Mindfulness Mode

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Increase your calm, focus and happiness so you can be more relaxed, contented and satisfied with your life. For business, entrepreneurs, educators, parents. Hosted by Bruce Langford.

Episodes

Wednesday May 25, 2022

Mindfulness In Manufacturing; Jason Azevedo

Wednesday May 25, 2022

Jason Azevedo created his first manufacturing company with just $600 when he was only 15 years old. At this young age, he was able to establish business with some of the greatest companies in the world such as Starbucks, Nike, Disney, Marvel, Volkswagen, Audi, Lucas films, dodgers, and NBA teams. By the time he was 20 he was already making millions in revenue.
Jason is one of the most dynamic people you will meet. He owns and operates the last standing MADE IN AMERICA factories (IN CALIFORNIA NO LESS!) and has hatched a plan to give back the factories and some of his wealth to the American workers.

In 2009, Jason co-founded Mosaic, taking on the role of CEO — his talents are far beyond running the company, with duties touching on conceptual development, engineering, and deployment. Since 2009, Jason’s been at the helm of growing the company year-over-year, acquiring several entities, and creating several others to round out manufacturing efforts. His emphasis on Made In America is a driving force for how the various companies he’s co-founded operate. He also assists with business development and client strategy and is an integral part of how we operate. He is here today to talk about mindfulness in manufacturing.

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Contact Info

Company: MRCA Manufacturing Revitalization Corporation of America
Website: www.mrca.net

Most Influential Person

One of my business partners has been an absolute inspiration to just kind of step back and think about the situation where we're at. There was a singular event in which he could snap me out of a spiral I was in that completely changed my future.

Effect on Emotions

I've never been a big yeller. But I used to get very, very upset when things weren't right. My brother, and I used to get into large arguments within the organization. We finally started switching and going. Because every time I'm upset, something happened. I'm the leader.
What did I do to cause this, and that changed how our decision-making happened. We just want to fix what we did.

Thoughts on Breathing

I also did breathwork for the first time two years ago, an actual breathwork session. It was the biggest game-changer mentally for business I've ever done, it actually changed how I live a chunk of my life.
So I live out in the country and one of the most important things to me, I'm going to take a walk and just breathe as deep as I can to just kind of let things move through me.

Suggested Resources

Bullying Story

So I'll take about five, six years back, we had a supervisor, and the supervisor effectively got results, that put up some of the best numbers in the company. But it was weird, you walk anywhere in our buildings, and people are smiling, talking joking around, also, you go into their sector, and that wasn't the case.
So we started looking into it and understand that while they weren't getting results, they were doing it by surely bullying their employees. It was like if you didn't hit your numbers, you're near a piece of this.
We took this person's side and said, Hey, I need you to really think about what you are here. And they're like, Well, what I gotta be forceful on everybody. I gotta do this. Think about what you're doing? And what, what do you mean?
What is this really about? Take the fear away, take what can we do today to fix the problem that and you fall in and out of traps like that on a regular basis.

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Special Offer

Are you experiencing anxiety & stress? Peace is within your grasp. I’m Bruce Langford, a practicing coach and hypnotist helping fast-track people just like you to shed their inner bully and move forward with confidence. Book a Free Coaching Session to get you on the road to a more satisfying life, feeling grounded and focused. Send me an email at bruce@mindfulnessmode.com with ‘Coaching Session' in the subject line. We'll set up a zoom call and talk about how you can move forward to a better life.

Sunday May 22, 2022

Mindfulness Matters; Akai Jackson

Sunday May 22, 2022

Akai Jackson is on a personal journey to explain that mindfulness matters and that growth results from emotional wellness. Akai founded ‘I Excel Today’, a personal development agency that curates health and wealth programs to take clients from existing to excelling in their physical, mental, emotional, and financial health. Akai uses his life experiences and his background as a decorated college athlete to help people grow into the best version of themselves. Akai is the author of ‘The Making Of A Man, a book explaining that men are living in a culture full of mixed influences and that it is possible to bridge the gap between mind, body, and spirit.

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Contact Info

Website: www.ixl.today
Podcast: The Brand For Bosses
Book: The Making of a Man: True Manhood Lies in the Process by Akai Jackson and Allan Sobie

Most Influential Person

My father has been a huge mindfulness supporter of mine. That is to say, anytime I do a talk and I struggle with something I can't make two sentences flow or make it make sense. So I don't know where to go, what to do, what to step into. Therefore, my father is a huge influence on me in doing that, keeping me on track and moving me in the right direction.

