WEBVTT

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As a social-work educator
and former practitioner,

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I'm interested in building
and maintaining

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the emotional and mental capacity

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of those who do the hard work
of helping others.

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Take, for instance,
a day in the life of a social worker.

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I'll call her Kerry.

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A typical day for Kerry
may start like this.

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In the morning, she checks her emails,

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and she's quickly interrupted

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because a client is in need
of emergency shelter.

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She handles the client situation

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and begins the application process

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for a grant that will fund
more beds for her agency.

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More beds means
more veterans off the streets,

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more single moms and their children
in a safe place to stay for the night.

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By midafternoon, she transitions
and settles into group therapy,

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where she hears the emotional content
and the stories of trauma and abuse

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of the women, who survived
domestic violence.

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She offers the skills
and interventions of a social worker,

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and she provides comfort
and empowerment to the women

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in order to get them
back up on their feet again.

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By the end of the day,

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she has seen many clients,

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she has heard many stories,

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and she's spent.

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She's emptied of herself.

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She's given over her skills
and interventions,

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time and resources,

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the best that she could give.

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It's a busy day. It's stressful.

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And many days are like this for Kerry

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and for social workers in general.

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In fact, social workers
suffer from burnout quite often.

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And though I realize
that not all of you are social workers -

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and I can't fathom why -

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(Laughter)

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but you often, probably,

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experience intense periods of stress
in your own life as well.

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So today, I want to talk to you
about an ancient practice

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that you can use to further extend
your capacity to deal with stress.

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It's called mindfulness.

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Mindfulness, in a short definition,

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is the ability to stay
in the present moment.

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In fact, it is the ability
to so focus your attention on the present

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that you're able to evaluate
your thoughts nonjudgmentally.

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I also want to share with you
three reasons why I believe

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mindfulness can extend and build
your capacity to take on pressures,

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especially as you do the hard work
of helping others.

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It can expand your ability
to take on stresses

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in a more healthy way.

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I came into mindfulness practice

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because I experienced
an intense period of stress in my life.

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I did not like the way I felt
when I had this stress,

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I did not like the way
I sounded to others,

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and I didn't like the way I reacted.

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Mindfulness gave me the tools
to be able to calm and be present

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and be able to evaluate

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how I was acting, how I was feeling,
how I was thinking.

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Take, for instance, this picture.

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It is a blurry something.

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This is how we feel
when we 're under a lot of stress:

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a blurry mess.

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Our thoughts jump from thought to thought,

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and we're out of focus.

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Our life feels chaotic and unclear.

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What mindfulness does

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is it helps us to step out
and zoom out of that blurry mess.

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Our life becomes more focused.

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Our thoughts start to come together.

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We're able to form a picture
of our lives more clearly again.

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The first reason why mindfulness
can extend and build your capacity

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to be able to help others,

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taking on their stress,

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is because it helps us
experience our stress differently.

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Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn
is a researcher from Massachusetts,

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and he was the first

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to westernize and secularize
the practice of mindfulness,

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as it comes originally
from Buddhist religious thought.

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Over eight weeks,

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he had patients who dealt with
chronic pain due to medical conditions

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practice mindfulness.

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And after the eight weeks,

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these patients reported a decrease in pain

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and a decrease in intensity
of that chronicity of pain;

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that pain, in general,
was not so front and center anymore.

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Now, nothing changed
in their medical condition,

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but their experience of pain did.

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In this ongoing study I'm a part of,

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I have created a six-week program

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that draws from Christian-based
mindfulness practices.

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I've asked these students to listen
to these modules that I've created,

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on their cellphones or their laptops,

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and report their levels of stress
before and after this mindfulness program.

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They reported lower levels of stress

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as well as increased levels
of mindfulness state.

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Their thoughts were more
centered and focused

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as a result of the mindfulness practice.

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Mindfulness allows us
to experience our stress differently.

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Things do not change.

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These students' lives were still impacted

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by the academic pressures
and their personal lives,

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but yet their experience of pain differed.

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This leads me to my second reason

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why mindfulness
can help you deal with stress:

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it helps you make better decisions.

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When we're assaulted with big situations

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where we need to carry
the responsibilities of crises

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or we need to just simply
make a step in the right direction,

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mindfulness can clarify our thoughts.

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Instead of a jumbled mess,

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we can prioritize our values,

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we can integrate whole parts of ourselves

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and act in a way that is congruent
with who we are.

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Congressman Tim Ryan from Ohio
understands this very well.

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As a policy maker,

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he understands good policy
requires a sharp mind and a warm heart.

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And in his work, he actually leads
mindfulness practices on Capitol Hill.

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Now just take a second
and imagine that for a moment:

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Republicans and Democrats
in the same room together

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in mindfulness bliss.

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It's a neat picture
and so needed in our times.

