 Good afternoon and welcome. I'm Pat Parazzini, Director of Alumni Engagement Regional Chapter Development for Fairfield University, and I am so thrilled to be able to bring this presentation to you via Zoom. In my position here at Fairfield, I have the pleasure of working with alumni from across the country, coordinating with chapter leaders and volunteers to host events that keep alumni connected to and engaged with the university. We have nine regional chapters from Boston to Washington D.C. alphabetically and from Boston to San Francisco geographically. So I hope to meet you all in person at an event in the local area in the very near future. So before I introduce our esteemed guest presenter, I would like to go over the format of the lecture today. It is a PowerPoint slide presentation and our guest will be speaking to those slides. There will be a time at the end for our guest to answer any questions. So if their questions arise about a point in the presentation, please type them via the chat function on the Zoom and I will relay them to our guest. And please make sure your video and audio capabilities are turned off. Today, I have the great honor and pleasure of introducing our esteemed presenter. Dr. Paula Gil Lopez is an Associate Professor, Program Director and Department Chair at Fairfield University. In 2008, she attended her first mindfulness conference and found her personal and professional passion. Since then, Paula has attended many mindfulness conferences and retreats and has trained in several major programs, including mindfulness-based stress reduction, MBSR, Mindfulness in Education, M-I-E-N, Mindful Schools, and Inner Resilience. She presents mindfulness-infused self-care workshops throughout Connecticut and nationally and has written articles and book chapters on self-care in schools. In a recent book chapter, she discusses the utility of mindfulness to combat implicit bias. Paula and I have worked together before. She taught a class during Alumni College, a signature event for the Fairfield Westchester County's Alumni Chapter. Of course, it was a huge success. She was so gracious when I reached out again for this online presentation. During this uncertain time, I know we can all benefit from Paula's expertise. I am so thrilled to have another opportunity to work with Paula and I'm so excited for her to share her knowledge with all of you. It is my pleasure to introduce Dr. Paula Gil Lopez. Thank you, Pat. I'm very excited to be here today. I never miss an opportunity to share mindfulness or self-care. I think that it's especially needed in today's world. The other thing that I'm going to do besides the, I'm going to go back and forth between the PowerPoint and also some videos and some resources that I want to share with you. So can you hear me? Everybody? Yeah. Okay. All right. So before we get started with the PowerPoint, what I'd like you to do for our first practice is just to close your eyes or lower your gaze. That's okay. Oh, bless you. And I'd just like you to take a deep dive inside and find a word that describes how you're feeling in this moment. It could be an emotion. It could be a physical sensation, but I just want you to find one word. Okay. Give you a few seconds. All right. And now what I want you to do is to keep your eyes closed or lower. And I'd like just to take you through three deep breaths on my count. So just exhale and inhale, two, three, four, five, six. Exhale, five, four, three, two, one. Inhale, two, three, four, five, six. Exhale, five, four, three, two, one. Last time. Inhale, three, four, five, six. Exhale, five, four, three, two, one. And with your eyes still closed, just dive back in and find a word that describes how you're feeling in this moment. It could be the same word if that's what arises or it may be different. Okay. So what I'd like you to do is just take note of those two words. And mindfulness is really what is going to, what helps us become more aware. More aware of ourselves, more aware of others, more aware of what's happening in the moment. And more than that, being okay with whatever's happening in the moment, like COVID, right? Okay. So we're going to get started now. Let me see if I can get this. Okay. So our new normal is not sedentary, right? It's evolving. It evolves day by day. I think we hit a new milestone today. But it seems like we hit a new milestone every day. So I want to, today I want you to help you understand the negative effects of this crisis on, on yourself. Okay. I want to raise your awareness there. You will learn the what, why, and how of mindfulness as a mitigating factor for the negative effects. And we will practice a variety of mindfulness strategies. And I will expose you to a variety of free mindfulness resources. Okay. Because I want you to kind of just try different things on and get a sense of what you like. Because certainly we won't use it if we don't like it. Okay. All right. I really