0:04

Right. I'm super excited to be here with you all today, depending on what time of day it is morning or afternoon. It's really fantastic to be here with you today. So we're going to talk about how to prioritize your wellness during the hustle of the holiday season. So I think it's a very timely and relevant topic, and I hope that you all enjoy it. My name is Claudia ..., as Marcella has already mentioned so.

0:27

Why am I qualified to teach this webinar? I will go through some of the credentialing, and then we'll just kinda talk through, from a personal standpoint, why I feel like I'm qualified. So I earned my Doctorate of Pharmacy in 2003 from the University of Florida. So my background is in healthcare, I have been a clinical pharmacist since that time. I also founded a private patient advocacy company in 2017.

0:55

And that's what I do primarily for the majority of.

0:58

My time, is helping others navigate the very muddy and complicated waters of the medical system and basically advocate for them in many ways. That includes their wellness. I also am a wellness speaker, so I speak on stages, whether in breakout rooms, or for keynotes, about wellness, and then, finally, from a credentialing standpoint, I am a certified meditation instructor, and so that will play into what we do a little bit in this webinar. So that's kind of my credentialing and titles, and sometimes titles can get kind of exhausting. So just from a personal standpoint, working in healthcare, I understand the hustle and I understand exhaustion. As many of you are in that place right now, in the nonprofit world, this time of year I know is very hectic for you.

1:45

And, you know, lots of things going on with regard to fundraising, and annual meetings, and elections, and just lots of things going on. Also, in health care, lots of things are always going on. And so I also was in a place years ago of just sort of trying to give from a place of depletion and exhaustion and that simply wasn't working.

2:06

So I personally did a lot of work and my own world of wellness and to now speak a lot about that and help people sort of finding their way through wellness. I specifically think of wellness as a state of being as opposed to health being a state of body. So, nonprofit wellness, incorporates many other things other than just our physical bodies.

2:28

So with that, we're going to ask Marcella for some health care for the poll question and it's really a statement and how this statement resonates with you. So, the statement being I, and let me just.

2:42

I manage stress in a healthy way and take time for myself. Would you say that's not me? Sometimes need often me, or absolutely me?

2:55

Crane we have?

2:57

Do you see the pretense? percentage of people that are voting?

3:01

I do, yeah. And I don't know is there a way that I need to share it or I can just verbalize and share it. I can close it, Let me know when to close it and then I'll share it.

3:10

OK, it looks like it's slowing down so you can go ahead and share.

3:19

Do you see the poll results?

3:23

I do, I don't know who everybody else does, but I'll just stating. OK, it looks like 70% said sometimes me, so that's, You know, we certainly always have room for improvement, but I'm glad to see that it's not 100%. Not me. So we'll take that and then a second highest was often me, and then never me, then 1% said, absolutely me. Which is super fantastic. So congratulations to those and hopefully this Webinar will help you as some of you who are in the other categories and move that that bar a little bit though.

3:58

Thank you too from RSL to help us with that.

4:00

All right, so what we will cover today, and let me see, OK.

4:06

Alright, we're gonna go through meditation. We're gonna go through closing doors and delegating, movement and nutrition, and then gratitude and vision. So, those are sort of the four larger macro topics that we're going to cover, We actually are going to do a meditation. So, don't run away, yeah. I promise you that you don't have to have any experience and meditating, if you do fantastic, If you don't, fantastic.

4:29

It's really just going to be a short way for us to ground and connect to ourselves as we then move into the other topics.

4:37

So, first and foremost, meditation. What does meditation contribute to the workplace?

4:44

And this is just a quote from a study that was done, sort of actually over three continents, so quite a large amount of, of involvement and engagement of people. And what we found is, meditation not only benefits personal and mental health and social relationships as well as alleviates role conflicts, but it also benefits organizational innovativeness and development.

