 and welcome to The Creative Life, a collaborative production between the American Creativity Association, Austin Chapter, and Think Tech, Hawaii. I am your host, Darlene Boyd, and joining me today from Rancho Santa Margarita, California is Gia Anderson. Gia is a certified Pilates and mindfulness instructor specializing in restorative Pilates for functional movement and rehabilitation. For today's discussion, Gia and I will be giving attention to mindfulness and the role mindfulness plays in helping one to turn chaos into order in our daily lives. Gia, why is it so important to look at our chaos in our life and find a path or some exercises to bring us into some order? Yeah, that's a great question. It's super important because we can run on adrenaline all the time and our body is either in two spaces. We're either in fight or flight. So we're constantly running on cortisol or we're in rest and digest, which is turning on the parasympathetic nervous system. And so if we're always running in fight or flight, eventually we're going to burn out. And so either our body is going to take a break by we're going to get sick, or we're going to be able to take a pause for ourselves so that we can kind of take a little rest and digest ourselves, get into some mindfulness, maybe even meditation, take a pause so that we have more energy to do everything else that we need to do in our lives. Gia, help us out and perhaps help me out. When you mentioned cortisol, what is cortisol and how do we activate it or can we activate it too much? I do recall asking a professional saying, why is it that when you're giving a presentation and you get so wrapped up into it that you just feel you have all this energy and then once that's over, you certainly do feel a drag. So what can you tell us about cortisol? Yeah, so cortisol, we need cortisol. If you were in the middle of a jungle and a tiger were chasing you, you would need the energy to run away from the tiger. So it is excellent in a space of emergency. Automatically we will move to that cortisol and you've heard stories of moms that are able to lift a car off of their child who's stuck underneath a car, a big heavy thing. Where did that come from? Where did that energy come from? It came from the cortisol and that comes automatically, but we can always be running in that same space day to day. So we can be running on cortisol just because we're stressed, because we're overwhelmed. Maybe we've gotten too involved in our phones, so we're constantly clicking and moving from one app to the other and we make ourselves exhausted by having too much cortisol. So there is a good place for cortisol, but there's also a time for us to again move into that place of rest and digest so that we're not overstimulating our body and burning ourselves out. Because with too much cortisol, we can move into adrenal burnout, we can move into spaces where it's really unhealthy. So we're just trying to find that balance. How do we find that balance? So mindfulness is an excellent way, just being very aware of our physical body and noticing where we are. So being aware of our surroundings, noticing how we feel. So very often, we'll just race through a day and we won't even realize that we have tension in our shoulders. Maybe our shoulders are hunched up towards our ears or we're holding tension in our back or our neck. And then later on in the day, we'll say, oh my gosh, why is my neck so sore? Why is my back so sore? You're not even aware that we were actually holding tension in those spaces. And so by allowing ourselves to be aware, we can say, oh, my neck is tight. Can I take a pause? Can I breathe? Can I just breathe into that space, allow myself to become calm, open those muscles up so that then I can move forward through my day and have more energy. I can be at an even keel as opposed to being in that fight or flight. So we're not exhausted, we're not overstimulated, we're right in between. And a lot of people will add caffeine into that. So they'll take caffeine, which again is going to give you cortisol, but in a false way. So we're now overstimulating and then we're going to crash. Eventually, we're going to come into that burnout. And our discussion, and our discussion as we move along here, we're going to touch on the formulas for both physical and mental stress relief techniques. And I assume that it's important for us to find a balance between the mental and the physical. Can you talk a little bit about that? Sure. Yeah, for sure. So the mental, we can over strain ourselves by just taking in too much information. So our phones are wonderful. It's an excellent tool. But unfortunately, our bodies and our minds are not made for taking in that much information. It's information overload. I mean, you could spend hours on end on your phone, just scrolling through or social media, and you're taking in so much that it actually gives you a false energy. And so we actually are more awake and you've heard of people that have sat on their phones and then all of a sudden it's three in the morning and they're like, how did I end up at three in the morning? I thought I started at seven o'clock at night and all this time and that happens very often. And then that will exhaust us physically. So we'll physically become exhausted and then there is no balance. Now at this point, now we crash, we fall