Transcript: Guided Wellness Break

Kenwyn Derby:

Welcome. My name is Kenwyn Derby, and I work at WestEd, and I’m part of the California Center for School Climate Team. Thank you so much for joining us for this wellness break. So I’m just going to set this in the context of the day and then introduce our guest speaker, and then I will hand it over to her. Today we’re talking about transforming school climate mindsets and ecosystems. So here, this is really about us as humans, individuals, and we also have our mindsets and we are part of ecosystems.

So as we sit with ourselves, we can bring ourselves more fully to everything that we do. And if you were at the keynote, Dr. Lee Porscha Moore from the Flourish Agenda talked about human centered approaches and healing centered engagement, and that helps us build connection, commitment, and care, her 3Cs. But she had a secret fourth C, and that’s consistency. And so can we show up consistently? And when we’re connected, we’re grounded and enlivened. But sometimes with all of the consistency we bring, it can be exhausting.

So can we take time for ourselves? Can we take space to heal ourselves so that we can show up for ourselves, but also for the people we serve, our colleagues, the students? And can we help create environments that are worthy of our amazing young people that really need our support? And I want to acknowledge also that as individuals, we take responsible for ourselves, but we are in systems. And so we really advocate for the systems to create the conditions within which we can heal and provide support.

The resources that we’re providing that are associated with this break are in the resource button at the bottom and in the chat and on our website after. They really offer a lot of self-care, mindfulness guidance, websites, recordings of our speaker, Dr. Emily Hernandez, but also a guide on how to create cultures of care so that we cannot just be humans, but systems that work for us. So I’m going to hand it over to Dr. Emily Hernandez in just a moment. She has a doctorate in education, and she’s also a licensed marriage and family therapist.

She brings over 25 years of experience working in public education and mental health, and she’s currently the director of the Employee Assistance Service for Education, which is called EASE, in the Los Angeles County Office of Ed. She’s going to talk about a little bit about the program she leads, which serves over 175,000 staff, which blows my mind. Her professional background includes working directly with schools, families, and communities through various capacities, including school counseling, child welfare, K-12 administration, and clinical mental health.

She brings a unique lens of working with educators and school systems, understanding the importance of bridging the gap toward more access to mental health prevention and intervention in education. And she’s going to talk a little bit for us and then lead us in actual practice today to center and ground ourselves. Thank you so much, Dr. Emily Hernandez.

Dr. Emily Hernandez:

Thank you, Kenwyn, so much for that introduction. Just got my screen shared here. Here we go. Thanks, everyone. And it was so beautiful the way that you framed that introduction and really that’s what I wanted to start with is really looking at ourselves as individuals and how we do this work in wellness and well-being because we know that the work that we do is hard and long. We do it with so, so much of us. Our heart goes into this work.

That’s why it’s so important to remember to take breaks, because we can work, work, work without realizing, well, how am I doing? Am I well? How am I integrating wellness into our lives? So when we talk about wellness in our lives, we do it for the communities that we serve. We do it for the students and families that we serve, but sometimes we may tend to leave ourselves out of that service.

And so looking at how are we also serving ourselves? And so when we look at well-being, we want to make sure that we’re beginning with ourselves, that we’re rooted, that we’re grounded, but also with the understanding that we are a part of a much larger system, and how can we begin to cultivate not only individual well-being, but also collective well-being within the organizations that we serve, our school sites, our friends, and our family.

So with that, a small piece and kind of strategies, I would like you to walk away with a couple strategies today, is remembering how important it is to stop, to take pauses and being able to build in breaks and pauses. When you were talking about the 3Cs and the fourth C that was added, and that was one of consistency, it fits in so well to this. And these are all things that we know. It’s not anything that we haven’t heard before, but many of us struggle with consistency in terms of this practice.

So that’s why in order to build consistency in terms of our well-being, we need to be more intentional and have more awareness of how we build it into our days. So taking small breaks throughout the day to walk away, step away from your desk or walk out of the classroom, of the office. Maybe even in the beginning of meetings building in a minute of pause before meetings or that you may be leading at your sites. Taking moments to breathe, and we’re going to be focusing on our breath today and what breath work looks like.

