 Hi, good afternoon, Highline College. Joshua Magallanes here, probably for some of you a familiar face if you're a part of Puente or have been at the college for a few years as a staff or faculty member and as students, you are pride and joy and we are so excited to be able to share some helpful presentations via webinar style so that we can help you get through the homestretch and help you cross that finish line in June, whether it be completing your first year here at Highline or if you're graduating and going on to the next step, whatever that may be, maybe it's into the workforce or maybe it's to a university or college where you'll be continuing your studies and so this is an exciting time for everyone. I also want to acknowledge that the land that we are virtually on today and at Highline and the surrounding areas is on sacred ground and so I want to acknowledge that and the people that lived here and whose land we are occupying today before the sellers took this land away so I want to acknowledge that and also want to acknowledge my indigenous side, my Apache side as I come from Arizona and I bring them and my ancestors whose shoulders I've stood on to be here with you today. Today I'm going to talk a little bit about anxiety and probably at this point we're feeling overwhelmed and probably all zoomed out as the title says and so we're going to have a little fun with anxiety. If you've heard me speak before that's kind of the name of the game. I'm very informal but I like to give good nuggets, good pieces of information that are tangible, items that we can take further with us, use in our everyday life so they're things that we can remember. I'm going to talk a little bit about priming the pump and start idea and what that looks like especially when we're trying to curb anxiety. I'm going to also talk about time tasks. When we think about anxiety we think about how we can't control the future or what is coming down the bike and so I'm going to talk about those things and I'm also going to talk about behavior because behavior really drives our anxiety and our outcomes and so when we can have or gain some self-awareness and acknowledge what that is and what that looks like we can then start to reframe really how we react to certain situations. You heard earlier from Nicole who gave a great introduction to mental wellness and mental health and what that looks like and especially as we're in a pandemic currently right a lot of stigma stems from folks maybe not knowing the ins and outs of mental health and what mental wellness looks like and therefore we jump to conclusions and so probably as you started listening to news and hearing more information about COVID-19 and the coronavirus you started to feel a little nervous. I know I was probably one of those late folks to sign on to that anxiety because I had to go into crisis mode and so as a therapist when I go into crisis mode I go into what does everybody else need and then look in to see what I need and as I went through that journey and that experience I had to realize that I also too was experiencing a lot of anxious sensation and feeling and emotions around fear and it finally came to a head when I was able to have a zoom session with my family and one of the things we talked about was how we've not seen each other in some time. I'm again from Arizona so I've got a brother who lives in the town I grew up in of San Manuel and my mother who now lives in Tucson Arizona along with my other two siblings one who lives in Detroit Michigan and at the time they were really on the rise in terms of their numbers and individuals who were contracting the the COVID-19 virus and then my other brother my youngest brother Mario who lives in Federal Way so some support here however our conversation moving and growing and as we started to talk and and folks fell off if you will the Zoom meeting or happy hour that we had and it ended up just being the four of us myself and my three other siblings we were able to have a deep conversation and we were able to talk about what COVID-19 and the coronavirus really meant for us individually. Now this is a conversation with three excuse me four men who when we think about society right and how society views men these are conversations that we typically don't go into and so for me this was exciting to engage in conversation with them however I was also anxious because I didn't know what that outcome was going to be like I didn't know if my brothers were going to want to engage in a conversation I didn't know if they were going to want to dive deep into what sensations they were feeling around fear or angst or anxiety however by the end of the conversation we had all come to a pretty close consensus that we were all pretty fearful fearful of our mom's health hoping that she stays safe and also for ourselves and our families and that they all stay safe out of the four of us two of my brothers were actually deemed essential workers meaning their states respectively as Arizona and Michigan sent them a letter saying that their jobs were essential enough that they needed to attend work daily and so we began to think and I began to think about how that would affect me and how that would really move from what I knew was what was to this new space and I don't like to use the term new normal because especially in the therapeutic nexus and the environment right nothing really is normal and we don't want it to be normal we want to be able to have some growth and have that growth edge move and so for me I went through this list of bullet points internally and also with my younger brother Mario we talked about like what is normal and common right and so for he and I normal for us is like looking at this situation and then kind of filtering through well what are the things that I can hold on to and what are the things that I should really let go of right so what do I have control over versus what do I not have control over and what is common right and so for a common parts of anxiety right people will feel fear our older two brothers for the first time since we had known really shared that they were fearful for their