asleep, maybe we sleep in. It creates a repetitive cycle and it just continues until we can take that pause and we can allow ourselves just a walk in nature, something that kind of give us a time out so we can have a change of scenery. So we can allow ourselves to move out of the space that we're in, to move into a different environment. And they've actually done studies where people who walk in nature, just getting outside away from fluorescent lights, away from the blue light from their screen, they've actually reduced their cortisol levels just by walking in nature. You don't even have to be at the ocean or any elaborate place, wherever you live in the country, even if you're in New York City, you could actually walk in Central Park. You're just getting outside, being with nature, being with plants, animals, whatever, just being outdoors will really help to reduce that cortisol and bring us into that state of balance. When you just mentioned the idea and the concept of nature saying you don't really have to be in extreme natural setting. So is just getting into daylight, is that an improvement? Is that part of the umbrella of nature? Yeah, I mean, they've actually had people have actually helped themselves with jet lag, being able to be out in the sun. That is super helpful. I think being in nature itself though, just getting away from like the cars, the noise, all that is has a far greater effect on the body and on the mind than just getting in the sunlight. That would definitely help. If you only had a break for a couple of minutes, I would say, definitely go out into the sun, get sunlight on your face. It's going to warm you. It's going to allow you to feel calm. So it's going to bring you back into that rest and digest, allow the parasympathetic nervous system to turn on and move away from that fight or flight, that constant cortisol release. So it's definitely going to help. But I would say being in nature where you could be around plants or even if you're in winter, being outside in snowshoeing or cross country skiing, it doesn't matter. But just being outdoors is super helpful. Gia, as you're talking, I'm thinking that when you're coming to us from Rancho Santa Margarita, and every time I say Rancho Santa Margarita, I find that is a verbal cue for at least a little hint of relaxation. I just think that's such a pretty name and just the words imply these kind of niceties that make me want to go outside. So what kind of verbal cues do take us to a nice place? So a lot of times when I'm teaching my students, I will prompt them to move into what we call the safe space or it's like a guided meditation, but allowing them to be the controller of that. So saying, where's your favorite space in nature? Where would you like to go? Because everyone's different. Like what can be the favorite space for me might be a completely different space for someone else. Someone might love to be at the ocean, while someone else might want to be in the mountains. And so that verbal cue of where would you, where's your favorite place? Where do you want to go? Where could you rest? Where could you find that safe space where you're not responsible for anyone or to anyone, you could just move into the space in your mind. And it's amazing how just mentally moving into that space will allow the cortisol again to reduce and move you into that space of comfort and peace. And so you can even do it yourself. Anyone can say, you know, okay, where's my safe space? And so for some people it's in their own home. They can, there's comfortable space in their backyard. They have a hammock where they can just rest. And so knowing that you have that escape takes you away from stress. And that's super important because we don't want to always be living in stress because our bodies aren't made to live in that kind of stress. If we were, most of us probably wouldn't have a very long life span because we would cut our life short. It takes too much pressure on our organs, especially our heart and our lungs that we breathe. And so it's super important to find that balance. So finding that space. So the strategies that you that you're bringing us today in our discussion certainly seem like a more natural and perhaps, and we're not necessarily medical professionals so that we don't have the expertise or really the right to express that we do. But it would seem to me that physical exercise to eliminate stress is much better than when people do have panic attacks or anxiety, simple anxiety, I'm thinking of now, they go to a doctor and there'll be a suggestion for a mild prescriptive remedy for that. So am I safe to think or to say that before taking that route, perhaps one should develop some program of exercise, whether it be Pilates, that's an area of your expertise, or just simple workout procedures, what's your thought? Oh yeah, for sure. So even even running, even taking a gentle jog, even if you're not a runner, you're a reducing or you're releasing endorphins that are feel good. So you're going to get that feel good high. That's when many times you'll hear runners say, oh, I get the runners high because you're outdoors again, you're moving the body and that is going to give you the endorphins that you need to make you feel good. Same with stretching. So simple stretches, again, if we're holding tension in our body, and we're able to stretch