5:08

So the point here is, I think we have kind of an idea and the, you know, general world that meditation has benefits for our wellness and personal benefits. But we don't necessarily talk a lot about how it also can benefit the workplace and nonprofit organizations. And so I wanted to just bring that element in. So you kinda get an idea that, well, when we do the inner work, it really does translate to those around us in a big way.

5:35

So, although it's also very great to do the work for ourselves. It's great to know that it actually is going to impact those around us. So, we're just going to do a meditation exercise. I would say this is going to be about a five minute.

5:48

Very guided, Very easy to follow an accessible meditation. So, no concerns at all. Like I said, if you're coming in without a lot of meditation experience, it's not an obligation is not necessary, We're just going to ground. I'm going to talk you through it. And if you want music, obviously, I know you're all muted, so, you're welcome to play your music that you, like, if you have some calming music that you want to play, feel free to do that on your end. I'm not going to do that just to avoid any potential technological difficulties, so I will be in silence, but you're welcome to add some music if you want.

6:23

So, with that said, let's just go ahead and close our eyes. And whatever space you're in, you can get a little bit more comfortable if that's accessible for you, but just staying upright.

6:36

So head torso, neck, just trying to stay as upright as you can.

6:41

We're just softly closing. Our eyes. If that's not accessible, you're certainly welcome to just gaze downward as well.

6:49

We're just going to start by connecting to our breath.

6:54

Our lungs are working hard for us each, and day to day we don't often take a whole lot of time to connect to them in the work they're doing. So we're just going to do that now.

7:04

At first, just noticing the natural cadence of your breath.

7:11

Then just intentionally lengthening and expanding that breath, slowing it down on the inhalation.

7:22

And the lengthening on the exhalation.

7:38

An anchoring to your breath is always a great place to come back to if your mind starts to wander. So anytime you're meditating, just know that your breath is a great anchor place.

7:50

It is completely normal for our minds to want to go into default mode.

7:55

And default mode is planning and thinking ahead, and maybe even thinking to the past.

8:02

So we're not going to judge or be angry when that happens.

8:04

We're just going to notice it, as if it's a cloud in the sky passing, or a car passing on the road, which is going to come right back to that anchor of our breath.

8:21

We'll start this meditation by relaxing any tense muscles.

8:27

Again, I know this is a busy season for everyone.

8:29

So starting at the head, We're just going to slowly relax any small muscles around the eyes that tend to want to squint or be tight.

8:44

Bringing softness to the cheeks and the jaw.

8:53

Can even release and relax your tongue from the top of the mouth.

9:02

As we stay connected to that breath, we're going to bring our shoulders up back and down, gently relax along our spine.

9:18

Relaxing and releasing the belly.

9:26

Bringing that permission of softening all the way down the arms to the fingertips and then legs to the feet.

9:36

Can even notice if any areas started to re tighten and you can just bring a softness right back to them.

9:50

Again, staying anchored in that breath and coming back whenever the mind wants to wander.

9:56

We're going to do a check-in today. Taking care of ourselves and our wellness brings benefits to your nonprofit wellness.

10:01

It's something that we don't often do, well, first, just checking in with our emotional selves.

10:13

Where are we from an emotional standpoint, just right here in this moment.

10:31

Do we need some time and space to process through some difficult emotions?

10:38

Do we need a friend to talk to?

10:43

Or are we pretty good today with our emotional selves?

11:04

And then moving on to our intellectual selves.

11:11

Where are we from a growth standpoint?

11:14

Have we been working pretty hard on that, And maybe it's time to take a break from our intellectual focus?

11:22

Or maybe we feel like we could use some growth in that area, just checking in.

11:49

And lastly, where are we with our physical selves?

11:53

No, our bodies need from us today.

11:57

Maybe more movement, more activity, maybe less.

12:03

Maybe some more hydration.

12:06

Just listening to our bodies, giving us the messages we need.

12:34

We'll take a couple of deep breaths here, again, re-anchoring back to that breath.

12:40

Same thing can deepen a breath even more than we have at the beginning of the meditation.

