Creating Well Being to Better Connect with Others. by Ellen Tanner, MS, OTR/L

Transcription

1 Creating Well Being to Better Connect with Others by Ellen Tanner, MS, OTR/L

2 Who Am I? Who Are You? And Why Are We Here? Ellen Tanner, MS, OTR/L Ellen Tanner Consulting Inc

3 let's take a moment...

4 My Intentions Today: For each of you to feel empowered in your ability to improve your role in each relationship in your life To introduce an easy and practical tool that you & your children can use as a reference for optimizing your ability to BE HERE NOW To foster awareness of 2 things you can do today to become more present and mindful when building relationships

5 Our Assumptions:

6 What is our responsibility... In relationship? In building community?

7 Reflection...

8 The Healthy Mind Platter Released in Spring 2011 Created by: o o Dr. David Rock, Executive Director of the Neuroleadership Institute Dr. Daniel Siegel, Executive Director of the Mindsight Institute & clinical professor at UCLA School of Medicine Inspired by the newly revised Food Pyramid to address the "epidemic of overwhelm" Our mental well-being is being compromised by: o o o o Fragmented Attention Emotional dysregulation Multi-tasking Information Overload

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10 Let's Compare... Our Interactions: Just following vacation vs. The middle of a typical week

11 "When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe" -John Muir While the platter is separated out nice and compartmentalized, that is not the reality of life. So notice how various components of the platter are often involved in 1 activity.

12 "Share our similarities, celebrate our differences" --M. Scott Peck Everyone is different. Adults and kids alike will find that potentially very different activities fulfill the same component on the platter. Our job is to know what fits for us and help kids explore and identify what fits best for them.

13 Let's Explore As we go, map out an average day. What percentage of your time do you spend in each area? 2. As we discuss each portion on the platter: Rate how balanced you feel in each area in your life: Not enough Too Much

14 Focus Time "When we closely focus on tasks in a goal-oriented way, taking on challenges that make deep connections in the brain." Not Multitasking!! Starting and Finishing a task! This portion of the platter often overlaps with others: oplaying a team sport olearning anything new olistening to others

15 Focus Time A lack of stimulation (boredom) and overstimulation (stress) leads to impairment of executive functions, and lack of focus. Attention is a complex process which requires: o Alerting, Orienting & Executive Functions o Involves ability to focus, stay focused & refocus Focus time refers to applying singular focus on a task that permits a sense of mastery and completion o Avoiding the feeling of overwhelm and incomplete that often accompany multitasking

16 Play Time "When we allow ourselves to be spontaneous or creative, playfully enjoying novel experiences, which helps make new connections in the brain." Turn & Talk: oshare a favorite memory of playing as an adult oimmediately note your state-of-mind when recalling that experience

17 Key Findings: Play Time "Playfulness enhances the capacity to innovate, adapt and master changing circumstances. It's not just an escape. It can help us integrate and reconcile difficult or contradictory circumstances. And, often, it can show us a way out of our problems" -- Stuart Brown, National Institute for Play "Neuroscience research reveals that play-joy is a basic emotional system and essential in child development and adult creativity and learning" Stuart Brown found that 90% of the 26 murderers he studied had a common history of play deprivation or abnormal play (Rock, Siegel, Poelmans & Payne, 2012)

18 Connecting Time "When we connect with other people, ideally in person, or take time to appreciate our connection to the natural world around us, richly activating the brain's relational circuitry" Turn & Talk: Interaction vs. Connection ois there a difference? How often do we connect with others vs. interact with them?

19 Connecting Time Key Findings: Review of 81 studies shows social support is reliably related to beneficial effects on aspects of the cardiovascular, endocrine, and immune systems Lonely individuals may experience higher levels of perceived stress, react more negatively to stress, and benefit less from social interactions Compared with placebo, oxytocin potently reduced activation of the amygdala and brainstem involved in bodily and behavioral reactions to fear (Rock et al., 2012)

20 Physical Time "When we move our bodies, aerobically if possible, which strengthens the brain in many ways." Aerobic Exercise: o"going for a run is like taking a little bit of Prozac and a little bit of Ritalin" (Ratey, 2008). oimmediate benefits: Releases: Serotonin: Helps keep brain activity under control. Influencing mood, impulsivity, anger, & aggression Dopamine: Associated with rewards. Influencing attention, learning & movement Norepinephrine: Often amplifies signals that influence attention, perception, motivation & arousal.

21 Physical Time Aerobic Exercise: olong Term Benefits: Creates new brain cell growth Strengthens those cells Helps them withstand stress Keeps the brain malleable **(think: PlayDoh) oaerobic fitness is associated with faster cognitive processing speed and improved executive function

22 Time In "When we quietly reflect internally, focusing on sensations, images, feelings and thoughts, helping to better integrate the brain." Large Body of Research Findings Show that Meditation Practices: Improve Attention Regulation odevelop stability of attention oself-monitoring odisengage from distractions opromptly redirecting focus Improve Emotional Regulation Improve Planning & Organization Decrease Emotional Reactivity Reduce Stress, Anxiety & ADHD Symptoms

23 Time In Mindfulness meditation activates the Pre-Frontal Cortex and Anterior Cingulate Cortex (Rock et al., 2012) olong term: Enhances cerebral areas related to attention and emotion regulation Exercise: SIFT: Sensations Images Feelings Thoughts *Taken from "The Whole Brain Child" (Siegel & Bryson, 2011)

24 Down Time "When we are non-focused, without any specific goal, and let our mind wander or simply relax, which helps our brain recharge."

25 Down Time...loafing...lazing...goofing off...chilling out... Research Conclusions: o "Insight is preceded and aided by disconnecting from deliberate, goal-directed conscious thinking" o "In this age of the knowledge and service economy, regular breaks on a daily basis, weekends, or on a monthly basis, and sabbaticals on a long-term basis, should not be viewed as a luxury at all. Such breaks are needed to sort and integrate important elements of our minds and permit creativity to emerge." (Rock et al., 2012)

26 Sleep Time "When we give the brain the rest it needs to consolidate learning and recover from the experiences of the day." Research: University of Helsinki (2009) Tracked sleep of 280 healthy children (not ADHD) through actigraph Children averaging less than 7.7 hours sleep had increased hyperactivity, impulsivity & ADHD total scores *Results were regardless of sleep problems

27 Key Findings: Sleep Time Sleep deprivation can be more lethal than food deprivation Sleep following new learning improves performance on 2nd trial more than no sleep between trials (especially if it's drempt about) REM sleep improves people's ability to integrate unassociated info for creative problem solving How much? Bell curve distribution: Avg 7-9 hrs, but as little as 4 and as much as 12 may be optimal for a few people Naps...Yay or Nay? YAY!! 10 minutes will get you ideal immediate results for alertness; for good results but not for a couple of hours; for deep restorative sleep (siesta) (Rock et al., 2012)

28 Insights... Key Finding: Insight often does not occur without previous processes of analysis (focus time) and incubation (down time, sleep time, time-in)

29 References & Resources The Healthy Mind Platter o David Rock, Dan Siegel, Steven Poelmans & Jessica Payne o NeuroLeadership Journal, Issue 4, 2012 The Whole Brain Child o Dan Siegel & Tina Bryson, 2011 Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain o John Ratey, TED talk with Stuart Brown: Play is More than Fun o