Effect on Emotions

I feel like I grew up in an era where you didn't speak unless spoken to. That is to say, I'm also a man who thought there was an unwritten rule. “Thou shalt not express emotions to anyone you check that stuff right inside”.
So I think just as I've gotten older and understood that invulnerability comes strength, and I've realized that me being able to open up my chest and be able to look at a man like you and say, “Listen! I've got pain, I'm broken. I've been heartbroken. I've got these things that I'm wrestling with and dealing with. I find true strength and vulnerability”. So that's super helpful.

Thoughts on Breathing

Breathing is extremely important when it comes to anything, whether it's mindfulness or even just being able to make sure that you maintain a conscious thought and conscious behavior.
For example, your subconscious brain constitutes 95% of what you think about and that means five or 10 is left.
So one of the main ways that you can actually be in touch with who you are, what you are when you are, why you are and your surroundings are to slow your breathing down and be very conscious about your body scanning and being able to close your eyes, take deep breaths and go through a mental checklist.

Suggested Resources

Bullying Story

I have a student that I work with now. So on the spectrum, he has sensory processing issues. He actually has suffered from bullying all year. To the point where his parents and I are having conversations about him, not returning to school. It's going to be his senior year.
Firstly, he would miss the social aspect of what his senior year would look like, he would miss all the interactions, from senior trips, the prom, and all those things.
So when I first got started with him, the first thing we put in is a list of what to say, when you talk to yourself is extremely important. We build some affirmations.
Then we talk about if you treated yourself like your best friend, would you say any of the things that you say to yourself repeatedly, for instance, I'm dumb, I'm stupid, I can't get this, I'm never gonna amount to this.
Certainly, you don't let your best friend talk to himself or herself like that. So why would you talk to yourself like that?
Therefore, we did a mindset shift and transform this into how to become a great thinker, some of the commonalities behind being a great thinker? Let's get obsessed with observing the masses and doing the opposite.
As a result, we asked him if it was okay to make a decision. Do you want to complete your senior year online? Study to get your GED so we can get you out in the workforce sooner? Or do you want to go back to high school?
Lastly, he looked at me dead in my face. And he said I'm going back to high school.

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Special Offer

Are you experiencing anxiety & stress? Peace is within your grasp. I’m Bruce Langford, a practicing coach, and hypnotist helping fast-track people just like you to shed their inner bully and move forward with confidence. So book a Free Coaching Session to get you on the road to a more satisfying life, feeling grounded and focused. Send me an email at bruce@mindfulnessmode.com with ‘Coaching Session' in the subject line. We'll set up a zoom call and talk about how you can move forward to a better life.

Wednesday May 18, 2022

Ditch Your Headtrash; Renie Cavallari

Wednesday May 18, 2022

Renie Cavallari is the founder, CEO, and Chief Instigator of Aspire, a global transformational training and culture development company that specializes in inspired learning that shifts human behavior and awakens potential. She is also the founder of RCI Institute, active thinking, executive coaching, and People Technology lab. An award-winning international strategist, speaker, and leadership expert with an inimitable grasp of business and its challenges, she has driven measurable results for businesses with her innovative solutions around the world for over 30 years. As part of this episode, she will teach us how to ditch your headtrash.

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Most Influential Person

Deepak Chopra

Effect on Emotions

Firstly, I look to communicate more effectively, through mindfulness.
Then when I notice headtrash or notice fear, worry, anxiety, and emotions that are creeping up, I do something with them, certainly, it usually means I need to communicate with someone in some way to decrease the stress associated with it.

Thoughts on Breathing

Most importantly, breathing is a really good thing. Even just starting today, a nice deep breath in and letting it out just gives me a sense of power in my body and clears my head.
Therefore when I go to bed, it really helps to decrease that emotional stress. It goes back to that model that I shared.
So when you decrease emotional stress, you gain clarity. And that allows you to take productive action. So even if the productive action is sleep, that breathing allows me to decrease and step outside of whatever is going on in that crazy brain.