12:46

It's just really inhaling deeply to the point where maybe your belly even rises, exhaling even slower.

13:04

As always, we like to think ourselves for taking the time and space to check-in.

13:10

When you're ready, you can come back to your space and slowly open your eyes.

13:16

I hope that was helpful for you all.

13:17

And know that you can always come back to that kind of a meditation, where you're just checking in, and it's just super valuable to listen, because our best, and most valuable wisdom, will always be inner wisdom. So, we need some silence to do that. And so, I hope that that was beneficial for you.

13:35

Alright, next we're gonna talk about closing doors and delegating. And first, it's really important to kind of point out why this is especially hard for non-profit leaders. Nonprofit leaders are an amazing group of people, and I guess you would all agree with that, right? But, you know, non-profit leaders come with a huge amount of intellect and passion and commitment to the work that they do, and also an extreme amount of ability and capability such that doing everything is typically the default, and to start to delegate, and prioritize. And maybe even close. Some doors is not a usual practice, but often a very valuable practice, especially at times of year, that are super busy like this.

14:19

So we're going to talk a little bit about ways in which we can do that. And I didn't mention before, to get some paper, but if you have some paper nearby, that would be helpful. if you don't. It's OK, you can do these exercises, just thanking them through. It's all right, But if you do, or if you have something that you can type on, your bio, that's perfect as well. But first, we're going to talk about identifying our daily tasks.

14:46

So, you could do that either by just on a blank sheet of paper, a brainstorm of what your daily tasks are without any super, no concrete structure. The other way to think of it is just from your time standpoint: What am I doing at nine o'clock, my day or 10 o'clock or 11 o'clock. And this goes through to eight o'clock. Not suggesting you should be working that late, but maybe you are. And, so, what are your daily tasks? What are the things that you do every single day?

15:12

So, identification is going to be, first and foremost, important, so we know where we're at, so I'm actually just going to take, maybe, NaN here of silence. Just to allow you in your space to write those down, if you have the ability to. If not, you can type them out. And if not, you could just think through some of the tasks that you have, so we'll just take about NaN here of silence.

16:11

Don't worry about this being an exhaustive list. We're sort of just getting a taste today of some of the things that we can do to improve our nonprofit wellness and prioritize it. Of course, after the webinar, you're welcome to take the time that you need to do this in a much more lengthy and detailed way, but identifying as the first and then creating categories for those tasks, love, hate, must do and unnecessary. And I don't really like the word hate, but you could use dislike.

16:39

But the point here is to categorize what those tasks are. And there be maybe more than one category for many of those tasks. So, there may be, hopefully, quite a few of must do, Angela, so, you must do them, and you actually love them. That's fantastic. There also might be some things that are unnecessary.

16:57

So, the goal here is to begin to see if you can stop the unnecessary and delegate the dislike, or heat. So, there may be tasks on there that, for your organization, you start to notice or maybe not necessary. And so, maybe you're the decision maker to make that call, or you bring it to the board, or you bring it to somebody that you work with and talk through that. And then the ones that you dislike or hate, the goal there is to begin to delegate them. Because there may be somebody in your organization, they're likely is who actually might like that or that may be a growth opportunity for them. And so, we can't do any of that until we start to identify and categorize. So that's one way to start looking at places where maybe you can close the doors and delegate so that your plate isn't as full and heavy.

17:46

Because again, we can't pour from an empty cup. And when we're exhausted we begin to deplete that cup.

17:55

All right.

17:57

Next we're going to talk about movement. Now I don't think that it's a shocker or a surprise that the more that we move and have some physical movement and exercise the healthier that we typically are. Now movement in the workplace can be difficult because we're often sitting at a desk or we are not necessarily in a place where we can take the time, that we need to physically move. But if you do have the time, in your day, maybe you have a 15 minute break, or you have your lunch break, or maybe you're working from home, and you have some stairs in your house, or apartment complex.