the body, we're able to move into a place of calm, the muscles will not be able to stretch if we're in a tight space. So it's just like a piece of taffy, if you had a piece of a cold taffy and we went to bend it, it would break in half. But if it was warm, we would be able to move it really, really long. And it's the same with our muscles. When we're stressed, our muscles are tight and tense. And so they're not going to be very pliable. But when we're able to warm those muscles, and that could be from some breathing, you know, moving the muscles really, really long, creating that calmness in the body, same kind of endorphins, a little bit different than when you're running, it's more of a calming feeling, you know, separating you. And it also allows you to move into a transition. So if you were moving, you were working in an office and it were very stressful for seven, eight hours, and you just rush home and then you move on to the next activity, there's no transition in between. And so taking that transition is super important in stretching is a good one. Breathing exercises are another something that's going to transition you from one activity to the next. And that's where the phones have kind of given up, given us a little bit of attention deficit a little bit because we're moving from one, one thing to the next, and it's constant, and that's, our brains are overloaded. So when we take the pause, it's just a pause, a simple pause, okay, now I'm transitioning to the next, the next activity, the next movement, what am I doing next, then you're able to allow everything to become calm. You're moving effortlessly at that point, you're not tense and tight, you're able to make good decisions when we're stressed, we're not going to make great decisions. I mean, most of the time when there's a car accidents, because someone is stressed, right, they're, they're gripping their, their wheel, something happens, they're not paying attention. So same thing, we don't want to make mistakes, we want to be able to be calm and have an even killed mind and be able to make good decisions. And by allowing ourselves to physically be in a calm space, then mentally that will follow. So whatever mind is very powerful, it can tell the body what to do. And so we can allow ourselves that transition, we can allow ourselves to move into that safe space. In the, in the case that someone, it sounds like, sounds to me that you don't necessarily have to have a gym membership to, to the physical activities, perhaps a professional such as yourself could help with setting up the program. But then once it could be done at home, am I correct in this? Oh yeah, for sure. I mean, anything just even just simple, simple stretches you can do at home. I mean, we have such a plethora of information even on YouTube. There's so many things that you can do, simple things that would just help your body walking, just walking around the block. It's amazing how, and you've heard many people, even psychologists, who have said, okay, when you're angry, don't immediately react in a fight, take a pause, take a walk outdoors, walk around the block and come back. And then your mind is calm. You can make a better decision on how you're going to react to that situation. If we need your react all the time, we're in chaos. And we really want to try to move away from that chaos because it doesn't, it doesn't be unwell for anyone. We're not going to have good response. So it's super important that we do allow ourselves that pause. And yes, it's very easy to get any, any kind of exercise. I mean, you could do jumping jacks at your home, you can do anything very simply without having any equipment. A light set of weights is what I would always recommend to someone because it's easy. It's simple. It's something that you can do, you know, anywhere. I think it was just, just a personal comment here. And both of us are, are, are coming to our viewers and listeners from California. So during COVID, for that length of time, we did have an advantage that we generally have nice weather. So it was just, it was, it was fascinating to see how many more people you look out your window and there'd be people constantly, a constant stream of people walking. But now that that's behind us, that, that stream of people, perhaps they've gone on to other parks and things like that to do their walking, but you don't see as many people as we did during, during that tough time that we had. So at this point, let's, how about we move from our reference to physical activities and come up with some practical mental stress relief approaches. And maybe you could help start out by helping us to understand the distinction between mindfulness and meditation. That is if there is a true distinction. So are they, are they the same? Do they interface? What's your thoughts on that? Yeah, so meditation is a practice really. And there's many, many ways to meditate for me personally. I pray on the rosary. And so being a Christian, you use both parts of your brain. So you use one part of your brain to meditate on the life of Christ. And the other, we're saying a repetitive prayer. And that's a very ancient way of praying. And you're also using beads. You're touching the beads as you move through. So by the time you get to 52, you've already moved yourself into a completely different state. Other people have