Suggested Resources

Bullying Story

My daughter was bullied in eighth grade. She was a gifted speaker, and she won the national speech tournament. She was number one and was doing amazing things.
That is to say, one of the foundations of bullying is jealousy. If another person doesn't feel whole, then they feel a need to bring other people down. Then she went into ninth grade, and she experienced what I would call jealousy, and as a result, it came out as bullying.
Consequently, it was social media causing a really difficult time for her. As a mother, you have to step back. You can't control everything. You ask how can you love, ditch your headtrash and decrease the stress?

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Special Offer

Are you experiencing anxiety & stress? Peace is within your grasp. I’m Bruce Langford, a practicing coach, and hypnotist helping fast-track people just like you to shed their inner bully and move forward with confidence. Book a Free Coaching Session to get you on the road to a more satisfying life, feeling grounded and focused. Send me an email at bruce@mindfulnessmode.com with ‘Coaching Session' in the subject line. We'll set up a zoom call and talk about how you can move forward to a better life.

Sunday May 15, 2022

Walking For Mindfulness

Sunday May 15, 2022

Walking For Mindfulness is my topic for today, Mindful Tribe. I look forward to sharing with you, ‘Five Benefits of Walking'. You may already include a regular routine of walking in your life, or you may decide to start a walking practice. There are lots of benefits including the five I will outline today. I am convinced that
your life will improve as a result of 30 to 60 minutes of daily walking. You may decide to walk 4 or 5 days a week rather than daily, and that will be a benefit as well.

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1/ Walk Almost Anywhere

Whether you're at home, or you're traveling, there are all sorts of options as to where you can walk. Maybe up and down the stairwells if you're in a hotel room or conference center. If you're in a hotel, ask about the location of safe pathways to walk where there are some parks and forests. Do some research to find where you can walk in the area of your home. A lot of towns and cities have pathways that are specifically designated for walking.

2/ Creates Focused Thinking

Your brain will begin to work better if you take some time to go and have a walk. How many times have you been in a stressful situation and somebody will say, Well, I'm just going for a walk. That's because a walk will release some of the pressure. Research has shown that it actually promotes the release of brain chemicals including endorphins that stimulate relaxation and can improve our mood. A walk at a comfortable pace can promote relaxation and release serotonin and dopamine to help you feel better. Dopamine is the hormone that gives us the pleasurable feeling after receiving a reward. If you're like me, you may be surprised how much better you'll feel after a walk and you'll want to continue walking for mindfulness.

3/ Increase Your Fitness Level

Walking gives you a chance to focus on your breathing, take deep breaths, get your body moving, and increase circulation because that's what we need to increase our fitness level. Walking will help increase your mindfulness and your mental fitness. It can help with stress, depression, anxiety, and it can also improve your sleep, which is a big deal because a lot of people struggle with having deep sleep and struggle with falling asleep. In the last five or six years since I've been walking and running on a daily basis, I don't have any trouble sleeping. I encourage you to start this practice of walking on a regular basis.

4/ Closer To Nature

As you walk, pay specific attention to any natural elements, including trees, or plants or water. Even if you're walking in a city there will be certain aspects of nature that you can focus on including the sky, the sun, the moon, and the stars. And as well as that, notice your own natural rhythm including your breathing and your heartbeat. Take time to notice as many elements of nature as you can while you walk.

5/ Mantras or Affirmations

Walking gives you a chance to focus on one or several mantras. Let the affirmations flow in your mind over and over. There are several that I use when I walk or run including, ‘My life is renewed daily; mentally, physically, emotionally'. I think of that sentence over and over and also the following sentence; ‘My life is renewed daily, mentally, physically, emotionally'. Another affirmation I like is; ‘Creativity helps me grow and thrive'. By repeating this mantra, it reminds me to include as much creativity in my life as I can. Another mantra that I like, includes the word compassion, because I believe that the more we can live our lives with compassion, the happier we'll feel, and the more contented we'll be. Thinking of compassion for others, and compassion for other things and situations truly can help us feel more compassion for ourselves. So here's the mantra that I suggest on that topic; ‘I see everyone and everything with compassion'.

And this gives me a real chance to, to stretch and exercise my ability to truly see everyone and everything with compassion. The more we can do this, I believe, the better you'll feel about yourself. It's a mindfulness exercise that really pays off.

A Walking Life

I interviewed viewed a guest named Antonia Malchik who wrote a book called A walking life; Reclaiming Our Health and Our Freedom One Step At a Time. I enjoyed this interesting, in-depth book about walking, so you might want to check it out. The link to the book and the episode is below. She focuses on walking for mindfulness along with many interesting details and facts about walking.