like this quote from Helen Keller, although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it. And I think that that's what we're all doing now, right? We're, we're trying to overcome, we're trying to get through. We're still in it, which is a little unusual for a crisis, usually has bookends. There's a start, then the event, and then it's done. But we're, we're still in it. So, but we are overcomers. And I hope in some small way, this, this workshop, what you take away will help you to be an overcomer. Okay. So as, as my role, as my role of chair of the Connecticut School Safety and Crisis Response Committee, I've been doing a lot of video, video webinars, workshops. Right now, everything's virtual, of course, on crisis and on mitigating the crisis and on trying to get through the crisis. And in my workshops, when I was preparing my last workshop, I realized that in this crisis, because of the unusual nature of the crisis, the indefinite uncertain nature of the crisis, we are all first responders, and we're all victims. So a first responder is just someone who's designated in an emergency to help. So it's certainly doctors and nurses and firemen and, and police. But, but in this crisis, it's essential workers, like grocery store workers, like truck drivers, delivery people, crisis team members, teachers, parents and students. So even that sixth grader, who has to help their younger siblings with their online homework is a designated first responder in this crisis. But in the same way, we're all victims. So I just want you to hold that in your, in your head and hold it gently, because I'm hopefully going to give you some information that will help you to understand this, but then also take, take better care of yourself. And certainly in the same way, and that preexisting conditions, such as diabetes or obesity or heart disease are placing people in a more vulnerable position. So do exist preexisting mental health conditions, such as addiction, depression, anxiety, PTSD. Okay, so we, so we have to really understand and kind of unpack our baggage a little bit to determine how we are being affected. Okay, so this is my, this is how I got into mindfulness and self care is through the crisis field. And, and my focus was on caring for the caregivers. So, so these are some of the negative effects that happen in a crisis. And I was putting this together, I'm not going to go over it, you can just look at it. But as I was putting this together for another workshop, I checked many boxes on on this list. You know, the difficulty focusing and tense muscles and sometimes trouble sleeping and some irritability. And this is a big one for me needing to rescue others, right, needing to respond to every crisis. So I just want you to take a look at this and note, again, this is all about noticing for yourself. I can't tell you what you're going through, but certainly you can take stock of what's happening for you. And just be gentle with yourself. And, and as I'm trying to be gentle with others with whom I'm quarantined, and, you know, have lower my expectations of myself and others and understand that this is normal. Okay. And I'll just finish off the crisis piece with this in a, in a typical crisis. When it's over recovery and back to normal coping takes probably about up to two weeks. And then after two weeks, you start looking around and you start triaging who needs more support. We don't have the luxury of having that we're not in recovery yet really, we're still in intervention. So be kind to yourselves. And I know that you have that, that in you, you are of that ilk because you're here. Okay, so the greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another. And that's William James. And I know if Judy primavera is still here, she knows William James is the father of psychology. And this is what mindfulness does for us. And you see the quote up here on the top right corner, mindfulness is a pause. It's a space between stimulus and response. And that's where our choices lie. Okay. So the definition of mindfulness is the awareness that emerges through paying attention on purpose in the present moment, non-judgmentally to basically whatever is there. Okay. So those are in red, those are the three important components of mindfulness, paying attention on purpose or bringing your focused attention to whatever is happening in the present moment without judgment. Okay. And that's John Kabat-Zinn, one of our heroes and one of the fathers and gurus of mindfulness. Okay. So I also just want to share some of the relevant benefits relevant in terms of in this crisis that I've been found in the research on mindfulness. So mindfulness has been found to strengthen the immune system. And I think that's something we can all get behind right now to reduce stress and depression, to lessen effects of PTSD, to increase compassion for ourselves and others. And that goes back to that list that I had. Build resilience, improve