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Congressman Ryan uses mindfulness,

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and he spoke to Anderson Cooper
about this in a 60 Minutes episode

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and said it has helped him
prevent himself from burning out,

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that the stress and the pace
of policy making is intense,

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and it's given him the ability
to reach across the aisle

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and extend a hand to people
that he doesn't agree with

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in order to craft good policy,

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anticipating how
those policies will play out

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in the day to day lives
of people it will affect.

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You see, mindfulness allows us
to be more compassionate,

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to, instead of react, be more empathetic;

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instead of be in conflict,
be more collaborative;

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instead of be self-centered,
we're more self-aware.

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These are the gifts of mindfulness.

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And mindfulness
builds compassion for others,

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and as we anticipate the needs of others,

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our decisions are not
as focused on reaction,

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but we're able to anticipate
how those decisions play out,

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how they help or hinder
the healing process

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for society or organization
or for relationships.

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So do me a favor

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and do this exercise with me
for just a few moments

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so you can experience
what I'm talking about.

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Close your eyes

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and take three deep breaths in with me.

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Take your first breath in
and fill your lungs to capacity.

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Imagine that this air
is very clean and good and pure,

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and allow it to nourish your body,

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and exhale.

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Take your second deep breath in,

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and allow that breath to travel
through those tight parts of your body,

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maybe your gut or your shoulders
or your neck areas,

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where it's often tight.

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And relax.

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And exhale.

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And on your third breath,

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do the same and assign your breath
a color of purity.

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Allow that breath, again,
to travel to those tight places,

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soothe those sore spots,

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take in that relaxation.

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Exhale.

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Continue to breathe in this way
as I talk to you.

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There's nothing you need to do
right now except to breathe.

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There's nothing that is asked of you.

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There's no task to be completed,

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except for you to simply
just sit and breathe.

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You can put all the to-do lists away.

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You can let go of the worries of the day.

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Just sit and breathe.

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Thank you. You can open your eyes.

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I hope what this exercise showed you

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is just a little taste

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of what a mindfulness
exercise could do for you,

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especially as you confront
conflict or big situations

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or organizational places
where you need to make big decisions.

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You can take a step back
and breathe just for a moment

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and be present

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and be able to then renourish,
rejuvenate yourself

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before you confront that situation

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or before you need to make that decision.

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Because what happens in mindfulness,
as you sit in awareness,

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is the truth of reality
that starts to come to fruition,

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which is this:

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The past cannot be changed.

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The future cannot be forced.

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All we have is the present moment.

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And in that present moment,

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we can make the best decisions we can
in order to better the lives of others,

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but it takes some thought

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and it takes some congruence.

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It takes our ability

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to connect with our values
and the things that we hold dear.

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So you, hopefully, have experienced

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that breath is a foundation
of a mindfulness practice,

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which leads me
to the third and final reason

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why mindfulness can extend and expand
your ability to take on stress,

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especially as you help others,

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which is mindfulness fosters wellness.

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And what I mean by wellness

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is this ability to cope with stressors
in our lives and bounce back.

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In fact, mindfulness
is a tool of self-care.

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When we give of ourselves to a cause

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or we provide skills and interventions
that will make a change in healing,

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we need to rejuvenate
and we need to refresh the wells.

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Mindfulness allows us that space and time

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to refresh, to connect

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and to be able to access
all different parts of ourselves.

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In a 2014 study by Shonin,
Gordon and Griffiths,

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these researchers

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used a more religiously oriented
mindfulness-based practice -

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it was more faithful
to its Buddhist roots -

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and these researchers

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asked the participants how they felt
after this six-week program.

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One participant said
that they felt "cradled in comfort."

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In a study I conducted last year,

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I asked Christian psychotherapists
who used mindfulness-based therapies

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questions like,

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How did you feel using
this mindfulness-based therapy

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with your client?

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What worked? What didn't work?

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But they responded
in a very interesting way,

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and they said

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that they felt a presence of the divine
with them in that room

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as they work with their clients.

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In fact, that divine presence
assisted them;

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it was a source outside of themselves
that helped them in discernment,

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that helped them extend
the healing process.

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It helped further the work
that they did in healing their clients.

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These therapists understood

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that they could access
a part of themselves,

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a spiritual side that was accessed
through the practice of mindfulness.

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And when we can use spirituality,
our body responds.

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And when our body responds,
our mind responds.

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And when our mind responds,
our spiritual selves respond again,

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so forth and so on in a virtuous cycle.

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Mindfulness allows us to extend
the limits of our human capabilities

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by accessing all parts of ourselves.

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We don't have to compartmentalize
those different aspects;

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we can all work in unison
to confront a situation

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or to help us determine
what the next step is.

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Mindfulness fosters wellness

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because we're caring for ourselves
as we care for others.

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We use all spheres of our lives
to attack the problem.

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So if you're interested
in building a mindfulness practice,

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first start with your breath.

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Anchor your thoughts
with a passage or a quote.

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Take in the benefits of mindfulness.

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You will experience stress differently,

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you will make better decisions,

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and you will be fostering wellness
and an attitude of self-care.

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Breathe and be mindful.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)