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Wednesday May 11, 2022

Holistic Parenting Simplified; Julie Hatch

Wednesday May 11, 2022

Julie Hatch is a pediatric nurse practitioner, an acupuncturist, a parenting specialist, and a mom. She is a traditional western medicine practitioner, turned alternative holistic practitioner. Her passion has always been helping kids. She spent many years working in pediatrics, first in pediatric intensive care, then in neonatal intensive care. Eventually, her focus shifted, and she found her way into the realm of eastern medicine and holistic health. Julie finds that blending both traditional western medicine with traditional eastern medicine is ideal in her work to promote health. She finds there is great merit to both approaches. She believes that in parenting, following a more holistic path not only makes sense in working with kids, but it also makes parenting life a whole lot easier.

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Most Influential Person

Effect on Emotions

If you can start to be able to, I'm still learning mindfulness, I think we all are trying to practice it and perfect it, which probably will never happen, perfect. But it helps in centering yourself, not letting your emotions take over that are trying to get out of here where your emotions are thinking about your emotions and your fears, and your worries, and your anger and all that.
But to be centered here, and to breathe, and to focus on the breath, and let try which helps to let those emotions go and then come back and deal with them when you're in a better place. So it's more responding to emotions and reacting to emotions also,

Thoughts on Breathing

I've just started doing an online program with a Buddhist teacher who's all about breathing, and the whole thing, the whole course is on breathing, I only just started. So I can't tell you everything that it says. But the breath has any app that uses breathing and teaches you how to just close your eyes and breathe and pay attention to the breathing. And it takes practice at first you know, you're even when the app is talking to you.
You're hearing all the chatter in your head. But with practice, they teach you to learn how to go back to your breath. And that's the fundamentals I think mindfulness is one of the basics.

Suggested Resources

Bullying Story

It's important to listen to your child, hear what they're saying and what their version of the story is. Give them your feedback. Listen, and pay attention to what they're saying and what they're feeling.
I have heard that bullies are victims of being bullied themselves, certainly.
If your child is being bullied, if you can convince them and help them to learn how to stand up for themselves.
I know a lot of our kids benefit from martial arts for many, many reasons. But one of them is that they can stand up for themselves in a very healthy way. And it adds a lot of confidence usually too. Martial arts are really helpful in all kinds of ways, probably for all kids.

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Sunday May 08, 2022

Innovation For All; Costa Michailidis

Sunday May 08, 2022

Costa Michailidis has spent his career consulting with some of the brightest minds on some of the world’s toughest innovation challenges, from NASA scientists and big tech companies, to young entrepreneurs and nonprofits. He has worked on initiatives to build synthetic cells, improve cybersecurity, and reform life science education. His focus is always on cultivating the kind of innovative thinking required for making breakthroughs. He has spoken at the United Nations in New York, served as a TEDx organizer and emcee, and helped accelerate innovation across industries. He co-founded Innovation Bound and has joined a team of academics, entrepreneurs, consultants, and other creativity & innovation experts just like him to help accelerate innovation efforts in science, business, and beyond.

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Contact Info

Website: www.innovationbound.com
Podcast: Are You Innovation Bound?
Innovation-101 Course: www.innovationbound.com/101

Most Influential Person

Dan Millman, Author

Effect on Emotions

So for me, because mindfulness was originally something I learned in sport, it changed my conception of emotions to emotional fitness. So I think of emotional fitness rather than emotional intelligence.
And fitness means you have to work out to stay in shape. If you don't work out, you're gonna fall out of shape. Having a good coach is useful. So fitness is a metaphor; if you use good techniques, you're likely to do it. Well. If you had bad techniques, you can get injured. So I think of it as emotional fitness, and that came from mindfulness in my sport.

Thoughts on Breathing

Focusing on the breath and staying in the moment is tremendous. And what's really wonderful about free-diving is you learn specific breathing patterns that can reduce your heart rate. The reason we do it in free-diving is; to do a more efficient free-dive allows you to be able to go longer on that single breath-hold.
So using those techniques from free-diving, ultimately using breath to become calm, to develop a tremendous sense of calm in order to achieve that.