parenting, and help us tune into the silver linings. And no matter what our situation is, no matter what our the crisis is or what our losses are, because we really are grieving as a nation and some of us, depending on our proximity physical and emotional to the crisis and the casualties in the crisis, there are always silver linings. And I'm gonna, if we pay attention. Okay. So how do we practice mindfulness? We use anchors. And anchors allow us to focus on something that that is in the moment. So these are all different ways that we can focus. And these are used as anchors when we talk about mindfulness. And I'm going to share some of these and we're going to go through some of these today. Okay, so there, there are senses, there are five senses, they're also physical sensations, as well as emotions. Okay, so our first mindfulness exercise is going to be the breath. And the breath is is a very common anchor. When practicing mindfulness, we always have it with us, we did it in the very beginning on the open and opening slide. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to also share one of these resources that I was talking about. And this is smiling mind. And I will show it to you in a minute, I'll show you the website in a minute. But first, we're going to practice breathing. Okay. So smiling mind by size meditation, exploring thoughts. While you are meditating, you may have experienced your mind wandering off and getting distracted by thoughts. This is something that all minds like to do, just like your ears listen and your eyes see your mind thinks. You can use your thoughts as part of your meditation, instead of getting lost in them. To do this, get comfortable in your position and close or half close your eyes. Take three deep breaths, feeling yourself get more calm and relaxed, more clear and content. Really feel your breath moving in and out of your stomach as you count. If your mind gets distracted with thoughts as you do this, you can observe them by giving them labels, for example, planning, worrying, thinking, or dreaming. Now choose where you feel your breath most easily and focus your mind on this spot. This might be your nose, mouth, stomach, or chest. Keep your attention on this spot as you notice every breath moving in and out of your body. Remember, as your thoughts arise, simply label them and look at them as if they are clouds in the sky that are passing by. Keep focusing on your breath in this way and try to count 10 breaths, one as you breathe in and two as you breathe out, three in, four out. Great, bring your attention to the breath coming into and leaving your nose at your nostrils. Try to feel how the air is cooler when it goes into your nose and warmer as it leaves your nose. Be very curious to all the sensations you notice at your nose while the air moves in and out of your nostrils. Maybe it tickles or itches. Maybe it's warm or cold. If your mind gets distracted, remember to simply label the thoughts and gently bring your focus back to the feeling of your breath moving in and out of your nose. Notice how focusing on your breath like this can begin to quiet and calm your mind and its thoughts. Okay, so this is Smiling Mind. It's out of Australia. This is the website. It's entirely free and I just want to show you these programs. They have programs for adults. They have programs. So this is all for adults. The one that I just shared with you I think was like a 15, 16-year-old. But they have adults and then they have kids and youth and their newest section is for families. So if you wanted to share and do something as a family, they have some mindfulness activities but then they also have some activities that you can do that are not specifically mindful. So this is in a slide at the end with references. I want you to have something to walk away with. Certainly I also sit on my back deck on a bench overlooking my pond and I breathe. So you don't need the guided meditations to do this but if you're a beginner it helps. Okay, so that's the breath. Okay, so we were talking about silver linings before and I just wanted to bring your mind back to that. I don't know if that's something that you do for yourself on a regular basis but things like the silver linings that I found in my life, my emptiness is full again and for some people that might not be a silver lining but for me it is. And I have more gratitude when I'm out walking around for my mindful walks during the day. And so one of the things that mindfulness does is present that pause so that we can take stock of what's going on around us and see it's really quieting the amygdala, the fight-flight-or-freeze which I think I know my amygdala has been very active lately. And when we practice mindfulness we bring our prefrontal cortex online and it quietes the amygdala and it gives me pause to find the good things. Okay, so this is another mindfulness meditation and it's very popular. It is something