review on iTunes. Your ratings and review really help get the word out and I read each one. Subscribe on iTunes. *(please note if you use my link for the books, I get a small commission, but this does not affect your payment)  

Nesse episódio vamos continuar discutindo a atenção, mas do ponto de vista da medicina corpo e mente - o que acontece no corpo durante a meditação? Porque a meditação muda padrões de comportamento, aumenta a resiliência, é solo fértil para a germinação da empatia e da gratidão?Durante a minha formação de mindfulness no Centro de Mindfulness na Escola Médica da Universidade de Massachussets e no curso de Skliis Bulding para facilitação de grupos e experiências do protocolo criado por John Kabat-Zinn e melhorado por Florence Meleo-Meyer e Lynn Koerbel do Centro de Mindfulness na Escola de Saúde Pública da Universidade de Brown. Um grande centro de pesquisa de mindfulness, estudamos diversos artigos sobre as evidências de mindfulness. Compartilho esse conhecimento científico com você nesse episódio.Se estiver interessado em saber mais, a referência está aqui:Altered traits - Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body - Daniel Goleman e Richard J. Davidson#quesejamaostodosplenosPara me conhecer melhor:Blog: www.medium.com/roberta-ribeiroInstagram: @berta.ribeiroe-mail: dr.ribeiro@medintegral.com.brWhatsApp: +55. 11. 998.924.510Spotify: Mindful Moment by Roberta Ribeiro

I was feeling super sad this morning and it was starting to affect me physically. It was triggered by looking at a cat's tail plant during my walk this morning. It reminded me of when I would pluck one of the stalks for my daughter, Ava, while I would push her in her stroller when she was little girl. I remembered when my younger daughter, Annabelle, would tell me, "Daddy, don't step on the lines!" Which made me feel even more sad missing those times I'd walk with her and play the "don't step on the lines" game. When I got back home from the walk, I saw their baby pictures all over the house which made me feel even more sad! Later, while driving to my client's house this morning, the feeling of sadness started to overwhelm me! I started to feel extremely tired, weak, and sleepy. That was when I remembered a concept that I learned from John Kabat-Zinn, the author of The Full Catastrophe Living. He says that we should become an observer to our own feelings rather than fall victim to them. He points out that if we're going to feel them anyways we might as well really feel them. Once you begin to take notice and observe the feelings like a scientist would, the overwhelming emotions lose their grip on you. They don't feel so strong and all-consuming anymore, and you begin to feel better. So I tried this while driving to work this morning, and now I really do feel better. I hope this concept helps you as much as it helps me. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/junthegroomer/support

Menos amígdala, menos emoções, isso significa que se pode vivenciar a realidade sem carga emocional, embora seja possível perceber a reação emocional acontecendo, do mesmo modo se pode ver os passos acontecendo, mas não o processo do andar.Durante a minha formação de mindfulness no Centro de Mindfulness na Escola Médica da Universidade de Massachusetts e no curso de Skliis Bulding para facilitação de grupos e experiências do protocolo criado por John Kabat-Zinn e melhorado por Florence Meleo-Meyer e Lynn Koerbel do Centro de Mindfulness na Escola de Saúde Pública da Universidade de Brown. Um grande centro de pesquisa de mindfulness, estudamos diversos artigos sobre as evidências de mindfulness. Compartilho esse conhecimento científico com você nesse episódio. Se estiver interessado em saber mais, a referência está aqui:Altered traits - Science Reveals How Meditation Changes Your Mind, Brain, and Body - Daniel Goleman e Richard J. Davidson#quesejamaostodosplenosPara me conhecer melhor:Blog: www.medium.com/roberta-ribeiroInstagram: @berta.ribeiroe-mail: dr.ribeiro@medintegral.com.brWhatsApp: +55. 11. 998.924.510Spotify: Mindful Moment by Roberta Ribeiro

In this episode with Jan Bergstrom, we go into depth about the 5 Core Practices of a Healthy Life. This work was inspired by Pia Mellody and has become the foundation for many models of therapy. We talk about doing inner child work, feelings reduction work, and standing in your truth. We also touch on the importance of self-esteem and boundaries. Jan is the co-founder of the Healing Our Core Issues Institute. She is the author of the new book, Gifts From a Challenging Childhood. She has trained with Pia Mellody, Peter Levine, John Kabat Zinn, Sue Johnson, and Terry Real. For more information on trainings and workshops go to healingourcoreissuesinstitute.com. Get Jan's book, Gifts From a Challenging Childhood The Couples Therapist Couch is the podcast for Couples Therapists about the practice of couples therapy. The host, Shane Birkel, interviews an expert in the field of couples therapy each week. Please subscribe to the podcast for more great episodes. Get your free course called Working with Couples 101 Click here to join the Couples Therapist Couch Facebook Group Today's Sponsor The Kauai Retreat for Therapists The CAV Academy presents the Kauai Retreat for therapists on Kauai, Hawaii from February 13-15 2020. There are 3 days of workshops exploring the practice of Couples Therapy including one full day intensive with Terry Real. Sign up here!  

Positive, menschliche, herzliche, kraftvolle, visionäre und manchmal auch nachdenkliche Impulse eines lebensfreudigen Mannes, der das Leben und seine schönen Seiten genießt. Deshalb kann ich auch für Dich ein guter Wegbegleiter sein. Heute spreche ich mit Thomas Greh, meinem Meditations- und Achtsamkeitslehrer. Bei ihm habe ich zwei MBSR-Kurse nach John Kabat Zinn gemacht. Wir sprechen über die entstressende Wirkung von Meditationen und wie wichtig es ist, achtsam und präsent in der Gegenwart zu leben. Eines der wichtigsten Zitate aus dieser Folge ist, dass zwischen Reiz und Reaktion ein Raum ist. Das bedeutet, dass Du nicht auf jeden unfairen Angriff sofort mit gleichen Mitteln antworten musst. Du kannst auch einen Moment innehalten und dann entscheiden, wie Du reagieren möchtest. Höre Dir das spannende Gespräch an, Du wirst viele gute Hinweise für Dein Leben bekommen.   Thomas Greh findest Du im Internet unter: www.mbsr-bremen.de Thomas Greh Bismarckstraße 109 28203 Bremen info@mbsr-bremen.de         Hallo liebe Zuhörerinnen und Zuhörer. Herzlich Willkommen zu meiner Podcastreihe. Mein Name ist Jochen Bethge, ich bin Coach und Berater in Bremen. Zielgruppe meines Podcastes sind alle Menschen, die spüren, dass sie etwas in ihrem Leben verändern wollen und sich dabei unterstützen lassen wollen. Ganz besonders richte ich mich aber an Männer, ja an Männer. Ich bin selber ein Mann mit 61 Jahren und viel Lebenserfahrung. Auch Männer können sich verändern, auch für Männer ist es eine Stärke, sich dabei unterstützen zu lassen. Wenn Du morgens in den Spiegel siehst, dann stelle Dir mal die Frage, ob Du glücklich bist. Würdest Du das,  was Du tust, auch tun, wenn heute der letzte Tag in Deinem Leben wäre? Wenn Du dies eine zeitlang verneinst, dann wird es Zeit, etwas zu ändern. Ich habe dazu bereits das Buch "Ich wollte nie so werden wie mein Vater" geschrieben" Ein zweites Buch schreibe ich dazu gerade. Wenn Du mehr dazu wissen willst, dann spreche mich an. Nach und nach werde ich die Inhalte auch schon vorher veröffentlichen. Wenn Dir der Podcast gefallen hat oder Du weitere Fragen hast, dann rufe mich gerne an 0160-8026483 oder schreibe mir eine Mail an: Jochen.Bethge@t-online.de Möchtest Du ein Teil dieser Podcastreihe werden? Was ist Dein Thema? Gern führe ich mit Dir ein Interview! Ich freue mich auf Deine Mail. Mail: Jochen.Bethge@t-online.de.  Du findest mich auch bei Xing unter https://www.xing.com/profile/Jochen_Bethge?sc_o=mxb_p