used mala beads. People have meditated on a candle. So they've taken a candle and just focused on that one flame. And so you're just focusing your eyes and your awareness on that flame. You're watching the flame. And at the same time, when we're truly focused, and we allow our mind to be focused on one point, that automatically will send messages to the nervous system to become calm. And so mindful, our meditation is a practice where mindfulness is an awareness. So we're thinking of, I'm very mindful that right now my shoulders are up towards my ears because I'm holding tension, right? And so I can mindfully say, I'm going to roll my shoulders down and back, I'm going to create space, I'm going to breathe a little deeper. And so there's a definite distinction between mindfulness and meditation, one being a practice, and one being just an awareness. That's very helpful. It's interesting, too, that you brought up a question that I was going to ask you. And that was related to not to focus on anyone's faith or religion, but rather to focus on some commonalities that we see across faith. And you mentioned the historical connection also. So there are many faiths that do use beads in some manner, not just Christians. But I had a question to ask you related to, is it just the tactile idea? Do you think of having something in your hand? Or is it the movement from bead to bead versus trying to get into a more calming state without using beads? So yeah, I mean, you don't have to have an actual physical rosary in your hand to pray the rosary. If you have 10 fingers, you can pray a decade of rosary. So you really don't, you can just touch your thumb. And so you don't necessarily need it. But there is something very calming about touching each bead. It keeps you in line so you know which prayer to say next. But also, there is a tactile piece to that that creates safety, right? It's where you mentioned earlier, which I thought was really interesting about people who go into panic. One of the first things that we do when someone goes into panic is make them aware of things around them. What can you touch? What can you smell? What can you see? And so that also will bring you away from panic into a place of safety by holding, for example, a rosary and pressing into each one of the beads because it's physical. So we're physically now in a different space because technically, if you're in a panic, your repetitive thoughts are swirling. And you're in that fight or fight, but you can't get off the wheel. So you're continuing to repeat those same thoughts over and over and it's usually a thought of worry. And so when we're touching something, we're very consciously aware of the calmness of it. We're moving from one to the next. And so it's creating a pattern and a rhythm. And that's why you may notice like a little baby, if you put a baby in a swing, it will most likely fall asleep and take a nap. That's why they have those automatic swings that you just put them on. So same thing as adults, we need that same kind of repetitive pattern because it creates a feeling of calm. It calms the nervous system, lets us get settled. And so touching the beads will do the same thing. We're just touching the beads each one after the other. And it's giving us a feeling of calm. It's allowing us that feeling of peace, which most of us are looking for. In the few minutes that remain, I know you mentioned that you would take us through a very brief breathing exercise. And before we do that, I know so many of us probably have, we want to relax, but yet we have, as you say, all the technology. So we have our watches that will call us every so many minutes to say, time for mindfulness, time to breathe. So they're handy tools, correct? I suppose. Yeah, they're definitely handy tools, but there also can be a nuisance because who wants to be reminded that you have to meditate, right? I mean, you feel aware enough to know, okay, I'm feeling tension, I'm ready to move into a place of calm, but they're good. If you can handle that, if your nervous system can handle the reminder and some of us need that, it's great. But if you, if it's over stimulating for you, definitely turn those, those things off and just have a gentle self reminder because it's much healthier if we can remind ourselves. And again, that moves us into a place of mindfulness where we're mentally aware of what's happening in our body ourselves without having technology remind us. Sure. All right. Why don't you take us through a brief, very brief, abbreviated breathing session. And then when we come back, when we complete that, we'll talk a little bit about oils perhaps, and the other relaxing strategies there. Okay, great. So I'm just going to have everyone, anyone who's watching just sit nice and comfortably and we're going to keep the spine nice and tall. And then go ahead and tuck your chin down slightly so that you just can create open space through the collarbones. And then you can close your eyes. And then I'll guide you through. So just envision a smile across your collarbone. We're going to go ahead and take each hand on the side of your ribs. So the widest part of your ribs. And as you inhale, I want you to inhale nice and deep into the nose and then expand the rib cage wide. So feel the rib cage press into your hands and then knit the ribs together, pull them up and in. So