Suggested Resources

Bullying Story

So the thing that came to mind for me for this was about bullying with love. And I think there was so mindfulness there. So my brother and I have about seven and a half years difference. So anybody with an older brother knows, they're your bully. You sort of inherit them when you're born. It's great.
And so we'd get into a scuffle here and there. It was just sort of a natural environment. But he was much bigger because he's seven and a half years older. And there was one time he was hanging on a pull-up bar, you know, one of the ones you set up in the doorway.
So he's kind of kicking at me, just sort of kicking me away, and I'm trying to get at him. I don't remember what we were arguing about. And he comes off, and I swing to punch him and I end up hitting him in the nose. And he's got a nosebleed. He's checking his nose.
I said real loud, still yelling, I'm sorry, I was aiming for your stomach. His response was to laugh and be kind of proud of me that I was standing up for myself. So I think on his part, not retaliating was the mindful thing to do, and was ultimately good for our relationship.
I think when that sort of aggressive or assertive part of our nature comes at us, but it comes from a place of love, in this case, two siblings and whatever we're arguing about, you know, ultimately, we have long since forgotten.

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Wednesday May 04, 2022

Breath and Fire; Michelle Hillier

Wednesday May 04, 2022

Michelle Hillier is trained in movement, meditation, and mindfulness and is a certified yoga teacher, trauma-informed movement educator, and meditation and social-emotional instructor. Using her personal story, she helps people to see that it’s possible to lead the life you dream of. Her journey has given her the gifts of insight and compassion, deepening her commitment to helping others connect to their breath—their calm—and ignite their fire and their passion. From large group activities to intimate training workshops, Michelle gives her audience a transformative and unforgettable experience with concrete tools and messages to practice in their own lives.

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Website: www.breathandfire.com

Most Influential Person

Thich Nhat Hanh

Effect on Emotions

Awareness of my emotions and being okay with sitting in them is important. The thoughts will come and they'll turn to an emotion that could turn to action. But it's been like a-Ha, there it is, there's that thought, there's that feeling, there's that emotion.
Either I like it, or I don't like it. I'm just gonna sit in it, and let it either pass or act on it.
So I'm just more highly aware of my emotions through doing mindfulness practices.

Thoughts on Breathing

I've just got into breathwork and I have an amazing teacher, Rebecca Llewellyn, Shamanic Breathwork. So I actually experienced a full hour of breathwork. I never thought that was a thing until I got into it. Wow, the breath is powerful.
So I like to think how one breath can make a difference in a moment that you're feeling so that you're in that fight, flight, or freeze state where something's going on.
When your body's going into something, one big inhale can completely reset you physiologically. It just tells your body you're okay. So the breath is super powerful.
There are different breath forms, of course, that I like to share with people in my ‘Breath of Fire' workshops, including circular breathing. The traditional ‘let's just breathe' is also great.
I like to share the power of one breath, and how that can change your body.

Suggested Resources

Book: The Pocket Thich Nhat Hanh (Shambhala Pocket Classics)
App: Insight Timer

Bullying Story

I personally haven't had a bullying experience. When I look back, I may have been a bit of a bully. The competitiveness was sort of part of me.
When I look at my son, I can use him as an example. He's not in an actual bullying situation, but the mindfulness piece around awareness of self and the work I've done in schools with kids around mindfulness. I think it's good if we're just mindful and present and tapped into who we are.
That authentic self, I think that's where the heart really shines, and we can't do that to somebody else. I think it's a bullying prevention mode. I don't think it's like, oh, I'm being bullied, I need to meditate. It's like if we can teach our children especially if we can get them to understand mindfulness and awareness of self and love for others, we can prevent bullying.

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Sunday May 01, 2022

A Tribute To My Mom

Sunday May 01, 2022

My mother, Edith Langford, passed away this week and today’s episode is a tribute to my mom. The funeral was yesterday and as you can imagine, I'm flooded with emotions. There are so many sad thoughts and emotions that I feel as I create this tribute to my mother. We had a very special relationship, a lot of great talks and special times together. I thought back to something she told me a few years ago, which had a huge impact on me, and a huge impact on the direction of my career. I was talking to her about the past and I said, remember back in the 1960s, you had a lot of a lot of trouble with anxiety. You really had a tough time. You had psoriasis as a result of it. It seemed to go on for a long time and it was a real problem. I asked her, what was the thing that ended this part of your life, that situation where you had so much anxiety?