Ever meditated or tried mindfulness? I REALLY struggle with quieting my mind enough to concentrate on doing it! Here are my top 10 reasons - all researched! - of how we can all benefit from meditating, both physically and psychologically... including its effect on depression and anxiety! And I share my top 5 tips on getting started with a regular meditation practise!!   Honorable Mentions: Lee et al’s research suggesting meditation benefits diabetes type 2 patients, and reduces LDL cholesterol in hypertension Park and Han’s research into meditation for blood pressure Wachholtz et al’s research into the effects of meditation on migraine Saeed et al’s research into yoga and mindfulness-based meditation’s effect on depression and anxiety Blum et al’s research into levels of anxiety before and after mindful meditation, in adolescents Carpena et al’s research into the use of a six-week mindfulness course for depression and anxiety Jones et al’s research into how mindful meditation affects people’s coping abilities Chan et al’s research into mindfulness meditation for older adults Rusch et al’s research into how meditation may improve sleep   John Kabat-Zinn's meditation / mindfulness guides Headspace app   FREE guide to my TOP TEN motivational tips for a better life!    Instagram: @wildeaboutwellbeing Pinterest: @wildeaboutwellbeing Wilde About Wellbeing website

Studies show that meditating for just 30 minutes a day can have amazing health benefits. Dr. Sara Lazar of Harvard University tells Ned about her research that showed regular meditation can improve a person's focus and increase overall feelings of well-being.  Go back and listen to Season 1 Episode 4: 25 Minutes to a Calmer Approach to Life to hear John Kabat-Zinn talk about the mindfulness-based stress reduction meditation program he created that Dr. Lazar references in this episode! Dr. Lazar's website: http://scholar.harvard.edu/sara_lazar/home Email your questions for Dr. Hallowell and your episode ideas to connect@distractionpodcast.com. This episode is sponsored by Landmark College in Putney, Vermont.  This episode was originally released in March 2017. 

What is mindfulness? Acacia psychologist Dr. Ross Gubrud, PhD, talks about the basics of mindfulness, how to become more aware of your emotions, and how meditation helped him on his own mental health journey. Learn about how to start your own mindfulness practice, who John Kabat-Zinn is, why you should care, and what word the Dalai Lama had trouble understanding. 

Slightly late today as we conveniently slept in, today's episode is about sleep hygiene. I love sleep, and Pam has been basically awake since 2009. We discuss some advice for maintaining good sleep hygiene, whilst deftly skirting around the fact that we ignore most of it most of the time.  We also discuss some recent stories in the news about mental health in sport - while uploading the episode I've found even more, it really does seem like the conversation is getting louder and more widespread which is great. Content warning for OCD, depression, intrusive thoughts and suicidal ideation, please listen with care if you are affected. As promised, here is a link to the [National Sleep Foundation](https://sleepfoundation.org/sleep-topics/sleep-hygiene), and the interviews we talked about:  [Luke Jackson](https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/boxing/45190150) talking about OCD,  [Everton in the Community](http://www.evertonfc.com/news/2018/08/07/everton-launches-campaign-to-build-mental-health-centre) A great [Bodyscan Meditation](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15q-N-_kkrU) by John Kabat-Zinn, who we will discuss soon. Questions, comments and suggestions always welcome, and please send in your stories of exercise and Mental Health! podcast@thinkinghabits.co.uk #keeptalking Simon & Pamela

Cheryl Sosnowski is a Master Mindfulness Teacher and the owner of Create Space Studios. She has dedicated her life to teaching people how to become more mindful. For her, it was transformative. On her own since the time she was 15, Sosnowski's path was to emotionally shut down. She was in deep rooted denial after suffering years of abuse. Sosnowski talks about how she went from being “an anxiety ridden, suicidal mother, horrible mess” to a calm, happy and stable person who now has an incredible relationship with her children. It began with an eight week course and studying John Kabat-Zinn, American Professor of Medicine Emeritus and a creator of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Of her training, Sosnowski says she learned “everyone can transform and rewire. Mindfulness is a different way of being in the world.” IN THIS EPISODE SOSNOWSKI SHARES: HOW MINDFULNESS CHANGED HER LIFE — It has given her curiosity instead of judgement. — She saw a profound difference in the way she handled stress HOW TO BECOME MORE MINDFUL — Learn how to breath in a way that will make you more mindful Notice your breaking and your thought process. Your thoughts are not things unless you make them be things. The only breath you can ever take is the one you take right now. Bodily exercises Paying attention to your thoughts DAILY HABITS THAT HELPED HER TRANSFORM — Get up earlier on purpose every day. — Spend 15 minutes reading something motivational. 15 minutes meditating. Then go exercise. “We have more wealth and more things than we've ever had. But people aren't happy. We are busy all the time, but busy doing what? Are you creating something meaningful in your life? The post How To Transform Your Thinking & Become More Mindful appeared first on Inspired Media 360 TV - Inform | Inspire | Engage.