life they were fearful for their family and didn't know what it was going to look like in fact one of my brothers shared out right that he was worried because he was actually the supervisor who had to decide whether or not his employees would stay at work or have to go home based on a temperature read now he's an electrician therefore he's not in public health or any allied health field and so that increased his levels of anxiety right therefore in that moment really unable to manage or in that moment really treat what he was feeling however on our end as a therapist I know that those are manageable and treatable one of the things we also had to look at is like is anxiety is adaptive right and so it helps us deal with real danger to perform at our best you're exactly right so when we think about folks who have endured mental health trauma anxiety a breakup loss grief the list goes on times like this where we have to shelter at home or isolate in from everyone else it's kind of like dress rehearsal and then they get to go on stage because they're kind of ready for this they have practiced their whole life depressing or being in an anxious and so times like this are actually very easy for folks to get into however it can sometimes over defend ourselves right anxiety will take us so far in that we will isolate even from ourselves meaning we will not reach out to individuals and not acknowledge what is going on internally for us and so I think it's important we're going to talk about that today and when we're over activated right this idea about anxiety really over protecting ourselves from either impending doom or what might come about so perception plays a big role in how we think around anxiety right we think we're in danger inevitably when the virus was in introduced to us and in highlight we began to think about how will we function and how will we operate academics at an institution of higher education will we stay open and will we close right we started to think wow what what where does that place me am I in danger as a staff person am I in danger as a student right and so we want to make sure that we start to tease out what is real right versus this idea of perceived danger right someone who might be at war an active war and battle I would say that that probably is danger it's not perceived it is reality um anxiety can also be generalized right which is usually felt most of the time or situational um many people feel some sense of anxiety no matter what exercise you're doing maybe you're starting a new sport or you're moving to a new town or starting a new job those are natural typical ways of being in the world um situationally because we know that we will get through them right so tests for example studying for an exam meeting with a faculty professor um or a counselor or even our president right that can increase our levels of anxiety um and then therefore uh we will perform less right so many times the chemicals in our body don't allow us to think as clearly because our body is in this idea of chronic stress which adds to our anxiety I think it's also important that we talk about environmental factors you know a few years ago is well each election year right we are thinking about like who is going to be the candidate that will win the race and what will they bring to our individual states and also as a nation right also when we think about the microaggress events right as marginalized groups and the stigma that comes around how we are perceived in the world is very important to pay attention to because that will also increase our levels of anxiety now what we do is we go into this idea of fight flight or freeze response right fear and anxiety will take us to this place where we will fight meaning we're going to go against the grain we're going to defend up or we're going to run right and typically it's usually running or pulling back from danger right sometimes it's better to even freeze right sometimes we've got to stay put until danger passes right I gave the example about war sometimes we've got to stay hidden or if there were a natural disaster like a tornado or an earthquake or whatnot right staying put staying shelter or in this pandemic sheltering in place until it is safe enough to socialize or be out in public is wise the things that are usually not as helpful right are snapping at people which is also a natural response because if we're in a chronic level of stress right we're not just feeling anxiety but we're starting to feel sad we're starting to feel alone right um we're also not thinking is clear therefore I'm not thinking wow what is this person really sharing and am I listening for understanding or am I listening to respond right to snap at people the other thing is to fly and to flee right possibly avoiding an interview um avoiding a heavy conversation with a roommate or a loved one or a teacher those are examples that may not be helpful right and then I go into that area of freezing up because we're not thinking as clear as possible and when we get into those areas the not so helpful ways of being right it disturbs a lot of areas right obviously our increase in anxiety it's going to disturb our sleep which then is like a cycle and circles around back to us not being able to perform at school in our classes or if you're having to work at work better when we started the shelter at home and everything moved to online I am a counselor and professor at Highline and I also have a private practice and so I had to really adapt to this new way of being and so I was having to think right from a business model how do I market and how do I still see my clients and how do I teach and how do I show up for my students in a way that is supportive and useful physical symptoms also come into play because when our anxiety and our stress levels are increased guess what happens our increase of heart rate we start to breathe heavier many of you probably thought early on wait a minute that's one of the symptoms of COVID and maybe I have the coronavirus but what it was as it was our body telling us we are stressed out we're anxious we sometimes start to sweat our immune system