So awareness, scheduling it in. When you schedule things into your calendar, you’re more likely to be consistent and it becomes a habit. You can also develop a practice in your community of ending meetings maybe three or five minutes early so that everybody has a moment to breathe or pause. So I like to think of the 3Ws on a daily basis to practice getting some wellness into your life. Walking. This is the importance of moving, which we’re going to talk about in a second.

Every day getting moments of movement into your day. Water. Sometimes we’re so busy we forget to hydrate, and so the importance of water. I have my big water here. I know that when I’m getting to the bottom of this that I’m doing good in terms of my goal for the day, in terms of my hydration. When it’s pretty heavy and full, I know I have some work to do. And lastly is window. This is really about getting outside, trying to get in nature. If you don’t have access to it, get to a window.

If you’re able to open it up, taking some fresh air. But if you’re able to get outside and just to look at a tree or a flower, any type of greenery. There’s a lot of research behind greenery, right? And just being able to access and view and have greenery, whether it’s a plant in your view, it does something. It calms our nervous systems down. So those are three really easy ways to get some wellness into your life.

We talked a little bit about movement, and so this is at least every hour or two hours if you’re able to move, if you have a job where you are moving a lot during the day, sometimes we feel like, “Oh, we’re standing all day. It’s hard,” but that is better for you than sedentary lifestyles and sitting. So when we talk about moving, what does it look like? Sometimes when we’re stressed and we have so much going on, we hold it in our shoulders and in our neck. There’s tension that we don’t even know that we’re moving through the day with.

And so right now I want to take a moment to do a few stretches to be able to relieve some of that tension. And we’re going to start with our neck. So we’re going to move our necks from left. Not too hard. You just want to feel a stretch in the muscles to be able to relieve some tension. And do it on your own. Whatever feels good. Some neck stretches. Neck is so important for everything that we do and it holds so much. So then we want to go down and feel that stretch. Don’t hurt yourself.

Just very lightly. You want to feel the stretch in the back of your neck muscles. And go back. So if you notice, we’re going left, right, down back, and then the last one’s to the side. You can gently grab your hand. You don’t want to pull too hard. You just want to feel a stretch all the way down on the side. And if it feels good and you feel comfortable, you can close your eyes on that stretch. Take some deep breaths. And then also remembering our arms. So you may want to stretch your shoulders out.

You can cross your hands on the back. Then twisting your arm and feeling the stretch on the arm. Very simple. You could see that we’re sitting, we haven’t moved from our chairs, but we’re getting some movement into our bodies. And then lastly, shaking, right? We want to shake stagnant energy. You can do this standing up in different ways, shaking, and you can also tap. Tapping helps with our circulation and energy of movement. And if we were standing, we would be doing this even more.

So with that, we’re going to start our practice, but I want to introduce some method to you first. It’s called the butterfly hug method. This is a method that’s used in bilateral stimulation that we use in working with people to help with self-regulation and to help us very quickly begin to calm our nervous systems down. This is to help you think and be connected with a safe and calm place in yourself. And when you begin to wire your nervous system with this butterfly hug method, eventually when you use it, it will quickly bring relaxation and calm wherever and whenever you need it.

And so the way that you do it is you cross your hands over your chest and you may want to interlock your thumbs here. So you could see that it’s the shape of a butterfly, and you’re going to just tap on each side lightly. Doesn’t need to be hard. Slowly tap like the shape of a butterfly hug. And as you’re tapping, you can breathe. Okay, and so that’s the exercise. We’re going to practice it again in a minute. With that, we’re going to go ahead and begin our practice, and this is a focus on our breath today.

[a video of ocean waves with no sound]

The breath is so important to relaxation. It can induce relaxation in a very quick amount of time if we program ourselves to have a breathwork practice. So that’s what we’re going to be focusing on today. Just get into a comfortable position. Hopefully you’re taking this time for yourself and not working. Put your phones, any type of email. Give yourself this gift of time and wellness. Today we’ll be practicing the awareness of our breath. Taking a moment to just get comfortable in your seat, feeling supported, but feeling your feet on the ground so you’re grounded and rooted.