18:32

Being a little bit more cognizant and aware of the opportunities that you can take, is fantastic. So maybe you can take the stairs at a time when maybe you wouldn't otherwise. Or maybe you can take just a 10 minute walk around the neighborhood if you're working at home, just to get outside and get some fresh air and movement.

18:48

We obviously aren't going to go for a walk today because we're on a computer, but didn't want to point out the benefit of movement, and then take you through some exercises that you could do from the place that you were sitting and working. So, first and foremost, I just wanted to share this quote again, from just some studies that have gone on in the field of movement and organizations. Increased movement at the workplace. As a result of promoting physical activity and reducing sedentary behavior, generates important, health comes across physical, mental, social, and economic domains. And these benefits extend across the individual and organizational levels. Again, the reason I'm bringing this up very much like meditation is that this is not just benefiting us, fantastic, but it is because it really is. But also extending across the organizational levels as well because the things that we do for ourselves help us to show up better for other, show up, better for the organization, for the people that we're helping. And then it has a ripple effect to others.

19:46

So, I wanted to point that out, but I'm also going to lead you through a few stretches because this is charity how to so we're going to do some how to.

19:55

All right, the first stretch is just where you're seated. So, you don't have to stand up for anything.

19:59

We're just going to do a neck stretch starting just seated as you are again, torso, Upright head Upright, and we're just going to start by lowering our right ear to our right shoulder.

20:13

And the degree with which you're able to do that is completely up to you and your tolerance level.

20:18

But we're just trying to get our right ear to our right shoulder, as close as we can, starting to feel that stretch.

20:27

Then, to deepen that stretch, just a little, we're going to bring our right arm up and around to put a little bit of pressure on our head and neck, again. This is only to your tolerance level.

20:38

Just to deepen that stretch a little bit.

20:40

You'll start to feel it a little bit deeper, the left side of your neck.

20:47

And then to get it a little bit deeper, we're going to start to raise our rate R, or excuse me, are left arm a little bit, separating our fingers.

20:57

The higher that you raise that left arm, the deeper the stretch, the lower a little bit less. So you just do it to your comfort and tolerance level.

21:11

And you can start to feel that stretch up the left side of your neck, also down on the left arm.

21:21

Of course, when you do this on your own outside of this webinar, you could do it for as long as it works in your day and as long as you feel like you need it. So always listening and checking in with the body.

21:31

Or for purposes of this webinar, we're going to go ahead and move on to the other side.

21:35

So you can just drop the arms first then secondarily drop the head, so neck to chest, rolling slowly over to the other side.

21:44

So now we have left ear to left shoulder and bringing up left arm to deepen that stretch just a little bit.

21:54

Then when you're ready, raising the right arm, just a little.

22:01

Separating out those fingers.

22:05

Noticing that stretch, the right side of your neck, down your right arm.

22:16

Always remembering to breathe.

22:17

We often forget the important piece.

22:22

You can relax those arms and then relax your neck.

22:26

And just kinda checking in with how that felt.

22:29

Oftentimes, our necks can get tight working at computers and at desks, so it's nice to just give our next a little bit of a stretch.

22:36

The second stretched we're going to do is actually going to be from a standing position. So, I'm just going to move this chair out of the way, so I can demonstrate.

22:46

But we're going to start by having feet under hips, with a part, then we're gonna start in a sort of half squat, So your neck, your knees are bent, we're about and a half squat.

23:00

We're going to bring our hands up to prayer with our elbows fanned out.

23:08

It's always nice to have hand in prayer that can be coming in and of itself, But if you would like to deepen this, we're actually going to start to turn to the left connecting our right elbow to our left knee.

23:21

So just like you see me doing, if you're live, then to deepen a little bit, you can even just turn your gaze upward upward into the left.

23:35

Feeling that stretch in your back.

23:38

Give me some in your lungs.

23:40

Again, you can see there for as long as you need, we're going to come back to center, and then do the same on the other side. So starting to turn to the right connecting left elbow, raped me.

23:54

Again, gazing upward if that's accessible for you.