drops we start to catch colds we start to ache numbness you know one of the things I talk about is in terms of being active or exercising right my first time out of the gate exercising while we were in the stay at home order it took me a lot longer to get going because my body wasn't used to that my body had isolated so far away from what I was used to doing that it took me a while to act back up dry mouth and digestive issues and so that's why we want to make sure that we're eating well we're getting good sleep we're staying connected that we are exercising right because naturally what we do is we get tired we get irritable we're not able to concentrate sometimes our short-term memory loss will be affected as well I think early on many of us as we move to meetings that were online and classes that were online we would forget possibly to turn on discussion groups via zoom canvas or that we were to call somebody back on the phone because we're thinking about so many things rather than acknowledging whoa josh you're taking on too much slow down and refocus right we jump into these thoughts that are anxious right usually our mind races and some of you probably felt that right uh maybe you're taking two or three courses and thinking how am I going to navigate my studying habits and how am I going to tackle my quarter now that everything is online and I've got due dates that maybe overlap with one another or that are on the same day and we also behave as the last slide showed in this way of avoiding right so avoidance really starts to pop up and procrastination comes into play here and and and we want to make sure that we're managing that and acknowledging this what we can do to counter this right is this idea around mindfulness meditation movement music and more of the ends it's like the five m's which I love um and uh Nicole is wonderful she shared a lot of this information with me and so I'm using this so thank you Nicole uh for providing some of uh this background information for me but we want to make sure that we're being mindful of what we're doing so not necessarily a meditation in way of um being silent or being mindful in ways of just breathing but being mindful in with intention how are we showing up versus how do we want to show up right and so when we think about that pump start way of being right we want to look at things in small tasks be mindfulness about calming ourselves right like what is it that I can do today how can I come into myself for a moment and acknowledge what are the things that are most important and prioritize those right you can do those uh by doodling you can do them via yoga uh deep breathing uh in the morning when we wake up I journal and so I journal things that I'm happy or grateful or great three things of gratitude right and so but I also talk about to myself yes uh what do I have to do for the day I also want to think about when we're being mindful and we're meditating right and thinking about with intention um how can I reward myself what are the ways in which through meditation which should be intentional that I can reward myself maybe we're thinking about a walk we want to take later on or maybe we're thinking about homework or studying or the laundry or dishes that we need to complete what can I do to reward myself right maybe if I accomplish 30 minutes of studying then for the next 30 or 45 minutes I can talk on the phone I can play xbox I can go for a walk or a run right and so if we're doing those things we're we're both giving to ourselves both in a healthy way and we're also doing some belonging right we're connecting with folks the earth and the people around us we want to get moving folks um anxiety right when we are feeling anxious we're not paying attention to uh our slow and fast twitch muscles that are in the body uh exercise typically and I say typically because um exercise and movement doesn't work for everybody uh I happen to be one of those individuals who if I'm feeling very anxious and I'm feeling very nervous or stressed about something working out will actually increase my anxiety so you have to pay attention to what work our bodies are made to move and need to uh we talk about all the time that if we stay sedentary right our bodies then start to degenerate and exercise right exercise is medicine or medicine is exercise however you want to say it it does it increases it increases endorphins which help us um in the anti-aging process it also helps get our body functional again helps our joints move increases um muscle movement and you know exercise doesn't have to be horrible it can be fun you can dance uh I hosted a happy hour uh couple weeks ago and one of the things I did is I had an opportunity to play music and allowed it to go into everyone's zoom room and we danced for two and a half hours I don't know what's better cardio than that and TikTok I know people are laughing and creating all these interesting TikTok videos but it's actually very helpful you're watching people who are excited and happy you're learning dance moves you're practicing them which is the which is getting the body up and moving this uh this picture here um around what is on our playlist right is is super important and there are so many ways that we can take a break if you've got a pet pick them up play with them they are very therapeutic um go for a run if you're a runner and if you're not remember running doesn't have to be perfect I'm not a runner and so if I am trying to have a goal of running 23 miles maybe I should lessen that goal and maybe say you know what I'm gonna run two mission accomplished take a nap listen to music one of the things I also share with folks is that while you're walking or being in nature try not to have your headphones on because what that does is it takes us away from being present i.e going back to being mindful and being intentional about our walks start to figure out how to manage our stress acknowledge some of the things that are working what is in our control versus what is out of our control right I love the second bullet point around establishing worry times and using distractions can also be helpful right so give