In this episode, I am excited to have Harvey Freedenberg on to talk about how a daily meditation practice can revolutionize how you perceive the world and potentially help your firm. Harvey Freedenberg is Firm Counsel at the law firm of McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC, a firm of approximately 135 lawyers in Harrisburg, PA. He will soon be retiring after 40 years of practice that included insurance defense, general commercial and intellectual property litigation. Since August 2015, he's been engaged in a daily mindfulness meditation practice. He's participated in a week-long retreat with Jon Kabat-Zinn at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, and has completed an eight-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Course. Topics Covered Harvey goes into both how he found himself practicing meditation daily and the benefits of his retreat and the MBSR course he is completing. How he went about introducing his firm to his meditation practice and how they received it. What the benefits that lawyers can see personally, professionally, and health-wise are when they adopt a consistent meditation practice. He also dives into his past work in loss-prevention work for his firm and how a healthy meditation practice could help curb incidents in firms. Harvey talks about resources he would recommend to lawyers who want to start meditating or improve their meditation practice. For more information on Harvey, find him at: Twitter: @HarvF Sources mentioned: https://www.headspace.com/   Questions? Comments? Email Jeena! hello@jeenacho.com. You can also connect with Jeena on Twitter: @Jeena_Cho For more information, visit: jeenacho.com Order The Anxious Lawyer book ? Available in hardcover, Kindle and Audible Find Your Ease: Retreat for Lawyers I'm creating a retreat that will provide a perfect gift of relaxation and rejuvenation with an intimate group of lawyers. Interested? Please complete this form: https://jeena3.typeform.com/to/VXfIXq MINDFUL PAUSE: Bite-Sized Practices for Cultivating More Joy and Focus 31-day program. Spend just 6 minutes every day to practice mindfulness and meditation. Decrease stress/anxiety, increase focus and concentration. Interested? http://jeenacho.com/mindful-pause/ Transcript Harvey Freedenberg: [00:00:01] There's really no separation between what you're experiencing sitting on the cushion or on a chair, and the experience that you might have stopped at a traffic light or talking to a colleague about a case, or dealing with a family member. Intro: [00:00:18] Welcome to The Resilient Lawyer podcast. In this podcast, we have meaningful, in-depth conversations with lawyers, entrepreneurs, and change agents. We offer tools and strategies for creating a more joyful and satisfying life. And now your host, Jeena Cho. Jeena Cho: [00:00:40] Hello my friends, thanks for being with us today. In this episode, I am so happy to have Harvey Freedenberg, who is the firm counsel at the law firm of McNees Wallace and Nurick, which has approximately 135 lawyers, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He will soon be retiring after 40 years of practice that included insurance defense, general, commercial, and intellectual property litigation. Since August 2015 he has been engaged in daily mindfulness meditation practice. He's participated in a week-long retreat with Jon Kabat-Zinn, I am totally jealous by the way, at the Omega Institute for Holistic Studies and has completed an eight-week Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction Course. We have lots of things in common and to talk about, so I'm really excited. Harvey Freedenberg: [00:01:30] Thank you, and I'm happy to be here. It's really a pleasure when we've interacted on social media. But this will be the first time we'll have a chance to chat so I'm looking forward to it. Jeena Cho: [00:01:37] Yeah, thank you so much. So I'm curious, what led you down this path of practicing mindfulness? Harvey Freedenberg: [00:01:46] Well it was something that I had dabbled with years ago, and didn't really have any kind of understanding how to go about it. I would say it was probably in the 1990's, and I was one of those people who tried it a few times and thought that the goal was to make my mind blank. And when I couldn't do that I sort of put it aside. So as you said, a little over two years ago in August of 2015 I had just read an article in The New Yorker magazine about the Headspace app. And reading that coincided with a period in which I had a couple of cases that were causing me quite a bit of angst, shall we say. And I thought, you know I'm going to give this meditation a try, to see if I can turn to this to perhaps relieve some of the stress I was feeling from this litigation; it was a couple of particularly contentious cases. So I downloaded the app, which offers 10 free ten-minute sessions, and I have to say I was pretty much hooked from the first session. I gained a pretty quick understanding of how the process of meditation was supposed to work, with the guidance of Andy Puddicombe, who was the one of the founders of Headspace. And the timing was right and it just clicked for me. And I've continued as you said on a daily basis since that time, which was late August of 2015. So it's now been about 27 months. Jeena Cho: [00:03:23] Yeah, I want to also give a shout out to Headspace. It's such a wonderful program, and I think what it's really excellent at doing is making it a part up your daily diet, just like brushing your teeth. And I think the way that Andy guides you through the process and really explains what meditation is all about, because I think so often there is that misconception that meditation means that we sit quietly and that our mind goes blank. And then when of course that doesn't happen and there's lots of thoughts and sometimes very distressing thoughts, then we become discouraged and say I'm not doing this correctly. And of course as lawyers we are very much focused on doing things correctly. Now I'm using my air quotation marks here. So I am a huge fan of Headspace. Do you still use it? Harvey Freedenberg: [00:04:11] Yes, I still use it. I have been through all the packs as they call them, which are basically structured courses that run either 10 days or 30 days around a given topic. So for example, there's one on stress, there's one on anxiety. There are a number that they started last or I guess earlier this year on various sports and fitness activities. And you work through those on a day-by-day basis and they are all organized around that theme. So yeah, I'm finding that very useful. And I've branched out into other guided, unguided meditation. As you mentioned, I've been to a retreat, which I'm happy to talk more about. [00:05:00] But that was really the door that opened it for me, and since that time I've recommended it to a number of attorneys in our office. My brother has become an avid meditator as a result of my telling him about it. So it's something that I think is a good entryway for people who might be on the skeptical side about whether or not they can meditate. Jeena Cho: [00:05:25] Yeah I think it is a really great doorway for entering into your own mind, which is what meditation is all about. Did that happen before or after you took the MBSR course? Harvey Freedenberg: [00:05:43] The retreat was before, I'm actually just finishing up the MBSR course right now. That sort of grew out of the retreat. I decided I would say after about a year or so that I wanted to have a retreat experience, and I was familiar with the Omega Institute from a couple of friends of mine who had attended other programs there. It's located about a four hour drive from Harrisburg, so it was very convenient. And I had read a couple of Jon Kabat-Zinn's books, "Wherever You Go, There You Are," "Coming to Our Senses." And if I have ever anyone who I consider a sort of meditation and mindfulness mentor, I would say he would have to be that person. So when I saw there was an opportunity to study with him and with his son, I jumped at it. So by the time I got to the retreat, which was in May of 2017, I had about 21 months of daily meditation. [00:06:50] So I considered myself a fairly experienced meditator. It was when I when I got to the retreat (this was not a silent retreat by the way, although significant portions of it were silent, so during periods at meals or when we were not actually engaged in practice) I talked to a number of people who had been through the MBSR, the Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction course, and that got me interested in taking the course. And I found that there was an instructor here in Harrisburg that was offering that course, so it was convenient for me to take it and I started in October this year. [00:07:28] So the retreat was just a way of I thought deepening and strengthening my practice, and it was it was quite valuable. It was a different experience from sitting down and meditating 15 or 20 minutes first thing in the morning, which is the typical practice that I have. We were meditating from 6 a.m. or 6:30 a.m. until about 9 in evening, with breaks of course. There was yoga, there was both sitting and walking meditation. There were discussions in the group, so it was a pretty intensive experience. Again, not as intensive as a silent retreat, but certainly something that gave me more of a foundation in a meditation practice. Jeena Cho: [00:08:20] Yeah. What did you learn or when I say what did you get out of the retreat I don't mean you go to get something out of it. But what did you realize, what did you learn about yourself, or what insights did you gain? Harvey Freedenberg: [00:08:37] Yes that's striving, if you're going to get something out of it you're striving, which was something we were cautioned against. Well I think that is the largest takeaway I got from that retreat was that meditation is really about life. That as John repeatedly said, "You're not here to learn how to do some trick or to operationalize a technique." It's so much more than that, and that everything that's happening in that retreat experience and of course you hope when you walk out of it and come back to your daily life, is part of a mindfulness practice. [00:09:32] And there's really no separation between what you're experiencing sitting on the cushion or on a chair and the experience that you might have stopped at a traffic light, or talking to a colleague about a case, or dealing with a family member. So it's kind of a seamless integration. I would say that was the strongest takeaway that I took from that experience. Jeena Cho: [00:09:58] Yeah, what a delightful realization that mindfulness is not something that you do here, and then there's the rest of your life; that it's really an integrated experience. Harvey Freedenberg: [00:10:13] Right. And that's one of the biggest challenges, is to take the experience that you're having, of sitting in silence and watching your thoughts, of not reacting to them, letting thoughts go as they're going through your mind, focusing on your breath; that's the kind of meditation and I'm doing. Translating that experience into your daily life when you get up out of the chair and you have to go to work or some other activity, that you need to have those reminders that this should be seamlessly integrated with your life. Jeena Cho: [00:10:58] Yeah, definitely. Have you tried to take this work or this practice to your law firm, and if you did how was it received? Harvey Freedenberg: [00:11:07] I did. I have, and I've been very pleased with the results. There's a little bit of a backstory that. Your book has something to do with that, "The Anxious Lawyer" which I was very excited about. I don't remember when I first read about it, but I remember I was meditating at the time, and as soon as I saw this book was coming out I placed my order for it. So I had it on the day it was published, and I read it very avidly. And I recall you and Karen Gifford, your co-author, did a series of webinars, I think it was in conjunction with the National Association of Women Lawyers, I think that was the name of the organization, right? So I participated in those, I think that was in the fall of 2016. And one of the nice benefits was that you kindly gave everybody who was in the seminar two copies of the book. So I had the copy I purchased, and I thought you know this would be a good introduction to mindfulness meditation to lawyers in the firm. So I sent out a firm-wide e-mail and I said, I have two copies of this book and I included a link to the Amazon description so they could read a little more about it. I said I'll raffle these off, send me an e-mail if you're interested. We have about 135 lawyers at our firm, I think 30 lawyers responded; roughly a quarter of the firm. And I raffled them off and I thought, well there's some interest here. [00:12:53] And sort of on a parallel track with that, again this was in 2016. One of the things that I do as part of my responsibility as firm council is to attend an annual meeting that our malpractice insurance company holds every June, because part of my duty is lost prevention. So I handle the ethics issues and I also deal with preventing claims against the firm and if necessary, defend those claims. And there were a couple of things that happened at that meeting. One was a gentleman named Patrick Krill, who you might be familiar with. Jeena Cho: [00:13:35] Yeah, I do know him. Harvey Freedenberg: [00:13:36] Who was the organizer of the study co-sponsored by the American Bar Association and the Hazelden Foundation on mental health in the legal profession, presented the findings of his study. And they were quite alarming. And I don't think it's an exaggeration to use that term. Jeena Cho: [00:14:00] No, definitely not. The results were that basically a third of the lawyers in our profession are suffering from depression, stress, anxiety, and very, very heavy rates of problematic drinking. Harvey Freedenberg: [00:14:12] Right, and probably some drug addiction thrown in there, which I think he said was under-reported. So that was sort of another piece of the puzzle. And then third was some discussion about a trend in the in the professional liability field, that insurers were starting to see a spike in claims arising from mistakes that were the kinds of things that good lawyers generally don't find themselves getting in trouble for. That is, conflicts of interest and other problems are more the source of malpractice claims. [00:15:02] And so there was some discussion about what might be driving this. And some of the concerns surrounding technology, the pace of legal practice. The fact that we're basically on 24/7 because I can turn on my smartphone at 11:00 on a Sunday night and find an e-mail from a client. And so with that information, I went back to the firm and I thought about this some more and I said, this is something.. all the issues that are being talked about here, whether it's the issues relating to mental health or problems in practice that might contribute to mistakes, are the kinds of things that I think meditation and mindfulness potentially can be helpful in addressing. Jeena Cho: [00:15:53] Right. Harvey Freedenberg: [00:15:54] So for several years I was the chair of a committee we have at our firm called the professional and personal development committee, which in part focuses on life issues. In addition to things that will benefit attorney's practices, but we put a lot of emphasis on wellness at our firm, on making sure that people stay physically and mentally healthy. And I thought this was a program that the committee might be interested in, and I pointed out that I had 30 lawyers who said they were interested in getting a copy of your book. Jeena Cho: [00:16:32] Yeah, so you had a little bit of data. Harvey Freedenberg: [00:16:35] Yeah, so they eagerly embraced the idea and we agreed on a time to do it. So it was about two months ago that I did a lunchtime presentation. I think we had 25 people sign up for it. Our main office is in Harrisburg and we have several regional offices around the state and elsewhere, and a few people called in, several other people e-mailed me and said they were sorry they could not attend because they had a scheduling conflict, so we had about 20 people in the room. I did about a one-hour presentation, which included a brief guided meditation. Five minutes or so, I didn't want to do it any longer than that. And I got a great response. I know of at least one or two people who at least said they have continued to try to meditate since that time. So I think it was a really good introduction to the practice. [00:17:40] So that's how I brought it to our firm, and I think it's certainly something that lawyers generally should be introduced to and will benefit from. Jeena Cho: [00:17:51] Yeah, which leads me perfectly to my next question, which is what are those benefits that you think lawyers can gain from practicing mindfulness? In your own life or in your own law practice, what type of benefits have you seen? And what are sort of the practical implications for other lawyers? Harvey Freedenberg: [00:18:14] Well I have to break this down into two parts. I sort of joke about the first part of this, which is I wish I had discovered this oh I don't know, 25 years ago when I was a busy litigator. By the time I started meditating, I was definitely in the winding-down phase of my active litigation process. But I know enough of it, and I certainly can reflect enough on my experience as a litigator, that first as a way of relieving the inevitable stress that comes with a busy litigation practice. It gives you an opportunity to have something to turn to when that stress intensifies. And I think it certainly is beneficial, I can think of occasions when I was in a difficult courtroom battle or in a deposition with a particularly unpleasant lawyer on the other side, that being able to have the mental space that I think meditation creates would have been very helpful to me. So I think it's an extremely practical tool that a lot of lawyers would benefit from if they could incorporate that into their practice. [00:19:40] So that's the one piece. The other piece is, and this may be.. I won't say it's unique to me because there are lawyers in other firms that do this job. But I have found it to be extraordinarily helpful in the work that I have done as the firm counsel. What happens typically, I have other people on an ethics committee I don't do this all by myself for a firm of our size, so there are two other members that work with me on loss prevention issues and several members on an ethics and conflicts committee. But the vast majority of questions have come to me over the nine years that I've been doing this job. And they come from every area of the practice. I would say the majority have to do with conflict issues, but they could deal with anything from difficulty with an opposing counsel, inadvertently receiving a document, what do would do with it? An improper communication that somebody has made with our client, I mean the whole gamut of issues that arise in regards to professional conduct. So it's sort of like a helpline and I've got to be prepared to respond to all these questions. And it's certainly been a great value to me in becoming a better listener, sort of listening for the question maybe below the question that I'm being asked. And to help the lawyers in our firm and to help me sort of clarify what our values. Not every question is as simple as, do we have a conflict or don't we have a conflict. There are a lot of judgment calls that go into this job and in handling, I've literally had thousands of interactions with our lawyers over the time that I've served. [00:21:55] And I think having a mindfulness practice helps you clarify what your values are, to shift your perspective to look at something from a variety of different angles. I love the idea, I know