24:01

Just noticing more of the structures and how that feels.

24:04

Always listening to your body will come back to center and then back to seated.

24:09

Again, these stretches are not an exhaustive list.

24:13

You're welcome to do these and many others, but I encourage you to find some way to incorporate movement and or stretching into your day.

24:23

All right, moving on to nutrition. Again, I don't think that it's a surprise that nutrition plays a role in our health and nonprofit wellness, but I wanted to point out some data from actual study. So there were some researchers at Brigham Young University that actually looked at nutrition and how it played a role in specifically productivity. In three companies that spend about 20,000 employees.

24:49

What they found was that employees who rarely eat fruits, vegetables, and other low-fat foods at work were 93%, more likely to have a higher loss in productivity.

25:00

And those with unhealthy diets were 66% more likely to report having a loss in productivity. So, we're not, of course, only solely looking at productivity, but I wanted to incorporate how our nutrition, we already know what impacts our own bodies, but then how it also is impacting our ability to show up for the important work that we do.

25:21

So, we're going to do a nutrition exercise.

25:26

If you have your paper next to you, or you would like to type it somewhere, or even if you have your phone notes in your phone, we're just going to take a minute to inventory what we ate yesterday, without judgement. Without even needing to share or talk about it. We're just going to inventory what? What was breakfast like yesterday? What was lunch like yesterday? And we're just looking at yesterday, because it's easy to remember. And we had a full day versus today. So, breakfast, lunch, maybe some snacks and dinner. So, we'll just take, you know, 30 or so, seconds to inventory what we ate yesterday.

26:47

As you write these out, you might, again, not any judgement at all, as you write it out. You might just think through, also, you know, what went into the decision making of that? Maybe you were rushed. Maybe you intended to do some good prep on Sunday, but it didn't really work out. And so, whatever the case might have been, just kind of thinking through also what the intentions were and whether or not those were able to be followed through on.

27:11

And after we have that inventory of what we ate, going to try to identify at least one meal. And I'm always really big on making things doable and easy, because if we don't make it doable and easy, then we aren't going to do it. So just look at one of those meals, and identify where you can add one more color. So thinking through colors of the rainbow, we all know Roy Roy. G: Biv: We learned that is elementary students.

27:35

What color of the rainbow could you add to one of those meals?

27:41

Maybe it's greens finished with your eggs in the morning. Maybe it's a green cucumber with your salad or some other food that you have at lunch. So thinking through the naturally derived colors, of course, not red velvet cake or brown cookie. But what, what types of fruits and vegetables do you like because we don't want to start with something that you don't like, but is there A fruit or vegetable? That's maybe your favorite. Maybe it's orange carrots. And would it be possible to start to incorporate just that into one of your meals and to make them a little bit more colorful.

28:14

And as we make one habit, and stick with that, then we can add some more, but starting out, slow and easy is always going to be more sustainable.

28:22

So, this is always a way to check. And also, when we did that meditation, and we asked our bodies, what we needed, this would be a great time, also, to ask.

28:31

what, what do you need, know, asking our values what we need from a nutrition standpoint? And those answers will often, often come. And that also includes our hydration and other things. that we won't have time to go into too much detail here today. But it's really important to do that check in, even if it's just when you wake up for a couple minutes and ask your body what it needs.

28:53

All right. We're going to slowly get to the end of this webinar with gratitude and vision.

29:00

So, I don't think again that it's super shocking that a sense of gratitude is better than holding vibrational energies like anger or resentment or frustration or overwhelm. And the reason I love gratitude is because it's so easily accessible. And it's such an easy shift. So when we're in a State of, all of those things that I just mentioned, anger, frustration, overwhelm, moving into gratitude, can happen pretty quickly. And it can change our energetic state really quickly. And so it's something easy to access. And I like to do things that are easy because we can access them easy throughout our day. So grateful individuals' experience. More positive emotions are more satisfied by with life and experience fewer negative emotions, including depression, anxiety, and NB.