yourself an opportunity to worry about something do you want to worry about your exam right before probably not but maybe the day before give yourself five minutes to actually say wow I am really worried about this exam I don't know how I'm going to do on it and then you can reframe that to saying you know what I don't know how I'm going to do on that exam but I'm going to do the best that I can or I'm going to show up today and be the best that I can today right so managing expectations there's many websites and apps that can help with some of these things ambient noise create your own soundscape drawing there's one I think that I use I can't remember the name of it right now but you can color mandalas and it's like paint by numbers which is super dope and so amazing and so there's even mindfulness for kids and things to do there so and also bilingual I love this idea this also comes from Nicole around when life feels messy right think about this in a messy way which is not necessarily always bad right like move your body get moving eat right many times too what we go into is this idea that because I'm sitting around I'm going to eat horrible foods and and then not be this perfect individual we need to to fuel the body and then we need to sleep to rest seek community right if we're feeling stressed or anxious I have many friends and people in my community that I reach out to and people that reach out to me as a check-in and express yourself use Facebook use Instagram ways to still post beautiful photos I was sitting at alki beach a couple of days ago by myself eating tacos from a food truck because I was craving some good fish tacos and I was sitting there and I was looking at the sunset and I snapped a photo because it was beautiful and I posted it and I said staying patient taking a deep breath listen to yourself right what messages am I telling myself are they true or are they perceived truths right what does my body need in this moment lately it's been needing exercise and it's also been needing more food protein rich food greens because I'm working out more and how am I showing myself love and that can be done in so many different ways we also want to engage in self-compassion and I do a lot of Facebook live segments and my next segment is going to be about finding this perfectly in perfect self because this idea that we want to be something better than we want to have a deeper banking account we want to have a bigger home we want to get straight A's we want to have a better job a better body hair exactly and really building in some self-compassion and self-love and saying you know what I have really good things I have really good fill in the blank I love this we talk about this many times and sometimes in joking thank you Oprah for this in her best things TV show or she would say you get a computer and you get a computer but you know what you get a gift you get a gift and you get a gift we have to be responsible and we have to be intentional when we're giving ourselves those gifts and finally if it becomes too much come see us visit us you can call us as Nicole mentioned Aisha and Vince take your calls if we were in person and we miss you all and are sending out wonderful vibes to you all we would be in the upper level of building six and we're now offering our sessions via zoom so we would love to see you and I know it's challenging sometimes to show us you and it is very in many ways traumatic to let people into our homes one of the things I share with my clients is that I'm also sharing my home with you too and I want to make connection and so with that I will end and I enjoy being here with you all and I look forward to answering any questions you might have so again if you've got questions or even just thoughts or comments maybe there's some useful techniques that you might use in your everyday living around anxiety post them up on the Q&A remember we're not all the experts in fact we are the experts of our own self our own body and so please share up any information you might have or questions you might have yeah one of the things this question I believe comes from a staff individual they say that they become a workaholic now that we are in a stay-at-home environment and doing more work probably online of zoom and via the internet and somehow the lines between our boundaries are being blurred and I think that's a very real thing so I think acknowledging one is very important to acknowledge wow wait a minute this isn't how I used to work before and so what changed how come I'm letting myself let my boundary fall so building awareness and acknowledging that is key right we want to make sure that we're saying hey I'm doing something and I need to acknowledge that and I want to share it right the other thing is how are ways that we can work better so even if it's hard to change right away from that boundary setting or being that workaholic and doing more than we can some things that come to mind for me is that when the workday ends the workday ends my work will be there tomorrow it will be there later tonight so you can always go back to it the other thing we can do because we're mostly online now is we can break throughout the day right so take small breaks work in small increments one of the things I do is I grade for a little bit then get up and walk around grab some water grab a snack if I get an hour lunch one of the things I'm doing right now is I'm also attending a conference and we get an hour break in between I'm using that to get up and get outside it's beautiful and so I want to take a walk or maybe I'll put on rollerblades whatever the case may be and so I would recommend those things but when we bring awareness to some of the habits that we're picking up it's a lot easier for us to undo those habits thank you that's a great question well it's just about one o'clock so I don't want us to run over but please if you have more questions and if they need to be directed individually to any of us then yeah we can we can answer those individually so all our emails are online as well so have a wonderful day Highline thank you for sharing space and have a great weekend