you're familiar with it, the beginner's mind. I don't approach these consultations with the idea that I necessarily have all the answers, and therefore I'm willing to listen and to sort of allow my perspective to take shape. And I think all that is just enhanced and deepened by a mindfulness practice. [00:22:39] And then the other aspect, if I can go on for one more minute about this, is on the loss prevention side. These can be very difficult conversations, for anyone who's ever had them. When a lawyer comes to you and says, "I think I made a mistake," or, "I did make a mistake," and you're the one in whom that person is confiding, you're dealing with what can be a very fragile situation. And I think you need to approach it an empathetic way. The lawyer who you're talking to has probably been beating himself or herself up for at least 24 hours, maybe lost some sleep over the issue. And in addition to that, they are imagining all of the horror of the consequences that they think are going to occur as a result of what they believe their error might be. So they're engaged in catastrophizing about that. Your job is to sit there, even in a situation where you say, well this might be bad. And not to respond to it, not to react to it in any kind of an impulsive way. Not to do anything that's only going to exacerbate that person's psychological distress. [00:24:24] I like to think I had some of those qualities before I started meditating, but I assure you that they are a lot better than whatever I had. Since I have been meditating, because I'm very conscious now of the thought process that I'm going through. So it's just, it's kind of a long-winded answer and there's a lot in there, but there are just so many ways in which this has enhanced the way that I practice, and the way that I really look at what the practice of law is all about. Jeena Cho: [00:25:02] Yeah. And I know to be true what you're saying just from my own experience and just having worked with lawyers on bringing mindfulness into their own life. You know, for me I feel like it actually has made life clearer. It just feels like we all sort of walk around with these blinders and these filters, but it feels like I can see life with just so much more clarity. And so when my mind is doing the catastrophizing like you say, I can go oh, I'm catastrophizing and I'm literally imagining the worst case scenario because I missed a deadline and I know, maybe forgot to file this thing. And the mind is doing that thing where it inevitably leads to, like I'm going to be disbarred and then I'm going to be homeless. Harvey Freedenberg: [00:25:56] Right, that's it. And the mind doesn't sort of stroll down the road to those, the mind races to the worst possible consequences of what might happen. And this acts as a brake on that. So it's very helpful to have that, I think that kind of approach to it. And I think I have some of the feeling that you have, that I think I am able to see some things more clearly. You know this is not a panacea, it's not going to transform someone's personality overnight. But I think there is an evolution that takes place over time, and if you ask people who are close to me about certain behavior traits or certain personality traits that I had before I started meditating and to compare that to now, they will tell you there's been an improvement. So I would say don't ask me, if you want to know whether meditation is having an effect, ask your spouse or your close friends and I think they will tell you that it has. Jeena Cho: [00:27:14] Yeah, it's so funny because my husband also meditates with me. And there will be days where for one reason I don't meditate for a few days, and he'll actually notice and go, "Have you been meditating?" And I'm like, no. And he's like, "Maybe you should." So it's apparently very noticeable when I'm not meditating. Harvey Freedenberg: [00:27:34] Well one of the things about Headspace, and it's not without some controversy, is they have something called a streak, where they will tell you how many days in a row you've meditated. And I've had this very long streak, and some people derive that idea. They say, you know it's not about counting and striving and all that, but to me it's useful to track how much time you're doing it, how dedicated you are to it. And I don't know what I would do if I didn't meditate, I wish I was committed to physical exercise as I am to meditation, because I can't imagine what a day would be like if I didn't sit down for at least ten minutes to meditate. [00:28:22] I have made it an absolute priority in my life, and I try to do it first thing in the morning because I find I'm most alert then. I find if I do it late at night I'm more likely that maybe nod off, which is not the ideal. But it's just, it's like brushing my teeth or eating or getting dressed. Jeena Cho: [00:28:44] Yeah, totally. Yeah. And I found not only my ability to respond to difficult situations, but also like I'm able to just experience more joy in my life that I didn't notice before. And I think a lot of that is that we as lawyers spend so much time sort of in that space of catastrophizing, and also we have the negativity bias. Where we're constantly looking at all the things that's not going right in our life, and we don't have that counter-balance. And I feel like meditation has really served as a counter-balance. And you know, even being grateful for something that's really important and critical, like oh I have a healthy body, or I have a roof over my head. Or I have you clean water. [00:29:33] Just so many incredible blessings, and I think often we can just get into this mode of looking at life with this grim lense and saying, oh everything's not okay, and look at all these things that are not going my way. And we really just forget the incredible amount of blessings that we all have. Harvey Freedenberg: [00:29:53] Yeah, and the problem is that our professional training.. I mean some of us come to profession with that kind of mindset, but our professional training exacerbates that if we are already that way, or inculcates that if we aren't. And that is to look at things like, what's the worst case scenario. If you're a litigator, you're by definition in a situation of conflict. One of the things that's occurred over my 40 years of practice is of course there's much more emphasis on alternative dispute resolution, mediation, and things of that sort. But those are still situations of conflict. And then you throw in the fact that lawyers are I think by definition perfectionists; everything has to be done exactly right. You know, you read and re-read a contract or a plea to make sure that you have not missed anything. So all these things are sort of reinforcing that kind of negative self-critical mindset, and that makes it very hard to walk outside your office and look up at the sky, or pick up a leaf and look at it, or focus on what's happening in the moment. You know, John Kabat-Zinn likes to say, "This is the only moment you have. This moment that you're in right now is all you are doing. If you're living in the past with regrets about what you did last week or last month, or your anticipating something in the future, you're missing out on what's happening right in front of you. [00:31:46] And it's easy to do that as a lawyer. There's always a deadline coming up, there's always a trial next month or six months from now. Your phone's ringing, your clients are upset about what's going on in a case. So I think you need something to anchor you. And I found that meditation for me has been that anchor. Jeena Cho: [00:32:10] Yeah, yeah. So true. I remember when I did the eight-week mindfulness based stress-reduction class, there's like a day-long retreat that you go on. And we were doing walking meditation and I saw this giant, beautiful rose bush and I walked over to it and I smelled the roses. And it's so cliché, like smell the roses. But I did, and it was just one of those blissful moments, and I remember being like this is why they tell you to smell the roses. I mean, like you know its so cliché. Like oh, smell the roses. But how often do we actually pause to do nothing but savor and smell a rose, which is like this incredibly delightful experience. So now I take it to heart and I make a point to actually go smell the roses when I see a rosebush. Harvey Freedenberg: [00:33:02] Well we just had our retreat for the MBSR course, and I had a similar experience watching a duck glide across a still pond. To stand there and say, when have I done that? I don't want people to leave this podcast with the impression that you're going to be walking around this blissful smile on your face and all of life's stresses will suddenly bounce off of you. It's not that way, but just the fact that more times a day than you could ever imagine you're going to stop, you're going to take a deep breath, you're going to look at something in a new way. You're going to focus on a problem in a different way that you wouldn't have if you were wearing the blinders of your conventional thinking. Suddenly these things are going to start adding up and give you a much richer and fuller perspective on life. [00:34:10] At least that's been my experience. And in conversations with lots of other people who are doing this as well, I don't think there's anything unique about me by any means. Jeena Cho: [00:34:21] Right. Yeah, I remember going into my first MBSR class and I was just so stressed and so anxious. And typically they start by asking the group, you know what brings you here. And you kind of go around and everyone shares. And I'm like, oh! There are 49 other people in this room that have the exact same thing that I'm struggling with. Harvey Freedenberg: [00:34:44] The idea of as I've heard it expressed of "just like me." If you look at people who are doing something, or if you're critical of somebody, you're being trained through this process to take a step back and say you know, that person wants the same kinds of things that I want. Maybe they're not going about getting them in the most skillful way, but they're no less human than I am. And it gives you a very different perspective on the people that you interact with. Jeena Cho: [00:35:24] Right, yeah that idea, "just like me," was so critical for me. Especially for the litigators out there and the lawyers that are handling really contentious cases. Because there are just people that you come across and you're just like, I really do not like this person and I have nothing in common with this person. And you can really start to personalize every interaction with this person. I had this one particular opposing counsel, and she and I were just not getting along, to put it mildly. And we were doing that thing where we would send one nasty e-mail after another, trying to find each other. [00:36:01] And something clicked inside my head when I learned that concept of "just like me," because I realize you know just like me, just as I find her to be incredibly difficult and I don't want to be on this case with this woman, she probably feels the exact same way. And just like me, she too wants peace and happiness and joy and safety and security; all of these very, very human things. And I think we can often sort of lose sight of that, our common humanity. Harvey Freedenberg: [00:36:34] Well you mentioned the e-mails, sending off nasty e-mails. And that at times has been the bane of my existence, both as an attorney, a litigator representing clients, and on occasion as firm counsel. Of course not too often because I've tried to reinforce that message to our lawyers, but think about the way e-mail, (which has been around basically for 20 years, I'd say since the mid 1990's) people send the most outrageous things and do it in such an impulsive way. And they live to regret it. If you have something that's going to intervene between writing that nasty e-mail that's going to get you or your client into a lot of trouble in that case and clicking the send button, that's a really valuable skills to have. [00:37:38] And there have been times when I've completely rewritten an e-mail, when I said no this is not the right tone. I just had to get this down, get it out of my system. Now I'm going to go back and re-write it. So I think mindfulness gives you the space that is going to have you sending fewer of those e-mails, or reacting to the bait. You know how there are certain lawyers who's game plan is to try to get you to lose control? Every litigator has them, they have one or two or three of those. [00:38:17] One of the worst things about caller ID is, you now know you're going to have a phone call with that nasty lawyer you can't stand because you see the phone number or the name of that person. At least in the old days in my practice, the phone would ring and I would pick it up. Now you have an opportunity through mindful to say.. and one of the things I've started doing, this is fairly recent, is I will let the phone ring three times before I pick it up. I've had to educate a couple of lawyers in our firm who give me one ring and then they hang up. But the point is you know, take a couple of breaths, get yourself grounded. It's kind of a mini-meditation that you're doing, and then you're able to field that (what you know is going to be a stressful phone call) with a little more mindfulness. [00:39:17] I think that's a technique that, you don't have to be meditating to do that. It certainly helps to get into that meditative state, but it's something that I think is very valuable. And then when the other attorney starts hurling insults at you or at your client, you're less likely to get into an escalating war of words. And that could be very valuable. Jeena Cho: [00:39:40] Yeah and often mindfulness is talked about in the context of there's a stimulus and there's that knee-jerk reaction, and mindfulness gives you that ability to pause before your knee-jerk reaction. Which then becomes a response, so you can sort of respond with the best intentions. Sometimes we send off e-mails and it might not get us or our clients into trouble, but we just know that was not my best work. That was not my most genuine, I didn't show up as my best self when I sent that e-mail. Which was a little bit hitting below the belt or was unnecessarily unkind, or you know whatever that may be. [00:40:23] And I think as lawyers we have that obligation to try to show up as our best selves, and to really be clear about our intention and what we hold to be true and what we value as sort of the core of who we are as lawyers, and how we're going to show up for every case or every situation. Harvey Freedenberg: [00:40:43] Well one myth that I would like to offer my small debunking of, is the idea that a meditation practice and mindfulness are somehow going to make you soft, weak, ineffective, not aggressive on behalf of your clients; and none of those claims are true. I would say if anything, they're going to make you a better lawyer. Because you're not going to leap to instant judgments. You're not going to think that you know all the answers and find yourself closing off avenues of thought or investigation that might help your client's case. So when I've heard that objection, I think that's one of the easier ones to debunk. I think it makes you potentially much more powerful and much more effective, because you're learning more about how your own mind works. And you know as a lawyer, that's our tool. We don't have machines, we don't have MRI's or x-ray machines, we have our minds and we have our thought process. So anything that contributes to clarity of thinking and soundness of judgment and empathy, that's a good thing. And those are all qualities that meditation fosters. Jeena Cho: [00:42:23] Yeah. So I guess to kind of wrap things up, now that we've hopefully shared very fully all the different benefits and why lawyers should practice mindfulness, what are some resources that you would recommend for lawyers who want to start meditating? Harvey Freedenberg: [00:42:41] Well I'm allowed to say this because I know you're not a soft promoter, so I would strongly, strongly recommend your book "The Anxious Lawyer" that you and Karen Gifford wrote. The thing that I think is beautiful about that for lawyers is that as distinguished from the many, many hundreds of fine meditation instruction books that are out there (and I've read a number of them), this is specifically geared toward lawyers. It has a lot of information about your experiences and Karen's experiences in practice, and how the techniques of meditation and mindfulness are applied. So if you're looking for a book to get started, I would certainly highly recommend "The Anxious Lawyer". And then Headspace, As I said has been a great app for me. Another app that I've experimented with a little bit is Dan Harris' app, 10 Percent Happier, which has a variety of instructors in the app and it's I think maybe a little glitzier than Headspace. Either one of those. And then there are lots and lots of apps out there, Insight Timer is another one that has free meditations.. Jeena Cho: [00:44:03] Right, that's the one that I use, yeah. Harvey Freedenberg: [00:44:06] So there are plenty of resources out there, but I think your book is as good a starting place as any. And it's also got a program, a week-by-week program for eight weeks to introduce somebody to a mindfulness practice. And it's very clearly written, there's no jargon in there, so go buy Jeena's book. Jeena Cho: [00:44:34] I appreciate that, that's very kind of you. Harvey, for the folks that want to connect with you or ask you questions, or just want to pick your brain. what's a good place where they can go and do that? Harvey Freedenberg: [00:44:51] Well I think the best place Jeena, since I'm transitioning out of my law practice, would be on Twitter. My handle there is @HarvF, "H-A-R-V-F". I've also created a couple of lists there, one is on mindfulness and meditation, which has several hundred people that are involved in various aspects of meditation. So you might want to check out that list. So that's probably the best place to get in touch with me right now. Jeena Cho: [00:45:25] Wonderful. And you are very active on Twitter, and I always enjoy reading what you have to say. So definitely go connect with Harvey on Twitter and I will also include his Twitter handle in the show notes. And my final question to you is, the name of the podcast is called The Resilient Lawyer. What does it mean to be a resilient lawyer to you?. Harvey Freedenberg: [00:45:50] I love the name of the podcast, and I thought a lot about this. To me, it's somebody who keeps the practice of law in its proper perspective. And it is someone for whom the various aspects of life, which would include work as a lawyer, family, community service, exercise, sleep, nutrition; all the things that go into healthy living. And through mindfulness and meditation, in my case a practice of mental and emotional self-care, that all of those elements are in harmony or balance. I think if you can achieve that or strive in that direction, that you will be well on the path to becoming resilient. Jeena Cho: [00:46:45] I love that answer. Harvey, thank you so much for sharing your time and your wisdom with me and the audience. I really appreciate it. Harvey Freedenberg: [00:46:54] Thank you Jeena, it's been a real pleasure. And thank you for all you're doing to spread the message of mindfulness. Jeena Cho: [00:47:04] Thank you. Closing: [00:47:05] Thanks for joining us on The Resilient Lawyer podcast. If you've enjoyed the show, please tell a friend. It's really the best way to grow the show. To leave us a review on iTunes, search for The Resilient Lawyer and give us your honest feedback. It goes a long way to help with our visibility when you do that, so we really appreciate it. As always, we'd love to hear from you. E-mail us at smile@theanxiouslawyer.com. Thanks, and look forward to seeing you next week.