that has been found to increase self and other compassion. And so this actually is, you can find it at the UCLA and again this is another resource. This is the UCLA Mindful Awareness Research Center and right here we have free guided meditations and if we go down you can come to these free guided meditations and if anyone is having trouble sleeping there's a body scan for sleep here. We're going to be doing the body scan meditation later. There's a loving-kindness meditation but I don't want to do it for nine minutes so I'm going to my own mindfulness collection and we're going to do a three-minute short loving-kindness meditation. Close your eyes and begin by feeling yourself sitting or standing here. Just let yourself relax, notice your body, your attention into your heart area. See if you can notice what you're feeling there right now and you may not feel anything in particular and that's fine. To bring to mind someone in your life who you absolutely love, the second that you think of them you get happy. It could be someone in your family, a close friend, it might be a child, it might be a pet. So see if you can get an image of that person or animal. Imagine that they're right here in front of you. As you see them notice what you're feeling in your heart or body or what you're thinking. Try and connect to that feeling, there might be a feeling of happiness, of joy. This is called loving-kindness. Just see if you can wish this person or this animal well into joy and ease. And you can use words, whatever words make sense to you. May you be happy, may you be healthy, may you be protected from danger and harm. Find the words that work for you and stay connected to that feeling. Now see if you can send that feeling into your whole body, wishing those very same things that you did for that loved one to yourself. May I be peaceful and at ease, healthy and strong. And notice what happens as you try it, may we all be happy and peaceful and at ease. You can open your eyes when you're ready. Okay, so what I'd like you to do right now is just, we're gonna have a little time at the end to share, hopefully. But what I'd like you to do is just jot down on the paper that you have, if you have a paper on pen and note, Pat asked you to bring one. And reviewing the practices that we've done so far, just jot down what resonates with you. You know, the breathing, we've done the breathing, we have done loving kindness. And what I'd like you to do is just take a minute to think of a silver lining that you have maybe thought about before and just write it down. Or maybe take a few minutes or a few seconds to write it down. And if you can talk about it at the end. Okay, so now we're gonna talk about mindful gratitude. And mindful gratitude has a whole host of benefits in the literature. And it's something that especially in this pandemic, I have been activating a lot because of what it does. And I'm going to let Bernay Brown talk about mindful gratitude for a minute here. I think the relationship between joy and gratitude was one of the most important things I found in the research. I wasn't expecting it. But what I found, you know, 12 years of research, 11,000 pieces of data, I did not interview in all that time a person who would describe themselves as joyful or describe their lives as joyous, who did not actively practice gratitude. And for me, it was very counterintuitive because I kind of went into the research thinking that the relationship between joy and gratitude was if you're joyful, then you should be grateful. But it wasn't that way at all. It was really that practicing gratitude invites joy into our lives. And when I say practice, I think this is this is the part that really changed my life. It changed my family and the way we live every day. When I say practice gratitude, I don't mean kind of like the attitude of gratitude or feeling grateful. I mean, practicing gratitude. These folks shared in common a tangible gratitude practice. They either kept gratitude journals. Some of them did interesting things like it one, two, three, four, like at 1234 every day, they said something to out loud that they were grateful for. They one of the things that we do, like we say grace at dinner. And so now after grace, we go around and everyone in my family says something they're grateful for. I mean, and what's interesting is when we first started, I have a first grader, a first grade son, Charlie, an eighth grade daughter, Ellen. And at first I thought, and we've been doing it for a couple of years now, like they're like, Oh, God, mom. And if there was a little like, this is, you know, are you experimenting on us? A little bit of that. But now what's interesting, even after we did it for like a couple of weeks, that on those crazy busy nights where we're trying to like get to soccer and piano and homework, and Steve and I are just like, we say a quick prayer, we start eating, my kids are like, Whoa, what are you