Thinking about the various points on your body, the experience of sitting, where those touch points are. And if you feel comfortable, you can close your eyes or just shift your gaze downwards. As we move into this practice, just taking a moment to notice what intention for this practice do you have with you right now? It might be the desire to want to be more present with yourself, to have a more consistent wellness practice in your life, to cultivate more calm, peace, presence, or it may just simply be for the experience of being here and trying it out today.

Whatever it is for you, meet yourself as you practice today. Allow yourself to hold that intention with you just slightly as you begin your practice. Allowing your attention to calm and to rest on your breath, becoming fully aware of your breathing in this moment. Feeling the inhale as it moves through the body and feeling the exhale as it moves out of the body. Sometimes it can be helpful to pick a particular point in your body in which you feel the breath, where it feels most alive for you.

It might be your nose or your chest, your belly. Just experience that flow, the flow of the inhale as it moves through the body and the exhale as it exits the body, the release that you feel. Allowing your attention to just rest on your breath. Being curious about your breath, the way it expands in the body on the inhale, and the way your body contracts in the body on the exhale. Giving yourself full permission to just attend to your breathing right now, right here, just as it is. No need to force or control your breath in any way.

Right now just observing the experience of breathing. Your mind may wander to different sensations in your body, things you’re feeling or things in the environment like noises. The practice is to just simply notice when this happens. And with a gentle firmness, return your attention back to your breath, coming back again and again and again. Each time your attention moves away, you’re compassionately just coming back to yourself and to your breath. We’ll pause with this feeling, allowing yourself to rest, feeling grounded, connected to this moment of breath.

You may notice your mind begin to wander with thoughts, your planning, anticipating, problem solving thoughts, or thoughts that may be tied to memories, things that have occurred in the past. If this happens, it’s okay. You’re just simply noticing, the mind’s activity of pulling you in different directions and without any judgment. Just bring your attention back to the breath and come back to yourself, being just with your breath.

You may notice some emotions begin to rise, maybe some anxiousness, stress, maybe worry or sadness, or you may be feeling a sense of calm or peace coming over you. If the mind wanders to experiencing these emotions, just notice that the mind has gone and where your attention has been drawn. Notice where you are and just gently bring your attention back to the breath. Allowing yourself to be just with this breath in this moment right now. Allowing yourself to return again and again to the breath in this moment.

Now, allowing yourself to bring into your awareness the intention that you started with in this practice today. Just checking in with that in this moment. As you’re aware of it, allowing yourself to experience and encounter the breath with it. Tuning into that experience, what does it feel like for you right now? Allowing yourself to give thanks and gratitude and kindness and compassion for your willingness to be here, to be present, to be with yourself in this practice, in this way.

Allowing yourself to be met, to be known, to be felt, to be heard in this moment. Slowly you can begin to wiggle your toes and your fingers, shift in your chair, bring some awareness to your body. When you’re ready, slowly open your eyes and come back to the practice. And as we close, I’m going to ask you to raise your arms and cross over your chest into your butterfly hug, interlock your thumbs, making the shape of a butterfly over your heart, and slowly begin to tap in.

As you breathe, and you can close your eyes if it feels good and comfortable and safe and warm for you, six to seven taps as you tap in this feeling of safety and calm and relaxation and wellness into your body. One last deep breath with an exhale. This concludes our practice today. As you leave the session, I’d like you to reflect on your own practice and how you’d like to take this with you. How often do you take breaks? Are you mindful of what you do on those breaks? How can you take advantage of those breaks to get more wellness into your life?

I hope that you enjoy each newfound moment of pause and that you consider building breaks into your individual practice and into your collective community. Thank you for practicing with me today.

Kenwyn Derby:

Thank you so much, Dr. Hernandez. I really appreciate that. Again, I know how busy you are and I thank you for bringing your calm and your wisdom and your guidance to this space for us to take a moment for ourselves and increase our own wellness and well-being.

Dr. Emily Hernandez:

Thank you. It was an honor to be here and to be with all of you in this practice today.