again, deep breath in through the nose, expand the rib cage wide. And then exhale, release all the breath out. And one more time, take a deep breath. And as we fill the bottom of the lungs with air, again, feel that rib cage expand outward. And then slowly release that breath. Shifting that right hand onto your belly and the left hand onto your back. And then we're going to expand the belly in the back. So feel the hand that's in front. Feel that belly button press into your hand. And then feel your back body press into the back of the bone. So now we're breathing in a different plane of motion. So we're breathing all the way into the punch in the back. And then as you exhale, pull and knit the ribs together, pull them up and in, envisioning it like a zipper from the belly all the way up towards the heart. And let's do that one more time. So nice deep breath in through the nose, expanding the belly and the back body into your hands. And then hitting the ribs together, pull them up and in. Take a nice big sigh. And then place both hands on your belly and envision a blowfish. So 365 degree breath. So breathing all the way through the belly, the side body in the back. And just start to notice all the thoughts float away. Just like a paper boat that rolls across the stream. We'll notice that boat roll across. We don't stop it. We don't change it. We just notice that boat rolling across. And then notice your shoulders rolling down and back. Notice a coolness across your forehead. And a warmth across your belly. And a feeling of relaxation in your feet. Coolness across the forehead. A warmth across your belly. And relaxation in your feet. And then notice the clearness in your mind. Notice the relaxation in the body. And allow this to be a pause or reboot from your busy day. And then just start to very gently wiggle the fingers and wiggle the toes knowing that when we come out of this very easy simple meditation, we'll come back feeling more alert and more refreshed and walk home. And then just gently allow your eyes to flutter open and bring yourself back into the space that you're in. Yeah, it's amazing that, of course, trying to do the exercise with you as you're presenting it here. But at the same time watching the box and realize I'm coming to the end. But I still felt, I still feel a difference. And there are times that I do practice a simple meditation, but probably not enough. We do have just a few minutes remaining, but I would like you to talk to us a little bit about oils. Yeah, essential oils are amazing way for you to move away from stress. So that's another great transition. So lavender, any kind of citrus oils. So lavender is very calming. So you can take oils in your hands, you can rub your hands together, take your hands in front of your face and take a few deep breaths. And that will move that scent into the limbic part of the brain. And that gives a message for the nervous system to come calm. So again, it's another tool for you to use so that you can get nice and calm. And citrus oils will bring on a feeling of joy. So if you're ever in a funk and you're feeling down, that's another great one to use. So lavender will bring you calm, citrus will uplift you. But any type of oils that you can use that just kind of bring you into a different space is super helpful. I don't know if our viewers have noticed, but there's several products or advertisements that come across with lavender for pets. Pets might be anxious. And it works for people too. Yeah, it works for us as people too. And you can even grab if you have lavender, if you're lucky enough to grow lavender, just taking the lavender and smelling the natural plant is amazing because it's all about nature. But yeah, definitely using these natural modalities just to kind of help us come into that state of calm and just helping us cope, right? Because life is hard, there's a lot of tension, a lot of stress is coming at us. But when we can use these tools, it will allow us to be able to cope better. So we can be stronger and healthier people both mentally and physically. And then I think we both have come across people that really truly believe in music combined with the meditation. Yeah. Sometimes the reference being new age music or do you have any thoughts or suggestions? It doesn't have to be new age. I think classical music is about because it's classical, right? It's classical, it's ancient, it's historic, and it's it's calming. But notice how you feel when you listen to classical music. Many times, doctors will tell pregnant women to put the earbuds or the earphones on their belly when they're pregnant so that the bees can get used to hearing that classical music. And so that would be my recommendation. It doesn't have to be any specific type, but classical is always really good. Sounds good to me. Well, Gia, we've come to the end of a very informative session with you. And I think we have have learned a lot more and have been encouraged to try some of the very simple strategies that you suggest. And with that, we've completed another adventure with The Creative Life on Think Tech, Hawaii. And I would encourage our viewers to join us again in two weeks when our co-host Phyllis, please, will be with you to present another adventure in the mind and practice of creativity. And with that, I say aloha to you, Gia, and aloha to our viewers.