Through relaxation you can break the vicious circle of pain and stress. This podcast takes you through some easy to learn methods of relaxation, helping it to become part of your daily life and improving your wellbeing. It also lists the benefits of meditation and looks at the supporting scientific evidence, examining why relaxation should be an integral component in your recovery.   Relaxation Relaxation is an integral component of cognitive behavioral treatment programs for chronic pain.1 Taking care of stress and anxiety as a chronic pain patient is crucial for your recovery.   Meditation   Meditation is also a great way to built relaxation into your daily life. There are many different ways of practicing meditation and you have to find what works best for you.   Many people enrich their lives through practicing meditation. When you read interviews with successful CEO´s, entrepreneurs or celebrities who have incorporated meditation routines in their lives it is astonishing to see the huge benefits they experience.   Personal benefits of people who meditate regularly: more happiness having more energy having more creativity living more efficiently a better understanding of ones own emotions more sensitivity to the feelings and emotions of others more control over ones own emotions less pressured by your experiences less stressed feeling more relaxed more calming thoughts control over your sensory filtering improved memory and executive function increased ability to concentrate increased emotional intelligence   Thinking about relaxation, mindfulness and awareness during our recovery can’t be done without looking at some important evidence and thoughts about meditational practices: Mindfulness meditation programs improve anxiety, depression and pain over the course of 2–6 months. The effects are comparable with those you can expect after taking antidepressants for the same period of time, but without the associated toxicities.2 47 placebo-controlled trials all found small to moderate improvements in pain, anxiety and depression. What is really great about this review (Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being from 2013) is that it demonstrates that the meditation group attained better results compared to the control group undertaking an equally intense treatment regarding focus and time, such as lectures, talks and art therapy sessions. If we consider this evidence, then it seems a good reason to check out mindfulness for yourself and see if meditation could be something for you to try.     A definition of mindfulness Mindfulness has been described as a “non-elaborative, non-judgmental awareness” of present moment experience.3 Maybe you have heard of Zen, it´s very closely related to the mindfulness approach. In general mindfulness techniques can be divided into two styles: focused attention "Focused attention is associated with maintaining focus on a specific object, often the changing sensation or flow of the breath or an external object. When attention drifts from the object of focus to a distracting sensory, cognitive or emotional event, the practitioner is taught to acknowledge the event and to disengage from it by gently returning the attention back to the object of meditation".3 open monitoring "By contrast, open monitoring is associated with a non-directed acknowledgement of any sensory, emotional or cognitive event that arises in the mind. Zen meditation is considered to be one form of open monitoring practice. While practicing open monitoring, the practitioner experiences the current sensory or cognitive ‘event’ without evaluation, interpretation, or preference".3   Many guided meditation programs consist of a mix of those two styles. Often changing from one to the other within a meditation session. I also think that it’s really important to know that clinical research into mindfulness has been going on since the early 1980s. For me this means that there is a good scientific evidence for using meditation techniques detached from religious beliefs or dogma for health purposes.   How to start There is plenty of good content on the Internet available for free, simply search for mindful meditation. Check out some talks about meditation on TED.com and be inspired, or check out www.mindful.org Here are some great resources: Free guided meditations from UCLA: Each week has a different theme, and usually includes some introductory comments, a guided meditation, some silent practice time, and closing comments. Presented by the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center. http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=107 http://marc.ucla.edu/body.cfm?id=22   UCSD Center for Mindfulness: Guided audio files for practicing Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) from the UC San Diego Center for Mindfulness. http://health.ucsd.edu/specialties/mindfulness/programs/mbsr/Pages/audio.aspx   Basic meditation with Tara Brach Free meditations that you can stream or download. https://www.tarabrach.com/guided-meditations/   Contemplative Mind in Society Guided practices from Mirabai Bush, the center’s director, Diana Winston from UCLA’s Mindfulness Awareness Research Center, and Arthur Zajonc, president of the Mind & Life Institute. http://www.contemplativemind.org/practices/recordings   Insight Meditation Society  Selected talks, podcasts, and audio streams, including various lengths of guided meditation. http://www.dharma.org/resources/audio#guided   John Kabat Zinn on youtube: Professor of Medicine Emeritus and creator of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HYLyuJZKno   Literature:  Morley S, Williams A. New Developments in the Psychological Management of Chronic Pain. CanJPsychiatry. 2015;6060(44):168-175. Goyal M, Singh S, Sibinga E, et al. Meditation programs for psychological stress and well-being : a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Intern Med. 2014;174(3):357-368. doi:10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.13018.Meditation. Zeidan F, Grant J., Brown CA, et al. Mindfulness meditation-related pain relief: Evidence for unique brain mechanisms in the regulation of pain. Neurosci Lett. 2012;520(2):165-173. doi:10.1016/j.neulet.2012.03.082.