grateful for? And it's been extraordinary because not only absolutely does it invite more joy into our house, it also is such a soulful window into what's going on in my kids' lives. So there are some days when my eighth grader will be like, I'm joyful that there's a huge thick wall between my room and my brother's room, something very honest. But there are other days she'll say, she had a friend whose mother recently died. And she said, for a month, she would say, I'm just so grateful that y'all are healthy right now. And so not only did it make us all more aware of what we had and more willing to slow down and really be thankful for the joyful moments we had, but let me know where she was emotionally in her life. And my son is always grateful for bugs, I'm grateful for frogs, but sometimes he'll say, I'm grateful that you picked me up early or I'm grateful that I finally understand adjectives. So there's a great quote that says, it's not it makes us joyful. And it's by a Jesuit, a Jesuit priest. And I guess I was just amazed to find that bubble up so strongly in the research. It's life changing. Okay. So shout out to the Jesuits. What I'd like you to do now is I would like you to take your piece of paper and your pen. And I would like you to think about someone for whom you're grateful. Okay, maybe the person that you thought of in the loving kindness activity. It could be someone different. Okay, so I just want you to think for a few seconds about who that person is, and then write down why you're grateful for them. Why do you have gratitude? What makes you grateful for this person? What is it about them? So just take this time to write about three to five sentences about this person. Okay, so I'll give you a minute and a half to write something down. Okay, I don't know if you're still writing, but if you are, I'd like you to stop. And now what I'd like you to do is to take your phone out and call the person that you wrote about, that you're grateful for. I'm going to give you another minute to call them. And I want you to tell them that this is an exercise on gratitude and that they're your person. And I want you to read or tell them why you're grateful for them. Okay, so I'll give you another minute and a half. Okay, now I'd just like you to dive back in into your heart area and find a word that describes how you're feeling right now after having spoken to someone. Some of you may not have been able to get the person, but just in terms of how you were feeling about giving them that information, that blessing. So just take a few seconds to write that down and we'll move on. And if you weren't able to get a hold of the person, I hope that you'll keep trying. And when I did this, I picked my grandmother and she's no longer with us. So if that was the case for you, just read it out loud at some point to yourself. Okay, so mindful body awareness. I'm a big lover of yoga. And mindful body awareness is one of my favorites. So I want to see if you like this as much. We'll go back here. And I have a three minute body scan with Diana Winston. You can close your eyes if that's comfortable to you. You can notice your body seated, wherever you're seated, feeling the weight of your body on the chair, on the floor. You can take a few deep breaths. And as you take a deep breath, bring in more oxygen and livening the body. And as you exhale, have a sense of relaxing more deeply. You can notice your feet on the floor. Notice the sensations of your feet touching the floor, the weight and pressure, vibration, heat. You can notice your legs against the chair, pressure, pulsing, heaviness, lightness. Notice your back against the chair. Bring your attention into your stomach area. If your stomach is tense or tight, let it soften. Take a breath. Notice your hands or your hands tense or tight. See if you can allow them to soften. Notice your arms. Feel any sensations in your arms. Let your shoulders be soft. Notice your neck and throat. Let them be soft. Relax. Soften your jaw. Let your face and facial muscles be soft. Then notice your whole body present. Take one more breath. Be aware of your whole body as best you can. The next experience, next practice I want you to experience is Mindful Movement, which is yoga, which has been a lifesaver for me. And we're just going to do a few minutes, a couple of minutes. This is yoga with Adrienne. I don't know if anybody's familiar. I'm kind of like champion of Adrienne here because I tell everyone about her. But so I want you to get in a seat. I assume everybody's sitting down and just follow just for a few minutes. We're not going to do the whole thing. Forget it. Not going there. I queued it up. But what I'd like to do is show you. This is free YouTube videos, yoga with Adrienne. You can do 10 minutes. You can do 26 minutes. You can do seven minutes. You can look at specific issues, yoga for beginners, lower back, upper back. This is the one that we were going to