Updates and Behind the Scenes
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Dear Friends,
Hope that you are all doing well.
My content sabbatical will come to an end in a few days at which time I will resume with more of Your Daily Brush.
In the meantime, I wanted to reach out and share with you some updates and a look behind the scenes.
I have been working pretty much seven days a week to keep things moving forward at Brush Your Mind and the World Love Forum. On top of that, I injured my shoulder while riding a bus and that has added more challenges…including affecting my ability to type for long hours.*
But the good news is that things are moving forward and I’m delighted to share these updates with you:
I have been working on fundraising to launch a violence prevention campaign and as you can imagine that is quite demanding.
This work involves producing written materials, filming videos and then doing the outreach work…By the way, if you happen to know anyone who might be interested in supporting violence prevention work through the advancement of love and emotion regulation, I would be delighted if you might consider connecting us.Over the past months, I have been working to deepen my technical expertise in the area of prevention of emotionally toxic workplaces. It has been an exciting course of study and am looking forward to sharing more about that soon. According to the American Psychological Association, about 20% of Americans report experiencing emotionally toxic workplaces and this is also a global health concern highlighted by the International Labor Organization and the World Health Organization.
My goal is to add this form of emotional abuse and physical violence to our prevention portfolio; more specifically, our focus is that by advancing compassion in the workplace, we can prevent or at least reduce, the incidence of emotional toxicity.In addition to toxic workplaces, other topics I am currently researching include: social networks and transmission of positive behaviors across groups; spirituality and the scientific evidence for prayer, and embodied approaches to resolving trauma. All of this is to inform our newsletter content and to pave the way for further innovations in mental health promotion.
I continue to work on submitting TEDx applications, as this is one of the channels for disseminating key messages widely. In 2023 I was selected to speak at a TEDx event but they lost their financial sponsor…and another place that had accepted my application for 2020 cancelled due to the Covid 19 pandemic.
Again, as with fundraising, one never knows where things will land…and part of the formula for success is to just keep going forward and not giving up.I am engaged with volunteers behind the scences, who share their expertise on topics such as project management and public communications, as we prepare for scaling projects.
Last but not least, I have an exciting line up of further content, which I am hoping to film and share with you soon. It was suggested to me by a couple of communication experts that I try out videos as change of pace, instead of writing essays. So stay tuned…
Rx: Hopefully my content sabbatical has given you a chance to try out creative ways to explore brushing your minds on your own. As a brief refresher, I would like to share with you five key ideas that you can implement daily:
Practice deep breathing - especially the long exhalation along the lines of what I had written about earlier. Even just a couple of minutes a day will add up and make a big difference in helping you stay centered and calm. And the more often you do something, the more it gets laid down as “tracks” in your brain - hence the saying: Neurons that fire together wire together.
Tap into the power of music to energize you when you are feeling slow or to help calm you when you are feeling tense or revved up.
Practice gratitude because research demonstrates its mental health promoting benefits. Along with helping you feel positive about things, the practice of gratitude has been found to help prevent depression.
Move: even if no gym, just walk, dance and do some kitchen counter pushups. The reason for this is that movement and exercise have been shown to benefit our emotional health. In some situations, exercise has been found to be as efficacious as antidepressant medication in helping deal with mood. For extra motivation to move, consider combining it with music as mentioned above.
Nature: Look at the sky and look at trees and birds around you. Notice the sights and sounds of nature and let them recharge your batteries. As with gratitude and movement, research informs us that nature, even if it is via videos, promotes our emotional health.
If you are not sure where or how to begin, just pick something and have a go at it. And if you are feeling tired, worn out, run down etc. consider lying down and working on your deep breathing. That is easy to do and still carries lots of benefits.
See you again in a few days!
Take care of yourself and I am sending you many good wishes,
SD
*In case you are wondering how exactly can one injure themselves while riding a bus? It happened when I was standing, holding a pole in preparation to get off at an upcoming stop. The driver slammed the brakes as he reached the crest of a hill instead of a gentle stop. The force of the slam made me lunge westward while my hand, arm and shoulder stayed back east, dutifully clutching the pole - and there you have it. :-)
PS. Here’s a music video that you might find relaxing as background music or for meditation. To your health!