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5 Words of Wisdom

She answered this question in five words, a five-word sentence. I thought so much about this afterwards. I thought, wow, this is staring me in the face. Every time I look at an appliance, an LG appliance, I realize the LG stands for their slogan, Life's Good. The five words she told me were, “I learned to let go”. So when I said LG, let go, every time I look at one of those appliances, I think, “Let Go, Life's Good. And letting go allows our life to be good. And I thought, wow, that was incredible.

Beautiful Smile

I asked my mother, ‘how did you come to that conclusion?’ I wanted to know how she landed on those five words. But to her, there wasn't really a lot to say, she just said ‘I learned to let go’. And then she looked at me and she smiled that familiar smile. I said to mom, you know, that's mindfulness. That was long before I started working in the field of mindfulness. And she looked at me in a quizzical way and I said, Yeah, it's a thing they call mindfulness. It's about letting go. It's about not being so concerned about the past or so concerned about the future. It's about living in the moment, and letting go of so much of what holds us back and causes anxiety and issues. And she was good with that.

Share With The World

I was working in the field of bullying prevention at the time and I just thought so much about what my mom had said to me about this. I had already been thinking about the fact that with bullying prevention, if I can teach children and teachers about mindfulness then bullying would decrease. And I thought, wow, this worked in my own mother's life. She was able to come to this conclusion without meditating, without reading self-help books. She didn't listen to podcasts. She just came up with this herself. “I learned to let go.” I thought, what if I could share these five words with the world?

A Visual Gift

My mother has always been a visual person. Whenever I watch the sunrise, which is many, many mornings, I think of her because she loved the colors. She loved orange, brilliant yellows, golds, pinks, fuchsias. All colors I see in the sky when the sun is coming up; brilliant, beautiful colors. She loved these colors and she used her incredible skills to weave and to crochet and to create beautiful items like placemats, dishcloths, and tea towels. She seldom used a pattern and even if she had a pattern, it usually ended up being adapted to the ‘Edith Version’. She had her own thoughts and her own ways of doing these things and she would work away until she had something beautiful.

The Edith Basket

She always had a basket of placemats and dishcloths and she would always get this basket out and offer something. And she made 1000s of finger puppets. So every night, after supper, she would sit down and she would crochet a finger puppet. It was for children in the hospital who were about to have their finger pricked or have blood taken and so the nurse would give them a finger puppet.

Vesta Love

One of the things that came to mind about my mom was her special love for her aunt Vesta. Vesta was also my great aunt. She was such a special person. And so my mom would go visit her and very often when it was time to leave Vesta would say a few lines of a poem to her. The poem became a favorite of my mother's and when aunt Vesta died, my mom decided to make a needlepoint out of the lines of this poem that were so very special to her.

Meaningful Words

The poem was written by Charles Kingsley; 1819-1875. He was a clergyman and novelist whose many stories have become famous works of fiction. He was also a writer of poetry. The poem my aunt recited is called A Farewell. Here are the four lines that she sewed with needlepoint; Be good, sweet maid and let who can be clever; do noble things, not dream them all day long. And so make Life, Death, and that vast forever, one grand, sweet song. Those words are so special to me and I'm happy to say I have that needlepoint piece that my mother created, and it's beautiful. These words are a tribute to my mom.

Gratitude

Thanks for letting me share this with you today in memory of my mom. As you know, I think about the special times and how special she was, and the love I had for her and have for her. It hasn’t ended.

Foot Bliss

She came to live with us at our house for five weeks in 2020, when she was preparing for a heart valve surgery. It was a special time for us to get to know her even more, in a different way. So we had a lot of special times and one of the things that she loved was every night, she would get a foot rub. And she would kind of look at me in a special way and say something that I knew meant that she would really appreciate a foot massage with lotion. When I would do that, she would have this look of ecstasy on her face and a beautiful smile. It was a special thing between us, and I was able to give her a foot rub just a couple of days before she passed, which was a beautiful experience as well.

These are some personal thoughts that I wanted to share with you today. As always, I thank you for tuning into mindfulness mode and thank you so much for being a part of the show. All the best to you. Bye now.

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Wednesday Apr 27, 2022

Enjoy The Gift Of The Present; Jennifer Ibbotson Rodriguez

Wednesday Apr 27, 2022

Jennifer Ibbotson Rodriguez is a consulting hypnotist who works with trauma survivors to help them heal, thrive and enjoy their lives. Her longest recovery came as a result of the collapse of the ‘twin towers’ back in September 11, 2001, after which she married a disabled combat veteran who was struggling to heal his own traumas. For years Jen has been fascinated by the brain and the power of mindset, so it comes as no surprise that she will be delivering a presentation at the National Convention of The National Guild of Hypnotists this August called: Hypnosis: The Bridge Between Neural-plasticity and Quantum Realities.