do. Neck, shoulders, and upper back. 10 minutes. So you can sweat. There are some that are going to make you sweat for weight loss. And there are some that are just going to relax you. Okay. So this is also on the resources page, yoga for risk takers. And she has a whole set of yoga sessions that are focused on the pandemic. Okay. So all of that yoga, the mindfulness that we've practiced to date is formal mindfulness, which means we've taken time out to do that. And so that needs to go on our to-do list. And it does take up some time. But many of us feel that we don't have a lot of time. But I'm here to say that there's research and there are mindfulness practices that you can do that don't take any time. Okay. Any time you're anchored and focused in the present moment and not dwelling in the past or lost in the what-ifs of the future, you're practicing mindfulness. Okay. So this is one way to do that, taking in the good, which is savoring. So looking for positive facts, which could be silver linings, right? And then let them become positive experiences. So whatever you're doing, and one of my favorite things to do is to walk. Just really savor it. And in the middle here, I say, feel it in your body and your emotions. So really immerse yourself in it. And it's one of my favorite things. So have the experience, that positive experience, soak into your brain and body. Okay. And I'm just going to show you an example of how you would do that. So here, one of my favorite places to be by the beach. And so if we're certainly we can be anchored by the sense of sound, right? Walking by, listening to the waves, even hearing the seagulls, then watching, a sense of sight, watching the waves as they crash on the rocks, watching them form, lay out, and gain momentum when they come closer. We think about being in the sand and feeling that sand between our toes and feeling the spray of the water. So that's the anchor of touch. And certainly one of the big things at the beach is the smell of salt in the air. And sometimes you can even taste the salt, right? So the next time you're, and this is what the deep sensory mindfulness, next time you're hiking or you're running or you're even in a beautiful garden, doesn't have to be around water. But I challenge you to, and we can maybe talk about this, to really just immerse yourself and bring your full focused attention into that moment and use all of your senses to really take in what's around you and be mindful in the moment. It's one of my therapies, definitely. Mindful eating is another thing that you don't have to schedule time because you have to eat anyway. And if you eat it in a very deep sensory, mindful way, using your sense of touch with the texture and the warmth or the cold of whatever the food is, the smell, the sound it makes when you bite into it, it can be a very mindful experience and you have to do it anyway, right? Here are some other things that you might have to do anyway, everyday mindfulness, washing the dishes, ironing, taking a shower. These are things that we can practice informally, our mindfulness, because we don't have to take time out to schedule it. We can, while we're cooking, cooking is a very sensorial, sensual experience. And if you're fully present there, instead of, you know, trying to get your kids to do their homework while you're also trying to get somebody to set the table, if you're just really fully present in that moment, then it's mindfulness. Okay. I think one of the other silver linings in all of this is for pets. They get us all day long and they probably get more walks than they're used to. And so if you can do that mindfully, really getting into the walk and experiencing it through your senses, but also experiencing it through your emotions and how that feels with your pets or any of this is mindfulness. Okay. Now we can debrief, process. Are there any questions that anybody has? Any thoughts? I guess I can stop sharing and we can let everybody unmute if people have questions or thoughts or comments. Paula, there was one. Actually, if you could repeat the quote from the Jesuit, people wanted to write that down. Oh, okay. I wrote that down somewhere. I can send it to you. Yeah, that would be great. And I will send it to everyone. Yeah. Yeah, that's a great quote. I wrote that down as well. Yeah. Great. Any other thoughts about your words, things that resonated with you, the mindfulness that you are going to try for yourself? Yes. One of my issues is I'm always in the moment. I don't think about the past. I dread the future and I'm stuck in the moment. And Dorothea, are you okay being there in the moment? Sure. Yeah, okay. Well, we do have to function in life, so we have to go to the next moment. But I don't think that's a bad place to be unless it starts being a problem. It's not a problem. Well, I take on a little too much work just to stay in the moment. I enjoy it. Yes. And I'm very blessed and happy to be teaching at