29:48

Again, probably not super shocking but we do have plenty of research she suggesting that's the case, it's not just theory.

29:56

So what I would love us to do as we're ending this just as I suggest that you do at the end of your day So Similarly at the end of our webinar thinking of three things that you're grateful for, And what I like to tell people is three things that you're grateful for today Because oftentimes I'll ask my son. You know, What are you grateful for and he'll say life and all those things are fabulous You know, But it'll be very macro level things that you could say every single day, and that's all perfectly OK, but it's really great if we can start honing in what? what happened today? What specifically happened today that we can tap into the energy of gratitude for, so, again, on your paper, or on your computer, or on your notes, on your phone.

30:39

You can think of three things, even though I know it's not the end of the day, but think the three things that maybe so far today, you're grateful for, and that might be people in your life, and it, or it could be something that happened.

30:51

Then we're going to also think about ways we can envision starting tomorrow with gratitude. I'm going to give you one example as you work through writing what you're grateful for. I thought this was cute and found this online. It says that guy, without when, like I saw on the metro, that must be tough. I'm so grateful, I have two of them, and his wife shouting at him like that, I'm so happy there's no shouting in my relationship. My partner is awesome, My legs are awesome. And on top of it all so far, I've been one of the thousands of people, I have never been one of the thousands of people dying in a car accident every year. Life is amazing.

31:24

So Any way that you can think of, even if it's just 3, 3 quick, you know, bullet points. What are you grateful for that happened today? People, events, whatever it might be.

31:37

And then also, on that same piece of paper or on that notepad. Envisioning one way you can start tomorrow with gratitude.

31:45

So that's the vision part is we want to tap into gratitude for today. But we also want to think in what ways can we start tomorrow with gratitude? Maybe it's sending a message out of the gate to somebody that popped in her head that we are super grateful for, that made a difference in our lives, or maybe it's simply just waking up and saying, Good morning, I love you and being grateful to ourselves for showing up for another day. There's nothing wrong with turning that gratitude right back on ourselves.

32:13

So I'll just give you NaN here to work through some gratitude.

32:48

You'll also notice as you work on this practice, that over time it will become easier and faster to think of things that you're grateful for. When you start a practice like this.

32:59

You might just sit there with, you know, maybe a blank slate for a minute or two but once you get into the habit of thinking through gratitude, it will become so easy to think of all the amazing things that have happened in the day that you can be grateful for.

33:15

All right.

33:15

So as we end this webinar, one last poll question which we'll ask Marcella to help us with against the statement and then the answers that you can check in with. I feel better able to manage stress in a healthy way for mice and take time for myself. So either, yes, spring on the holidays, I got this or not yet but this has helped me move in the right direction.

33:43

And you'll notice both of these are positive because we're going to end on a positive note, right? All right, fantastic.

33:51

It looks like it's about half and half. So, Marcella, you're welcome to share the results, but it looks like we're literally right at 50 50. So, which is fantastic. So, that's great. I'm, again, like I said, I know both of these are technically on the positive end, but I wanted to end on the positive end because these tips and suggestions will help you as well. Many others that we certainly couldn't cover in the time that we had here, but meditation being a very primary one and just checking in with yourselves, I really recommend that gratitude as well. And really, everything that I mentioned can be super helpful for you.

34:25

So, I kinda love that, we ended on a 50 50.

34:29

And with that, you will have an opportunity to do a survey and feedback. I think that will pop up for you. I'll let Marcella maybe explain. Thank you so much, Claudia. This was awesome. I do have to check a couple of things on my list of wellness to improve, so thank you for reminding me of that. And thanks, everyone, for joining us today. Like Claudia said, please do complete the survey that will pop up once we close the webinar. This is the first time ever that we have done this topic or webinars, so your feedback is very, very valuable for us, So, please, it'll take NaN and it's anonymous. Thanks, again, everyone. have a wonderful rest of your day. Please stay safe and healthy, and we hope to see you again on. Another CharityHowTo two webinars.

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