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Contact Info

Website: www.HypnosisHaven.com
Podcast: Hypnosis De-Mystified

Most Influential Person

Above all, it's my father. He handed me the book, The Way of the Peaceful Warrior back in 1991 or 92. That is to say from that point on, we always said, What time is it? Now? Where are you? Here.

Effect on Emotions

Emotion comes in and emotion goes. Likewise, the breath, there is no start and there is no end. Therefore, it is cyclical, so whatever I'm feeling in the moment, is the gift of life.
I know what numb feels like so I think it's as close to death as we can get. Therefore with every feeling I'm blessed with at the moment, I accept it for the wisdom that it is sharing.

Thoughts on Breathing

I was very fortunate very early to learn Buddha belly breathing, but I was confused. In the beginning, I thought that's how we were supposed to breathe all the time.
It wasn't something I was able to do all the time. And as trauma overtook my body I learned that breathing became shallower and shallower.
However, trauma-responsive breathing doesn't allow for the holding of the breath, because that actually increases adrenaline. So the way that I choose to breathe when I need to breathe out trauma, and breathe in peace happens when I release my jaw.
I exhale first because the body can always exhale even when it can't inhale. And then after the inhale, I exhale for as twice as long as the inhale. To sum it up, it always starts with an exhale, whatever the inhale is to the belly, and then exhale twice as long. That's me, that's my breathing technique and how I

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Bullying Story

Certainly, the story that I was coming to was that gentleman with his dad.
Every single one of my clients, technically bullies themselves until the day they stop and enjoy the gift of the present.

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Sunday Apr 24, 2022

The Path To Kindness; James Crews

Sunday Apr 24, 2022

James Crews is the author of THE PATH TO KINDNESS – a collection offering more than 100 poems of connection and joy from a diverse range of voices…including a poem by the current U.S. Poet Laureate – Joy Harjo. He has also authored 4 prize-winning collections of poetry and is the editor of the best-selling anthology, HOW TO LOVE THE WORLD – more than 90,000 copies in print and featured on NPR’s Morning Edition, in Boston Globe, and The Washington Post. Crews' work has appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The Sun Magazine, Ploughshares, and The New Republic, as well as in former US poet laureate Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry newspaper column.

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Contact Info

Website: jamescrews.net
Book: The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection and Joy by James Crews and Danusha Laméris

Most Influential Person

Ted Kooser

Effect on Emotions

I'm able to name the emotions. However, I think it wasn't ever the case before. Likewise, anxiety and shame. It's so useful to be able to name what's coming up and to really distinguish. My marriage has helped with that, too.

Thoughts on Breathing

Most importantly, the kind of meditation I do tends to really focus on the breath.
I usually, when I'm meditating, have a very busy mind. For instance, I count my breaths, you know, one in-breath, out-breath, one in-breath, out-breath two, and do that in sets of fours, when I'm especially caught in my mind and my thoughts.

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Book: Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems by Phyllis Cole-Dai
Book: The Path to Kindness: Poems of Connection and Joy by James Crews and Danusha Laméris
App: Headspace

Bullying Story

Firstly, I was never really the recipient of a lot of bullying. I think that was the result of real efforts that were not very healthy to kind of hide myself and be as invisible as possible, and to be quiet.
I was already shy and introverted, but I think I made myself even quieter, and really tried to blend in, and not call attention to who I really was, or what I really loved doing.
Therefore, I don't have a lot of stories about that as a kid. I will say one memory that came when you talked about bullying; it's not quite the same thing, but when I was in grad school in Nebraska, I was walking down the street, and just feeling really happy. I was really embodying who I was at that point, teaching poetry, writing poetry, not being afraid to dress a certain way.
As I was walking down the street to the pharmacy, and these guys in a pickup truck that was passing by called out these terrible names, just like these anti-gay epithets and I sort of stopped for a minute, but then, didn't want to engage or anything like that. But when I got home, I realized how much that affected me.
That is to say, I was more in tune with that, probably because I had been meditating and was really practicing mindfulness. But it really disturbed me. And not just that I had to experience it, but that other people, especially younger people, were probably experiencing that all over the country and the world at the very same moment.

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