my very tender age of 80. I feel like I'm still remotely. Wow. Great. I should retire, but I don't. Then I'll start crying. Yeah. Then I'll start saying, oh my God, what about the future? And with the future surrounding with the people we have in government now, I don't want to think about tomorrow. Yeah. Well, yeah. And that's why I think mindfulness is helpful, especially in this time, to stay in the moment and not let our minds go, what if, what if, you know, and the whole non-judgment piece is really important. Any other thoughts? What about people who had, did you have three different words that you wrote down? Can you hear me? Yes. Justine, we can hear you. No, this is Sally. Oh, Sally. Yeah. But that was Justine. Sorry. Justine, you want to go ahead? Oh, sure. I guess I had two words right away, warmth and calmness. And those, I think the calmness happened after the breathing, which I'm a full believer in. I do yoga and miss it terribly, you know, although I could do it online. I will try to do that with Adrienne. Yeah. But during the presentation, I was booted out of the meeting temporarily, and the finding silver lining section was not, I could not hear it or see it or anything. What would is the main point of that? The main, yeah, the main point is that in any dark time or moment where you think that there isn't anything good, you just have to look a little bit, and you'll be able to find it. It was as simple as that. So I don't know if anybody was able to come up with a silver lining when I, when we paused. Sally, did you, did you want to share? Yeah, I just was thinking yesterday, I've been home here as all of us have. And I am a teacher as well. And a friend of mine said, what have you been doing with your time off? And I, you know, I don't really have too much distance learning to do for the demographic that I teach. So it's been fairly easy, which gives me a lot of time to do nothing. And so I really felt inept. I said, I haven't been really doing much. But then I don't know if anyone has heard of Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way. It's a book came out in the 90s about rediscovering your creative self and all that. And she suggests writing three pages in the morning. And so I started it pretty much when we went into quarantine. And so I've been doing that. And I noticed that I have been looking at my garden and just really appreciating my surroundings. And if, you know, the old me, which is relatively a new old me says, so you're looking at the garden, you're not doing anything that's you have, you can't write that down, you know, but I'm just really enjoying my surroundings on tick walks. And I'm in the moment and noticing how pretty my yard is. And, you know, society says it's not enough to just sit and enjoy what you've reaped, you know. So I'm having to work on that, I find. Yes. Yes. And I think that mindfulness helps with that. But I've done research, I've selected data from my workshop participants. And overwhelmingly, they say their biggest takeaway from my mindfulness infused self care workshops is that self care is not selfish. Right. That it's not selfish, it's survival. And so, and especially, but always, especially now, but always, it's so important because you cannot serve from an empty cup. You know, the whole analogy with the face mask, the oxygen mask on the planes, you have to put your mask on first before you can help anyone else with their mask. That's self care. Right. I applaud you. Thank you. Well, I have a very beautiful, pavilion bush and wrote a dendrum to match. Nice, beautiful. Anyone else? Anyone else want to share anything? I would like to know what beach you're at. And I'd like to show you where I'm at, but I can't turn my screen on. Well, you, I'll just say that you can, you too can be at this beach because it's my virtual background, I think. I know. Well, mine is a little different. You're too bad you can't switch it on. It says that I'm not, I've not been allowed to join. Yeah, I don't have those controls right now. You don't have those? No. What about start video? I tried that. It says, you can't start your video because the host has stopped it. Ah, no one else can. So, I don't know. Who is that? And I will. That's Dorothea. Oh, Dorothea, hold on. Oh, she's, let's say, here we go. You can show us, I believe. Uh-oh. Well, we'll see. Give it a shot. Yeah, I'm in out of space. Yeah, that's great. But right behind me is Fairfield University. Yes, that's right. Well, that's where I am, so. I could tell if I tried the alumni house. That's right. That's right. Are there any other questions for Paula? I have a question. This is Roxanne speaking. Thank you so much for this helpful session. You're very welcome. I am immersing myself in the mindfulness practices, as you inspired me to continue on with my mindfulness and education. And as a mindfulness teacher, I'm concerned with our educators that you have in your group here. How