A recent study found that meditating for just 30 minutes a day can have amazing health benefits. In this mini episode, Dr. Sara Lazar of Harvard University tells Ned about her research that showed regular meditation can improve a person's focus and increase overall feelings of well-being.  Go back and listen to Season 1 Episode 4: 25 Minutes to a Calmer Approach to Life to hear John Kabat-Zinn talk about the mindfulness-based stress reduction meditation program he created that Dr. Lazar references in this episode! Dr. Lazar's website: http://scholar.harvard.edu/sara_lazar/home This episode is sponsored by OmegaBrite, the premier natural advanced omega-3 formula for mind, heart, and joint health. Explore OmegaBrite products and benefits at www.omegabrite.com.  And by Talkspace, the online therapy company that believes that therapy should be affordable, confidential, and convenient. For a special offer visit www.talkspace.com.    

Neila Steele and I are rolling out an additional podcast each week that will still fall under the umbrella of my Run Your Life series. 4 x Mindfulness is about Neila and I sharing our go to sources of mindfluness inspiration each week. It is a way for us to document the big ideas or themes related to mindfulness that have really resonated with us for that particular week. If you are really into mindfulness or a complete beginner with this practice, we sincerely hope that you will gain some strong takeaway value from each weekly episode of 4 x Mindfulness. In today’s episode, Neila shares a great story that she first heard on the Tim Ferriss podcast that is very much rooted in the seeds of mindfulness and the importance of being present. She also discusses the amazing work of John Kabat Zinn who is considered be one of the most renown mindfulness gurus worldwide. As for me, I share the story of Verna Myers, a well known consultant, who has devoted herself to helping people and organizations uncover certain biases that they hold. Being mindful and present is a part of this process. The last thing I share in today’s 4 x Mindfulness episode are a couple of specific approaches that have worked well in helping me to find more quiet and calm during my meditation sessions. We hope you enjoy the first installment of 4 x Mindfulness. Bios Neila Steele and Andy Vasily are international educators who have worked at fully authorized IB schools in 4 different countries over the past 16 years (Japan, Azerbaijan, Cambodia, and China). Andy is a consultant, workshop leader, presenter, and speaker. Neila presents and leads multiple workshops in the area of mindfulness. They have devoted themselves to sharing the powerful effects that mindfulness has on promoting greater mental, social, emotional, and physical well-being. Connect With Neila and Andy Neila Twitter: @neilasteele Website: www.mindfulandpresent.com Andy Twitter: @andyvasily Website: www.pyppewithandy.com Discussion Topics Tara Brach, Tim Ferriss, Verna Myer Ted Talk, Jon Kabat Zinn, Meditation, Mindfulness, Being Present, Connecting with the Breath, Specific Mindfulness and Meditation Techniques

In diesem Podcast unterhalte ich mich mit Herrn Hendrik Heuermann, der sehr inspirierend davon berichtet, wie es im gelungen ist mit einer sehr belastenden gesundheitlichen Diagnose sehr gut und überaus positiv umzugehen. Genießen Sie auch diese sehr inspirierende Folge, in der Sie auch sehr viele wichtige und hilfreiche Anregungen und Ideen erhalten werden. Viel Spaß bei diesem Gespräch mit Herrn Heuermann Ich habe noch eine kleine Bitte bevor Sie sich diese Folge anhören: Wenn Ihnen dieser Podcast gefällt, dann möchte ich Sie ganz herzlich bitten mir eine Bewertung auf iTunes zu geben. Hier erhalten Sie alle Informationen. Und als kleines Dankeschön erhalten Sie auch noch von mir ein ganz persönliches Geschenk. Vielen Dank, wenn Sie mir hier helfen.   [powerpress]   KONTAKTDATEN VON HERRN HENDRIK HEUERMANN 1) WEBSEITE 2) XING INTERNET-RESOURCE/HILFSMITTEL: Keine BUCHEMPFEHLUNGEN: Gesund durch Meditation: Das große Buch der Selbstheilung mit MBSR von John Kabat-Zinn Gesund Sein: Das neue Programm zur Selbstheilung von Louise Hay