can we help our students? Because we're all experiencing stress, high levels of stress, higher, I should say, higher levels of stress with the pandemic. And especially with students who are coming back to campus who may not feel safe. And our colleagues as well, how are we going to handle this? And what are these strategies that teachers and educators can model with their face to face students? And if we don't resume face to face, what can we do with our online students to help de-stress? You can do what I just did with you. I have class every week still virtually, and I do mindfulness before every class. And my students are definitely benefiting. My interns who are just graduating, they know that they have to take care of themselves. They've had three years of me drumming it into their heads that if they want an enduring career in education, they have to take care of themselves. Otherwise they're going to crash and burn. So it's very simple. It's just at the beginning of class, you saw the techniques. How many did we do in an hour? And it's very easy and there's so many resources out there. There's Smiling Mind, there's Mark. There are all kinds of things that you can just play and have them experience it. I know Marty does the same thing. We presented at an FDEC workshop together, and Marty does mindfulness with her students as well. Thank you. Yes, and my word was that self-compassion, that well-being, and we need to take care of ourselves as educators. Like you're saying, if we do this and model it to our students. Right. As educators, as moms, as sisters, as spouses, as partners, as everything. We owe it to ourselves. It's not selfish. It's really for the greater good. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. Anybody else? Yes. I used to start my health psychology seminar with Tai Chi meditation, because I've been doing Tai Chi for years. And at first they thought it was some kind of lunatic and I have them do it. It's about for 10 minutes. It's a three-hour class, and then I was in a rush one week to do something, and I didn't do that. And three of the students got up and complained, where's our meditation? So we did it forever. That's great. Yeah, it's people feel it right away. You know, people feel it right away, because it works. Tai Chi is just what everything you were talking about. Right, yeah, because it's mindful movement. Yeah, it's mindful movement. Even where your fingers are. And it keeps you in the moment. And it also helps with the no judgment, right, because our inner critics are very loud, and especially now, where who was it who was just talking about feeling like she shouldn't be out in her vacuum part? You know, why? Well, I'm sorry. Yes, it's true. I've never had any judgment. So yeah, my students like that. They really might not judging them. Yeah. Yeah. Well, or knowing that it's from a good place. And it's not that we're going to live these happy carefree lives all the time. It's just that whatever we encounter, we're going to be able to get through it with grace, with more grace, because because we're we're accepting of it and we're adjusting in the moment. And in that way, keeping our prefrontal cortex online, it doesn't have the same negative effects when as when those stress hormones are just pouring into our system. You know, kind of sometimes debilitating us. Any any other thoughts? Anybody? I don't know if these people are still here or they are. They are full. Okay. Does anybody have any anything that they they're going to take away that they didn't know already? Sometimes it's just a good reminder. But did anybody learn something new or have a renewed dedication to doing something? I was fascinated that you're a so into the meditation and the I wouldn't have thought that of you. Oh, really? From years ago, you were always a bit more manic and a little a little on the wild side. Wow. So go figure it. Yeah. Well, yeah. All the more reason to practice mindfulness, right? Paula, we have received so many thank yous on the chat. So I want to thank you as well. Namaste. Your presentation was so informative and relevant. I know we've all been able to take away techniques and insights, not only for the current situation, but for the future as well. So thank you. I thank you very much. It's always a pleasure for me to work with you. I just wanted to let everyone know that I think I put I put it in the chat as well. I will be we're recording this. So I will send a recording of this presentation to all of you. As a reminder, do visit www.fairfield.edu backslash alumni events. And you can learn about other online experiences throughout the university. And right now stags for stags, our strategic initiative is ongoing. And that's also detailed on our website. Thank you all for joining today. I look forward to seeing you all again, hopefully in person. But until then be well and stay safe. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. You're welcome.