Is Mindfulness Meditation good for you? As amazing as some of the claimed benefits of meditation might seem, there is a growing body of work that suggests mindfulness meditation is indeed good for you. Putting aside the inevitable caveats and variables, the evidence of hundreds of studies is that meditation is good for you – physically, mentally, and emotionally. And the surprising thing is that many of the positive benefits are felt after only a few weeks of mindfulness meditation practice. Episode 47 of The Changeability Podcast In episode 47 of The Changeability Podcast we talk about what these benefits of meditation are. Listen above or on iTunes, Stitcher or Tunein (and subscribe so you get every episode automatically.) You can find references to the academic studies they’re based on, in the books listed in the resources section below. (Also good further reading on the subject.) But it’s not just about academic studies and therapists. What we’re talking about is also based on the evidence and experience of people like us. We asked the Changeability Facebook group if those who meditated experienced any benefits. You can hear their answers in the podcast episode. Listen to hear the full version, but here’s a summary for you. Quote: "The goal of meditation isn't to control your thoughts, it's to stop letting them control you" The benefits of meditation include: Mindfulness Through focusing on the present and being here now.     “Meditation taught me to let go of those worrying thoughts and concentrate on what's happening in the present.” Melissa Improved focus, concentration and clarity of thinking Through developing the habit of deliberately applying your attention.     “It definitely helps my concentration. I'm not as distracted when I meditate and I can focus on tasks more quickly and for longer duration.” Craig Engendering a sense of tranquillity, peace and well being Through the refreshing impact of stilling your mind leading to calming of the emotions.     “I meditate mainly to slow my often at times busy or ruminating mind.” Ange Developing a deeper self understanding, awareness and acceptance Through overcoming the habit of mental chatter and calming your mind.     “The more we know our thoughts, the better we get to know ourselves.” Craig Increased creativity and inspiration Through openness to the subconscious. Producing an optimum state to make you receptive to creating change in your life Through reducing your brain wave pattern from normal everyday beta level of consciousness, to the deeper alpha and theta levels more conducive to deep learning, changes in behaviour and increased moments of insight. Becoming more compassionate Through practising being less judgemental and more open to others. A sense of perspective Through enhancing an ability to stand back from the world and yourself and observe from an unbiased or non-critical place. Literally taking a breather (if you’re using breath as the focus of your meditation) can help you take a new perspective or gain a sense of perspective.      “A break from reality for me.” Rich Rediscover or uncover a love of life Through knowing that thoughts and feelings come and go and you have an element of choice about what you do with them. Through making more of the life you have right now.  Appreciating what is around you and being more present in the present. More happiness and contentment Psychological studies show people who meditate on a regular basis are happier and more content than the average population. Dealing with everyday anxieties and stress through positively affecting the underlying brain patterns associated with negative thought patterns. Through changing your emotional set point. Which is not a set emotional thermostat to which you always revert, as was previously thought.   “I love meditating - makes me calmer, more grounded, less wound up about things in general, gives me distance, makes me nicer to be around I think!” Jan Helping you take control of your life Through learning to accept you are not your thoughts. By recognising negative thoughts are just thoughts, to prevent them spiralling downwards or taking a hold. Through greater awareness, and to ‘look at the world with open eyes.’ (Williams and Penman, p.31) Through being more autonomous, doing more of what you want to do rather than what others think you should do.   “Grounding (emotionally, spiritually, psychologically), quieter mind, greater ability to step in between events and reactions.” Vicky Medical benefits Studies show regular meditators spend less time in hospital and visit the doctor less. According to Professor Mark Williams, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for people suffering repeated bouts of serious depression, halved the depression of those suffering the worst form and was at least as effective as antidepressant drugs, without the downsides. Can help people deal with pain and serious medical conditions and relieve dependency on alcohol and drugs. Can reduce stress and high blood pressure and bolster the immune system. Can improve the control of blood sugar in type II diabetes (Mindfulness for Health p5)   “Having a way to do a quick check of the body and find the stressed or off balance points is really useful.” Keith Improved memory, faster reactions, increase in physical and mental stamina Resilience Through boosting hardiness and the ability to bounce back and deal with life’s ups and downs.   “Learning to meditate saved me from going under during a very stressful period in my life, money worries, job worries, too much on my plate.” Janet Mindfulness may reduce ageing at a cellular level Through promoting chromosomal health and resilience   Now that really is something! It’s great to hear about medical and other benefits of meditation, but what most of us are after is everyday happiness and resilience, experiencing more joy in our lives getting the most out of life. This is what mindfulness can deliver if we make the small effort to practise it. Try mindfulness meditation for yourself If you want to try mindfulness meditation for yourself and start experiencing the benefits there’s 3 ways we can help you. Listen for free to the short guided meditation in episode 44 Download "Meditation Moments: With Breath in Mind" - our guided meditation mp3 which has 6 x 10 minute tracks starting with fully guided and progressing to a timed meditation Sign up to Julian’s short course on Udemy – A Beginner’s Guide to Mindfulness Meditation Resources and links mentioned in episode 47 “Mindfulness Meditation: a practical guide to finding peace in a frantic world” by Mark Williams and Danny Pemberton “Wherever you go there you are” by John Kabat-Zinn. “Mindfulness Meditation for Health – a practical guide to relieving pain, reducing stress and restoring wellbeing” by Vidyamala Burch and Danny Pemberton “Sane New World” by Ruby Wax Manage your mind with mindfulness meditation - Episode 44 21 Simple Tips for Mindfulness - Episode 46 "Meditation Moments: With Breath in Mind" - A guided meditation for beginners. A Beginner’s Guide to Mindfulness Meditation - A short course Join the private Changeability Facebook Group   Thanks to Ange, Craig, Vicky, Rich, Janet, Keith and Melissa, from the Changeability Facebook Group for your insights and quotes.    

The breath is the foundation of mindfulness. In connecting deeply with the breath through formal sitting and informal attention practices, we come to encounter all our experiences with mindfulness and spacious awareness. In so doing, our relationship to our experience changes dramatically. We recover our ability to act from conscious awareness rather that passive reactivity. John Kabat Zinn states this most succinctly in his book, Full Catastrophe Living. "It is the very simplicity of the practice of mindfulness of breathing that gives it its power to disentangle us from the compulsive and habitual hold of the mind's many preoccupations. Yogis have known this for centuries. Breathing is the universal foundation for meditation practice."

This is a timely and invaluable talk from Paramabandhu. Drawing on many years of experience as a consultant psychiatrist and Dharma teacher, he invites us to consider the lessons Buddhist techniques around meditation and mindfulness training can bring to the field of mental health – especially to problems with depression and addiction. The talk evokes the Buddha in the Satipatthana Sutta to explore the four traditional foundations of mindfulness and discuss their potential use in therapeutic contexts. It is a kindly and empowering expression of practical hope, whose message applies to us all as we struggle to overcome whatever it is that holds us back from greater freedom in our lives. Part 2 of this podcast will feature a question-and-answer session based on the material Talk given at the San Francisco Buddhist Center, 2006 Contents: 01 Contemporary interest in mindfulness; brief therapeutic history of meditation since the 1960s; the Buddha as behavioural therapist – the obese king, Kisa Gotami and her baby 02 John Kabat-Zinn and mindfulness-based stress reduction; other therapies based around mindfulness 03 Mindfulness in Buddhist tradition; the Satipatthana Sutta; sati and sampajanya; analogies for mindfulness; the four foundations of mindfulness – an analysis of technique in practice 04 Four aspects of mindfulness in therapeutic context; i clocking what’s going on – being on automatic pilot 05 ii Sitting with your experience; Rumi’s poem ‘The Guest House’; the kindly aspect of awareness; body awareness and mental proliferation 06 iii Perspective; cognitive behavioural therapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy – the implicit and the explicit; not taking our thoughts so seriously; iv choice – mindfulness of purpose 07 Taking awareness deeper; freedom; Kotita’s ‘Song of Realization’ To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.

This wonderful talk by Ratnaguna looks at the Pureland tradition of Shinran, comparing some of his approaches to those of the contemporary teacher John Kabat-Zinn, pioneer of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction. The nature of ‘problems’ versus ‘difficulties’ is explored – notions of ‘acceptance’, ‘development’, and awareness itself are considered from new angles that can shed light on our experience of failure and suffering. A lovely, sympathetic and good-natured look at the foolishness of human beings which can, when held in the heart, begin to approach wisdom itself. To help us keep this free, please think about making a donation.